Biohuman

Chapter 291 Liz's Comfort Food Roots

It took about thirty minutes to get to the restaurant. Lee Seng and the others stepped out of the car, closing the door behind them as they moved to the entrance of the Italian restaurant.

"We hit noon traffic." Liz groaned. Lee Seng locked the car with the key fob and stuffed the keys into his pockets. "It normally takes like fifteen minutes to get here."

"It is the weekend." Ritsuka commented. Liz grabbed the door to Giovanni's Italian restaurant and opened it for the boys. The boys stepped inside, Liz following. The smell of fresh bread and tomato sauce lingered in the air.

"Ahhh, it's been ages since I've come here!" Liz squealed.

"Hello, welcome to Giovanni's. Three of you today?" The waiter asked.

"Just three." Ritsuka stuck three fingers out. The waiter smiled at all of them, grabbing menus. She glanced at Lee Seng's direction and her eyes grew wide.

"O-oh, y-you have, umm…" The waiter began to stutter. Lee Seng and the others looked at her, unsurprised by it.

"Could you get us somewhere where my tail won't be in the way?" Lee Seng asked. The waiter didn't answer for awhile. She was too shocked by the tail. Her body language was telling Lee Seng she was a bit uncomfortable by his appearance.

'She definitely knows who I am.' Lee Seng thought.

"Ma'am." Liz waved her hands. The waiter snapped out of it.

p "Y-yes? S-sorry, I uh…" Her voice began to trail off again. Another waiter moved over.

"Isabelle, what're you do–" The waiter locked eyes with Lee Seng. He immediately understood what she was so shocked by. "Lee Seng Chang?" Lee Seng raised his eyebrows, pulling his hand out of his pocket and waving.

"Hello. Sorry if my appearance is a lot to handle." Lee Seng gave a courteous bow. Ritsuka and Liz looked at each other before looking back at the waiters who were now staring.

"Can we get a table?" Ritsuka asked.

"Y-yes! I'm so-so sorry for staring!" The female waiter. She hesitantly patted the male waiter to turn, too and motioned for them to follow. When they were out of earshot, Liz and Ritsuka gavea knowing glance to Lee Seng.

"Does this happen all the time?" Liz whispered.

"Enough." Lee Seng nodded. The three began to trail behind the waiters. They were talking about him.

"He came to our restaurant?" The male waiter whispered.

"It is close to the Academy." The female waiter told him. "He brought his friends too."

"Do you think he even has friends? He's kinda.." The male waiter quickly glanced back at the three of them, trying to look 'not suspicious' while doing so. "Got that bad boy vibe." The two waiters led them to one of the large glass window areas. The female waiter turned, brandishing a smile and motioned for them to sit.

"You can sit over there so you're not in the way." Ritsuka casually motioned. Lee Seng nodded as he slowly passed the waiter. He gave a cheeky wink out at both of them before pulling his coat off like his friends. They all sat, the waiter giving them their menus.

"You guys know what you wanna d-drink?" The female waiter asked. The male waiter stuck somewhat close to her. Lee Seng and Ritsuka quickly flipped through to find the drinks.

"I'll take a cola." Ritsuka answered.

"I'll take an orange soda." Lee Seng answered.

"Cola for me." Liz smiled up at her. The female waiter nodded, quickly.

"I'll g-give you a couple of m-minutes to d-decide on what you wanna eat." She told them.

"Alright. Thanks." Ritsuka nodded. Lee Seng watched as they left. The customers around were giving glances at him, too. He would make eye contact with them and all of them would diver their attention away from him.

"People stare a lot." Liz casually commented as she flipped through the menu. She knew exactly what she wanted, but decided to look at specials they were having from the small menu on their table.

"What's good here?" Ritsuka asked. Lee Seng flipped through the menu.

"Anything in tomato sauce." Liz answered. "Literally the most divine thing since cookies and cream ice cream."

"You're really into red sauce, huh?" Lee Seng casually questioned.

"Tomato sauce is one of my favorite things ever." Liz started to explain to them. Lee Seng casually glanced out into the restaurant. He noticed some stares and flicked his eyes to the window to his right. He could see people coming and going on the street. Some stopped to look at him as his tail casually swayed.

"So, you love Italian food a lot then?" Ritsuka asked. His eyes had stopped at alfredo with shrimp.

"I grew up on it. I am Italian." Liz proudly told them. The boys simply nodded.

"What're you  gonna have?" Liz asked, setting the specials down. Lee Seng grabbed the specials and looked at it.

Todays Specials:

Lasagna w/ Alfredo sauce, broccoli, chicken, and shrimp

Spaghetti Carbonara – egg, cured pork, pecorino romano and black pepper

Gnocchi Sorrento – potato gnocchi, baked in a creamy tomato sauce and mozzarella sauce

"Alfredo with shrimp." Ritsuka tapped at the menu.

"What about you?" Liz looked over at Lee Seng.

"Ooo, carbonara or gnocchi sorrento…?" LEe Seng muttered.

"Knowing you, you'd probably buy both." Ritsuka commented. Lee Seng looked up and smiled. "God, I shouldn't have said anything." He shook his head as Lee Seng set the specials down.

"I guess that answers that." Liz shrugged. They all looked at the female waiter coming over with their drinks.

"Here you go." She set the colas down by Ritsuka and Liz. She set the orange soda down near Lee Seng and then looked at the group, pulling out a tablet. "Ready to order?"

"Yup." Liz nodded. "I'll have your spaghetti and meatballs, please."

"Okay."

"I'll have the alfredo with shrimp. Could you add extra shrimp to that?" Ritsuka ordered.

"Sure thing. Extra shrimp is gonna be 80 creds extra."

"No problem." Ritsuka waved.

"And you?" The waiter looked over at Lee Seng. The shock and hesitation came back into her eyes as she landed on Lee Seng.

"I'll take the spaghetti carbonara and gnocchi sorrento, please." Lee Seng smiled.

"Th-the spaghetti carbonara and gnocchi sorrento. Go-got it. A-anything else?"

"Do we get bread here?" Lee Seng asked.

"Yeah, it comes with the meal." Liz answered before the waiter could. "Oh, we could get garlic bread. Wanna try it?"

"Sure." RItsuka nodded.

"A large order of garlic bread, too, please." Liz told the waiter. The female waiter nodded and inputted it into the tablet.

"An-anything else?" She asked.

"Nope, that's it." Liz looked at the boys for any answer. They both shook their heads, giving a thumbs up.

"I'll be back with y-your food shortly." The waiter smiled. She quickly turned and walked off. Lee Seng watched as she made adequate distance. Her curiosity made her turn to look one more time. She noticed Lee Seng looking at her and quickly turned back around, almost running into a wiater.

"Man, that never gets old." Lee Seng softly chuckled. His eyes moved back onto his two friends across from him. "They always get flustered when they take another glance at me." His friends gave similar looks at him.

"I don't know how to take that." Liz told him. "Are you embarrassed or glad that this happens?"

"Both." Lee Seng smiled. He shifted in his spot and pulled out his phone.

"So, which armorer did you want to go to?" Ritsuka asked. "You kinda just said, 'let's go' and didn't specify where you wanted to go."

"I looked around and found that there were plenty of armorer's near Astro." Lee Seng tapped away on his phone, bringing up the list. "Reginald Armory, Astro Guild Armory, TJ Brothers Armory. I think these three were the ones that had relatively good reviews." He slid his phone over to show his friends.

"Oh yeah, Reginald is probably the most well known one around these parts. Reginald makes the best quality man-made items while Astro Guild holds a lot of dungeon gear. I would probably avoid Astro Guild because they'll easily eat your money for a single piece." Liz tapped the phone.

"What about the TJ Brothers Armory? Are they any good?"

"Well, they don't make the best quality that Reginald does. They're a new startup that got their fame off of a video on social media. They're more custom work than pre-made pieces. Of course, you'll have to get your pieces adjusted because that's the nature of it, but…" Liz's eyes glanced at Lee Seng. "I think you have a normal body type that could fit into most gear. It might need adjustments but that should be easy with the enchantments those armorer's have nowadays."

"I never thought about custom work. How long does that usually take?"

"A whole day to months. Depends on the workload but if you're talking making it from scratch, that'll be months and a hefty price." Ritsuka answered. "Half up now, and half then." The three chatted about armorer stuff and soon after, their food arrived. A large hefty serving of spaghetti and meatballs sat in front of Liz. Her face was glowing with happiness as she tried to hold her drool. The alfredo with extra shrimp sat in front of Ritsuka. Lee Seng swore he could hear his own stomach growling.

"And the carbonara and gnocchi." The waiter set Lee seng's plates down in front of him. The smells of the carbonara and gnocchi made his sense of smell dance. He was beginning to drool. "And here's your order of garlic bread. I also added a hot batch of regular bread as well in case you wanted to try that. Is there a-anything else I can help you with?"

"Nope, thank you so much!" Liz squealed.