Chapter Text
There's no one in the country who never heard of Ayano Group — a mega corporation based in Japan; centered in medical industry, mainly in beauty & pharmacy. They produce variety of skincare product, and famous for their best plastic surgery in the whole nation. Beside that, they expertise in other healthcare & medicine, owned several hospitals and med-tech related factories. This company already established since more than three decades ago, which indicates it's already time for the new generation, to learn the ropes and prepared to be the next head.
But this is what the current Ayano Group Holder, Ayanokouji Atsuomi unexpected: all his three sons are too spoiled and incompetent. Not only they don't have any good skill, their attitude is also the worst. They're very rude, too dependable and cannot make any decision. They don't have the ability to learn, stubborn, and also rely on their father to take care of any trouble or challenge they faced.
What kind of home education he applied for these children to be this bad? Where does everything went wrong? To be fair, he didn't care enough to figure out.
And then, he remembered something. Just like any other big wigs scandal, Atsuomi had an illegitimate child several years ago. He was born from an affair with a hostess. At first, he didn't care much about the boy. He only sent a sum of money to keep the mother shut her mouth and raise the kid. But now as the other candidates didn't met the capability as the next heir, Ayanokouji's father start to had an interest in Kiyotaka, which had a good academic performance and achievement throughout his school years.
Many scholarship were offered into the boy's hand. Not out of Atsuomi's influence, but purely because of Kiyotaka's ability.
The teacher in highschool encourage him to go to college, saying that many university would gladly welcome him, but Kiyotaka seems unisterested. Actually 'uninterested' is a weak word at this point; Kiyotaka despise it and avoid going to college — like a plague.
After graduate from a regular highschool, Kiyotaka work in a bar cafe owned by a generous man, Tsukishiro — Not quite the evil antagonist in this storyline. Here, Ayanokouji start as a bartender-in-learning. As Kouji had a strong adaptability and high learning skill, it's not long until he master all the ropes and graduated from being an apprentice to a full fledged bartender.
Originally, there were four workers in the bar including Ayanokouji. One by one, the other three workers were transfered and could no longer work here, in the bar. So this year, the owner, Tsukishiro, decided to hire new workers; that is: Karuizawa Kei, Hirata Yousuke, and Sakura Airi. All of them are highschool fresh graduates, two years younger than Ayanokouji. They need more time to adapt more than Ayanokouji. Airi and Kei was mostly cover the waitress job, while Hirata trying to learn from Ayanokouji as a bartender.
Every other days and week, the place is bustled with customers. While this bar isn't the most famous in town, there's unexpectedly a lot of regulars. Some of them are: The heir of Horimori Media & Television; Horikita Suzune and Manabu, head division of the neighboring office; Chabasira, highschool math teacher; Keisei, top model; Kiryuin Fuuka, and the infamous basketball player; Sudo Ken. Knowing both customers' name and their profession is pretty necessary to the bar workers. These information tho, were naturally came to them.
The area around this bar is pretty much lively. There is a karaoke place, a bakery store, ramen stall, and a photo booth. A few block away from the bar, there's also a popular maid cafe that opened until 9 pm. There, a member of an underground idol group, Amasawa Ichika, work as one of the maid. These business complemented each other into a powerful charm that attract many visitors each week; the bar also benefited from that.
The town is usually live in peace most of the time with some exception. Every several weeks, there's always a commotion caused by local gangster groups; they seemed to not get along within themselves. One of the ring leader is the infamous hound; Hosen Kazuomi who often witnessed to be together with a long haired blonde girl; a model student — basically the mad dog's leash holder; Nanase Tsubasa. Some of them, including Hosen are only in their 9th grade, middle schoolers. Imagine once they turned into an adult.
Sometimes innocent civilians and drunkard that walk around at night in the area fall victims. Most of the victim were middle aged men, but sometimes also women and minor students. They didn't discriminate between genders and ages.
In the middle of all this, a Yakuza group stand as the pest control. While they're also contribute on making the area uncomfortable, at least they didn't cause a scene and help subside some chaos caused by the power imbalance between small groups. One of the local Yakuza group were known for having a red dragon symbol, that is Ryuuen Group.
In the surface, they are a loan agency, owning a hostess club. Beyond that, they're also affiliated with drug deals and other illegitimate business. One of Ryuuen Group's heir candidate is Ryuuen Kakeru, the infamous highschool drop out. He is known as the strongest fighter in the area. Now, he is running the family business in the hostess club as a host and also the loan services as a loan shark. From time to time, he visits local stores to gather some intels.. while also having a good time. He usually bringing his most trusted lackeys; Ibuki Mio, Albert, and Ishizaki.
One day..
Ryuuen Kakeru happens to stumble The Velvet Room. The very same bar where Ayanokouji Kiyotaka work as a bartender and sometime double work as a waiter in particularly busy hours.