Makoto would probably be lying if he said that he’d expected a customer to have a crush on him. After all, he was still pretty new to business as a whole, and his marketing skills were pretty lacklustre no matter how you looked at it.
The past few weeks had been quite the trip for him already. After all, Makoto had already made a rather turbulent attempt to open his own business — a decision he had slowly begun to regret after the first attempt failed. Even then, his old boss had encouraged him to continue…
The young man buried his face in his palms as he leaned over the counter, a quiet and exasperated groan escaping his lips. That boy had come by again.
The one with purple headphones and wild, orange hair.
He always ordered the same thing — but then again, that was the only thing on the menu that they currently sold. So of course he’d always order the same thing. And he always ordered multiple dishes, despite being alone…
But something Makoto failed to notice is that whenever the boy left, he left. Poof. Gone. As if he’d never existed to begin with. As if he were a ghost.
—————
“I’m tellin’ you, man! Somethin’s up with that cashier guy!” Beat exclaimed, gingerly slurping on his ramen with a skeptical look on his face. Neku glanced over at him and scoffed. “What gives you that idea?”
The redhead cocked his head to the side with a quiet hum, his headphones nearly slipping off his head. Neku raised his hand to move them back into place. “He’s just a guy trying to do his job and rebuild his business.”
Beat paused, shovelling in more ramen. “I dunno… he just… seems kinda weird to me, yo.” He pointed his chopsticks at Neku, the other pushing them away rather curtly.
“I get that we can’t trust anyone right now, Beat. But…” he sighed. “It’s fine. I’m probably the only regular customer there currently.”
“Do you even like the ramen, Phones?” The blonde tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy. “‘Cuz I’m doubtin’ that you do.”
Neku almost choked on his noodles, patting them back into the bowl and looking at Beat with a look of horror. “What makes you say that?!”
“You don’t look like you’re enjoyin’ it, man!” Beat placed a hand on Neku’s shoulder, holding back from squeezing it. He didn’t want to make the boy uncomfortable. “You can just admit that you don’t like it—”
“It’s fine.” Neku insisted, shoving a large portion of noodles in his mouth to prove his point. A choice he instantly regretted, because he began to choke on them. The redhead spat them back out. “Yeah… I’m gonna get another bowl… I’m not eating that again…”
—————
Makoto looked up when he heard the doors open. “Welcome to Shadow Ramen, what can I—” he froze.
Why was he back?! Hadn’t he only just been in here?! Did this kid really like him that much?
The boy walked over to him and sighed. “Hey, could I get another Shadow Steak Ramen…?” He didn’t seem too happy asking that. “I… dropped my other bowl.”
‘But didn’t you order two bowls?’
“Sure, but I’ll charge you again.”
“That’s fine,” the redhead replied, avoiding eye contact.
Makoto sighed and headed to see if any ramen was in the pot.
‘Holy crap, this kid definitely has a crush on me, oh my god… there was nothing about this sort of thing in the manual!’
A bead of sweat ran down Makoto’s face, and he glanced over his shoulder. “That’ll be a five minute wait, sir!”
“That’s fine,” the redhead responded, looking down at his phone.
—————-
Now here was some food for thought. This kid was a ghost. And not the kind that appeared in the rumours typically heard in haunted high schools, either. He was a full-blown ghost.
And of course, his employee training certainly hadn’t prepared him for this.
Makoto had seriously doubted that he’d find anything useful online, so he’d decided to just wait it out. Every time the kid came in, he’d materialise from thin air. Like a hologram or something. And then when he left, he disappeared like it had never happened.
But now it had been over two weeks since the boy’s last visit… he wondered if maybe he’d grown bored of showing up every other day to order the same dish over and over again. Or perhaps he was giving the ramen shop down the street some extra business.
That’s when the bell at the door chimed. He looked up. “Welcome to Shadow Ramen, how can I—”
It was him.
The same kid who’d been coming and going. The one with the spiky orange hair.
And this time, he’d brought a friend.
——————
Honestly, Neku had no idea how Shiki had talked him into this. “You weren’t even here when all of that crap happened, Shiki!” He protested as the girl dragged him along.
“And?” She turned around, her brown eyes meeting his blue ones. “The Prince still gave it an F on his blog, and Eri still told me to check it out.”
“You and Eri…”
One bonus to bringing Shiki along this time was the fact that maybe he would be able to deter the poor guy running the place from thinking that Neku liked him.
Sure, Neku was into guys, but definitely not him. Maybe the dude would think that Shiki was his girlfriend or something and he’d finally stop. Hopefully.
When Shiki dragged him inside, he instantly made a point to avert his gaze from the counter. Shiki went up to order herself, and now all he could do was pray that she didn’t spill the beans.
“So, who’s your friend?” The server asked, counting the money Shiki had provided.
“Oh, that’s Neku…” she cast a glance in his direction. Neku gave her a panicked look all of a sudden, and he just prayed that she would read the room. “…he’s my boyfriend.”
The server looked up with a nervous chuckle. “Oh, really? How nice! Did he reccommend this place to you? He’s quite the active patron.”
“Nope, my friend did. Thought it’d be a nice place to grab some lunch before we go on a date to the movies.”
Neku looked up with a glance. ‘Sheesh. She’s pretty good.’
“Oh, how nice! Well, I hope all goes well.” He handed her the food. “Have fun, hope to see you again!”
“You too!” Shiki smiled, before walking over to Neku and grabbing his hand. The redhead tensed up a little at that, but slowly relaxed when Shiki mouthed “it’s only until we get outside”, before proceeding to drag him towards the door. “Bye!”
@trainsofthought
