Chapter Text
“Akamatsu, hey. Can you cover for me?”
Ryoma Hoshi didn’t even let his co-worker return the greeting before he scratched behind his neck and let his usually stoic face turn into an exasperated one. Kaede tucked her phone into her--thankfully still dry--raincoat pocket and hurried into the back of the cafe, the short barista trailing behind her. She locked gazes with Yukizome, who was busy cleaning tables and returned the wide grin she got from her.
“I just got here, but sure, something happen? By the way, hi.” The pianist rushed her sentence as she entered the break room, leaving the door open for Hoshi to go through and close himself. She took off her hood and shook off the droplets of rain that managed to get into her tucked hair somehow and only then noticed Hajime Hinata, who seemed to be in the middle of scrolling through his phone until she arrived. “Good evening, senpai!” She waved and smiled, taking off her coat and getting tangled up in the bag she forgot to take off her shoulders first.
“‘Evenin’.” He returned the wave half-heartedly. “I thought I told you to call me ‘Hinata-kun’. I feel like an old man otherwise.” The teen replied, eyes tired from supposedly a full day of dealing with rambunctious customers and even more bizarre orders. And he still had seven more hours to go. Kaede felt sorry for the full-timer.
“Right, sorry, Hinata-kun!” After setting everything in her locker, the girl turned to Hoshi, who was now leaning against the wall, now dressed in his leather jacket and weird horned hat. “So, what happened?” Her face turned neutral as she tied her apron, remembering she never got an answer.
Hoshi adjusted his hat as he sighed. “Other cafe I work at got a truckload of customers and I got called in since we’re short on staff.”
The younger girl nodded. “Juggling multiple jobs sounds like a hassle…”
“Eh, pay’s good, and both jobs I have are the same, just that I get to take care of cats at the other place. ‘sides, I don’t gotta juggle work
and
school, unlike the majority of ya toddlers workin’ here.”
The girl laughed, feeling more at ease as she saw the man’s featured form into a small smirk. “Okay, then. But, why not get Yukizome-senpai or Naegi-kun?”
“Yukizome’s busy with cleaning
and
waitressing and Naegi’s late.”
“And Hinata-kun?”
They both turned to the aforementioned barista and waiter in one, who looked like he was about to fall asleep at any minute and stared at the dim light of his phone. He blinked, sensing the two pairs of eyes on him and paused for a bit before groaning out “I’m on break.”
“Right.” Kaede nodded and put her hands on her hips. “Okay, go ahead Hoshi-kun. Remember though, you owe me a favor!”
“I will. Thanks, kiddo. See ya later.” Hoshi saluted and exited the room. Saying her own goodbyes to Hajime, who reciprocated them with a thumbs up, Kaede left as well. Waving once again to an eager and smiling Yukizome, the teenager waltzed behind the counter and started her (and Hoshi’s) shift.
“Staruruka’s” was a name that the owner, Ruruka Andou, insisted and swore up and down (even after her employees repeated ‘we get it, you can stop now’) her manager Kizakura came up with and only stuck with it because she was going to open a pastry shop across the street anyway and the cafe might as well have the more boring, less elegant name since she wasn’t going to be there most of the time. Ruruka ran around the city a lot and seeing her grace the area for more than fifteen minutes could be considered a miracle. What she did, the employees didn’t know and were kind of scared to ask. Everyone settled on ‘business stuff’ and Kizakura nodded, smiled and took a swig of his flask, but not before mumbling a cryptic ‘close enough’ that made everyone sit in an uncomfortable silence for a good hour or two.
Despite not being Ruruka’s favorite shop that she owned, it was still pretty nice and spiffy and the food and coffee were to die for. Thankfully, nobody linked to the cafe died, at least not that Kaede knows of. She wouldn’t want to work in a cafe in which the owner was involved in extremely shady stuff. She’s just a second-year in an art school who wants to get money so that she can buy a grand piano for her own house and not have to hog the one in the school constantly. Of course, even once she gets it, she’ll hog both anyway, but y’know.
Still, Juggling schoolwork and a part-time job isn’t easy and Kaede found herself having less free time. Sure, she could just wait until she graduates and gets a proper job. Sure, she could enjoy youth while she could and didn’t have to pay her own taxes. But dammit all, she is going to get that piano, proper sleep schedules and social life outside of work and school be damned.
A jingling bell made Akamatsu cease cleaning the counter and she saw her other co-worker, Makoto Naegi, scurrying inside the cafe with damp hair resembling a mop and his uniform and brown cardigan completely soaked. He pushed his bangs away to wave at Akamatsu with a lopsided smile before hurrying to the break room. Forgot his umbrella again, Kaede guessed. He had the worst luck.
“Yukizome-senpai! Naegi-kun’s here, you can take a break!” She half-shouted to Chisa, who now seemed to be staring wistfully at the windows she would have to clean after the rain subsided.
Hearing Kaede call out to her, she chuckled and smiled. “I appreciate the thought, dearie, but I’m fine! I’d like Hinata-kun to get some more shut-eye…”
“Me and Naegi-kun will take it from here. Don’t worry, senpai. Besides, I think he needs a bit of help with drying his clothes.” Kaede reassured, and Chisa looked around the cafe before drawing out an ‘ooookaaaaay’ and dragging the bucket filled with cleaning supplies to the back.
After she left, Kaede crouched down and opened one of the drawers, and as she expected, there was Takumi Hijirihara in his natural habitat, laying curled up next to the coffee bags. “Hijirihara-senpai, can you--”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard ya. I’ll take over for ‘er.” Takumi moaned in his usual bored, low tone and rolled out of the drawer, standing up, stretching and going to the supply closet while scratching his hip. Kaede proceeded to put the knocked over containers in the drawer back up, until she heard the door jingle, signifying a customer coming in. Akamatsu hurried her task and when she finished, tried to get up a little too fast and bonked her head under the concrete countertop. She yelped and hissed, clutching and aggressively massaging her scalp to try and get rid of the pain.
“Um.” Kaede heard a soft, masculine voice call out above her. “Excuse me, are you alright?” it continued, and it seemed to somehow ease the pain a little.
The young student finally got to her feet while still keeping one hand on the bruise. She forced a smile as she greeted the customer.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine! How can I help youuuuuu…”
When Kaede opened her eyes and looked properly at the boy, she entered a weird trance. She didn’t hit her head
so
hard that she started hallucinating, did she?
The boy in front of the counter was wearing a black newsboy cap and a similarly colored, simple school uniform that Kaede somewhat recognized, but all the focus she had at the moment was on the boy’s face. It was incredibly pale, and completely spotless, with spiky, platinum bangs obscuring his forehead and doing a good job of hiding his face in general.
His blue, piercing eyes looked unreal.
Also, laced with growing concern, she just noticed.
“...uuuuuuuu?” Kaede didn’t even notice she never finished her sentence, but even when she did, her gaping didn’t stop as the pain in the back of her head suddenly became trivial and her hand slid to play with her hair. Standing up straight, Akamatsu noticed she was at least a good five inches taller than the teen before her. Speaking of the guy, he continued staring at her for a few seconds before pointing at the pastry display on her right.
“May I have a medium americano and three chocolate bagels, please?” He voiced his order and the girl suddenly remembered she was still at work.
“COMING RIGHT UP!” She announced a little too loudly, startling the boy and skipping to the coffee machine, before coming back to the counter. “U-Um, that’ll be 1500 yen.”
“Can I pay with debit?”
“Yes, of course! Oh, right, uh, for here or to go?” He gave a confused look at that, so she continued; “Um, are you gonna eat here or planning to take it somewhere else?”
“Oh. Um, to go, then, please.” He said as he fished out his wallet and card.
As the boy punched in the numbers, Kaede stared at him for a little while longer and noticed he had an umbrella hooked under his left elbow. His uniform looked very similar to another one of her high school co-workers’, but that still wasn’t quite it. When he finished, the now-slightly irritated pianist gave him the receipt and rushed to make the coffee and shove the bagels into a paper bag.
When the coffee was done, she put the paper bag and cup in front of him and smiled. “Here you go! Have a good day!”
“Thank you very much.” He politely replied while gathering the food, bowed and turned to leave. The ringing bell wasn’t quite enough to bring Kaede out of her trance. She heard heavy footsteps behind her, which she worked just long enough to already recognize.
“Hijirihara-senpai.” She said, not looking away from the door.
“Yeah.”
“That boy was real, right?”
“No, you payed with your own credit card and threw the coffee out the door while the wind blew it open.”
“...Did I?”
“Nah, I’m screwin’ with ya. Yeah, he was real, alright.” And then the footsteps came back and Takumi slid into Kaede’s point of view, starting to mop the floor.
Another pair of footsteps, this time lighter ones, covered by sneakers, walked into the cafe. “The rain stopped!?” Naegi’s voice made Akamatsu realize that yes, indeed, looking out the big windows, the rain did clear up and that dusk still hasn’t quite settled yet, the still-present sun casting rays of light unto the puddles. “And just after I arrived, too…”
Heels clacking accompanied by a giggle signified Chisa Yukizome’s arrival. “Ehehe, today just doesn’t seem to be your day, huh, Naegi-kun?”
Maybe it wasn’t Naegi’s, but it sure seemed like today was in Kaede’s favor.
For the rest of her shift and even after she came back home and started doing her homework, the visage of platinum hair and sapphire eyes was constantly in the back of the young pianist’s head.