Curly and Me ✣Narry✣ *COMPLETED*

Chapter 11

Never trust a restaurant that has the word “neo” anywhere in its name. NFJ, short for Neo Fusion Japanese apparently implied eating bland food on uncomfortable mats with pillows while listening to raucous similar-sounding Japanese pop music.

Not to mention it was criminally priced.

The attendant at the door was wearing a skimpy kimono. I mean who would have thought that was even possible? It looked like she got into a fight with a weed whacker and had lost severely. She led us through the dimly lit restaurant to our section of the floor which was padded only with a thin mat made of bamboo sticks. A square black table that would have passed as a footstool was placed in the middle of the mat where food was served. Sure there were a few pillows scattered around but there was absolutely nothing to lean on. I spent most of the time keeping my posture straight to ensure no permanent damage was done to my spine.

The walls weren’t even remotely hinting Japanese. They had a futuristic but almost antiseptic black feel to them, which was illuminated only by tiny little disco lights twinkling overhead. There were carvings that I guess were supposed to be of scenes in Japan but somehow came out like the Transformers Gone Wild.

I finally knew what the Death Star would look like if Vader decided to boogey to the music.

Oh, and don’t get me started on the songs.

“Niall,” Harry said reproachfully while chuckling at the same time. “You’re supposed to eat sushi and sashimi with soy sauce. How do you expect it to have any taste if you eat it like that?”

“Do you realize how much salt is in those things,” I said nudging my hand towards the tiny bottle filled with black liquid and the word Kikkoman printed on it. “That stuff will turn you into human preserves.”

“How do you eat?” Emily laughed. She was seated next to me close enough for our knees to touch which was the only saving grace of the restaurant – we had to crowd closely around the minute table. She was surprisingly friendly and open when speaking to me which was refreshing. It made me feel all giddy… shit… I did not just use that word to describe myself…

“Let me get this straight,” she continued. “You don’t eat anything with soy sauce. You don’t put syrup on pancakes or gravy on chicken. No butter on bread or whipped cream on coffee. I mean what’s left? Grass?”

“He eats a lot of lettuce,” Harry said uncertainly as he trapped another sushi roll in his chopsticks.

“Yeah,” Nick nodded. “In other words, grass.” Everyone laughed while he poked another sushi with a chopstick. Harry tried teaching him to use chopsticks but had given up after he dropped his third sushi on the mat. Nick took to eating only anything he could stab with a stick.

“I swear you guys have to watch what you’re eating. One day you’re going to regret it when your joints start to ache and your bellies start to bulge. We’ll see who will be laughing then.”

“But until that day, Niall, here’s to being young and carefree,” Nick raised his red iced tea. The others followed suit tapping their drinks (also red iced tea for Emily and a coke for Harry) while I merely shook my head and raised my iced water tapping and laughing along with them.

Oh, I didn’t miss how he used my first name. He wasn’t hostile towards me at all throughout dinner. And I wasn’t hostile to him either. In fact, I was downright friendly especially after a tiny little discovery that Harry and Emily had inadvertently forgotten to mention before.

Nick and Emily were cousins. I guess it made more sense when Nick laughed when I told him to stay away from Emily. I thought that maybe he wasn’t a fag after all…