Prived of Flavor [Private]

The apartment was really small, barely an apartment and more of a shack with few rooms, none of them particularly big either. There were only two corridors in the house, one of them being the main hall, and the other being a tiny corridor at the back of the house separating the kitchen and bathroom from the rest of the house. But to a young Kaito, it seemed rather expansive; as he would grow older he could start not fitting as well around the place, but at his young age, it was bit enough. He had come in to eat lunch with his granny, and he didn’t know why, but her food tasted delicious. Of course, she had had an extensive life to perfect her art, and though he didn’t appreciate it quite enough just yet, he would grow to appreciate it one day.

As he chewed on the fluffy rice, he picked up the chicken leg from his plate by the bone with his hand, and tore a chunk out of it with ease; the meat practically fell from the bone with no resistance. His grandmother watched him eagerly, with a smile on her face. Kaito laughed when he noticed, asking “gramma… why are you staring at me?”

She shook her head dismissively. “It just fills me with joy watching you eat with so much heart. You have a big heart, Kaito. A lion’s heart!”

Kaito would laugh at that, and keep enjoying the meal.

The memory would spring in his mind, from time to time. Having finished his meal, chicken leg stewed with rice, he regretted not having spent more time with his grandmother, to try and learn the secret of her recipe. He couldn’t quite capture the taste of his youth. Could something so ethereal as love be the secret ingredient? True, he loved to cook, and he put his heart and soul into the craft… but perhaps it was his grandmother’s love for him that tempered the food so well.

At least in his memory. Where she now lived on.