Lunch Break

I assume my life has returned to normal as I take my usual shift. Unfortunately because last night was a fill in on short notice, I still have to take my scheduled shift the following day. Exhausted wouldn’t even begin to describe how I feel as I struggle to keep in a yawn.

“Sorry about the late notice last night.” My boss says after the initial wave of customers for the morning filter out. This is Jinji Tazukuri, the owner of this fine establishment and also my boss. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t feel that bad at all. “I was already planning on meeting some friends when they called in sick. Probably not the best way for you to spend the night alone like that.”

“At least one person did come in though.” I respond. “A woman needed to get a replacement graphics card for her computer after the last one blew up.”

“A woman you say? Heh, is she cute?” Now he’s not asking me this as some sort of tease. One might assume this given his older age that he might view himself as a father to me. I don’t know if I’d call our relationship good or bad, but he’s definitely no father figure in my eyes.

“Too old for me, yet somehow still too young for you.” I reply with a hint of sarcasm. “Just some lady who needed it fixed quickly for work.” I’m careful to avoid giving too many details. While my boss doesn’t care about VTubers, we are in a public area. I’d hate for someone to overhear and learn of her true identity. People can be a bit crazy at times.

“You’re always so cynical.” He ignores my later statement and continues to focus on her. “This is why you’re still single. Never wanting to grab an opportunity when it falls on your lap.”

“And this is why you’re still unmarried.” I counter. I’m not going to take being called single as an insult from someone with the same relationship status while being three times older than me. “It’s whatever anyway, not like I’m going to see her again.”

Right now it’s more important for us to run our store. That’s what pays my bills after all and it’s about that time for a lunch break. Due to our line of work, my actual lunch time is slightly later than everyone else. As this is around the time when other people are going around during their short breaks that leads to a few walking into our store to look around for a bit. They don’t typically make a purchase, but they’re still customers while inside the store.

As I stand by the register, bored by my daily routine. Something happens that ends up breaking the status quo as the front door opens. In walks a woman dressed in the typical attire of someone who works in an office. So well kept from head to toe as she makes a straight beeline to me. “May I help you?” I ask, standing up straight to look presentable on the job.

“It’s me, Sena.” She reveals her true identity, which once again kills all my original expectations.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, looking back and forth in the hopes my boss hasn’t seen her.

“You said this was when you were working.” She answers. “I’m on lunch break right now, so it’s the only time I figured I could see you again.” That still doesn’t explain to me why she’d want to do that. It wasn’t like last night was so special she needed to see someone like me again.

“I guess I did tell you now was a good time.” Already I regret my actions from last night. Were her words really so strong to sway my heart? It’s a bit pitiful for someone like me.

“Ah, young lady.” Right on cue, my boss shows up to lend some so-called ‘help’. “Is there anything in particular you’re looking for?”

“Not really.” She answers. “Actually, I wanted to properly thank this young man here for helping me last night.”

“Ah, so this is the woman he was talking about earlier.” Jinji turns his head my way to give me his smirking face. I simply stare back with indifference.

“Aww, you were talking about me.” She gets all bashful again. It’s a complete misunderstanding. I’m no high schooler who’s expressing himself to his friends about a crush. I was simply just reporting how the night went so my boss would know how it went. “But I didn’t just drop by to talk to you. You said that you’d help on my computer situation?”

“As the owner of this fine establishment.” He doesn’t even give me a chance to respond before cutting and attempting to take her away from me. Not that I have any issues with that though. It’d be nice to have her off my back for a little bit. “I also have plenty of expertise, much more than my young employee here.”

It’s debatable, but he’s not just bragging for the sake of impressing her. He didn’t just open an electronics store just because, he always had an interest in this tech since way before it became mainstream.

“That’s okay, I just want Yuito to help me.”

“Huh?” We both reply in shock. I don’t know why she’d want me specifically. It’s not like I have anything over the other employees. I’d say we’re all pretty equal in our abilities and knowledge.

“It’s hard to explain, but in my line of work, loyalty is a very important asset. Because it builds trust and a strong relationship where you both feel the desire to help the other simply for the sake of the relationship.” She says a bunch of words I don’t really get, but it’s probably just office speak for ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’. “I don’t know much about computers, so I’d feel more confident if it’s Yuito.”

“Ah, I guess fate made me lose this before I even had a chance.” Jinji sighs as he rubs the back of his head. “You heard her Yuito, time for you to shine.” Of course he just gives up knowing he has no chance. That’s the other reason I’m sure he’s still unmarried. He’s not willing to put in any work.

“Yes sir.” With no choice but to comply seeing as this is my job after all. I exit my post at the register for someone else to man and follow along with Sena as we peruse the shelves. “Seeing as it’s your lunch break, I’m guessing you don’t have much time to just look around.”

“After meeting you, I was thinking of just outright replacing my computer.” She gets right to the point. I’m not surprised considering the dinosaur she brought in last night. Just that I wouldn’t think a full on upgrade would be something she’d consider after purchasing a replacement part. “Everyone noticed after the stream restarted how much better the quality was.”

I haven’t seen the replay of it myself yet. Though I’m also not surprised this is the case. Her old graphics card was definitely older than I’d be comfortable with using for a stream. And while the one I picked out for her was still on the low end, it was leagues better than what she had. “Everyone was talking about how smooth the video was and how nice the game looked now.”

“So now you want to improve your stream quality even more?” I ask. It makes sense for someone in her position. Just that I’m surprised she came to us. “We’re not really that type of store, if you know what I mean.” Going by the internet, there are a ton of companies that sponsor and build some pretty sweet builds. Fancy stuff with all the lights and doodads that don’t improve the computer’s function at all.

Meanwhile I work at this small business. Where most of the stuff we have is for the normal person who wants something they can pick up from a store instead of ordering online. Since there are plenty with worries of damage because they think this stuff is delicate. Not to mention we can provide tech support.

“Exactly.” She replies. “So that’s why I want to commission you to build me a new computer.” She smiles in confidence, as if already knowing my answer to be yes.

“I think you’re better off asking a more specialized company for that.” I tell her, much to the obvious disappointment. “We’re kind of limited in some of the fancy stuff.”

“What if I just buy that fancy stuff?” She offers? “Then you could put it all together for me.” That sounds like a bad idea. My boss wouldn’t appreciate me providing services for someone who’s not buying from the store.

“At least half needs to be bought from here.” I inform her, assuming that would be enough to deter her.

“I’ll just take the actual parts from here.” Persistence would be one way to describe her. “Then the heart of this store will beat inside the heart of my computer. All the fancy stuff will come from somewhere else.” Knowing that she plays the role of Mimie Misumi on the internet, she sounds an awful lot like the VTuber she plays. You wouldn’t hear someone speaking like this in a normal context otherwise.

“Guess I don’t have a choice.” There’s no winning against her. I guess me of all people should know that. Mimie Misumi doesn’t give up during her games and it seems it’s because Sena Minomoto doesn’t quit.”