Kuu-Chan Gets A Job

“GOOD MORNING, KUU-CHAN!!!” Noriyuki happily greeted Tomohiro as he came out of his room.

“Ah, good morning,” Tomohiro replied back flatly.

“I’ve already prepared breakfast for us so let’s sit and enjoy the morning together!”

“Uh, about that…”

“Huh,” Noriyuki looked at Tomohiro with a curious expression.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

“Go? Now? Where? It’s the weekend! Don’t tell me Nonoka is stealing you from me again,” Noriyuki had the same vengeful look on his face whenever Nonoka took his Kuu-Chan away from him last time.

“It’s not that. I’m just…busy today,” Tomohiro said the last part quietly.

“Hm? Busy? Are you going to the library to study or something?”

“Uh, sure, I have to go now, I’m sorry. I’ll be back soon, I promise. We can spend the rest of the day together,” Tomohiro did the best he could to not let the conversation go on any longer; he didn’t want Noriyuki to keep questioning him.

“Mm. Okay then. But…,” he slammed his hand on the wall behind Tomohiro and grabbed Tomohiro’s chin to make their eyes meet, “You’re all mine when you come back.”

Tomohiro stared at him blankly, “Mm. Sure,” he replied nonchalantly.

Noriyuki sighed disappointingly, “At least pretend to be flustered,” he begged.

“Mmmm, you mean like this?” Tomohiro leaned towards Noriyuki and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Noriyuki gasped and quickly backed away. He placed his hand on his cheek which was red from blushing. “That made me actually flustered,” he yelled out of embarrassment.

Tomohiro smirked, “Just thought I would give you something to make up for this.”

“I’ll never wash this cheek again,” Noriyuki confidently declared.

“That’ll be the last kiss you’ll ever get from me then,” Tomohiro retorted back. He had a small smile on his face as he looked into Noriyuki’s loving eyes. “So, I’ll see you later then.” Tomohiro walked over to the front door.

“Mm. Don’t stay out too long. I’ll be waiting,” Noriyuki flashed a bright smile which made Tomohiro feel happy inside. When Tomohiro left the apartment, Noriyuki was still standing in the same spot holding his cheek. He let out a goofy chuckle and said to himself, “Hehe, Kuu-Chan just gave me a kiss.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Noriyuki was walking across campus by himself with a gloomy expression, face turned towards the ground. During the weekend, he barely had time to spend with Tomohiro since the latter left home extremely early and came back home late at night. Now that it’s the weekday, he at least got to spend a bit of his morning with Tomohiro before class, but Tomohiro would still come back home extremely late.

“What is he doing? He’s being secretive and won’t tell me anything.” Noriyuki then had a thought that caused him fear, “Is it possible that…he’s seeing someone else?” He shook his head at that thought, “No, no, no. I won’t doubt him like that. I trust him and he’s not the type of person to do that anyways.” He let out a big sigh as he was thinking, “I hope he’s doing okay.”

“Noriyuki?”

Noriyuki’s thoughts were interrupted by Osuke’s voice. He came back to reality and saw Osuke standing in front of him with Mei. “Oh, Osuke.”

“Are you doing okay? You don’t seem like you.”

Noriyuki let out an even bigger sigh, “I haven’t seen my Kuu-Chan in a while, of course I’m not okay.”

“Kuu-Chan? You know Kuu-Chan,” Mei asked in a surprised tone.

“This is Aikou Noriyuki, Kuu-Chan's boyfriend,” Osuke explained to her.

“Ahh. You know, it’s weird that he said that because we haven’t seen him at the club recently either.”

“You know Kuu-Chan,” Noriyuki placed his hands on her shoulder with a crazed expression as he asked her that.

Mei was a bit creeped out by Noriyuki’s behavior and nervously chuckled, “We’re both in the Gardening Club together. I’m Hirano Mei, the vice president.”

“I see. So, you said you haven’t seen him at all this week?”

“No,” Mei’s expression changed to a curious one. “We’d usually see him go almost everyday to tend to the garden, but he hasn’t been there for the past few days.

“I saw him in the Science building a few days ago, so at least we know he isn’t skipping classes,” Osuke added.

Noriyuki let out a groan of frustration, “What could he be doing?”

“Why don’t you ask Nonoka? Kuu-Chan usually tells her everything,” Osuke suggested.

“I did ask her, but she said she had no clue either.” Noriyuki’s gloomy expression came back.

“You know, why don’t you do something to get your mind off of him,” Mei happily suggested.

“Get my mind off of him? I never want to stop thinking about Kuu-Chan,” Noriyuki declared proudly.

Osuke looked at his friend with embarrassment as he noticed people were looking at Noriyuki. “Hey, you like cat cafes right? There’s a new one that opened up near the school. Mei and I were just talking about it. How about we all go this weekend?” Osuke tried his best to cheer up his friend.

“Cats will remind me of Kuu-Chan. They’re cute but cold, just like him,” Noriyuki quietly whined.

Osuke sighed with disappointment, “Look, I can’t stand seeing you like this. You can either mope around all weekend or go play with cute cats with the rest of us.”

“Hmmmm, mope,” Noriyuki replied.

“You’re coming with us,” Osuke quickly retorted back.

“Oh, would it be okay if I can invite the Gardening Club members? We could use a bit of time to de-stress from all the work we’ve been having,” Mei kindly asked.

“Mm, that would be great. I’ll call Nonoka and tell her about it. And Noriyuki, try to ask Kuu-Chan if he can join us.”

“Hm? Wasn’t this whole thing to help make me forget about Kuu-Chan,” Noriyuki asked with a confused expression.

“Yes, but if he’s suddenly free that day, won’t it be great if he could spend time with us?”

“You’re right! Maybe I will get to spend time with my Kuu-Chan after all.” Noriyuki’s expression changed to a bright one. “But…you guys better not steal him away from me. I get to spend the most time with him, understand?” His face turned grim as he spoke with a serious tone.

“U-uh…Understand,” Mei and Osuke answered nervously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the evening, Noriyuki was in the apartment alone, drawing designs in his sketchbook in the living room. For the past few days, Noriyuki had been trying to find ways to kill time. He’s already been caught up with schoolwork, added in more study hours to where he already memorized everything being learned in class, and fully deep cleaned the entire apartment. Tomohiro would come home in the evening time, too tired to eat or have conversations with Noriyuki; once he got home, the only thing he wanted to do was get some sleep. This evening was going to be the same as usual.

As Noriyuki was working on his sketches, the apartment door opened and Tomohiro came in with a worn out expression.

“Kuu-Chan,” Noriyuki said softly.

“Sorry I got here late again,” Tomohiro had a guilty expression since he felt bad for leaving Noriyuki alone.

Noriyuki gave him a genuine smile, “It’s okay, no need to apologize for that.”

Hearing that, Tomohiro returned a smile towards Noriyuki. “I’m gonna go get ready for bed. I’m so tired today,” Tomohiro yawned as he walked across the living room to head down to the hall where his room resided.

“Oh, Kuu-Chan,” Noriyuki called out before Tomohiro left the living room.

“Hmm?” Tomohiro turned around to face Noriyuki.

“So, Osuke wanted to go to this new place that opened up this weekend and is going to invite everyone. I wanted to ask, if you're not busy, then do you want to go with us? I think you’ll really like–”

“I’m sorry, Yuki,” Tomohiro interrupted him.

“Hm?”

“I’m going to be busy this weekend too. And probably for the next few weekends.”

“Oh,” Noriyuki said in a dejected tone.

“I’m sorry, it’s just for a little while.”

“O-oh,” Noriyuki gave Tomohiro a smile to mask his sadness. “I see. That’s okay, then.”

Tomohiro felt even more guilty as he could see through Noriyuki and could tell that he wasn’t okay. “I’m sorry. Are you really okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine!” Noriyuki tried to sound upbeat. “I’m fine. Go to sleep. You had a long day today!”

Tomohiro sighed, “I promise I’ll make up for lost time. Goodnight.” Tomohiro went down the hallway and entered his room leaving Noriyuki alone again. Once he was in his room, he quickly changed into his pajamas and plopped down on his bed face first. It didn’t take long until he quickly dozed off into a deep sleep. While he was asleep, his phone, which was still in his pants pocket, was buzzing. Nonoka was calling him to tell him about Osuke’s plan for the weekend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“We’re here,” Osuke announced with a smile on his face. He, Noriyuki, Mei, Takuya, and Nako were standing in front of a small, beige, building with a sign on top reading, “Nekomoto Cafe” with a graphic of a cute cat face next to it. The group looked at the place with bright eyes and smiling faces.

“Why’d we have to come so early? It doesn’t look like they’re open yet,” Takuya pointed out. Inside, there were no customers present. The group arrived at the place exactly when it was going to start opening.

Osuke smirked, “We have to get here early, so we can play with all the cats before anyone else has the chance to.”

“Ohhh,” Nako exclaimed in awe as she heard Osuke’s justification.

“Just because people aren’t here doesn’t mean it’s not open, see?” Mei pointed at the time stamp shown on the door informing customers that they open at 9:00am and then took out her phone to show that it was 9:02.

“Exactly, and we have all the cats to ourselves.” Osuke looked at Noriyuki who seemed down. He went up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, “Let’s try to have some fun today,” Osuke gave Noriyuki a wide grin which made him feel a bit better. “Okay, what are we standing here for? Let’s go!”

As Osuke opened the front door, the bell rang out to signal that customers were entering the shop. The inside of the cafe was painted with a beige color with some modern artwork hanging on the walls. The seating area was fairly huge and was very clean showing the amount of work the workers put in to keep the place as inviting as possible. On the back wall stood glass double doors which led to the cat lounge where customers can interact with the cats. On the left wall, there was an opening the size of a door which led to the kitchen and in front of it was a long counter, where people could pay, that doubled as a showcase containing pre-sliced cakes.

“Welcome! I’ll be there in a bit!” A voice called out from the kitchen.

“Okay,” Mei replied back to let the worker know they were heard.

“This place is really nice,” Takuya pointed out as he looked around.

“When do we get to play with the cats,” Nako asked Osuke with a determined expression.

Osuke smirked, “As soon as we’re done ordering, we can go play with them as long as we want.” His expression turned sinister, “Since we’re the only ones here, we can monopolize our time with them,” he let out an evil chuckle.

Just then, the door behind them opened causing everyone to turn their attention to the person coming in. Nonoka came inside and was panting hard as she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

“What are you doing here? I thought you couldn’t come,” Osuke questioned with a confrontational tone.

Nonoka was still panting and tried to catch her breath. “What are you…doing here so early,” she managed to finish her sentence.

“Did you lie to us so you can get here and have the cats all to yourself?” Osuke gave her a dirty look.

“It’s…not…like that. I’m here cause–”

“Sorry for the wait, welcome to–” A familiar face came out of the kitchen to greet them but paused when he realized who was standing in front of him.

“Kuu-chan?” Noriyuki asked.

Tomohiro’s face turned red out of embarrassment from being caught by his friends. He was wearing a waiter outfit and a cat ear headband, which the manager required all of the workers to wear.

“Kuu-Chan? Are you working here?” Noriyuki asked him with sparkles in his eyes.

Tomohiro stuttered as if he had forgotten how to speak correctly.

“Is this what you’ve been doing all this time?”

The more Noriyuki asked, the more Tomohiro couldn’t talk.

“Nonoka. You’re late.” A young man entered through the glass doors that led to the cat lounge.

“Ah, sorry, Boss,” Nonoka had a mix of exhaustion and guilt on her face.

“Just because you’re family doesn’t mean you get to skimp out on your responsibilities,” the Boss had a stern look on his face that expressed disappointment. “Get changed and help Tomohiro with the rest of the preparation.”

“Family? Nonoka, your family owns this place,” Osuke asked with wide eyes.

“It’s my uncle’s place,” Nonoka explained with a sheepish smile. “Kuu-chan and I are just helping out here a bit whenever we have time.”

“I see.” Noriyuki looked at Tomohiro who was blushing due to the fact of being caught by everyone and smiled at how cute he looked. “Excuse me, waiter,” Noriyuki called out.

Tomohiro turned his attention to Noriyuki who was giving him a wide smile. He quickly turned away to avoid making eye contact with Noriyuki. “Y-yes,” he stuttered.

“We’ve been standing here for a while now, would you mind showing us to our seats?”

“Y-yes, I can help you with that,” Tomohiro quickly grabbed some menus from the back and went over to everyone. When he stood in front of them, he looked at the ground so no one could tell he was blushing.

“Kuu-chan–” Nonoka started.

“It’s okay, I can take care of them, just go finish prepping in the kitchen please,” he told her.

“Are you sure? Cause I can–”

“Should I get the boss and tell him you’re trying to interfere with Kuu-chan’s work?” Noriyuki gave Nonoka a mischievous look.

Nonoka softly growled at Noriyuki and gave him a dirty look. “Don’t act surprised if your drink tastes like dishwater,” she threatened and left to go to the back leaving Tomohiro with everyone.

“P-please follow me,” Tomohiro started leading them into the seating area.

“I feel like I’ve seen the manager before,” Osuke said as everyone followed Tomohiro.

They all arrived at a table near the window that sat six people. When everyone was seated, Tomohiro handed out the menus to everyone and took out a notepad and pen from his waist apron. “I can take your order when you’re ready.”

“Hmm, I’ll take an americano,” Mei started.

“Me too, and can you mine iced,” Takuya added.

“I’d like a latte please,” Nako softly spoke up.

“One orange juice please,” Osuke ordered with a grin.

“You came to a coffee shop to order juice? Are you a grade schooler,” Noriyuki retorted.

Osuke smirked, “I told you, I’m only here for the cats.”

Noriyuki sighed in response to his friend’s answer. He cleared his throat, “Well then,” his expression changed to a mischievous smile, “I’d like a latte too please. Can you add one extra shot of espresso, two pumps of hazelnut, a dash of cinnamon, extra whipped cream on top and make it iced please,” he gave Tomohiro a bright smile. Tomohiro felt annoyed at Noriyuki for having fun with this situation. Everyone at the table felt awkward as they sensed a tiny bit of tension between the both of them.

“Uh, maybe you should take it a bit easy on him,” Mei quietly spoke up.

“Hmm? He’s been working here for a while now. I’m pretty sure he’s got the hang of everything,” Noriyuki replied back. Mei didn’t know how to respond back to that since it was probably true.

“I-I’ll be back with your orders,” Tomohiro left to go to the back where Nonoka was slicing cakes to put into the display case. “Here are their orders.” Tomohiro handed over the note page to Nonoka.

“Mm. I’ll help you get started on these.” Nonoka stopped what she was doing and grabbed some cups from a cupboard. She took one cup and started filling it with sink water.

“Uh, what are you doing,” Tomohiro asked with a dumbfounded expression.

“This one is for Noriyuki,” Nonoka looked at Tomohiro with dead eyes.

“You’re just asking to be fired at this point,” Tomohiro retorted back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once everyone was done with their drinks, they headed to the cat lounge making Tomohiro feel like there was a weight lifted off his shoulder. Whenever they were in the cafe portion, Tomohiro could feel Noriyuki’s eyes on him the entire time, making him overly self-conscious, but now he was able to work normally. Although, he kept looking at the time and eyeing the cat lounge, hoping that everyone was going to leave soon.

Tomohiro was standing behind the front counter watching over the customers in case someone needed help. Nonoka came up behind him and grabbed one of his shoulders, “Are you okay?” Her eyes expressed concern for her friend.

Tomohiro sighed, “I’m okay.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t do my best to hide this from them.”

“No, don’t blame yourself. It actually wasn’t that bad that they found out. Noriyuki reacted better than I thought, so I was probably just overthinking it before.”

Nonoka smiled at his response.

“But…,” Tomohiro clenched his fist, “Why did he have to make me do that?”

“Eh? Do what?”

Flashback

“I swear I’ve seen the manager before,” Osuke said before Tomohiro arrived at their table.

“Here are your drinks,” Tomohiro passed out everyone’s order to them and was about to leave until Noriyuki stopped him.

“Excuse me, is there any way you could possibly make this drink better,” Noriyuki asked.

“Huh? You haven’t even drank any of it yet, how would you know it doesn’t taste good?”

“Oh my! Is that any way to talk to a customer?”

Tomohiro scowled at Noriyuki but calmed down after he took a deep breath. “My apologies sir, how can I help you with your order?” He was trying hard to maintain his composure but felt that Noriyuki was about to break it.

“I was hoping you’d know of a way to make this drink better. Possibly like…a spell to make food more delicious or something like that,” Noriyuki’s eyes were full of mischief.

Tomohiro couldn’t believe what he just heard and his face turned a bright red. “We-we don’t provide that type of service here, sir.”

“Oh, really? MANAGER!” Noriyuki called out and the manager came out from the kitchen.

“Yes? Is something wrong?”

“I was hoping the waiter could cast a spell on my drink to make it taste better.”

Tomohiro was gesturing to his boss to reject Noriyuki’s proposal.

“They do that here too?” A customer asked.

“I want the cute waiter to do that to my order!” Another customer spoke up.

“Waiter, waiter, please cast a spell here too!” Another one called out.

The boss looked at Tomohiro with an apologetic smile to which Tomohiro knew what that meant. He walked over to Noriyuki’s table and with a red face put a hand over Noriyuki’s drink. Osuke and Nako looked at Tomohiro with surprised expressions whereas Takuya and Mei looked at him endearingly with Mei recording the whole thing. “N-nyan nyan power, make this drink delicious,” Tomohiro tried his best to adlib. Tomohiro’s spell made everyone at the table blush over his cuteness.

Noriyuki took a sip from his drink and smiled, “Mmmmm, delicious! That spell really does work!”

“Me next!” A customer yelled out.

“No, my table first!”

“I’m so glad I came here!”

Flashback end

“Next time something like that happens again, I’m telling the boss I’m quitting,” he threatened.

“I think you need this job as much as he needs workers,” Nonoka blankly replied back.

“Kuu-chan,” Mei called out. Tomohiro turned his attention towards his friends.

“Oh, yes? How was everything?”

“We had a great time today. But, it was even better cause we got to see you again too!”

“Mei…,” Mei’s words made Tomohiro feel warm inside.

“I know I’m gonna be back soon. The cats here are so cute and now that I know you work here, I’ll come a lot to support you,” Osuke gave Tomohiro a thumbs up.

“Please come back to the club when you have more time,” Nako told Tomohiro, making him gain a small smile.

“We hope we’ll see you there again,” Takuya added. “Kuu-Chan, as the club president, don’t be afraid to tell me if something’s going on.”

Tomohiro was taken aback by all of their encouraging words. He gave all of them a smile, “Thank you, everyone. I hope to see all of you again soon.”

Everyone looked at Tomohiro in awe as they’ve never seen him have this type of expression before.

“Tomohiro, can you get these out to the table in the back,” the manager came out of the kitchen and set two drinks down on the counter.

“Yes sir,” he turned back around to face his friends, “I’m sorry–”

“It’s fine. We need to head out now, too. Just don’t work too hard here. When you come back, there’ll be loads for you to do at the club too,” Takuya joked. Everyone started their way out of the shop.

“I know that guy looks familiar to me,” Osuke said.

“You’re probably mistaking him for someone else,” Mei replied back and they all left the shop.

Tomohiro smiled as he watched everyone leave, only to turn around to find Noriyuki standing behind him.

“Yuki…”

Noriyuki gave Tomohiro a wide grin, making him let out a small chuckle.

“I guess I’ll see you at home once I get off.”

“Hmmm, I think you’ll be seeing me more today,”

“What…You’re not coming back…right?” Tomohiro didn’t like where this was going. He was dreading the idea of Noriyuki coming back and causing him embarrassment.

“No, I won’t be coming back,”

Tomohiro let out a sigh of relief.

“Cause I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying here until you get off.”

“...eh?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’ll get going now,” Tomohiro called out to Nonoka and the manager who were finishing up cleaning after closing time. It was 6:30pm when Tomohiro was done with his shift. “Be careful on your way home Nonoka, sorry I can’t walk home with you today.”

“It’s okay, Chisei is going to drive me home, so it’s all good. And, I don’t think he’ll want me around anyway,” Nonoka referred to Noriyuki who was giving her a dirty look since she “stole” Tomohiro away from him for a long time.

“You’re probably right,” Tomohiro was eyeing Noriyuki with a blank expression.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, Tomohiro,” Chisei called out.

“Mm. See you tomorrow, Boss!” Tomohiro and Noriyuki left the shop and were on their way home until midway to the bus stop, Tomohiro entered a park and sat on a swing, staring at the ground.

Noriyuki followed him in and stood in front of him. “You want to play after working the whole day? Do you have more energy now that I’m here with you?” He leaned towards Tomohiro and tilted his head in a playful way until their faces were about 3 inches apart. Tomohiro didn’t budge and kept staring at the ground. Noriyuki stood back up normally and let out a sigh. “I guess there’s no trying to avoid this. You’re mad at me, aren’t you? Just give me all you got. I deserve it,” Noriyuki was ready for Tomohiro to just blow up.

“I…I…I’m sorry,” Tomohiro softly spoke.

“Huh?” Noriyuki looked at Tomohiro with a curious expression after hearing something he didn’t expect.

“I am mad, but it’s more towards me. I’m mad at myself for not being honest with you before.”

“Hmm? Well,” Noriyuki went to sit on the swing beside Tomohiro’s, “To make up for it, why don’t you be honest now? Why’d you decide to get a job and not tell me?”

Tomohiro hesitated to give a reply back but didn’t want to back out of his word to be more honest. He let out a sigh, “Do you remember when my mom came and she wanted to see me outside?”

“Oh yeah, I was wondering why, but I assume it might’ve been private family stuff.”

“Well, it was. My dad just got laid off from his previous job so he’s currently job hunting again. Because of that, they wouldn’t be able to help pay for my share of the rent, so they told me I would have to move in with them. I didn’t want to move out, so I told them I’d get a job to pay for my own rent. Luckily, Nonoka was able to get me hired at her cousin’s cafe. If I didn’t decide to do this, my parents were going to pay for the penalty fees to get me out of the contract. That’s why I chose to do this. I didn’t want to leave.”

“Kuu-Chan, if you needed help, I could’ve–”

“No,” Tomohiro interrupted Noriyuki. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. If I told you, I knew you’d say something like that and offer help because that’s all you do. All you do is help me. I wanted to be able to do something myself. I don’t want to keep relying on you. You do so much right now, with school, and taking care of the apartment, and trying your best to keep me happy. I could barely handle taking care of myself when I was living alone. I think I’m getting too comfortable with always relying on you. I need to be able to rely on myself too.”

“Kuu-Chan…,” Noriyuki was taken aback by Tomohiro’s confession.

Tomohiro let out another sigh, “Listen to that. I say I want to rely on myself more, but I’m just choosing this way so I can continue to rely on you.”

“Please continue to rely on me,” Noriyuki said abruptly.

“Yuki…,”

“The two of us are supposed to rely on each other. As a couple, that’s what we’re supposed to do.” Noriyuki got up and stood in front of Tomohiro. He placed a hand on his shoulder making Tomohiro look up at him. “I like it when you rely on me. I would actually be glad if you rely on me a bit more.”

“But…,”

“To me, it seems like you’re like this because you’re not used to relying on others. Growing up, I always had people I could rely on, so it feels nice to be needed by someone else for once. Hearing about what your family told me, it seems you were always self-reliant growing up. So, it’s okay if you’re relying on me now. It’s okay for you to take it easy. Rely on me when you can and I’ll rely on you a lot too. That’s the point of being together.”

“Yuki…,”

“Ah, listen to me. I probably sound like some character from a romance manga,” Noriyuki let out a sheepish chuckle.

“No, you sounded cool,” Tomohiro looked up at Noriyuki with a small smile leaving him flustered. “Well,” Tomohiro got up from the swing and took Noriyuki’s hand. “Could I rely on you a bit more tonight by making dinner for me?”

Noriyuki smiled, “Mm.” They started on the way back to their regular destination. “But, I need you to do something for me too.”

“What is it?”

“Cast your spell tonight to make the food more delicious.”

“No. Never again.”

“Come on. Nyan Nyan power, activate,” Noriyuki declared loudly.

“Ahhh, stop!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kuu-Chan Shorts

“I swear I’ve seen that guy somewhere before,” Osuke was deep in thought.

“You’ve been going at this for the past few days now, why don’t you just ask Kuu-Chan,” Noriyuki suggested.

“Fine.”

At the cafe

“Hey, Kuu-Chan, does your boss go to our school? I feel like I’ve seen him around before.”

“No, but he did go there once to tutor me,” Tomohiro replied.

“That’s right! He’s the one Noriyuki wanted me to spy on.”

Osuke texted Noriyuki what he found out to which Noriyuki replied, “Osuke, I have another mission for you!”

“Not a chance!” Osuke replied back.