Chapter Text
Side by side, Nirei was walking next to Sakura, rambling about some new informations in his notebook. Like always, Sakura was listening to him in silence, nodding here and there to show his interest while leading the way.
They had been patrolling the town — trying to find any trace of Suo — for the past two months already. Most people would have stopped searching after this much time, they all knew that. And yet, the whole class still had hope: as long as they didn't stop, they were bound to learn something. And so, they kept patrolling daily, never failing to ask anyone for updates. Nirei and Sakura, always teaming up together, went patrolling even more often then the others. It felt normal, to everyone knowing them. They had been the closest to Suo, after all, and if furin had any chance of seeing their missing friend again, or if there was anyone missing him more than normal, it had to be these two.
"Ah, sakura-san! We've been walking for a while, let's take a break soon, okay?" Nirei suddenly said with a smile, holding his captain's arm and showing him a newly opened restaurant. The blond had started going back to his usual self not long after making his patrolling plan, two months ago. Though, Sakura now paid more attention to him, making sure it wasn't fake. He tried to be even more present, tried to beat his shyness in order to hold his friend's hand more often. Everyone had noticed these changes between the two, the shy looks exchanged when the other wasn't looking, the subtile shoulders bumping and soft smiles. Indeed, everyone had noticed, yet nobody ever commented on it.
Nirei suddenly took the lead, still talking as he walked toward the restaurant. Sakura followed him closely, intertwining their fingers as soon as the blond had started holding his hand rather than arm. The small gesture was starting to feel normal between them, and the red across Sakura's face was a lot less noticeable than before as he stepped inside the restaurant. "Since when was this restaurant here?" Sakura finally asked, looking around him. He was pretty sure he had never seen this place before, even though it seemed quite popular.
The shop itself wasn't too big, though it seemed to have two floors which gave quite a lot of space for customers. The bright red door — as well as red paper lanterns decorating each sides — gave the restaurant a chinese vibe that contrasted greatly with neighbouring shops. Instead of the traditional handle was crafted a little dragon, its claws facing any customers who wished to enter and its mouth open as if to welcome them. The red banner on top of the door had golden ornaments decorating it, with symbols neither could decipher: 挂羊头卖狗肉¹, which was probably the name of the restaurant.
"It's pretty new! I saw it on my phone yesterday and thought we could test it out during patrol today!" Nirei explained with a big smile, and truly, even if Sakura was quite suspicious of trying this new place that left his chest with a weird feeling, he didn’t have it in himself to say no. Not when the blond was smiling like that, not when he looked so happy. And so, Sakura simply nodded, letting Nirei ask the hostess for a table of two.
They followed the hostess, looking at the beautiful interior: red paper lanterns were covering the whole ceiling, illuminating the restaurant with a soft light, the pale brown floor reflecting the red of the lanterns and creating a dim-lighted ambience. Alongside the wall were a few booths — all occupied already. The leather seats were of a deep red and led lights under the table made customers able to read the menu without squinting their eyes. In the middle of the place were multiple tables, each having dark chairs and golden tablecloths.
"Do you think the second floor has a balcony seating?" Nirei asked curiously, looking at the stairs, before taking out a notebook. His captain — who had been busy suspiciously glancing around him — finally turned his attention back to the blond, observing as the boy started drawing the restaurant's layout, adding comments on the margin here and there. "I thought you only wrote about strong guys you found interesting in there?" He finally commented, watching as Nirei came back down to earth at his captain's voice. Tongue — that had been out due to concentration — back in his mouth, Nirei smiled at him brightly before showing his notebook's cover. While it was similar to the one he always carried around, this one was of a slightly lighter shade. "This one's different! I decided to write about new places and things like that!" The blond proudly explained, before starting to go on a deep ramble about everything he had already written in this new notebook: informations about Furin, about Pothos, about Shishitoren and various other places he had visited. Sakura listened to him intently, focusing more on the blond's happy voice than the words themselves.
Their waitress came over to give them water, and Nirei suddenly stopped talking, looking down at the menu. "We should decide what to eat now, right?!" He smiled, starting to read the choices. His captain, however, didn't even opened the menu in front of him, chin on his palm as he declared plainly: "I'll just try their omurice." Nirei looked at him in silence for a few minutes, before bursting out in laughter. This time, Sakura's face truly turned red all over, focusing his eyes on the still laughing boy. "What's so funny about this, huh?!" Nirei tried to calm down — enough to speak, at least — wiping the tears from his eyes as he answered with another small laugh: "Sakura-san... This is a chinese restaurant, they definitely won't have omurice you know!" "Huh? Then what's the point in coming here? We should've gone to Pothos like usual?" He waited with a pout as Nirei burst in laughter yet again, his explanation cut — before it could even begin — by the waitress coming back to take their orders.
Sakura was just about to tell her to leave, when Nirei spoke and gave an orders for the both of them, trying to pick up things that his captain might like: "We'll share some of the... Uh... The deem soum? And some car sea rice bowl... Oh! And also shiug fun please!" The blond enthusiastically tried pronouncing the words, nose scrunching as he tried to read the names. Thankfully, the waitress seemed already used to these kind of mistakes, and repeated the order while showing the choices with her finger: "So, one Dim Sum, with Char Siu rice bowl as well as Cheong Fun, correct?" Nirei nodded happily, before adding some beverages for the both of them and watching the waitress leave to write in their order.
They kept talking for a while, before finally receiving their meal: 8 small dumplings cut similarly to a sushi and filled with pork and shrimp, with roasted BBQ pork served with an egg in a big rice bowl, and finally rice noodles rolls topped with seasonings and soy sauce. The difference dishes were colorful, smelling almost heavenly, and Sakura felt a sudden need to eat all of it. He didn't, however, and simply shared with the blond who kept commenting about the various savours and textures. The captain listened to him, stuffing his mouth full and nodding.
And as they ate, chatting happily, one single silhouette was watching from the top of the stairs. Hands behind its back, red and yellow tassel earrings and brown hair starting to descend on the shoulder. The silhouette wore a sad smile, white and brown eyes looking at the two boys, as he was holding a black eyepatch between bloodied and trembling fingers.
¹ 挂羊头卖狗肉 : (Guà yáng tóu mài gǒu ròu). Literally "Hanging the sheep's head and selling dog meat." This idiom is about misleading advertising or deceptive practices.