A Dinner With Master

It didn't take long before Hayashi Sakura went back to Mori Ken's table with the food he ordered earlier. Carefully, Sakura removes the dome-shaped stainless steel cloche that is covering his dish, and in it reveals his Om Nom nomurice with the bottle of ketchup standing beside it. The steam that comes from the newly-cooked omelette with fried rice filling now starts to rise from it.

Mori Ken carefully watches as the maid in front of her picks up the bottle of ketchup and scribbles the letters on top of the omelette with delicacy and grace, forming his name K-E-N. His eyes were filled with astonishment as the letters came out perfectly than what he expected.

On the other hand, Sakura's hands were slightly trembling as she held the ketchup bottle in her hands. Knowing that Ken carefully observes his every movement makes her anxious for some unknown reason, although she is already used to being watched by her guests for the past three months that she has worked here.

She constantly reminded herself that Ken is just another regular customer here and that he doesn't have any idea who she is just to steady herself and avoid making a mistake as she drips ketchup on top of his omelette.

"That's awesome," Ken compliments her as soon as she is finished with her task. He even leaned his head to have a closer look at his omelette with his mouth parted. "Now, I will feel guilty to eat this whole thing up."

Sakura laughs a pretentious shy laugh before replying to his statement, "You will feel more guilty if you will let that food be put to waste, don't you think so… master?"

Even calling him master the entire time of his visit here feels foreign under her mouth that somehow annoys her even more.

Ken seems enlightened with her words, looks up to her as he chuckles softly and gently scrapes the back of his head. "Yeah… I guess you're right."

He took the spoon and fork that was placed on both sides of the plate and gently gave the omelet a cut. The fried rice inside the omelet now pops out freely as he finishes cutting it in the middle.

"Enjoy your meal then, master." Against her will, Sakura gently bows her head to show some respect to her guest before proceeding with the next customer who was already waving his hand to call her attention for quite some time now.

A few minutes later, no new customers had showed up in La la land Cafe so far, leaving all the maids vacant after serving the existing customers with their meals. Sakura now starts to think that Mori Ken is the bringer of misfortune in this place.

Speaking of him, she spots the guy waving his hand in her direction. Instinctively, Sakura approaches him with a smile plastered on her pretty face.

"What can I do for you, master?"

"Why don't you join me here for a while? It seems that you don't have any customers yet." Mori Ken smiles sheepishly at the girl, making Sakura stunned for a moment.

'What is he up to? Does he already have any idea who I am and now he is trying to play some tricks on me?' The thoughts suddenly came inside Sakura's head as she tried to assess things out.

'Well then, bring it on!'

Gracefully, Sakura bows her head one more time before saying, "As you wish, master. But please do note that there will be an additional charge of $30 for making a maid stay in your dining area."

Sakura said that last part intentionally to make Ken somehow change his mind. However, to her dismay though, Ken only gave him a thumbs up and requested her to take the seat across him.

'Damn him. I really wanted to know what was going on inside that brain of his right this second!' Sakura mutters inside her head.

"I bet you haven't eaten dinner yet. It is almost eight thirty in the evening. Would you like me to order you something?" Ken asks politely, in which Sakura swiftly declines.

"I had already eaten dinner during my break, master," she lied. She barely had a break today since one of her co-worker, Strawberry, had her leave tonight. "But thank you so much for the generous offer."

As if on cue, Sakura's stomach soon began to rumble, making the girl's face flushed with embarrassment. Damn this stomach!

She could properly tell now that Ken is trying to stifle a laugh, but in the end he can't control it anymore and chuckled a throaty laugh. That alone made her face beet red-- big time, and the other maids to look at their direction.

Ms. Cookie finds this scene amusing in her eyes. Smiling, she says to herself, "My, my… I haven't seen my nephew laugh like that for quite some time now."

"P-please don't laugh master. I-I'm just trying to be courteous as possible as I could," Prickles of cold sweat now start to roll down in her forehead as Sakura lowers her head down. She can't bring herself to look at Ken directly in the eye right now after that embarrassing moment she had experienced just now.

As per her request, Ken now stops himself from further laughing. He clears his throat first and says, "I find your reaction cute, that's why I can't help myself from laughing out loud. I'm sorry."

A small gasp escaped Sakura's lips as he heard this guy calling her reaction earlier a 'cute' one and when he apologized all of a sudden. Swiftly, she shoots her head up, suddenly meeting up his intense gaze at her.

"Y-you don't have to apologize to me, master." Her stutter still didn't leave her as she tried to construct a comprehensible sentence.

For the second time around. Mori Ken points to the empty chair facing him, looks at her once again and says, "Why don't we have this talk over dinner? I don't know exactly why but… I wanted to know you more, Patty."