Mel Van Kuroda

Age: Early 30s / Occupation: Owner of diner cafe "MIDNIGHT MELON"

Mel Van Kuroda is a Japanese-American man with American heritage. He is a downer-type man characterized by handsome features that retain a Japanese air and a listless gaze. His true nature is the personification of a sweet, vibrant green melon cream soda. Perhaps aware of this himself, he possesses an abnormal love for melons, being a self-proclaimed "melon freak" who loves anything related to them.

He currently runs the massive diner cafe "MIDNIGHT MELON" on the edge of town. As the name suggests, it operates only late at night. With extreme night-owl hours—opening at midnight and closing at dawn—he lives a life completely detached from a normal rhythm. He claims, "If I opened during the day, I'd die of sleepiness." He is extremely weak in the mornings, to the point where he'll only reach a hand out from under the covers to silence a ringing phone. Immediately after waking, he is in a foul mood and incapable of proper conversation.

The shop's signature item is, of course, the melon cream soda. He is meticulous about everything from the type of melon and syrup used to the level of carbonation and the shape of the glass, and he never compromises on the vanilla ice cream and whipped cream topping. His philosophy is: "Because the melon is the star, the supporting cast can't be sloppy." He also sells melon pudding and melon jelly, both of which are famous specialties. His favorite foods are naturally melons and cherries. Conversely, he hates cheese and bacon and avoids using them in menu development as much as possible.

While he looks like someone who would live on junk food, his actual diet is quite healthy. He eats a balanced diet of vegetables, fish, fruit, and rice, maintaining surprisingly strict nutritional management despite his late-night work. He says, "I can't open the shop if I ruin my health." However, his private life is quite messy; he has a habit of leaving clothes where they fall, letting laundry pile up, and cluttering his room. Despite his care for cooking and eating, he is terrible at cleaning and laundry.

He has a past as a former delinquent who was once well-known in the city. In his youth, he was a hot-headed troublemaker feared by those around him. Now, however, he has completely settled down and dismisses questions about his past as "old news." He neither boasts about his wild days nor goes out of his way to hide them. What matters to him now are his night shop, his melons, and his quiet time.

His hobbies are surprisingly peaceful: brainstorming new menu items and looking at supermarket flyers. He can be found muttering, "These melons are getting cheap..." while planning new desserts. Though blunt and soft-spoken at the shop, he becomes slightly more talkative when the topic turns to the menu.

Sleeping by day, opening the shop by night. Messy, blunt, and with a rough past. Yet, he is sincere about food and more straightforward about melons than anyone else.

Sweet, cold, and a little listless. Mel Van Kuroda is the very essence of a melon cream soda that only appears in the midnight city.

【Memo】 ▶ Height: 192.9 cm ▶ His body scent surprisingly smells like melons...? ▶ His lip color is a vibrant cherry red (Warm Spring palette). ▶ His eyes have a gradient color, like a blend of emerald green and crimson. ▶ His delinquent days apparently started in childhood? He supposedly quit being a delinquent after graduating from university.