“Ahahah! King! Was seriously! Scolded! By a lady teacher!”
Suou grabbed Totsuka’s head with his bare hands while Tostuka was rolling around laughing until he was out of breath.
“Ah, ow! That hurts, king!” Kusanagi sighed deeply as he looked at Totsuka, who was writhing in pain while being pulled up by his head.
“Oh, stop that, Mikoto. He’s already missin’ a bunch of screws in that head of his, we don’t want even more to be fallin’ out.” Suou clicked his tongue and let go of Totsuka’s head. As Totsuka wiped away the tears that could have either been from laughing to hard or from pain, he incorrigibly smiled away.
“And anyway, Totsuka, don’t come into a bar when you’re just a middle schooler.”
“What about you, Kusanagi-san? Is it okay for you to be working in a bar even though you’re underage?” In reponse to Kusanagi’s candid words, Totsuka twisted his mouth and talked back.
The bar “HOMRA” was owned by Kusanagi’s uncle but he was an irresponsible person and only opened shop on a whim, living a dissipated life. Kusanagi, who couldn’t bear to just watch, started kind of helping out in the store, and all of a sudden at the age of eighteen he was something like halfway in charge of the store.
“Eighteen is mostly an adult, even if it’s still underage.”
“Ehh…” While Totsuka was leaking out a half joking, half displeased voice, Suou was sulkily leaning his elbow on the counter.
“So, why’d King get in trouble? A fight?”
“Shut it.”
“Yep, yep. Well, it seems like the other guys attacked first, though. Mikoto won’t pay attention to the hot blooded kinda teacher who scolds people without hearin’ their side of the story or tries to force niceness on ‘em, but he’s weak to that kinda fluffy type. Not that you’d think it.” At Kusanagi’s words, Totsuka’s eyes shone with curiosity. Suou clicked his tongue in an extremely bitter way.
“She’s a fluffy type?”
“She’s an airhead, that one. And on top of that, she’s a new teacher, and she’s young and pretty.”
“Ooh!” Right when Totsuka raised his voice cheerfully, the bar’s doorbell rang. Kusanagi looked up and was about to say ‘welcome’, but paused for a moment.
Speak of the devil, they say.
Kusanagi got ahold of himself right away, and smiled professionally as he greeted the customer.
“Honami-sensei, welcome to the cafe ‘HOMRA’.”
“Good afternoon.”
It was Suou’s teacher Kushina Honami, who had just been talked about. She had a soft smile on her face. She was a person who had the kind of warm, kind atmosphere that made you think she might smell like the sun.
“When did this shop become a cafe?” Totsuka whispered into Kusanagi’s ear.
“It wouldn’t be good for a minor to say they’re workin’ in a bar in front of their teacher.”
“…um, there’s a ton of alcohol lined up behind the counter.”
“It’s fine, sensei’s an airhead.” While Totsuka and Kusanagi were whispering back and forth, Honami entered the store and sat herself down next to Suou. Suou looked at her unhappily.
“What do you want?”
“I was passing by, so I thought I’d try stopping in. Since a little bird told me Kusanagi-kun was working here.”
“That so.” Suou gave a frustrated sigh and looked away.
“Honami-sensei, what’ll you have? For tea, we’ve got assam and earl grey.” Honami smiled and put a hand to her chin like she was thinking.
“Hmm, since I’m already off work for today, I suppose I’ll have a beer.”
“…Kusanagi-san, she’s on to you. She totally knows this is a bar.”
“Yeah… well, I guess that’s obvious.” After whispering with Totsuka, Kusanagi said “understood” and smiled to change the subject.
He poured beer into a chilled glass. White bubbles raised a ticklish noise while rising.
“Kusanagi-kun, how is work here?”
“Well, the master’s a relative of mine, so we do things loosely.” Kusanagi smiled and said that as he put the glass of beer raising pretty bubbles in front of Honami. Totsuka looking at Kusanagi and tilted his head.
“Kusanagi-san, are you going to inherit this bar or something?”
“I wonder… well, with that master’s uselessness, if I don’t take over this place’ll probably close down…”
Kusanagi looked thoughtful, before suddenly looking down at Totsuka.
“Come to think of it, Totsuka, I guess next year you’ll be takin’ high school exames, huh.”
“Nuh-uh. We don’t have any money, I’m not going to highschool.”
“…I see. Well, you’re talented, so you can do anythin’. Wanna just work here?”
“Can I?”
“If we get an open position… but, even if you don’t go to highschool, there’s nothin’ wrong with studying, so if you wanna I can teach you.”
“Eh, really?” Honami, who had been watching Kusanagi and Totsuka’s conversation, drank elegantly (though surprisingly quickly) while smiling and saying that she’d help too if they’d have her. As she was, Honami moved her gaze to Suou.
“What about Suou-kun?” At Honami’s softly voiced question, Suou raised one eyebrow and looked at her. “Do you have something you want to be in the future?” Twisting his face in a frustrated way, Suou leaned back in his chair.
“No.”
“Really? Even though you seem like you’d be able to become anything if you wanted to.” Honami said with a smile. When Suou looked annoyed and turned away, he ended up facing Totsuka who was in the opposite direction. Totsuka grinned.
“Right!”
Totsuka leaned up on the counter and talked to Honami with Suou between them.
“Right. Even though he seems like he could be anything, it’s such a waste.”
“It’s okay.” Totsuka said this with his characteristic cheerfulness and irresponsibility.
“I’m sure this person’s going to become even a king.”
“Oh, my.”
As though infected by Totsuka’s smile, Honami also laughed.
“A king, isn’t that nice.”
“Yeah!”
Being assaulted by smiles on both sides, Suou breathed a deep sigh. Kusanagi sent a sympathetic look at Suou, who was looking fed-up stuck between a cheery Honami and Totsuka.
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