Haji carefully balanced the fifteen thousand yen in his hands, his eyes bulging from disbelief. It would be understandable for him if the fifteen thousand yen was part of his salary, and that Mr. Kikuchi simply handed that portion to him so he would be more motivated when it cos to the bodyguarding duties but no— Mr. Kikuchi made it crystal clear to him that the fifteen thousand yen wasn’t even part of his salary. It was just his allowance.
When Haji accepted the job, he even forgot that allowance and free cafeteria food was part of the agreent. And that’s due to his younger sister’s ergency back at the hospital— when he entered the company building, the first and foremost thought in his mind was that his sister needed the money and that’s why he’s accepting the job. As much as he hated working under gumi, much less guarding her with his life, he accepted the job. There was nothing more important for him than saving his sister and that drive was what prompted him to swallow his pride. In the end, it turned out even better than Haji had accepted... and that’s because Haji was expecting the least in the first place.
"Mrs. Kikuchi did tell to et her at the coffee shop... I wonder what she has to say to ."
The Moonlight Cafe had a typical wooden veranda, with wooden tables and chairs made out of single pieces of logs. What Haji first noticed though were the wooden trellises with pink, purple, and white flowers on them, running through the trellises, the vines they are.
"They’re called bougainvillea, beautiful, right? In flower language, it symbolizes unrivaled beauty, hospitality, and resiliency." Haji heard a gentle voice behind him, making him turn around.
It was none other than Mrs. Kikuchi, standing right below Haiji’s eye level and waving toward him. "You ca, I thought you’d be heading straight to school after your recruitnt."
"Hello ma’am," Haji formally greeted, bowing down even though no one asked him to. He was wearing his uniform but to anyone passing by, he seed more respectful than most employees out there.
"No need to be so rigid," She said, grabbing Haji by the arm, literally dragging him to one of the seats by the veranda.
’Okayy?’ Haji said in his mind, stiffly sitting down on the table as one of the waitresses approached them.
"Order anything, it’s my treat." She offered, extending her hands towards Haji as she handed her the nu.
Haji scanned through the nu, mildly panicking. It’s not like this was his first ti in a coffee shop but the atmosphere ssed with his mind a little bit. The only tis he’d been to a coffee shop was when Kirisu invited him out... and those tis he didn’t even order anything since he couldn’t afford what was on the nu.
And right now... he was told to order sothing. How does he even know which ones taste good? Adding to that, half of the nu made no sense to Haji.
Haji’s brows twitched as he scanned the nu a second ti. Heaving a sigh, he handed the nu back to the waitress. "I’ll have what she’ll have." He said in a low voice.
The waitress nodded.
With a smile, Mrs. Kikuchi leaned to one side as if to observe Haji. This made Haji fidget on his seat, shakily grabbing the water in his arms reach and drinking it in one gulp.
"How have you been?" Mrs. Kikuchi asked, this ti she leaned back on her chair, a slight chuckle coming out of her mouth.
"I’m doing fine, ma’am," Haji responded, stiff as ever.
.....
gumi leaned on the windows, her head dropping from ti to ti as sleepiness got the better of her. She woke up unusually early today, for so reason. There was no way she could get back to sleep after waking up at a weird ti in the morning, and that ssed up her system. Right now, it was taking all she could to fight off her drowsiness, and class hasn’t even started yet.
Nevertheless, she was confident that she saw Haji entering their company building back there. There was no way she could mistake that... or so that’s what she thought to himself. Honestly, though, she wasn’t sure whether she was hallucinating or not... and even if she did hallucinate, she didn’t want to accept it.
Her? Seeing Haji in the middle of the day while she was daydreaming? Unbelievable! The re thought prompted her to shake her head as she felt a slight frustration. She still hasn’t forgiven Haji for his date— even though gumi could tell that his ulterior motive was just the free food, she still couldn’t accept the fact that he went on a date with soone else other than her.
’Was that jealousy? No, definitely not! I an, I’m his friend, right? Shouldn’t he ask first before going to gatherings?’ Then she rembered that Natsumi actually asked Haji out on a date in front of her... and the re thought infuriated her even more.
’Why did she have to do that? Does she know that we’re close? Now that I think about it... she even went ahead of , giving him a bento first and all that... no... that was my bad, I was simply too slow. What am I getting flustered for? It was just lunch! Lunch! I should’ve handed it to him more straightforwardly!’ When it cos to mories, it was even harder to recall them when embarrassnt was in the mix— gumi was experiencing the full brunt of that as she continued contemplating on what transpired yesterday.
’Stupid, stupid, stupid!’ gumi said to herself. Had Franz’ not been there, she would’ve pulled out her hair by now.
As she continued regretting her past actions, Franz’ suddenly slowed his driving down as he received a call from Mr. Kikuchi. After a couple of ’yes, sir’s’, Franz turned the wheel and made a quick u-turn, much to gumi’s bewildernt.
"Where are we going?" gumi asked, wondering why they were suddenly turning around.
"I was told to pick up young Haji from the office," Franz said without batting an eye.
"Eh?!"
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