JUNE XX, 2011
Evening - CLOUDY
Central Shopping District - Chinese Diner Aiya
Aika Nakamura tightened the apron around her back for the umpteenth time this evening, the girl had just finished her third delivery over the past hour, tallying it up to a total of twelve deliveries for the day. The sun'd already plunged over the horizon, replacing the orange skies with a darkened view of star-less skies. The cloudy weather was surely subduing the overall brightness of the town of Inaba, were it not for the occasional lamp posts dotting the streets, and the lights from the residential buildings (as well as the rather suspicious purple lights coming from the Shiroku store beside Aiya's), the Central Shopping District would've been as good as being shrouded in darkness.
Setting down her helmet by the handle of the family's delivery moped, she breathed a sigh, a one of weariness for the sharp-eared. Balancing her own work-life-school balance was getting pretty challenging the more she grew up. The then girl pushed the delivery vehicle to the parking spot right outside the door of the diner, finishing her delivery for the night as the diner was close to closing hours anyway. Aika opened the door to her family home and business, the Chinese Diner Aiya to help her father cleaning up the shop.
...Only to find that the establishment still has patrons, even though only a couple. Aika could feel her eyebrows rising slightly, usually due to her long, and often frequent deliveries, the diner would usually already be devoid of guests, reason being by dinner hours, families often ordered deliveries from the comfort of their own homes rather than going through the trouble of visiting the diner anyway. That, or they would just opt to go to the town's only department store, Junes, to shop for some ready-to-eat side dishes.
Aika's dark amber eyes caught an eyeful of gray hair and a figure wearing the signature Yasogami High uniform sitting by the counter, quietly enjoying her father's-made beef bowl. It was none other than Yuu Narukami, the transfer student that'd arrived to study on Yasogami about a month or two back in April. That and another person sitting on one of the long chairs provided by the diner, enjoying the house ramen. The girl decided to quietly slip past through the guests, while uncommon, it wasn't rare for the diner to have patrons still spending time on the eatery. It's usually late-night-shift workers on their break, college students on their way home, or the more common regulars who'd come to appreciate the packed dishes of the diner. More often times than not, though, Yuu would bring one or more of his friends to eat at Aiya's.
"Ah, you're back," Aika's ears perked up as she entered the kitchen area, catching the view of her father greeting her with a smile. "Done with the delivery already?"
The girl only gave a neutral nod as a response, her father crossed his arms, looking rather satisfied.
"Hey, that's record time," He gave a jest in good humor to Aika with a light chuckle, receiving yet no response from his dull-faced daughter. "Oh, right, Narukami-kun, you not meet Aika yet, right?"
The customer sitting by the counter raised his head from the meal to give a nod to the restaurant owner. "Actually, I have met her times before," The gray-haired student perked his lips to form a respectful smile to the Chinese chef and his daughter. "Good evening to you too, Nakamura-san."
Aika nodded to the transfer student.
"Oh, really?" Aika's father looked rather surprised before blinking twice, as if suddenly realizing something. "Oh, right! You two go to same school together, yes?"
"Yes," Yuu nodded his head as a sign of confirmation. "Nakamura-san's class is right beside mine."
"I see, I see..." The chef of Aiya rubbed his chin. "Well, I hope you two get along! You hear that too, Aika? You know how fast time flies, better enjoy youth as much as you want while you still have time!"
Aika resisted the urge to roll her eyes, more in amusement rather than exasperation at her father's sagely remark. But she gave a slight audible hum noting her acknowledgement of the chef's opinion before deciding to tune out the rest of her father's conversation with the transfer student, and going to clean the dirty dishes left on the sink. One by one, every plate and bowl was slowly, but surely restored to their pristine condition after a few minutes of work, thanks to her deft hands.
After a while and with the last of the dishes placed back on the cabinet, Aika turned her head over her shoulder to see Yuu clapping his hands together and bowing slightly before his finished meal, and the other guest already gone. It seemed like even with her speed, some time'd passed already.
"Thank you for the meal," The gray-haired smiled contently as he placed his chopsticks by the now-empty beef bowl. And for a split second, Aika could even see his face contorted to one displaying... pride, for some reason? That expression vanished as quickly as it appeared, though, and the girl didn't heed much mind to it no further.
Hearing the boy, Aika's father peeked his head to the counter. "Aiyaah, thank you much!" He expressed his trademark awkwardly-spoken Japanese every time a patron finished their meal. "Did you enjoy the meal?" The adult questioned whilst rounding up the dishes left by the student.
Yuu nodded, still with that same little smile of his. "Yes, my compliments to the chef," He commented, before placing a hand over his stomach and tapping it lightly. "Not only that, but I also learned a deeper meaning in understanding... regarding my own limits. Yes, it is an invaluable lesson I'll never forget," He spoke in a wise tone.
This earned him a chuckle from the Chinese man. "Well, that'll be 800 yen, then."
"800 yen, right," Yuu mumbled to himself as he busied himself with his wallet to find the needed currencies for his meal. "Right... here they are..." He handed over the correct amount of money over the counter, whilst standing up to walk towards the door. "Well then, I'll be off now. Good evening, and right, evening to you too, Nakamura-san," He called out to the other kitchen hand from the door with his head turned over his shoulder.
Aika joined her father to see their final patron off, replying him with a practiced: "Please come again!", with Aika's farewell being much less enthusiastic compared to her father's.
Closing the door behind his back, Aika then strolled over to the door to flip the sign and lock the doors, finally signalling the diner's closure after a long day.
"Hmm..." Her father's sudden hum of curiosity made the Chinese-Japanese girl turn around to face him. The man was staring at the money Yuu'd just gave them for their services. "I was wondering... how did he get this much money to pay for food?"
Despite her neutral expression, that made Aika's mind internally question it too, actually. Sure, the boy was from the city, and that may be a factor of his rather bloated allowance. But Yuu Narukami'd become an esteemed regular at Aiya's by just a matter of weeks, he'd usually stop there for quick dinners, and even late night suppers such as recently. The young man was also no stranger to the rainy-day special Mega Beef Bowl challenge, regardless of the results. He's never won the challenge, but kept coming back for more, and for the record, she DID saw an improvement with every entry he's taken. Still, with every loss, he has to pay 3000 yen for the dish, and that is quite the hefty price for a single-seating meal. That's not including his regular visits to the diner such as his recent desire for the restaurant's beef-bowl.
Not only that, but during her deliveries, she could sometimes see the transfer student walking in and out of Daidara's Metalworks with a bunch of tools and contraptions, browsing the Yomenaido and coming out with dozens of books, always carrying a handful of groceries from Shiroku, and was also often seen going to the Tatsuhime Shrine, only to walk out, mysteriously carrying a bunch of "medicinal herbs" of sorts she'd never seen before. Either way, those things costs a lot, and she means, A LOT of money.
But alas, it was none of her business.
Aika shrugged neutrally at her father's question. "Who knows? Last I hear he works part-time, though," She finally gave an honest, verbal answer after her usual long silence.
"But do working part-time get you much money for food? Even in Inaba, things are expensive," Her father tried to argue, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, but eventually he also gave up on the idea as his expression deflated and he put the money inside the register. "Eh, he looks like a good boy, won't do anything bad."
That, Aika could agree on, at least. To her, Yuu seemed to be a pretty decent man, even with the whole "coming from the big city" thing, he's still a pretty humble guy, to the point of it's easy for him to blend in with the background. He's never really stood out at school despite the still hot gossip surrounding him and the city he came from. And it came pretty surprising for her, considering his somewhat fleeting presence, he was known to take active parts in both intra and extracurricular activities. He'd join clubs, take on jobs, basically anything to keep himself busy, something that amazed even the usually stoic delivery girl.
Not to mention, it'd be a lie to say he's pretty attractive too. That, at least seems to be the collective conclusion for most female students at Yasogami, so Aika's not alone on that matter.
"Aika, can you help with dishes?" Her father's voice once again snapped Aika out of her train of thought. "I'll deal with the garbage," The adult said as he hoisted a handful of rubbish already packed neatly in a black plastic bag and carrying them to the back door.
Aika simply nodded, and moved over to pick up the patron's last dishes already rounded up by her father and carried them over to the cleaning station, once again letting her skillful hands to work on the plates and bowls. At this, she didn't know why, but she couldn't stop herself from thinking about herself and the the coming years, about her education, career, and of course, life as an adult. Aika sighed to herself once again, letting her mind wander free once more.
Maybe going to a university and getting a decent job would be nice...
She was going to continue with her daydream until the diner's phone suddenly rang, causing the girl to jolt in surprise and berate herself for her tendencies to space out. She looked to the clock to see that it was already late into the night, and her eyebrows rose at the questionable phone call at that hour. Nevertheless, with the absence of her father, she dried both of her hands and walked to the phone to pick it up, even with slight exasperation due to the time... and her need for sleep.
The bluenette shook the negativity out of her head. Maybe it's just someone else, getting mixed over the Nakamura household's phone number and their diner's number.
"Evening, Nakamura Residence," Aika greeted expressionlessly to the one on the other end.
"Ah, right, Chinese Diner Aiya, right?" The voice replied, sounding a bit dazed. "Um, I'm sorry, is the diner's delivery still up?"
Aika finally rolled her eyes.
Well, just another night at Aiya's.
Just Another Night at Aiya's
A Persona 4 Work of Fiction
Author's Notes:
YES, HER DAD'S BROKEN ENGLISH (or Japanese?) IS ON PURPOSE.
Aika is an under-rated character, and I think there's no work featuring her, so I want to flesh her out.
This is a slice-of-life work, so we won't be seeing much of Persona's supernatural parts in here. Just a story of a girl's daily life whilst working in her a family-run restaurant. I haven't got any plans on whether I should develop this story as. Probably as a collection of short random one-shots featuring Aika, maybe a chapter-based progression kind-of story? I don't know. I honestly didn't think of anything While I typed this chapter down on my laptop at 1AM in the morning.
Well. Hope you enjoyed. I apologize for any mistakes I've made or if I didn't do Aika enough justice.
Traesto.