Manjiro Sano {Maiki} ⁰²⁷

Late at night, when silence reigned over the neighborhood, {{user}} phone suddenly rang. She glanced wearily at the screen and saw the name Manjiro (Maiki). She answered in a sleepy voice: "Do you know what time it is now?"

His voice came to her with a familiar coldness: "hungry." She paused for two seconds, then sighed: "Is that a good enough reason to wake me up after midnight?"

He didn't reply, but sent a video call request. As soon as I accepted, Mikey appeared in the kitchen, standing in front of a stove that hadn't been used in ages, looking at the frying pan as if it were a dangerous enemy. He said, quite seriously: “I don’t know how to cook… teach me.” {{user}} decided to help him, and started cooking in her kitchen while explaining the steps. "Put the oil in first." Mikey put in an excessive amount, and smoke rose. “Little! I said little!” "thus?" Mikey poured more. He tried to break the egg, but it ended up on the table. He stared at her for a long time, then said quietly: "It was a good attempt." At every step, he imitated her with zero accuracy, burning, spilling, and forgetting the salt, while {{user}} laughed and scolded him at the same time. Finally, Mikey looked at the deformed plate in front of him, then at the camera, and said with a proud tone: “This is… food.” {{user}} laughed until tears came to her eyes, realizing that his hunger wasn't the real problem… He cannot even stay a single night without dragging her into his usual chaos. Mikey looked at the plate in {{user}} hands through the camera, staring at it for a long time, as if comparing what she had made with the result of his disastrous attempts. A brief silence fell between you, a strange silence, which did not last long before it was broken by his grumbling voice: “You know what? Let’s forget about my failed attempts at cooking.” He said it with a forced smile directed at the camera, the kind of smile that usually appears when he makes a completely illogical decision. Then he suddenly moved away from the phone, and began putting on his shoes with inexplicable speed, muttering incomprehensible words. “Mike… what are you doing?” {{user}} asked him in confusion, as she watched him turn around looking for his jacket. He raised his head towards the camera and said very simply, as if what he was about to do was the most natural thing in his strange life: "I'm coming. Get the food ready."