~Tokyo, Japan; 9:24 AM GMT+9
The Devil's Halo.
"Good morning," Akira said as he walked into the restaurant with the jingle of the bell above the door.
"Oh, good morning Akira," Oliver who was the closest in proximity to him replied, moving a cardboard box to the counter. "You're five minutes late."
"Sorry," Akira uttered before moving over to the counter to help Lucien who was busy wiping up the bar glasses.
Most of the members of the team were busy with last minute touches in time for their opening in a few minutes, except for Lesley who was still busy handing out flyers as punishment for the ruckus they had caused the other night. The incident was covered on every news station for the entire day, which led to Oliver giving them an ear full, and Lucien having them do manual labor as punishment. Since Akira was usually the laidback type, his sentence was lighter and ended the night before, while Lesley was still serving his this morning.
As the time ticked closer to their opening hour, they realized a line had formed outside their shop entrance. Most of the people on the line were young females, either teenagers or young adults. Their giggles could be heard even from the employee break room.
"We've got quite the number of first customers," Katri smiled awkwardly, scratching his head, revealing his lack of communication with the opposite gender.
"But their all girls," Luck remarked, staring out the window as Jin helped him tie on his simple black apron. "That's lame."
"It's a shame to hear you say that," Damien said, letting a devious grin spread across his lips. "You're the kind of cutie girls like to eat up."
With that statement, Luck's eyes widened as a frown formed took over his expression. He wasn't quite fond of individuals of the female gender, and could only act naturally around strong women like Natasha. Other than her, he found most females excessively repulsive. And it didn't help him that he had a rather cute face which easily attracted women who wanted to dote on him because of it.
"Stop teasing him," Jin said, resting his hands in his pocket after he was done tying Luck's apron. "Girls are lovable and cute. It's better than seeing guys all day. Plus they wouldn't be able to resist this face."
He used his hands to highlight his face as he uttered the last sentence, making the other guys around him either scoff or roll their eyes.
"Natasha isn't a guy," Damien stated, making all of them stare in Natasha's direction. She was uninterested in the conversation and continued wiping the tables like she had been doing. "Besides, you do realize that you're the least good looking in the team right?"
"Eh?!" Jin retorted. "No way right?! I'm super handsome. There's no one better looking!"
Immediately he had uttered those words, he soon took them back as by reflex everyone in the room turned their gaze to who was arguably the most handsome man among them, Lucien. With all eyes on him and no idea why he had drawn their attention to him since he wasn't paying attention to the conversation, his eyebrows furrowed as frowns formed on Damien, and Jin's faces.
"Tch! Makes you pissed off right?" Damien sighed clicking his tongue.
"I know," Jin agreed, eyeing their leader. "All that good looks and what does he do with it?"
"Total waste," Damien chimed. "All he ever does is cook, eat, and sleep."
"Then repeat," Jin sighed as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Am I being dissed?" Lucien asked with genuine confusion as he felt the awkward atmosphere around him.
Before they could agree, the bell jingled and Lesley walked in with a big scowl on his face.
"What are all those stupid girls doing out there?" Lesley blurted, stumping his feet as he walked in and took a seat by the counter. He didn't much like the female gender either.
"They're the customers?" Katri answered, with a 'duh' tone.
"They're annoying," Lesley retorted, brushing his fingers through his long waist length hair. "They kept giggling at me and tugging my hair as I made my way here."
"That's because you have a handsome face and a cute German accent," Damien smirked, patting his head.
"What did you say?" Lesley seethed, smacking Damien's hand away. He hated it when the word 'cute' was used to describe him in any way, especially when it drew attention to his accent, which Damien was very fond of doing on both counts. He had a very twisted and deep rooted hatred for his home town, which led him to hate his entire country in general, thus calling attention to something he couldn't help but have, and did not want like his accent was a land mine for him.
"That's enough," Oliver stated with a single clap of his hand. "We'll be opening in ten minutes so take your places."
"Ah," Damien started. "Someone like Oliver will also be a hit with the ladies."
"Huh?" Oliver mused. He wasn't very used to being complimented.
"Yeah yeah," Jin agreed, nodding his head as he stared at Oliver as well. "His personality is the kind that ladies always dream of in a husband right? Natasha?"
"Don't ask me I don't know," Natasha said with a shrug.
"Enough," Oliver voiced, just a bit flustered. "Just get to work."
"Ah, but you know who will really make the ladies squeal and dote on him?" Jin exclaimed with a grin on his face.
"Hm?" Damien asked, already in agreement as their gaze turned to their silent teammate.
"Akira~" Jin sang, getting behind Akira and placing his hand on his face, using his fingers to try and draw his cheeks into a smile. "You'll definitely make the ladies be like "let me take you home so I can take care of you" right?"
Slight chuckles erupted with the immature men of the team. Akira waved Jin off and said, "I don't really have that kind of interest."
"Isn't Damien sort of a heartbreaker?" Katri added, pushing Jin away from Akira and in front of the coffee grinder, then helped tie an apron on him.
"Ah, yeah you're right," Luck chimed in. "He does seem that way."
"That's not true," Damien denied, moving behind the counter to the kitchen where he put on an apron as well. "I'm actually very gentle with ladies."
"We'll be opening in a two minutes," Oliver stated, arranging the menus in a pile.
"I'll take front counter," Natasha said, informing Oliver that she'd be a waitress instead of work in the kitchen as originally planned, as she set napkin dispensers on each table.
Once the time ticked to 10:00, Lucien turned the sign to open, and went out to place the black board listing all their specials and discounts out in the entrance. Immediately, a swarm of customers, mostly females, rushed in and grabbed a seat. By the window, around the space, and on the counter, the store was filled.
"Looks like today's going to be a busy first day," Jin sighed as he saw another line forming outside.
*
Akira worked behind the counter, preparing the coffee as new orders continued to come in, while Oliver, Natasha, Lesley, and Luck worked as waiters. Katri handled the cold and sweet drinks, like iced tea and parfaits, while Lucien and Damien worked in the kitchen. Damien handled the pastries and deserts, and Lucien handled the sandwiches ad breakfast orders. Although it was called a restaurant in the day, it was really more of a café and only served soft foods. It was no wonder there were so many female customers. Well, that and the fact that they had been posting about this place on social media and captioning the pictures with the phrase, "A haven of handsome men".
They took breaks in intervals, and during Akira's he received a text on his dummy device. It was the phone he used as Lily. A text shown on the screen from Hikaru on a group chat between him, Hikaru, and Mamoru. What surprised him wasn't that they suddenly texted him, but that he didn't recall ever exchanging numbers and email addresses with either of them.
The text read "Where are you? Let's hang out." from Hikaru. He hadn't realized they were close enough to 'hang out'. Sure, they had walked home together a few times, but that was because they all got off at the same station and lived in the same neighborhood district.
"Oh? You made a friend?!" Jin exclaimed as he peeked down at the screen of Akira's phone. "That's surprising!"
"Hm? Isn't it just those guys from the other day?" Lesley said, Akira just realizing that he had also been peeking down from his left side with Jin.
"Akira made a friend?" Damien mused, walking into the room and overhearing their conversation. "You're joking."
"No really. See," Jin said, grabbing the phone from Akira's hands and showing it to Damien.
"Hey!"
"Whoa! It's really true," Damien chuckled.
"What is?" Lucien asked, walking into the room and overhearing as well.
"Hey shouldn't one of you be in the kitchen?" Akira asked, trying not to let a frown spread across his face as he attempted to drive all the annoying pests away.
"Nah," Damien stated casually. "It's all premade so Katri just takes it from the show case."
Akira sighed as he struggled to pry the phone out of Jin's hands, not wanting Lucien to see but fails.
"Hang out huh?" Lucien bemused, a grin almost visible on his lips as he read the screen of the phone Jin held up for him to see. "Then tell him to meet you here."
"No!" Akira exclaimed vehemently, totally against the idea and attempting to snatch his phone back again.
"His school doesn't allow students to work part-time," Lesley said with a shrug, causing Akira to stare at him for a moment.
'Huh? Is that why?' Akira pondered, surmising that that may have been the reason Lesley lied they were cousins when he met Hikaru and Mamoru. This thought gave him a slight shudder as he realized this would have meant Lesley was helping him out. But this wasn't the reason he didn't want them to meet him here.
"It should be fine since they're friends right?" Lucien said casually, as he took the phone and began to type a response as he spoke. "Besides, it would be fun to meet them."
That was the reason he didn't want them coming here. Any timeline where Hikaru and Mamoru met the members of his team meant the resulting factor being Akira's immense frustration, because both parties were extremely hard to deal with. And if too headaches were to meet each other, it would only cause him a dangerous migraine. Plus, Lucien only wanted to meet them for his entertainment. And entertainment for Lucien was always completely spontaneous. Akira wasn't sure what this meeting would entail. The last time Lucien wanted to meet someone Akira knew for entertainment, the most difficult person for him to deal with ended up joining their team.
"We'll save a seat for them, okay?" Jin chuckled, as he left the room, Damien and Lesley in tow.
"What do you get out of meeting them?" Akira sighed, turning to gaze at Lucien who had let a dubious grin form on his face.
"Hm? What do you mean?" Lucien started, tipping his head to the side to feign ignorance. "I just want to meet them since they're my baby brother's friends, right?"