despair | h. rindo

IV

August 14, 2004
3:42 p.m.
HiroYami Eatery

You could feel the demise of positivity rise in you.

You were bored. Bored of waiting for customers at three in the afternoon. With your cousins out on a gang meeting and your aunt on an interview for a new investor, you had to stay behind to take care of the family shop.

You repeatedly wiped the counter with slow force as you watched people pass by from the inside of the shop. It'd be fun to meet up with friends, if you had some aside from your cousins.

The bell rang as the door opened which made you hurriedly prepare yourself for a customer. You stood up straightening your posture and dusting off your apron.

"Hello, Welcome to HiroYami's how may I help youu..." You trailed off, eyes widening as you watched who entered the door.

Hair slicked back and let down while wearing a white button up shirt, tucked into his jeans with a tie to top it off. The lenses of his glasses slightly glaring as he looked around the shop before landing his gaze at the counter where you stood.

Rindou Haitani, your self-proclaimed mortal nemesis, has arrived. And with the smug look on his face, he was surely going to make your day a living hell.

"You!" You yelled, pointing at him with an irritated look. "Ah, Y/n, do you know him?" Your aunt appeared from behind him, quite stressed out but still holding an enthusiastic smile. "He-" You were cut off by Rindou. "I'm afraid I don't. Let me introduce myself." He smiled.

"Haitani Rindou. Son of Chisana Yume's Cheif Director, Haitani Ayako." He announced proudly, smugly grinning at your direction. "It's a pleasure to meet you." He finished with a calm but taunting smile. You were stunned. Frozen even. This was probably a dream. Nope. It was definitely something lucid. It wasn't real.

The empty room rang with the sound of your hand hitting your face in hopes of "waking up". "Y/n!" Your aunt called, jogging up to you, stopping you from pursuing to hit your face. "You have quite peculiar staff, Mrs. Kawata." Rindou smiled gently. Your aunt laughed.

"Will you please give us a moment?" She requested. "Please, take your time." He replied.

Your aunt pulled you to the kitchen and before the curtains fully covered the entrance you could see his smug smile as he stood next to a table.

Hayami sighed tiredly, taking a cup of water. "Y/n, you remember that really big investor I talked to you about?" She reminded. "Yeah. The one where if you passed their test, you could finally build a franchise for HiroYami you and mama always dreamed of." You looked down.

Your aunt smiled warmly. "It seems like you two have a rough history, but he's the son of the investor I told you about." She reasoned. You understood that, but your blood just boiled at the sight of him. And your ears rang loudly at the sound of his voice.

But you sighed. You knew how important this was to them. To finally run a regional- even better, a country wide franchise of the shop. So you were going to have to hang on a bit for this.

"I'll just get someone else to serve it for him. Just, please..." She looked at you with pleading eyes. You looked away guiltily. You knew that the Hitana prick was just going to find a way to ruin this using you.

You smiled and agreed with her as she looked at you excitedly. It seemed like the haggard look she held onto flew away momentarily as she looked at you ecstatically.

Hayami was true to her words. She did have someone else serve the smug bastard. The thing was, he wasn't smug. He was quite sweet to the waitress serving him. You could only scoff as you watched from the counter, writing notes for your next blog entry.

But under the sweet smile and soft looks, you knew he was a demon spawn. After all, looks can be very deceiving.

Rindou took out a folder from time to time, scribbling on it. It must've been his observation. After a few moments, he had a little talk with your aunt. She was laughing and she seemed to be looking at you a lot. Wonder what kind of shit he's been talking about you.

"It was really nice meeting you, Mrs. Kawata, but the decision will be up to the board." You heard him inform which made your aunt nod. "Thank you again." She smiled. "I'll be on my way, I hope to come back here soon." He smiled back. "Drop by anytime."

Your aunt walked tiredly towards a stool near you. "So?" You asked. "It's the board's decision." She sighed. "Ah, well Kurumi's service was pretty well done, plus no one beats HiroYami's ramen. He'll surely get it approved." You assured. "I hope so too."

"Welp. Back to work." You inhaled, dusting yourself off and heading to a table to clean it. Hayami was lucky to have someone like you in her family. She was even happier to know you'd always be there for your cousins.

Rindou could feel the sides of his lips twitch as he tried to stop himself from smiling watching you dance around as you cleaned empty tables.

But he wasn't just going to let go of your disrespect towards him. He was going to come back. No matter how many times he has to. With your aunt stressed out and you suddenly behaving, he realized your manners hold the fate of the investment. He was going to show you what a Haitani was capable of.

"How was the inspection?" Ayako asked her son, not even looking up from her files as he stood before her. "I... need to do more research on it." He informed. He really didn't need to. The service and stock was of required standard, he could make them pass in a jiff, he just really wanted to make a "special" someone suffer.

"If you need to inspect more, that means they didn't satisfy you, yes?" Ran asked from a couch on the other side of their mother's office. "Yet. They haven't satisfied me yet." Rindou corrected. Ran chuckled as he put down the solved rubik's cube.

Ayako took another folder from the table and lowered her glasses. Piercing purple eyes stared into Rindou's as she looked into his situation. "Very well, then." She sighed, examining the insights of the file at hand.

But he was a fair young man. He wasn't just going to give you sunshine. After all, a land with only sunshine turns into a dessert.

A little lightning in a thunderstorm won't hurt anyone. At least, anyone who distances themselves from it.