Second chapter! Please enjoy :)
Strolling along the street, Sasuke made his way towards the coffee shop. He was early. With over fifteen minutes left, he was taking his time. He was expecting a fairly grand speech from Akane about the stunt he had pulled the previous night, so you could say he wasn't very eager to go.
Although he didn't let it show, he actually liked the plump woman. He had known her since forever and her kind-hearted demeanour was one of the things Sasuke liked best about her. She was the reason he had gotten –and still had- a job. He knew that the way he sometimes acted didn't really rub most shopkeepers the right way. So getting her mad wasn't what he preferred.
He didn't regret his actions though; He had finally gotten a decent night of sleep and was now feeling fitter than ever. He would gladly take the woman's anger –which wouldn't last long anyway- and listen to her rant about how he should treat people more nicely.
He reached the front door of the shop all too soon and made his way inside. The moment he opened the door and triggered the mechanism, he was greeted by the familiar sound of the doorbell. A less familiar sight was the girl in full maid costume standing behind the counter, preparing coffee for the soon to arrive guests.
The outfit was a bit too big on her, although much better than the muffled, old clothes she had worn last night. They had looked as if they had been plucked out of the garbage, ragged and worn off.
Since he had rushed out last night, he had worn his work outfit home and thus was wearing it already. He had worn the dark blazer with the shop's symbol imprinted on it a million times before but it was his first time seeing the girls outfit. A dark blue, frilled dress with a white apron, the shop symbol in big letters on the chest.
She looked up when she heard the bell and he remembered now he didn't even know her name. When she saw him standing by the door her face remained indifferent at first, before a big smile plastered itself on her face.
"Well look what the cat dragged in, 'the one who got away'." She joked and he could hear the song softly playing on the background.
When he didn't respond at her bad joke, she continued: "Akane left something for you on the counter. Seemed important."
Then she turned her attention back to grinding the coffee beans.
He walked over and picked up a plain white envelope from the spot she had just mentioned. He turned it over and saw only his name, written in Granny's curly handwriting.
He looked up cautiously at the girl who was still occupied with the beans. Feeling his gaze on her, she looked up at him.
"What's in it?" A nod towards the envelope.
"Probably none of your business." He responded and turned his back on her. But not before he could see her eyes squint at the comment.
He ripped the paper envelope and slid out something that looked like a small, folded file. Folding the paper open, he started to read.
The heading read 'letter of resignation', some blank spots had been filled in by Akane. He could see his name 'Sasuke Uchiha', 'unappropriated behavious', the old woman's paragraph…wait…letter of resignation? LETTER OF RESSIGNATION! He gasped when the information sank in.
"What!?"
The yell escaped his mouth and, with a mix of shock, confusion and anger, he turned on his heel and barged into the kitchen. He found the woman he was looking for immediately. She turned in shock when he came in yelling.
"What in the world is this?" He was waving the papers around furiously, "You can't be serious! I've been working my ass off for this place and just because I skipped one time you're firing me? A letter of resignation? I've been working here for almost three years and just for this reason you're replacing me…"
At that point he started rambling about how she couldn't do this, slightly panicking and angry. But he soon noticed something was off. He could tell by the way Akane was just standing there, letting him go on and on with a weird expression on her face. He stopped his tirade and narrowed his eyes at her.
"Well Sasuke, maybe you should've thought better about the consequences before droppin' all you work on this little girl."
No this wasn't right. She had trouble keeping her voice steady and was trying desperately to keep her mouth from curling upwards. She failed miserably and it was when he heard the girl giggling behind him that it dawned on him.
He turned around, enraged, glaring at the girl who was trying to cover up her laughing with her small hands, already turning red in the process.
"It's a fake isn't it?" His voice had reduced to a dangerously low growl but this only send the two chuckling women over the edge and threw them in a fit of laughter. They were practically rolling over the floor at that point, tears streaming down their cheeks.
He waited impatiently for them to finish but he was growing more aggravated by the minute; He couldn't understand what was so funny about this whole situation. Just when he was about to lose his temper for the second time, they finally managed to pick themselves off the floor. Still sniggering, Granny started to explain.
"Sorry Sasuke dear, you ain't have to worry about nothin', this was just to teach you a lesson. I ain't firing' or replacin' you."
"A lesson?" His question came out as another growl since he was still pissed off.
"Well yeah, since you decided on dumping all your responsibilities on me, someone you had only known for five minutes."
He looked down at the girl who had just spoken. She was still trying her best to keep herself from laughing.
"You think this is very funny, don't you?" He asked, squinting his eyes at her.
"Of course I think it's funny." She answered truthfully. "It's the perfect payback."
"Oh, so I guess this whole setup was your idea,"
He crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaning back slightly, he could see the sly smile creeping up her face. This girl was in no way the shy and timid, little girl he had expected her to be.
"Yes it was her idea Sasuke." Akane answered in her stead. "But I agreed to it and filled in the file because I thought you might actually learn from it."
"Learn from it?" He asked, whipping around. "Yeez, I only skipped one night. You knew how tired I was and then she came around and I just grabbed the opportunity."
"I knew you were tired but that doesn't justify your actions. It weren't nice Sasuke."
He just huffed. She snatched the file out of his hands, ripped it apart and threw it in the waste basket. "There you go, now you ain't got nothin' to worry about."
He actually felt the weight fall of his shoulders, he had really been scared of getting fired. Since his parents had died a tragic death and his brother had fled, leaving him with their parental home to tend to, he needed the money to pay the bills. He knew that if he really wanted to, he could always take up modelling but it was something he avoided at all costs. He calmed down a little.
"Good." He said. "So can I just start working now?"
"Well, since I don't expect no apology from you, you can go on. I think you got the message." The older woman waved him away with her hand.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it alright."
He turned and brushed past the girl who was still standing in the doorway, slightly pushing her out of the way in the process.
She decided to ignore the shove she had just received and darted after him.
"Hey!" She called out to the boy.
He stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"Look, I know we've started off the wrong way—"
"And whose fault is that?"
"Yours." She answered flatly, earning her another glare. He knew she was right though, since he didn't respond
Instead, he turned his body so he was facing her fully.
"But since I'll be working here from now on, I don't want there to be any hard feelings. I want us to get along, so why don't we just start over?" She continued, pretending he had said nothing.
This only hurt her pride a little bit but she meant what she said, she wanted to have a good time at work and not to hate each other's guts.
"Look, I'll start." She said when his face remained expressionless.
"My name's Miwa." She held out her hand for him to shake. "Miwa Nakagawa."
"Sasuke Uchiha." He replied. And she thought she had accomplished something when he grabbed her hand.
With her small hand almost entirely engulfed in his much bigger one, they gave each other a handshake. But it was by the way he held her hand a bit too tightly that she could tell that this was not going to go as she had hoped.
He smiled at her, another fake smile, and she smiled back, trying her best not to flinch under his tight grasp on her hand.
This is sooo not going to work out.
Hope you liked it, please let me know what you think ;)