529 CHEERS!

AFTER the initial greetings, everyone sat down around the table. And everyone’s attention was quickly transferred to the dishes. If people from Astrid’s past life could see the dishes, they would immediately recognize them.

There was hot and sour soup, fried dumplings, kung pao chicken, sweet and sour pork, steamed fish, stir-fried vegetables, Yangzhou fried rice, and cold sesame noodles. As for drinks, there were two pitchers of juice – one was plum flavored, and the other was lychee flavored.

Although Astrid’s guests didn’t know what these dishes were called, they were certain that all must taste delicious. For one, the aroma wafting in the air was enough to make them salivate. Not to mention, everything just looked mouth-watering.

“These all look very delicious. But can we finish all of these?” Ellis asked while looking at the dishes on the table and visibly gulping.

“With how delicious Aster’s cooking is, I’m sure we can finish it all,” Kiran responded.

“And if there are leftovers, you can just take it all home,” Astrid added.

“Oh, I like the sound of that. I can eat it later for dinner,” Lauren said.

With that, they started eating.

Since all the dishes were laid out on the table, everyone could pick all the dishes they wanted. Despite everyone picking almost different dishes, they all had the same reaction when they took their first bite.

Their eyes widened in sheer delight, and an involuntary smile crept across their face. A subtle yet unmistakable expression of pure satisfaction emerged, accompanied by a contented sigh.

Astrid smiled at seeing that. It made him very happy to see other people enjoying the food he cooked. Especially since they were people he considered as important friends.

“Really, every time I eat Aster’s cooking, I always feel like I ascended to heaven,” Kiran praised.

Snow nodded in agreement, his cheeks bulging. He looked like an adorable squirrel. So unlike his usual ‘flower on top of a snowy mountain’ image.

“If I’m not your agent and I don’t know how good your acting talent is, I would honestly recommend you to be a chef,” Ellis said with a contented sigh as she ate the food.

“I know, right? Really, this cooking talent is such a big loss to the culinary industry,” Lauren added.

Reas didn’t really comment much since he had been eating his brother’s cooking since he was a child. It’s not that he’s taking this for granted. It’s just that Astrid already knew how much he loved his cooking, so there’s really no need for him to say anything more.

Instead, he was putting pieces of his favorite dishes on Lauren’s plate. Since the two of them were sitting together, it just came off as natural. Every time he put food in his mouth, he would put food on Lauren’s plate.

Lauren, on the other hand, was busy chatting with the others as he ate. So, it took a while before he noticed that the food on his plate seemed to not disappear. When he looked down, it was just in time to see another person’s spoon putting food on his plate.

He looked to the side and stared at Reas. The other didn’t have much expression. As if he wasn’t the one who just put food on his plate. As if it was simply the natural thing to do.

Before he could react, or say anything for that matter, he heard Kiran commenting;

“You both seem really close.”

The other said it in a way like a child would describe something, filled with innocence and just pure observation. So, Lauren knew that Kiran was only stating something he only observed, and not being sarcastic or mocking.

Lauren glanced sideways at Reas. He thought that the other might deny it. But no, Reas just continued eating silently. That silence was more than enough of an answer. Because it was almost the equivalent of him admitting that they were indeed close.

For some reason, his face heated up at the thought. Before his brain could start assuming a lot of things, he had to remind himself that it was not as if that wasn’t true. Ever since they went out on a date- no! That’s not the d-word. It was just an outing between friends. Yes, that’s right, just an outing.

Anyway, ever since then, he and Reas had been talking a lot more. Well, not really in the literal sense of it. But just them messaging each other. In fact, the number of times he messaged Reas was a lot more than the number of times he messaged Astrid. So, yeah, one could say that they were really close.

Yes, he and Reas were close friends.

Just friends.

Lauren tried hard to smile in the most natural way. “Yes, we are,” he responded to what Kiran had said.

Ellis, who inadvertently witnessed the spectrum of emotions that appeared on Lauren’s face, raised her brow. But in the end, she decided to just ignore it. Eating Astrid’s cooking was more of a priority right now for her.

And Astrid, who was also a witness to everything, just smiled inwardly.

Lauren then cleared his throat. And as if wanting to change the topic, he said, raising a glass of plum juice, “I would like to propose a toast to Aster for successfully debuting at the top 100 of [Star List]. May you only continue to rise from now on.”

“And also to Lauren for ranking 45th,” Reas added, raising his glass.

“And here’s a toast for everyone, hoping that we can all succeed and reach the top of the field we chose,” Astrid said, also raising his glass. “Cheers!”

———–

After the successful and very enjoyable luncheon, time passed, and it was evening once again at the capital star.

Astrid was about to sleep when he received a notification. It was the notification sound for when a certain number one fan posted something on [Cyberspace]. He opened [Cyberspace] and his eyes widened when he saw what the other posted.

It was a video of a drone show in outer space. The words the drone slowly formed were;

[Congtulations Aster! You are, and always will be, my number one star!]

[END OF VOLUME TWO.]

It’s the end of volume 2! Thank you to everyone who’s still here and reading. Hopefully, you’ll still be here for the next volume. Thank you!~

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