Chapter 1

It was early in the morning as Kisa Shouta muttered to himself, drinking from a travel mug of tea and traversing the streets that led to the café he worked at. He hated morning shift, and he hated it even more now that he was trying to cut back on the coffee. How was a man supposed to keep customers pleased while only half-awake?

He glared reproachfully at his mug. The tea he'd gotten from the convenience store between his apartment and the shop was weak; it would've been better if he had taken the time to make some himself.

"Morning, Kisa."

The owner was always the first one there, no matter what. Kisa had to admire Takano Masamune's dedication, if nothing else. He'd brought Emerald Café from the deep doom of red straight into profit within a few months of buying it up. It hadn't been doing bad, per se, but as Kisa went into the bathroom and dumped the tea as a lost cause, he couldn't help but be glad that he was getting a steady paycheck. It wasn't always a guarantee three years before.

Kisa couldn't help but be somewhat depressed that he'd been working at the café for so long, though. He'd been an art student in college, after all, with big dreams to sell his work for millions of yen and live off the profits his entire life. It had never worked out, though, and when it came down to it, working as a waiter was more profitable than spending his day hoping he could make a breakthrough. He needed to pay the bills, after all.

"Here."

As Kisa walked out of the bathroom, changed into his uniform of black dress pants and a button-up shirt with a black vest, he found a cup of tea held in his face. When he glanced around it he saw one of the cooks, Ichinose. She usually made the fancy deserts, the multi-layered cakes and elaborately-decorated sweets people ordered if they really wanted to splurge. She also seemed to have a thing about taking care of Kisa, which Kisa supposed was better than her having a thing about trying to date the manager like she did most of the time.

"You're actually suggesting I have some of that Emerald Tea? Is it even ethical for us to drink our own product?" Kisa asked.

Ichinose frowned. "You look like you could use some waking-up. Takano-san isn't going to be lenient on you if you fall asleep in the back room again."

"So just get me some coffee or something," Kisa said, but he still took the cup and sniffed it. The café's signature tea was mint, and it was strong. It could wake you up just smelling it, let alone drinking it.

"Like you need that crap," Ichinose said, turning back to the kitchen. "Drink too much and it'll age you. You're thirty-four and still look like a teenager; I'd consider that a blessing."

Kisa certainly did, especially when male customers from the café wanted to 'get to know him' after his shift. Kisa certainly couldn't say he had no social life.

As Kisa sat down behind the counter, he took a sip of the Emerald Tea and blinked. He'd never drank it before for various reasons, and now he was thinking he'd have to do so more often. The strong taste lingered in his mouth and gave him a jolt right off the bat, waking him up from the zombie-like state he'd walked to work in. No wonder the tea was so popular, especially in the morning when they got customers who needed a pick-me-up on the way to work.

The café wasn't going to open for another half hour, so even though Kisa was awake, he found himself drifting off there at the counter, holding the warm cup of tea in both hands. Takano-san was walking through, the morning newspaper rolled up in one hand as he slapped Onodera Ritsu's head with it. His boyfriend of two years had been at the register, supposed to be counting the money they put in there for the start of the day but was already asleep on his feet. He jumped in surprise and went back to work, and Takano-san simply dropped the newspaper on the counter within reaching distance of Kisa.

Kisa reached for it, deciding that falling asleep wasn't the best idea when Takano-san was in that kind of mood, and he started flipping through. The weather was supposed to get hot, but Kisa expected that; it was July, after all. July meant more customers, though; children were getting out of school for summer break, and the café was air conditioned when possible.

He stopped when he got to a small blurb in the arts and entertainment section. An up-and-coming artist had had a show and sold some of his paintings for a lot of money. Kisa's eye twitched, and he secretly put the man, Yukina Kou, on his list of people to hate. It was a long list, to be sure, but it mostly consisted of men he'd slept with who insisted on chasing after him and saying that there had been more to it.

"Hey, isn't that Kirishima-san's gallery?" a voice said behind him, and Kisa turned to see another of the cooks, Yoshino Chiaki. "Yeah, Jump Art Gallery! It's cool that they're doing so well."

"If you say so," Kisa said with a sigh. He closed the paper, folded it up, and slapped it into Chiaki's chest.

Chiaki took it with a mildly confused look on his face. He was usually only seen outside the kitchen when the manager, Hatori, wasn't there yet. He was probably the best cook in the place, but he was prone to laziness and procrastination so he had to have someone constantly watching him to make sure he got orders done. There was usually a revolving shift between Hatori and another of the waiters, Mino. Chiaki was a lot less willing to drop into laziness when it was Mino's turn to watch him, though. Hatori would scold Chiaki and make him feel bad, but Mino would scare him witless.

Because Chiaki wasn't outside the kitchen much during his shifts, though, Kisa didn't interact with him a lot. Since the other two cooks, Ichinose and Mutou, were women, the customers often thought that Chiaki was as well. Chiaki didn't do much to stop them, especially since he didn't leave through the front at the end of his shift, instead opting for sneaking out the back before Hatori got a hold of him. He was a good cook, and the special chocolate cupcakes with mint frosting had been his idea when he and Hatori joined the staff, but he sometimes needed a reminder that it was his job to fill orders, not fall asleep or sit at the oven, reading manga.

Chiaki wandered back off to the kitchen, the paper still in hand. As for Kisa, he still had a mildly spiteful tinge to his attitude. Where Chiaki was glad Jump Art Gallery had gotten such a successful artist associated with them, Kisa couldn't help but wonder what made Yukina Kou's work sell where Kisa's never had the chance. And he was still young, too! He couldn't have been out of college for two years, considering he was twenty-four.

Kisa sighed and sat back in his chair, taking another gulp of the Emerald Tea. It was going to be a long day.

xxx

Kisa's shift had officially started at five, when Emerald Café opened for business. When his shift was close to ending at one-thirty, he was ready to go home and take a nap. If he'd had a later shift he might have flirted with one of the male customers until he found himself going to a love hotel with the guy, but two in the afternoon wasn't a very pleasant time to head over to the love hotel district by any means. Perhaps he'd catch up on his sleep and go to a bar in the evening. His biggest selling point was his young looks, but when a guy is drinking alone in a bar, he doesn't often question how a teenager got in.

It was probably wrong, Kisa mused, to let all those men think he was a teenager when he was probably older than them, but Kisa had never had much moral fiber when it came to how he got laid. Kisa liked to think he was just open to new and exciting possibilities.

"Kisa, one of your tables is up!" Takano-san called, and Kisa snapped his head up. He'd let his thoughts drift again, as they were wont to do when it slowed down between meal rushes. He really needed to work on that.

Kisa rushed over to the table, putting on his biggest smile when he saw one of his customers was an extremely handsome man. The other was a woman, of course, but one of the risks of going into The Emerald Café was falling victim to Kisa. It wasn't just men, of course, but Kisa had zero interest in women and never had, so the men were all he was interested in.

"Welcome to The Emerald Café!" Kisa said, and the woman smiled at him while her companion just looked around like he was shocked. Admittedly the place was rather pink, and that was probably why they didn't get many repeat male customers. "What can I get for you?"

"What do you want, Yukina-san?" the woman asked, turning to her companion.

"It's your birthday, so you order. You know I'm not picky," the man said with a smile. Kisa couldn't help but gaze at him as the woman considered all the options for cake they had for the day. He practically sparkled and wouldn't have looked out-of-place as a worker for Emerald Café at all. It was no secret that Takano-san had hired the new staff at least partly for their looks, after all. You got a lot more repeat customers if the waiters were easy on the eyes.

"Ooh, I think I'll have the chocolate cupcakes with mint frosting. And could we get some Emerald Tea?" the woman finally decided. Kisa nodded and wrote it down, his eyes still stuck on the man. The woman didn't seem to notice, but once her friend was done taking in his surroundings, he locked gazes with Kisa and had a rather interested look on his face.

Kisa quickly hightailed it to the kitchen to get the order in. The cupcakes had been made already, but the lunch rush had left them in need to brew more tea, so he had a while before he'd have to face them again. The man and woman had a rather animated conversation going on as Kisa just leaned against the counter. The café was small so there was very little you couldn't see from there, and so Kisa felt like less of a stalker than he might have. Kisa would've liked to say he had no idea why he had such an interest in this man, but that would've been lying. One of his admitted faults was falling easily for good-looking men. If Kisa hadn't vowed to go home and sleep until dinnertime, he would've tried harder in flirting with the guy.

Then again, it did appear as though he had a girlfriend. A girlfriend he was bringing out for her birthday and letting order whatever she wanted. He also seemed genuinely happy to be there with her. Kisa sighed and rolled his shoulders, feeling stiff from being on his feet for several hours. All the good men were straight.

"Hey, isn't that the guy from the article?"

Kisa jumped in surprise to see Chiaki had escaped from the kitchen in one of his rare instances of freedom. Mino was off for the day and Hatori wouldn't get in until three, so his only wrangler at the time was Ichinose, who was probably busy at the moment.

"What article?" Kisa asked.

Chiaki seemed to need to think about it, but then he finally said, "You know, the one you were looking at this morning, about Kirishima-san's gallery."

Kisa shifted through his mind. The only thing he remembered about the article was that it had made him angry that some newbie's work had sold for so much money, but as he pieced it together in his mind, he realized that Chiaki was right: there had been a photo along with the blurb, of the artist, Yukina Kou, along with the painting that had sold for the highest amount. It had been admittedly tiny, but that combined with the woman calling him 'Yukina-san' made perfect sense in his mind.

Chiaki was called back into the kitchen so he agreed and was gone, leaving Kisa to brood. All the good men were, apparently, straight and Kisa's secret, mortal enemies. If he didn't think Takano-san would kill him for it, he would've told Ritsu to take his table and left early.

"Order up, Kisa-san!" Ichinose called from the kitchen.

Kisa sighed and picked up the tea and cupcakes, two cups and two treats. It wouldn't do to brood over it while Yukina was still his customer. Takano-san's number one rule was to treat customers with the utmost respect and to give them excellent service, because if a customer is unsatisfied, they probably won't come back.

"Here you are!" Kisa said, smiling and doing his best to radiate the sparkly aura the Emerald Café waiters were known for. "And happy birthday! I'm guessing you and your boyfriend have further plans for tonight?"

"Oh this guy isn't my boyfriend," the woman said with a laugh, picking up her tea. "We went to college together and I like to drag him around because he has a hard time saying no. But thank you." She bowed before digging in. Kisa bowed as well, and as he went back to lurk at the counter, Kisa couldn't help but let his eyes drift back to the table.

Why were the guys he always fell for so bad for him?