Chapter 7: Ramen

Eiya

I placed the snacks and drinks on a coffee table and sat down at the piano and waited for Syra to return.

I still can't believe she decided to come to my place. A guy's place. My heart was still beating with excitement. I really want to help make her song come alive.

I could hear Syra's footsteps drawing closer. She peeked from the corner of the wall and I smiled at her, patting the chair next to me.

"You can sit here," I said.

She walked closer and sat in the desk chair.

I started to fidget a little in my seat.

"I just wanted to let you know, if you ever feel uncomfortable, you are welcome to leave. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or pressured," I said while playing with my hair.

She smiled, "Thank you for caring about me. I'm okay right now. If I feel like that, I'll let you know."

I sighed, a little relieved to hear how she felt.

"We can eat a little first then start on our project," I said," I wasn't sure what you liked so I just went ahead and made instant ramen, cut Meloy, a cup of pulay, and Yufa juice."

Syra

I looked at the food before us. I recognized the name ramen but the other three didn't sound familiar.

"I'm open to trying new things. What kind of ramen is it?" I asked.

"Setri cutlet with –eggs, –green onions, and elsrooms," he said.

I stared at the bowl. For each word, I heard a glitching sound. Maybe this is the system trying to translate information. But nope. I have no idea what any of these names mean. I guess I will just have to try it to find out.

"I've never heard of them," I said as I lifted my chopsticks of noodles to my mouth.

The brown cut pieces laid in the bowl tasted similar to beef and chicken and the black shredded pieces had a soft elasticity to mushrooms. It was a savory and hearty dish.

"This is sooo good! Thanks, Eiya!" I said as I continued to gobble the food.

"Hehe, glad you like it. I was a little worried you wouldn't like it," he said.

"So, tell me about you," I said.

"Mm.. I grew up with two brothers and my parents. I was born in Japan and later grew up in America," he said and slurped on his noodles.

"I've always lived in America. I was born and raised here. So are you Japanese?" I asked.

"I'm half Japanese and half American. My mom is American and my dad is Japanese. What;s your ethnicity?" he asked.

"I'm Yung." I said.

"What's Yung?" he asked.

"Yung are an asian ethnic group that mostly resided in China," I said.

He simply nodded his head and continued to eat his ramen.

"Did you move a lot?" I asked.

"Nope. We just moved a few times. Once from Japan to America and then once more for my dad's job."

"That doesn't sound so bad. I had to move around a lot because my family had a hard time paying for rent and they changed their jobs too. It was hard keeping friends," I said.

"I see… that must have been lonely," he said.

"Mhm, it was… I still struggle making friends even now, haha.. We stopped moving but I don't know. Just moving to another state, it just feels harder to make new friends who already have their own friend groups," I said.

"No, I get that. I've also been struggling to make friends," he said.

"Really?" I asked surprised," You seem like the type who would get along with anyone."

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

"Well.. you're really nice and easy to talk to and.. You're handsome, haha," I laughed.

"Hahaha, thanks but I don't really think I'm that good looking," he said.

"Bruh, you are!" I laughed.

"Uhuh, sure. How about you tell me more about you?" Eiya asked.

"Mm.. my parents are divorced. I have one brother and lived with my dad and grandparents most of the time as I grew up. It was kinda easier as a kid up until high school, when my grandparents started demanding me and my brother to do chores. They didn't even teach us anything. Only to make rice though, so it was difficult knowing how to make them happy. When we moved to another state, my step aunt was the one who taught us how to do chores and cook for ourselves. I look up to her a lot," I said.

"Is she nice?" he asked.

"She can be a little snappy with her words sometimes if she is in a bad mood but for the most part she is very kind and open hearted. She's the closest person I have to as a mother. She was there from when I was a kid until she moved away to the new state. Then I reunited with her when we moved," I said.

"That's good," he said.

"Yeah.. it was really hard living with my grandmother. She speaks broken English and mostly in her own language. I understand most of what she says so it really hurt and annoyed me when I could hear her talking smack about my family. We're her own flesh and blood and yet she gossips about us with her friends," I sighed, annoyed.

"Ew, sounds like she's been terrible to you," he said.

"She was a nice grandmother growing up, feeding us and giving us medicine and teaching her words, but she was brutally transparent about her feelings about every member of the family," I said.

"It's great she tried taking care of you but that still doesn't make it right for her to say those things," he said.

"I know.. It hurt a lot to hear it all. Luckily my brother has no idea what she is saying so it didn't affect him much. It made me really sad and shocked about how she felt about us though. I felt heart broken, as though all of her 'I love yous' were all lies," I said.

"This year.. We had gotten into an argument. I wanted her to stop talking my grandpa's ear off about joining her cult. My family are Yuustians but my grandmother had gotten into this other religion whose pastor believed their kid was the reincarnation of Yuust," I said.

"Yust? Who's that?" he asked.

"Oh, do you not know what Yuustianity is?" I asked.

"Not really. I'm not very religious," he said.

"It's just a religion about someone named Yuust who saved people by healing them and teaching them to care about one another," I said.

"Hmm.. I see. Do you really think there was healing back in the past?" he asked.

I shrugged, "Maybe medicine but not sure about healing. Then again, no one knows all of the history of the world since not everything might have not been recorded."

"True. So what happened during your argument?" he asked.

"Not much really. She just started saying I should be grateful she took care of me as a baby and that I should respect her as my grandmother and that she loved me. I got so mad because I felt irritated that she would say that when she would say bad things about us, the people she said she loved. So I snapped back… saying she didn't love me and ran away to my step aunt's house," I said.

"It's good that you had your aunt to be there for you," Eiya said and I nodded.

"What about you and your family? Do you guys get along?" I asked.

"We do, but lately things have been on the icy side. Me and my brothers don't talk to each other as much as we used to- Augh!" Eiya held his head.

"What's wrong?" I asked, worried.

"I..I just felt a headache. I'm going to take some medicine right now," he started to walk away.

"Maybe because it's late and you're tired. We don't have to record tonight if you're tired and having a headache," I said.

"No, it's alright. I really want to record your song together tonight. I'm not tired either, so don't worry about me," Eiya tried to reassure as he swallowed his pills.

We finished our bowls of ramen and started eating these cut cylinders of purple. They tasted like banana flavored watermelon. The pulay was my favorite. It's like creamy yogurt with pieces of fruity candy. The Yufa juice was like sweet jasmine and pear tea.