Chapter Twenty Four

Characters

Female lead : Seira

Male lead : Madara

Female lead's mother : Nozomi

Female lead's best friend : Sakuya

Second male lead : Akiyama

Acquiescing with her opinion, he nodded his head. Steamed egg custard it was.

"You do not know how to cook, do you?" She probed.

"Of course, I know how to cook it" he looked at the eggs in his hands and then quietly murmured to himself "But what do I have to steam first, egg or rice?"

"You can steam both of them together" he gave her a weird look and in a questioning tone asked "Can we steam them together?"

"Yes" so Madara finished washing the rice, put them in the rice cooker, pour the water, plugged the cooker in and started cooking.

He cracked open a few eggs into a bowl. Then grabbing a spoon to pick up the egg shell pieces that fell into the bowl, she instructed him to stir them nicely for a few minutes and add sesame oil and salt. Then he took a very valiant action, an action that caused her for a moment to not even react.

Holding the freshly beaten eggs in one hand, he removed the rice cooker lid, quickly 'rattled' the rice and then very neatly poured the eggs into the still uncooked rice.

She looked at the boiling water gushing out of the cooker, the uncooked eggs and raw rice rolling together.

He very proudly grasped a pair of chopsticks to stir the things in the cooker then turned his head to look towards her. Noticing her silence he questioned "So how is it? Is there anything wrong?"

Anything wrong? Is this a joke? He pondered for a moment, innocently said "There is nothing wrong, I did as you said, wash the rice, beat the eggs, and steam them together..."

She did not expect that he would take it as literally 'steaming them together'.

While Madara finished serving the 'steamed egg custard' in the dishes brought to the dining table she remained like a statue in kitchen corner.

"Come and eat, no need to be modest with me or do you want me to feed you with my own hands?" Pulling her from her spot, he led her to the dining table, helping her to her seat and placed a bowl of rice-egg mix in front of her.

Since he went through all the effort she may as well appreciate it. She picked up her chopsticks and placed a piece of the rice-egg mix in her mouth.

Oh, surprisingly the taste was not as bad as it appeared. The egg was nicely cooked and the rice tasted normal. The dish was neither good nor too hard to swallow.

"Are you enjoying the food?" He took her silence as approval, nodding his head with satisfaction, picking up a piece of carrot placing it in her bowl "Come, eat some vegetables too"

She looked at the bizarrely cut piece of carrot grotesquely black in colour. She did not know whether to laugh or cry.

In the end she managed to eat the bowl of rice-egg mix and salty fried vegetables seasoned with soya sauce. Looking satisfied with his achievement he asked "Was it delicious?"

Though she was thankful of his consideration this will be the last time he sets foot in the kitchen. She nodded, extremely scrumptious.

He then picked up a piece of the rice-egg mix and put it in his mouth. He did not even chew it and spit it out immediately.

Seira, "..."

After dinner he called her, afraid that she might have caught a cold giving her a cup of some concoction. She gave the amber liquid in the cup a questionable look and asked "What is this for?"

"You have a cold right? This is medicine, take it." He told her.

She obediently downed the medicine in one go. Noticing the light furrow of her brows and her mutter 'Bitter' under her breath, he took out a sweet from the drawer handing it to her.

She examined it for a while before eating it, the bitter taste left her mouth as a sweet flavour melted on her tongue. She thanked him, he has been very observant and considerate lately.

*Next day

She was currently sitting in his car, leaning back into her seat with her eyes drooped. He was dropping her off to her office, she thought it must have been because of her cold that he decided to take her. By the time they reached the main entrance of the building, it was already eight fifty-five. Was he not afraid of being tardy? Though she can't say much for herself.

The moment she stepped inside the building she heard someone call her name from behind. Looking back she saw Miss Asano. She stood still, waiting for her, behind her appeared the figure of a guy.

Sweeping an indifferent glance at Mr. Inui, she walked next to Miss Asano towards the elevator.

Miss Asano neither realised that there was someone behind her because all her attention was focused on fishing out the latest pieces of gossips. Now caught up with her, Asano chuckled darkly "Secretary Kisaragi, just now did your boyfriend drop you to the office?"

She smiled not forgetting to keep up their happy couple facade and corrected "No, it was my husband" Asano blinked her big eyes and with an unmasked envy on her face said

"Your husband's car is very beautiful"

"En" she didn't care what car he drove, or paid any attention to it other than the fact it was a white BMW.

Asano laughed "Your husband drops you off to your office in his car daily. He is really very good to you"

"It's his responsibility" she replied calmly. Naturally as his wife it was his duty to do so. At this point Asano looked at her with reverence in her eyes.

The three walked in the same direction. She calmly listened to Asano's chatter and laughter while Inui stood in the back lost for words.

It was unusual to see the Director extremely tired and haggard, perhaps he drank a few too much last night?

When he saw her he cheered up a bit, greeted her and then asked "Are you alright?"

She gave him a puzzled look. Akiyama shook his head and with an anguished face told her how he spent the entire night worrying over her, scarcely sleeping a wink! He had tried to call her but she did not answer. However if he did how could she not have known?

Later after office hours he took out his cellphone, showcasing his call logs. Glancing at his phone records, he did call at nine last night. Looking at her phone, it was also the same.

According to the phone logs the call was made at exactly ten past nine...at that time she was in the shower. The battery of her phone did not die, the phone could not end on its own, thus only Madara could have done it.

Why did he suddenly hang up her phone? She was curious now.