At Flower Jumbo by: Kounellii
Kou's comments: Not sure if and when Azuma-sensei will release the story of how Koiwai, Jumbo, and Yanda met each other. But here's mineXD This chapter's title is "hold the flowers, please" as in when you order your food and tell them NOT to put in a certain ingredient. Like pickles.
Disclaimer: I created this story, but Koiwai, Yanda, and Jumbo belong to Azuma Kiyohiko.
-Hold the Flowers, Please-
In a flat house located in a residential area of Tokyo, Koiwai hurriedly shoveled last night's leftover croquettes into his mouth. He stacked up the plates and chopsticks and placed them into the sink. His eyes quickly checked the digital clock by the front door.
"Aw crap. Jumbo better be here soon," he muttered, sighing heavily.
Koiwai walked briskly into the narrow bathroom. He looked down at the toothbrush holder.
Now which one was mine's again? Koiwai thought for a second. Then he grabbed the green toothbrush, remembering Jumbo's ridiculous introduction of his brand new red toothbrush last night.
He reached for his clothes hung on the towel rack. He headed off his morning grogginess by preparing clean clothes the night before. For the past year, Koiwai would accidentally wear yesterday's clothes to work.
Not that it was much of a big deal at work. After college, he landed a translating job. Translators at the agency he worked for weren't required to wear a suit since it was a desk job. Occasionally Koiwai would accompany his sempai (older or more experienced colleagues) to do media subtitling for foreign films.
But he didn't agree to go on them very often since his supervisor told him he'd have to wear a suit. Koiwai, like everyone else, just wore casual clothes. Of course, laid-back as he was, even he didn't want to wear rumpled clothes outside of the house.
A loud honk blurted outside of the gate. Koiwai slammed the front gate closed. Jumbo was driving his yellow and black Suzuki motorcycle with a sidecar.
"Hey Koiwai! Phew, it's really, REALLY, hot today. News said this June is a record high," greeted Jumbo. He took off his helmet and rubbed the sweat from his forehead. His hair was shaved on the sides with the top all spiked with gel.
Koiwai already took his customary seat in the sidecar. He shoved his messenger bag into the leg room. "Yeah. Anyway, thanks for picking me up. I'll treat you right after work," replied Koiwai as he strapped on his helmet and seat belt.
Jumbo revved up his motorcycle and started off for Koiwai's working place. "No problem. Dad's at the shop right now so he can hold the fort. But isn't this the third strike for you? Maybe you should think up an excuse, like 'I was late because I stupidly forgot to change the PM on my alarm to AM.'"
"Aw, shut up! You've done it too Mr. Florist! Your Dad almost threw your N64 out of the house if it weren't for me."
"That's some big talk coming from the guy renting a room at my house," countered Jumbo.
"Argh!" whined Koiwai. He laid the back of his helmeted head upon the backing of the sidecar. "Why do you guys even open shop at 7 am anyway?"
"Because, Mr. Boxershorts, some people have romantic ideas even in the morning."
"… what the heck?" asked Koiwai with a disgruntled expression.
Jumbo exhaled loudly, shaking his head at his friend. "Flowers are always given to someone we care about… and of course, to our girlfriends when we forget their birthday."
"Baka."
Jumbo turned the handlebars abruptly left to right, causing them to swerve a little.
Koiwai clutched the sides of the sidecar tightly. "OI! DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!"
Jumbo just laughed. In half an hour they reached the parking lot. He brought his motorcycle in front of the 3-story building. Koiwai hopped out. He glanced at his watch.
"Nice, 10 minutes to 9. I wouldn't have made it on bus," said Koiwai cheerfully. "Y'know Jumbo, how many months do you have left til you pay off this bike of yours?"
The larger man let go of the handlebars and folded his arms in thought. "Hmm, maybe 2 or 3 months. But Dad hates this thing. Can't deliver flowers since the petals fly off… he wants me to get a minivan so we can deliver flowers. Why?"
His friend stared longingly at the Suzuki. "I think maybe I should get one of these. Second-hand probably."
Jumbo grinned. He clapped a hand on Koiwai's shoulder and shook it. "Let's make a deal for this bike then. I'll come by to pick you up at 6."
Koiwai blinked in surprise. He smiled with a determined look in his eyes. "Fine. See ya!"
He pulled on the strap of his bag. The clear glass doors opened automatically. He crossed the carpeted threshold and got into the elevator. Koiwai pressed the close button.
"WAIT! HOLD THE DOOR PLEASE!"
Koiwai put a hand out and forced the door open enough to let the guy squeeze in. The elevator shook a little as the stranger plodded in.
"Er, so what floor are you going to?" asked Koiwai. Wow, that would've been me going through all that if I hadn't called Jumbo to drop me off, he thought, as he watched the younger man panting rapidly with an exhausted look on his face. Poor kid.
The younger man took a deep breath. "5th floor please."
Now Koiwai raised his eyebrows. He pressed the button. He regarded the younger man's ruffled hair which made Koiwai think about how he used to look when he first started at the agency. He gave the younger guy a few more moments to catch his breath before he made small talk.
"So, are you a new intern?"
Now the stranger arched his eyebrows in surprise. "Uh, yeah! I just got hired around last week. Today's my first day." He took the end of his necktie and wiped his forehead and looked wonderingly at Koiwai. "But how'd you know, um, sir?"
The elevator opened to the 5th floor. Koiwai stepped out.
"EH? YOU WORK HERE TOO?" cried the new intern. He was blushing, feeling very embarrassed about his haphazard appearance and using his tie to wipe his sweat off in front of his new co-worker.
"Well, yeah. I mean, how else would I have guessed you were an intern? Only our office gets the interns," answered Koiwai casually. He held the door open for him.
"Oh! There you are Yanda-kun. Ha, had to be your luck to meet our laziest employee, Koiwai-kun," said the supervisor, chuckling. He waved off Yanda's and Koiwai's bows.
"Sorry for looking all sweaty. I took a wrong turn on my bike. But Koiwai-san was kind enough to hold the elevator for me," explained Yanda, scratching his head. Koiwai punched in his timecard.
"It's no problem. Oh, and you don't have to bow to me neither," Koiwai remarked as he turned to see the intern bowing to him in appreciation.
The supervisor smiled, already finding Yanda to have a laid-back attitude that he preferred for their office. Busy-bodies would ruin their peaceful ambiance.
"Don't worry about it Yanda-kun, Koiwai here is renowned for his lateness. In fact, for him to be on time today must be a sign that you'll be taking his place!"
The rest of the translators in the office laughed. They were watching the whole exchange. Soon they got up and introduced themselves one by one.
The supervisor finally told the new intern to pick an empty desk and just familiarize himself with the office. Meaning Yanda could just hang out for now until he can come up with some duties for him to do.
Hey, this place isn't too bad, thought Yanda. He imagined that the translators would be all stony-faced and bark at him for being late. Guess I'd better find me a desk!
He looked around the office. There were 12 groups of cubicles with 2 people in each. Yanda walked between the aisles and peeked in. Several had little knickknacks scattered across the desks and shelves of anime and American comic action figures. One translator was even playing Tetris judging by the small window in the corner of the screen.
Finally he spotted an empty desk. He dropped his backpack onto the desk and plopped himself into the black revolving chair.
"Oh! So you're also gonna be my new cubicle partner huh," said Koiwai with a smile. He carefully laid his cup of coffee by the speakers.
Yanda swiveled around to face his sempai. "Haha, I guess so! All the other cubicles were filled already. But please regard me kindly."
"It's alright, no need to be so formal. I'm not that much older than you. Nobody's ever taken the other side of the cubicle before in the 2 years that I've been here."
"Wow! Y'know earlier I thought, well, that you were the janitor or something."
Koiwai was shocked with his jaw dropping. "Eh?"
Yanda laughed at Koiwai's expression. "Ahahaha! Yeah, I mean, your clothes were so wrinkly and you only shaved half of your beard."
He looked down at his clothes. It's true that the motorcycle ride wrinkled his clothes. He felt his jaw, it was smoother on one side. He probably did look like crap, but he took offense anyway.
Koiwai narrowed his eyes now, red in the face. He retorted, "Well look at you, kid. You look like you rolled out of bed wearing that suit!"
The intern flinched. He blushed furiously. "I had to! If I didn't, I would've been late on my first day!"
"ARE YOU SERIOUS? HAVEN'T YOU HEARD OF AN ALARM CLOCK?" asked Koiwai in shock. He couldn't believe that Yanda really did sleep in with his suit on just so he could have a few more minutes of bed time.
This time Yanda stood up. "WELL DUH! BUT I LIKE TO SLEEP IN MORE SO I JUST SLEPT WITH MY SUIT ON!"
Koiwai stood up and pointed at Yanda triumphantly. "AH HA! EVEN MY MORNING ROUTINE IS BETTER!"
"BOTH OF YOU BRATS JUST SHUT UP!" roared the rest of the office.
"Oops, sorry everyone," apologized Koiwai and Yanda simultaneously. They were the youngest there.
EXTRA: In v5, Yanda called Koiwai, sempai, and Koiwai called him his understudy/junior. So I imagined they met each other at Koiwai's working place. Of course, those terms could also apply to some activity they share like judo class or something. Hope you enjoyed it so far and please review!