"Aaaaa, it looks so good!!!"
I'm at the living room dining table at Rin's house. Before my eyes is a plethora of wonderful dishes. I yell with joy, as I can't contain my happiness.
Simmering in the overflowing pots all over, I spot pork belly and cabbage, chive and eggs, thinly sliced daikon and most importantly, bamboo shoot with rice. All this homemade food is the textbook definition of fresh as steam begins to slowly rise from each pot. The steam diffuses through the air and the aroma hits my nose. The smell is doing wonders on my stomach as I can feel it start to rumble.
"Wow, this is like all my favorite foods in one."
"Well of course it is, I'm your childhood friend after all."
I can feel a hint of cockiness in Rin's voice as she's bragging. Anyways, something's been on my mind, so I ask Rin about it.
"Did you eat already?"
"Yeah, when I was done cooking, I sampled everything so I'm full."
"That must have been one hell of a sampling."
I say that without realizing and Rin starts shaking and her face freezes. I glance to see her reaction. Given that we've been for friends for ten plus years, it's pretty easy to gauge her thoughts. Is it possible that she sampled the food so many times over that she made herself full?
"Y-you better start eating soon before the food gets cold. I carefully adjusted the time of my cooking so it would be the optimal temperature right about now."
"O-oh, thanks for taking that into account. You really thought of everything to make this as delicious as possible."
"W-what kind of statement is that? If you think you can charm me by shoving in some convenient explanation like some Happy Meal toy, don't think you can do that."
"There's no way I'd ever do that to you Rin."
I retort back as always, and Rin sighs as per always.
"What's wrong Rin?"
"Absolutely nothing. Come on, you better start eating."
"Ah, of course."
Would be such a waste if I were to eat this cold.
"Alright, time to dig in."
After putting my hands together, I focus my sights on the pots. I take some of the cabbage and pork belly, wrapped with green onion and ponzu, and put it into my mouth. In that instant, I can feel my eyes opening wide. The acidity of the ponzu mixes really well with the juices from the meat, as I can feel the flavours spreading all over my mouth. The sweetness of the pork, the texture of the cabbage, the flavour of the onion; all five of my senses become flooded in all the umami. Before I know it, I'm staring towards the sky.
Next, I look at the bamboo shoot rice, and unable to avoid the temptation, I take some and stick it into my mouth. I have to show my deepest gratitude towards the creator of this divine feast, if it's the last thing I do. I shout into the air the only words on my mind.
"It's so fucking GOOD!"
"Well, that's good to hear."
As Rin says that, her expression softens. Meanwhile, I use my chopsticks to grab some food from another one of Rin's plentiful dishes. The slight bitterness of the chives combined with the mild soft boiled egg makes for the great combination. On the other hand, the thinly boiled daikon strips seem to be soaked to the brim in sweetness, I'm sure that simple taste would bring out the raw flavour really well. Both look amazing.
Like a parrot, I find myself repeating "This is so good" over and over again as I continue to eat more of Rin's dishes. I look over at Rin and she has a gentle expression on her face.
"This really takes me back."
I'm in the middle of eating, but I find myself uttering such nostalgic words.
"Yeah, it sure does."
Rin was able to guess the true meaning of my words. She closes her eyes as if she were remembering the past.
"It was back when we were in elementary school. We'd come over to my house and eat together."
"Yep."
That was around the time when Karen was just born. While giving birth to their second child was definitely a joyous occasion, it was a pretty hectic time for my parents as well, as they were both working adults. I told Rin a little bit about my situation, and Kaoru-san invited me over for dinner. Kaoru-san was able to reduce the burden on my parents a bit.
As Rin and I were the only friends we had, our moms started to talk to each other too. That was the start of my coming over to the Asakura house for dinner during my elementary years. Once Karen grew up, and my parents didn't have to look after her as much, I started to visit less frequently, alongside the fact that I started to grow up. Despite that, I've come to love many new foods during my time in the Asakura household.
"You know, it makes me a bit happy."
"Huh?"
Rin is looking at me in confusion, but I keep talking.
"Back then and now, it feels the same. The smell, the atmosphere, everything... even the view in front of me is the same... that's because you're here too Rin."
Looking back, Rin's face gave me a sense of stability. I would greedily devour Kaoru-san's cooking and Rin would look at me with a pleasant smile. Today basically feels the exact same.
"We've both grown up now, but the two of us at the dining table, it's the exact same as in the past. It makes me happy, you know..."
I guess you could call it a sense of security, or familiarity. It's like when a city undergoes heavy redevelopments, but the one thing that remains the same is a single sakura tree in the city center.
Analogies aside, eating with Rin like this after so many years makes me so damn happy.
"Heh, what I am even blabbing about anymore?"
I said that to hide my embarrassment from the creeping nostalgic sensation that I've been feeling. It's the same type of embarrassment I get when I recall my chuuni phase. I was hoping those words would snap us back to the present.
"Yeah, I get how you feel."
And so, there's no going back. I look at Rin and she has an ever so gentle smile on her face. It hasn't changed one bit, it still resembles a pleasantly warm spring day. I try my best to hide the chaotic beating of my heart by returning her gentle smile. After some slight hesitation, I hear a whisper, though it's barely audible.
"That... makes me happy too."
Despite the fact that I've been beating around the bush the whole time, Rin says those simple words in reply. I can't bear to look at her face, but I can guess what her face looks like right about now. Her small ears are dyed with the colors of dawn. Surprise attacks like that are supposed to have a limit, you know. I'm blanking on what to say, as I feel my body temperature increasing exponentially.
"I... see."
Our conversation ends there. Trying to hide the fact that I'm embarrassed beyond belief, I start stuffing my cheeks again with bamboo shoot rice. As I'm putting the bamboo shoot rice into my mouth, I'm expecting that burst of umami to hit my mouth; however, I can't taste anything at all.
After I was finished eating, Rin and I didn't talk at all. Even with the silence, the mood was pleasant as ever.