Sorry for the long wait! It's honestly the usual stuff (School, Work, Bills). But I'm back! I hope you guys enjoy the new chapter. And once again, I'm sorry for the long wait.
Chapter 25: Changes
Len's P.O.V.
3:29 p.m.
"All I'm saying is that it's a tough decision"
Piko, Kaito, and I stared at Luki once he told us that. The four of us sat in Gumi's office while Yohio trained the two new employees at the front-floor.
Luki crossed his arms as he leaned against the wall, continuing. "As pro-love your motives are, we all need to be cautious. Especially if we're going to get more people involved. ...Idiots are intimidated by growing numbers, and that'll make them act out faster. I mean we already got some creepers lurking around the Café ;so why stir the pot so suddenly. We all need to abide by the H.A.L.T. guidelines." He eyed the three of us.
Before I could ask, Piko beat me to it and questioned, "H.A.L.T.? What's that?"
"It's the `Stop ´ guidelines when you're making a major decision. It stands for; Hunger, Anger, Loneliness, and Tired. Whenever someone is in either one of those moods, they shouldn't make a decision. In this case, you guys are fed-up and angry. ... We must think of the "what-if's" and not the "To-Do's"." Luki quickly explained, causing Kaito to speak up.
"I understand where you're getting at" The bluenette started as he sat up. "But whichever decision we make, it will end up being a difficult one. There's no garuntee for anyones safety, and that fact alone is already floating around. Whether we sit back or not, those creepers are onto something. ... I've spoken to two of them after me and my brother did a stakeout and captured them." He then revealed; making both Piko and Luki widen their eyes from the sudden revelation.
Not wanting to let Kaito speak up by himself, I placed a hand on top of his and smiled before I turned to look at the other two. "Look. If I know one thing, it's that Kaito has thought this through repeatedly, and even risked his own well-being to find out who has been lurking around here. ... Luki, you can complain and say that we shouldn't get too much allies, but the ones who have been watching us has already got a group of their own. ... So it's better to get as much help as we can get and deal with the damage now, or wait it out and let the damage grow." I sternly told him.
He remained silent and nodded his head quietly.
After a moment, I felt a light squeeze on my hand, causing me to eye Kaito. He gave a small smile and a quick wink. `To someone else it may have been a small gesture, but to me it was the world because he knew I backed him up. I want him to get used to me doing this from now on. ... I may not know the answers to every situation, but I'll try my best. ... He's my life-partner afterall.´ My cheeks began to warm-up the more I thought about our relationship status.
"Well we'll have more time to discuss this later in the day. For now we need to worry about getting work done and helping out Miku and Luka. Yohio should be done giving them the basic breakdown on the floor, so I'll go over the register rules, Luki, you can teach them a few things about our cleaning policies. As for you, Len, you can go over the baked-goods. Till it's your turn, just stick to serving the guests and what not. ... I'm only going over this because Gumi had to make a run to the pharmacy; so I'm temporarily left in charge. ... And Kaito. Please don't be too much of a distraction to Len. I appreciate your relationship with him, but once Rushhour is going on, we need everyone to be working at their full capacity." Piko stood from his seat and dusted off his apron. "You're free to stay back here or take a sear in the front. Just call either one of us if you need something." He lastly reassured to the bluenette.
Kaito gave a thumbs-up to him as well began making our ways out the office.
I followed right behind Kaito till the four of us saw a speeding Gumi haste her way down the hall, stopping almost immediately in front of Kaito, sternly telling him, "We need to talk" before glancing off to the rest of us. "Luki, I need you and Piko to shut down the Café immediately! And Len, a girl just came in asking for you. She's by the counter."
I gave a worried look over to Kaito as he gave a slight nod before following Gumi right back into her office. `What in the hell is going on? She never asked us to shut the Café down. ...Most importantly, what could she want with Kaito?´
"I don't need to hear a damn thing to know that this isn't good." Luki scoffed beneath his breath as Piko came up to the side of me and laid a hand on my shoulder, giving a small smile to comfort me.
"Well, I can't deny that this isn't a good sign, but we can't have a negative attitude about it. I'm just hoping we won't have to stay here for long. It's not really a good idea to have meetings at night-" "Len!" A voice interrupted Piko as the three of us turned towards the front counter, only for me to hitch my breath in shock once I saw the large grin belonging to my younger sister.
I hurriedly ran and pushed through the door flap to run up to her, hugging her as hard as I could. "Rin! W-What are you doing here?! When did you get back?!" The questions raced through my mind and came out all at once as I felt her return the same grip. But before she could respond, I heard the familiar voice of Kaito's mother coming from behind her. My gaze quickly shot past her as I saw the older bluenette stand next to her husband.
Machiko gave a slight smile and said, "We asked her the same thing when we bumped into her. We figured we'd bring her to see you. We even brought Kaiko, but she just went into the bathroom, dear." Right when she said that, she began looking around and rose a brow. "Has something happened? Why are your coworkers asking for everyone to leave?" She then asked.
"It probably had something to do with that one lady we saw running inside" Rin pipped up, causing me to slowly break away from the hug and shrug my shoulders. But within a second, she then slapped my arm and nagged, "It's about time you're with Kaito! You didn't call to tell me or nothing! Why am I always the last to know these type of things!? Huh?!" She gave an even harder punch to my arm, making me wince.
I shot a glance to Atsushi and Machiko, but once I did, they quickly looked elsewhere. `Eh? You guys are seriously looking away when I know it was you two who told her.´ I sighed before I let out a sheepish smile, giving Rin a pat to the head. `It's better Kaito's parents telling her than our own. ... And I'm far more happy as to how accepting she is. I think that's what make her so mature.´
"I'm sorry for not telling you, but everything happened so fast all at once. I guess I got so caught up to the point I didn't think about telling you. But Rin, I can't let it be known so loosely. It's dangerous to do that if I'm not careful." Running my fingers through her hair one last time, I gave her another hug, lasting much shorter than the first. "And you guys don't have to leave. I'm not sure what happened to our manager, but she came rushing in asking to talk to Kaito, then told us to shut the place down." I told the three of them as we saw Kaiko walk up to the side of them, still wearing her school uniform.
Atsushi sighed deeply before he waved for everyone to go take a seat. "Something serious has happened, and if your manager is asking to shut this place down, then it'd be safer if I check around the building. Machiko, contact Akaito. ... We don't want to risk anything-" "Kaito!" (Slam! S.f.x.) Everyone in the dining area flinched at the sudden intrusion of a younger red-head, wearing an alarming combat outfit, carrying a dufflebag across his right shoulder. A boy with aqua-hair followed him inside as Akaito quickly slammed the door back close and hurriedly grabbed a nearby chair, shoving it beneath the doorknob.
Both me, his parents, Rin, and my coworkers stared at the red-head crazily in silence.
"...Nevermind." Atsushi muttered to Machiko as he stood from his seat and crossed his arms. "Akaito, did Kaito call you? And if so, tell us what's going on." He then looked off towards Kaiko and Rin. "You two. I want you guys to go sit in the back or something." He told them.
Luki walked up to the table and motioned for them to follow him. "Come on. You guys can chill inside the employee lounge. There's a t.v. and what not." He escorted them away from the dining room as everyone else began to huddle around the table.
One of the new employee's shot a glance to the boy that was standing next to Akaito and said, "Mikuo? What are you doing here?" She spoke to him in her naturally high yet soft voice.
"Miku? I didn't know you worked here. And I was hanging out with my boyfriend, but he got an emergency call. Next thing you know, we're here." Wow. Akaito has a boyfriend, and it happens to be Miku's younger brother. ... What the hell did he see in Akaito? He's crazy.
Yohio and Piko brought a chair closer to the table and sat closer to me.
The older red-head signaled for everyone to stop talking. Akaito sat his bag down and sighed heavily. "I got a call five minutes ago asking for me to get here as fast as I can. He didn't explain too much details, but he told me some punk ran up on the owner and handed her a letter with a threat on it. It told her to close down the shop or else more damage gets done"
"More damage? Are they planning an attack?" Piko whispered loudly, causing Yohio to shake his head.
"Uh-Uh. I'm not getting paid enough to go through this bull shit." Yohio sassed.
"Well we can't just sit here. We need to leave-" I tried saying till the red-head shushed us as he pulled a gun from his back pocket; alarming everyone in the room.
"Akaito, put that thing away!" "Oh hell no!" "This guys is crazy!" We all began to tell him at once.
"Everybody, chill! And no one is going anywhere till I take down the watchers. ... There could possibly be people monitoring the building to see if anyone leave. This street isn't busy at all, so they could beat the shit out of either one of you. There's a group of them, and me and Kaito are aware of this because we caught two of them last night. We even got one of them to spill some information. I would call him in to tell us what's going on, but that'd risk his own cover." Akaito began to explain. "The bullets are all rubber, and I'm going to need to see the security tape. Walking outside won't do any good. So I need to see if I can catch any patterns through surveillance."
Once we heard that, everyone remained silent.
"That's my baby! So manly and protective" Mikuo burst out of nowhere, clapping rapidly. "Cthulu shall protect you, my love.
Yohio leaned in closer to me and Piko to whisper, "Now I know that bitch didn't just say a squid-demon was going to protect him. ... I say we go to a bar after this, take some shots, and call it a day. Cause I am officially sitting in the twilight-zone."
"No. ... Let's just buy some beer and chill at my apartment." I murmured back, causing the two to nod in agreement .