Kanzashi: Hair sticks, or some people refer it to hair chopsticks
Shouji: traditional door held by thin wooden frame, covered with translucent paper
Doumeki came to the shop in the mid afternoon of the Saturday of the same week. The cafe was completed. It had an old Japanese feel with a pagoda-like roof, and wooden walls. There was a well suited glass door with wooden borders with an automatic door button where the handle should be. There were two large windows at each side of the front wall, both bordered with wood as well. Doumeki looked into the shop and saw neatly arranged tables and chairs with a bar counter at the end of the cafe. Bottles of shouchu and spirits lined up on the shelves behind the bar counter.
The cafe did not take up the full width of the entrance of the shop. In fact it seemed that the cafe appeared behind the shop's fence deliberately. The right side of the cafe was built tightly next to the shop's wall while there was a large gap on the left side of the cafe. Doumeki walked to the left and found a lane comfortably large that leads into the shop's garden. At the end of the cafe's perimeter, a woman in bright pink tracksuit squatted near a small cottage-like gate built between the shop's wall and the cafe wall. Her black hair was bundled in a large chinese bun, secured with a kanzashi decorated with a golden plate carved with floral and a bird soaring. She had a nail sticking out between her lips and held a wooden board and a hammer in each of her hands. She seems to be having trouble with fixing the wooden board onto the gate.
"Do you need help?" Doumeki asked.
The woman fell back onto her behind in surprise and raised her hammer, as if ready for assault. She relaxed after all then tried to put down her arm as naturally as she could.
"Apologies for my rude behaviour. The cafe will be opening tomorrow. We still have some preparations to do. Please come back tomorrow," she bowed lightly and said.
"... I'm not a customer," Doumeki said. "I'm going to the shop."
"... The shop that sell wishes?"
"I'm visiting the owner of the shop."
The woman measured him visually from head to toe. "Ah, so you're his... friend."
Doumeki simply nodded. The woman raised the wooden board in her hand.
"I built a gate to guard the entrance of the shop from the cafe. It won't be good if people walked into the garden unknowingly," she said, mostly talking to herself. "Could you please help me nail this onto the fence?"
Doumeki held his hand out for the hammer quietly. The work was done quickly and the wooden board sat nicely in the middle of the fence.
"Can you tell what it says on the board?" the woman asked as she took back the hammer from Doumeki.
"It looks blank to me."
"It does? But you can see the shop right?"
Doumeki nodded.
"I got a... professional to help me write down a message onto the board. So that those who needs the shop will open the gate."
"You can see what the board says?"
"Yes."
"And the shop?"
"...Yes."
"Have you spoken to him?"
"...Yes. But not about the shop," the woman walked backwards away from the gate. "Thanks for helping me out with the board. Tomorrow's the opening and I've got preparations not yet done."
Doumeki pushed the gate and it opened.
"... See you tomorrow," the woman said hurriedly then turned around the corner to the shop.
Doumeki went through the shop and closed the gate. He tried to look for a visible lock on the gate, but found nothing - no hinges, catches or magnets - needed to lock the door. It just looked like a gate with no lock.
"It's Doumeki!"
"Doumeki's here!"
Moro and Maru cheered, running through the corridor and jumped into the garden. Mokona's small black body jumped across the garden like a stray fur ball.
"Did you bring any snacks? Did you?"
Watanuki leaned against the pillar as he watched Doumeki walk over.
"The genkan, please."
Doumeki turned rigidly towards the actual entrance of the shop. Maru and Moro slid the door open for him, and Watanuki was already at the door waiting.
"Your exams is over already?"
"I took only three modules this semester so it ended quickly," Doumeki said and held up a plastic bag. "I brought some snacks and ice cream."
"WOOO! SNACKS!" Mokona cheered and grabbed the bag from Doumeki.
They walked towards the living room together as Mokona whined about Watanuki punishing him for not helping out with the housework. Maru and Moro jumped onto Mokona and snatched the bag, repeating after Watanuki 'No snacks and no wine for a week!'
"I saw the woman," Doumeki said as they walked pass the old-school telephone in the shop.
"Oh?"
"She built a gate for the shop."
"Yes, she did. I wonder how she had gotten it. That gate has a strong magical nature in it."
"There wasn't a lock," Doumeki described as Maru and Moro slipped through and rushed to open the shouji door for the living room.
"There's no need for a lock. Only people who can see the shop can come in, after all."
"It seems that the cafe opens tomorrow."
"So it seems. I'm thinking of sending her some cake as a house warming gift."
"Cake?!" Mokona exclaimed. "Are you making some for us too? What kind are you making? Does it have rum?"
"There's a bar counter in the cafe with many bottles of alcohol," Doumeki added on.
"Then I shouldn't add alcohol into the cake. Maybe something sweet to go with aperitifs," Watanuki wondered. He brought out a slip of paper from his sleeve and gave it to Doumeki. "Go to the store before sun set. These are the ingredients for the cake. Dinner will be ready once you're back."
Doumeki quietly took over the note and read through it. Watanuki yawned loudly and went further into the shop.
"Are you going to sleep?" Doumeki looked up and asked.
"Yeah. A client came over close to dawn. It's quite a simple matter so it should be over in a couple of hours," Watanuki waved lazily. "Maru, Moro, keep the snacks in the cabinet."
"Yes~" the twins answered and Watanuki closed the shouji door behind him.
Mokona jumped onto Doumeki's shoulder and read the note that was still in his hand.
"Hmmm... I still think the cake will taste better with some rum," he hinted obviously to Doumeki.
Doumeki walked towards the genkan and put on his shoes. "I could get some for the cake."
"There's my culprit in crime. He he he..." Mokona said greedily.
Maru and Moro jumped in the corridor excitedly as Doumeki walked across the garden to the gate. "Itterashai!" they shouted loudly to him and waved.
Doumeki stepped out of the shop's entrance and saw the woman holding a baseball bat, looking away into the distance. He followed her gaze and saw a black limousine turned into the corner of the street. The woman turned around and their eyes met.
"Hello," she said. " Are you going back already?"
"No. I'm going to the store."
"Oh... Well, see y-"
"Do you prefer cake with rum? "
"Hmmm," the woman considered, seemingly not taken off guard by the man's question. "I wouldn't mind if there's a good balance in the sweetness and the rum in the cake."
"Okay," Doumeki said and walked off.
The woman returned into her cafe after Doumeki left. She placed the baseball bat onto a dining table casually and headed to the bar counter. She glanced through the shelves thoughtfully before grabbing her purse off the counter. As she locked the electronic door of the cafe, she noticed a tall man wearing a black business suit and a white shirt standing outside the entrance of the shop. He wore a bowler hat a little too large for his head, and concealed half of his face.
The woman walked over and asked, "May I help you?"
The man did not reply.
"The cafe is not ready for business yet. Please come back tomorrow."
Again, the man did not reply.
"Are you here for... other business?" the woman asked, thinking if he was a potential customer for the shop.
The man was still silent.
"Well then, I'll be going off," the woman ended the one sided conversation awkwardly.
She bowed casually as a form of polite gesture and walked briskly into the street. As she turned the corner, she took a peek corner back into the street. The tall man was no longer there.
A/N: Thank you for your kind reviews and I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing this!