Flexing Time Inside The New Ramen Restaurant

The afternoon sky had slowly gone into the end period as the orange light began to show a glimpse of dark color within the cloudy surface. The orange light that shone on the wide hallway beside the right of the enlarged-glassy building, Porta Ryuko, displayed flashing coke bottle advertisements through the billboard on the above left.

The hallway itself has entirely filled with a lot of sparkling red tents, indicating a crowded trading activity occurred. Furthermore, the trading tents were split into two sections from left to right showcasing a different type of selling point and illuminated the sense of enlivening across the hallway due to noises of talking, slurping, and other-kind presents.

The majority of the left side selling points were either related to the well-detailed action figure placed on the wooden wide-display table in the front or a holographic icon latched on the hovering holographic board. The themes included for both the toys and the posters were Superheroes like Sparror and the co, animated tv show icons ranging from anthropomorphic or colorful hair characters with huge swords in their grip, and bulky mech figures with extravagant weaponry.

A display of toys or posters was indeed filled with intriguing people as some of them grabbed the toys such as an action figure of Sparror or the poster like a big-eyed girl that let the potential buyers sluggishly push closer the intrigued eyes. Even a transaction activity clearly appeared with the half-blue streak boy wearing a jacket, heaved his phone with the old-man trader, and pointed his finger to the pink-haired girl holographic poster sleeping on the bed.

Whereas, the right side of the drumming hallway was dominated by either clean-wooden food carts or mini-stores with each of them having a rectangular table in the front of their opened kitchen. Four circular wooden chairs below calmly guarded the table and were occupied by the hungry customers who mostly darted their starving eyes at the busy activities occurring in the kitchen behind.

Sushi stores, fried foods, complete bento boxes, and lastly snacks such as steamy dorayaki or Karinto were all becoming the majority of products within this wide array of food stores. A tightening line of craving customers stood and blocked the front view of some of the snack stores, dropping the enjoyment and craving jaw witnessing the reheating process appear within their eyes.

With the crowded hallway especially on the food side still echoing inside the hallway, there was a food cart that was not as crowded as the others. Furthermore, there was a food cart occupying the left very end of the hallway for the serene resting place.

A bulky-white ramen cart with the four elongated white holographic flyers levitated from above and touched the ground below like large-paper flyers. Neon-red kanji's were latched on the whole holographic flyers and the word being stated to the outside was, "Derika Ramen ''.

Behind the steady holographic flyers, two high-schoolers already took their seats on top of the silk-white square-shape chair and placed their resting arms on the shimmering-white elongated table. The high schoolers were none other than Hatoshi and Yuna who had the blazers removed, opening gleeful chuckles towards each other as they now spent time on their meals.

Pair of large white bowls containing long, brightly yellow noodles shaped like healthy worms being drowned by the warming-creamy soup became the high schooler's afternoon menu. A flavourful and delicate menu for two of them as Yuna used the black chopsticks to catch the piece of the noodle and gently put it into her opened-craving mouth.

Then, the schoolgirl began to chew and felt the tender surface of the noodle throughout her teeth alongside a saporous mix taste between sweet and salt at the same time. The schoolgirl closed her lips before softly spreading the joyful humming across the surroundings, fully enjoying the food she had.

The gentle humming from the schoolgirl caught her close partner, Hatoshi who recently swallowed the bite of his bowl. A pleasurable smirk colored the schoolboy's entire face in the blink of an eye as he continued to center his diverting sight toward Yuna, letting out a sheepish giggle that steered her attention into him.

"So what did you think about the noodle, Yuna?" Hatoshi asked before exhaling a reluctant sigh briefly and suggested. "If you have negative things about that…well just say one word."

Yuna chortled and washed the leftover soup on her lips with her knuckle, "It's very flavourful, especially the noodles. "

"Although it looks like Lamian, it's quite a good match with the soup." Yuna complemented with a cheering smirk.

"I agreed with that, Yuna," Hatoshi remarked and extended the pleasuring smirk. "The chicken is also very tender and fresh too."

"Yeah, I never thought the chicken would be so good," Yuna replied happily before releasing a brief sigh. "It's the best chicken I've ever had in any ramen restaurant."

Hatoshi chuckled, "I guess Derika Ramen is a good place to revisit."

"Even though…it's very crowded," Hatoshi murmured with a little bit of hesitation.

Yuna cheerfully giggled, "You just had to pick the….right time."

"Maybe on Wednesday at 4 since we don't have any busy things on that day," Yuna suggested and latched two of her fingers below her lips. " I believed at that time, this place is not really crowded like this."

"Hope so," Hatoshi mumbled.

Afterward, Yuna turned around her thrilling sight of the warming ramen once again and heated the desire for getting another bite as she steered her chopstick into the bowl. An elongated piece of noodle was caught by the chopsticks and twisting the noodle until it became a small tangling roll, digestible for her bite with her dropping it into the craving jaw.

While Hatoshi clutched his hand on the creamy-ceramic glass on his left that was filled with cold ocha in half size. He swiftly took a little sip of the cold ocha, clearing the hotness inside his throat after consuming the hot ramen, especially with the slurping sound drumming shortly on the table.

The schoolboy put down the cold glass beside the ramen bowl and raised his surprised furrow when steering his sight at Yuna who finished chewing her delicate piece of noodle. Hence, the continuation of the relaxing conversation between the two high schoolers was declared when Hatoshi swallowed a gulp of his saliva.

Hatoshi hummed with a little bit of anxious mood entering his eyes, "Hmm…Yuna..about the cooking club again."

"Can I ask you this question?" Hatoshi politely blurted out permission as he bit the uneasy lips.

"Yes Hatoshi, go ahead," Yuna muttered with a welcoming smile that colored her entire face and tilted her head shortly, freeing a cheering giggle. "I will always be fine with any question you give to me."

Hatoshi sighed, "Fine."

"Did the people in the cooking club-like…the dish you made?" Hatoshi muttered with uneasiness, emerging slowly within his turning-down eyebrows. "I mean..they ask you to make lasagna and I'm aware you're not that good at making…Italian food."

At first, Yuna pinched the lower part of her lips as digging a past moment when she was in the cooking club. The schoolboy constantly furrowed down his eyebrows in worriedness, watching his close partner pinching and humming.

Luckily, the worriedness started to gust away from Hatoshi's face when he caught the glimpse of his partner opening a jolly smile. Yuna was now already grasping bitter confidence for resuming the conversation with the newest topic as she widened her jolly smile.

"The result is a mix," Yuna answered bitterly and put down her pinching hand. "Some of the members quite enjoyed it, but the problem is the only cheese."

Yuna reluctantly gasped, "Because I really overcooked it as some members said there was a burnt taste. I indeed accepted the feedback and actually agreed with it."

"Well..at least..you did your best and the half of the members…like your dish," Hatoshi remarked with a praising tone.

"Probably," Yuna answered with a joyful tone before she tilted her head to the left, raising an intrigueness within her eyes the more time spending on glancing at Hatoshi. "Let's move to the new topic, Hatoshi."

"Sure and let me guess…talking about the recent superhero news." Hatoshi guessed confidently.

A sheepish giggle freed from Yuna's throat as she presented the cheering smirk towards Hatoshi's eyes. Therefore, the flow of the conversation presumed smoothly with both high schoolers didn't show any sign of worriedness or sorrow to each other.

"Many people, even in the cooking club, had been talking about the recent news." Yuna started the conversation with a superhero topic. "However, they are some of our classmates and other students complained that Chemistra is not really….efficient compared to Sparror."

"Even there was a student who said, if Sparror appeared, it would solve the problem easier," Yuna added with a bitter tone

Hatoshi groaned, "Oh no…not this again. I know we love to compare everything, but…come on."

"First of all, Sparror is not the only one protecting Neo Tokyo and he is probably still having his temporal break time. Second, the villain was already in jail because of Chemistra. Lastly, as long as the threat is already being secure, we should be grateful to any superheroes who did it." Hatoshi exclaimed with a firm tone.

"Because at the end, superheroes are people willing to sacrifice their own life just to keep the peace in this world," Hatoshi remarked. "So please..it's not good to compare which of the superheroes is better than one another."

"Except if the superheroes acting like a jerk or incompetent at their job, well you maybe have…right to complain," Hatoshi added with a little bit of annoyance that appeared through his eyebrows before releasing a reluctant giggle.

Yuna sheepishly chuckled and nodded, "Indeed."

"It's lucky we don't have that kind of superheroes in Neo Tokyo," Yuna mentioned.

"Exactly," Hatoshi muttered with a gladful chortle as he shook his head. "This is why I much prefer a more straightforward and blunt superhero…rather than the one who often makes jokes."

As the high schoolers presumed their conversation about the superheroes, a bald-headed man who wore a sweaty white t-shirt and long white pants watched with a relieving smile. Moreover, the bald head man watched the high schoolers while having a busy activity cutting the large-roasted chicken leg on the table inside the small kitchen that was behind the kitchen table.

Although his eyes were focused on the two high schoolers who kept engaging the conversation with the female student glaring at her curious eyes, he still consistently chopped the chicken. Each cut of the roasted chicken was indeed clean and neat as they were no messier shaped on the skin available.

'Today is rough for now. Not because of handling the kitchen. Instead, I heard a lot of people, especially high schoolers, complain about their favorite hero…Sparror didn't appear or stuff like that" The bald head man murmured within his mind as he created another neat cut with a single chop and opened an irritated grit. 'Damn it…kid these days...like who cares Sparror is stronger compared to Chemistra or Agano.'

'But luckily, I already found more….decent teenagers right now.' The bald head man spoke with a bitter relief tone and extended his enlivened grin the more he glanced at the two customers. 'I'm also…happy that they enjoyed my food too. Therefore, I'm really gladful..with that.'

…

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