Hajime 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 comes 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 Hajime accepted the job, he even forgot that allowance and free cafeteria food was part of the agreement. And that's due to his younger sister's emergency 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 Megumi, 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 Hajime had accepted... and that's because Hajime was expecting the least in the first place.
"Mrs. Kikuchi did tell me to meet her at the coffee shop... I wonder what she has to say to me."
The Moonlight Cafe had a typical wooden veranda, with wooden tables and chairs made out of single pieces of logs. What Hajime 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." Hajime heard a gentle voice behind him, making him turn around.
It was none other than Mrs. Kikuchi, standing right below Haijime's eye level and waving toward him. "You came, I thought you'd be heading straight to school after your recruitment."
"Hello ma'am," Hajime formally greeted, bowing down even though no one asked him to. He was wearing his uniform but to anyone passing by, he seemed more respectful than most employees out there.
"No need to be so rigid," She said, grabbing Hajime by the arm, literally dragging him to one of the seats by the veranda.
'Okayy?' Hajime 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 Hajime as she handed her the menu.
Hajime scanned through the menu, mildly panicking. It's not like this was his first time in a coffee shop but the atmosphere messed with his mind a little bit. The only times he'd been to a coffee shop was when Kirisu invited him out... and those times he didn't even order anything since he couldn't afford what was on the menu.
And right now... he was told to order something. How does he even know which ones taste good? Adding to that, half of the menu made no sense to Hajime.
Hajime's brows twitched as he scanned the menu a second time. Heaving a sigh, he handed the menu 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 Hajime. This made Hajime 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 time she leaned back on her chair, a slight chuckle coming out of her mouth.
"I'm doing fine, ma'am," Hajime responded, stiff as ever.
.....
Megumi leaned on the windows, her head dropping from time to time as sleepiness got the better of her. She woke up unusually early today, for some reason. There was no way she could get back to sleep after waking up at a weird time in the morning, and that messed 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 Hajime 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 Hajime in the middle of the day while she was daydreaming? Unbelievable! The mere thought prompted her to shake her head as she felt a slight frustration. She still hasn't forgiven Hajime for his date— even though Megumi 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 someone else other than her.
'Was that jealousy? No, definitely not! I mean, I'm his friend, right? Shouldn't he ask me first before going to gatherings?' Then she remembered that Natsumi actually asked Hajime out on a date in front of her... and the mere 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 me, 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 comes to memories, it was even harder to recall them when embarrassment was in the mix— Megumi was experiencing the full brunt of that as she continued contemplating on what transpired yesterday.
'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' Megumi 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 Megumi's bewilderment.
"Where are we going?" Megumi asked, wondering why they were suddenly turning around.
"I was told to pick up young Hajime from the office," Franz said without batting an eye.
"Eh?!"