『 CHAPTER 3 』 「 Carelessness 」
Translated by Kohaku ୨୧˚ Read on AO3 ˚୨୧
The sun had risen just hours ago, but it was already warm outside. Crowds on the subway and traffic jams hundreds of meters long made the air hot and stuffy. Giving a displeased wince to the orb of fire peeking between cluttered apartment blocks, Kouta hurried to hide in the shadow.
Spring was the time of sudden temperature changes, the need to memorize another limited item list, and idiots. Those same idiots who use spring fever as an excuse and then probably try to hurl themselves under cars, too.
Spring was also the time when vacations were out of the question. Kouta wouldn’t want to miss the lush overtime bonuses and the tips from chatty high school girls that, for some reason, seemed to have a thing for him.
When Kouta came to Limelight for a job interview a year ago, his employer, Yuuto Oujiro, immediately pointed out his ever-gloomy face. An unthinkable trait for a customer service worker – he’d be just asking for a random customer to post a negative review after one wrong glance.
So Kouta didn’t get his hopes up when he applied. Though he could never understand why he was worse than others if he was not straining his facial muscles to force a smile all the time.
“You know, it could work in our favor!”
That was what Yuuto-san had said back then, and for a moment, Kouta thought he might have been crazy – and he could be insubordinate enough to show it. But the old man took a liking to it, the work conditions were acceptable, and the paycheck was more than enough for a college dropout to cover all his moderate expenses.
Kouta earnestly handled his job duties and barely caused any problems. He could break a mug or a plate once in a while when frustrated at an insufferable customer, but didn’t it happen to everyone? Especially given that for each plate he broke, Erika, with her clumsiness, destroyed ten more.
Erika was in a bad mood today. She had been forced to work the cash desk the whole shift after her coworker hadn’t shown up without warning. Kota didn’t stay long at the police station, so he could have called off his leave and returned to work. However, his mother’s evening antics just doubled the stress, forcing him to sleep soundly for almost twelve hours. So he needed that day off, but was it worth it? Kouta texted her that he was on his way about half an hour ago, and her only response was a thumbs-up emoji.
The same Erika who would usually flood their chat with stickers for any reason – or for no reason at all. Angry, isn’t she. But Kouta couldn’t keep it in his head for long – he never had it in him to act sorry if he felt no remorse for his actions.
The colorful store rooftops greeted him when he entered the good old shopping district. His Limelight was snuggled between a flower store and a streetwear showroom. Kouta would drop by both places when he was bored stiff during breaks.
A sharp ray of pale light bounced whimsically off the coffee shop’s glass door and shot into his eyes. It blinded Kouta for a couple of seconds. When he could see clearly again, the first thing he met was his coworker – and his manager all in one.
“There he is. Not hanging out with lunatics today?”
Erika greeted Kouta with a snarky tone to her voice when opening the door for him. A cloth was peeking out of her pocket, the one she was just diligently wiping the reflecting surface with. “Hey,” with barely any courtesy, Kouta moved the girl aside by the shoulder to head to the counter.
His apron, his nametag. His T-shirt was probably in the storage room – clean and not even too crumpled. It was pretty hot today, so he’d better get changed as soon as possible, and then…
Bam! Kouta involuntarily reached for the back of his head to touch the suddenly stinging spot. He looked up first, guessing if something from the ceiling had fallen on his head. Only after that did it cross his mind to turn to Erika, who was huffing angrily behind his back.
“Did you just hit me?” Kouta asked casually – and immediately got another slap.
“Serves you right!”
“Didn’t even get to ask why…”
Erika folded her arms, still holding onto that same ill-fated cloth. So this was her weapon, then. Kouta sighed, easily prying the wet rag from the girl’s fist, and gave her forehead a flick.
“Serves you right,” he echoed with a chuckle.
They had a long history of bantering over nothing. The whole business left to the care of two kids fresh out of their teens sounded like living hell, but they made it work. Mostly due to the fact that they didn’t feign any formality between them.
“I was covering up for you the whole day, and there you go!” defeated, Erika only kicked him in the knee.
The kick was so feeble Kouta didn’t even care to counter it. His tiny coworker had neither strength nor decent height to her. Instead of keeping on with their mock-fight, Kouta landed his palm on her ginger head and gave her hair a good ruffle.
“You have my gratitude, Erika-san. Now let me get changed, ok?”
He needed to get behind the counter before the first drowsy clerks started to gather at the door. It would also be good to make some gross drink for himself, just to gain some alertness. With these thoughts in mind, Kouta slammed the storage room door shut, cutting off all the unnecessary noise.
The several minutes of refreshing quiet before his shift were an irreplaceable value. Soon, the customer area would overflow with music and polyphony of voices accompanied by the rattle of the coffee grinder and clanking of the dishes. Erika would hide in her office till lunch break. The smell of coffee beans and fresh pastries will stick to his clean clothes, persistent even after washing. Tried and true. Instead of a routine location, Limelight was a living thing to Kouta, a creature whose vital processes he had to meticulously upkeep every day. Just as you can’t love everything even about your special someone, Kouta could get exhausted or frustrated at his workplace, but despite everything, he still gave up some part of his soul to it.
Pulling his hoodie over his head, Kouta tossed it onto the back of a chair and shook up his T-shirt to straighten up the crumples. The tall mirror at the entrance showed a glimpse of his ribs, sticking out more than usual. His eating habits this month were a mess, and he completely lost his appetite, too.
He wondered how that guy from yesterday was doing. The police officer who took him away down the corridor hadn’t looked very friendly. Erika probably still had Higura’s number after the call Kouta made to her, so they might even have a chat.
Catching himself on this unusual thought, Kouta scoffed and pulled the T-shirt down in one go. He still had work to do.
When he was back at the counter, Erika had already turned the door sign to the side that said Open. Kouta plugged his phone into a speaker, then turned on the first playlist that caught his eye. The speakers immediately filled the customer area with a calm, uplifting melody.
And so yet another day started, completely the same as all the others.
✧✧✧
Limelight was open till eight. It took another hour or so to pick up dishes from each table and wash them in the kitchen. Paper takeout cups might be bad for the environment, but they sure were good for a coffee shop worker – one less cup to wash.
Then, the glass displays needed to be cleaned of the desserts and pastries that were no longer considered fresh. Some part of those went back into the fridge, another – straight into the trash, and yet another would become a tired barista’s late supper.
“Be careful with those, alright? You might end up on the toilet till the next shift.”
Kouta, who had already stabbed a fork into his cold cheesecake, looked up at Erika. However much time passed, she couldn’t help being horrified by his eating habits. Her snide remarks usually hid nothing more than worry.
“Well, that would be great, I’ll save myself a subway trip,” Kouta shrugged and indifferently tossed the piece of cheesecake he had on the fork into his mouth.
Working overtime was never a problem for him. He’d stay here for days on end if he could. Coming back home always swept over him with a soul-crushing sense of sorrow, building up deep in his stomach and bothering him way more than any hunger. He’d rather be falling off his feet and suffer occasional stomach aches from surviving on coffee and pastries than live with the things that awaited him back home right at the doorstep.
“Older than me yet still so dumb,” Erika scoffed and landed across from Kouta, staring him down judgmentally.
Now that she had taken off her apron and changed into her everyday clothes, she looked totally out of place here. Kouta believed Erika would be better off spending her days with friends at a college or university, building her network, and securing a job in a proper company. Despite knowing her for a full year, he never asked her why she didn’t bother applying anywhere after school.
They were close, not like best friends, more like siblings – having different interests and not overstepping boundaries. And they could lend each other a shoulder anytime.
Noticing that Erika stopped talking and grabbed her phone, Kouta finished his supper in silence and washed it down with a drink he made for himself. It was an espresso, diluted with no-longer-freshly-squeezed orange juice and boiling water. Kouta disliked all coffee-based drinks equally, so he didn’t pay much attention to whatever liquid now streamed down his throat.
“What are you doing there? It’s late already,” he darted his eyes towards his coworker, who was typing intensely, then raised his eyebrow. “Anything wrong?”
Sometimes, Kouta could forget how many responsibilities Erika dealt with as a coffee shop manager, and how many things could actually go wrong. Controlling supplies, preparing financial reports, managing social media, communicating with customers – all of it laid on her shoulders, and there was only so much Kouta could help with. At best, he was good at kicking someone out the door.
Erika was so absorbed in something on her screen that she didn’t respond right away. Kouta propped his cheek on his fist and waited for about a minute before calling out again.
“Erika.”
“Huh?!” she started, almost dropping her phone and turning it off at once.
The clumsy gesture made Kouta stifle a yawn and stare at Erika curiously. He had a few guesses about the reason to be so secretive, so he spoke out a random one.
“That dating app thing again?”
“W-what?!”
This time the phone slipped out of Erika’s hand and almost fell on the floor, risking to crash into the floor tiles, but Kouta swiftly caught it and turned the screen up.
And yes, he was right. The familiar interface of a popular dating app, ridden with pop-up ads, confirmed his suspicions. Why would he be suspicious, though? It was none of his business to defend his coworker from others’ attention unless she’d ask for it herself.
“Huh. Hiding it like you’re doing something sketchy,” Kouta returned the phone to blushing Erika with a bored yawn, then got up from the table, tossing empty single-use tableware in the trash.
“Like I would!” Puffing her cheeks, Erika quickly hid the phone in her purse and hurried to get up along with Kouta. “What’s so weird about it?”
“Nothing. Just don’t get involved with jerks.”
“You’re better at it than me anyway…”
With lazy banter, Limelight's staff of only two people packed their things and checked the place for one last time before closing for the night.
✧✧✧
Erika left Kouta at the passage between subway lines. Jumping into a train car and making sure the places around her were empty so that nobody could peek at her, she went back to scrolling through the dating app.
It was a new and fun thing for her. She hadn’t even figured out all the functions yet, and her profile photo was not too flattering, but she didn’t feel her usual crippling fear of social interactions.
It was probably because Erika didn’t really intend to go on any actual dates. She only hoped to chat with a nice person about her interests, and that was about it. She didn’t put in any personal information – just her name.
The idea was most likely to fall through, though. For the whole day, she got nothing but some creepy men with no profile pic and an off-putting manner of starting a conversation. Erika didn’t feel disappointed, but the sense of challenge hiding deep under her insecurity was forcing her to keep the app on her phone for another day or two.
“Hm?”
Above the page of another pushy guy with a weird list of requirements for a chat, a text popped up. For some reason, it was straight to her LINE messenger, not in the dating app. Suppressing the brief urge to swipe the message away as spam, Erika opened the unfamiliar chat, and her eyes widened with surprise.
“Hello, Erika-san. Want to meet for a chat?”
What shocked her wasn’t the boldness of this person she had never said a word with before. There was something else that caught her eye in a flash – and caught it for long.
Looking through the profile photos of the sender, which would be enough to make sure they were a real person, Erika bit her lip anxiously and squeezed the phone tight in her hand.
Damn it. Could it actually be true?..
Forgetting her promise not to take this harmless fun seriously, Erika quickly began to type an answer.
