I hope you don't mind me opening a new thead on this and I hope I am not boring you all with this.
Here is the original with just a little curves and some sharpening added (to the humans only).
I would really value how you feel about the inclusion of the flask now and hopefully the background looks better now.
Thanks a lot.
Tom

I think I like this one better. I feel the tea flask is less distracting here, it seems to make the entire image sharper.
Greg

I like this one better than the previous one, and personally I like the flask as shown. I like your Asian portraits quite a bit in general.