"Thank you sir, have a nice day!" Said the voice of a man who stood behind a counter handing a cake to another man. The man accept the cake and he leaves, leaving the employee of the cake shop to sigh and lean his arms on the counter.
"Not used to the front lines huh, Rito?" Asked the man's coworker. He laughed to himself as he placed a few cakes made of ice cream into a couple freezers nearby.
Rito nods as he stares at the door to the cake shop. Saturdays were always the worst days to be working at the register. You always had to deal with all sorts of problems. Sometimes people forgot their orders, or thought the cake was a lower price, or they could just be flat out rude. It was never fun.
"How much am I getting paid for this overtime again?" Rito asked, a clear hint of annoyance in his voice. His manager chuckled as he made his way to container holding a cake.
"Relax Rito, I'll double your pay for all the work you've been doing. At least I know SOMEONE here doesn't want to lose their damn job!" Rito's manager said as he turned to a girl who was humming to herself while reading a comic book and listening to music. Rito didn't exactly know much about her, just the constant horror stories his manager has told him.
Apparently, she let a line build up so much, that a shop from three blocks down complained about the wall of people blocking their front door. Rito just sighed. He felt bad for his manager, but telling this girl to work wasn't a part of his requirements to get paid.
"I swear to god Aiko! If you don't get off that sorry ass of yours and do some work, I'll just have to fire you!" The manager shouted to Aiko in a heap of rage.
Aiko gave a condescending smirk as she pat the manager on the back.
"That's a funny one Mr. Daigo! You actually think you can find someone to replace me to watch over a dump like this!" She said.
Mr. Daigo was about to retort, but after taking one look at his empty cake shop, he sighed and made his way back into the backroom. Rito tried to ignore the whole ordeal, but he couldn't help but feel bad for his manager. There was no way he was going to get involved though. Aiko may have been lazy, but if there was one thing she was good at, it was insulting others and making them feel as if they'd been hit by a truck.
Aiko seemed to notice Rito looking at her and she slid her chair closer to him. Rito groaned and braced himself for her endless berede of insults and jabs.
"Yo old man! You looked like you had something to say back there." Aiko said with a smirk, much to Rito's annoyance.
"What do you mean? I've been standing at this register the whole time. As if I'd be interested in a teenage girl's argument with her manager. Besides, I bet you came to this shop because you knew every other shop you could've gone to would just fire you on the first day." Rito said, taking his chance to insult her.
"Yeah well, at least I'm still young and free. I'm not the one who's been working here for years because I can't find any other job." Aiko continued off of her previous comment.
"I'll have you know, I've only barely worked her for a year, and if by young and free you mean stupid and naĂŻve, then I don't see how you can see that can be considered a positive trait about yourself." Rito said with a glare.
Aiko tried to think of a comeback, but she was speechless. All that she could muster out after hearing Rito's comebacks was:
"O-Oh yeah! Well, you're an old man!" She shouted.
Rito just laughed, he had won this battle. He turned back to the front of the room, leaving an embarrassed and red Aiko to his right.
'It isn't like I'm working here because I want to.' He thought to himself as he thought back to what Aiko had said.
It was true that he was older than her. Twenty years older in fact. Despite his age, and clear work ethic, he was working part time at a place like this. Aiko seemed to notice Rito was down and she tilted her head in confusion.
"What? Did I say something that got to you? Was the old man thing? I mean you aren't that old right?" She said, was she trying to make him feel better?
"I'm a whole twenty years older than your sixteen year old self. So I guess in your eyes I am pretty old huh?" He asked.
Aiko just shrugged as she leaned in her chair.
"Alright you two, it's closing time, help me pick the chairs." Daigo called to them from the back of the shop.
Rito and Aiko lifted up the chairs and closed the doors, before leaving the cake shop and walking down the lone road.
"Hey uh, sorry about calling you stupid and naĂŻve. I didn't mean it in the way I told you." Rito said calmly as the two of them walked side by side.
"Yeah." Aiko said quietly.
After a couple of seconds Rito grew impatient.
"Aren't you going to apologize for calling me an old man!?" He asked.
"Why should I? It was true, wasn't it?" Aiko asked as she kept walking, hands in her pockets.
'Seriously!?' Rito thought to himself as the two of them walked down the snowy road.
They froze when they reached a school. The school in question was abandoned. Trash was everywhere and rust was forming on the old and run down school gate. It was hard to tell that twenty years ago, this place used to be a prestigious school full of promising high schoolers. Rito being one of them.
"You ever hear about what happened to this school? All I've heard are rumors?" Aiko asked Rito, breaking him from his trance.
"What kind of rumors?" He asked.
"Well, there was a murderer targeting students from this school, like seven people died. The murderer was never found, all of that stuff I guess." Aiko said, while counting the rumors on her hands.
"Yeah, those all sound like what happened to me." Rito said as he continued to stare at the school building.
"Wait what!? You went here!?" Aiko asked.
"Yeah, one of the victims was....a friend of mine." Rito said. He had an unreadable expression as he stared at the school. A part of him was happy they shut it down, after all, people died here. But on the other hand, he made so many memories here, and they were all locked behind an abandoned rusty gate.
"Sorry for your loss." Aiko said with a bow.
Rito nodded. He began to walk away from the school and Aiko followed him. Eventually they reached a fork in the road. One leading to the city, and the other leading to a small residential area.
"Welp my home is this way! See ya at work tomorrow!" Aiko said as she ran down the path.
Rito watched with a smile as he watched her pull out her phone and immediately dial her friend's number. He remembered the days that he used to do that. He also remembered the day those days ended, and his life became something else entirely.
Suddenly his phone started ringing, he pulled it out to see one name.
Daru.
His fingers hovered over the answer button, but they never reached it. Eventually the call ended and he received a voice mail. He opened it up almost immediately.
"Hey Rito! It's me Daru, remember me from High School. God it feels like ages since we last saw each other. So uh, I know that you miss her too, Yuki, I mean. That's why I'm calling you. I'm sure she'd want us to still be friends! So please, please just pick up the phone. Please just....let someone in." The voicemail ended and Rito sighed.
He looked up at the starry winter sky, but after doing so, he made his way back home.