"Lovely wife?"

Roxanna’s face turned red right away and her heart skipped a beat. Sometimes, she really felt like her husband was way too good at saying sweet things.

"But before that, you have to eat first!" Azul said quickly. "Not this one! Definitely not this one! I’ll peel some fruit for you!"

Luckily, they had already gathered some fruits and kept them in the fridge, so Azul didn’t need to go outside again.

While Roxanna was eating an apple, Azul carefully cut a watermelon into small cubes so it would be easier for her to eat. Then, when she finished the apple, he peeled a banana and gently brought it to her lips.

"I know it’s not very filling," Azul said softly, "but at least the fruits taste better than... whatever I made earlier."

Roxanna shook her head right away. "That’s not true! You didn’t make trash." She looked at him seriously. "You’re just learning, so it’s normal if it’s not perfect yet. I swear, no matter what you make next, I’ll eat it!"

Azul sighed and shook his head. "Let’s not make that kind of promise," he said with a small, helpless smile. "I might end up making something even worse next time."

Roxanna wanted to say more, but she realized it would be better if she just taught him directly instead of only giving comforting words.

She quickly finished the fruit in her hand, then stood up and grabbed Azul’s wrist. "Come on," she said, her tone gentle but firm. "Let’s go to the kitchen."

Azul blinked in surprise as he was pulled along. "Right now?"

"Yes, right now!" Roxanna nodded.

Azul hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Okay... I’ll try my best."

Roxanna smiled, clearly pleased. "Good! Let’s start with something simple."

She looked around the kitchen for a moment, then picked up a piece of meat. "We’ll start with this! This time, we’ll cook it properly, so no burning it, okay?"

Azul stood beside her, watching closely, as if he was afraid to miss even the smallest detail.

"Before grilling the meat, it will taste much better if we use some spices," Roxanna said. She picked up a pack of salt along with a few other seasonings. "Let’s try to remember all of these first before we move on to the next step."

Azul lowered his head, carefully looking at each ingredient. "Actually... sometimes I forget the names of the spices because they’re all kept in the same place."

All of the spice packages used plain white wrapping, and since Roxanna didn’t write their names on them—though it probably wouldn’t help anyway—it was hard to tell them apart unless someone could recognize the spices just by looking at them and using their sense of smell.

"Actually, it would be much easier to tell them apart if you could read, but... wait! I have an idea!" Roxanna’s eyes lit up. She quickly grabbed something sharp and poked a tiny hole at the top corner of each spice package.

"The one with one tiny hole is salt." She put the knife down, then poured a small pinch of salt onto her palm. "Stick out your tongue."

Azul did it right away, without asking anything. Roxanna used her index finger to pick up a tiny bit of salt and gently placed it on his tongue.

Azul’s brows immediately pulled together, his face tightening from the strong taste.

Before he could complain, Roxanna spoke with a small smile, "Salt tastes very salty, and sometimes it smells a bit like the ocean."

"Ocean?" Azul lowered his head even more until he could smell the salt in Roxanna’s palm.

Roxanna nodded. "Yes. The ocean is a very big body of water. It’s full of salt, so the air around it sometimes smells like this."

Azul went quiet for a moment. From the look on his face, it was clear he was trying hard to remember something.

"I remember you like collecting things from the sea," Roxanna said gently. "Like shells... and the pearl you once gave me."

Azul nodded slowly. "Yeah... I did." He hesitated. "But I can’t remember how I got them. Do you think... I stole them from someone?"

Roxanna shook her head. "I... have no idea."

If even Azul couldn’t remember, how could she possibly know?

But the salt... it truly reminded him of something familiar, something that felt like... he was going home.

"Do you think a betta fish can live in the ocean?" Azul suddenly asked. Then he quickly shook his head. "No, that sounds stupid. I’d probably get swept away by the waves if I lived there, right?"

Roxanna looked at him. "But you’re a beast, aren’t you? If you really lived in the ocean, maybe you’d use this form instead of a little fish."

Azul let out a small chuckle. "That’s impossible. If I had lived in the ocean before, I would remember it."

Roxanna tilted her head slightly. "But your memory isn’t that good, so you can’t be completely sure."

Azul took a deep breath, then leaned against the makeshift table. He rubbed his forehead, his brows slightly furrowed, as if he was trying hard to remember something important.

"Honestly... it’s kind of frustrating," he said softly. "You know that feeling? When you know something is there... but you just can’t explain it?"

"Yes, I understand," Roxanna said with a small, gentle smile.

Even though her husbands always treated her well and tried their best to make her feel comfortable, there was still a quiet sense of longing in her heart, like something was missing and like she was homesick.

Of course, not the home where she lived with Leon, but the feeling of living in her own world, something as simple as sitting quietly on a park bench or or walking around a mall without thinking about anything.

She lowered her gaze for a moment, her fingers lightly brushing against the edge of the table.

"It’s strange, isn’t it?" Roxanna said softly. "You can be somewhere safe... surrounded by people who care about you and still feel like something is missing."