After arriving at the company, Ichin naturally did not forget what he had planned last night. The very first thing he did was head over to Hazuki's office.
Hazuki, who was currently reading through documents, saw Ichin walk in with that unmistakably gossip-loving grin on his face. She instantly knew what he had come for.
Helplessly putting down the papers in her hand, she looked at him and said, "First day back at work, and instead of thinking about your job, you came straight here to bother me?"
"Hehe, doesn't this just show how much I care about you, Hazuki-san?"
Pulling over a chair to sit beside her, Ichin curiously asked, "So tell me, how did things go from getting to know each other to officially dating in just one weekend? Did he pass all the tests already?"
Seeing Ichin clearly unwilling to leave without hearing the full story, Hazuki could only set her documents aside and explain.
"You could say he passed the tests. After all, I'm not exactly young anymore. I can't realistically stay single forever, and because of that, I need to be more cautious when looking for a partner. During this time, I carefully observed and evaluated him in all sorts of ways. Combined with the fact that he really is a good person, I decided to give dating a try."
"That's honestly great news."
After hearing her explanation, Ichin sincerely offered his congratulations.
"In that case, Hazuki, don't work overtime anymore from now on. If you have time, go on more dates instead."
"Don't worry, I'll balance things myself," Hazuki said with a smile. "Besides, work is just as important to me. This is the career I plan to devote my whole life to! Alright, your curiosity's satisfied now, right? Go back to work already. There's still plenty to do over on the Bloodborne team. Oh, and development on Salt and Sanctuary is entering the final stage too. Progress has been pretty efficient, so you should go take a look."
"Got it. I'll head over now then. Won't disturb you any longer."
After leaving Hazuki's office, Ichin first headed over to the Salt and Sanctuary development team.
The moment he arrived, he naturally got bombarded with teasing from everyone. Only after showing them a few photos from the dress fitting session did he finally begin checking on development progress.
Salt and Sanctuary was progressing very smoothly. The game itself only had a small amount of content left to finish. Once everything was completed and integrated properly, they could move into the testing and debugging phase.
The release date had already been announced as July 10th, leaving them with plenty of time. Because of that, Ichin was not putting any pressure on the development team. Maintaining the current pace little by little was more than enough.
After finishing his inspection there, Ichin headed to the Bloodborne development team and began his work for the day.
Around noon, Utaha, who had spent the morning sleeping in at home, finally arrived.
When she walked into the programming department, Umiko smiled and asked, "Utaha, when did you wake up?"
"Nine thirty."
Utaha smiled as she set down the lunchboxes, then hugged Ichin and kissed him before saying, "I ate a little after waking up, then started making lunch for Ichin. It should be about time now, so let's all head to the cafeteria together. I made extra soup too, so everyone can have some."
"Sounds good."
Nene, who had overheard the conversation, immediately ran over excitedly.
"Utaha, Utaha, what kind of soup did you make?"
"Pork rib soup. Want some?"
"Yes! Let's go eat already!"
After arriving at the cafeteria, everyone found a table and sat down. The others went to get their meals while Utaha headed to the kitchen area to retrieve the lunchboxes and soup she had left there earlier.
Aside from the two lunchboxes for herself and Ichin, the soup was stored in a large insulated thermos. Carrying that thing upstairs would have been too troublesome, so she had left everything in the cafeteria after arriving at the company.
Although the cafeteria's soup for today was already quite good, a bowl of borscht, everyone still grabbed an empty bowl anyway because Utaha had brought soup.
"Alright, have some soup first."
Utaha smiled as she opened the thermos and served everyone a bowl. The rich aroma instantly spread out, accompanied by soft, tender pork ribs and chunks of corn, making it incredibly appetizing.
"Time to eat~~"
Nene happily took a sip, immediately narrowing her eyes in satisfaction.
"This is sooo good! Utaha, your cooking keeps getting better and better! Honestly, it tastes almost as good as Ichin's mom's cooking now!"
Utaha proudly declared, "Of course it does! I'm Mom's direct disciple!"
Meanwhile, Ichin opened the lunchbox Utaha had prepared for him. Inside were braised pork, scrambled eggs with garlic chives, and shredded pork with asparagus. The nutrition balance was practically perfect, and Nene, sitting across from him, looked completely tempted.
Fortunately, the cafeteria happened to serve braised pork today as well. Nene had not ordered any at first, but now she immediately got up and went to grab a few extra pieces.
"At this rate, I seriously feel like I'm going to gain weight..."
Hearing that, Umiko smiled and pinched Nene's cheek.
"It's fine. I like you either way."
"Ewwww!!!"
Everyone instantly rubbed their arms from the goosebumps.
Having Ichin and Utaha constantly feeding everyone relationship fluff was already painful enough, but now Umiko and Nene were joining in too. Life was becoming unbearable.
Hazuki, however, remained perfectly calm. In the past, she probably would have complained bitterly about it, but now she was no longer single herself, so she was not affected by this kind of thing anymore.
After taking a sip of pork rib soup, Hazuki smiled and said, "If you're jealous, then go fall in love yourselves. And honestly, there's no need to be so strict about gender either, right?"
The moment those words came out, several people at the table froze.
Then Ichin noticed Momiji Mochizuki and Tsubame Narumi glance at each other before both immediately blushing and lowering their heads to continue eating.
Interesting. (T/N: Huh?!!!)
Hazuki obviously noticed it too, but she did not continue the topic. Instead, she calmly continued eating lunch while chatting with her newly acquired boyfriend on her phone.
That afternoon, after lunch, Ichin and Utaha took a short nap together in the office. After that, Ichin returned to work while Utaha stayed behind in the office writing her novel.
Throughout May and June, Ichin's daily life did not change much. Most of the time, he simply traveled back and forth between home and the company. During that period, he also took around ten days off to bring Utaha around for wedding photography shoots. After shooting at several locations in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, they also traveled around Japan taking photos at various scenic spots.
Of course, Ichin had not forgotten the promise he made to Yukino either. Later on, he also brought Yukino to properly shoot an entire set of wedding photos.
As for the remaining wedding preparations, Ichin's parents simply waved their hands and took care of everything themselves, while the wedding banquet in Japan was left to Utaha's parents.
Now that both families' parents were basically free of worries, they were naturally full of enthusiasm when it came to helping organize the wedding for their children.
And just like that, time arrived at July 10th, the official release day of the company's new game, Salt and Sanctuary.
...
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