Chapter Text
There weren’t a lot of things Kyan Reki felt he could brag about.
He thought himself a decent older brother and a slightly less than average son, but he knew he was a great friend. He knew this because of a few key things:
A: He could always improve the mood, no matter how dire the situation.
B: He was down for just about anything, as long as it wouldn’t land him in prison.
C: He was exceptional at keeping promises.
His friends knew that no matter what the circumstances, Reki was sure to pull through for them. He was there on moving days, in long lines outside stores for video game releases, in the waiting areas of doctors’ offices for routine checkups. All hours of the day, through rain and snow and heat, Reki did everything in his power to keep every promise.
He was a good friend to all those around him, and occasionally a good friend to himself.
Reki, at a young age, had made himself one crucial promise, one he would carry for years to come.
No matter how bad things got, he would never work for “The Man.”
In all honesty, Reki didn’t even know who “The Man” really was, or if it was a singular person at all. In his mind, “The Man” was a stand in for any big corporation that rubbed him the wrong way. At least, that was his understanding from the speeches his father gave after long days working in factories that paid well but made him miserable.
And Reki had always thought his father was the smartest man alive, so he believed him. Even after he ran out on him and the rest of his family.
But Reki, in all his childhood innocence, could never have predicted how hard it would be to live at home with three nagging sisters and a mother who hovered despite him being twenty.
So Reki needed a job, and he needed something better than the dwindling gigs he had with Dope Sketch, and Kojiro and Kaoru were no help at all when it came to finding him positions in their respective businesses.
“Friends should never work together,” Kaoru said breezily, “it only makes things more complicated. And your handwriting is awful.”
“I’m great at art though, and I can be your personal assistant,” Reki whined.
“You do favors for me for free, why should I start paying you now?”
“Well I’m not going to do them for free anymore-”
“Reki,” Joe sighed, placing two plates down in front of the two men sitting at the bar of his restaurant, “you don’t want to work with us. You’re better off just going downtown and applying at the chains. The pay is better, you’ll get better hours, you’ll meet new people .”
Reki huffed and crossed his arms, boring a hole into his plate of tortellini, “I don’t need to meet more people, will you get off my case? I have plenty of friends.”
“We’re not discussing this right now,” Kaoru said, sounding bored, “you need a job. If you really want the bedroom, if you really want to leave your mother’s home. You’re going to have to settle for something out of your comfort zone.”
“I’m sorry but I don’t understand why exactly I need to pay for the bedroom anyways,” Reki groaned, “it’s not like you guys use it, except for when I’m staying over, and it’s not like you guys need the money. Help a broke college student out.”
“We are,” Kaoru said, in that voice he did when he was trying to sound cold, but the warmth still leaked through, “the rent is 21,000 yen, more than half the price you’d pay for an apartment in this area. We live near your school, our home is beautiful, you won’t have to worry about weird roommates-”
“Won’t I, though,” Reki snorted, picking at a sundried tomato. He knew he was being unreasonable, mostly for show, but he wished his older friends would spoil him just this once.
Kaoru swatted him with a rolled up handkerchief, “we don’t want to rescind the offer, but if you’re going to be like that,”
“I’m joking, I’m joking,” Reki rolled his eyes playfully, “I can’t wait to live with you two. I cannot imagine a better living situation. Truly.”
Kojiro mussed up his already tousled red hair, grabbing him in a gentle chokehold, “that’s what I thought, you know you love us.”
“Sure, of course I do,” Reki laughed, “now, are you sure I can’t be a busboy or something?”
Reki, obviously, wasn’t given a position as a busboy at Kojiro’s restaurant. Something about him being too clumsy, but Reki had tuned that explanation out.
And that is what led him to his fate, the moment he had sworn he would never come to see, a destiny he had dreaded the thought of coming to fruition.
He swung his board into the loops of his backpack and trudged forward into his first shift at Starbucks.
Starbucks was not his first choice, nor his second or third. In fact, on a comprehensive list of places Kyan Reki would never like to work, Starbucks ranked rather high. He had heard horror stories of employees being treated badly by the company, by customers, by pretty much the entire world. Endless tiktoks under #baristalife that made him consider spinning around and heading home.
But then he remembered Chihiro had recently taken up playing the violin, and the memory of the screeching strings made him shudder. This had to be done.
Reki had applied to a few other places, of course, and had done a few other interviews. He’d even been hired at a Baskin Robbins down the street, but considering the increasing temperature and the already astronomically long lines that stood outside their doors, he decided against taking the offer.
But Starbucks had the best pay, had offered him the best hours, and he wouldn’t have to worry about making a pumpkin spice latte for at least another three months, so it couldn’t be too bad.
Except, he knew that it would be. Maybe it was the inner pessimist he kept locked away deep inside of him trying to escape, but he couldn’t help but feel that he was making a huge mistake.
“Hi, welcome!” a somewhat familiar voice rang, “Oh! I’m sorry, you’re the new hire, right? Kyan Reki?”
Reki bowed a little and smiled, “That’s me, um… they said you’d have my apron for me, is what I’m wearing okay?”
The general manager, Yuna, nodded enthusiastically. She was aggressively kind, and two years younger than Reki, a bit of a punch to his ego. She had been there when the hiring manager had interviewed him, even taking a moment afterwards to pull him aside and congratulate him on how well he’d done.
“It’s perfect, not many people show up on their first day dressed in the proper dress code, I’m impressed! Stay on my good side, okay?”
Reki gave her an amused look, and nodded, wondering what it would be like to be on her bad side.
“Okay, follow me, I’ll show you around the back and then you can get situated with your uniform,” Yuna continued, becoming suddenly very business-like as she led Reki down a short hallway off the lobby. He caught a quick glance at the other guy working, a tall kid with blue colored hair. At least he wouldn’t stick out for looking weird.
“Here are the lockers, and the partner fridge, it’s small but we can all keep one drink in there, just remember to take it out at the end of your shift, Hana gets really bothered if you forget. There’s not much, but you can take your breaks back here if you’d like! I always find that fifteen minutes is never enough time to actually go somewhere outside of the store, except maybe the bench out front, it is a nice bench. And sitting in the lobby is just awkward, at least for me it is- oh, sorry, I’m rambling, aren’t I?” Yuna giggled, “I’ve only been manager here for about a month, I transferred from my old store, not like it’s far away, only a few blocks, but I’m still getting used to the new crew. It’s nice to have someone else who’s new, too.”
Reki smiled down at her, he liked Yuna already, someone who could talk an ear off as much as he could.
“I think this backroom is really nice,” Reki assured her, “way better than the one at my last job, we didn’t even have a real backroom, now that I think about it. Just a broom closet with some extra stools.”
“I think… I think that might be workplace malpractice.”
Reki shrugged, “eh, I didn’t mind,” he tied the back of his apron clumsily, the stiff, green, fabric hung from him awkwardly and he made a mental note to throw it in the wash with an ungodly amount of fabric softener.
“So,” he clasped his hands together, mustering up his best faux “I-am-so-happy-to-work-here” smile, “what’s first, boss? Let’s get this training started!”
It must’ve worked because Yuna laughed, her eyes reflecting back with genuine excitement, “well, I’ll be honest, your first few shifts are going to be a little erm...lackluster.”
Reki groaned internally, repeating a mantra back to himself that he had made up to get through the times like these he knew he had ahead of him, “your sisters are annoying now… your mother won’t stop asking you if you have a girlfriend... you need to move out…”
“I’m sure I can make it fun,” he winked.
Reki, despite all his talents, charms, and wit, could never make virtual training fun. Not in a million years. Or a billion, maybe in a trillion, he thought.
His mind kept wandering like that, as he stood hunched over the stainless steel counter watching a monotonous middle aged man explain the proper steps to washing a blender on a beat up tablet.
“Maybe I could work my way up to corporate and convince them to make their training videos more entertaining,” he thought. God, “The Man” was already changing him.
The shop itself was monotonous. A slow moving Thursday afternoon, the weather probably too warm to attract many patrons. From the background noise Reki picked up, it seemed every person that did come in ordered an americano, or some other needlessly complicated, strong drink. Die hard coffee fans. He’d never understand them.
Yuna had instructed him to just focus on the first three videos for the first hour of his shift. Her and Langa, the blue haired boy, would handle any customers. Mostly, they seemed to busy themselves with cleaning between the rare strangers that would wander in. Langa must not have been one for chatting, since it was obvious that Yuna was.
His final training video of the day concluded with the same middle aged man showing him how to prepare whipped cream, and Reki worried he would immediately forget all the steps he was showing. What if he turned around and Yuna was standing there, vanilla syrup and heavy cream in hand, asking Reki to prepare a canister.
“You good?” a soft voice asked him from over his shoulder.
Reki spun around, expecting to see Yuna there, taunting him with the ingredients of his demise, but instead it was the blue guy. Langa . Reki should start trying to remember everyone’s name.
“Whipped cream,” Reki explained, gesturing to the training video that was coming to a close, “weird stuff. Huh?”
Langa blinked, “no, not really.”
Reki laughed, a bit too loud and awkward, and Langa’s face crumpled into a bemused smile.
“You finished your videos!” Yuna cheered, “that’s the boring part of today done! Now you get to get started on your floor training!”
“Do I… Do I have to make whipped cream?”
“Huh? No, that’s not part of floor training,” Yuna shook her head, frowning a little, “it’s pretty simple, just something you’ll do eventually.”
Reki gulped, plastering a smile to his face, “nice!”
“What I will have you do,” Yuna sang, thankfully not noticing the bead of sweat that had fallen down Reki’s forehead, or maybe kindly ignoring it, “is help that customer, who is walking in riiiiiight, now.”
The short girl walked in, staring down at her phone and texting at a speed that seemed unnatural. Ah, a teenager, Reki could handle that. His sisters had been training him for this moment for years.
He cracked his fingers, smiling confidently, “no problem, boss. I got this in the bag.”
Langa snorted from behind him, which made a twinge of annoyance flare in the pits of Reki’s stomach. He had to show this guy who he was, how capable he was.
“Welcome to Starbucks, My name is Reki how can I-”
“Cookie dough frappuccino, no ice. Extra whipped cream with almond milk and two shots of espresso,” the small girl cut him off, not looking up from her phone as she continued to furiously type away at the screen. Reki worried she might shatter it with the force of her angry fingertips.
“Um, I-”
The girl sighed loudly, looking up from her phone to glare at Reki, “I said, one cookie dough frappuccino. No ice. Extra whip. Almond milk. Two shots.”
Reki blinked rapidly, completely beside himself. He hadn’t indulged in starbucks very often, but from what he had tried of Kaoru’s strawberries and cream frappes, they always had ice in them. Was this order even possible?
“Ah,” Yuna said hurriedly, “I didn’t realize it was you, Kame-chan, I’ll take over for this order, Reki. Just watch how I ring it up for next time, okay?”
The girl grunted, not looking up from her phone again.
Yuna rang up to order quite easily, actually, and Reki was a little embarrassed that he couldn’t handle the young girl. But in his defense, she was intimidating.
He watched Langa make the drink, noting that he did in fact use ice, and his blood ran cold for a second.
“Dude, uh,” Reki hesitated, leaning over to whisper, “she said no ice?”
Langa shrugged, “it’s a frappe. She comes every Thursday, she gets a frappe with no ice. I make it for her with ice. She tries to give me her number. I say no. She leaves.”
Reki shook his head in disbelief of what he was hearing. Was he cut out for this, for this environment of circus material?
“Reki, you can give her the drink this time, you have to practice being confident in calling out names,” Yuna said, gesturing for Langa to hand the sickeningly sweet looking drink over to Reki.
Langa smiled softly, looking relieved as he handed it over, “she’s yours now.”
Reki nodded slowly, feeling like he should feel special maybe, like this blue haired dude was giving him a gift. The gift, he reminded himself, was a fourteen year old with a bad attitude and a caffeine addiction. He grimaced.
“Kame-chan,” Reki called, trying to sound extra sweet and friendly. He knew his voice carried well enough as it was, and maybe he was a touch too loud for the nearly empty shop. It echoed in the walls, the ambient music doing nothing to cover up his embarrassment.
Langa snorted again, Reki barely knew this guy, and he kinda wanted to punch him.
Kame, the only customer in the whole shop, walked up awkwardly to the pick up counter.
“You’re weird,” she told Reki simply.
His smile faltered only a little, but he held strong, “sorry!”
She stared at him, scrunching up her nose and seeming to think about something as she took a long sip of her drink. Reki’s palms started sweating, was she about to yell at him because of the ice? Didn’t she know her beloved Langa did that?
“Do you want my number?” she asked.
“Oh!” Reki let out, surprised, “oh, wow. No, no thank you. You are way too young.”
Kame rolled her eyes and turned around on her heel, leaving the shop without another word.
“Oh my God,” Reki whispered, holding his hand up to his mouth, “did I hurt her feelings?”
Yuna laughed, “I don’t think Kame-chan is ever serious, she’s just teasing you. She’s a smart girl!”
Reki nodded, staring at the closed door still in complete shock of what had just happened.
“You are kinda weird,” Langa noted, “why did you say her name so loud?”
Reki crossed his arms and turned to glare at Langa, “oh yeah? How would you have said it?”
“Kame,” Langa said, just a little bit louder than his regular talking voice.
“No fun,” Reki muttered, pouting a little.
“Weird isn’t bad,” Langa continued, “just… weird.”
Reki looked up at the other man, the first time he really looked at him all day. He had icy blue eyes that matched his hair almost perfectly, which was honestly a little freaky. And his face was too symmetrical, it was unnatural.
“You’re weird,” Reki finally responded, feeling proud of his comeback.
Langa smiled and nodded.
“If you two are done bickering, we could really use some more whipped cream. I swear, Kame always wipes us out,” Yuna said, shaking an empty canister.
Reki was doomed.
In the end, making whipped cream wasn’t nearly as hard as Reki had imagined. Langa had given him a much more thorough yet somehow less wordy explanation on how to prepare the canister, and Reki was reluctantly grateful for the other man’s help.
His first shift, despite being his worst nightmare, admittedly went by rather smoothly.
“You did great today, Reki!” Yuna patted him on the shoulder, smiling at him with gleeful approval.
Reki could barely contain his excitement. He really had been worried he’d be a complete disaster when it came to working on bar or even register, but he got the hang of ringing people up fairly quickly and could even handle making a few simple drinks. It felt good to know he was doing well.
“Thanks, Yuna. I’ll see you Saturday, then?” Reki asked, bunching up his apron to stuff in his messy backpack.
Yuna shook her head, “nope, Saturdays are my day off. You’ll be opening with Langa, I’m sure you two won’t have any problems. He’s quiet, but he’s good at what he does.”
Reki frowned a little. Of course he was stuck with this Langa guy, and of course it had to be during his first 6AM shift. There was no way Reki wasn’t going to fall asleep in the walk-in.
“I’ll see you Sunday, Reki, and we’ll talk about how you’re feeling!” Yuna smiled, waving Reki goodbye as she backed out of the room and into the lobby.
Reki waved back, offering his best smile. He puffed out a little air and swung his backpack on his back, skateboard in hand, ready to start his journey back home.
“You skate?” another voice asked.
“Huh?” Reki turned around to see Langa sitting on a three legged chair, it had obviously once belonged in the lobby but now it sat against the wall in the breakroom.
“You skate?” Langa repeated, moving his eyes towards the battered skateboard in Reki’s hands.
“Oh! Yeah, here and there,” Reki lied, “do… do you?”
Langa shook his head, “no, always kinda wanted to. Looks fun.”
Reki nodded, if he could just work up to courage… Could just ask Langa if he…
“I’d probably be really bad at it,” Langa continued, taking a sip from his americano. Reki scrunched up his nose at the thought of the bitter liquid.
“Nah, no such thing as being bad at skating. There’s always room for improvement but no one is like, you know, naturally bad at it,” Reki rambled, his hands twitching nervously around his board.
“Hmm,” Langa nodded, but he didn’t say anymore. Just continued to stare at Reki, and his board, and sip his drink.
“I’m going to leave now,” Reki said finally, wanting to ease the tension, “I’ll see you on Saturday?”
Langa smiled, something warm and fond in his eyes, it took Reki aback but he didn’t show it.
“See ya.”
On Saturday morning, Koyomi held her side of the bargain, barging into Reki’s room at 5AM with her obnoxious alarm clock playing loudly in her hands.
“Big brother,” she sang, jumping onto Reki’s bed and shaking his body, “it’s time to wake up, you have lattes to make, cake pops to bring home to me!”
Reki groaned, “five more minutes.”
“Nope, allowing you five more minutes means I don’t get my cake pops,” Koyomi said, all humor lost from her voice, “get up.”
Reki groaned again, burying his face deeper into his pillow.
“I have a water bottle in my dressing gown-”
“Okay, okay,” Reki relented, sitting up and throwing his hands in the air, “I’m up. You can go.”
Koyomi eyed him carefully, deciding what to do next, “just so we’re clear, my part is done. If you fall back to sleep and lose your job, that’s on you. You’ll still owe me three cake pops. One of every flavor.”
Reki nodded sleepily, “I’m up, really. Leave. Thanks.”
Koyomi smiled and ruffled his hair, “have a good day at work!”
Reki’s mom had offered to drive him to work that morning, but after his cold shower and cup of tea still hadn’t woke him up, he elected to skate to work. Anything to get his adrenaline pumping.
The early summer morning was beautiful, Reki had to admit. He was rarely up at this time anymore, gone were the years of staying out til dawn skating with his group of friends in high school. He was lucky if Kaoru and Kojiro even wanted to get dinner after S.
He rode with the sun, letting his skin soak up the warm glow. Today would be a good day, he would make sure of it.
Of course, like most things in life, the day did not go as planned.
Reki had gotten to the shop ten minutes early, and luckily Langa had already unlocked the lobby for him, seemingly expecting his arrival.
“Morning,” Reki said, his voice still gruff from sleep. He hoped it wasn’t too obvious how not a morning person he was.
“Good morning,” Langa said back, looking up, “you skated here?”
“Yeah,” Reki nodded, “needed to get my blood pumping, late night.”
That was a lie, Reki had gone to bed at 11PM.
“Here and there,” Langa smiled. Reki wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but he decided he was too tired and too delirious to ask Langa for more explanation. He was also tired of being jealous of the perfect timbre of Langa’s voice, despite the early hour.
“I’m going to put my stuff down,” Reki said instead, heading towards the breakroom. He needed to get more caffeine in him, ASAP, and preferably in the form of something sweet and warm.
By the time he returned to the front, they still had five minutes left until opening. Langa was labeling coffee beans, looking far too concentrated for what the task entailed.
“Hey, Langa?” Reki asked, feeling oddly nervous, “can you walk me through making a chai latte?”
Langa looked up from his task, “iced, right?”
Reki shook his head, “hot, please.”
Langa wrinkled his nose, “weird.”
Reki scoffed, “it’s not weird, it’s a very normal drink to order.”
“Yea, in the fall or winter. Isn’t it too warm for a hot drink?”
“No, I don’t think it is,” Reki crossed his arms, “if you don’t wanna help me I guess I can figure it out…”
“I’ll help you,” Langa said quickly, capping the sharpie he was using, “it’s easy.”
Langa walked him through the steps of the drink, surprising Reki when he showed him that the “tea” they used was actually just pumps of concentrate. The drink itself felt a bit sacreligious, considering the great chai lattes he had tried in the last few years, and he definitely wouldn’t be letting Kaoru in on this little secret. But it was good, really good.
“Wow,” Reki’s eyes widened, “I’ve never had one from here, that’s actually pretty good!”
Langa shrugged, “they’re okay. I like coffee.”
“I can tell,” Reki gestured to the venti cup of dark liquid, “is that just straight up motor oil? Not even ice?”
“Waters it down, it’s cold brew,” Langa explained, remembering to take a drink of his liquid death.
Reki shuddered, “weird man, I couldn’t do it.”
Langa smiled a little, then looked at the clock on the register screen, “we’re open.”
As if on cue, a burly woman walked in, her pace brisk as she approached the counter.
“Hello honey, how are you?” she asked Langa, and Reki could tell she was a regular.
Langa smiled at her, and Reki noted the mask he put on when talking to customers. He looked kinder, more charming, like a prince.
“I’m well, thank you,” Langa replied, bowing a little, “your usual today?”
The woman nodded happily, “of course, thank you Langa.”
“Watch,” Langa said, quieter now, aimed at Reki, “um, she comes in a lot, and if you open you’ll want to know her order. It isn’t hard but she tips well if you know it by heart.”
Reki nodded, watching Langa intently as he prepared a simple grande hot coffee, no cream, two sugars, and a pump of vanilla syrup. Reki tried to make a mental note to remember this face and order, he didn’t want to be the reason for a decline in tips.
“All set,” Langa called, handing the coffee over to the woman, “have a great day!”
Reki wasn’t sure he’d ever heard Langa use so much inflection, but he understood why as he watched the woman stuff a generous tip into their jar.
“You too, Langa,” she smiled, “and you as well, Red!”
Reki turned to Langa, furrowing his brows, “Red?”
“She called me Blue until I’d worked here for a year,” Langa explained.
Reki sighed, coming to terms with his nickname, “hey, why don’t you think she’s weird for getting a hot drink?”
Langa raised an eyebrow, “she’s old.”
“So am I.”
“No you aren’t”
“How do you know?”
“We went to the same school,” Langa froze for a second, his face looking as if he’d been caught in a lie. Then, he was back to the cool, neutral expression he seemed to always carry, continuing to dry the blender he’d just scrubbed.
“No way!” Reki exclaimed, “really? I never saw you!”
“I was in the grade below you,” Langa said quietly, “we weren’t in school together for long.”
“Oh, that makes sense. So you’re 19?” Reki asked, picking up another blender and starting to scrub at it too. He wasn’t sure why they were washing already clean blenders, he just knew he should probably help.
“21,” Langa cleared his throat, “we’re the same age. I transferred from my high school in Canada when I was seventeen, and I was a year behind in curriculum. And my reading and writing was awful.”
“Damn that sucks, we could’ve been classmates,” Reki frowned, finding that he was strangely disappointed.
Langa smiled shyly, “yeah, we could’ve.”
“Y’know dude… you kinda have an accent!”
Langa blushed bright red, shaking his head, “do not! I’ve lived here for three years now.”
“It’s not a bad thing man, chill!” Reki laughed, patting Langa on the back, “but you definitely have an accent. Hey, didya ever meet Justin Bieber.”
Langa’s face straightened into a hard line, “never heard that one before.”
“Jokes, jokes!” Reki smiled kindly at Langa, who seemed to soften under his gaze, “it would be really cool if you had met him though.”
Langa tapped a finger to his lip in thought, “I think my cousin might’ve met him at a concert once. But she paid for the VIP ticket. And he spelled her name wrong when he signed her album.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah.”
The melodic bell of the shop door cut their conversation off there, and Reki felt a twinge of sadness in his gut. He liked talking to Langa, he was easy to riff with, albeit a little stiff at times. Reki could see the two of them being good friends in high school, Langa would’ve fit in well with him and the rest of his group.
“Rush is starting,” Langa sighed, looking at the clock, “you can handle register and I’ll work on bar for now. You’ll get to practice with drinks later, it’ll just be faster this way.”
Reki brightened a little, relieved he wouldn’t have to worry about numbers of pumps or scoops of ice for at least the next thirty minutes. Register? He could handle that. Talk up a few customers, press a few buttons, he had quickly become an expert at this area.
For the most part, charming the pants off of the steady line of customers had been going smoothly for Reki. He had always had a way with the elderly, which he loved to joke about with Kaoru and Kojiro. Overall, he was pleased to find that most of the early morning crowd consisted of older patrons ordering the simplest of drinks.
“Good morning!” Reki greeted another stout old man, “what can we get started for you today?”
“You’re open late,” the old man grunted, “been waiting for an hour.”
Reki questioned his own sanity for a moment, had the two of them both missed a time change? Did the crafting of Reki’s chai latte take longer than they thought?
“It’s- It’s currently 6:30AM,” Reki said, still trying to sound cheerful and friendly, “we opened thirty minutes ago, at 6.”
“Liar!” the old man shouted, banging a wrinkly fist on the counter, “I’ve been waiting outside for two hours, you were supposed to open two hours ago. I want to speak to your manager.”
Reki’s face smoothed over, his expression becoming blank as he turned to look at Langa. The other man seemed to be in his own world, working on a matcha latte with extra foam.
“Langa,” Reki said, trying to keep his tone even, “this gentleman would like to speak to a manager.”
Langa looked up and blinked, his eyes darting back and forth between Reki and the instigator.
“Oh, I’m the shift lead.”
“I want free coffee. And a free sandwich!” the old man crossed his arms, standing his ground as the line behind him grew increasingly interested in the drama.
Langa smiled, his customer service smile, a little extra put on than Reki had previously seen.
“I can offer you a free tall, hot coffee.”
“Sandwich?”
“No.”
“Fine,” the old man huffed, moving his fist from the counter, “but it better be extra hot!”
Langa nodded, his smile still intact but Reki could’ve sworn he saw his eye twitch.
Reki let out the breath he was holding and leaned over to nudge Langa’s shoulder, “thanks man, I don’t know what I would’ve done there.”
“Always just offer the free tall coffee,” Langa sighed, speaking quietly, “it almost always gets you out of anything.”
Reki made another mental note, the stack of neon colored post it notes that littered his brain just continued to grow.
They worked through the rest of the rush with ease, and the customers behind the stubborn old man seemed to treat Reki with extra kindness.
“Wow,” Reki said when the last customer was leaving the store with her iced tea, “not gonna lie, kinda hated that.”
Langa laughed, a foreign sound Reki hadn’t really heard before. He liked it.
“You get used to it. Saturday mornings aren’t bad, most people are sleeping in. Sunday mornings are the worst. Coffee cures hangovers.”
Reki’s stomach churned at the thought of trying to drink coffee after a night of drinking, but he shook it off.
“D’you work tomorrow? I know Yuna does, will it be the three of us again?”
Langa shook his head, “no, I’m off tomorrow. I told you, Sunday mornings are the worst.”
“Bummer, you’re kinda fun to talk to, you know?”
Langa smiled.
“That’s nice of you,” he hesitated, “you’re uh… very entertaining.”
“What am I? Some sort of court jester to you?” Reki placed his hands on his hips, shuffling his feet to imitate a jaunty jig.
Langa laughed again, so Reki continued.
“Entertaining… never heard that one before. Beautiful, talented, amazing, the most perfect man alive? All the time. But entertaining? You have a way with words my dude.”
Langa hummed, “maybe I’m just not translating it right. I like how you react to things. I think it’s cool.”
Reki stared at him for a second, his cheeks heating up. Okay, weird.
Reki believed himself to be an impenetrable force. Not someone easily wooed or flustered. His friends of course liked to argue with him on this belief, but Reki knew himself. It took far more than a few kind words from a pretty face to get him riled up. He totally wasn’t blushing, he justified, his blood was simply still pumping from the morning rush.
“Man, you’re crazy!” Reki laughed loudly, slapping Langa on the back. Perhaps a little too hard.
Langa laughed back, a little uneasily.
“You should probably watch your training videos now.”
Thankfully for Reki, Langa didn’t seem to remember their awkward interaction by the time he had started his list of training videos for the day. That, or, Langa was just a really nice guy who wouldn’t make things awkward if he could help it. Reki liked to believe it was the former.
His videos, again, were tedious and boring. He found his eyes wandering around the store as he listened to the middle aged man drone on about the proper technique for refilling ice buckets. The mid morning seemed to move slowly, the odd customer wandering in to order an iced tea from time to time, but never a rush like Reki had seen that morning.
Langa seemed content with this, at least from what Reki could tell. His eyes fell on him often, not on purpose but on coincidence, he swore up and down.
In truth, it was fun to watch Langa work. He did seem to be really good at his job, moving from one task to another as if checking off a list in his mind. His movements were always fluid, and Reki couldn’t help but be impressed that he never dropped anything. He was focused and gentle in his work at the same time, and Reki couldn’t believe he was becoming jealous of his abilities as a part time barista.
But Langa was easy to admire, and that was something anyone would have to admit.
His harem of girls that came in throughout the day certainly admired him, Reki noticed quickly. Girl after girl would come up to the counter, with some new, sickly-sweet nickname that Langa visibly cringed at every single time. They never seemed to notice, or never seemed to care.
“Hi snowbunny ,” one girl sang, batting her lashes, “the usual, please?”
Reki snorted to himself, she had clearly practiced the phrase in english to impress the other boy.
Langa scrunched up his nose, “do you know the erm, connotation, of that nickname, Yamashiro?”
“I told you, don’t be so formal! Call me Sumiko,” she smiled brighter, “and isn’t it cute?”
“Ah,” Langa nodded, his lips straight, “very cute.”
Sumiko giggled, twirling her hair. Reki suddenly felt very interested in his training video.
Langa quickly prepared her drink, all the while the girl giggled in the background while chattering on about her Sunday plans. Reki, even as he only half listened, could tell she was hoping Langa would ask to tag along.
“Here’s your drink, Yamashiro,” Langa said, his face deadpan but his voice still lilting in his signature customer service tone.
Sumiko furrowed her brows, looking annoyed, “Sumiko. I’ll see you next time.”
She left the store briskly, holding her head high. Reki thought she probably wanted Langa to run after her, and honestly he felt bad for the girl.
“Dude, you really left her hanging,” Reki huffed out a laugh.
Langa looked up, his eyes wide. He looked genuinely confused, standing there with a blue cloth in his hand as he polished already sparkling stainless steel.
“No way you didn’t see that,” Reki shook his head, “she was hardcore flirting with you! She wanted you to go on her boat trip with her or whatever!”
“Oh, Yamashiro,” Langa nodded, “we had class together.”
“Okay…” Reki looked at him, feeling bewildered, “and she’s totally into you! And cute! You just turned her down?”
Langa scrunched up his nose, “I’m not… really looking for a girlfriend,” he shrugged.
Reki shook his head in disbelief, this guy really didn’t know how good he had it. The looks of a Greek God, an air of mystery that had a line of girls (and honestly, probably guys) waiting for him, probably good at everything! And now he just, “wasn’t looking for a girlfriend.” Probably too focused on becoming an astronaut or solving some impossible equation.
“You’re crazy, dude,” Reki continued to shake his head.
Langa smiled softly, more than he’d smiled since any of his suitors had come in, “yea, I guess I am.”
At the end of his first week at Starbucks, Reki found that he really couldn’t complain all too much. Sure, the customers were sometimes insufferable, and not all of his coworkers were as friendly as Yuna, nor as… whatever Langa was, but the job definitely had it’s perks.
The free food and drinks was the main plus for him, he found himself never having to buy food out anywhere anymore. Whatever his mother didn’t make him was served up frozen from the mermaid herself, and he was sure Koyomi was more than grateful for her alarm clock repayment in the form of cake pops.
The money was decent too, and with one of his coworkers calling off at the last minute before their shift, he was picking up even more hours. By his calculations, as long as he didn’t screw up and impulse buy some stupid skateboard parts he probably already had in his collection, he could be moving into his room at Kojiro and Kaoru’s place by the end of the month!
So when his friends asked him how his first week was, he told them the truth. He told them he actually enjoyed it.
Twenty minutes later, there was rapid knocking on his front door.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“Are you feeling well?” Kaoru asked, placing an icy hand on Reki’s forehead.
Reki jumped backwards, hissing from the contact, “I was, but I think you just gave me freezer burn!”
Kaoru rolled his eyes, pushing past Reki to remove his shoes before trailing off into the dining room.
“Seriously, what are you two doing here?” Reki asked, moving to let Kojiro follow his husband.
“You come over unannounced all the time,” Kojiro snorted, “plus, Kaoru seriously thought you were being abducted. Not a funny joke, kid.”
“What joke?” Reki threw his hands up, watching as the two men raided his fridge. He knew his mother wouldn’t care, but it was the principle of the thing.
“You,” Kaoru pointed a chopstick at Reki, glaring, “saying you enjoyed your job. It was out of character. You always take any opportunity to complain. I thought you were being murdered.”
Reki huffed, “so not true!”
“Yes it is,” Kaoru and Kojiro said at the same time.
“Freaks,” Reki shook his head, “is it such a crime for me to enjoy my job? It’s only my first week, there’s not much to hate. Do you really want me to complain about customers? Or my coworker who chews her gum obnoxiously loud during her whole shift?”
“Oh thank God, he’s okay,” Kojiro clutched his chest, his other hand wiping away a bead of fake sweat.
“You two are so annoying,” Reki whined, stealing a tupperware container of sliced fruit from Kaoru’s hands just as he pulled it out of the fridge.
Kaoru glared at him but decided against declaring war just then, seemingly to find better use of his time.
“So why exactly do you like your job then?”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Reki asked, “it’s pretty easy, the money is good, and my coworkers are… cool.”
“What are their names?” Kaoru asked, sounding more accusatory than curious.
“Are you going to run a background check on them?”
“Maybe.”
Reki groaned again, “not that it’s any of your business, but I get along pretty well with two of them. The manager, Yuna, she’s young and kinda excitable but really nice and easy to talk to. And Langa, he’s… y’know, he’s cool!”
The two older men stared at Reki, pausing their fridge raid. He had gone too far, had slipped up. There was no going back now. He was doomed, damned to an eternity of-
“Cool?” Kojiro laughed, nearly howling, “he’s just cool, huh? Kid, you’re so easy to see through. You think we’re going to fall for that?”
Kaoru laughed too, his a quiet snicker, somehow more infuriating than his counterpart’s.
“You two can leave now.”
“C’mon, don’t be like that,” Kojiro choked out, “It’s great that you’re interested in someone, it’s been so long. Who was the last one? That girl at S? What was her name?”
“I think she went by Glove,” Kaoru smiled, “Carla could never track down her real identity. Reki has a fascination with the mysterious.”
Reki opened his mouth to argue, but found that he couldn’t really defend himself against that point.
“First of all, I’m not interested in Langa. I called him cool, where did you get this idea from? Second, the reason you couldn’t track ‘Glove’ down is because she went by ‘Socks’, which I told the two of you multiple times. So that’s just your own ignorance.”
“Don’t get all pouty now,” Kojiro taunted, “we’re just teasing you, it’s great that you found someone cool. Tell us more.”
“I don’t think I will.”
“You said his name is Langa?” Kaoru was already typing away at his phone, undoubtedly sending stealthy commands to Carla, “it’s fine, you don’t have to tell us anything.”
“Fine, fine!” Reki exclaimed, “don’t stalk him, please! I really don’t want to freak him out. I think we could be good friends!”
“Good friends… that sounds like what we used to call each other Kaoru!”
“I don’t even know that much about him,” Reki continued, “he went to my school but was a grade below me, he transferred the year before I graduated. We’re the same age though. He’s kinda awkward, but it’s sorta endearing and cute.”
“Cute?” Kojiro raised his eyebrow, smile widening to an impossible degree. Reki thought his face might split in half, he considered doing it for him.
“I need to stop talking,” Reki muttered, “he is, objectively, cute. I have eyes, and the capability to be attracted to cute boys. So I can admit that. He’s cute. There. That’s all you get.”
“No wonder you love your job so much,” Kaoru hummed, still typing away at his phone.
“That has nothing to do with him! And I said nothing about loving any job, I just said I didn’t hate it, you two are the ones who dramatize everything!”
Kojiro kept smiling that impossibly annoying grin, and Reki had to hold himself back from tackling him.
“Hmm,” Kaoru nodded, “he really is your type, so mysterious. Always so predictable, Kyan.” “How did you find him so quickly?” Reki’s brows furrowed, leaning up over Kaoru’s shoulder to see his screen.
“His name is Langa,” Kaoru sounded bored again, like his new toy had already uninterested him, “he does seem to have quite the elusive past. He nearly went pro for snowboarding in Canada before he was even 18, but then he seems to have suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth.”
Reki felt the guilt stir in the pit of his stomach, he wanted to know more , but he knew this wasn’t how he should be learning. He pulled his eyes away from Kaoru’s phone, making a silent apology to Langa for the things he had found out without his knowledge.
“You can keep all your weird stalker knowledge to yourself,” Reki grumbled, “I prefer making my friends the old fashioned way.”
“So ask him out,” Kojiro said, his smile still taunting Reki.
“It’s not like that, we barely know each other. He’s probably not even interested in,” Reki hesitated, gesturing to himself, “y’know, dudes?”
Kojiro snuck a look at Kaoru’s phone and snorted, “yea, I wouldn’t put my money on that one.”
“Gaydar doesn’t exist,” Kaoru and Reki said at the same time, nearly rehearsed after years of trying to get it through Kojiro’s thick skull.
“I’m just sayin’, the vibes are there,” Kojiro put his hands up, “I can’t ignore that.”
“I won’t lecture you on the existence or non-existence of homsexual vibes,” Kaoru sighed, finally locking his phone and tucking it back into his pocket, “well at least not right now, but when we get home that’s a different story.”
Now it was Reki’s turn to laugh, grateful that his time under scrutiny had come to an end.
“We’re going to leave now,” Kaoru said simply, “thank you for the food, tell your mother it was delicious as always.”
Reki smiled, knowing his mother would be over the moon. She was overly fond of his two friends.
“We can start moving your stuff in next week, right?” Kojiro asked, suddenly seeming to forget the scolding he was getting back at home and looking more like an excited puppy.
Reki smiled wider, “yea! I get my first check next Friday which means I’ll be able to pay the deposit for the room. Mom is trying to convince me to stay until the end of next month but I can’t handle the violin screeching any longer.”
“Like Kaoru’s yelling is any better,” Kojiro snorted, earning himself a swift kick to the shin.
Reki found himself alone again, finally succeeding in shooing his two overgrown toddler friends out of the front door before their fight became too intense and they broke another one of the Kyan’s lamps. Masae was patient and doting, but everyone had their limits.
Whether it be the remnants of the irritating conversation he’d just had or the excitement of his move coming closer, Reki felt his blood pumping. He was itching to get on his board, to clear his mind of all of the overthinking he was bound to do if he stayed in his claustrophobic home for one more second.
And so he took off, the summer sun dwindling but still bright enough for him to enjoy the warmth of it’s last rays. He relished in the feeling, laughed to himself as he imagined a million more freckles pop up as a result of his outdoor escape. He didn’t mind, there were no more assholes to tease him about them anymore anyways. Nowadays, he wore them like trophies, proof to everyone who saw him that he was still doing what he loved. After all these years, he could skate, and he could be free.
He didn’t need music or deep thoughts or someone to converse with, just the sound of pavement whirring past beneath his wheels. Like the hum of a lullaby he could still remember perfectly from his childhood. He liked it this way, mindless. Most of the time he couldn’t get his brain to stop, it was nice to be able to turn it off.
Except, tonight it kept wandering.
How did this guy have him so wrapped up in him, exactly? Reki could count the amount of hours they’d spent together on his fingers and toes. He briefly wondered if magic existed, maybe Langa was some master alchemist who slipped a love potion into his chai latte. Maybe that’s the real reason he’d teased him about getting it hot.
It wasn’t even a crush , he reasoned, an interest? Yea! An attraction? Reki was only human. But a crush? They barely knew each other, for all Reki knew, this guy could be a pathological liar and a puppy kicker.
But he had been the one who lied, hadn’t he? Langa had asked if he skated and Reki had brushed it off, as if it wasn’t the only thing he was wholly proud of. He made a promise to himself to fix that. To stop burying himself in nonchalance in order to guard himself from anyone else outside of his “circle”. Kojiro and Kaoru had chastised him time and time again, practically begging him to branch out.
“We love you,” Kojiro said gently, “but kid, you need more friends.”
“I have other friends,” Reki crossed his arms, his eyes darting to the floor.
“They’ve all moved on though, haven’t they?” Kaoru asked, and to anyone else, he might’ve sounded cold, “gone to school far away, married and moved out of the country, or simply have just drifted away. You need to face this, Reki.”
“I don’t want to talk about this right now,” Reki smiled tightly, pushing himself up from the table, “sorry I bothered you guys.”
“Reki you know that’s not-”
“I’ll talk to you guys later,” and then he was gone, skating off with no direction, alone again.
Reki cringed at the memory, pumping his leg harder, as if the speed could leave it behind.