Bokutachi wa Akuma: Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Ryota do you think he’ll be angry at me for leaving so suddenly?” Aiya's soft tone held a grim tone to it. “I mean, they are already understaffed as it is.” He looked up to his younger yet taller group mate, a sad glimpse in his eyes.

Ryota smiled down to his averaged height senpai. He placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

“you will be fine.” His youthful tone was rather calming “I know you will be.” He hopped forward, walking backwards, looking down at his feminine friend.

He hopped again, facing forward again. Ryota was rather tame today compared to normal, he must have gotten enough exercise over the past few days. He walked next to Aiya again, carrying his bag for him as they approached the small business quickly.

They had arrived, the small, rundown building was misleading from the outside, it was very clean and bright on the inside.

Aiya stood in front of the building, dreading the fact that he had to go in. he took a step forward, setting off the motion-censored doors, the cold, air-conditioned interior blowing against his smooth face.

There was a cute cashier standing at the counter, her long black were tied up neatly behind her ears, her straight hair fell down her back almost reaching her tailbone. Her soft powdered skin was flawless and perfect. Her natural makeup complimented her big bubbly eyes. The uniformed cashier turned, about to greet the new customer; her default smile had turned into an ecstatic smile when she saw it was Aiya, her ex-boyfriend.

“Ai chan! I didn't know you work today! Are you my relief?” Her voice was high-pitched, almost whiny, almost like an anime voice actress. She seemed bubbly and happy, even more so when she saw Aiya. Her big, round eyes came upon the taller, yet younger man next to her coworker. “Oh, is this one of your friends Ai chan?” she had known that Aiya was an idol, it was all more the reason to talk to him, possibly date him again and get some money out of him.

Ryota was farther away from her, but he was still very loyal to his mother, the only woman he would ever need in his life was his mother, but this girl was very cute. His bright, narrow almond eyes lowered to the floor momentarily as he bowed his head.

“Hajimemashite, I am Ryota.” If this girl was a friend of Aiya's, she would be a friend of his. “You seem very happy to see Aiya, doesn't she Ai?” he pat his senpai on the shoulder in a matter-of-fact manner.

Aiya's feminine eyes looked from Ryota over his shoulder to the pretty girl behind the counter nervously. He brought his bottom rosebud lip between his teeth, looking down at the glass counter for a moment.

“Yes, this is Ryota. He is a member of our group.” Aiya held out a hand, pointing to the young girl. “This is Miyuki Mizawa, my former coworker.” Aiya winced slightly, knowing Miyuki would catch his words.

She leaned over the counter, listening closer as if he whispered a naughty secret to her.

“Former?” he whispered back to him, even though he had not whispered. “Are you leaving?” It was heartbreaking news to her at least, perhaps not to other workers who worked there. If she wanted his money, it would mean that she would have to talk to him outside of work. Anything for this gold-digging girl to get herself some money, like mother like daughter.

The young doe threw on a perfect pout, leaning herself in the glass counter with her chest pressed out slightly. She looked up at Aiya, holding the pout on her pursed lips, her chin resting in her butterflied palms.

“Would you like me to call Shachou for you?” her sweet voice was almost that of a beautiful siren.

Aiya looked down to the kawaii girl nervously. He nodded slowly, not actually wanting to talk to him.

“Yes please.” He stepped up closer to the counter, resting his sweaty palms on the cold glass.

Miyuki placed her recently manicured hands over Aiya's reassuringly, a soft, warm smile forming on her glossed lips.

“It’;; be okei Ai chan.” Miyuki was cruel in the past, but it seemed as they left school, many years prior, she had seemed to mature and became nicer to Aiya. In junior high after Maruki had left, they dated for a few months before Aiya had realized that she was not the person he thought he liked. “I’ll call him up for you.” She released his hands and called the office, summoning their manager to the front.

Ryota had left into the midst of the small store, searching for the supplies they needed for the house. He didn't want to be around Aiya while he was talking to his manager, he knew that he would ask moral support of him if he did. He wandered off into the first-aid aisle, quickly looking for Band-Aids and antibiotic ointment. His next items that he needed were shampoo and conditioner.

Aiya waited patiently for the Shachou at the front counter until he showed up and brought him back to the office.

Ryota had quickly paid and sat near the counter chatting with the young girl again to keep himself from going crazy from boredom.

Ten or so minutes later, Aiya came out from the back, holding the same grim look he left with over his feminine features. Meeting up with Ryota again, he nudged silently for them to leave without a sound. It worried both Ryota and Miyuki about his silence.

When they left, Ryota asked how it went with the manager. Aiya's feminine eyes looked up innocently to his taller friend. He was silent for a moment until he smiled brightly.

“He was totally all right with it!” Aiya jumped up and hugged Ryota tightly. “He understood completely that I needed to focus on the group more than the part time job.” It was entirely opposite as to what he was expecting from his manager.

Ryota began hopping happily up and down with Aiya, he was relieved that Aiya was not scolded from his manager.

“That's excellent Ai kun!” He looked inside for a moment. “So what did he say?” He looked down curiously at his senior friend.

“Well he said that he understood that juggling a part time job like that and working full time in the music business must have been very difficult. He wished me luck on my career plan and then,” thinking back on it, he was still confused about it. “He hugged me.” His cruel boss, really did have a heart.

Ryota shook his head quickly, smiling down at Aiya brightly.

“That doesn't matter! He didn't scold you!” he hugged Aiya again, proud that his shy, older friend was brave enough to do that on his own.

After having done something that mentally terrifying, Aiya left with Ryota back to his apartment to tell Maruki and Daichi how it went.