Chapter Text
In retrospect, it wasn’t one of his brightest idea.
Yuuji would be the first to admit that he tended to be rather reckless when it comes to situations where the well being of his close ones is threatened. Something about it makes his brain short-circuit then restart in a completely wild direction, heading him into situations that are... troublesome, to say the least.
This time it’s no different.
“A maid café?” Yuuji asks dubiously. “Don’t they hire only girls?”
Lazing around in the occult club room, Sasaki and Yuuji has wandered into a convo of the best part time jobs for high schoolers. Iguchi is, unsurprisingly, taking a nap.
“Nah, this one is like, special. It’s newly opened and they accept both women and men, as long as they’re like, super hot,” Sasaki waves a hand at, Yuuji assumes, his body. “And it pays damn well. My cousin works in it and the tips can be astronomical.”
Sasaki is pretty reliable when it comes to these sort of things, as she, too, comes from a struggling family and is always on the look out for various part time jobs. She is also aware of the big lines of Yuuji’s life and his Ji-chan’s health state so he knows she wouldn’t lead him wrong.
Yuuji isn’t picky when it comes to jobs, as long as it's legal, can pay rent and help with Ji-chan’s hospitals bills, he is down for pretty much anything. The thought that he might have to wear female gendered clothing is slightly disquieting for maybe two point four seconds before he internalized it easily as something unavoidable and thus useless to worry about.
“I tried to apply but,” She makes another vague gesture at her own body that he doesn’t understand but doesn’t dare to ask about. “Plus I can’t cook for shit, so eh it was a fail.”
“Is it far from the hospital?” Yuuji wonders out loud, because that’s another thing Yuuji worries about; the longer the distance he has to cover to reach his grandpa’s hospital, the more time he wastes.
“Nah, it’s like a 15 minutes walk at most. It’s close to that rich kids school too, so you can get all sort of loaded people looking toward wasting money on pretty faces.”
She pauses a moment then scrutinizes him.
“Yeah, I think you would be a hit,” Yuuji isn’t sure about that, actually. He isn’t really what you’d call conventionally pretty, plus don’t people usually prefer the slender, androgynous type in those sort of places? Yuuji doesn’t really think he would be hired but he supposes it’s worth a try.
And admittedly, he is curious to see what kind of place it is.
It doesn’t take him long to come to a decision.
“Okay, give me the address, I will check it out tomorrow.” Yuuji is free the next day and at worst if/when he gets rejected, he can always check the surroundings to see if any other jobs' openings are available. At least like that, it won’t be a complete waste.
It’s early in the morning when Yuuji arrives at his destination, early enough that it seems that he is the first to be outside the empty-looking café.
And it is a lot bigger than he expected, that’s for sure.
The sign outside read "Sunshine" in English. The letters in a gold, brilliant shade are carved into the signboard painted black. Yuuji has to spend several embarrassing minutes trying to decipher the letters before he realizes it’s the exact translation of the address Sasaki’s given him.
Boasting an old-world European yet chic interior, the cafe is bathed in light from the big, stainless windows. It is mostly done in soft pastel colors such as emerald, gold and turquoise. The floor is of warm wood, the tables and chairs are in different lovely patterns, and there is a white marble-made counter in which a familiar looking girl startles at the sight of him.
“Ozawa-san?” Yuuji voices out loud her name, more a question in itself.
“Itadori-kun,” She practically exclaims before flushing furiously. “Oh, I mean, welcome, Master.”
A head pokes out of a curtained door that Yuuji hasn't noticed.
“A customer already?” It’s an another woman too. In her mid thirties, long blonde hair and a cheerful disposition is what greets him.
“Ah, no,” Yuuji rubs the back of his neck, feeling vaguely out of place in this delicate-looking place. “I’d like to apply for a position, please.”
At the sight of him, the blonde woman lightens up even more.
“Yes of course, of course, one second please.” She says while dusting her hand in a towel. A baker? He wonders as he watches the flour spread all around.
He is invited to sit in one of the chair and Ozawa-san, still blushing, is serving him with a tea set that looks more expensive than his entire wardrobe combined.
The blonde woman introduces herself with a grin.
“I’m Tsukumo Yuki, I’m the boss around here. Welcome to this humble abode of mine.” From there, the woman’s surprisingly sharp gaze remains on him for the duration of the interview.
Several times, Yuuji has to remind himself that the woman isn’t going to gobble him up and yet, he feels not unlike in the presence of a lion surveying him. Or surveying his worth, maybe. This has to be the most stressful interviews he ever has to go through. At the end of it, Yuuji feels so high strung he almost knocks his glass sideway. Only thanks to his sharp reflexes does he manage to catch the glass before it falls and probably stains a severely out-of-his-means chair.
At that, Tsukumo’s eyes seems to sharpen even more, even as a bigger grin slid upon her face.
“Alright, then, one last question,” She says, leaning forward. “Arguably, the most important question of this interview.”
Nervous, Yuuji leans forward as well and hopes it’s not an intellectual question. Yuuji is notoriously shit at anything involving a deeper level of thinking, or so his teacher says sometimes, and frankly at times like this, Yuuji isn’t inclined to disabuse him of the notion.
“What’s your type of women? Or men, we don’t discriminate here.” Eagerly Tsukumo-san awaits his response. This is clearly a trap, isn’t it and of course, like the idiot he is -
He answers.
“Tall women with big butts, like Jennifer Lawrence,” His traitorous mouth let out the words and he knows he has just failed the interview.
“Hired!” Tsukumo-san claps her hands twice and grins wildly at him.
Huh.
Okay.
Wait, what?
“What?”
“Ah, I have a good feeling about you.” Getting up, she extends a hand toward him and says. “Com’on, we gotta take your measurements so the sooner your uniform is ready, the sooner you can start.”
Yuuji is so, so confused right now but he isn’t about to question his lucky stars upon viewing the number of zeros on his salary form. With no lingering hesitation anymore, he signs.
Ji-chan, things are going to be okay.
"Itadori-kun!" Yuuji is still standing in front of the café, dumbfounded as the prior events finally caught up to him. He got the job. He actually got the job.
The call snaps him out of his daze.
Turning around, he sees Ozawa hurrying up down the steps and that’s when he takes notice of her uniform and it’s, um, really frilly but also cute in an old-fashioned kind of way. Huh, he will be actually wearing something like this in a few days. Well, who would have thought.
Before he can say anything, Ozawa bows deeply before him.
“Itadori-kun, I have a favor to ask!” There’s a slight edge of panic in her voice and Yuuji immediately focuses on her.
“Everything alright, Ozawa-san?”
“Yes, yes! It’s just,” She flounders for a few seconds as Yuuji patiently waits for her get her bearings back. “Please don’t tell anyone at school.”
He blinks down at her.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with the café,” She hurries to explain, at the confused look on his face. “But you know, the whole maid thing is a bit, err, weird, if you know what I mean.” Yuuji actually doesn’t. If he thought there was anything wrong with the maid thing, he wouldn’t have applied in the first place.
But Ozawa’s concerns are actually legit as teenagers do tend to take simple things and overcomplicate them to the extreme. Yuuji might be dumb but he isn’t blind, so he is aware of some of the difficulties Ozawa has faced back in middle school.
High school isn’t much better in that regard either so he does sort of agree with her on keeping the matter quiet.
“Sure, Ozawa-san. I wasn’t planning to blabber my mouth, even if I didn’t get accepted,” He reassures her.
Ozawa-san deflates in relief but for some reason her cheeks are still red.
“Thank you Itadori-kun! I knew I could count on you,” There’s a soft look now on her face. “I’m glad you got the job, I promise you it’s a really good place.”
He aknowledges her words with a nod, as he is of the same opinion. Tsukumo-san seems like a really good person, if a bit intense on the edges, and she does strike him as someone who knows exactly what they’re doing. He hasn’t met his coworkers yet but he is happy there was at least a familiar face on the lookout for him. He has always liked Ozawa-san and thought highly of her.
“Me too, Ozawa-san. Looking forward to working with you,” He grins at her, feeling excited already.
Ozawa-san smiles right back at him.
The next day, which happens to be a Sunday, Yuuji receives his uniform.
That was undoubtedly fast.
It’s in white and pink, frilly as he expected, the skirt slightly shorter than expected but not so much that it looks strange. It fits him to a T, and he could even dare and say it’s comfortable if not a bit... breezy down there. The white thick stockings are a bit of a relief because it’s the middle of winter and his legs tend to get cold easily while the headband is really cute with that little side flower, he can get used to this.
Staring at himself in the mirror, he actually... doesn’t look bad.
He gives himself a twirl and feels vaguely ridiculous for a few seconds before the feeling dies down at the way the skirt swirl around his legs.
Huh, really not bad at all.
Later on that night, he gets a call from Sasaki.
“So Yuuji-kun! Ready for tomorrow?” He already told Sasaki the good news the day before and he assumes she’s talking about the job.
“Yeah, a bit nervous though,” He pauses then tells her, anyway. “I received the uniform, I don’t dislike it. Also it’s really comfy so there’s that.”
“Huh, what? Already?” Sasaki exclaims in his ear. “And I was talking about the math exam, it’s tomorrow. I swear those damn integrals are frying my brain – “
“Shit, man, I totally forgot – ” Great, he’s definitely in for a last minute cramming tonight.
“Com’on send me a pic, wanna see my cute Yuuji in a dress,” Unheeded, Sasaki continues. “Wait, no, send me a whole vid and don’t spare the whole ‘Goshojin-sama’ thingy. Gimme the whole performance – ”
“Please stop,” Yuuji tells her no. She can drop by tomorrow for a glimpse of the whole ‘performance’, though he doesn’t think he will be able to pull it off easily but he still resolves to try his best.
But first he gotta survive his exam tomorrow.
On this bright Monday, it’s 4:45 pm when he gets to the café.
After the gruesome brain trap that was the math exam, Yuuji finally manages to get into the right head space to cross the threshold of the cafe's backdoor and start his day-first job.
His new uniform is in his bag and Ozawa has already gone in, soft steps fading away as he hesitates slightly before finally making a step forward and thinking I will be okay.
He is right.
His coworkers welcomes him with open arms and beaming expressions. They all look so put together that for a moment Yuuji is embarrassed to be seen in his sloppy high school uniform. The feeling doesn’t last long and before he knows it, he is already getting along with them. Takada, who is a fellow high school student that has fallen on hard times and who is working hard to become an idol. Akihito, Sasaki’s cousin, who is a fashion college student and rocking a killer eyeliner. Takahashi, who looks like they are five seconds away from falling asleep but still helps Yuuji tighten his headband. They all help him putting on his uniform as efficiently as possible – it looks so cute on you, Yuuji-kun, can I call you Yuuji-kun, –
The uniforms themselves look unspeakably lovely on his coworkers, each having a color theme that seems to enhance their beauty in a way that is vivdly eye-catching. Yuuji isn't vain by any means but even he can admit that with the maid costume and the slight touch of makeup - nothing heavy: mascara, lipgloss and a tint of blush - Akihito put on him, he, too, is an absolute stunner.
He just hopes his customers will feel the same.
Tsukumo-san peers at him from the door and her infectious grin is mirrored on his own face before he even realizes it.
"Ah, Itadori-kun, look at you! Customers are absolutely gonna adore you," There's something about the tone in her voice that makes a distant alarm ring in the back of his mind but at this point Yuuji is way too apprehensive about people's reactions to him to think too much about it.
Taking a deep breath, Yuuji squares his shoulders as if facing a gang of delinquent bullies, albeit that would have been less terrifying, and walks forth.
I can do this.