Aki’s POV

I sighed as I swept the floor of Celebrity café while thinking about the incident that had happened last night. “Who did he think he was? He didn’t have the right to act so spoilt and irritating. Idol or not, this is still a café after all.” I muttered under my breath as I tightened my grip around the broom and swept with more force than usual. Four members from a popular Japanese idol group, Hey! Say! Jump! dropped by the Café last night to have dessert and one of them, Yamada Ryosuke, was behaving rather unreasonably because he demanded for his favourite dessert, which happened to be an ice cream cake, to be made when we had ran out of it. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was rather late at night and that the chef was feeling unwell, making another serving of the dessert would not have been a problem. However, the chef seemed to have a bad headache last night and it was quite close to our closing time. If we had made a new cake and only served four slices, the rest of the cake would have gone to waste so I did not want to trouble the chef. To my disappointment, Yamada Ryosuke had made a pretty big fuss about it when I told him that the dessert he wanted was finished. “Just thinking about this makes my blood boils.” I said out loud as I gave the floor one big sweep.

“AKI!” I jumped up with a shock as my fellow waitress, Midori, shouted my name.

“Yes?”

“You’re sweeping up the dust! You’ll make the café even dirtier if you sweep it this way. Please don’t vent your anger on the poor floor.” Midori coughed as she fanned herself with a piece of paper.

“I’m sorry.” I stuck out my tongue apologetically as guilt replaced the anger which was fading away.

“Come. I’ll do the sweeping instead. Please place this board outside the café.” Midori pointed to a small standing blackboard with ‘New addition to the Menu: Aki’s special!’ written on it.

“A-a-a-aki’s special?”

“Yes, thanks to the four cute and handsome idols yesterday, we managed to add another new dessert to our menu! I had tried it yesterday and it was really delicious! This will attract even more customers!” Midori replied cheerfully. She then grabbed both of my hands and looked at me with a pair of big eyes glimmering with excitement, “You’ll be a mini chef from now on!”

I escaped from her grip and went to take the board. “Look, it’s not like I want to bake the pie or something. I have no interest in making it at all.” I tried explaining to her as I pushed open the café door. “It’s all because of that Yamada-“

“What about me?”  A familiar voice was heard and I turned around in horror. Right outside the café was Yamada Ryosuke, the unreasonable idol who I, unluckily, had to serve yesterday. “What about me?” He repeated himself as if I didn’t hear him during the first time.

“Sorry, we’re closed. Have a good day, Sir.” I closed the door hurriedly and held on to the handle.

“Is this how you treat your guest?” Yamada knocked on the door and tried pulling it open.

“We. Are. Closed!” I shouted over to him. “Please come back another d- Ouch!” I glared at Midori who smacked me on the head.

“Let go. This is not the way to treat your guest.” She chided me before opening the door to allow Yamada to enter.

“It’s fine. I’ll just have the pie which that rude waitress made yesterday. Thank you.” Yamada returned the menu to Midori and gave her a warm smile. A chill ran down my spine and I shivered. I would have fallen for that smile in the past but after what had happened last night, I had different opinions of that guy.

“Aki! It’s your turn to shine.” Midori turned and grinned at me. I sighed and walked to the kitchen. Although I didn’t want to make the pie, especially since it’s for that person, I was working and Yamada was still our guest after all. 15minutes later, Midori served Yamada a piece of the freshly made pie.

“Thank you for the meal.” Yamada wiped his mouth and paid for the pie before exiting the café. I was so surprised by his well-mannered behaviour that I couldn’t rebut when Midori kept on commenting on what a gentleman Yamada was.

“Maybe he was in a hurry…” was the only reason I could come up with.

The next morning, Yamada appeared again and this went on for the new few days. He was always the first customer to arrive and he would always order the strawberry pie. Just like the first morning which he appeared, he would eat quietly and leave after paying. Midori had also offered to serve him every time he appeared, much to the disappointment of the other waitresses who made special effort to arrive for work earlier than usual.

However, on a Friday morning, Midori called in sick and I was left to clean up the café on my own before the opening hours. After ensuring that café was clean enough, I opened the door and to my surprise, I was disappointed to find out that Yamada wasn’t standing outside as usual. “Why would I be disappointed? Isn’t it better if he isn’t here? The waitresses would not be so noisy.” I thought to myself as I waited for the other workers to turn up.

An hour later, some of the customers have turned up and we were busy serving them. Then the door opened, signaling the entrance of another customer, I turned and saw Yamada panting slightly as he stepped into the café. I welcomed him and led him to an empty table, trying hard to ignore the fact that I was feeling rather happy to see him at that moment. “The usual?” I asked as he sat down. The other waitresses groaned because they had once again missed their chance to serve him.

“Yes please. Where’s the other waitress who had been serving me for the past few days?” Yamada asked as he looked around.

“Midori? She has fallen sick today so she’s resting at home. I’m sorry to let you feel disappointed that the one serving you today is me instead of her.” I replied rather coldly and he laughed.

“You are still as rude as before. This is not how you treat your guest, Aki.” He gave me a half-grin and I blushed. “He remembers my name? Ah, it may be because it’s the name of the new dessert which he seems to like a lot.” I tried to calm down and cursed myself for being so abnormal. I cleared my throat and said “One strawberry pie coming up” before walking to the kitchen.

Due to the fact that somehow we expected Yamada to order Aki’s special, it was already made so that it could be served swiftly. “Enjoy your meal.” I bowed after placing the plate of pie on the table. Just as I turned to walk away, Yamada caught hold of my hand and stopped me. “E-eh?” I gasped in shock.

“Sit down. I don’t want sit alone.”

“But you have always eaten alone.”

“Just sit. Please?”

“Fine. Please let go of my hand.” I sighed and sat down. I looked around to see if anyone noticed but the table was at a more deserted corner of the café that it was hard to see. I turned back to watch Yamada eat his pie happily. I couldn’t help but smile to myself as he resembled a little boy while eating.

“It’s delicious. You have the talent.” He praised me after finishing his pie.

“Thank you.”

“I have the time today so can I have another piece of pie?” He gave me what looked like a pair of puppy eyes and I giggled. “You look better when you smile, Aki.” He said gently as he smiled at me. I looked away and stood up hurried before excusing myself to get him another slice of pie.

I served him the pie and he requested for me to sit down once again so I did and we started chatting. It turned out that he had sudden cravings for the pie I made after the night when he first arrived and decided that it was the only breakfast which he must have in order to start the day. He reasoned that it would give him enough energy for the day which would usually be full of rehearsals. I was amazed with the amount of passion he had for the pie because he was willing to wait outside for the café to be opened just to eat the pie. “I just wanted it to be freshly made.” He added. He then explained that he was late today as he had to settle some administrative matters with his manager but felt that he could not survive without the pie so he asked for a two hours break and rushed

“This has become an addiction.” He commented and I laughed. “What? This is a serious problem! I will end up spending all my money on pies!” He pouted as I continued laughing. He then looked at me and smiled. “However, I’m glad that I managed to get two hours of break to come here because I have the chance to discover this side of Aki. You should smile more often, instead of being that rude waitress.”

“Y-you were the one being u-unreasonable before.” I blushed brightly and stood up so quickly that the chair fell backwards. The rest of the people turned to see what the commotion but returned back to their food after I apologized to them. I picked up the chair and turned back to face Yamada. “Now that you’re done, I have to get back to work.” I bowed but was stopped by him once again when I was about to walk away.

“Bills, Aki. The bills.” He laughed as he took out his wallet. “You are one serious and hardworking waitress.” He commented while paying for his meal. “If only you knew how messed up you have made me feel.” I thought and tried to stop myself from blushing.

“Thank you. Please come again.” I bowed for the third time as he walked out of the café.

“I will come back as usual tomorrow but may I request for your service instead of the other waitress? I had been hoping for a chance to talk to you because you’re one of a kind. I had never seen someone who had the nerve to be so rude to a celebrity customer before.” He shook his head and laughed.

“You mean Midori. You should at least try to remember people’s names. She had served you for quite a few days.”

“Well, I apologise for that. It seemed to be easier remembering yours though. You were so unique at that moment when you told me off that your name is rather hard to forget and Aki is a very nice name. Okay, I have to go. See you tomorrow, Aki.” Yamada waved as he walked away.

I closed the door behind me and realised that I wasn’t breathing for the past few seconds. I inhaled deeply and replayed the conversation that was in my head. “Aki is a very nice name.” I shook my head hard and tried to calm my racing heart. 

“Are you okay?” A fellow waitress asked as she looked at me with concern.

“Welcome.” I smiled as I greeted Celebrity Café’s loyal customer.

“Good morning, Aki.”

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AN: Hehe. If you were hoping for another chapter with the 4 guys, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I have decided to give each guy a spotlight before giving a nice ending for Aki and the guy which she would end up choosing. Frankly speaking, I would not know who to choose if I was her >< Stay tune next week to another chapter starring another member! I'll give you a clue, when he smiles, you can't really see his eyes. (so adorable. >x<) Cheers! -Aoi