Rule 1: Always Keep a Friendly Smile
"Remember to keep a happy look on, even if your day isn't going too great. Especially when working the registers! Who wants a grumpy cashier?"
Minamisawa cursed under his breath as he fumbled with the ring of keys in his pocket. He shivered lightly in the bleak cold of the morning, the crisp air scratching his already-dry throat. He had long since decided that it was nearly impossible to have a good morning when opening up a Starbucks for the day, and right now was no different.
A gruff sigh escaped his lips when he finally retrieved the right key, and he forcefully jammed it into the lock of the door in front of him. After angrily jiggling it around a few times and suppressing the burning urge to kick something, the key finally turned, and he was in.
You'd think walking into a coffee shop first thing in the morning would be great. Not when you're the first one entering, thought Minamisawa, sweeping his eyes across the almost sad-looking environment of the place. There was no smell of coffee in the air, however there was the stale stench of whatever cleaning fluid was used yesterday, mixed with the faint, somewhat discouraging scent of the lavender air freshener.
After a brief moment of silence dedicated to silently bitching and lamenting about his current employment state, Minamisawa began the oh-so-exciting journey through the seating area and to the counter in the back. He picked his way a little too precariously through the plethora of chairs, shelves, tables, and other typical furniture items, and with good reason. Even at a glance it was clear that a lot of money was put into the place, almost to the point of overdoing it, and he figured that one less death threat from Shindou would do his pitiful career good. Of course, he would have certainly done the exact opposite of this if he fancied it possible to get himself fired, but everyone knew that Tenma absolutely would not allow it.
Tch. Tenma. Minamisawa's eyes narrowed involuntarily at the thought of his assistant manager. He had conflicted feelings about the boy as a whole, but he knew that if one thing was certain it was the fact that he was not fit for his job whatsoever.
Like so, thought Minamisawa as he hoisted himself up and over the counter to the "employees only" side, his feet making a hollow clack when he landed that rang out across the vacant room. If Tenma were here, he wouldn't have given a damn about that.
He still had some time before more of his fellow workers would come, so he spent his time screwing with his assigned register and formulating his "game plan" for the day. In all honestly, there really wasn't much to plan at all, but he liked to assign different facials to use for each type of customer. He'd gathered up quite the list from his time dutifully observing. So far, his most used one was "the smolder", as Hamano had called it. He'd gotten more than a few numbers out of that one. Of course, he never once bothered to even so much as glance at them, since he had Kurama to mess around with, but he figured that it was a gracious enough gesture that would at least keep him from getting his paycheck lowered. He made a mental note to watch himself about that, since it was one of the few negative things that Tenma allowed Shindou to do. He bleakly wondered if Tenma even knew what a paycheck was.
Suddenly, the door opened, and cool air flooded in, making Minamisawa jump. He looked up to see Tsurugi walking in rather cautiously, a bemused look on his face.
"Why are the lights off?" he questioned before heading over to flip them on.
Minamisawa squinted at the sudden brightness, yet managed to state a flat reply. "I thought it would match the darkness of your stone cold, emo heart."
Tsurugi grunted halfheartedly in reply to this. There was silence between the two as Tsurugi also walked over to the counter, respectfully using the gate unlike his fellow cashier. He took his place behind the register neighboring Minamisawa's and took the time to give him a more thorough reply.
"Shut up," he muttered.
"A little late, aren't we?" remarked Minamisawa before allowing a faint smirk to slip onto his face. "I meant "emotional". Sorry for getting my edgy terminology wrong, I'll be much more careful next time."
"There won't be a next time," drawled the bluenette.
"Why not, buddy?"
"I'm quitting this shithole."
"Oh, Tenma would hate that."
Tsurugi didn't say another word, and that was the end of it. Another bout of uncultured yet welcome silence developed, and the two men waited for more workers to come so that they could officially open up for the day. The sight from afar was like an Instagram user's attempt to be artistic - all it needed was a Nashville filter.
Tsurugi was the one to kill the tranquility. He had leaned over out of curiosity to peer at Minamisawa's register, and was slightly concerned at what he saw.
"Who in their right mind would spend $11,037 at...at...um..."
"Starbucks," finished Minamisawa with an irritated sigh. "Honestly, you're way dumber than you look."
Tsurugi opened his mouth to make an angry interjection, his brow furrowed, but Minamisawa cut him off once more.
"And to answer your question," he said, "No. I input that for shits and giggles. But if a "right mind" was out of the question, I would not put it past a wasted Shindou. Bet he already spends money like water as it is."
The last bit of his statement was muttered, and Tsurugi let himself chuckle a bit. He admittedly enjoyed Minamisawa's snide remarks once in a while, and both of them agreed that this was their main source of entertainment in this position.
Both of them began to slouch and relax, and as if on cue, the missing workers began to sift in one by one. Minamisawa squared up and slapped Tsurugi's back in somewhat of a forceful manner - Tsurugi couldn't tell if the gesture was supposed to be friendly or imposing in nature, and he decided not to think about it.
"Perfect posture, perfect posture," reminded Minamisawa in a tone of voice that was clearly sarcastic and mocking. "Wipe that bitchy resting face off and maybe that eyeliner too, while you're at it, because we both know how much Shindou loves anything less than perfection."
Their eyes met, and they mentally exchanged the same two half-joking words:
"Don't die."
well look here i decided that it wouldn't be good to just keep posting random oneshots and drabbles and settled with somewhat of an ongoing story.
i suppose it's just a bunch of short stories centering around the go raimon crew some 5-6 years later all working at a starbucks for some reason? it's based on an au me and my friends thought up
it was fun and i hope this...thing does it justice.