Seoul Kitchen: Side Stories #1 (Patreon)

A Forgettable Face: Part 1

May 1942 (Showa 17)

It was the 17th year of the reign of the Showa Emperor and Saburo Arasaka found himself back in the Mainland. Sitting in the corner in his lonesome, he fumed despite the cheers and merriment of his fellow officers around him. How could he not be furious when his comrades celebrated this occasion, this retreat after their valiant fight over the Coral Sea.

Why was he, and for that matter his fellow pilots, stuck in Kure? Yes, Shoukaku was grievously injured but that was no excuse for them to be here. While she might not be able to carry them into battle, is her crew not able? Couldn’t they just transfer them over to another carrier while she is repaired at port?

His brooding would be cut short when a bowl of udon was suddenly placed before him. Looking up, he found the charming smile of a forgettable man. “Come on Subaru-chan, don’t be a downer. Live a little!” The man laughed as he slapped Saburo on the back, nearly bowling him over.

Glaring at the brute, he was about to give them a piece of his mind when his stomach decided to make it self know. His ear burned reddened as the roar of laughter filled his part of the room. “I knew you were hungry. Haven’t even seen you grab a bite since we got offloaded here.”

“Hnn,” He snorted dismissively, wishing to be left alone with his meal. Digging into the bowl, he found it… satisfactory. It wasn’t perfect like how the cooks in his family’s estate use to make it but for a starving soldier, it was enough.

Slurping up the noodles, he savored the rich broth as it filled his stomach with warmth. Staring at the bowl, he found himself reminiscing of home. Perhaps, he judged it a bit to harshly. “So, how was it?” the annoying one then asked.

Feeling his eye twitched, her looked up to find the man’s infuriating grin smiling back at him. “Don’t you have a pot to attend to, Burakamin?” He gritted out, insulting the man out right yet the man took in stride as they shrugged back.

“Eh, the broths not going anywhere, it can wait a few minutes,” The poor man from an unknown village replied as he plopped down on a seat beside him. “Besides, you look like you could use someone to talk too. You know, frowning all the time is bad for you,” He then teased back as he too started to eat.

Saburo let out a long suffering sigh as he strived to just ignore the man while he ate. This would prove to be impossible as the other officers dropped by from time to time, asking the man to cook them the yakitori the man had prepared earlier. They could see the man was having a break but they still pestered them. Despite having the right to refuse, and the fact that there servants around, the man just laughed as he helped them make the roasted treat.

His annoyance grew as the night draw on, each little incious request made to the man drawing more and more of his ire yet the man kept doing them with a smile in his face. How could he just let them walk all over him? How could he just take it.

“Sorry about that Saburo-chan, the boys ran out of sake. They needed someone to get them the good stuff cause you really can’t trust the help around here!” The man chuckled as he returned back to his seat, carrying him two bottles of the stuff.

Saburo’s eye twitched at the oblivious nature of this man. Unable to contain himself any longer, he blurted out, “Why?”

“I beg your pardon?” The man asked as the world around them started to fade away. The colors around them become muted, the sounds of cheers and merriment becoming muffled, as his focus turned to the man before him.

“Why,” He asked once more, “Why do you stay here? Why do you insist on suffering through the indignity of all it when no one respects you?” Clenching his fist, he added, “Where is your pride? How could you be happy when no one around here see’s you truly as a fellow officer?”

Deathly silence fell around them yet the smile that had angered him so much still remained, plastered across their face. “You know… I often asked myself that back then, when I was studying in the Academy. As a country bumpkin, I really didn’t understood things like the others,” The man chuckled as he shook his face, “At first, it was out of pride that I remained. I refused to bow down… but then, as time goes on, as I cooked away my sorrow and sadness, I found the one thing that kept me going… I found… my… pur-

Unfortunately for Subaru, the mans words would cut off as the world around him started to fade to static. Strings of ones and zeros streamed around him as the world dissolved into pure date. His time here in the past was up, It was time for him to wake up from his dream.

[Memory Updated, Connection to the Mikoshi severed, Your Soul has been Saved]

-x-x-x-

Early 2077 (Jinkyoku 58)

Subaro groaned as he opened his eyes to the harsh light of the medical room. He winced as he squinted, waiting to adjust his eyes, before he opened them once more to see his doctor and Hanako by his side. “Congratulations Arasaka-sama, your engram has been updated,” His doctors said to him as he gave him a bow. Ah yes, he remembered; his Engram had just been updated.

“Hnn,” He dismissed the man as he pulled away the mask and rose up from his seat. Rubbing his temples, he waited for his legs to wake up. Everytime he goes into the chair to make sure his Engram was up to date, he felt more and more weary. While his doctors and Hanako’s reassurance echoed in his mind, he still felt tired.

Then, there was that damned memory. Why that one pop up from time to time was beyond him. Why couldn’t he relive his time with his father or that of his battles? Instead, he keep returning a place long gone and face that he had already forgotten. Not even the mans name remained in his mind yet he still haunt him all this time.

“Hungry, father?” Hanako asked him as she came up to him with a bowl of Udon.

He found himself snorting in amusement as he accepted the dish. How ironic, to have the same meal he had all those years ago.

-x-x-x-

While the operation felt like ages due to the dream, in truth, it was but a quick scan in the morning. Once more, he was back at work, hearing the pratling of his useless son. While he would have wanted to focus on the meeting, he couldn’t find himself to do so as he stare at the bowl before him.

The Udon was cooked just the way he liked it, to perfection, yet… it felt off; like something was missing. Strange given that this was the same recipe that was served to him in his estate, passed down to the descendants of the same cook he had as a young man. It should be perfect… yet it was, for the lack of better words, flawed. Why?

“Is the food not to your liking father?” His daughter asked him as she sat by his side.

“No, it’s fine Hanako-chan,” he replied with a sigh, “I’m just not in the mood for Udon today it seems.” A half lie but he did not want to see his beloved daughter’s day to be ruined.

His daughter hummed before pulled out a box of… Melon Pan to the table? “I’m not sure if this is to your liking but there is a new that has piqued my interest. At first, I thought they were a passing fad but these pastries gifted to me by my secretary are quite delicious.”

Placing one in a plate, the sweet roll of bread with fruit sandwich between its two halves was offered up to him as she said with a smile, “Maybe something sweet would pique your interest?”

“My doctors would hate this,” He replied with a soft smile, “But maybe just one.” Lifting up the bread, he took a moment to savor its scent before he dug in. As soon as his teeth cut through the soft bread, he found himself in nirvana.

Such soft fluffy bread, filling his taste buds with its delightful flavor. It was sweet, a bit too sweet, but for a moment, he found himself reminded of another dish from another time. “How was it, father?” his daughter asked, bringing him back to the present.

“Our baker makes them better,” he told her, “Yet… I can’t help but wonder why I like it as much. “ He mused. It was flawed, horribly so. It was too sweet, too fluffy and airy yet… he liked it. It was not perfect yet it was, a strange conundrum. “The shop, I wish to know it’s name,” he told her. He found himself curious of this baker, how could someone make a bread so flawed… yet so filling. He wanted to know.

“Ahh, curious of father to find a shop to his liking,” his daughter teased him, holding back the name for just a bit before she continued, “But if you are curious father, the name of the shop is the Seoul Kitchen. It’s a new shop that had just opened in the Cherry Grove Market. Would you believe that they don’t specialize in pastries?”

Saburo’s brow rose up from that trivia. This shop… this Seoul Kitchen, “I wish to visit it today,” he told her, standing up and leaving the meeting. He sneered at the look given to him by his son over the webcamera but he ignored it. He was a man, he could handle the work given to him. Didn’t he want to have more responsibility?

“I’ll get the driver,” Hanako bowed as she followed again. It was rare for something to pique his interest in this day in age. Maybe a stop in this Seoul Kitchen could answer a question he had for the longest of times.

A/N:

Writers block. Doing an omake to distract myself a bit.