Chapter 3 - Chapter Three

One by one, beautiful women enter the establishment. Some went straight to their desired host while others went to the bar to get a drink before starting the night.

Haru walks around and greets the guests as he's doing his preliminary checks. Haru may be a host, but for the first few opening minutes, Haru acts as a security guard to ensure there's no signs of harm or misfortune happening.

Yosh, everything seems to be going well. Seems like tonight will go smoothly.

"Kousuke-san!!!" Haru hears his stage name being called out by a guest. Judging from the voice, he knew it was his classmate Eiriko.

He turned his head and there she was, by the entrance, waving at him with a smile. Haru smiles back and makes his way towards her. "Ah, Lady Eiriko, it's nice to see you tonight. You look lovely in that dress."

Despite not wanting to spend his time with her, he couldn't lie about how gorgeous Eiriko looked. The way her dress hugs her body has revealed her feminine figure. Curves that you normally wouldn't see in a school uniform are now present.

"Why thank you! And you look amazing tonight too!"

"Your words are too kind for me though I've just noticed that Lady Mai isn't with you tonight."

"Oh! Uh... she's studying for our upcoming exams."

"Is that so? Then why aren't you following her example?"

"Because I miss you! Oh! She misses you too."

"I'm honored to hear that, but please take your studies a little more seriously. I'll be disappointed if you don't pass your exams."

"After tonight, I'll be serious about studying. I don't want you to be disappointed in me."

"I'm glad to hear that. Ah~" One of his coworkers was passing by with a serving tray that contained a combination of juices and alcoholic drinks. He takes two of the juice from the tray and hands her one. Eiriko takes the juice and thanks him, "Why thank you Kousuke."

She then takes a sip while looking around. Haru also takes a sip while scanning the environment. As he brings his attention back to Eiriko, there was another server coming his way, but it appears that this server was a new hire because of the way she was handling the tray.

She was trying her best not to drop the tray, but the tray was wobbling to a degree that it would fall at any time. "I'll be right back Lady Eiriko." Haru says as he passes by her.

"Huh? Kousuke?"

Haru approaches the new server and takes the tray from her. "Wha?" Haru then stands by her and gives her some pointers. He instructs her on the proper way of carrying a tray. After giving some advice, the server puts them to the test and in an instant her confidence is boosted. "Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome and good luck tonight." He ends with a smile. Her face grew red and then pardoned herself. "Mou! Kousuke, why are you flirting with your coworker and not with me?"

"Now now, there will be plenty of time for flirting later. I have to make sure things are going smoothly."

"In that case, I'll be around then. I want to go and catch up with the others, but don't you worry, because I have my eyes set on you." Haru gives a light hearted laugh and bids farewell to Eiriko.

Haru continues to move around the first floor, greeting guests and engaging in small talks such as his whereabouts, plans, and studies.

"Yo Kousuke! Mind helping us at the bar? There are some cocktails we need to make but some of the new guys don't know how to make them."

"Oh. On my way. Well then ladies, please excuse me." Haru excuses himself and enters the bar. "Thanks a lot Kousuke! Sorry for bringing you in here to help us."

Haru smiles and says, "It's no problem. I'm glad to be of service. Not only that, it's been a while since I've done any bartending so this will be a good time to test my memory.."

Haru is still in high school, therefore he doesn't drink any alcoholic drinks like cocktails, but that didn't stop Shou from teaching Haru.

"Oh? Kousuke is going to make our drinks? I didn't know he had such skills. More and more you've become such an alluring partner to acquire. Why not hook up with me after work?"

The woman eyeing Haru is a business woman named Nagisa Arisu. A bodacious and voluptuous woman with long purple straight hair with curled tips. Her deep purple eyes had a sense of hunger to it, as if she was eyeing a delicious prey.

Haru is interested in Arisu because of her womanly body and high paying job which will make his life easier, but Haru wasn't the type of guy to take advantage of his partner even if she insisted on doing so. Though seeing such an irresistible woman who has class and an active sex drive made her Haru's top candidate if he desired for a relationship.

"As much as I'm tempted to take up your offer Lady Arisu, I'm still a student."

"That doesn't matter to me. I can take care of all your needs. I am the founder and CEO of my company after all, fufu."

Yes, Nagisa Arisu is a divorced mother and the CEO of her own beauty company. Besides Eiriko and Mai, she's also one of Haru's regular patrons.

Shou also works for her when he works at his modeling job. "But if you're into younger girls, why not my daughter? She's still in high school but I can assure you that her beauty and personality won't lose to anyone else."

Arisu-san has a daughter? Come to think of it, I've hardly seen Arisu-san outside of work. I've only seen her when she comes by.

"Ara ara~? So are you interested? I can arrange your meeting with her tonight."

"I'm sorry but I'll have to decline."

"Is that so? Well that's too bad, but I'll leave the option open if you do wish to marry her."

"I give you my thanks Lady Arisu for leaving a tempting offer open for me."

"Anything to reel you in."

After their short conversation, Haru begins to create cocktails for the ladies. The new hires were watching his every move and some were taking down notes. Every move Haru made was smooth and graceful. Even though Haru was seen as a bookworm, cocktail making was fun to him. It seems like Shou awakened another side of Haru besides being a host.

Before serving Arisu her drink, Haru sets down a coaster in front of her. He then puts her cocktail in front of her. "Why thank you Kousuke." Just as she was reaching for it, Haru stops her. "My apologies, let me finish the presentation."

"Oh? There's more?" Haru smiles and then draws a heart around the coaster. The cloth he was using was damp with alcohol. After drawing the heart, he pulls out a lighter from one of the inner pockets of his suit jacket and burns the heart.

Once lit, there was a flaming heart around Arisu's cocktail. Everyone around them were awestruck at the flame art Haru presented. "Enjoy your drink Lady Arisu." Haru says with his most seductive smile and gaze. After leaving her stunned, Haru takes his leave and gets back on the floor.

***

The night was long, but Haru was able to get through another night just fine and was quite content with keeping his patrons happy.

Before heading back home, Haru and his colleagues decided to spend a little time together. After every shift, they will always talk about the work they just finished, what their regulars will tell them, and then upcoming plans whether it was personal plans or work plans. Because of this simple get together, their bonds as colleagues grew stronger and the people around them felt like everyone became their second family.

After their get together was over, Haru heads back to his apartment. Haru enjoys the walk back home as it was another time he enjoyed the silence and peace.

Work was fun today. Eiriko was annoying to deal with but I'm glad I was able to get her to study. Looks like I won't be seeing her anytime soon.

Arisu on the other hand, she's just too erotic for me to handle all the time. I wouldn't mind embracing her, but I have to control myself. If I was stuck in a room with her, I would lose all sense of control if she attacked me. I'm curious as to what her daughter looks like. Thinking about it, she said her daughter is in high school. I wonder if she attends my school?

Being so engrossed in his monologue, Haru makes it back home in no time. Just as he was about to enter, someone called out to him "Eh? Ena-kun is that you?"

Looking towards the voice, it was his classmate and class rep, Hiyori Shina. "Ah, good evening Hiyori-san. What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? I stay here silly."

"Ah, is that so? Haha-! Eh?! Wait, you stay here too?"

"Yup!" Haru was distraught when Shina told him that she stayed in the same apartment complex as him. "I can't believe Ena-kun and I live close to each other! This is surely surprising!"

"Y-yeah... what a coincidence." Haru couldn't believe it and thought that this was all a dream. The one classmate who got a close look at his face lives close by.

Crap! If Hiyori-san really lives here, I have to be very careful! If not, then my life is over!

"Let's head up to our rooms then Ena-kun."

"Of course, let's head on up." Haru and Shina got to the elevator and waited for it to come down. "Ne, Ena-kun..."

"Hm? What is it?" Haru looks over and sees Shina sniffing the air. "That smell... that's smoke..." She kept sniffing and got closer to Haru and found that the smell was coming from him. "Ena-kun are you smoking?!"

"Ah! No no! You might be smelling the smoke from my coworkers. They were the ones who smoke, not me." Haru lies to her. Despite being a high school student, Haru does smoke but only with his coworkers during their bonding time after work. He got this habit from Shou who introduced it to him. Though because of this habit, he was able to rake in more patrons at work due to the seductive combination of his appearance as Kousuke and the image of him smoking made him look more masculine. (But seriously don't smoke.)

"Really? I never thought Ena-kun was the type who smokes, but I'm glad he isn't. So you work late at night huh? Could it be that your work is some kind of bar?"

"You can say that."

The elevator arrives and both of them step inside. Haru pushes his floor which was the fourth floor and then asks Shina what floor her room was.

"What floor is your room Shina?"

"The same floor as yours haha. Could it be that Ena-kun and I are neighbors? That would be a wonderful thing wouldn't it?"

"Y-yeah haha..." Please don't be my neighbor! If there is a god, please don't let Hiyori-San be my neighbor! Haru prays to the god.

Haru walks over to his room which was room 404. "This is my apartment."

"Oh! That's good to know. Well then Ena-kun, goodnight."

"Goodnight Hiyori-san, see you at school tomorrow." Hiyori smiles, bows her head, and walks over to her room... which was room 405.

There's no god!!!

Shina unlocks her door, smiles and waves at Haru and finally goes in.

Give me a break...

Haru enters his room and flops onto his bed. He sighs and begins to think. So Hiyori-san is my neighbor huh... Damn, this isn't how I thought my life would turn out. Here I am thinking it would be peaceful. Should I move out...? But if I did that then Hiyori-san would get suspicious about me.

Haru heaves another sigh and gets up from his bed. "Oh well. I'll just make sure to keep my distance from Hiyori-san. For now, let's take a shower and head to bed."