On that same cold night, a group of men was having a secret meeting in a secluded place. After they ate silently the food presented to them, they have their own individual surprised expressions written on their faces.
"How… How can this be… the taste of the food… It's almost the same as to original food... I thought that they will only make you pay for your chefs to train them for a week to master the recipe... but this... It's almost you already scratched the surface and just need to polish it more to master it." Agustin said flabbergasted, he knows about the written contract given to his friend. he is also one of the businessmen that also made a gamble to undergo the overseas recipe training, it looks like the foreigner was sharing their expensive recipes on the surface but the foreigners only want to show how hard their recipes are to make as people with the rich background will expose their inferior creation and promote more the restaurants' with the original origin of the food. he remembers the failure and shame that his company undergoes, thanks to his good guidance in the aftermath, his Aguinaldo Café recovered and avoided foreign recipes like a plague but this made his restaurant more famous to the local Filipinos and foreign visitors for being a pure Filipino mune restaurant and even became iconic in the Philippines.
"Riki... Is this really your reason for calling us?" Melchora said nonchalantly, he also went to undergo the overseas recipe training but different from his two friends, his restaurant prioritizes quantity to quality. He has two types of restaurant, one is named Eat All You Can restaurant and the other one is name Fiesta restaurant where you order a different kind of Boodle fight menu that you like, as Boodle Fight was inspired by the military-style of eating. This is a kind of feast that is meant for sharing, sharing all the food. Whilst the food is served and spread on some banana leaves on a long table. Other than banana leaves, you must use your bare hands to eat. Utensils are strictly prohibited as a sign of respect of following the old traditional Filipino culture. He produced these inferior foreign food recipes at a low price that people with low budgets can afford and taste some slight luxury in their life. Foreigners holding the original recipes showed some dislike with his restaurant doings but they all shut up after he used his military background. being a retired Admiral was not something they could chew in a foreign country.
"Melchora... You are pig as I last see you... HAHAHA." Riki said jokingly.
"Shut up!! A man does not care about the taste!! A real man needs a great quantity of food to become stronger." Melchora said proudly while showing his large build muscles and big belly to his skinny friends who only eat a small amount of food.
"If will all get stranded in the sea, you two will first die with that kind of body." Melchora continued as he flexes his muscle to show up.
"Yeah!! And we think, with your appetite, the two of us will be eaten by you..." Riki and Agustine thought inside while smiling bitterly.
Seeing their conversation was turning to a body competition, Agustin quickly said." Enough of your nonsense my friend, We are here to talk about the phone..."
Melchora heard his friend and was shocked about the reason why they are here, his two friends didn't mention the reason for their meeting and stopped his muscle show.
"Really, did anyone of you found out the owner of the phone?" Melchora ask.
"Yes, Riki knows something..." Agustin replied while looking sharply at Riki who started smiling.
"Ummm... But what is in for us? This kind of person may be a foreigner and is out of our hands." Melchora said sadly, he could only tremble about the amount of money the person spend just to have that phone.
Agustin also realizes this as his expression became dark.
Seeing their lost expressions, Riki started to laugh loudly making his two friends annoyed.
"Ok... Ok... What if we can make contact with this person using our daughters?" Riki said teasingly.
Melchora slammed his fist to the table making a loud sound while Agustin looked at him with his pissed eyes.
"Why would I use my daughter to gain a connection with an old foggy!!" Melchora shouted.
"Yeah, my angel is not for me to use just to gain connection to this old phone owner!!" Agustin crosses his arm showing his anger.
"HAHAHAHA... Who told you that the guy is old?" Riki said smiling.
The two angry dads' minds became black from hearing it but still had some concerns in their minds.
Riki saw this and decided not to tease his friend more and said."Ok... I go straight to the point... The owner is also a Filipino like us... He just turned 15 this year... And he is studying in college..."
"HAHAHAHA... That's a piece of good news... but..." Melchora was in a dilemma thinking of her daughter, he did something unforgivable to his daughter and making her hate men while she started to have a relationship with the same gender.
"Also... Your daughters will feel rebellious if you push them to a person they don't know..." Agustin said softly while also had his own dilemma about his daughter's situation.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA." Riki only laughs at their problems and showed a happy vibe making the two anger inside.
"What is so funny Riki!!" Melchora shouted.
"Yeah!! Is anything funny?? You know your daughter had their own strong-mindedness and rebelliousness..." Agustin said while avoiding mentioning his daughter.
"My daughter is one of his classmates... I don't need to do anything because she is now interested in this boy... So, I don't need to do any big move and just need to push my daughter to the fire slowly...HAHAHAHA." Riki said enthusiastically.
"And also... Your boyish daughter, my daughter, and their classmates voluntarily live under one roof with that boy, you just need to use a person to push her slowly like my daughter..." Riki threw another bomb of information making Mechora's expression bright.
As the two teach each other techniques how to fool their daughters to the phone owner, and Riki also told them how did that happen to their daughter to voluntarily live in the boy's home and some information about the boy, and also told what happened in his restaurant connecting how his foreign recipe made a huge change while they believe more about the boy's identity having information about the expensive foods, but they discovered that Agustin was looking sad beside them.
"Come on Agustin... Just transfer your daughter to this school and in the same class as our daughter, she could easily join the housing club seeing how united the class are..." Riki said confidently.
"Yeah... Your daughter will be out of place if they didn't do that... In the end, she will be invited also..." Melchora also tried to cheer up their friend.
"But.."
"But what friend... We'll help you in any cost... We are friends right?" Riki smiled.
"But..."
"But..."
"But..."
"But..."
"But... My daughter is only 5 years old..." Agustin said as the room was enveloped by silence. The two only now remember it, they were all busy in life and only know each of them had a daughter forgetting about the age differences.
.
.
.
.
"Guys!! My daughter is only 5 years old remember??" Agustin said again with panic in his voice.
"Yes, we heard it loud and clear!! But what the hell we can do about it!!" Riki and Melchora thought inside as they made a bitter smile at each other.