The next day.

The tip of Gin's toes immediately felt the winter cold even before stepping outside his own house. Every step on the polished concrete felt like a freezing hell that woke him up with every contact on the floor, and it was only until the rubber of his flip flops eased him, even if just by a little bit.

With unkempt hair and only a washed face, he leaped from his front porch over the wall separating his and the house next door's and rushed to the kotatsu as soon as he entered.

"It's rare for you to be up this late. It's already 11, musuko."

After getting satisfied with a bout of comfort, he drifted briefly from the sleepiness and realized that the Akanami household, less the eldest child, is sitting together with him. And indeed, a morning has been wasted as Gin enjoyed his slumber wrapped in his comforter.

"What happened last night anyways?" Rin asked, finally addressing the irregularity from the past 13 hours.

Last night, Gin had only messaged Rin suddenly that he would be home later that he had told and that he'd be sleeping in his house for the night, and the next she saw of him was there and now, tipping between tiredness and the comfort of the house's warmth.

"Nothing much…" after seemingly being in a daze, he finally replied.

"Maybe I shouldn't have brought you this if you're hungover?" said the mother of the house as she placed a cup of coffee in front of Gin and returned on her seat.

"I'm not hungover… I think I slept right after coming home and I feel like crap…

The live was so fun, though… I'd take you there with me if he does another one, Rin. Yeah… if he would still be up to do another one…"

"Yeeeeaaaah, no way nothing happened last night," Rin inferred.

"It wasn't even anything bad, but it's on me so I can't really tell."

"Alright. You can eat something heavy at this time, right?"

"Yeah."

"I just made some garlic sausage so sit tight while I cook you some."

"Thankoo…"

Although Gin had passed out for at least ten hours or so, the moment he waked reminded him of the sight that was immediately burnt in his mind. He could not be mistaken that the person he saw and caught from falling to the tracks was his former student—a first year in the Visual Arts department—Gakuon Shizuka, which he has also been almost wholly convinced was the same person that has captured his admiration and he watched perform at that night.

'There had to have a good reason,' was the first thought he had upon seeing his student's face. His impression was that Gaku was sincere, perhaps even too serious at times, so he could not doubt the reality that is catching up to him.

From what he has known, Gaku has a mutism disorder for a reason that he does not know. The same disorder led him to learn the skill of being able to read and write in written and machine shorthand that was apparently used to quickly transcribe in legal proceedings and secretarial purposes.

In addition to that, Gin has observed firsthand how efficient Gaku is at communicating in a written way, and he opted not to learn sign language as he was aware that the environment he would be in does not practice it.

But a part of him that was born in the brutal confines of a medical laboratory wants to reject the trust that he has placed on his student upon hearing the voice of someone that has a disability to speak. On one hand, he could empathize even if by a little on the hardships of the fear and inability to communicate normally, but on the other, a sick part of him wants to believe that everything he had observed was an elaborate lie.

Gin knew full well that the remnant of him being Code 027 was not a self that the must not trust, but the mere awareness of that negativity puts a hamper on his righteous inferences.

Nevertheless, he could not leave the issue as it is without receiving closure from the unknowns of it and quelling the doubtful inside him.

"Here you go."

He was disconnected to his deep thought as a plate of sausages and garlic rice slid on his side of the table and steamed his face.

One spoonful and he has felt his life pulling back into him as the flavors of the sausage woke him up coupled the combination of melting fat coating the grains of rice all in a conglomerate of flavors and warmth.

"Man… this is so good."

▪ ▪ ▪

With Gin sitting on the couch of his own house in a winter evening where the warm lights of his living room are dimmed, a very small glimpse of his laptop screen caught the eyes of Rin and the few pixels that she saw were for the changing of the colors and text of the "Follow" button to "Following".

"So you're only following him now?" Rin asked as she saw the name 'Zero—to'.

"It didn't cross my mind until now."

"I started listening to him since we've been talking about his music a lot. He's just only releasing an original song after three years of being in YouCube, hm?"

"I guess? He actually announced it before the end of his live show and I want to give him a bit of a shill. I wonder how much overlap my and his followers have."

"It really is a different world when you're the one with a following rather than you doing the following… I'm the latter so I still really don't get the stuff you and Nacchi do."

"We're just chasing clout. That was a joke, don't take it seriously."

"Well, you do you~ But it honestly feels weird that you're using your house as a place to do a meeting. You started cleaning here and all so I was a bit shocked. I thought you were moving back already."

"Hahaha. You really don't want me to move, do you?"

"Honestly… yeah?"

Gin felt a throb from his heart. A smile that showed the smallest bit of woe and the mellow voice that spoke with a hint of loneliness struck him and almost made him utter words that would that were conjured purely out of his heart and none from his mind.

The nonchalant look he turned at Rin ended up unconvincing as the emotions he tried his utmost to contain translated to the sudden redness and warmth of his face.

As he remained silent, Rin stood and proceeded to grab a large pot from the kitchen then towards the entranceway of the house.

"That wasn't a joke, but don't take it too seriously, okay? Anyway, thanks for making dinner!" and she left thereafter.

Truly, Ringo Akanami has the ability to make Gin the most dumbfounded as he is made very aware that the maturity that emerged from her after her triumphant battle with death has absorbed to her literal and internal beauty that Gin has perhaps seen the most.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

In an utter failure, he could not calm his heart.

Then from inside his collar, he took the necklace out and brought its lustrous article to where it would shine the most.

"…

Haaaaaahh… I really need to get working on getting a new one…"

Twenty minutes after, he could see from his porch door a beam of headlight that illuminated the walls of his yard and followed that was the ringing of his doorbell with his guest's arrival.

"Good evening, Sir Gin."

"Yup, yup, good evening. Now get inside immediately since it's really cold out there. Man I can't imagine ever riding a motorbike in this cold.

Also, take the slippers from the shelf to your right."

"Has anyone told you that you have a big house for one person?"

"I used to say that every other day even after years of moving here. But I actually have a housemate currently renting a room for his work. He's upstairs but let's try not to make too much loud noise.

But I think it would just feel right if this house ever turns into a four-person household."

"I could see that…"

Jackets off, Dino admired the open plan format of the house as he walked towards the living room and then directing his eyes towards the kitchen as he watched the owner pour a hot drink to a cup.

"You have a really nice-looking kitchen, Sir Gin."

"Spare me the praise. I know that what you're going to say next is that this would be such a nice set for a video."

"Can you read minds…?"

"And besides, I can't ever record my kitchen anymore since this has been featured once online already."

Taking a closer look around, Dino realized that there are stands similar to what he uses for his lights just lying around at a corner by the dining table.

"Now I want to see what it was about."

"I'm not telling you. And even if you found it, just don't go around telling anyone about it."

"Sure…"

"Well, go warm up for now and chill. We have some time before dinner," Gin then returned after handing a cup to Dino. "Oh, right. You've never been into a kotatsu, right?"

"What's a kotatsu?"

"It's basically a low table with a heater underneath and then there's a futon, well, a duvet around where you can go inside."

"I don't know if I have the image in my head but that does sound like something I could go into right about now…"

"Sorry to say, it's being used next door in this year's winter since I'm only really going to considering this my home again next year."

Inevitably, it gave Dino a thought. Gin has a sizeable house, yet he is living in her girlfriend's parents’ house, as far as he recalled. He found it somewhat strange that a person living alone in this house would live on another place semi-permanently for some reason.

"If you don't mind, Sir Gin… why are you living in another place when you already have this house?"

"I didn't really have a reason," Gin instantly replied. "Well, that was at the start but there was a point when there was something I need to take care of more than I need to of this place. I pretty much didn't live here for the entire 2023.

And honestly, I just loved living with her family, although I say that when my parents are literally just a few blocks away."

"It sounds like this area is kind of your territory when you say it like that."

"Ehh…

Nevermind that, thanks again for the ticket. I didn't think I'd have a lot of fun with the concert."

"It was a good decision that I gave it to you, then!"

"One way or another, yeah.

Also, how's WT prep going for you?"

"You ask me to stop calling you as sir and then you ask this…

There hasn't been an official list yet, but I've heard about where I'm most likely going to be sent to."

"Oh, that's nice. Good luck with where you'll be going to, then."

"I think it will be Giotto's…"

"Oh, I see. If that's really true, then my 'good luck' suddenly hits different."

"Well, I already knew since Sean handles a lot of our HR."

"But are you going to be fine juggling that with your YouCube work?"

"Just in case, I'm preparing a backlog if it gets busy. But I hope to discuss that later in the meeting."

"Right. But make sure not to push yourself too hard. Do that in any one on your plate, and it might just affect everything else."

"Then… can I get some background on what we're going to do in our WT?"

"No special treatment. You'll have to learn as you go just like the other students. But if you know a CA alumnus then they might give you an idea."

"At least I tried, ahahaha.

Then I'd like to ask something different! How did you learn how to cook, Sir Gin?"

"How I learned, huh… Would you be satisfied if I said that I was locked up in a room for two years with no choice but to cook my own food otherwise I'll literally die?"

"I recall you talking about cooking for two years in the interview, but it never dawned on me that you have a dark sense of humor…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot.

But I think the only thing that I was able to make back then was fried rice and I'm not so bad that I would burn anything I sear.

It's true that I had to cook for my own for 7… 730 days, though. I read a lot of cookbooks then… and I recently met my current bosses so I accidentally learned Giotto's menu. There was one time they needed extra hand in the kitchen and I just swooped in and finished a dish without saying a word. From that point, I was a chef at the resto.

How old was I then… I think the two-year period started when I was 15 then I got back exactly two years after."

"No outsider simply makes a dish from a restaurant menu just like that… If you did it in the first try then that's really amazing."

"I'm 24 already and I still can't take praises…"

"Do you mind if I ask another one?"

"Sure?"

"I haven't heard much about him, but who really is Golden Knife? I know now that he is your grandfather and that he's an incredible chef, but that's all I know."

"I… I'm not sure how I can really answer that. Even I don't really know anything about who Golden Knife exactly was, but I at least know more of Kinrou Sakato than him. They're the same person but I hope you got the gist.

Thinking back, I guess he wasn't much of an inspiration to why I'm cooking now, but as a kid, I wasn't really that emotive. It's more like I'm sad all the time.

But I felt happiness from the food he makes even if for brief moments. His food taught me what a genuine smile is, I guess. Unfortunately, he passed away when I was seven or eight, but I suppose a part of me wants to serve people something that they would love and be happy about it. Though I'm reserving that to my family. I'll still do my best for customers but I can only go so far."

"That's a little mean of you, don't you think, Sir Gin…?"

"I'm not as righteous as you think I am. I can say that now since I'm not a teacher anymore, haha."

As Gin scoffed to himself, Dino's periphery caught a person slowly descending the stairs, but decided to instead gaze on his reflection from drink of his cup.

"Ah, I've already finished dinner so help yourself, Nagi," as Gin was sitting opposite from the kitchen and staircase, he looked behind to see Nagi sneaking around.

"Geh-! Why is it that you go unnoticed so easily but not me?! That's unfair, dammit."

"I could still hear your footsteps, you know. You have to work on that."

"How… I didn't hear anything though…" Dino kept to himself.

"Anyway, this is the guy I mentioned who was a film student. I learned stuff about cameras from him. He's pretty much your upperclassman in high school."

"I see… Good evening."

"Uh, um, yeah, likewise."

"He was my student in CA. Stuff happened and I invited him for dinner today."

"Mhm. Thanks for the dinner, Gin," with food finally secured on his hands, he then hurried to the stairs.

"Are you still on it?"

"I just finished. I have some work left but I'll chill around after that."

"Do you still have water in your office?"

"I do. Ah, I didn't tell you but I got a mini fridge there. I'll add some extra on my rent moving forward."

"Got it.

Aaand he's gone."

"I wonder how it really is to work from home…" Dino thought to himself.

"He can get really busy and be very focused at work out of necessity so sometimes he even forgets to eat. Well, it's the nature of his job but it's nothing bad.

Anyway, sit tight around the heater while I serve up dinner."

As Gin got up, the paws of Haku emerged pattering on the steps of the stairs.

"Look who's here. Maybe you can play with the resident cat, Dino. His name is Haku."

"O-Okay…"

Silently, the cat then approached the guest and immediately climbed on Dino's lap… only to look at his face immediately and give him a glare. Not even ten seconds on Dino's lap and Haku had already withdrawn closer to where the heater is.

"Meow. (I thought I could use him as a pillow, but he reeks of gasoline, Aruji.)" Haku angrily meowed.

"Did you by chance went to get your motorcycle filled up on the way here, Dino?"

"Eh?! How did you know?"

"Humans might not catch it, but Haku has a strong sense of smell."

"So that's why he got angry… I'm sorry, kitty…"

"Meow. (No.)"

▪ ▪ ▪

["**Hello, Capy_nina-san! I recently discovered your works and I saw that you are currently taking commissions. I am interested, and perhaps we could discuss about it more? What language do you prefer to talk with?"]

["**Hi, Zero—to. I'm fine with either, but I'd like you to use what language you're more comfortable with.

**By the way, I have been listening to your covers quite recently. Your voice is something!"]

["*Thank you! Then from now on can I talk using English?"]

["*Sure, that's totally fine."]

["*That's great. I actually have an upcoming original in the works, and I was thinking maybe we could work together for it? I would love to have your illustrations for my music video!"]

["*Ayo this would actually be my first time getting involved in an MV so there's the pressure, but I'll try to meet your expectations."]

["*If anything, I'm the one that's glad to work with you. But can we discuss this further at another time in this DM?"]

["*Alright. I'll keep my eyes peeled!"]

"Yeeeeaaaahhhh… I'm not going to wait for that."

Above was a chain of conversation exchanged by the utaite "Zero—to" and the illustrator "Capy_nina". But in reality, it was an exchange between a former teacher and his former student.