Scraping By

The Crimson Fork was as hectic as usual. Being a western-style restaurant in Kyoto, it gains a lot of traction from locals and foreigners alike. “I’m sorry that you have to help me like this, Renji.” A young woman, a fresh hire unfortunate enough to have one of her first days be one of the busiest days of the year for The Crimson Fork. She has potential, but this was her second job, and she has yet to find her confidence. Renji Naoki, a 24-year old man on the career path in life, is swift to carry the burden of the kitchen, and assisting the rookie chef who appears to be on the cusp of a panic attack. “No worries, we’re still ahead of the game. Just hang on, the rush should be ending soon, and we’ll have beaten it.” There isn’t much of an inflection to his voice, he’s focused on the task ahead, but even he is beginning to feel the heat. Today was a rough one, and everyone felt it.

While many of his peers his age may be in the graduating years of college, Renji never had the luxury of a higher education. After his mother passed away, he had nobody left to take care of him, so he had to get a job back in his senior year of high school. The years he had put behind him were difficult, many evenings of stress culminating in a cheap bowl of ramen, and if he was lucky he might have added an extra ingredient or two. For the last year, however, life has been looking better. He has been eating healthy again, he has been able to justify his trips to the library more commonly, and life has begun to look up for Renji. He no longer needs to worry about whether or not he’ll have a roof over his head every week, he no longer needs to worry about whether or not he’ll be able to afford food, and he has begun to come out of his shell bit by bit.

Renji was never the most social of people, though he was never a recluse either. He held to his obligations, but he never went out of his way to seek out friendships. Most friends that he had made throughout his life lost contact with him after they moved on and went to college. He wasn’t particularly heartbroken about it, his own thoughts too focused on survival. He had no high school sweethearts, no best friends, and nobody he particularly cared to keep contact with. Though he had never cared for matters of romance, he found himself looking a little longer at the new recruit than he normally would. Perhaps he should consider finding someone to share his life with. Though it couldn’t be the new recruit, pretty though she was. The last thing he needs is to lose his job over a conflict of interest.

After work, he went out for drinks with his coworkers, though he didn’t drink much. He poured the drinks for others and was the designated driver that saw them home safely if they lived further away. “Hey, Renji, can I ask you something?” The new hire spoke up, feeling embarrassed after Renji had just poured her another drink. “How is it you’re able to stand up to the customers so easily? I, uh, figured we’d get a lot of loud and rude customers given we get a lot of foreigners, but aren’t you afraid of getting in trouble? That last guy looked so red I was scared he was going to hit you.”

“Wouldn’t have mattered if he did, he’d just be the one to get into trouble.” His tone is friendly, but there’s something hollow about it.

“What if it hurts? More than that, aren’t you afraid you’d lose your job?” Her pressing of the matter isn’t entirely unusual, this wouldn’t be the first time someone had asked him this exact line of questioning.

“I mean, I did care at first. Eventually, though, you do this long enough, see those kinds of people so many times that you just kind of stop caring. It’s brats that walk around like they own the world that makes things miserable for everyone else. I wouldn’t worry too much about them, I don’t mind being the bad guy if it means we can get everything else going, and I think our boss knows that.” Lowering his empty sake cup, the new hire was swift to pour him a new cup. He wasn’t sure why, but he hoped that it was a sign of respect for being the guy to stand up for the others at work. He thanked her for it, but he didn’t want to drink much more, otherwise he’d fail to be the designated driver.

Renji had no idea how much his coworkers appreciated him. He was too afraid to accept any kindness, whether it was words or gestures, as anything other than a polite obligation. Despite the improvements to his life, he is still wary about people, having known them to be very cloak-and-dagger, never honest with themselves or others. This extended to the rude customers he’d often deal with. Their anger was never about the food or the quality, it was an outlet, whether for their frustrations at something else, and often it was just a power trip. Rarely, it was even used as a vehicle to try and weasel more food out of the kitchen without having to pay extra for it. It is possible, though rare, for a genuine mistake to occur in his kitchen, and for a mistake on the end of the customer. Miscommunications happen, and it’s easy to tell when it is or isn’t malicious by how the customer behaves. He never sees those customers, because they never cause a commotion, he never has to step out and play the villain so that the business can run as it was meant to.

While others seemed to enjoy themselves, Renji found these meetings to be just a dull obligation. He couldn’t say no to going to these meetings or he’d be seen as not being friendly. This was just another part of the job he had to endure, though it meant he was losing out on the time he would save for the library, where he might have enjoyed a new read, a new story, perhaps learned something new. Alas, such pleasures will have to wait until next time. Given how his coworkers were swiftly reaching their limits, he’d have no choice but to drive as many as he could home. The assistant manager was usually more reserved with his drinking, but he let himself loose today. “Perhaps something went wrong at home,” Renji thought to himself, “or is he simply trying to impress the rookie?”

He hated how his car reeked of booze. It wasn’t by any means a fancy car, but it was his car. It took him a long time before he was able to get one that fit his price range, and he considered himself to be incredibly lucky for finding it when he did. He wasn’t a car guy by any stretch of the imagination, but this was his most important possession. He needed it for work, to shop, and now he was going to have to live with it smelling of cheap sake for far longer than anyone would want. He sighed with frustration through his nose as he dropped off the assistant manager, the second to be dropped off. All that was left was the new hire, who was hiccuping in the back seat.

“Your eyes are super scary, you know. You’re gonna scare off all the girls if you keep lookin’ at them like you do.” Slurred and staggered, the alcohol was settling into her more over time. He notes this to himself so that she isn’t black-out drunk after the get together if he can’t drive her home for one reason or another. “It’s fine.” Is all Renji managed to say back to her, his eyes glued to the road, not looking back at the fidgeting rookie who would stare at nothing for a moment, then look back into his eyes through the front view mirror. “Mmh, you say that but like, what are you gonna do, y’know? You’d be so much cuter if you loosened up more.” By the tone of her voice, and by how she’s speaking so freely, he can tell these were her real thoughts, or at least as real as one that is drunk can get. He disliked being around drunk people, but he did appreciate the insights he’d get into how people truly thought, even if they were at times unwelcome.

Renji didn’t respond. He pulled into her driveway and stepped out the driver’s side door, helping her out of the vehicle with all the gentleness of handling glass. She wobbled, stabilized only by his gentle hold as he escorted her to her front door. Her words slurred and staggered as the alcohol settled in further, causing Renji to only hear one or two words at best. Despite being unintelligible, she continued to speak all the way until Renji helped her in through her front door, but that was as far as he’d go. “What, you don’t want to come in? I can make some tea if you want?” Her request was sweet—perhaps too sweet. While he wasn’t sure if there was subtext or not, he didn’t want to risk rumors spreading around about the two of them. Besides, she was hammered, Renji felt it wouldn’t be right for him to linger around here too long. “No, I should be going to bed. You should, too, you’ve had a long day. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

From there, the drive home was blissfully quiet. He even kept the radio off, something he usually would never do. Despite loving the silence that finally blessed his ears, he couldn’t help but replay the rookie’s expression when he told her he wouldn’t be coming in. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, so perhaps he should apologize at work tomorrow. Renji decides that he’ll pay for her lunch as thanks, even though he really didn’t have anything to apologize for. “It’s just polite. Make it right.” He told himself before feeling a sudden dizziness. How strange, he only had two cups of sake, he shouldn’t be impaired—especially not with his tolerance.

He slowed his drive, barely making it home as he staggered to his front door. Something was wrong, horribly wrong. As soon as he managed to unlock the front door, he fell forward, all strength leaving him. A flash of purple invaded his vision, and he didn’t feel the expected thud of colliding with the ground as his vision blacked out. His last thoughts were of where he went wrong, suspecting perhaps his drink was spiked.

“The ritual was a success, your majesty.”