The Blue Ogre Owns A Bar (female reader x Kawata Souya) *TOKREV SPOILERS*

2. Experience

I had plans to go home, finish up on my novel, browse my messages and anime, then go to sleep. Only to wake up to another boring day of university.

So I did not expect myself to be in a bar this evening and meet an angry bartender.

"Please, sit."

And so we did. To be completely honest, drinking is a new experience for me. Sakura, being one of the popular groups on campus, knows a thing or two about booze since she's always drunk after exams are over.

"Is there anything you like?" Kawata asked us.

"Hmmm, can I get a Mint Julep?" Sakura ordered.

Apparently, she has experience. Neither I nor Rin knows what a Mint Julep is. I don't even know the first thing about cocktails.

"Uhh, maybe finish up hers? We might need a moment to think." I spoke, with Rin nodding her head in agreement.

The bartender with blue hair nodded and pulled up his sleeves. I noticed some scars on his hands and fingers. Perhaps he really does have experience.

He reached for a handful of mint sprigs and opened a cabinet behind him. Kawata then grabbed a bottle of bourbon and a tall steel glass and placed them in his work area.

The bartender carefully plucked some leaves off the mint sprigs and dropped them into the steel cup. He added in a sugar cube and some sweet syrup, using a double-sided measuring cup that every bartender and cocktail mixer always has.

"That's a jigger, it's used for measuring ounces of alcohol."

Then, he started crushing the mixture together with a wooden pestle, or "muddler" as Sakura says. After the mixture was perfectly muddled together, Kawata poured 2½ ounces of Black-label Bourbon.

For the next step, he scooped up crushed ice from an icebox underneath the bar and filled up two-thirds of the cup. The bartender, still with an angry look on his face, picked a thin spoon and swizzled the ice with the previous mixture.

Once the flavor seeped into the ice, Kawata inserted a metal straw and filled up the final third of the steel cup with more crushed ice. Finally, he set in a mint sprig as a garnish and completed the cocktail.

"Your drink, miss," he announced, placing a coaster in front of Sakura and the Mint Julep after. "And you two?"

"We're kinda new at this, so we don't know what to do here..."

"She's right," Rin spoke up. "Do you have any recommendations for first-time drinkers?"

"... A Tom Collins, maybe? Soda, lemon juice, and some gin. Or maybe a Bramble?"

"Uh, well..."

We both looked to Sakura for advice, who was sipping her cocktail happily.

"One Bramble and a Tom Collins," she ordered for us. "Oh my God, you're both adults and you still can't order drinks."

"Is that all?" the still mad-looking bartender asked.

"I suppose so. Sorry for the trouble."

Kawata sighed in response and got to work. He returned the bourbon to its rightful place and grabbed a bottle of gin from the back cabinet this time, concocting something different.

In his steel shaker were lemon juice, some sugar, and some berries he picked from where the mint sprigs were kept. He muddled them again and poured in some kind of spirit. He closed the shaker and started juggling it and shaking the Bramble cocktail around.

After a good shake, he poured it into a cold glass, scooped in some crushed ice, and put in a metal straw. He placed a raspberry on top of the ice and served it to Rin.