Epi.13-5: Ghost Café — Closed

“Welcome—!”
Yuka, dressed in a café uniform, was energetically serving customers.

She would take customers by the hand and lead them to their seats, and her manner of speech—hardly typical of customer service—was, put kindly, friendly, or, put unkindly, a case of misjudged personal distance, but her reputation was unexpectedly not that bad.
It was also possible that there simply wasn’t anyone with the leeway to worry about her choice of words.

At the register, Yuina was trembling, trying not to look toward the hall.
“Yuina-chan, are you scared of ghosts?”
Before she knew it, Sayuri was standing right in front of her.

“Y-yeah… I’m scared.”
Even as she trembled, she managed to show Sayuri a smile.

“So I see.
Then what about me?”
She smiled gently, took hold of the hem of her uniform, and spun around to show her.

“Sayuri-chan, you’re cute.”
“Hehe, yay!”
At Yuina’s words, Sayuri, now in high spirits, headed back toward the hall.
Yuina found herself following her with her eyes, but she ended up seeing something she didn’t want to see and quickly lowered her gaze.

Furuta was seated at a spot where he could look over the café floor from the edge of the room.
Though he told himself to focus on his work, unfamiliar feelings of unease kept appearing and disappearing one after another.
Only a sense of apology and responsibility kept him in that seat.

“Furuta-san, are you scared of ghosts too?”
Standing in front of him was Sayuri, dressed in the shop’s uniform.

“Yeah… I am.”
He thought it might be wrong to show weakness to a girl about half his age, but he couldn’t resist.

“I see.”
She answered briefly, then, as if she had lost interest, walked away from the spot.

After a short while, she came back again.
“I told everyone, ‘Don’t scare Furuta-san,’ so you can relax.”
Saying only that with a smile, she once again wandered around inside the café.

Just the fact that she was fine with ghosts was reason enough to be grateful, so he had hired her as Yuka introduced her, but he still didn’t know who she really was; as far as Furuta was concerned, she was a “self-proclaimed ghost.”

Furuta decided to return the café to normal operations after one week.
It was because the café’s reviews had flared up.

—There’s a real ghost here.
—Even as a production, it’s too much.
—Just passing nearby is scary.

With the staff becoming fixed and unable to take time off, and with concerns about their mental state as well, for Furuta, it could be said to have been a good excuse.

When he informed them that the ghost café was being shut down, the staff showed expressions of relief, but Yuka strongly objected.
However, after bowing his head and saying, “This is just something that can’t be helped in customer service,” he forced her to accept it.

“Good work, everyone—”
Yuka, who offered the farewell with a sigh mixed in, left the café looking openly dejected.

“I had fun—thank you very much.”
As Sayuri smiled and bowed her head politely, Furuta and Yuina returned their thanks with the best smiles they could manage.

“Yuka-chan, wait up—”
She slipped through the fully closed automatic doors and chased after Yuka.

A beat later, the two of them let out a scream.