Once Reina left, Kai went straight home. He worked about twice a week, and that night he had a shift from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
He grabbed some croquettes from the fridge to hold himself over before heading out. They were best sellers at his mom’s favorite bakery; their crusts were smothered in coarse, high quality bread crumbs that kept their crunch even after being reheated in the microwave. The finely mashed potatoes inside gave the center a chewy texture, which contrasted with the small pockets of ground beef scattered throughout. Together, they harmonized into a succulent symphony that raised the status of the humble croquette into a side dish of epic proportions. Harnessing the power of his growing boy appetite, Kai downed three of them with ease. Then off he went, pedaling his bike with glee toward Beaver Video Rental, store #4.
When Kai arrived slightly ahead of his start time, he took a look at the shift schedule in the break room. He figured that if he wanted to break it to Kotobuki it was best to do so in person, and so he checked when the next time they’d share a shift would be. They used to get scheduled together pretty often since Kai had been serving as her mentor, but their manager apparently figured it was about time for the baby bird to leave the nest and gradually started giving them different shifts.
Hmm, this is some bad timing. We don’t share a shift until next week. He might as well call her to a meet at a restaurant or something tomorrow. Since he still had a bit of time, he took out his smartphone to send her a message over LINE...until he noticed that Kotobuki herself had already sent him one asking if he had time before his shift. It must have come while he was on his bike.
Kai dug through his sticker collection and sent a picture of Kotori Itsuka saying “I suppose I must” with a smirk. His message was instantly marked as read.
“I wish to have a serious discussion,” came Kotobuki’s next message.
Kai wondered what it could have been about. He sent his response with a bit of trepidation.
“Whatever might you wish to discuss?”
“Could we perhaps have a get-together with Miyakawa in the coming days?”
Huh? Kai thought, checking the screen multiple times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. What’s gotten into her?
“Would this happen to be a joke too highbrow for my understanding?”
“No, it was a straightforward question. Would it present a problem?”
“Not to me, I suppose, and Jun would surely jump at the chance.”
If anything, Jun was probably still miffed that she got left out yesterday.
“Then I shall take that to mean there is no problem. I’m available any day besides those that I have work, so I shall leave the scheduling to you.”
“Very well,” answered Kai, even though he saw nothing but problems with this idea. “However, I had the impression that you weren’t going to get along with Jun.”
“Heaven forbid. I felt she was a wonderful woman even at first glance.”
For real? Kai could only recall the dead fish eyes she had while her face was buried in Jun’s bosom.
“Are you certain you aren’t mistaking her for Reina, the other person we met at the time?”
“The one who hugged me and failed to relinquish me referred to herself as ‘Miyakawa,’ so I’m fairly certain there’s no mistake.”
Yep, there wasn’t. That had to be Jun.
“If possible, I would like to have more opportunities for the three of us to spend time together in the future.”
...Really, thought Kai, what’s gotten into her? I’ve got no clue what kind of expression Kotobuki sent these messages with...
It’s hard to know what someone really means when you can’t see them, but either way, Kai couldn’t find a reason to turn Kotobuki down if she really wanted to hang with Jun. His shift was starting soon, so he told her he’d talk over their schedules with Jun and get back to her.
Hmm, that didn’t go how I expected...
Kai really did mean to tell Kotobuki that he couldn’t go out with her since he wanted to stay friends with Jun, but the conversation flowed in a different direction.
He watched the reply from Kotobuki pop up, saying that this was the perfect chance since she wished to hang with Miyakawa as well. Of course, if that were all there was to her request, then it’d be everything Kai could ever hope for...which is why it seemed too good to be true. Kai wasn’t sure if he should be honestly happy or cautiously concerned.
...Nah, racking my brain over it isn’t gonna give me an answer, thought Kai. He was better off not bringing his anxieties to work with him.
Man, this girlfriend-boyfriend stuff takes effort...