Kazuhiko Tokuda was a twenty-eight-year-old magazine writer who had been divorced once and had no children. While “magazine writer” sounded impressive, the truth was that Kazuhiko was just a versatile writer whose job was to create not-too-deep content on any topic to fill the pages. Eagerly accepting any jobs he was given, he constantly stressed over short deadlines and low pay.
While Kazuhiko typically worked on assignments given to him by clients, that day, he had his own passion project to pitch to a publisher. What had sparked this passion was a random discovery he’d made the other day at a certain café.
The café in question was a hidden gem never featured in any mainstream media. It was the sort of place only a select few knew about. Kazuhiko wanted to introduce this café to a wider audience and make it more popular. He would only get paid the standard rate for writing this article, but it would be an original feature piece—something to be proud of. His desire to distinguish himself, even with a minor accomplishment, became his driving force.
The café was in a quiet location near the Kinshicho Station in Tokyo’s Sumida City. People who knew the area well would no doubt raise their eyebrows at the suggestion that anyone would like to write a feature about a small café on a street corner in Kinshicho, part of Tokyo’s pleasure district, with Kabukicho to the west and Yoshiwara not too far away. But they would be wrong to dismiss the area as nothing more than a hub of sketchy businesses—the nightlife scene was primarily focused on the southern side, while the northern side (with the view of the demolished radio tower) had undergone a revival, becoming a quaint place for families to hang out. The Kinshicho Park, for example, located near the station exit, was always filled with happy voices of children whose enthusiastic, noisy play might make a passerby think the place was a zoo.
Kazuhiko had happened upon Café LycoReco when exploring the area north of the station. He had left the Kinshicho Station through the north exit, wandered the quiet streets for a bit, and noted with surprise a very stylish café on one corner, sporting a wooden exterior very much unlike the surroundings. The modern but classic building would have fit in more at some tourist hot spots than in Kinshicho. With stained glass windows and elegant greenery, it beckoned a curious passersby to stop and take a better look, see the signboard indicating that the unusual house was a café, and venture inside, which was precisely what Kazuhiko did.
Fast-forward to the present time. Kazuhiko was determined to write his article about the café, but his gait betrayed anxiety as he headed there.