SERENE, choso kamo

SCENE 03

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SCENE 03

It was a bit before the evening, the shop was on break for its employees. The inside of the cafe had no sign of customers, of course if not for Alora who stood behind the counter with permission to hopefully succeed in making her latte.

Choso, who was next to her, had a hard time just walking out of the cafe in frustration. She kept spilling the materials, wasting more and more every attempt she tried.

seeing the black-haired man's frustrated face, Emma, the manager and Alora's close friend who arranged the situation with hopes it would all go well patted the man on the back, "Be patient with her. It's practically her first time doing anything with her hands on her own." she sighs.

the pair sigh as they watch Alora who panicked after spilling something else, taking a usually large amount of paper towels to clean it up. there was no hope for her at all.

some more coworkers surround them and whisper, "Always the people with money." their hands on their hips as they continuously nod their heads slowly in an aggravating way. Choso waves them off.

taking a deep breath, he steps closer to Alora, leaving Emma's side and entering Alora's. he goes to grab her hand but stops. seeing his hands reach but stop midair earns a look from Alora.

he grabs a piece of paper, sloppily scribbling on it due to how fast he is writing.

"Can I touch you?" it read.

Alora's face begins to pigment into a red hue, her mouth going open as she swatted her head around to see if he was joking.

Choso's expression unconsciously moves on its own, looking one of disgust as he frowns deeply, his eyes narrowing.

her smile disappeared within an instant, embarrassment rushing throughout her as she impulsively snatched the paper with her left hand he held to defend herself.

"I wasn't thinking about that kind of thing." Choso simply gives a side eye to Emma who stands behind them laughing.

Alora puts aside the fact, pointing to his question on the paper and putting a thumbs up, giving him permission to touch her for whatever reason.

he nodded, leaning over a bit behind her to grab her right hand that still held onto the pile of paper towels and guiding her hand to show her how to properly wipe up a spill, something she wasn't able to do at all.

the black-haired woman whose hair was tied into a neat ponytail swore she could feel his breath on her neck. As she flinched, Choso immediately took a step back, leaning his face into her view with an expression that asked if she was okay.

she assures him that everything is fine. but Choso had come to the fact that he was clearly too close to her. Instead of grabbing her hand this time, he directly grabbed the piles of paper towels and began wiping up the coffee. Alora watched silently and was full of disappointment.

After wiping up the mess and sanitizing, they start over again.

He puts her through the steps and lets her perform it herself, supervising it. surprisingly, everything went well, she had followed his directions correctly and didn't make any messes this time.

adding the finishing touches to the latte, Alora abruptly stops moving completely, a bead of anxious sweat running down his face. her mood swings were unpredictable and troubled some.

Alora grabs a new piece of paper from a note stack due to the additional notes being filled with instructions written in Choso's sloppy handwriting.

she writes on the notepad, hesitating, but eventually showing it to him when she is finished.

"would it be bad if i wanted to make the latte not taste good  on purpose?" it said. Choso frowned and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

he slowly takes the paper from her, writing on it just below hers, "Of course it is. I'm the one that's gonna be tasting it." it read. Alora realizes that her indirect message caused him to misunderstand.

"I mean, if the latte I make is up to my standards, that means there'll be no point in coming to the cafe and seeing you. It's upsetting."

In that instant, to Choso, at least, the cafe had begun to grow warmer.

he wrote back, "Don't worry about that and just try your best." his usual nonchalant expression as Alora nodded in understanding, and she forced herself to smile.

before they knew it, 30 minutes had passed and the latte was complete. Every worker in the cafe came out to the counter to watch the taste test of their wealthy regular customers' coffee.

Even before coming in today to make the latte, she and Choso had decided that the person who would be taste testing it would be Choso. no party had any issues with the fact.

Alora had a hard time hiding her fear. After all, Choso had supervised her the entire time, and no major mistakes were made. it would be impossible for the latte to taste bad.

anyway, Alora served Choso the cup of coffee, the latte art looking somewhat below the savage person, but it was okay.

The black-haired man brought the mug to his lips, slowly taking a sip as the people around him watched intensely, waiting for his feedback on her latte.

Emma broke the silence. "well, how—"

he was stopped mid-sentence as Choso spit out the coffee immediately, right into Emma's face who wasn't even given enough time to close her mouth.

The crowd of workers began to scatter and distance themselves from Emma who was drenched in coffee. Choso, realizing what he'd done, apologized, awkwardly putting the cup down and handing her a paper towel.

a laughing coworker grabbed Alora's cup of coffee, "is it really that gross?" Choso didn't waste any time to hesitate, nodding aggressively.

Alora, who read the lips of Choso's friends, began to frown after seeing Choso's reaction.

The latte being bad even though he had walked her through it all was already embarrassing. but the fact it was so disgusting he spit it right out was even worse.

Noticing Aloras discouraged face, Choso turned to her. Meanwhile, the crowd of coworkers began to disperse in laughter.

Shortly and quickly wiping the remaining coffee on his lips off, Choso grabs the notepad, writing on it. When he was done, he waved it in front of Alora.

"At least now I'll get to keep making latte's for you." it reads.

The black haired woman looks so moved she might end up crying, Choso's eyebrows furrowing at the sight of another episode of her mood swings.

she grabs the notepad, replying.

"That's what I wanted, anyway."