A Man Called Isao

New week, new Youji. (Not really.)

To forget he existed, he spent the morning watching movies with Jun, who fell asleep midway through the first one. However, one thing differed from the usual: he had to kick Jun out. "I have to go to work," Youji told him.

Jun groaned, half due to waking up, half due to the colossal effort of getting of the couch. "I thought you worked in the afternoon."

"I do. It is the afternoon."

"What the—"

"Actually, I guess you can stay here, since this is technically your house."

Jun waltzed his way to the kitchen since walking would be an even more colossal endeavor. "Oh, shut up. More importantly: what's for breakfast?"

"You mean lunch?"

"...yes."

Youji grinned. "Pizza. It's still warm, I think. There's enough for you and Miyo."

"Pizza? Fucking seriously? You know I'm on a diet."

"Your wife owns a gym."

"Your point?"

Since this conversation would lead nowhere, Youji went to take a shower. Jun, plus pizza, had left by the time he was out. Youji supposed he could've told him that 'enough for you and Miyo' didn't mean all of it, but he kind of lived in their apartment complex for free, so he was in no position to complain.

Landlords? Fed. Pet turtle? Fed. Youji? Not fed enough, but he'd manage.

Youji found himself humming on the way to work. He didn't stop, because why would he? It was a nice day.

He'd arrived early since his first day to help with any errands Mr. Clarence might have needed, but so far, it'd been for naught. Rima was already there, but she didn't help them clean up, nor did she wear their uniform. "It's my day off," she explained. Still, she sat at the table right in front of the spot she worked at.

Mr. Clarence ate chips at the counter. Youji had just cleaned that place. He'd have to do so again. "Oh, yeah, Yoshi—"

"Youji."

"Yoshi?"

"That's not his last name," Rima said.

Mr. Clarence squinted. "It's not?"

"No," replied Youji.

"So Natsume isn't your first name?"

"No," replied Youji.

After a long, strange pause, Mr. Clarence said, "I guess that explains that," before walking back into the kitchen. Even if he messed up every now and then, his Japanese was pretty good, though. 

"Kiryuuin, good afternoon!" Rima waved at Isao as he walked by. He didn't wave back, probably because Youji was there. Silently, he fled to the dressing room. "...ugh. Bad luck, Natsume-san. He's in one of those moods today. Just don't talk to him and you should be fine."

Youji cleaned the counter again. "Why? Did something bad happen?"

"No idea. Sometimes he shows up like that. He's even worse than usual when that happens. I was gonna hang around at the break room, but... yeah. I'll just go and find somewhere to sit. Once you open, can you get me some coffee?"

"Sure." He didn't ask why she spent her day off at work. One, it was none of his business. Two, he he kind of got it.

Upon flipping the sign from CLOSED to OPEN, Isao slithered next to him. He looked so pale that Youji braced himself for Isao passing out at some point during the shift. This was also none of his business. Besides, the less he talked to Isao, the more they'd hopefully tolerate each other.

"Um. Hi. Natsume Youji."

"Oh. Hi, Isao." Don't ask. Don't ask don't ask don't— "Is something wrong?"

Isao glared at him.

"Sorry."

"That's all I am for you, right? 'Something wrong'."

"Sorry." He really should've listened to Rima. Thankfully, the first costumer showed up within minutes. She wanted coffee. Youji brewed one for her, one for Rima, who snorted when she saw him.

"Told you."

Needless to say, Youji didn't talk again after that.

So much for it being a nice day.

"Natsume Youji, isn't it time for your break?"

It was. Two hours later, they'd only had four customers. One of them was Rima. The other was that classmate of hers that kept asking for Youji to take her orders. "I'm fine," he replied. "You can—" He stopped. Right. Isao could take it poorly if Youji offered his break time to him.

Isao said nothing.

By the three hour mark, Youji got a headache. It wasn't only the pounding hard rock from the speakers and obvious animosity, but also hunger. Just another hour left for lunch. At least they'd had a family show up to liven up the place.

Isao didn't take his break, either.

To pass the time, Youji went for one of the manga volumes from the bookshelf that a supposedly 'crazy girl' had left, but when Youji interacted with her during their night shift, she was nice, and even told him she'd bring more next time.

It wasn't high literature or anything, but the core conflict—in which the main character had an internet best friend who also happened to be her worst enemy at school—kept him turning pages. Also, it was pretty funny.

Unfortunately this resulted in him laughing out loud before he could bite it back in time, which caused Isao to jump as though Youji had just punched him. Would apologizing make this worse? Probably? "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's. It's fine." The last word was a whisper.

So Youji stopped reading after that. Fifteen minutes left before lunch break. He could eat a table right now.

"Natsume Youji?"

"Yes?"

"Is something wrong?"

Against his best judgment, Youji looked at Isao, who peeked back from the corners of his eyes. "Not really. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing. Never mind."

Fourteen and a half minutes later, he remembered he'd brought nothing to eat. Youji stared at his empty backpack until Isao walked in, wherein he closed it quickly. "Uh, Isao? Mr. Clarence left. You're the only one who's..."

"It's empty anyway and no one's gonna show up."

This was a horrible thing to think, but Youji wanted some peace and quiet, and he wouldn't be able to get that with Isao around. "Well, that's true. I'm not really hungry, so I'll go back to—"

"Wait."

"No."

Youji said that without thinking. He walked back to the counter without saying anything else. Rima was still there, long after Mr. Clarence had left to, in his own words 'do stuff'. Isao scrambled back out, too. 

"Hey," said Youji, "Don't worry, I'm not hungry, anyway, so I'll just—"

"No, no. Please. I just. Um. The. Your." Isao gestured at his stomach.

Even though they'd turned the volume of the music down after Mr. Clarence dipped, it didn't seem biologically possible for Isao to hear Youji's stomach grumbling, but he digressed.

"I noticed that you kept looking at the pastries and didn't get anything to eat during break. So. What I wanted to say was that I can. Maybe." He covered his face with his hand. "Never mind. Bye." Halfway through his way back, he added, "Wait no not bye you bye I mean go back to the table if someone walks in we'll hear it anyway because of the bell just go."

Youji did. He didn't even know why. It was only then that he noticed he had twelve missed calls, all from Teddy, plus a message saying: wheres the coffee shop? all I saw was this shady-looking place with a name in English where they sell drugs

...right, he forgot he'd invited them. Youji didn't reply. Them showing up today would really not  help.

Isao showed up eighteen minutes later. He placed a cup of coffee in front of Youji at the table, then one for himself, a plate with omelet rice for Youji, a sandwich for himself. "Oh," was all Youji could say. 

Isao took the seat in front of him.

"Did you...?"

"It's not from a box. Wait, no, that sounds suspicious. It's not. I promise. And it's also not burned. I checked. Twice. To see if it's burned. But it's not."

Youji flipped the dish around, because Isao had placed it upside-down, so it'd been hard to tell that the drawing made from ketchup was a smiley face. Youji didn't even know why he stared at it as long as he did. Wasn't he hungry?

"...it's not bad. I promise."

Youji took a bite. 

"I hope."

It was bad.

"How is it?"

Too salty. Kind of greasy. Undercooked. Youji nodded as he ate.

"Good?"

"Mhm."

That was the first time Youji saw Isao grin, though he covered this with his fist. Still, it reached his eyes, and it wouldn't leave. "That's good. Thank you. I mean, you're welcome?"

When he swallowed, Youji said, "Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm so hungry I forgot to—"

"No, no, it's fine. I'm glad you like it."

The coffee was good, at least. 

"I just thought that you were being very quiet today, so that's why I drew that on the omurice. Wait, no. Kind of. I mean, yeah, that too, but it's also because you usually smile a lot but not today. I-I know it's kind of hypocritical for me to ask if something's wrong, but in your case I feel like the phrase actually has meaning, so that's why I did... that..."

When Youji finished sipping, he said, "I'm fine. Also, I disagree: that phrase always has meaning."

Isao rolled his eyes. Wow. "I disagree to your disagreement. I think we both know there's always something wrong with me, so it's pointless for you to ask that all the time, but in your case it's not pointless because you're never something wrong."

"And how would you know that?"

"Because you're nice nice."

At this point, Youji couldn't know if Isao hated him or not anymore. Maybe half of him did; the other half cooked extremely-poorly made meals with unsubtle messages on top. "You're also nice nice," he told Isao.

Youji half-expected him to roll his eyes again when he said, "I think we also both know I'm not."

"Wait, why not? Didn't you just say you cooked this for me? How is that not nice?"

Isao scratched his thumbnail against his glasses. 

"See? And you got me this job. And I saw you help Rima-chan with her homework the other day."

"...okay, but that's not... um. You never answered what was wrong?"

Youji stood up, empty dish and cup in hand. "I'm fine. Thank you, Isao. I'll go back to the counter once I'm done washing these. You haven't had your lunch break yet, right?"

Isao stood up, too. "I'm doing it right now."

"All right. Enjoy, then."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Youji didn't say anything to that, because he didn't know the answer. The question barely registered as such. 

"Never mind," said Isao.

"Uh... well. I think you did enough already? The meal was very nice nice of you."

"Oh. Okay. Also." Isao chewed on his lower lip for so long Youji wondered if he even knew he was doing that. "I know I was mean earlier. That's when I noticed—ugh." The bells at the entrance chimed; he hustled out. After Youji finished washing his dishes, since the new customers' orders required (a minimal amount of) cooking, he stayed at the kitchen. 

He rang the bell near the window leading to the counter for Isao to pick these up, but nothing happened. 

"...Isao?"

Still nothing.

Youji headed outside, orders in hand, just to find Isao crouched in a fetal position behind the counter; soon enough, a familiar voice called out: "Hey Youjiii!" Teddy.

"C'mere." Yamada.

"Oh! He looks so cute with that uniform!" Miyo.

"Where'd the other guy go? I just said hi and the rude ass bitch ran away after taking my order." Jun.

Youji sighed.