With the first morning pouring in through the window, I begin getting started on dinner before the man wakes up. My stomach has been grumbling for a while now so I figured I should just get to cooking now. Sure he doesn't sound like the greatest person, but he is the person that has given me this chance, albeit it with a bit of deception on my part. I know that Reina and I probably lived different lives until now, so I'm not sure how well I can be at copying her, so I'll just keep our interactions to a minimum to be safe... That said-
"There's nothing..."
At least nothing to properly cook with.
Opening the fridge, all I see are a bunch of condiments along with some milk. He does have rice, but that's literally it besides the several bags of chips.
"Ah!"
But that's where I notice a small carton of eggs in the cupboard, and after taking it out, I'm a bit disappointed to see only two eggs in there. I usually use three to make my omelette, but two should be enough. That said, there's only enough eggs for one of us...
Looking back over to the bedroom, I see the man still sleeping away on the bed. This is his food most likely, so I shouldn't be selfish. Maybe if I cook him an omelette with some rice, maybe he can loosen up a bit. As for me, I guess I'll just be fine with some rice.
So, I get to cooking the rice first. Thankfully there is a rice cooker here, and despite it's poor condition, it still operates normally. Once that was done, I got ready to cook the eggs in a pan that I washed while waiting for the rice. The sound of the eggs bubbling in the pain will never not be satisfying to me as I feel my stomach begin to grumble even more. Sorry stomach, but these eggs aren't for you-
"H-hey!"
Just then, I hear the man wake up as he climbs out of bed. Is he angry?
"What are you doing?!"
"I'm cooking your breakfast."
"...What?"
"Like I said. I'm cooking you breakfast."
"..."
He just looks at be puzzled, as if not knowing whether he should be angry or to go back to sleep.
"It'll be ready in a few more minutes. The eggs won't take long."
I say as I begin to scramble some of the eggs with some chopsticks.
"R-right..."
Well, it looks like he's not mad at least. I guess he was just surprised that I was using his kitchen without his permission? Well I guess I can sort of understand that a bit. I remember when I suddenly woke up to see Midori had cooked rice for me in my apartment that night when I met her. Despite the rice being not seasoned, I still look back at that time fondly. I wonder how much her cooking has improved now?
"Th-thanks for the... food."
"You're welcome."
After bringing the omelette on rice to his desk where he works, he begins eating the food after staring at it for a few moments. I'm not sure how he likes his seasoning, but considering all I could find was salt, I think that will be good enough. Well, judging from how he's eating away without any complaints, I'd say that I succeeded, so I head back into the kitchen.
There's nowhere else to eat, so I opt to just sit back down on my sister's blanket as I eat my rice from a bowl. I'm out of sight from the man like this, but I should be fine. My belly's also stopped growling at me now that it's finally got some food inside it. That said, I didn't know how bad the food situation was here, so I'll probably go out for some proper lunch. Oh! Then maybe I "can" join up with Midori. She said she wanted to hang out anyways. Ah! But before that, I need to let my brother and Mei know I'm alright.
So, I send then another message before opening up my chat with Midori.
Luna: "Hey, actually do you want to meet up for lunch? It's kind of boring here actually, aha."
Midori: "Sure! Wait, but what if your sister comes back there when you're gone?"
She sure loves to worry about me.
Luna: "I'll leave a note."
Ah... Wait, is there even paper that I can use here? Oh wait, I could just leave Reina's phone here. I already have my contact information saved on there, so when she comes back and notices her phone has magically come back, she'll notice my number as well. Yeah, that sounds good.
Midori: "Okay. So then where do you want to meet?"
Hmmm... Good question. It'll take a while for me to get to Midori's place from here, so maybe it'd be better to meet somewhere in the middle?
Luna: "How about the café we visited that one time with everyone else?"
Midori: "Mhmm! Sounds good~"
It's more closer to Midori than me, but I need an excuse to do some exercise anyways.
Luna: "Cool. Then I'll see you soon :)"
Midori: "Mhmm! :)"
Right, I guess I better finish off the rest of this rice before cleaning up-
"Huh?"
Just then, the man comes out from the bedroom area as he notices me eating the last remaining rice in my bowl.
"Hmph. Well I guess you can have the leftovers for that, but don't expect anything else."
He says before walking into the kitchen, grabbing one of the bag of chips. What does he mean by that? Does he not want me to eat? It sounded like he was letting me off with a warning just now-
"If you want to live here, then you'll need to hurry up and get a job."
What? I mean, I already have a job, but if I'm playing as my sister, then is he trying to force her to get a job? Don't tell me he's planning on extorting money out of her?!
"Khh!"
Yeah... I really don't like this man, but I need to keep my cool.
"Ah!"
Wait! Then could it be that Reina's actually been out this whole time trying to look for a job?!
That sudden realization brings me to my feet as I quickly dump my bowl onto the kitchen counter before dashing outside the front door.
It's far too early to meet up with Midori, but if what I think is true, then I'm not going to sit around just waiting for time to pass. Even if it saves me just a minute, I'll search as much as possible for her. That said... Where would she work?
I kind of ran out here on an impulse, but I'm not that knowledgeable in this area. I'm aware of a few street names, but I have no idea what kind of stores would be on them. So, I go down the street, trying not to make too much of a scene as I enter the first store I see.
Looking inside, it seems like a little grocery store which has different kinds of fruits and veggies, but not much of anything else. If there's a place like this so close to the apartment, then why hasn't that man bought any of this?
"Hi there~ May I help you?"
"Yes! Uhm, do you know anyone by the name, Reina?"
"Reina? Sorry, I don't."
"Alright. Thank you, the I'll be-"
Just then, I notice apples stocked up in one of the baskets. I gently pick one up while making sure I have money in my bag with my other hand.
"I'd like to buy this please."
"Yes, certainly."
Exiting the store, I immediately take a bite of the apple as the crunch of it echoes inside my head and the juicy, sweetness fills my mouth. Yeah... I needed this.
It take a seat on the bench while I finish the apple, but in the meantime, I look up a map of the area with my phone using google maps. There doesn't seem to be that many shops, but the mall that's a bit of distance away seems promising. I went the wrong direction though, so maybe I should finish along this way before turning around and finishing at the mall? Hopefully that should be in time before I'm meant to meet up with Midori.
"Haah~"
After finishing the apple, I continue to go from shop to shop along this street, but just like the shop earlier, no one seems to know of my sister, and before I knew it, it has already hit 9:30pm.
"Guess I should hurry back towards the mall..."
But then again, judging by the map on my phone, I don't think I'll be able to search much of it judging by how many shops there are on the way towards it. I want to be thorough with this search, not missing a single option. I still have tomorrow anyways which should probably be enough time to search the entire mall, but even still, that's only along a few streets around here... Who knows what direction Reina took to find a job, let alone if she even found one at all. There's a good chance that she might be homeless, running away from that man. I can totally see that playing out.
"Just be safe, please..."
I really don't like the idea of her being homeless, especially after hearing that she already got cut before.
"Hold on just a little bit longer, Reina."
I mutter those words to her, even though I know she won't be able to hear them, but I feel a sense of connection when I say it. I guess I'm just hoping that my feelings are reaching her...
Meanwhileata certain café-
"Reina~ Do you want to try feeding the cats this time?"
"Eh? Ah, sure."
We've never own animals before, but after watching Kanon and the other workers feed them, I think I can manage.
"We want to feed them before lunch. We don't want these kitties to attack the customers, hehe."
"Wait, they attack?"
But they look so harmless...
"Pfft-ahaha. Nah, more like they'll plead for the customer's food. We don't want that."
The other worker clarifies it, lifting away any worries I had.
"By the way, the uniform looks suuuper cute on you."
"R-really?"
Just like Kanon's father has said, he got my uniform ready before we opened up the café. I still find it funny how such a large and intimidating man is able to make something high quality like this. It kind of makes me nervous even moving around in it. Like what if I accidentally damage it?
"Mhmm! Although father could've made the skirt a bit shorter."
"I think the skirt is short enough as is."
"Joking~"
Essentially, the uniform is like Kanon's maid outfit. The skirt ends a little above my knees so it's honestly a good length, but with all the frills... It's a little embarrassing. The last time I wore something like this would be when I was little. Sis and I usually wore clothes similar to this when we were kids...
"Right, then let's get started!"
Once we took out the cat food, all the cats in the cafe came running into the break room where all their bowls were lined up. Each cat also faced the same bowl they usually go to which I found to be quite cute.
"They're all roughly the same weight, so just distribute it evenly."
"Okay."
As I pour out the cat food into the bowls with a scooper, the cats immediately begin eating. If I remember correctly, only a couple of these cats are actually theirs? The rest are rescued from the shelter Kanon's mother works at, right?
"Hey, Kanon?"
"Hmm?"
"These cats. The ones that aren't yours. Why do you have them here and not at the shelter?"
"Ah~ Well actually, customers can actually adopt them if they want. We use this cafe as kind of like an advertisement for mom's shelter."
"That's..."
"Good idea, huh?"
"Yeah..."
When I first came here, I thought it was weird that cats were wondering around in a cafe, but now it all makes sense. This family sure is lovely... I can't help but smile at how caring they are.
"Hehe. Well it was actually my sister's idea."
"Your sister? Anna?"
"Yup!"
That... Came as a surprise. I didn't talk to her much, if not at all last night. Even at the dinner table, she seemed only interested in the food before leaving back up to her room.
"You see, she loves cats, probably even more than mom, hehe. But recently one of our cats passed away so she's been in the dumps for a while now."
So that explains it...
"She used to work here part-time, but when her grades started to drop, we decided that it'd be better for her to focus on school. So you could say she's quite jealous of you being able to work here."
"I see."
Wait...
"Wait, are you saying she's in high school?!"
"Mhmm! She'll be starting her second year soon."
She's my junior?! She was the same height as me if I recall... What?
"Pfft-hahaha! You should see the look on your face."
"I thought she was also in university like you."
"Nope~ Hehe. But I do feel bad about it. Maybe Anna could start working here again. Exams finished recently as well and she scored pretty well. I'll talk about it with her tonight."
"Okay."
So Anna was just jealous of me? I feel a bit guilty now having imposed myself onto this family like this. I don't want to add anymore tension. A part of me thinks that maybe it'd be better to just live back in that apartment, but I honestly can't bring myself to do it. Even though my face is all healed from that punch, I still remember the pain I felt, not to mention the cut on my arm. It's gotten a lot better now as the redness and swelling have gone done considerably that now all that's left is the cut, and even then, it's beginning to properly close up. I wonder if it'll leave a scar...
"Alright. Then are you ready for lunch hour?"
"I'm not sure."
"Hehe. Well just stick with us and you'll be fine. You're not used to the menu yet so just hang by me and assist me. That said, it's still a bit away, but just be prepared."
"Okay."