the bro-talk!

chapter five

Zoro leaned against the check-out counter in the small stationery shop that he worked at. One of his co-workers, Johnny, was standing next to the counter as well. Today's events had left Zoro so stuck in his head that he ended up getting lost on his way to work, which made him nearly twenty minutes late. Although Zoro was willing to accept the consequences, Yosaku was willing to fudge the time a bit for him. Yosaku was the shift manager who was more interested in hitting on the cute customers than actually doing anything. Johnny and Zoro were the only ones that stocked the shelves and helped people find things, even if Zoro had to keep an inventory list on him so he could navigate through the shop.

"Dude, where were you coming from that made you so late? You're usually only five minutes late," Johnny said as he folded the banners that he had just taken down. He was tasked with decorating the shop today, meaning he had to take down the decorations from the last holiday to prepare for the next one. The green-haired male could only shrug, fixing his posture as someone entered the shop. Yosaku, who was already walking through the aisles, was quick to aid this woman in her search for whatever she needed.

"I had to join this stupid adversity club or something for school. We went to the library in Sabaody and I had to walk back from that," he explained, his brows furrowing in frustration as he remembered how Sanji left without him. He got lost in the library and Robin had to help him. The two were still a bit sour to each other but it was obvious that the woman was only matching his attitude.

"That's not that far, bro," Johnny mumbled, worried that his buddy was going through something. See, Johnny saw Zoro as his older brother, despite the fact that he was actually older than him, he found that Zoro was a very wise person. His determination was inspirational, and Johnny was able to find his will to follow his own dreams through it. In fact, he decided to go to college because of Zoro. "You can walk to Sabaody Library from here and make it in like...thirteen or fourteen minutes."

"Really?" Zoro asked, heaving out a heavy sigh before shrugging again and crossing his arms over his chest. "Didn't know that…" he muttered to himself while Johnny pulled out the decoration banners for Valentine's Day. Before they could continue their conversation, Yosaku brought the female customer to the counter for Zoro to ring up her items.

"My pal Zoro here is gonna take good care of you and give you that discount I was talking about," Yosaku nodded, winking at the girl before looking at Zoro. "Right, Zoro?"

"You mean the discount you give to every female customer we've ever had?" He asked emotionlessly, watching the girl's face drop and then turn from flattered to angry. It might have been wrong for him to do that but he figured that the girl should know what she's getting into. Plus, it's just really amusing to watch Yosaku get slapped by another upset girl. After ringing the girl up, Zoro placed her things in the reusable bag she brought with her and then forced a smile and waved goodbye. "Bye! Come again soon!" Once she was out of the store, Zoro dropped the fake smile and smirked when he saw Yosaku's reddened cheek. "I doubt she's coming back anytime soon."

"The way she smacked you! That looks like it hurt!" Johnny laughed, trying to keep his pleasure to himself but also finding amusement in his friend's rejection. "She got you good, man."

"Zoro, what the hell was that for? You know that Valentine's Day is coming up!" Yosaku whined, rubbing his injured cheek as he glared at the green-haired kendo prodigy. "Just because you want to be alone forever doesn't mean I want to. And after everything I've done for you?" The long-haired male was being overdramatic just for the laughs. There weren't any hard feelings, Zoro did this quite often. Yosaku stopped caring when he realized that it helped weave out the women that he deemed as 'problematic.' "Speaking of Valentine's Day, do you have a special someone, Johnny?"

"Not really? I'm just trying to focus on school right now, man. No one's really that interesting. There's a cute girl in my world religions class but I doubt I could ever land her." He nervously admitted. Zoro rolled his eyes, though not entirely disappointed in his friend. The idea of finding a partner was intriguing, but there was just too much that could go wrong. He didn't want to lose control of his life before he even had it. There wasn't any time for him to have a significant other, his schedule was packed and his father wouldn't like any of them anyway. So, it was perfectly fine that his friends and associates wanted to find someone, especially since love was a big deal around Valentine's Day. Sometimes people just get into a relationship so that they have a valentine. "She's not bad to look at though."

"Really? What's she look like then?" Yosaku chirped, interested in hearing about his buddy's love interest. He brushed his long hair out of his face and leaned against the counter, facing Johnny and waiting patiently.

"She's got long brown hair and big brown eyes…" Johnny breathed out dreamily, listing all of the things about the girl he liked that he could remember. He did great in reciting it, creating the perfect picture to represent the lovely woman. Yosaku hummed before admitting that she sounded nice. He encouraged Johnny to ask her out, claiming that he'd never know until he tried. "Come on, bro. She's probably already in a relationship or something. I think I'll just leave it alone."

"That's stupid," Zoro spoke up, having remained quiet through it all so he could absorb the description of the girl. It sounded like Johnny had spent a lot more time paying attention to her than actually paying attention to his class. "What's the harm in asking her out? If she says no then you get over it. You'll never know if you don't ask her though."

"Says you. How many people have you turned down already, Mr. I-Have-To-Focus-On-My-Dream-Before-I-Date-Anyone? You've probably never been rejected before in your life," Yosaku grumbled, only slightly bitter that Zoro was trying to give relationship advice.

"I've watched you get rejected plenty of times and you don't act like your life is going to end. Obviously, rejection isn't as bad as people make it out to be," the green-haired high schooler was speaking cold, hard facts. Yosaku couldn't retort in any way, knowing that Zoro was right. "Plus, with the way Johnny talks about her, he likes her a lot. Just tell her how you feel and if she doesn't feel the same, that's it. Your semester is going to end soon so you might never see her again."

"You're right," Johnny nodded, ruffling his dyed red and grey hair. "I'll ask her to study with me for the upcoming test. From there, if things work out, I'll ask her to get coffee or something…" he began to plan it out, smiling to himself. "Can you grab me some tacks or something, Yosaku? I need to put these decorations up."

"Yeah, I got it," the blond nodded before heading into the back to look for the requested item. Johnny glanced after him before turning his gaze back towards Zoro, the male just messing with certain things behind the counter that he was standing at.

"Have you actually never been rejected before?" He asked, watching Zoro shrug. "How do you not know?"

"I've never asked anyone out before. It's not a big deal." He explained, grabbing a tiny elephant stress ball that was sitting behind the counter. "I've been rejected by people in regards to kendo and other things, but I've never been romantically interested in someone so I've never been rejected by them. Rejection just means that you're not right for the position yet...and you may never be, but that doesn't mean you should stop trying. If you stop trying then you'll never get better. Rejection encourages growth..." Squishing the stress ball in his hand, he glanced up at his coworker. "And only a coward is afraid of growth."