"Ah, life is certainly not easy."
"Is work difficult? That's true, being a doctor must be exhausting."
"No, I mean getting along with students isn't easy."
Inside Rising, a four-person table had all its usual tea sets and decorations cleared away, replaced by a large bronze hot pot. Only a thin layer of cast copper separated the half-extinguished charcoal embers from the bubbling broth. Half-cooked chicken, sliced black carp, and various vegetables were spread across plates and plastic baskets. Li Xiao and Miki Kashiwagi occupied opposite sides, leaving one chair open for Sakiko Toyokawa, who hadn't finished work yet. Miki Kashiwagi chugged a large mouthful of beer, the heavy carbonation hitting his stomach. After a long burp, he let out a deep sigh and made that remark.
"Why do you suppose young girls these days are all so weird?"
"My goodness, have you ever even held a girl's hand five times in your entire life? To use that professional jargon of yours, uh..."
"Sample size is insufficient!"
"Right, sample size is insufficient. What kind of shameless face do you have to say something like that?"
Li Xiao wasn't wearing makeup at this moment, her phoenix eyes curving charmingly under the influence of alcohol, her oval face flushed with a tipsy glow. Despite having the face of a beauty, her words carried quite a punch.
"When this lady confessed to you the first time... *hic*, you fucking rejected me. Whatever, you just had no taste for me!"
"You're sloshed, sis. You are definitely sloshed."
"Sloshed my ass, let me finish!" Li Xiao pointed a finger, and Miki Kashiwagi immediately became well-behaved, sitting obediently in his chair to take his scolding while signaling with his eyes for the employee cleaning up the restaurant to leave quickly. The store clerk had originally intended to wait for the two of them to finish so she could clean up the sea of beer bottles around Li Xiao before clocking out, but seeing the situation, she decisively grabbed her bag and made a run for it. As she passed Miki Kashiwagi, she thoughtfully reminded him, "Brother Kashiwagi, take care of the boss, and call me if anything comes up."
"*Hic.*" Now that there truly were no outsiders left in the shop, they could start playing finger-guessing drinking games right there without anyone complaining about the noise. "You... rejected me a second time. I was dressed like Xi Shi, and ev—everyone knew! Chiyo Xiao is asking you, Miki Kashiwagi, out on a date!"
"Sis, sis, let's calm down. You really are hammered..."
"And you?! Coward... coward!" With a sudden thud, Li Xiao slumped under the table as beer bottles rolled in all directions. Before long, she began snoring softly, occasionally muttering nonsense in her sleep: "I'm a coward, and you're a coward too... we're all..."
Sakiko Toyokawa, who had finished her shift long ago, simply leaned against the counter, utterly speechless as she watched everything unfold. She suddenly realized that when a person is truly speechless, they actually laugh.
Although Sakiko couldn't understand what the two of them had been arguing about, just by looking at the boss's expression, she could tell their past was definitely not innocent.
"Sakiko, stop watching and come help carry Boss Chiyo upstairs to rest." Miki Kashiwagi looked quite helpless. He had simply dropped by to cadge a free meal and check in on Sakiko, only to unexpectedly run into Li Xiao drinking alone. Figuring he would just share a couple of drinks and spend the night at the shop, he ended up having the hot pot session derailed when a drunken Li Xiao dredged up old skeletons from the closet, thoroughly ruining his mood.
By the time Sakiko Toyokawa and Miki Kashiwagi got Li Xiao settled and finished cleaning up the shop, the sky had turned pitch black. Sakiko opened the storefront door, and a breeze carrying a fine drizzle cleared out the lingering smell of alcohol inside. Miki Kashiwagi made Sakiko a plate of fried rice using the uncooked slices of black carp. It was piping hot and overflowing with savory aroma.
"Itadakimasu." Sakiko buried her head in her food, not saying a word except for a startled exclamation of "So good!" after her very first bite. Miki Kashiwagi leaned against the doorframe, smoking his pipe in silence. The fragrance of the premium tobacco replaced the smell of alcohol, helping to revive Sakiko's somewhat weary spirits.
After washing down the last bite of fried rice with some broth, Sakiko noticed that the atmosphere had grown a bit too quiet and that Miki Kashiwagi seemed to be in low spirits. She decided to break the silence: "Dr. Kashiwagi, were you and Boss Chiyo romantically involved in the past?"
The moment she asked, Sakiko regretted it, feeling as though she had spoken out of turn.
"Well... it's a long story, but I'll try to keep it brief." Miki Kashiwagi put away his pipe, exhaled the lingering smoke from his lungs, and sat down opposite Sakiko, memories flickering in his eyes.
"Boss Chiyo was a year ahead of me, under the same advisor. You could say the two of us were the professor's favorite students. Boss Chiyo confessed her feelings to me, and I kept wanting to turn her down, but considering that making things awkward would ruin our chances of working on academic projects together... sigh, you can guess the rest yourself without me spelling it out. It was a mess."
Sakiko fell silent. At first, she felt that Miki Kashiwagi had treated Boss Chiyo terribly.
Yet what right did she have to condemn him? Wasn't she doing the exact same thing—abandoning everyone's dreams for her own personal affairs and her so-called dignity?
Especially that child, Tomori...
For some reason, Sakiko Toyokawa suddenly felt a surge of impulse, and she quickly acted on it.
"Don't be sad, Dr. Kashiwagi." Sakiko stood up and gently hugged Miki Kashiwagi. There was no intense physical intimacy, just a soft embrace wrapping her arms around him, yet Sakiko felt a strange stirring in her chest—a mix of shyness and sympathy. Whenever Sakiko would look back on this moment in the future, she would call it "empathy between fellow sinners."
"I can understand how you feel. It's alright."
Feeling that vague warmth, Miki Kashiwagi hesitated for a moment before returning the polite embrace. His heartfelt gratitude ultimately melted into a simple "Thank you."
Pulling back, Sakiko withdrew a wad of cash from her pocket, separated about half of it, and placed it on the table—around six thousand yen. "This is the money I earned from my part-time job today. Please give this to Boss Chiyo as my lodging fee for these past few days."
With that, she picked up her tray and walked into the kitchen. Smiling at Miki Kashiwagi, Sakiko said, "It's getting late, make sure you get some good rest too."
The wall clock chimed right on cue—ten strikes, exactly ten o'clock.
"Yeah, you get some rest early too."
"By the way, Dr. Kashiwagi."
"What is it?"
"Do you still like Boss Chiyo?"
Miki Kashiwagi hesitated for a moment, then gave a slight shake of his head. "She's a good friend of mine. Why do you ask?" Having had too much to drink, alcohol had somewhat taken over his brain, preventing him from noticing the danger hidden behind that question.
For some reason, Sakiko Toyokawa suddenly felt a wave of happiness, the corners of her mouth curling upward on their own. "No reason. Good night, Dr. Kashiwagi."
"Good night, Sakiko."