Work Text:
Nene sighed for the 100th time that day.
“Would you like a receipt?” Her voice was strained, and her smile was visibly shaky, as if she was on the verge of breaking down.
"Oh, uh, no thank you."
She’s been working at Subway for a bit. It started off as a part time job, so she could use that money for video games, but now it’s been months and she’s afraid it’s actually turning fun. It’s not because of the work itself, no, it's absolute hell, but because of her co-workers.
Emu, her bubbly boss, whose family owns Subway and a theme park. Rui, her childhood friend, who began working there a while ago as a social experiment, he called it. Tsukasa, her obnoxious acquaintance, from school.
They made this job… interesting. Not fun, but not boring either.
The customer shook their head. “No thank you.” They took their sandwich, and ran? Man, they don’t pay her enough for this. If the customer was a robber or something, she wishes them luck. They probably aren’t as fast as Rui, though.
Just 5 more minutes till her shifts over, just 5—
The jingle of the door being opened resonated through the room. Well, fuck her then, not like she deserves to relax 5 minutes before closing. She silently prayed to the gods above, before putting on another fake smile.
“Hello, welcome to Subway. What wou—”
”I’d like a Rotisserie-Style Chicken with Guac sub, a Big Cheese Steak Toastie, a Cheese & Guacamole salad, a Footlong Cookie, a Dr Pepper— 500 ml, a Sprite that’s also 500 ml and Spicy Italian wrap. It better be served in 5 minutes max, or else I’ll leave a 1-star review.”
Whatever God is above, take her out of her misery right now.
“…Coming right up, sir.” Her voice cracked at the end. The stern gaze the man was giving her wasn’t helping in the slightest.
A part of her is glad she’s mostly on register duty, but a part of her hates how Tsukasa was gone for the past week, so this time she’s the one that must make the order. They really do not pay her enough for this, so she should ask Emu for a raise. Hopefully the idea won’t be rejected.
Nene passed by the break room, and she could vividly see Rui making an… air fryer? Seriously? And Emu was practicing her acrobatics. This was fine. This was totally normal. She wasn’t going to get mad and lose it, she isn’t going to lose it—
“Excuse me? I asked for extra lettuce.”
“No, you did not.” Nene said in the flattest tone she could muster.
The customer became red. “Yes, I did. I also asked for extra cheese, and why isn’t there enough—"
“Listen here, you came in 5 minutes before closing with a far too long and complicated order, and you want me to get it all right? Especially when you’re RUSHING ME? DOES IT SEEM LIKE I HAVE PATIENCE TO DEAL WITH YOUR STUPIDLY SPECIFIC DEMANDS? NO, I DO NOT. GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE WITH YOUR FOOD. YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO PAY FOR IT! SO, TAKE YOUR SHIT AND LEAVE.” She pointed to the door in fury. The customer cowered and quickly left with their order.
She turned to her side and saw Rui with Emu behind him. Rui looked a blink away from hysterically laughing, and Emu was seemingly terrified but laughing? God, she has the weirdest co-workers ever. Tsukasa would probably hide in a corner if he heard her yelling like that.
“…Sorry, I’m kind of at my limit.” She tried to sound apologetic. Rui just chuckled while Emu shook her head and smiled.
“It’s fine! I won’t let my brothers fire you, either way. Also, I'm your boss, not them.” Emu assured her.
Emu was really a blessing in disguise. The best boss ever, and not just that, but she was helpful. The fact she was also kind of cute and adorable andsweet andunderstandingand— No, Nene! Snap out of it, you can’t be crushing on your boss. Just because she’s… everything, and your age doesn't mean you should be reacting like this!
Emu began waving her hand in front of Nene. “Nene-chan? Are you okay?”
“Y-Yes, just… I’m just tired.” She rubbed the back of her neck.
Emu giggled before speaking again in a much softer tone. “Nene-chan, you’re tired. Me and Rui-kun will close up! Just go home.” She put a hand on her shoulder.
She was going to be the death of Nene, and she knows it.
“Ah, y-yes, thank you both.”
“I’M BACK, EVERYONE.” Tsukasa slammed the entrance door open. The customers covered their ears, to muffle his loud voice. Rui just rushed in from the break room to wave enthusiastically at Tsukasa, Emu was right behind him.
“WELCOME BACK, TSUKASA-KUN!”
“Welcome, Tsukasa-kun. We all missed you very much, fufufu~”
Nene groaned before pointing towards the back of the restaurant. “Get your damn uniform on and begin working.”
Tsukasa shuddered. “Yes ma’am.” He saluted, before rushing to the back.
It felt good to finally make him do something for once, and not the other way around. Sometimes he seriously acted like her mom, making her do stuff and checking up on her needs WAY too often… at the same time, it felt nice— oh God, she actually sees him as a friend.
Rui just followed him, in similar fashion to a dog and it's owner, but if the dog was a stray who keeps following a random guy around. Emu just gave them a thumbs up, before offering to help Nene while those 2 were distracted by catching up.
“Nene-chan, are you doing better today?” Emu asked, as they waited for another customer to come on in.
Nene blushed. “Yes, I-I’m doing better… I think.” She mumbled the last part, yet somehow her boss still heard it and began giggling.
As Nene took another order, with Emu by her side preparing it, the 2 morons finally came back.
Now, it was none of her business, but it kind of was when they came back out with ruffled clothes and smiling like lovesick fools. On the bright side of things, Tsukasa finally has his uniform on.
“...Did you guys actually just make out in the back?”
Tsukasa looked to the side, and Rui took the initiative. “No comment.”
God damn it, she's NOT going to try to figure out what the hell is going on between them right now. Maybe she will, after she gets paid next month, but for now? No.
She sighed, yet again. “Okay, I don’t care. Just go make the customers orders, or whatever. Make out only during your breaks because I’m not suffering alone.” She held an accusatory finger at the both of them.
Tsukasa rushed to actually begin working, while Rui just winked at Nene and went to refill the ingredients. Emu got caught up in chatting with Tsukasa in the meanwhile, though. Either way, she was glad to have him back, now she won’t have to worry about being alone in the front.
Despite Rui and Emu helping, they tend to slack off a bit occasionally, and everyday just ends with them doing random stuff in the break room. At some point Nene and Tsukasa walked in on them writing a show script of all things— which resulted in Tsukasa talking about shows for the following hour.
The shift wasn’t really anything new. Annoying customers, nice customers, weird customers and many other variations came pouring in. Despite Subway being nothing special in her mind, way too many people came here to eat.
"We— RUI, GET OUT THE BREAD OVEN—" He panicked once he saw his boy-friends body in the bread oven. Great, just great.
"RUI-KUN?" Emu yelled, as she dragged him out of it, luckily enough she seems to be strong enough for the job.
"I don't get paid enough for this." She said, as she stared at Rui who seemed to be merging into the floor.
The real question is what the hell was he doing in the bread oven? It’s not like hes an active suicide risk, so what the hell was he doing in it? Definitely not fixing it, because last time she checked, it wasn’t broken. Was he u—
“Rui, were you trying to upgrade the stupid bread oven?” She asked, exasperated.
Rui just gave a pained smile, and resumed laying down on the floor. Tsukasa was too busy seeing if his totally-just-a-friend was hurt or not, while Emu was checking the oven for damage.
He seriously couldn’t have picked a worse time to upgrade it. Not only was the place weirdly packed with people, but the end of their shift wasn’t anywhere soon. At this point, it was embarrassing to think about what just happened, less concerning.
A ginger guy walked up to the cash register. “Erm, Excuse me, is that… guy, fine?”
“Go back to eating, Shinonome-kun.” Rui scolded him from the floor.
Akito just gave him the middle finger and went back to his seat to continue eating. Of course, they now reached friendship level with the regulars.
Akito Shinonome, a suffering college student who somehow has enough money to go to Subway nearly every day, but not enough to pay his student debt. His boyfriend, Toya Aoyagi, who was studying at the same college but on a scholarship— oh, he's also Tsukasa's younger brother figure. Shizuku Hinomori, who was a young model that honestly mostly came around to catch up with Tsukasa— how many people does he know? If she lists the rest of the regulars they have, they would also have some relationship with him.
Well, turns out most of their regulars have some relationship with the blond weirdo making their food, that's great. At least he's a walking advertisement for the place, wouldn’t want it any other way. He basically fills up their pockets, so what’s to complain about!
Is but a lie. Hearing him scream so loud that it could rival a helicopter’s blades spinning? God, he was going to be the reason she goes deaf.
“Nene-chan?”
“Yes, Emu?” She paused from mopping the floor.
After another exhaustingly chaotic day at Subway, their shifts were all finally over. All they had to do was clean up a bit, then go home.
Weirdo one and two went to the back as soon as their shift was over. A part of her is scared they took her earlier suggestion seriously, I mean, making out in the break room of a Subway? Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these guys? It’s not romantic, like, at all.
Emu fidgeted a bit with her hands, before looking straight at her. “Would you… like to walk home together?”
Ah, she can hear the wedding bells already.
“I-I, yeah, sure— I mean of course, if it’s not a problem? I mean, a problemwithyoubecauseyoushouldntfeelobligatedand—”
“Hehe, Nene-chan is so cute. Of course it wouldn’t be a problem with me, silly, I’m the one that's asking.” Oh, right.
She shouldn’t get ahead of herself, it’s just a friendly walk back to her dorm. It’s just two friends on a walk together, that’s it! Nothing more… Oh, how she wants it to be something more.
Nene took a deep breath in. “Let’s go grab our stuff, and go out.” Emu nodded enthusiastically at that.
She just rushed over to her co-workers side. And Nene began making her way to the backroom of the restaurant, just a place for employees, also the only place they could put their stuff down. Nothing could ruin this moment, absolutely nothing—
Of course they decided to take her suggestion seriously.
Emu began wheezing and holding her stomach after seeing them, and how quickly they separated the second the door was open. Nene just felt like a teenager who walked on her parent’s doing some lovey dovey shit, disgusting really.
“I would say this isn’t what it looks like, but will that change either of your minds?” Tsukasa looked at them in desperation.
Emu began wheezing again, but this time on the floor, and trying to shake her head. Nene just glared at him, which seemed to convey her answer. She just pushed past her best friend and friend who she interrupted, and grabbed her bag and Emus.
“You guys can keep doing whatever, I’m leaving with Emu.” She said, then slammed the door shut.
Rui began wheezing in similar fashion to their boss earlier, and Tsukasa just stared at the door like a fish out of water.
Rui wiped the tears forming in his eyes. “At least we won’t need to tell them we’re officially dating?”
“I’m surprised it’s been months since we began dating, and they had not one clue.”
“I mean, we were already pretty much in love for a while. It’s difficult to even notice the difference, since it was love at first sight~” The taller one winked.
“...Once I’m done with my education, I’m quitting this job so I won’t have to see you again.”
Rui put a hand on his chest. “How cruel! You’re acting as if we aren’t a packaged deal? Is this just a joke to you, Tsukasa-kun?”
“Oh, you stupidly loveable idiot, let's just leave.”
"Oh? But you're my stupidly loveable idiot, not the other way around."