Just The Two Of Us (We Can Make It If We Try) [END]

"Sakuta, reporting for duty! Good morning!"

The bell on the front door of the small bakery, set in between a cooking shop and a fabric store in this small side street in Chiba City, jingles when I walk in.

What am I doing in Chiba? I moved, obviously. My landlord didn't take too kindly to me telling him where to shove it. Within a day after I was discharged from the hospital, I was homeless. But I didn't care. I had Hanabi, so I had a roof that I could stay under.

I quit the Kyoudai Mart, too. The manager passive-aggressively complained about my "lack of desire to work hard" the first day I got back, so I went back into the changing room, changed out of my uniform and badge, and left them on the cash register. I never went back. I think I saw Miyata giving me a fist pump as I left.

We had enough from the little money that Hanabi had left over from life insurance and my consolation prize, and I made enough selling all the appliances I didn't need to have something in my pocket...but that meager income wouldn't last very long covering two NEETs. Something had to change. Very soon, it did.

Hanabi had a letter of recommendation to a small college in Chiba City that apparently never expired. Even two weeks before the semester began, it was still valid. So both of us packed up, leaving the frozen north we'd known all our lives behind, and headed to Kanto. There were cherry blossoms falling the day we moved into the small apartment we're now calling home. I didn't even realize that was a thing outside movies and books until I left Aomori.

Life moved fast from there. Hanabi met a couple girls at college and became friends with them. One of them was the daughter of the owners of a local chain of bakeries that had just opened a new store in the area and needed employees desperately. Especially a delivery driver. So that's how I ended up here, tying a bandana on my head, ready for another day of driving a V*spa all over the city, bringing cookies and cakes to whoever wants them. No matter where you are, Patisserie Suzu is never too far away. That's the motto us delivery boys live by. Or it would be, if there was another one besides me.

Oh, and I got a haircut and started wearing contacts. I can't have my glasses falling off while I'm rocketing down city streets on a tiny little scooter at 80 kmh. That's the quickest way for me to go visit my parents before I'm ready. And now that I have enough of an income to get haircuts and buy new clothes, I've noticed girls staring. Not that I can return their affections. My heart already belongs to someone.

"Good morning!" The girl behind the register smiles when she sees me. Satou is always raring to go, no matter how early it is.

"Good morning..." The young man in the chef's whites, yawning, is the complete opposite. Uematsu is not a morning person. I wonder why he took the prep cook job to begin with.

"Listen, Sakuta." Uematsu shambles over to me like a zombie. "I got an important question for you."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"How did you manage to get such a cute girlfriend?!" he cries in anguish. Here we go again. He asks me this every other day.

"Uh, I-" The hell if I know, dude! It was all luck!

"You gotta introduce me to her friends or something! Please, man!" He grabs me by the shoulders and starts shaking. "I'm dyin' here-"

"Hey! Uematsu! Get back in the kitchen! You want me to dock your pay?"

At the sound of the shrill yap, Uematsu stiffens, quickly high-tailing it back behind the curtain that leads to the back.

"Good morning, Manager..." I say cheerily, trying to come across as non-threatening as possible.

"Miyu-chan!" Satou chirps excitedly.

"I really wish you wouldn't call me that, Rucchan..." The girl who's just emerged from the store bathroom, wearing the same white bandana and apron over a red shirt as everyone else, flicks her gaze to the side bashfully. "...I'm only the stand-in, you know. Until they hire someone...I'm doing it as a favor to Rei-chan..."

That's Kaneko, the assistant manager. Or the stand-in. Or whatever she's calling herself. We don't have a lot of employees that need to be managed in the first place- so a glorified cashier is doing it.

"You're doing a great job!" Satou replies, as full of energy as ever.

"Yeah, what she said..."

"Hmpf." The acting manager flips her long hair over one of her shoulders. "I've told you guys before. Once my modeling career takes off, I'm blowing this place-"

Behind me, the bell clatters and the door creaks. "Welcome!"

The employees, including me, all pipe up at exactly the same time, but I don't even turn around to see who it is. There's only one person that comes in at 7:55 am each morning, like clockwork.

"Hanabi!" The acting manager bounds from behind the desk, rushing toward the door to greet the customer.

"Miyu-chan-"

I turn around just in time to see the acting manager, with a look of pure joy on her face, wrapping her arms around my girlfriend, who's giggling, her eyes closed.

"Miyu, stop it..." Hanabi gasps between peals of laughter. "You know I'm ticklish..."

"Dammit, why do you have to be so CUTE?!" Kaneko squeezes harder.

"Sexual harassment..." Hanabi can barely breathe out her protest in between giggles.

"Hey, stop, that's my-"

"You want me to dock your pay, Sakuta?" Kaneko, still with her arms wrapped around Hanabi, glares lasers at me.

"Um, no..."

"Right!" Kaneko hops back, acting like she didn't just attempt to feel up someone else's girlfriend. That's the kind of thing that causes fights. Or so I've heard. I don't think I could win one, even if I was mad enough. "The usual for you?"

"Yup!"

"Coming right up!" Kaneko hops back over the counter, fiddling with the glass pastry case, leaving Hanabi and me alone, right next to each other.

Ugh. I'm still self-conscious and don't know what to say. We've been dating for months now and live under the same roof and I still get uncomfortable around her.

"Everything going okay at school?" Internally, I wince at my dad-like question. But I can't help it.

"Yeah, pretty much." She shrugs, looking to the side.

"When are you going to be home today?"

"4, same as usual. You?"

"I've got overtime today. Until 8. We're so short-staffed."

"Oh." She looks down at the ground, a bit of a pout forming on her face. "I guess I'll get the grocery shopping done, then...and make dinner..."

"You'll be okay? You're not gonna start another fire?"

"Enough about that one time!" Indignantly, she gently punches me in the arm. "I'm not a little kid! I can take care of myself!"

For the first time today, a smile crosses my lips as I recall the time I came home to see two fire trucks pulling up to our small apartment while all the other students, old people and freeters who live in the same building were standing outside confused. Hanabi is a hopeless cook, even worse than me. I found that out the hard way. There's a reason she was never in serious consideration for a job at the bakery. The whole building would be reduced to ashes in record time if they let her in the kitchen.

...Not like I'm G*rdon R*msay, but it’s nice to be better than her at just one thing.

"Croissant and a cappuccino-" Kaneko stops in front of us, seeing the pout on Hanabi's face. "Is he bullying you?"

"Hmpf." Hanabi sticks her head out to the side, nose up, like an upset puppy.

"I'm docking your pay, Sakuta."

"What?! Hold on!"

"Just kidding." The acting manager shrugs. "Way more trouble than it's worth. Gosh, you're so uptight. It's just money."

Can you blame me?! Anyone who says "it's just money" has NO IDEA what I've been through!

"I ought to slap you instead...for bullying my Hanabi."

"Please don't."

"It's alright, Miyu-chan..." Hanabi sighs.

The manager haughtily struts back to her position behind the counter. "If he keeps being mean to you, let me know. I'll twist his nuts into a pretzel."

"Please don't."

"Miyu-chan's something else..." Hanabi smiles as soon as we're alone again. "I was worried you two wouldn't get along. I'm glad you're friends."

"I wouldn't call it that..."

Hanabi checks the small watch wrapped around her wrist, the band intertwined with gold and mother-of-pearl, as she blows on the to-go cup of coffee in her hands. "Oh. I've got to get going. Do your best at work today." She smiles.

"You too. See you later."

With a jingle, the door closes, and she leaves.

This is the part where you're expecting me to say that everyone lived happily ever after for the rest of time, and Hanabi and I had a bunch of kids and grew old together. In reality, life isn't that simple. Even though we're together now, some freak act of God could completely upend our lives and put us back at square one. It happened to me before, and it can happen again.

And just because you finally got the girl of your dreams doesn't mean that the rest of the world will stop to pat you on the back. Bills don't care how in love you are. Neither do taxes. We've still gotta pay them. We’ve still gotta make money. Who knows what unexpected events will be waiting for us in the future?

Your childhood dreams usually don't come true. But that doesn't mean your life is over. Your dreams can change just like everything else in your life.

When I was young, I wanted to be with Mom and Dad forever. Now, I'll be happy so long as I'm with Hanabi. No matter what the world throws at us, so long as we're together, we'll get through it.

Life can change in an instant. So for now, I'm enjoying the ride.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I take it out, quickly unlocking it to try and hide it from the manager's prying eyes.

...It's a notification from N*rou.

User [Seigo Kurokami] has liked [Chapter 1: Dreams and Nightmares].