"Thy tooth is not so keen,
because thou art not seen,
although thy breath be rude,
although thy breath be rude."
It wasn't like Aoba didn't like his job, but he really wanted to break a plate on his manager Koujaku's face.
Koujaku had decided that because too many patrons got distracted by Aoba's voice when he was working the register that Aoba should go and work in the back, making drinks. Aoba wasn't particularly upset by having to make the drinks and sometimes make the pastries that Beni Shigure sold throughout the day, but he definitely hated having to work with Noiz.
Noiz was a shithead college student who had no regard for others and refused to do his fair share of the work, instead deciding to sit in the supply closet tapping away at his laptop. Aoba brought this up to Koujaku many times, but Koujaku just put his hand on Aoba's shoulder and told him that because Noiz was the kid of one of Koujaku's dad's business partners, there was nothing he could do.
Noiz was weird, too. A neurotic, weird dude who had apparently nothing better to do during his shift than to bother Aoba every time the blue-haired man had to get something from the supply closet.
So Aoba had to make do with the poor conditions and struggle through the best he could.
He got the tiny papers that came through the little window and he made the drinks to the customers' specifications and then he gave the orders to Koujaku, who gave them to the customers with his bright, lady-killing smile.
Aoba settled into his new role as the barista and order-filler rather quickly - it only took him a week to completely learn how all of the equipment worked and how all the drinks were usually made, and from there it only happened a few times that someone requested a special order with special ingredients.
The weeks went on much in this way for a long while, until one rainy Tuesday in November when Koujaku poked his head into Aoba's little zone and told him that one of the customers said to give his compliments to the barista.
Aoba kind of just stared at Koujaku for a minute until he got done processing what the man said, by which time the hot chocolate Aoba was decorating was drowning in whipped cream. When he finally shook himself out of his stupor, he dismissed the new information with a, "Well, that's weird."
Koujaku replied, "Yep," and went back to the front to manage the register.
Though the incident was pretty strange, Aoba could easily brush it off as just somebody playing some kind of joke or prank, and the whole thing didn't really even bother him until the next day, when it happened again. Koujaku poked his dark blue head in again with a similar message as before, but with an added mention of Aoba's 'mastery of brewing coffee.'
Aoba rolled his eyes and continued on with putting an extra shot in a mocha latte.
The month went on in a very similar fashion until the beginning of December, when the real seasonal beverages and brews came out. Aoba worked on his little foam Christmas trees for a long while before he dared putting them on the tops of the drinks. He starting using them on orders around the twelfth, and the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Aoba's mystery patron with the compliments even said something about them being 'festive and adorably perfect,' which, like a lot of the stranger's compliments since week three of their arrival made Aoba's cheeks flush just a little bit. Aoba was more than a little grateful that the patron, whoever he was, had stopped verbally telling Koujaku what he wanted Aoba to hear and instead wrote them on little notes which Aoba's manager passed back to him at the end of his shift.
Fantastic coffee today!
XOXO
I love the little foam trees!
XOXO
Behind every good coffee shop is a wonderful barista :)
XOXO
Must be hard to work during the busier hours - hope you take a break every now and again.
Delicious coffee today! I really love the dark blend.
XOXO
The barista never replied to any of the messages, but they never stopped coming. It seemed like every day that Aoba worked there was a new note or tiny message from this strange person, and the more it happened the less strange it became to him. He even stopped minding that they weren't signed with a name, just 'XOXO.' He had a small collection of them stored in a little wooden box on his nightstand, and whenever he wasn't feeling so hot he took a look at them and was reminded of this mystery person's admiration.
But one day on one of Aoba's shorter shifts, the expected note never came.
He supposed he only noticed its absence because he didn't leave with a little piece of paper stuck in his back pocket, where he usually put the tiny notes. Aoba's blue eyebrows pulled together in the center of his forehead as he put his apron into his locker and pulled his hair down from it's bun.
With a small nonchalant shrug and a tiny feeling of loss that he definitely tried to squash down, Aoba left the shop and headed out to the mall that surrounded it, hoping to find Christmas presents for his friends and for Tae.
The tall street lamps were just coming on, and their lights bounced off the garlands and bows that decorated them. Loads of other shoppers looking for presents or decorations milled about, giggling and speaking to each other. Shop windows adorned with brightly colored Christmas trees and display-worthy wrapped boxes tied up with bows and strings poured light out onto the sidewalk.
He was grateful for his huge, puffy blue jacket as he was wandering down the cold streets - there was no snow as of yet, but Aoba highly doubted the season would pass without at least a light dusting of the white powder.
It was easy enough to find little presents for Mizuki, Tae, Koujaku, and Aoba's brother Ren (Aoba didn't really consider Noiz a friend, so he didn't even bother with getting something for him) that after just a little over half an hour of shopping, Aoba decided it was time to start heading home. He was getting a little to chilly to spend much more time outside.
Just as he was getting ready to leave the small center of shopping, something caught his eye.
There was a bright, pastel green scarf displayed on a mannequin in a shop window. Without thinking about it too much, Aoba pushed the shop's door open and meandered his way inside, admiring the paper ornaments and snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. The store was warm and smelled like apples and cinnamon. He picked up the scarf and brought it over to the counter, where a helpful sales lady was waiting.
"Is this all for you today?" She asked, smiling at him and punching numbers into the keypad on the register.
"Yes, thanks," Aoba replied. He paid and waited for the woman to wrap the scarf in paper and place it in a brown paper bag, then thanked her once again and left.
He wasn't sure what exactly had drawn him to the scarf, nor did he know who he was going to give it to. He'd keep it for himself, but he was fairly certain the shade of green would clash with his hair. Aoba zipped his jacket up to his chin and pulled the hood over his head as white snowflakes began to fall from the sky.
Aoba hurried home, anxious to be out of the cold.
~()~
The next time Aoba's mystery patron passed a note to him, it was a complete letter enclosed in a light blue envelope, sealed with a sticker that looked a lot like a jellyfish. The letter itself was actually really nice - it was explaining to Aoba that he hadn't been able to come to the shop for a few days because someone in his family had been ill and he needed to take care of him. He complimented Aoba's beverages several more times. After all the notes and all the little correspondences, Aoba didn't feel as if the compliments were that creepy anymore. In fact, he blushed a little bit and gave a little mental 'thanks' for each of his admirer's admissions.
But more important than any of that, Aoba felt, was the fact that now he had a name for this mystery man. He'd signed the letter with 'XOXO, Clear' (which honestly made the tips of Aoba's ears a little bit red, as it usually did). And there was a post-script at the bottom asking if maybe Aoba wanted to go out to lunch sometime.
Aoba, for the first time since the whole business of Clear's comments and compliments to him began, penned a response.
~()~
The shop was peaceful today - it seemed that at 2:30 in the daytime there was no reason to complain about the shop not carrying a specific type of coffee. The coffee was excellent, as per the usual. He sat in the corner of the shop in one of the squishy armchairs near the window and took small sips of the frothy mocha with the tiny tree shape in the foam every once in a while, staring out through the glass into the dusky afternoon. He'd shaken off all the snow he could from his see-through umbrella and his white trench coat before hanging them on the hooks by the door, afraid of dripping water all over the floor and upholstery.
Koujaku, the manager of the shop, came by Clear's spot to chat every once in a while. Koujaku was really nice and attentive, and was very helpful in making sure Clear's notes got to Aoba-san. Today, though, Koujaku made his way over to Clear during a lull in business carrying a light green bag with bright white snowflakes on it and white tissue paper sticking out of the top.
"Aoba said to give this to you," Koujaku announced, plopping the bag on Clear's little table.
"For me?" Clear asked in confusion, tilting his head to the side.
"Unless there's someone else who regularly gives my barista handwritten notes telling him his brews are 'superior in every way'?" Koujaku quoted dryly.
Clear took the bag and pulled out whatever had been hidden by the tissue paper, revealing a long, wide green cashmere scarf. He blinked the moisture rapidly away from his eyes and stuck his hand back in the bag, trying to find some sort of note or letter - some sort of explanation. He encountered a soft green envelope with more white snowflakes on it.
Clear -
Thank you so much for all of your kind words. I read all of your notes and I've never thrown a single one of them away - they make me smile when I look at them.
I'm very glad that your relative is better now, and I hope the illness wasn't too serious.
I would love to go to lunch with you, but first please accept this small gift from me. It definitely won't make up for all of the happiness you've given me through your notes, but I hope it at least makes you a little warmer.
You seem very nice; I can't wait to meet you!
- XOXO, Aoba
~()~
Two years passed since Aoba's lunch date with Clear, and one day he stood in front of Beni Shigure and contemplated something that had been very prevalent to him recently.
Because there were a lot of things that Aoba was grateful for.
He was grateful for his Grandma, Tae, who raised him.
He was grateful for his brother, Ren, who gave him advice and made sure he took care of himself.
He was grateful for his great friends Mizuki and Koujaku, and he was grateful for all of his teachers at university.
And, he noted as he felt Clear's soft lips against his own and the cool metal of a wedding band slipping onto his finger as he stood in the falling snow, Aoba was very, very grateful for coffee.