Kotori steadied the ladder and looked up at Umi fixating the newly made sign into position. The blue haired girl took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off her forehead, looking down at Kotori with a thumbs up. The sign was finally in place and Umi carefully made her way down the ladder to meet with the eager Kotori. Upon reaching the ground, she was instantly tugged by her arm and pulled a few paces back.
"It looks great doesn't it, Umi?" said Kotori as she hugged onto her arm.
"We did work hard on it together after all," she responded with a smile. Kotori hugged her arm tighter in excitement and released a small yelp of joy.
"We're going to be successful right Umi?" Kotori asked with a slightly worried tone.
"We have to, we have the legendary maid Minalinsky with us after all," Umi said jokingly to cheer up the girl. "Come on, let's head inside and get ready for the grand opening tomorrow." she smiled and led Kotori back into their new life labeled with a sign that read, "Ocean Flight"
Night came and Umi stood alone in their bedroom deciding on what she should wear when greeting their new neighbors. She couldn't decide between wearing her business attire, or the traditional clothing she had gotten as a gift from Kotori.
"I think you should go with your usual business clothing for tonight," whispered a light voice from behind.
Startled by the sudden break of silence, Umi looks back to see Kotori's head poking out from the bathroom, "W-what are you going to wear tonight?" she asked frantically.
Kotori took a step out from the doorway to show Umi what she was going to wear for the night. It was the white summer dress that she had picked out for her a few months back. "I thought this would look nice for a first meeting, don't you agree?" she said with a smile.
The blue haired girl stared for a while before snapping back to reality, "Y-you look wonderful Kotori!" she turned around quickly to get changed. Kotori giggled and approached her,
"Here let me help you." she said happily.
The couple stood together in front of the shop next door with a sign that read, "Kousaka Sweets Shop" the two looked at each other in question.
"Do you think they have cheesecake?" Kotori said excitingly. The girl had a taste for cheesecake and Umi snickered. "W-what? What's so funny about what I said?" It took a few seconds for Umi to recollect before she replied to Kotori.
"Kotori, look, its a traditional Japanese sweets shop. They wouldn't have something like cheesecake here would they?" she looked at the girl apologetically as she broke the news to her.
Saddened by the reality, all she could reply with was, "Oh…" They stood there together for a few moments before trying to get the owner's attention again. Kotori's eyes flashed, she remembered something, "Wait, Umi, if it's a traditional Japanese sweets shop, then they must have manjuu!"
Umi nodded as the screen door flew open, startling the couple. Standing in the doorway was a ginger haired girl with her hair tied to the side, "Um, can I help you? We're closed right now…"
The two girls glanced at each other and Umi decided to speak up, replying to the stranger, "G-good evening, we just moved in next door an-" she was cut off by a cheerful cry that came from the ginger haired girl.
"Oh! You're the new neighbors that I have been hearing about! Come in! Come in!" The girl suddenly became energetic and practically pulled the clueless couple inside. "Welcome to Kousaka Sweets Shop! My name is Honoka, what are your names?" Kotori and Umi were speechless by the sudden burst of energy that was radiating off of Honoka.
"I-" a squeakish voice broke the tension as Umi and Honoka turn towards Kotori. "Um, my name is Minami Kotori and this is Sonoda Umi," she gestured towards Umi who instantly bowed in response.
Honoka paused for a second, "Oh, if we're doing full names, I'm Kousaka Honoka, obviously." she replied with the same energy as before pointing towards the sign hanging above the counter. "My mom owns this place and I help out whenever it gets busy," the girl moved behind the counter and bowed, imitating how she would greet customers.
The couple laughed at Honoka and moved over to the counter. "So is your mother home right now?" asked Umi while examining the sweets on display.
"She's asleep right now, she caught a cold yesterday so I had her stay in bed all day. I had to man the store today, in fact." replied Honoka. She looked over at the intently observing Umi and asked, "I-Is there something you're looking for?" Umi didn't reply and kept looking.
Kotori spoke up and caught Honoka's attention with an awkward chuckle, "You see… she enjoys manjuu a lot. She's probably looking to see if you sell any here." The ginger haired girl smacked her fist against her palm.
"Oh really? We actually have some leftover manjuu if you wa-" she was cut off by Umi suddenly bolting up.
"We'll take it please." she said stiffly.
Honoka nervously laughed and pointed to the door behind her, "How about coming to the back for some manjuu and drinks then? We can talk in a more relaxing setting."
The couple followed Honoka into a spacious room, in the middle sat a small table surrounded by cushions. "Take a seat here, I'll be back with the manjuu and drinks-" she paused, "Do you two have any preferences for drinks? We have tea, water, carbonated drinks..."
"Just tea is fine" replied Kotori. She knew that Umi wasn't a fan of carbonated drinks so tea would be the best option. Honoka disappeared through the door and the couple sat in anticipation. Kotori looked at Umi and smiled, "She seems nice, I wonder what her mother is like?" Umi giggled and replied,
"If she's anything like her daughter, probably just as energetic. We'll have to visit again when she's recovered from her cold so we can meet properly."
Kotori nodded and Honoka returned into the room with a tray holding a plate of manjuu and 3 cups for the tea. Umi spotted an out of place slice of bread on the tray and questioned it, "Honoka? What's with the piece of bread?"
The girl set down the tray and started pouring tea, "The bread is for me, I like to eat bread often as a snack." she finishes pouring the tea and hands the cups carefully to them.
"If you eat a lot of bread, you'll get fat…" Umi added as she took a hold of the cup. Honoka laughed nervously at Umi's words and handed the plate of manjuu over to her. Umi's eyes lit up and she began indulging herself immediately.
Honoka looked to Kotori, "So what brought you two here?" she asked as she bit into the bread.
"We decided that we would open up our own restaurant after we got all our finances and things settled." replied Kotori. She smiled and looked at Umi enjoying her sweets, "Umi's good at managing and cooking while I'm pretty much just handling things out front from personal experience." Kotori picked up a stray piece of manjuu and held it up for Umi to eat.
Honoka smiled at the couple and asked, "When are you two opening up?"
"Tomorrow" they said in unison.
The trio spent another hour getting to know each other before calling it a night. Honoka led the two girls to the entrance, "Well it was fun getting to know you two, it's nice to get some new faces around here," she brought the two girls into her arms for a group hug. "I get the feeling we're going to be great friends!" the girls separated from Honoka and began walking home.
"She was really nice wasn't she?" Kotori asked.
"Yeah, maybe a little too optimistic for my taste though," Umi replied with an unsteady smile.
"HEY!" a familiar voice called out to the two girls. Umi and Kotori turned to see Honoka waving at them, "I'll make sure to tell my friends Rin and Nico about your restaurant! We'll come visit tomorrow!" Umi nodded and Kotori smiled in response.
The couple walked into their vacant restaurant to make last minute check ups. Umi unbuttons the first two buttons on her dress shirt to loosen up. As she heads towards the management office, she announces without looking back, "Kotori, you can go ahead and get some sleep, I'm just going to go over our budget for the first few months, just in case."
She felt arms wrap around her and a warm feeling overtook her back, "I won't go to sleep without you, Umi," Kotori buried her face against the girl's back. "I can wipe the tables again and make sure everything looks presentable while you do that."
Umi knew it was pointless to convince Kotori to sleep without her, ever since she lost her favorite pillow, Kotori's had trouble going to sleep unless she was there with her. Umi sighed and gave in, "Alright, I'll try not to take long okay? If you get tired just come and tell me." she felt Kotori's arms release and turned around to see her smiling.
She felt a surge of heat around her cheeks and quickly moved to finish her work. Kotori giggled at Umi's reaction and proceeded to grab a towel from behind the counter to wipe off the tables one last time before the grand opening.
It wasn't an easy job managing a restaurant, Umi knew what she was getting herself into but the workload is bigger than she imagined. She walked into the office and turned on the lights. It was a small room, there was a single desk, a few chairs and some cabinets in the back.
She went behind the desk and sat in the chair, opening the bottom left drawer to retrieve an accounting book. Umi started working diligently as she always did, calculating the monthly budget, predicting stock orders and making sure that the restaurant was as perfect as she could make it.
An hour passed, and soon another two had gone by. Umi closed the book and took a deep breath, leaning back against the chair muttering to herself, "It's going to be tough, but we have to make sure we succeed here," she yawned and looked at the time.
It was already 2am.
She placed the book back into the bottom left drawer and got up. Before leaving, Umi made sure that the office was the same as it was when she walked in before turning off the light. She glanced through one of the windows on the doors to see that the front of the restaurant was still lit, "Is Kotori still awake?" she questioned.
Umi walked through the kitchen doors and surveyed the area, it was somehow cleaner than when she first entered a few hours ago. "Kotori really did do a good job here, it's spotless," from the corner of her eye, Umi caught a glimpse of a girl asleep in her chair, hunched over the table using her arms as a pillow.
Kotori had fallen asleep while waiting for Umi.
Umi sighed lightly and walked over to Kotori, gently tapping her shoulder to wake her up, "Kotori, wake up, you'll get a cold sleeping out here," the ash haired girl mumbled in her sleep,
"I hope our restaurant becomes successful Umi…"
Umi smiled and held Kotori in her arms like a princess.
"I can't promise that everything will be smooth, but I do promise that I will do everything I can to make our dream come true, Kotori," Umi carried her lover upstairs and laid her on the bed, covering her in the blanket delicately. She moved quietly around to the opposite side of the bed and slid in silently so she wouldn't disturb the innocent girl's slumber.
Umi watched her lover peacefully sleep and gave her a light peck on the lips.
"I love you, Kotori," she whispered before drifting off to sleep.