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You know this city, not so far away? Down there is a street called No. 6. There, on that street, is a place where it’s fun to come. It’s right next to that restaurant called Hetalian Foods. It’s a bar, it’s called Shinya’s Bar. The owner’s name is Hiiragi Shinya. He is always standing by the counter. By the door, you will usually see a woman named Awashima Seri. She is the one to kick you out if you are causing trouble. Sometimes she won’t be there though. In those cases, you’ll see Heiwajima Shizuo there instead. He is crazy strong but hates violence. Somewhere in the bar, usually in the background, you’ll find a young man named Max Alors. He always has a broom in his hand. He always seems to be working on cleaning the place, and it is needed. If you go behind the counter, you’ll find a door, behind that, you’ll find a hallway. If you follow that, you will reach a kitchen with the chef, Nanase Haruka, in a bathtub on wheels. This is pushed around by his friend, Matsuoka Rin.
In this bar, many strange costumers come by. You might know a few of them, and usually, a lot of crazy stuff happens.
Today, however, Shinya’s bar was closed, not accepting any customers. The reason? There was a staff meeting today, which meant that everyone was supposed to show up in the bar and talk about everything that could be useful.
They were supposed to meet up at three, precisely. But the time was 5 minutes past and so far, only five out of six had shown up.
Awashima and Shizuo were sitting by the table, across from each other. None of them were moving or saying a word. Max was standing by one of the walls, holding his broom close to him. He seemed a bit impatient. By the counter, on two chairs, both Rin and Haruka were sitting. Rin was impatient and did everything to let it show, while Haruka was just looking like he always did.
“Where is he?” Rin said in frustration.
“He is late,” Awashima answered.
“But he was the one who set the time!” Rin yelled.
Haruka picked this moment to turn away from Rin and not face him at all, actually he looked away from everyone.
“What’s with that guy anyway?” Max asked.
“He is just acting like himself,” Rin said while eying Haruka. “We all have better things to do and that guy should know that!”
“Let’s start the meeting without him then,” Awashima answered, getting tired of Rin’s irritation and impatience.
“Okay,” Max said. “But then… what are we supposed to talk about?”
No one seemed to have a good answer to this question. None of them had heard anything about what they were supposed to discuss. The truth was that Shinya had all the plans. It was him who had called and arranged the meeting. This meant that the others had absolutely no idea.
After 10 minutes of silence, the time was now 20 minutes past three, the door to the front finally opened and the owner of the bar entered.
“Hey there!” Shinya said as he entered. “Sorry, guess I’m running a little late.” He smiled around at everyone and waved before he sat down by the counter as well, keeping his distance from Rin and Haruka, which was probably a smart move.
“A little?” Rin asked. He didn’t comment further though.
“Anyways, I just summoned you here because I wanted to discuss how we are going to run the place from now on. But first, I’d like to know how you all feel about working here at my bar?” Shinya smiled as he said this.
All the remaining five looked at one another. None of them really believed that Shinya was asking such a question at a time like this.
Awashima was the first to answer. “Well… I don’t really mind much. The job isn’t too hard since we rarely get any customers,” she answered.
Shinya frowned a bit at this. He didn’t like the idea that they weren’t getting that many customers per day. “Anyone else who has anything more positive to say?” he asked. His gaze turned to Shizuo, whom he expected to answer.
“I don’t really mind. Though the work seems to require a bit more violence than I had expected,” Shizuo answered calmly.
Shinya then looked to Max with a wide smile.
“I think it’s a little boring,” Max said honestly. “I’m just sweeping the same floor every day, it’s not even that dirty.”
Shinya looked to Haruka in hope of a more positive response.
“It’s fine,” Haruka said while shrugging. His face didn’t indicate anything at all. Shinya couldn’t read anything out of it, but he supposed the chef meant what he said.
Rin had already taken in a deep breath before Shinya had the time to speak again. “Well, I hate my job, it’s not fun pushing that stupid bathtub around all day you know, and even less fun that you believe that I will willingly do everything just because you say so, you’re not even paying me!” Rin yelled.
“Huh?” Shinya sent Rin a questioning look. “I thought Haruka was supposed to cover your pay,” he said.
“Now that you mention it,” Max said in a thoughtful tone. “I haven’t received my pay either…”
“Neither have I,” Awashima answered.
“Next question!” Shinya yelled to pull everyone’s attention away from the pays and onto something else. “What do you think of me as your boss?”
Again, everyone looked at one another before they decided to give their answer to the odd question. They silently agreed that only one would speak their true thoughts.
“I never thought about that,” Awashima answered. “As long as you pay, you might be decent, but you are far from an ideal boss in my opinion,” she said, very honestly.
“It’s fine,” Shizuo answered while lighting a cigarette.
“You don’t listen much to us,” Max started.
Haruka looked thoughtful. “They’re right. But it’s fine,” This translated to that he agreed with the others but that he didn’t mind all those things as long as he got his mackerels and permission to stay in the bathtub on the job.
“And then it’s all up to me,” Rin sighed. “Well, you would be fine if you remembered to pay us, if you didn’t call us by stupid nicknames all the time, if you didn’t just spent all the time fooling around and if you didn’t show up late for your own meetings.” The irritation was painfully clear to everyone, and Shinya had a feeling that they all shared this irritation. It was probably time to go back to the serious matters.
“Okay, so if everyone is happy with being here, let’s start discussing what we came here for.” Shinya smiled at everyone as he said this. “So, how is this going to go from now on?”
The staff meeting continued like this. Shinya had his way with every problem that came across. Everyone else found themselves wondering why they even showed up. The only good thing about the meeting was that they got to give Shinya a piece of their minds. Aside from that, nothing really changed in the everyday life of Shinya’s bar.