Mr. Clarence and the Sandwich Factory

That had to be the first time Youji witnessed an angry Rima, and yet, aside from slamming her palm against the metal table in the center of the kitchen, she said and did nothing about the subject. Her commentary was, "At least we'll be busy for once."

As they worked on the first dish, Youji asked, "What's wrong? Do they bother you at school?"

"Not really, no. They're just annoying. Touma is what's wrong."

"...who."

"My boyfriend. Did you notice a guy with sunglasses?"

Youji had. They seemed to be around the same age. 

...must be a more common name than he thought. 

He nodded.

"So yeah, him. He's the one who ordered all of this shit, too, out of spite. We'll end up having to call Mr. Clarence for help."

They would. Other customers could show up, after all, and Isao at the kitchen would be more of a hindrance than anything else. "Is he bothering you?" Youji inquired. "You know we can kick him out, right?"

She sighed, heavily. Since that was her response, Youji let her be. On one hand, the socially responsible thing to do would be to speak to her guardians, were things to escalate, while on the other... there had to be a reason why she spent so much time here and not at home. 

"Uh, Natsume-san? You should answer that."

His phone had been ringing for some time now. "I'll turn it off," he said, "Give me a—"

"Eh, just don't take too long with it. Could be something important."

Since this was Teddy's ID number... it was a coin toss, really. He didn't leave the kitchen as he picked up the call, just in case. "What?" Was Youji's greeting. 

"Yo, You. Get it?"

"I'm at work. Hurry up."

"Oh, right, I forgot. Kinda. Not really. We've been talking to Touma in secret."

He really should've turned the phone off. "And you're telling me this because...? And why now?"

"Ehh..."

Youji hung up. He turned the phone off. Rima had almost finished with the second dish already. Upon completion, Youji chimed the bell so Isao would come to pick the first couple orders up, which he did, not without asking, "Do you guys need h—"

"No."

"No."

"Oh. Okay." He left.

Honestly, it'd never seemed fair for the rest of the group to cut off contact with Touma. After all, the incident had only involved Youji, Teddy, and him. There should've been no reason for Miyo and Jun to ostracize him.

If they'd been talking again for some time now... good? Keeping it a secret, though... bad. The incident had been, what, twelve years ago by this point? All of them were different people now. (Maybe not Miyo.) Teddy even become their friend. 

By the fifth dish, Rima said, "That's it. I'm done. Done."

"Yeah. Call Mr. Clarence."

She did. 

It'd be a funny yet uncanny coincidence if Isao or Mr. Clarence knew a Touma of their own. Different ones. "I'm sorry this is happening," Rima muttered, post-call, as they worked on a cheese-and-ham and tuna sandwich, respectively, "Like I said, he's just doing it to... he's a scumbag. That's why. You must be wondering 'why is she with him then?' and the reason is because he wasn't a scumbag until a few days ago."

Youji let her talk.

"He's trying to get me back into that house."

"...elaborate?"

She didn't.

"What house?" Asked Youji. "Are you in d—"

"No, I'm fine. I'm telling you this because... because you guys are the only ones I can trust at this point." Her voice broke. Her face didn't reflect this. "Let's just finish with this."

"Rima-chan, you can talk to me. It's fine."

"Later. Later. We have work to do."

Mr. Clarence showed up later than sooner with a couple other foreigners. They spoke in a language Youji couldn't even begin to discern, but when Mr. Clarence told them Youji spoke English, they switched to that. "So what's missing?" Asked one of them. "As long as it doesn't have eggs, I can help. I hate eggs."

"I'm not good with this," said the other one. "If the instructions aren't as clear as possible, I'll mess it up. I'm just sayin'."

"That's fine," said Youji. "Let me note them down for y..." he could speak English, but not write it (decently, at least). "...uh, Mr. Clarence? He's asking for instructions."

"Write them down."

"I can't."

"What's going on?" Asked RIma. "What are they saying?"

Mr. Clarence wrote the instructions (presumably) on a napkin. They barely fit. The kitchen was too small for five people. "They're helping us out," Youji replied. "Why don't you go with Isao? He's probably still preparing drinks."

"Uhh... no, thank you. Akari-chan and the rest are still there. I can hear them."

"What's up?" Asked the guy that didn't like eggs. Youji explained what was up. He didn't really mind translating.

"Oh, drinks... yeah, I can't help with that. Hey, Clarence—"

"Natsume can go."

"Natsume can go. Who's that?"

"Are you sure?" Youji asked. Mr. Clarence gave him a thumbs up, then focused back on the napkin. Well. What about Rima? She'd probably be out of the loop with them talking in whatever language that was, alone, and in such a frail mood... 

"What's going on now?" She asked. Reluctantly, Youji told her. "Oh, lucky."

"Lucky? How? If you need any—"

"I'll be fine."

"But—"

Rima pushed him. "Just go with your boyfriend," she said. Immediately, the color drained from her face. Mr. Clarence stopped writing. Egg and not egg guy looked around, confused. "I-I mean... I..."

"Is there a problem?" Asked Mr. Clarence.

Both Youji and Rima turned to look at him. Neither responded. 

"What's wrong, Natsume? Did you two have a fight?"

"No. No. Rima-chan—I mean Ootsuki-san is. She's. Um. No..."

"Did something happen?" Asked egg guy.

In English, Mr. Clarence told him, "He had a fight with the employee outside, I think. The one with a bad dye. And apparently they're boyfriends."

Youji bowed. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I—"

"Natsume."

Youji let out a breath.

"None of you have taken your break yet, right? Ootsuki-chan, once you're done with that dish, you can go. Natsume, you and Kiryuuin can take yours once you're done with the drinks."

"...uh."

"Oh, don't worry, these two are cousins coming over to visit, so they'll make themselves useful whether they want to or not. Just stop fighting while you're inside FRIED TACO SUSHI (GUITARS!!!) or I'll fire you. Now go help Kiryuuin. Go go go."

He went, dazed. On the way to the counter, Isao nearly crashed against him. Since he carried a tray with coffee, it was a good thing that he didn't, maybe. His glasses were on the floor. Youji picked them up. When Isao came back, he whizzed by, back to work.

They worked. 

It wasn't anything he hadn't done before, really. He'd worked at a big coffee chain near the commercial area before, and it'd felt this hectic from beginning to end. By comparison, this place was... too good, almost. 

Everyone, everything. Too good to be true. 

Rima emerged from the kitchen, followed by the egg guy, who told Youji, "Clarence told me to tell you to take a break."

"We're almost done," he replied.

"He said that he'd fire you if you showed opposition."

Youji took Isao with him. However, when he tried to open the door to the break room, Rima locked it from the other side. Isao was the one to say, "Let's give her space."

They did.

They rested on one of the tables outside. As much as it pained him, Youji didn't smoke, just in case. He sat an arm's length away from Isao, just in case. 

He hadn't even noticed Isao's glasses had stayed behind until Youji noticed him squint. "How about you? What's... wrong...?"

It'd be unwise to tell Isao Rima had outed them by accident, so he replied, "Stressed. That's all."

"Liar."

"It's not a lie."

"I mean the 'that's all' part. I know the other part is true."

"There's also the issue with you.... hallucinating?"

Isao stopped squinting to he could look at the ground instead. "Oh, that. Never mind. He's real."

"Was he a customer?"

"Yeah."

"Why did you think you were hallucinating, then?"

"Yeah."

Now Isao was being the secretive one. An eye for an eye, Youji supposed. "Is he still around?"

Isao shook his head. 

"Then I guess it doesn't matter anymore."

"Yeah."