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The restaurant was louder than Yokohara imagined upon crossing the threshold from the cool spring evening. From the outside looking in, La Piccola Tavola looked like any other quaint Italian restaurant in Tokyo. Sturdy wooden tables decorated the restaurant floor, intimate lighting donned every table with the ceiling lighting so low it was a miracle the wait staff knew where to walk without bumping into the corner of a table or falling into the lap of some unsuspecting patron.
It wasn’t saying that once he walked in the restaurant was chaotic by any means. There were no children shouting and demanding food or their parents to entertain them. Nor were there any loud foreigners, boasting too loudly after a few drinks too many. There was just a strange aura that hung in the air that was radiating from the kitchen space. Yokohara just couldn’t quite put his finger on why he felt that way.
“Just one?” a short blond man said, coming from the kitchen. He reached for a single menu before Yokohara could stop him.
“Ah, no. Meeting a friend,” Yokohara said.
The waiter sighed, slapping down the menu as if the mere action of picking it up had been the greatest inconvenience of his life. He picked up a list that had been next to the menu stand. “Reservation name?”
“It might be under Yokohara?” he said. Reia had said he made the reservation under Yokohara’s name, so it was by far the most reasonable assumption.
The blank stare from the waiter told Yokohara all he needed to know.
“Try Yuki?” he offered, but only received another blank stare in return. Yokohara sighed and offered up the only other name Reia could have chosen. “Yokonishi?”
The waiter dropped the list, and Yokohara barely heard a “follow me” before he was led to a booth nestled in the back of the restaurant. The waiter barely waited two seconds before returning to the kitchen in which he had come.
Yokohara hadn’t been surprised to see Reia already claiming half of the booth, a latte already half drunk perched precariously on its saucer. Reia was admiring the menu, a thoughtful hand cupping his cheek as he flipped through the pages, as if trying ever so hard to select what he wanted to eat, as Yokohara slid into the other half of the booth.
“You couldn’t have told me where you were sitting?” Yokohara asked as he shrugged out of his jacket. It was unnaturally cold for this time of the year, cherry blossoms already blooming in the trees, but still the weather demanded they keep their jackets on instead of off.
Reia looked up, a playful smile across his lips that made Yokohara’s heart beat faster than it should have. “But that wouldn’t have been as fun then.”
“You’re lucky I like your fun and games, or I would have left you a long time ago,” Yokohara said, stealing the menu from Reia’s weak hold.
“Hey! I was looking at that,” Reia said, making an attempt to swipe the menu from Yokohara’s grasp, but Yokohara held it out of reach.
Yokohara gave him a pointed look before focusing his attention on the menu. “You’re going to order spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread because you don’t know what half the things on the menu are,” Yokohara said, eyeing the desserts. There was a couple’s dessert special for New York style cheesecake that evening, but he filed that away for another time. Reia would never split a dessert with him.
“I was actually considering their chicken parmesan special this time,” Reia said. Yokohara caught him pouting in the corner of his eye but chose to ignore the expression. “I saw the waiter bring it out, and it’s looks as if it’s as big as a personal pizza.”
Yokohara stopped scanning through the various pasta dishes to look over at his best friend. “Is that…is that even healthy?”
Reia merely shrugged. “Death by super chicken doesn’t sound like the worst way to die.”
Their small talk meandered through various topics though neither of them broached the subject of why they were truly there. Yokohara knew that he should, he was the supportive best friend helping Reia through the twists and turns of the Tokyo dating scene, but there was a part of him that wanted to hold onto this moment for a little bit longer. This little bit of time where Reia was his and only his, and Reia’s mind wasn’t lingering on past memories he was there to share.
The appearance of their waiter pushed the subject from Yokohara’s mind as both him and Reia turned their attention to the man in front of them.
Man was perhaps too strong of a word for the person that was their waiter. His face was youthful, as if he had barely stepped out of university, and his uniform hardly passed for ironed. His legs looked as tall as the man who had greeted Yokohara upon entering the restaurant and his softly dyed blond hair looked out of place for such a nice restaurant. He was holding onto a pad of paper and a pen, gripping them so tightly Yokohara thought the pen might break in half.
“Welcome to La Piccola Tavola. My name is Taiko, and I’ll be your server tonight,” the waiter said, the lines coming out slightly robotic as if they had been rehearsed over and over in his head until he stood before their table. “What can I get started for you?”
“I’ll have another coffee,” Reia said with a small wave of his hand. “And he’ll have a-”
“No, no, no!” Taiko all but shouted, the increase in volume shocking Yokohara, and he heard a few diners pause their conversation to look over at their table. “I want your food order first.”
Yokohara peered over at his friend, almost in concern. They had been to this particular restaurant numerous times in the past, and this was far outside of the normal service they expected.
“Food first?” Yokohara asked after confirming that Reia was as baffled as he was.
The waiter nodded. “Food, please.”
“Can you give us a few minutes?” Yokohara said. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll be back.” And Taiko had disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.
There was a silence that hung around them as they watched their waiter retreat that was only broken once Reia spoke. “That was weird.”
“Was he the one that brought you your drink?”
“It was another guy.” Reia said. “Smaller. More easily ruffled. Oddly not the weirdest thing that’s happened to me this week.”
Yokohara felt himself tense with Reia’s words, and he knew what was coming. No matter how many times it happened, there was still a part of him that ached for what had been even though he knew that chapter had long since been closed. They could never return to that time. No amount of magic or wishing would make it come to be.
He didn’t know when things had changed between them. They had grown up going to each other’s houses and spending the nights gaming and playing together. High school and university had only pushed them closer when tests and exams should have limited their time together. Yokohara and Reia were two halves of the same coin, and Yokohara felt an emptiness in his heart when his friend wasn’t there.
Dating had never crossed Yokohara’s mind. Though his heart beat faster when Reia’s dangerous smile was turned in his direction or Reia chose to hang out with him instead of some pretty girl, Yokohara had been content having Reia in his life. That was until there was a pretty drunk Reia straddling Yokohara’s lap with Reia’s tongue down his throat. Their relationship changed quite a bit that night.
Those few months they had been together had been utter bliss in Yokohara’s mind. He had always known his best friend to be crafty, the type to get what he wanted when he wanted it, and Yokohara would have given Reia the world if he had the power to take it. Their relationship, on paper, should have been utter perfection with the love and devotion they had built as friends.
But Yokohara hadn’t been able to give Reia everything that he needed. There was a part of Yokohara that couldn’t handle public affection, even holding hands at home too much before he was ripping his hand back to safety. He could see it in Reia’s eyes every time he did it, before Reia blinked and that carefree mask of his slipped back into place, that it hurt him. He deserved someone that would be affectionate with him, that would spoil him rotten. Their split had been amicable, one that allowed them to remain friends after, and Yokohara was forever grateful that he could keep Reia in his life.
“Tell me about this new guy,” Yokohara said, closing the menu. He would just get his regular order and keep things simple. Reia needed and deserved his full attention. “How was your first date?”
There had been many guys since their break up a few years ago, some good but mostly bad. Many were attracted by Reia’s naturally good looks and charm, but none treated Reia the way he deserved. Yokohara had experienced his fair share of tirades from his friend, biting words between mouthfuls of pasta describing how these men acted around Reia. Listening to his friend rant over the idiocy of men had a small smile curling around Yokohara’s lips as he imagined what it would be like to slip back into a boyfriend role, but he cut those fantasies before they could grow deeper roots. It wasn’t worth it to dwell on what would never come to be.
The smile that graced Reia’s lips after that question peaked Yokohara’s interest. There had been wicked smiles, sly smiles, smiles that had the ends of Yokohara’s hair curling with how he feared for his life and whomever was the recipient of Reia’s wrath. This one was small, oddly pure, and one not even Yokohara had been given during their short time together.
“He’s a nerd,” Reia said, the tone of his voice biting, but the softness of his expression did much to counter the roughness in which he spoke. “You know he spent half an hour telling me his master’s thesis on maximizing the audience at concerts? It was ridiculous and involved math. MATH!” Reia’s voice rose that that single word, and Yokohara couldn’t help but smile at it. “I haven’t done math since I dropped out of high school.”
“You graduated from university, you nerd,” Yokohara pointed out.
“That’s not the point!” Reia said, throwing his hands up in the air. “He’s the biggest most absolutely ridiculous-”
“FOOD?” Taiko shouted, and this time Yokohara felt himself jump in his seat from the waiter’s sudden intrusion.
“Let’s just order,” Reia said, and Yokohara agreed with him.
Yokohara ordered gnocchi as well as garlic bread, having to spell gnocchi for the young waiter who carefully wrote it on his pad.
“I’ll have the chicken parmesan special,” Reia said, resting his face in his hands. When Taiko asked how to spell parmesan, Reia merely told him to do his best.
“Okey dokey I will get those in for you,” Taiko said, stuffing the little pad into the waist of his pants. He went to leave but Yokohara stopped him.
“Can we order drinks now?” he called out to the retreating waiter.
“It’s not time yet,” Taiko said, an oddly pure innocence on his face as he quickly slipped back into the kitchen.
“Why do I feel like he’s going to try and kill us?” Yokohara asked, watching the door that Taiko had disappeared into but the only person who was consistently coming and going from the kitchen was the tiny blond waiter and another staff member who looked like he could lift a car with a single finger.
“I’ll let you try the food first,” Reia said. “And if you die, then I know he’s trying to kill us and will call the police.”
“I feel like I’m the only one putting my life on the line here, and that’s not fair,” Yokohara said, turning back to Reia who was finishing off the last of his coffee. “What am I? Your poison tester? What if he poisons your food and not mine?”
“You’re absolutely brilliant as always, Yokonishi.” A wide grin spread across Reia's face, and Yokohara knew his best friend was concocting something particularly sinister. “I’ll have you try both meals, and whichever doesn’t kill you is the one I’ll eat! It’s a foolproof plan!”
“Sometimes I can’t believe you,” Yokohara said, rolling his eyes.
“You can and you love me for it,” Reia said. “I’ve got you wrapped around my finger, and you would do anything for me.”
There was no point in denying it. Reia was right. Yokohara would give Reia the world on a silver platter if he could.
“Tell me more about the love of your life,” Yokohara said, side stepping Reia’s comment. “Has he got beautiful eyes that you can get lost in?”
“You mean a dumb brown color?” Reia asked, rolling his eyes. “Then yeah, he’s got those. He’s not even that pretty,” Reia groaned, sinking deeper into the booth’s cushions. “His hair is just brown and fluffy and he has these round fluffy cheeks like a chipmunk. I bet he stores food in them for winter! They’re that big.”
“He sounds absolutely lovely,” Yokohara said, nodding along.
“He is not,” Reia said, narrowing his eyes. “Do you know what he came to our date wearing? Beige!”
“Beige isn’t that bad of a color,” Yokohara said.
“His whole outfit was beige. Head to toe beige. I didn’t even know they made shoes in that color,” Reia said, the frustration seeping out into his voice.
“Oh.”
“Exactly!” Reia huffed. “He’s got absolutely no fashion sense, and I would look like a peasant standing next to him. His clothes would make mine look like hand-me-downs in the worst possible way.” Reia massaged his temple and released a long sigh. “His style is leagues worse than yours, and it pains me to even think about his outfit.”
“What’s wrong with my clothes?” Yokohara asked, looking down at his own shirt. He was oddly proud of the outfit he was wearing. He had worked hard on the design of his shirt.
“Do you really want to know?” Reia asked.
Yokohara thought about it for a moment. He knew Reia’s strength was his honesty. Unlike those around him, he wasn’t afraid to share his opinion and didn’t mince words. Yokohara had always appreciated Reia for always speaking his mind.
“Maybe next time,” Yokohara said, just as Taiko placed their food on the table. “Tonight is supposed to be about you.
“Anything else?” Taiko asked.
“Can we order more drinks?” Reia asked. He held up his empty coffee cup. “Mine is finished.”
“Yes! It’s finally drink time.” Taiko took out his little pad once more. “What would you like?”
“I’ll have another black coffee,” Reia said, and Taiko noted that.
“I’ll have a cola,” Yokohara said, but Taiko just paused in his scribbling.
“We’re out of that.”
“Oh, then a Sprite?”
“Also out of that.”
“Orange juice?”
“We just gave the last one to another customer.”
“Then just get me a water,” Yokohara said, his annoyance starting to seep out at their waiter.
Taiko also paused for a moment, his mind lost in thought. “I might be able to get you water. Let me check on that.” And he quickly zipped back into the kitchen.
Yokohara was in complete shock. “How…how can they be out of water?”
Reia shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m not sure I want to know the reason why.”
They dug into their food, and Yokohara was oddly intrigued by Reia’s plate. It looked like chicken parmesan, certainly smelled like it, but it was strangely big. Just as Reia had told him earlier, the piece of chicken was as large as the plate, thinly cut, and on top was enough cheese to make it look like it was a pizza along with little pepperonis to further the illusion. Yokohara’s own food looked plain and uninspired compared to what Reia was digging into.
“I still haven’t heard what you did on your date with the Toxic Avenger,” Yokohara said, keeping his eyes on his own food.
“Woah, hold on. He’s not that ugly,” Reia said, cutting into part of his chicken to make it bite sized pieces. “He’s just not…you know.”
“A god level of beauty like yourself that mankind is blessed with once in a blue moon?”
“Exactly! Now you’re getting it,” Reia grinned. “I suppose you could call him handsome if you looked at him in the right light…but he’s definitely not prettier than me.”
“No one is prettier than you,” Yokohara said between bites.
“Tell me more compliments. How does my hair look in this lighting?”
“Reia…”
“Okay, fine,” Reia said, huffing once more. “We went to a fish market first, and it was horrible. The whole place smelled so bad. I can’t believe that he thought it would be fun to go fish shopping. I mean, yeah. It all looked delicious, but that man knows too much about fish. All of the fishermen were shocked at his knowledge and they got into debates over fishing technique.”
“It’s not…at least it’s not the weirdest date that you’ve been on?” Yokohara offered.
Reia had definitely been on his fair share of bad or strange dates. The strangest had been one where a man had thought it was a brilliant idea to climb twenty flights of stairs so they could “get to know each other better,” and at the top had proposed to Reia. The whole thing had become an inside joke between Yokohara and Reia even months later.
Reia bit his lip, picking at his food as he spoke. “He invited me back to his place once he bought a bunch of fish.”
That had Yokohara intrigued. No matter how many guys Reia went out with, no matter how long he dated any of them, he had a strict rule: never go to each other’s apartments until he was sure the relationship was going to last. Over the last few years, Yokohara could only think of one or two guys who Reia had either been to their apartment or had invited them to his.
“And?” Yokohara asked, releasing a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding in. “What did you do?”
“I couldn’t let all of that food go to waste,” Reia said, his gaze focused on his plate as he continued to push the bites of chicken he had cut around the empty space. “So, I let him take me to his apartment.”
Yokohara was quiet, not quite sure how to proceed with the conversation. It felt like he was living in an alternate universe, and his Reia had been replaced with another version. This wasn’t possible, far from it, and yet it was true. Reia would never purposely lie to him.
“We didn’t do anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Reia’s voice was oddly soft as he spoke. “He just made me sashimi, we watched a movie, and then I went home.”
Before Yokohara could respond, a tray was placed on their table. Taiko slid a steaming cup of black coffee before Reia before taking his time arranging seven shot glasses, of various sizes, of water before Yokohara.
“Sorry for the wait.” Taiko’s voice was oddly cheery as he clung onto the tray for dear life. “But I managed to get you all of the good water we had left.” He gave Yokohara a wink before skirting back to the kitchen.
There was a beat of silence before Yokohara looked Reia dead in the eyes and said, “I’m not drinking that.”
“Oh come on,” Reia said, rolling his eyes. He picked up one of the shot glasses off the table and examined it closely. “It’s just a little water.”
Reia downed the contents of the glass in a second, a smile gracing his lips. It was until a choking sound burst from his throat. Reia’s hands shot to his throat, curling around them, but before Yokohara could jump to save his friend from threats of poison, Reia was already laughing.
“I was right,” he said, an infuriating grin on his face, “It’s just tap water.”
“You’re the worst,” Yokohara huffed. “For a second I was worried I was going to have to bury my friend.”
“Hopefully not for many more years,” Reia said, returning to his food. “Did you happen to catch that new variety show the other night?”
Yokohara let himself be led through various topics as they ate, not pressing the topic of Reia’s date. There was still one big question looming over them, one that Yokohara wasn’t sure if he wanted to ask and know the answer to.
There was always going to be a part of himself that longed for the past, for what could have been, and the more Reia dated, the more the chance of them being together was drawn farther and farther away. Yokohara feared for that day when Reia’s heart was fully claimed by another man. He knew he would have to face himself in the mirror when that day inevitably came and know it was his own faults that led to his unhappiness.
If only he could have been different.
If only he could have pushed past his own insecurities.
Yokohara raised one of the tiny shot glasses to his lips, downing the water in one go as he listened to Reia ranting about how one of the variety show guests shouldn’t have been there. It was something about how this person was a failed actor trying to break into the voice acting community. There was some annoyance, a little anger, and he felt himself smiling listening to Reia’s tirade.
He hoped these days wouldn’t end once Reia found a boyfriend and a relationship that lasted for years and years. No matter his own faults and problems in relationships, all Yokohara wanted was the ability to cling to this friendship no matter what. If Reia was happy, he was happy, and that’s all that mattered to him in the long run. Unlike the “good water” that was in limited supply, there was still so much of Yokohara’s life that he wanted to spend with Reia.
“We should probably leave soon,” Yokohara said, checking the time, and Reia agreed. The restaurant was only open a half hour more, but if he didn’t leave now, he wouldn’t get home until close to midnight.
They went up to the cash register together, Yokohara paying as per usual, and the muscled waiter checking them out. Their own waiter was nowhere to be seen.
“Thanks for being so nice to Taiko tonight,” the waiter said, handing over Yokohara’s change. The comment intrigued Yokohara. He hadn’t felt like they were overly kind to the strange kid. “It’s his first job, first day. He’s been a nervous wreck all week. I think he appreciated having one nice table.”
“His other tables weren’t nice to him?” Yokohara asked, the thought slipping through his lips.
The muscled waiter just laughed. “Oh, no, no, no. He hid in the kitchen most of his shift. You were the only table he served in eight hours.”
Suddenly, things made a lot more sense.
Yokohara and Reia stepped into the cool spring air. Out of the corner of his eye, Yokohara watched as Reia stretched his arms skyward and let out a happy noise.
“Thanks for the treat, my wonderful servant,” Reia said, patting Yokohara on the back. “I’ll contact you the next time I require sustenance.”
Reia made the move to leave, the station he needed to get home was different than Yokohara’s, but Yokohara called out to him. “Reia, wait!” Reia paused, his eyes a bit too wide and making him look more innocent than normal. “Your date?”
Reia cocked his head to the side, furthering the cute façade he was building. Something was bubbling in Yokohara’s gut, and he knew it wasn’t the food he had just consumed. He knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to lean in and kiss that expression off Reia’s face, but the terror of a grand emotional gesture was something he couldn’t do….and was something he would never do. It was time to move on and move forward, to leave their past in the past. Yokohara swallowed his feelings before finding the words he knew he had to say.
“You never told me what you really thought about your date,” Yokohara said, his voice and the feeling in his heart lighter than it had been.
There was a moment, just a moment, where Yokohara thought he saw Reia blush, but it passed in the blink of an eye. The normal, confident Reia came forth once more.
“He was alright,” Reia said. “As long as he doesn’t wear head to toe beige again, I guess I can give him a second date.”
Yokohara smiled and said, “I’m glad that you found someone that can make you happy.” He truly meant every word.
The pair said their goodbyes, with promises to keep Yokohara up to date on how the next date went, before they parted. With every step towards the station, Yokohara felt his heart turn lighter and lighter in his chest. For this wasn’t the end. It was merely a new beginning.