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A Week Later

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Once again Yamaa found himself in the same café at the exact same time; however, this time around he was no stranger or some random dangerous stalker to the owner and workers of the place. They greeted him warmly the second he arrived at the door, his usual table was cleaned up and ready for him by Junno; Maru already had his order prepared and ready to serve; and Ueda already knew where his eyes would focus the moment the clock strike 12am.

“Good early morning, Mi-chan,” Ueda chimed, smirking when he saw Yamaa jerked at the name of the girl.

“I’m starving, feed me~” Mi-chan whined, settling down on the stool bar, not caring about keeping up her high class image.

“What have you been consuming for the past hours?” Maru questioned from inside the kitchen.

“You will scold me if I give you the answer, so not saying!” Mi-chan said pouting.

“You will die an ugly death with ulcer,” Maru tsked at the girl, he knew too well what the lifestyle she had been leading.

“It’s my choice how I want to die, Maru-chan~ now give me food! I decide to not die a starving ghost!” Mi-chan pouted, whimpering as her stomach started its angry tunes.

“Don’t kill yourself so young,” Ueda chuckled from his spot, “there is someone that would love to spend at least a few years with you,” he nodded his head at Yamaa, who had been staring at the whole scenario. Mi-chan turned her gaze to her stalker.

“Can you get rid of him?” Mi-chan pouted at Ueda, the older man just shook his head.

“You know we don’t refuse service to good customers and he is our regular, why should I harm our business?” Ueda said rationally.

“Urgh! Whatever!” Mi-chan said, standing up and strolling towards Yamaa’s table. She needed to figure out what the guy’s deal.

“This seat taken?” She said, already settling down onto the chair and facing Yamaa, who just nodded in surprised.

“Good evening,” he greeted her with a smile, averting his eyes.

“Yamaa, isn’t it?” Mi-chan said bluntly, not seeing why she needed to be polite to her stalker, and Yamaa only replied with a nod. “Do you have any other name you prefer to be called?” she asked straightforward; the many years as the cabaret girl had granted her this arrogant attitude towards men.

“YamaPi,” Yamaa quickly answered, still not looking into her eyes.

“Is my face not that pleases to look at?” She struck again, annoying at the sideway glances.

“No,” Yamaa said in a panic, eyes fixated to the girl who smiled at the attention she gained.

“Thank you,” she smiled, “anyway, Jin said you are his childhood friend, right?” the girl started a small conversation, leaning back on her chair to let Juno place her order on the table. She gave the taller man a genuine smile, and then turned back to Yamaa with a cold stare.

“Yea,” Yamaa felt a knot tying in his stomach, he did not like that cold stare.

“Now tell me, you do know that Jin and Kazu are…how to put this nicely…” she tapped the tip of her fork on her lower lip, thinking of the right word while Yamaa just stared at her bewildered, “hm…ah right, they are quite attracted to each other, it is so obvious that the airhead Juno can even see it,” she said pointing to the tall waiter with the other hand holding the spoon.

“Hey!” Juno yelled back, not liking being called airhead.

“Don’t deny it, you wouldn’t like it when I prove it to be true!” Mi-chan shouted back and had the other’s tongue tightened.

“So, what you are suggesting?” Yamaa said when he actually caught the hint.

“Let say…we give them a little push and see how things go?” she smiled playfully, looking straight into Yamaa’s eyes to seek for agreement and she soon found it.

“I take it we are partners in crime now?” Yamaa said with his confidence, he didn’t know since when he got that tone back, it was hard for him to be able to form a sentence in front of the girl since a week ago.

“You can say that,” Mi-chan smiled, the coldness slowly disappeared from her eyes.

“How you want to proceed with the plan?” Yamaa said, putting down his knife and fork, he was ready to put Jin’s matter into business. Somehow everything related to Jin always made him turning serious and capable.

“I like that tone,” she nodded her head, “and don’t forget we have another three persons with us,” she said, jerking her head towards the front desk where Ueda, Juno and Maru standing, smirking back at them.

“This is going to be interesting,” Yamaa leaned back on his chair, liking how things go. At least he was now doing his best friend a favor for life.

❈

The next morning, Kame woke up to annoying ringing of the doorbell. Where the heck is Koki in this time of the day? He glanced over to the alarm clock and groaned at the blazing red numbers 9:00. It was too god damn early for him to even be out of bed! He grumbled his way out of the bedroom and to the entrance, wanting to smash whoever’s finger that currently ringing the bell. He needed his ing beauty sleep!

“If you don’t have a ing god damn good reason to be here, I’ll ing throw you off the building!” he shouted the moment he opened the door, not even looking up to see who it was.

“Not when I dump you off first,” Ueda sniped back with an equal irritation.

“Tat-chan! What are you doing here?” Kame whined complaining.

“Can I come to visit my friend at least?” Ueda said rolling his eyes.

“That’s why I’m asking!” Kame stated the obvious, “you NEVER come to my place THIS early, don’t you have a grumbled Ryo to take care of, or more precise a RYO’S to take care of?” Kame stated bluntly, missing the daggered glare throwing at him.

“Consider yourself lucky because you are my favorite that I haven’t slit your throat open with a fruit knife,” Ueda snarled, turning Kame silence. He knew exactly how to shut the other’s complaints.

“Anyway, why are you here, honestly,” Kame said, leaning on the kitchen counter holding the milk canton up to his lips.

“Mi-chan said that she wants to borrow one of your assistants to help her with the new club; what is his name again? Ah! Toma is it? So she wants me to come to ask Jin to fill in the guy’s place; he used to be a bartender is what she heard from YamaPi,” Ueda said, making his way to the fridge to grab himself a bottle of water.

“You can text him, or she can text him you know,” Kame said, not liking it when he was being woke up for a matter that was completely not related to him.

“I don’t have his number and she forgot her phone at home, you know how forgetful she is with phone and keys,” Ueda shrugged.

“It’s a never ending story,” Kame nodded.

“Plus, I need to bring the uniform for him, ‘cause you know how strict your club is with uniform,” Ueda said, pushing the bag he had with him to Kame and the other just took it.

“I’m not sure if Jin can make it, doesn’t he have work today?” Kame asked, wondering.

“YamaPi cancelled his shift, so there is no problem,” Ueda blurted out.

“Cancel? What cancel?” Kame asked, unable to catch Ueda’s words in his sleepiness.

“I said I have to cancel my time with Ryo to be here, geez~ give me his number!” Ueda pretended to complain and saw that Kame just nodded to his words, he breathed out his relief. The plan hadn’t exposed just yet, thanks god!

“Well, I’ve come to deliver my message, now I’m off,” Ueda quickly said, moving to the front entrance and ready to leave. When the older man was out of the apartment, Kame returned to the kitchen to grab the bag of uniform and headed towards Jin’s room, knocking lightly on it. He heard crumbling footsteps before the door creaked open with an unshaved Jin. The sight had Kame scrunched his nose at the savage man.

“What is it Kazuya?” Jin asked in his sleepy mode.

“Ueda came to pass Mi-chan’s message to you,” Kame said, pausing when Jin opened the door widely, revealing his half toned body, “she wonders if you can fill in for one of my bartenders tonight at the club, we are short hand,” Kame quickly finished his sentence, thanks heaven that he didn’t stumble on his words.

“I might have to decline, I have work today,” Jin said with his sincere apologetic tone; Kame nodded his head understanding.

“Ok, I’ll let Mi-chan know,” Jin thanked Kame earnestly and then closed the door while Kame walked back to his room, mind still mesmerized over Jin’s toned body. Not like he hadn’t seen it before but there was a different between seeing it in a shower and seeing it when the man just got out of bed; there was a HUGE different. And wasn’t that his cheeks just heated up? He felt his face hot all of a sudden, this was really odd. Maybe he came down with a fever again. This was the worst!

❈

Jin had now understood the true meaning of “overly packed” because the Mi-chan’s cabaret club was so crowded that only people could be seen in the crowd. He didn’t have time to actually admire the place as he was quickly pulled into the bar and being given list of simple recipes for the drinks.

“I thought you can’t make it,” Kame said from the other side of the bar, preparing the cocktail for one of the tables.

“I thought so too, but then Pi texted me and said that he wants to put newbies into working today so I can take a day off,” Jin replied, reading the list for better understanding of how the recipes here were made.

“I see,” Kame nodded, not really suspecting anything, plus an extra helping was always welcome in this packed place.

“Are these all that I need to remember?” Jin asked waving the list at Kame, who nodded.

“If you’re proved to be a fast learner, you might learn some of our specials when there is a chance,” Kame winked, smiling at the rolling pair of eyes.

“I’m not a noob you know,” Jin said with his smirking.

“I know, but no man excuse,” Kame laughed at his sudden poetic phrase.

“Wow, that was weird,” Jin laughed and then turned over to the lined up glasses and observed what he would need to know about this place.

“There are only two advices for you,” Kame said as he came closer to Jin, the older man jerked his head to look at Kame, “One, no foul language, whether you are in happy mood or in bad mood, it’s a taboo to curse here, so please keep your mouth in check; however, you can use that mouth to kiss the customers if they request,” Kame smirked at Jin’s surprised orbs.

“Kiss the customers?” Jin arched his brows at the question.

“Some are homo here, in case you want to know,” Kame laughed again when Jin’s mouth opened in an ‘O’ shape. “Some came for the bartender,” he pointed at himself, “normally it would be me who get the requests, but you are one good of a hunt,” Kame stated matter of fact.

“Should I be grateful to that?” Jin asked unsure if he was right.

“In this place, yes!” Kame confirmed with his firmed tone.

“Alright, what is the second?” Jin urged on.

“Two, you can flirt with the girls here but don’t bed them, doesn’t matter how much they tempt you,” Kame’s tone became serious on this one, “Mi-chan hates to deal with romance in work place, she hates it to the core, and so do I.” Kame shivered at the thought of the last ones that crossed that taboo.

“That is understandable,” Jin nodded agreeing, “I would find it awkward to face my one-night stand the next day if we are co-workers,” he said logically.

“It’s not the awkward that we hate, we just hate to have deal with the lovesick couples bringing down the club’s sales, you know what we live on; giving customers the dream, not crushing them; so yea, just don’t bed them,” Kame finalized.

“Ok, anything else I need to keep in mind?” Jin asked when he took in the two advices.

“Stay close to me as much as possible,” Kame said, eyes glancing to the edge of the bar, “I can see some have already stripped you out of your clothes,” Kame hardened his stare at the assistant bartender. Jin turned back to look at the person Kame mentioned.

“Don’t tell me,” Jin said warily.

“All bartenders here are mostly bi-ual,” Kame informed a bit too late for Jin to gasp. Jin turned to look at Kame up and down, and as if understanding what Jin was thinking, Kame confronted, “And yes, I’m bi-ual.” And Jin just nodded in understanding.

“Wow, I didn’t expect you to take it so well,” Kame laughed at Jin’s response.

“This is nothing comparing to the image of you and Koki together, that is the shock one can’t handle,” Jin retracted his first time learning about Kame and Koki’s one week rendezvous.

“Oh yea, that…everyone thought I was joking when I said we used to date,” Kame laughed at the memories.

“You smile a lot here,” Jin muttered as he watched Kame’s smiling eyes.

“Really?” Kame asked.

“You look more happy here than at the apartment,” Jin added into his comment.

“Maybe this is my escapade,” Kame shrugged, “when I get back I usually worn out so yea, the grumble me surfaced,” he grinned.

“Maybe…but I see that a hot shower always bring you some refreshment,” Jin added.

“Have you been watching me?” Kame narrowed his eyes playfully at Jin.

“I can’t help it when we share shower every day,” Jin stated the obvious; “where else do I look? The ceiling? That is really creepy,” Jin imagined himself looking up at the ceiling, and yup he would look like a retard.

“Uh…don’t! I would run away from you first,” Kame quivered at the imagination.

“Glad we share the same thought,” Jin grinned.

“Kazu-chan~ your regulars are here,” one of the girls whispered next to Kame and he turned to the pointed direction.

“Ok,” he nodded to her, “well good luck on the basic drinks, and watch how the pro does it,” Kame winked at Jin as he strolled towards the customers who smiled sweetly at him. Jin snickered at the sudden change in the way Kame walked; somehow the posture turned a bit feminine and suggestive.

“This would be interesting,” Jin said to himself, feeling a tap on his shoulder as the assistant bartender gave him the drink order and he complied.