Once again, I come bearing an idea from the incredible mind of 0mniessence ! A cute, fairly fluffy, humorous, (and just slightly angsty) tale, set in a non-revue, college/young adult universe, involving a particular profession that is very real in Japan. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight.
The Trials And Tribulations Of A Cuddle Cafe Worker And Her Sleep-Deprived Client
Chapter 1. A Desperate Request
At the ripe age of 19, Saijou Claudine already had a busy daily schedule set up for herself.
Born to two well-known and talented actors, she had shown signs of prodigal theatrical tendencies in her early childhood, and had taken an interest in her parents' field when she was very young. Naturally, they had eagerly supported their only daughter in pursuing her dreams, and had even moved the family from France to Japan in order to enroll her in more renown academies.
After working hard all throughout her middle school and high school careers, Claudine had graduated slightly earlier than most others, and was already a junior in college at her current age. When her parents were doing all they could to support her, Claudine felt it necessary to work hard and take everything she did seriously, especially school.
The college where she is currently enrolled is the most famous for theatre and the arts in all of Japan, so of course the curriculum, classes, and workshops are intensive, suited only for the best of the best.
And unlike some people who had been born with the perfect genes for this field, Claudine had pushed herself to work harder than most would have bothered with, and she had stuck with it without quitting in spite of all the sleepless nights. Now that she's made it this far, the worst of the worst hardships had already been overcome.
By her third year, she'd gotten used to the intensive classes and heavy workload, and incorporated it into her schedule in a bearable and healthy manner. She'd even taken it upon herself to take on a part-time job on weeknights and weekends when she had extra time.
It was perhaps a bit of an unusual line of work, but the flexible hours allowed her to choose which customer appointments she could accept or deny at her own discretion, and the nature of the work in general allowed her to practice her acting skills - in a way.
When she had an evening free of assignments, or a Sunday off after a restful Saturday of catching up on sleep and self-care, Saijou Claudine worked part-time at one of Tokyo's local Cuddle Cafes. It was a field of work where employees would offer services of pampering and comfort to exhausted customers who had rolled in from tiring days of work, or were otherwise upset or in need of comfort due to their personal lives.
At the cafe where she was employed, the cuddlers offered all sorts of services. There were things as extreme as renting a private room for a certain amount of time, where the cuddler would do various things for the client, such as talk sweetly to them, lie down with them on a couch, provide them a lap-pillow as they stroked their hair, or gave light shoulder massages as the client fell asleep while watching a show of their choice or listening to relaxing music. Those were some of the most premium services offered.
But more often than not, the majority of clients simply came to eat at the public portion of the cafe, and sit and chat with the cuddlers as they got their hair played with, or received hugs and other forms of comfort and relaxation.
Claudine had first stumbled upon one of these cafes when she had just started college, and her initial reaction had been one of distrust. What she had seen back then had been mostly women workers providing caring - and sometimes suggestive - services for their male clients; sitting in laps, touching and being touched questionably, and things of that nature, all in a public cafe. She'd shuddered to think what might've been going on in some of those private rooms.
But around a year later when she'd set out in search of a job to bring in some pocket-change, she'd discovered her current cafe of employment.
It was run by a woman, and the workers consisted of men and women alike, as did the clients. The amount of same-sex cuddler-client pairs was consistent and comforting, and the establishment was extremely serious about the safety of their employees. No shady antics occurred here.
It was a place for innocent interactions between strangers, where a client didn't have to fear being judged for their requests, and the worker didn't have to be concerned about being cornered. More often than not, clients came here just to talk, to have human interactions and conversations with people who were good at listening, and many times the hugs provided were genuine and not part of the requested services.
It was a wholesome and safe environment, on top of being close to her college and having hours flexible enough that Claudine could work whenever she chose to.
She had started out working on-site at the cafe, accepting work from both male and female clients. She would listen to them as they vented about their exhausting days, play through their hair as they whimpered into their coffees, provide a gentle hand on their backs as they tried to gather themselves to go back home or back to work.
Being an actress, she had needed to engage in plenty of close physical contact with other actors for the sake of a staged scene, so hugging wasn't ever a discomfort for her either. She would hold her clients for as long as they desired, until they felt they were ready to leave the cafe and face the world again.
It was odd, but honest work that paid relatively well.
But after her first few weeks of working there, Claudine had discovered that the cafe's services extended beyond the property as well.
Evidently, clients also had the option to "rent" a cuddler and have them meet at other predetermined locations, such as a park, another store, or even the client's own home.
Of course, these cases required an extensive background check on each client. Customers who sought out these services needed to make an account with the Cafe's official servers, and submit personal information to be reviewed by the manager and staff.
Only clients who were deemed and confirmed "safe" would be accepted and allowed to participate in off-site service requests, and only cuddlers who were comfortable with such work would accept such jobs. The workers had the right to reject any request for any reason, or leave a session at any time for any reason. The Cafe had set up distress call signals and connections to law enforcement to come to a worker's aide if necessary.
Claudine appreciated the lengths the business went to in order to ensure the safety of their employees.
Due to this, and to an ever-changing college schedule that had quickly complicated her getting to the cafe on time for her shifts, Claudine had soon decided to extend her services to "off-site" locations for clients. Fully comfortable and accepting of the fact that they were unsupervised rendezvous, Claudine made it a point to only accept off-site jobs from women.
And it turned out that this method worked even better for her.
The off-site services paid more than the on-site ones, and she had the freedom of accepting which jobs she wanted when, and at which locations.
The most common clients she attended to were young college-age women like herself who were having troubles in their relationships, at work or school, or at home with their parents. Claudine would meet them at local parks or stores to sit with them, hold their hands as they vented and cried, pat their backs for them, and offer supportive hugs.
The clients always left Claudine with tearful, hopeful smiles on their faces, and offered her their genuine thanks, whereas Claudine offered heartfelt wishes for their success in return.
In this way, Claudine made her way through her junior year of theatre college with a job that allowed her to both make money, and feel good about herself for the comforts she gave to others.
And it was this way that she encountered her most intriguing client yet…
Tendo Maya.
Hers was a name known throughout Japan's theatre industry. From the newest generation of young aspiring actors and actresses, to the most seasoned retired professionals, everyone in the field knew of the breathtaking prodigy of the Tendo family.
She'd been born with a natural talent due to her lineage of perfect genes, and had flown through her 22 years of schooling and training without putting in half the effort of her competitors.
She'd graduated college early by the age of 20 due to her exceptional marks in her academic lectures, as well as her acting classes. Even when she'd been just a freshman, she'd already been being scouted by numerous troupes, both local and international.
But to start out her official acting career, Maya had decided to stay local, and upon graduation had accepted to work with a theatre troupe in Tokyo.
She'd never expected or wanted it to be easy. But she may have overestimated her limitations just a little.
20 years of intensive lessons and trainings at all of her previous schools hadn't allowed for an ounce of social time for her beyond chatting casually with classmates briefly about upcoming exams.
Maya had never had free time to do things other people her age could, like go on vacation, take day trips, or even visit the local mall or movies. And she certainly didn't get any opportunities for such things now that she was part of a famous troupe. All of her free time was spent practicing, studying, and fixating on the work she was going to do tomorrow.
Her pre-daybreak early mornings were spent stretching and dancing alone in her apartment, rehearsing roles and studying lines. When she arrived at the theater her troupe was working at for the day, it was hours and hours of intense physical activity. Her lunch breaks were spent practicing and rehearsing lines as well, and even by the time she got home after sunset, she was still going over her roles and dances to perfect them.
It wasn't that the troupe was particularly demanding of her. Maya was the best of the best in her age group, and even surpassed some of the more experienced people as well. She was an asset, and a great example and teacher to her underlings, and she made the work for herself willingly. When most people might worry she was pushing herself, Maya was only putting herself through an average amount of effort, by her own standards.
It was a high-stress, high-activity line of work, with all hours of the day filled and few hours of the night to rest.
But it's what she was born for, seasoned for, and made for.
At least… that was the thought process she'd been living by all her life until now.
It wasn't long after she'd graduated college and joined the troupe when Maya finally began to realize that perhaps her lifestyle wasn't the healthiest.
She was starting to sleep fewer and fewer hours of the nights, because most of them were spent with her replaying scenes and lines and entire plays in her mind. Gradually, she became unable to shut off her brain, and she would obsess over her thoughts of performing to the point where she would toss and turn in bed all night, and then not be well-rested for the day ahead.
It was quickly beginning to have a detrimental effect on her mental and physical health alike, and she wasn't tunnel-visioned enough to ignore those facts.
She'd sought help for herself in the form of prescription pills, but sometimes she failed to eat or drink enough with her medications or didn't take them on time, and it wouldn't be as effective. Despite her best efforts to rely on pharmaceuticals for her stress and insomnia, a few months in of these methods proved to be a drop in the bucket at best.
But she didn't yet think she was in bad enough shape to seek out professional therapeutic help. Besides, if such news ever got out that Maya needed such care, it might jeopardize her image.
And so, in her efforts to seek out help for herself, she had started browsing the internet for ideas.
Little did she know there was such an interesting and convenient service right in her own backyard.
Being that she'd never gotten out much to travel, explore, or shop Tokyo at her leisure, she'd never really heard about Cuddle Cafes and the business they offered. They were places where people could go to relieve stress in a family-friendly sort of public environment, with nothing sexual or questionable attached, so long as you put in the proper research to find a reputable cafe.
The idea of hiring a stranger to pamper or comfort you after a physically-exhausting or emotionally-draining day or event might've seemed asinine to most. But for a certain niche of people, it was the best possible option.
People who had no close relatives or loved ones to confide in could find comfort in the arms of a stranger who was willing to hold their hand and listen as they fed them a slice of pie.
People who were too stressed to go back home or to work to face those they knew and loved could find solace and a few moments of peace in a relaxing, casual environment surrounded by people in similar situations.
They could be hugged or cared for by complete strangers without a fear of judgment or ridicule that people they knew might've reacted with. It was a place to vent your emotions and be heard, a place where it was okay to break down and cry, a place where a kind person would hand you a tissue or offer you a hug…
It sounded quite nice, honestly.
And for different cases, it was a place where you could rent a room to play games, or watch movies with people who would help you have fun or relax to relieve stress. Best of all for Maya, it was an unofficial service that wouldn't tarnish her reputation as harshly as seeing a licensed therapist would.
And upon finding a reputable cafe and reading through their website carefully, she discovered that in the case of this particular business, clients were able to rent out a cuddler to an off-site location.
The whole industry enthralled her, and Maya spent several nights reading up on and looking into things before she ultimately decided to begin setting up a client profile.
It was no simple feat, as the site required a slew of personal information on her part, strictly for the protection of their employees. Maya didn't mind this intensive background check. Rather, she appreciated how seriously this cafe considered the wellbeing of their workers, which only made Maya all the more interested in trying it out.
It takes her about three collective nights to finish researching and making her account, which is then submitted to the cafe's website to be scrutinized for review. Anyone found to be falsifying any personal information would immediately have their account rejected and deleted, and they would be unable to request off-site services. Naturally, anyone with any sort of questionable or criminal background was given the same treatment.
But Maya has nothing to hide, and a few days later receives an alert on her phone that her account has been accepted.
The site then prompts her to set up her profile, where she inputs her information: age, gender, location, preference, and a blurb about herself. She specifies what she is struggling with and what she is looking for in order to help herself through it.
As the client, she is not required to submit any pictures of herself, and she is also allowed to create a fake name (since she already submitted her real name during the background check and was deemed legitimate, she was then able to create an alias to conceal her identity from the workers, if that's what she preferred).
She calls herself "Mary," and then begins to search the business' selection of worker profiles.
This one in particular offered services of over 80 people of various ages and genders, who rotated between shifts, days, and hours in order to allow such a high volume of people working at one establishment.
A client could request on-site services at a minimum of 30 minutes and pay by the half-hour, and rent out one or more workers' care services on-site for up to 6 hours - or the worker's entire shift.
But as appealing as the idea is, Maya is limited to the hours she would be able to utilize such services. She only has time available in the evenings and at night, when the on-site cafe is closed. For her sleepless struggles, she has to look into the employees who offer off-site services, which can extend up to 12 hours - an entire night.
Of course, this is no cheap endeavor. Renting out another person's services on-site for just a few hours was already quite pricey. But off-site services were nearly double the price, about $50 an hour, with one full 12-hour shift's payment amounting to about $600.
But luckily, even though her intensive job of being a famous actress drained Maya's mental strength, it filled her bank account quite nicely. Money was no obstacle for her in this endeavor.
From there, it was just a matter of finding the right person to spend her rented time with.
After an entire week's worth of nights lying in her bed going through the process of researching the cafe, making her account, then getting approved, and making her profile, Maya now lies in her darkened bedroom with her phone over her face.
The cafe normally offers the services of about 80 people "on-site," but when she toggles the filter to search for employees who will work "off-site," the numbers drop to fewer than half.
And when she filters it by women only from an age range of 18-25, Maya is left with only 14 profiles.
She swallows, feeling the ache in her wrists from holding her phone up for so long, then rolls over to place it on her pillow and looks down at the screen. Her mind is racing even faster than usual tonight, and her heart is fluttering quite a bit as well from the thrill of this new possibility.
Ever since she'd discovered the cuddle cafe culture about a week ago, Maya had been thinking about the possibilities of being comforted by a kind girl at night, rather than stressing about her career. It was still stressful, but in a different kind of way, and she was still losing sleep, but hopefully that would change very soon…
Drawing in a deep breath, Maya sets her filters accordingly and clicks "Search" to bring up the 14 available profiles.
The first girl is a peppy-looking tan-skinned bookworm who is quite adorable, but her interests only seem to consist of literature that Maya isn't familiar with. Knowing that she and her cuddler of choice will need to have some common interests and be able to hold a decent conversation, she shakes her head.
She moves along to the next profile, which is of an athletic girl who plays a multitude of sports. Maya thinks this girl might understand a bit of her struggles as someone with a very physically-demanding lifestyle.
But in the girl's profile is a note that she has a young baby, and the client would need to be all right with her bringing the infant along to her sessions. Maya isn't comfortable asking a young mother to sacrifice as much time as Maya wants to ask for if she would need to be worrying about an infant at the bedside all night, so she moves on.
With each new profile she views, Maya reads them thoroughly, but each and every one seems to have some restriction or turnoff that she can't overlook.
She swipes past another girl, then another…
With each profile she denies, Maya's hopes sink deeper and deeper. Maybe this was a foolish idea. A colossal waste of time…
She swipes away the 8th girl, then the 9th…
Little by little, she can feel it. That surge of dread that she'd managed to push back with the prospect of this cafe potentially providing a solution to her problem is now pushing forward once again. A dark, churning tide of the ocean that had been suffocating her all this time, re-surging to batter her all over again and push her down deeper, deeper, until she feels she's going to drown right there in her own room…
As she swipes past the 10th girl's profile, Maya blinks and finds her eyes wet with warm tears. She lets out a small, dismayed gasp as her lips begin to wobble. The droplets fall onto the phone screen and blur the profile picture of the next girl. As Maya wipes her eyes and tries to gather herself, she clears the wetness away and blinks a few times until she can refocus her eyes.
The 11th girl shines back up at her in the darkness of her bedroom with a bright, beautiful smile. Her rose-colored eyes are full of life and vitality, her curly blonde hair seems to move and bounce in the still image, and her radiance traverses through the brightness of the phone screen to reach out to Maya directly.
Saijou Claudine
Maya reads over the name and the "About Me" blurb, and as she does, she's gradually able to sniffle the tears to a halt.
Saijou Claudine.
This girl was an active and avid lover of theatre. She'd been studying and practicing it all her life, and was currently enrolled in university for it. She was a singer, a dancer, a performer. Just like Maya.
The way she wrote about herself displayed her personality as if Maya were having a conversation with her in real time. Her blurb began with a cheerful "Bonjour!" before introducing her name, hobbies, and aspirations.
And with each new word Maya reads over, her hopes lift higher and higher. Even before she finishes reading, she knows this girl is her only chance.
But just to ensure there aren't any last-minute restrictions this girl had set, Maya is certain to read over every last word of her profile and blurb. To her relief, there seems to be nothing at all that would make Maya feel guilty or uncomfortable about asking this girl to lend her services.
Maya swallows thickly, wiping her eyes once again. The surge of dark waters that had been threatening to rush toward her is kept at bay by a warm, gentle glow coming from her phone screen.
Maya takes a moment to compose herself, then shakily scrolls up to the top of Saijou Claudine's profile. She hovers her finger over the "Request an Appointment" button for a long moment, then presses down.
A new page pops up. It informs her that if she completes the application to ask this worker for an appointment, that her profile will be shared with the employee. Maya accepts this term and proceeds.
She is then prompted to select the amount of time she is requesting to ask of the worker, and acknowledge that she must pay and accept the adjacent rate and fee. Maya accepts these as well, having already linked her bank account to the site on a previous night.
She then must write a message to the worker to explain why she had chosen her and requested this appointment on the designated date for the designated amount of time. Maya had chosen a timeframe within the limits of what the girl had specified would be acceptable hours for her, but she hopes that the amount of hours she'd requested wouldn't deter her from agreeing.
Maya writes up a message for Saijou Claudine, telling her in-detail what sort of services she would be requesting of her if she were to accept. After re-reading it several times, Maya draws in another deep breath before clicking the Submit button.
A moment later, she receives a notification that her request has been sent to the worker, and that she should hear back within 24 hours if she'd been accepted or rejected.
The whole ordeal has put Maya through a whole mess of different emotions tonight. She doesn't even bother looking through any more profiles. She simply turns off her phone, puts it aside, and buries her face into her pillow.
A few more tears slip free and seep into her pillowcase, which has already accumulated enough droplets over the months of sleepless nights to fill her entire apartment.
Maya whimpers softly to herself as she feels her body crashing from the adrenaline rush.
Mentally, she's far too drained to even have the time to stress about work for once, and all but passes out in her bed at 2 in the morning.
A/N: Okay, first thing's first: do not take this too seriously! Obviously, seeking professional help and therapy is a good thing to do when you're really far down in a rut and very stressed out! I'm only writing it considering how someone like Maya might associate seeing a therapist as a negative stigma in Japanese society.
Secondly, yes I made Claudine the 11th profile because her seat number in the series is 11 haha. You'll see another little nod like that later on.
Well? What do you think? Interesting setup for a Cuddle Cafe! I tried to make it as believable as possible with how a client would need to set up/make and account and request a worker's services, while still putting the worker's safety first.
Do you think Claudine will accept...?
Please review!
