Side Story 1: A Day at Café Leblanc

Part 1: A Reflection

Waking up early in the morning, I looked out the window of my room and checked the state of the weather; it was so far clear and sunny with few clouds in sight. Since I managed to get a good sleep last night, I figured I'd start the day off right before heading to work. My house had a three-bed arrangement with one room for me, one for Futaba and a spare room just in case guests would stay overnight. That spare room ended up becoming a place to store things we didn't use regularly and in no means would it be usable any time soon. It was a good enough reason to pass to the probation officer why that kid couldn't move in. I will always remember the conversation I had on the day I'd accepted the payment to look after him….

"You want me to be his guardian for the year?" I said.

"Sakura-san, in the 15 or so years that I've known you and had you as a friend, you've always been someone I can rely on." The man on the phone, Daigaku Amamiya, was the kid's father. In my life, I've worked within several different sectors besides being a restaurant owner and former security officer - I'd met him during my stint working as a security manager for an architectural organisation. This was before he'd become a big deal in Kumagaya as he was learning the skills of the trade. I ran into him and he had this funny stressful look on his face - I thought to myself What could be so awful that you look as ragged as you do? His brown hair looked dishevelled and his grey eyes were full of panic. Seeing as I felt sorry for the guy, I took him to a local restaurant I knew and let him vent. It just happened to grow into a lifelong friendship and I was glad to have met him - it was thanks to his recommendation that I moved onto the firm where Wakaba worked for a period of time. If he hadn't have said that, I wouldn't have taken in Futaba.

The very first time he rang me concerning the kid was around two weeks after Ren's sentencing. He'd explained how the family situation was: when the kid was arrested for assault, both Daigaku and his wife (the kid's mother) Misao were more distraught than disappointed. All of the family couldn't look the same at Ren: Daigaku's brothers and sisters declared they had nothing to do with Ren; his younger brother practically cut off contact altogether. As for Misao, her siblings had varying opinions: her sisters encouraged her to dump the problem child on someone else whilst her brothers suggested that she send her son to a camp to fix his behaviour. The only people who would even be willing to talk with Ren was his older female cousin Nanase on his father's side and Daigaku's parents. As for Ren, he'd continuously tried to plead his innocence giving his story to everyone he knew: the friends he'd had over 5 years wanted nothing to do with him and spoke behind his back about him. The teachers that he'd maintained good relationships made an example out of him for the other parents in the PTA: this led to Daigaku losing several friends he'd grown up with. One of which had told him to his face that he was a bad father and he'd had a no-good wife: that friend ended up in the hospital after saying that. Daigaku was always trying to defend his son at first but eventually everyone around him convinced him that it was a futile effort. So they wore him down to the point that he caved too. As for their jobs, the mental strain became far worse. Misao was a lawyer with a prestigious firm and she'd had a pretty strong track record - the kid's verdict meant that her firm took her off many high-profile cases for fear of negative attention. She'd found it very difficult to maintain her clientele as they'd work with her colleagues instead - no more could she enjoy her role. Daigaku was an architect who'd design several different properties such as high-rises, residential areas and businesses for clients that hired him. He happened to have clients elsewhere in the world who weren't afraid of what would happen if they associated with him. He called asking me what to do. Misao seemed to take it worse than he did as she started to feel too afraid to even go to work - he ended up making the decision to move back to Matsumoto in Nagano where her parents used to live opting to make the journeys across Japan for his clients.

"Trying to keep him here in Nagano doesn't benefit anyone. I'd like him to get a proper education not just in school but about life - there's no better fit for the role than you."

"My hands are quite full as they are now. I've got Futaba to look after and it's proven difficult at times."

"I acknowledge that. Have things gotten better with her situation?" Daigaku was referring to Wakaba's false imprisonment - the day she was locked away and stripped of her parental rights, it ripped my heart in two. It doesn't even begin to compare to Futaba as it was the beginning of a tortuous two years with that no good family of hers. Even though I took in Wakaba's little girl for a selfish reason, she's now a reason to not give up on Wakaba altogether - I know that what she gets up to in that room is guilty of many laws but I won't strip Futaba of her passion. The next struggle is trying to get her to eat healthily - the way she eats the curry, I am ridiculously happy that I'm still in business.

"There's still been nothing. We've not found any evidence to try and clear Wakaba's name."

"That's truly unfortunate. Don't quit on that search of yours though - if anyone has the capability to get her out, it's you. Besides, it'll reduce the chance of her shooting you down again when you do."

"Don't you start joking about that now! I still have a shot!" We chuckled at this for a bit before getting to the heart of the matter. His serious tone told me just how badly he wanted me to take this on.

"There's no one I trust as highly as I do you. My wife can say the same too. We understand that placing him in your care brings on far more responsibility to you - not only will you be held responsible if something goes wrong but you'll need to answer to child protective services. As such, we'll provide you a payment for doing this for us." Whilst we were on good terms, I wouldn't be that accommodating money or not.

"I can't take your money - not whilst your situation is like this."

"Think nothing of it - I'm still blessed enough to work in my occupation and have clients who continue to trust me. If a lump sum isn't suitable, I can provide money on a frequent basis."

"...I'm going to need some time to debate whether I'll do this. It's not just me who this affects after all."

"Okay. I won't tell you that you can take all the time and need - Ren will need a place to stay somewhere in Tokyo in order to attend Shujin Academy."

"Shujin? The prestigious school in Aoyama?" The school accepted the kid's request to transfer there? What kind of bonkers idiot would take on such a hassle?!

"I'm sure you're surprised by it. We'd made calls to many different high schools hoping to get him into the second year. When we heard Shujin were willing to accept him, I almost dropped my phone in shock. Of course, the elite school that it was, we had many questions. Eventually, we agreed that it would be the school for him to spend his probation year at."

"And you paid their price for getting him in?"

"Our son is priceless to us. 2 million yen doesn't compare to it." The love that both of the Amamiyas have for their son is boundless. That kid doesn't truly seem to appreciate how much his parents care for him.

"..."

"Please trust in our judgement - we believe in your capacity as a guardian and more importantly, a parent."

"...Dammit Daigaku! You're placing me in a position where I can't refuse!"

"I know I've done that."

"*sigh* I'll take him in. But know this: even if it's you, he'll be out of the door if he causes any trouble for me or my establishment. I've worked extremely hard to get where I am and I won't have him destroy that work!"

"I wouldn't have it any other way: he'll need to go through a lesson of life which we can't give him here. Thank you, Sojiro. You don't understand how grateful I am as well as the rest of the family too."

"Okay, no need to heap it all on me. I'll speak to you on another occasion." That was how it came to pass that Ren Amamiya would be under my care for the year. When I actually met the kid, I could see the resemblance he had with his parents - the grey eyes he'd gotten from his father whilst the frizzy black hair came from his mother. Despite how nice his parents were, I couldn't let that kid move into my place - never mind Futaba being as shy as she is but I can't really respect a kid who doesn't consider his situation and the people around him. It was a very good thing that it was Saturday when he moved in: I didn't have any bothersome customers to deal with and he didn't give me an attitude when I basically dumped him in the attic: I would've thrown him out there and then if he did. I figured I'd run into trouble at some point and sadly, this proved true Monday: he practically ghosted us after leaving for school and not returning until late hours. Trying to comfort Futaba was nothing short of a nightmare that night - his actions were basically a blast to the past for her. He'd best hope to learn his lesson tonight.

I went into the main bathroom to wash off and get changed - I made it a rule not to walk around with nothing but a bath-towel as that would lead to the toiletries going missing and replacements having to be bought. Whilst the cheap stuff was alright for me, Futaba had certain brands and products she needed which was hell to find out due to the rest of that damned family of hers not providing that information to me. My main bathroom had a shower and bathtub to suit either style of cleaning whilst the downstairs bathroom had a toilet and sink only - each had toiletries to allow Futaba to choose where she wished to get herself sorted. Heading downstairs, I entered the kitchen, filled the kettle with water and put it onto the stove to boil. My house's living room could accommodate up to 5 people with a sofa for 3 and two 1 person recliners. It was joined with the kitchen as part of the open plan which brought a lot of convenience for me. As the kettle finished boiling, I poured myself a coffee - I had some Jamaican Blue Mountain leftover so I put it to use. I also made a hot chocolate with extra cocoa and milk for Futaba and provided some digestives for her to munch with it.

"Futaba, you up?"

"..." No answer. It seems she's either resting or ignoring me today. The past few nights, she was going at it with those computers in the same way her mother would - nothing existed outside of the research except for instant noodles and other junk food. What she was searching, I had no clue of, but it was clearly highly important to her.

"There's hot chocolate down here for you." The moment I said that, I heard rapid footsteps coming from upstairs…I'm always telling you don't run so quickly down the stairs or else you could get injured. Futaba basically darted into the kitchen, swallowed half of the chocolate in one go and began choking straightaway.

"Slow down! Drink a glass of water." I provided her a glass of cold water from the tap which she drank slowly this time and her coughing stopped.

"That's what you get for not taking your time." She ate her two digestives after dunking them into her chocolate and took her time to finish the chocolate and actually savour the flavour. We then both went into the living room - I sat on the single chair closest to the kitchen whilst Futaba sat on the sofa.

"You recovered from last night?"

"Yeah." I was referring to Ren's antics. Something told me he wasn't giving me the full story of last night's events and that he wouldn't be doing so no matter how hard I came down on him. Do you have to make my life harder? I've got to now tell these probationary officers I knew nothing of what you got up to which only harms YOU.

"He's had a good warning and a half from me."

"No breakfast punishment?" That punishment was reserved for when Futaba got too cheeky - there were several times I needed her to be present and she chose not to be but that is another story for another time.

"No breakfast for him today."

"Good. He made a n00b mistake taking us lightly." A game term or something?

"N00b? Whatever. Anyway, we'll need to discuss a new diet for you soon."

"D-Diet?!" She was completely thrown off the loop as her eyes widened. As much as I let her avoid this discussion, I needed to put my foot down and get her health back up to scratch.

"Eating only curry and instant ramen is useless. You're quite frail as it is and you're barely active too."

"I…I know that…" With a face of resign, I wasn't about to give in to her pleas and continued.

"Did you know that on average, 70% of your weight is accounted for by your diet?"

"70%?!" She couldn't believe her ears.

"That's right. Only 30% of the exercise that you do makes a difference to your weight. In your case, there's absolutely none of it so…" Futaba was a very smart girl so she knew the answer immediately.

"*sigh* 100% is food. Don't start me off with lots of veggies!"

"Relax, Futaba. I won't force an unreasonable diet on you but at the same time, you won't have it too easy when we are setting it."

"You want me to help?"

"It's a diet that YOU need to follow. It's not like I can make it and not have YOU agree with the things set out - that way, the excuse of 'I never approved this' won't cut it."

"Okay. Have your negotiation face on, Sojiro!" Declaring this little challenge, I laughed at her supposed bravado.

"What do you know about negotiations?" Scratching my goatee, I sighed as I continued:

"If you're not planning on coming to Leblanc today, that's fine. Just remember to get out of that room for a bit after every 2 hours have passed."

"Urgh…that JISHA act deserves total elimination - it breaks a hard-at-work coder's concentration!" That JISHA act is in place for your safety as well as all of the Japanese workforce.

"...Just don't be silly about it. I'm going to open up Leblanc now to check on the other problem child in my life."

"I'm a PROBLEM? How rude, Sojiro." She made a pouting face to try and get me to feel guilty but it made me think of a plushie toy.

"Just teasing. I'm going to head off soon."

"Okay." She went back upstairs to her room and I'd heard the door lock…My advice is going to go unheeded, isn't it? Making sure that there were no appliances left in a dangerous place, I took my keys and locked the door - Futaba had a set of her own in case she actually wanted to go somewhere. I picked up some cigarettes from the tobacco store nearby and opened Leblanc up flipping the sign from CLOSED to OPEN. It was currently 7:00am and the kid was still upstairs sleeping. Still, I needed to turn on all of the appliances here and make sure they were in working order. After an hour or so passed, one of my regulars, Rei Suzuki, came in and sat in the booth closest to the restroom - she had on her usual business attire and seemed in a pleasant mood. Rei was an data administrator responsible for the data stored at her organisation.

"Morning Sakura-san. You seem to be in a pleasant mood today." she jubilantly said.

"I could say the same to you."

"I'll have the house regular with a plain croissant."

"Coming up right away."

I deftly handled her order warming up the croissant in the cooker whilst brewing a coffee - she turned her attention to the world news as she waited. I always pride myself in remembering what a returning customer has - Rei had extra milk and no sugar in her coffee. A warm smile ran across her face as she took a sip of the house brew, New Guinea Sigri.

"Your coffee is the number one reason I continue to look forward to my day, Sakura-san."

"Come on, you can call me Sojiro. You've been one of my most loyal customers for years now."

"I'll do just that, Sojiro."

"How's work been?"

"Somewhat stressful lately. We've upgraded to a new system and the higher ups expect all of the data on employees and customers to be moved over by the end of the week. The whole team of administrators are going to need to do overtime to meet such a demand."

"You should bring them here - I'm sure they'll work harder if they start right."

"Haha, don't expect too much from me." As we finished speaking, I began to tend to other customers who came in making sure I took the time to get their orders correct. Rei had finished and left a tip for her experience today. Good luck with work, Rei. Some time later, the kid came down - he'd looked presentable but seemed tired more than anything. I chose to keep an eye on him for a while as I continued to tend to my customers. I'll have him work with me this evening and test his skills out if he's so interested in listening to my customers. I beckoned him over and asked:

"You have any plans this evening?"

"Not that I know of." Do you take me for an idiot? I'd gotten a bit cross with him as I continued:

"Have you really learnt your lesson? An attitude like that says otherwise. I'm asking you a serious question right now."

"No. No plans." I wasn't about to let some kid who didn't know his place get a rise out of me.

"Okay. I want you to help me out tonight - I'll show you some things worth your while too."

"Alright, I look forward to it."

"No breakfast for you today - you'll need to sort yourself out. Futaba's orders." I couldn't even feel sorry for the kid - seemed that reaction was more than enough punishment.

"...That's fair."