Dwayne raced into the road with his bike in tow. His short legs tried to run as fast as they could, but he wasn't getting much speed. In the end, he reached the café at 5:20 pm.
He was already covered in sweat. His hair was slightly wet. Even the soft curl at the top of his head was slick with sweat.
The café seemed spacious outside with cute designs on the walls. It was obvious it was more of a girls' cutesy café. Even the cups had cute cat ears and eyes. Dwayne took one look, and there wasn't a single man inside. Dwayne's soft curl shivered with nervousness. Should he go in?
He slapped his cheeks. He should! With a huff, he went inside.
"Hello, welcome!" The person at the counter noticed him and greeted him cheerfully. At the glass wall, Dwayne's eye caught a notice for a male part-timer. He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead.
"Hello, I'm interested in applying," he said, pointing to the notice. The woman at the counter seemed to be in her late twenties. She was slender with a friendly face and amicable features. Dwayne noticed the strings surrounding her were mostly white. Dwayne instantly liked her and he smiled.
"Oh sure. Come with me, please. Dear, can you be at the counter for a minute?" Dwayne heard someone's heavy footsteps coming from the locked door on their right. The knob twisted and a man in his thirties came out. He was tall, slender, and had a rough face due to his unshaved beard and mustache. There was a chocolate stick in his mouth. He held it between his index and middle finger as if it were a cigarette.
"Ah, yeah. Okay," the man said in a rough voice.
"Come this way," the woman invited Dwayne to the door the man had come out of. From the outside, it seemed small, but once he went in, Dwayne noticed it was quite big inside. The corridor could fit up to three people and there was a storage room on the left and the office on the right.
The woman led him to the office and asked him to sit in front of her.
"I'm Maki, the owner of this café. That man earlier is my husband Ryan. What's your name?"
"My name is Dwayne Augustus! I'm 19, currently studying at C University as a first-year student in the IT department."
"Oh, C University is 20 minutes away from here. If your shift starts in the afternoon, will you have problems commuting here?"
Dwayne innocently shook his head. "I have a bike."
"I see. Do you have other part-time jobs?"
He shook his head again. Maki noticed the cute soft curl on his head also shook, mirroring his movement, making him adorable to look at.
This child will do.
"I don't have one," Dwayne said truthfully. The convenience store he worked at closed last week. That's why he was sad he wasn't able to see the obedient cat beside his bike. But who would have thought he would meet the majestic cat today? Not to mention it turned out to be the god of love.
Life is really full of surprises.
Contrary to his expectation, Maki only asked for his family background and his class schedule. She took him to the storage room and taught him about the ingredients, the recipes, and the tasks he had to do.
It was then that Dwayne was amazed.
Maki only introduced the ingredients and showed him the basic way to make a hot Americano once, but he remembered it immediately. The things that were very difficult to differentiate before were so easy to distinguish now.
Dwayne's eyes shone brilliantly. He could not hide the bright smile on his lips as he eagerly listened to Maki showing him how to make frappe coffee. It was his favorite.
Maki sensed his eagerness, so she let him observe Ryan making orders for the customers.
"One spoon."
"One turn."
"Skim the top."
"Careful with the blender."
Ryan understood she was trying to show Dwayne how the job worked, so he taught him the basic measurements and the correct method to blend the coffee. He even showed him how to enter orders in the cashier and how to take orders from customers. If Maki hadn't stopped him, he would have let Dwayne stand at the cashier to take orders so he could gnaw on chocolate sticks, making them his own cigarette.
Dwayne was able to learn a lot. When it reached 12 am, their closing time, Dwayne promised to come by tomorrow.
He was all smiles as he left the café, forgetting the most important thing. It was only when he stood in front of his bike that reality hit him.
Repair shop! His bike was broken. How could he ride home?
He pulled out his phone and searched for any nearby repair shops open at 12 am, but had no luck. He crouched down on the ground and let out a huge sigh. His phone was still lit when he clenched his fingers around it.
"No..."
"I don't want to walk."
There was a scary big dog from his neighbor. It was rumored that the original owner of it died due to old age, leaving the big dog behind. Every night, it roamed around the neighborhood attacking suspicious people.
It would not bite, but it would chase humans around and bark at them until their ears hurt. Dwayne had experienced it multiple times.
He had been chased like a small rabbit by that big black dog so many times he recognized its bark even from miles away. He would not be able to run fast if he was dragging his bike. And he did not want to abandon it either.
Dwayne wanted to cry without tears.
Just then, right across the street, in a nearby building, was a three-story high-end restaurant. A man in a black suit and black tie was sitting at a table right beside the glass walls.
The man seeped the glass wine, when something caught his eye.
A boy was crouching down in a pavement beside his bike. The soft curl was very noticeable, even from where the man is.