Hard Work

I didn’t do much except homework Sunday. The wounds on my face were still obvious, but today was Monday. I should probably go to class. I put on a surgical mask as cover and dragged myself down the stairs.

I wanted to clean up the bento boxes nicely and give them back to the girls who had given them to me and Yasutoki. In a way, it was an apology to them for who I was.

Looking at the bentos, I got an idea.

First, I cleaned each of them, then dug in a cupboard and found Ryoya’s real bento box, that his parents had gotten for him. I set them up, contemplating what to make. Pasta would be good. It was classy—the types I was thinking of, anyway—, and it could be a warm and really home-cooked feeling dish without taking a long time. Then stir-fried vegetables and meat for the top section, with some rice to go alongside. A bag of cute candies for each would be a good idea, too. Not something romantic, except for Yuu’s, but something to match the cute bentos I’d received.

I searched through Ryoya’s family cupboards, but they didn’t have everything I wanted. Time to go to the grocery store.

I half-expected to run into one of the love interests there, but my trip was peaceful, and I managed to get all I needed plus more rice porridge ingredients to replace what I’d left at Yuu’s house.

-4,400 yen.

My money supplies were running low. I wondered where Ryoya got his pocket money.

We were partially into first period. I figured it would be okay to miss that one since we’d already gotten into it, and then part of second should be okay as well. Maybe all of second? I was a reformed chronic skipper myself, so this bodyswap (body hijacking?) was dangerously enabling my usual lines of thinking, where I could skip every class in the day. You’ve got to make it to lunch at least, that’s part of the point, I told myself.

I started by chopping up and cooking several sausages, making sauce for the pasta and boiling it at the same time. When both the sauce and the noodles were done, I mixed them together, put the sausage in, and filled the bottom half of the bentos with them. Next I started the rice cooker, and after that were the vegetables and meat, cooked in a pan with a bit of soy sauce. A sizzling aroma filled the kitchen, mixed with the smell of sausage and cheese sauce.

I’d gotten three different sets of snacks. Mae dressed cutely, so I got her cute panda-shaped chocolates. Sae was more showy, so I got her chips and a ring pop. As for Yuu… it was the issue of players setting her details again. But she seemed like the black-coffee, no-nonsense type, so I got her a dark chocolate heart.

Making the lunches took me until close to the end of second period. I cleaned everything up, put one bento in my school bag (I’d cleared some of Ryoya’s miscellanea out of it, since he was a hoarder and I didn’t feel like carrying around a heavy bag all day) carried the extras that didn’t fit in my arms, and hurried off to school.

“What’s up with those?” Yasutoki asked, leaning over.

“They’re not for you. They’re for some of the girls that gave me bentos.”

“Whoa, generous. Bet you could be slightly more generous and give one to me.”

Ah… “Do you want one? I could—”

He waved his hands. “No, don’t worry about it. Sorry, I was just screwing around.”

“I can make you one for tomorrow. I’ve got some supplies left over.”

“Dope. Is that why you were late? Hey—how come you’re hurt?”

“Well…” I bit my lip, thinking of how to phrase it. “I got into a scrape with Fu—Takayama.”

“Wanna go kick his ass?”

“No, can’t. I promised not to.”

“What? But look what he did to you! Y’know—we can’t just let them fuck around on our turf or with our people like that.” Yasutoki punched his fist into his palm. “We’ve got to tell them what’s right.”

I sighed. “If we stop, maybe it’ll break this cycle of beating each other up.”

“Nah—Konno’s a bully, and the whole group of them are scummy! They’re like poisonous snakes. You gotta get a broom and shove them out the door to be properly safe.”

“You mean venomous. Poison is the ones you can’t eat—Actually, that’s my point. If we don’t try to kill and eat them, maybe we won’t get hurt.”

“Who’s eating who? Ew.” Yasutoki mimed gagging. “You’ve got a morbid mind, Miya!”

“Quiet down,” the teacher said. “Miyazato-kun, why were you so late today?”

“What? Sorry, I didn’t hear.”

“I said, why were you so late?”

I looked up at the clock. Three minutes until the class was over. Was that enough to stall? “I was late, because…”

Yasutoki: “…”

Shunto: “…”

The teacher: “…”

Me: “…I’m sorry.”

“So where are we going for lunch?” Yasutoki asked me. “After you give these out.”

“I think I need to leave you alone this lunch actually—I have to go talk to someone.”

The teacher opened her mouth, then muttered, “Forget it.”

“Actually, can you take these to Kobayashi and Sanada?” I gave the bentos to him.

I didn’t want to get too close to girls I didn’t want to romance. It would muddy the waters and probably annoy Yuu. But I still wanted to apologize, just—from a distance.

“Sure, I guess? Where’re you going?”

“Just down to Koi Coffee.”

“Oh, to talk to Yuu? You charmer.”

The bell chimed.

“See you later,” I said, sidling out before the teacher could catch me.

➽──────❥ ❀⊱༺♡༻⊰❀ ➽──────❥

A white paper HELP WANTED sign was pasted across the door. I filed that information away as I stepped in. The bell jingled. Yuu straightened, then glared when she realized it was me.

I walked right up to the counter.

Yuu took a step back. “Can I take your order?”

“Ah…I have…”

“What drink do you want?” she interrupted, insistent.

“Look—I made you a bento, okay?” I put it on the counter. “You don’t have to, I mean, I’ll leave.”

+1 Love Point.

“No, you can—it’s fine,” Yuu said. “Do you want a coffee?”

I was here, so I said yes.

-500 yen.

“That shiner from Takayama?” she asked warily as she made my drink, eyeing my face.

“Yeah—but I promised not to get in fights anymore.”

Her eyes widened a little, then she narrowed her expression, brows angling down. “Sure. How come.”

“It was to, because you didn’t like that stuff,” I said, stumbling over my words a little. “For your sake, and I’ll keep to it, trust me.”

“Why trust you? I hardly know you.”

“Well—I care about you. I want you to be happy.”

+3 Love Points. +2 Drama Points.

Her hand shook, a bit of coffee spilling onto her fawn-colored skin, dripping down. She wiped it off on her apron. “Saying things like that makes you even less trustworthy.”

“Touché,” I said.

She handed me my macchiato. “I guess I’ll go on lunch break, so I can have this bento.”

“Are you working with anyone?” The workspace behind the counter was empty, except for her.

“Yeah, my boss, the store owner. She usually just leaves me up here while she does paperwork and stuff, but when I want to go on break, I can call her out.”

She went to the back, had a brief conversation, and an older woman emerged from that back room to take her place. She took the bento, sat at the same table as me, and opened it up. A genuine smile appeared on her face. “Wow, looks pretty good. You cook Western-style food?”

“I can do both.”

“Seems like. It’s like stir-fry on the top!” Digging through it further, her face soured on seeing the dark chocolate, though she wiped that expression away quickly. Ignoring the candy, she started eating the vegetables and rice.

“Hey.” I took the chocolate bar, twirled it around my fingers, and smoothly replaced it with an extra bag of sour candies I’d bought. “Voila.”

+2 Love Points.

Yuu laughed. Natural, not voice-acted, half a giggle. “Good-looking, can cook, and you’re magic too now?”

“I’m a man of many talents.”

“Those look tasty. Sour candy’s my favorite. But wow, I’ve got so much to eat now.”

“What’s your favorite food?”

“That a leading question? You gonna make more?”

“Perhaps.”

“Don’t.” Startling, intense finality.

I’d been leaning towards her a bit, leaned back, gave her space. Failure will be punished. Suddenly, my heart was beating like a rabbit’s. “…Why?” I ventured.

“I just don’t want to owe you. You know where I work too, so it’s hard to avoid you.”

“I won’t hurt you or anything—Chihara-san—I promise.”

“Don’t think I forgot that you were calling me Yuu the first time we met. Way too familiar, just like that weirdo with the mismatched hair.”

“I hate him too,” I said, happy to have found some common ground.

“I don’t want a boyfriend.”

“We can be friends.”

“I guess…I like being alone, you know?”

“I know. But everyone needs someone in their corner, right?”

“You could be that for me?”

“Yeah.”

“I think you’re just trying to get in my pants.” Before I could interrupt, she continued, “Not sure why you’re going for me, when you can have any girl you want. Those two who follow you around are plenty pretty.”

I couldn’t exactly explain the system prompting my actions, nor could I explain why I liked her when I didn’t, in fact, like her. So, I changed the subject. “I, um, I saw that you were looking for some extra help in the cafe. Right?”

Yuu tapped on the side of the bento with her chopsticks. “Maybe. What’s it to you?”

Confidence, Rin. “Would you hate if I worked with you?”

+1 Love Point.

“I still don’t like where you’re going with this. But I like that you asked how I’d feel. Why not? Interview if you want.”

The owner was still holding down the counter. A young businessman had come in and ordered a coffee, and two girls were waiting for their spinach-kale-peanut butter type smoothies now, shooting glances over at me.

“I can just go up and do it?”

“We don’t have online hiring or anything,” Yuu said, a yes by omission. “Wait until she’s not busy.”

The smoothies were finished and left out on the counter; the girls took them, quietly whispering to each other, still looking over at me. They weren’t wearing school uniforms—they looked like young university students, maybe.

I walked boldly up to the counter. (It was probably fine to use keigo here instead of Ryoya’s ordinary speech patterns…well, not like I ordinarily remembered to drop formalities anyway. Polite speech was kind of an instinct for me.) “Excuse me, I saw the help wanted sign?”

“I heard a bit of your conversation. You know Chihara-kun, right?”

“A bit.”

“So, you’re interested in working here?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What’s your name?”

“Miyazato Ryoya.”

“Do you have any prior experience working in coffee shops?”

“I don’t, but I’m willing to learn.” I don’t, and in fact, my extracurricular activities up to this point have mostly been “get in gang fights”, if it’s Ryoya, or “play video games that make me horny”, if it’s me.

“When is your free time?”

“On weekends, and after school. I’m not in a club or anything.”

“What exactly do you think you can bring to this position?”

“My face,” I said shamelessly.

“Hun, I’m forty-six. I don’t think any teenage boys are pretty.”

“It’ll draw customers. Yuu—Chihara-san can confirm.”

Yuu looked away, head in her hands. Her cheeks were burning red. “Yeah…he does have a lot of girls into him…”

“Alright. You’re hired.”

“What?” I said. “For real?”

“Every young person has to have that first job, right? It’s not fair to expect you all to have full resumes or complete free hours. This was Chihara-kun’s first job, and she’s become a very good employee. I’ll have you on a week-long trial period. If you become good at serving coffee in that time, and are a good worker in general, you can stay on. Come in as soon as your school gets out tomorrow.”

“Thank you so much!” I bowed deeply. “I look forward to working with you!”

“Just so you know,” Yuu said, a smile creeping up her lips, “I don’t date coworkers! How’s that feel now?”

“You underestimate the power of a coffee shop slow burn,” I countered.

Yuu frowned. “What’s a ‘slow burn’?”

“Literally do not worry about it,” I said.

“I hope I won’t have to worry about it,” the owner said. “Head back to school before you’re late for your next period.”

“Oh, I skip all the time.”

“Just go already, prettyboy.”