LOVE, LOVE UMBRELLA [TOKYO REVENGERS]

/ 01 /

/ Chapter One /

   
 
 
 

June 14, 2017
 
 
Uenoyama Hakuhi hates her life.

Or at least what it turned out to be.

Then again, she has no one to blame but herself. She's the one who made her life like this anyway, so the fault is on her.

The only moments in her life worth reminiscing about were her middle school days.

She had a lot of friends in middle school, was the top of her class, was extremely active in school, and she likes to consider herself a popular student then. She was enjoying the finest life at the time and had thought that it would last forever.

But, like everything else, some things need — has — to change.

After graduation, her family packs up their belongings and returns to Kobe to live with her grandparents. All because her father couldn't keep his job and no other way to pay off the debts he owes. So, they all had to start again in the countryside. This means the end of Hakuhi's city life. She left all her friends in Shinjuku behind and was forced to start anew in the countryside of Kobe.

She did try to keep in contact with her friends but she eventually had to cut off all contacts with them. Out of shame, perhaps?

Her high school life in Kobe was unlike her life in Shinjuku. Dull, mundane, boring. A stark contrast to her vibrant city life. She refuses to make any new friends, her grades have plummeted  to the point that she was this close to repeat a year, and no matter how many sleepless hours she spends trying to get them back up, she couldn't do it any longer. Everyone there believes she's a freak (whatever that means), and the teachers think she's a hopeless cause (she overheard them talking).

Her parents expected her to become accustomed to living in the countryside, but she did not. They were completely wrong. Very wrong. Hakuhi just got worse.

After struggling for three straight years, Hakuhi graduated high school with an average grade and, the very next day, moved out of their house to begin working in Tokyo. She refused to attend college, much to her parents' disappointment. At that point, Hakuhi was sick of studying. If she were to continue studying, she might actually go mad.

Sure, she wouldn't be working a high-paying job, but so what? The only mouth she would need to feed was her own. Hakuhi found a small apartment with thin walls and a job at a convenience store. For many years, she's able to support and feed herself with little to no help from her parents. Never once did she ask for money from her family. She never contacted them again unless they contacted her first. And even then, rarely would she return their calls or messages. Even if they came from Asuka or Soma.

Hakuhi continued a bleak existence in Tokyo.

All she did was work, work, work, work.

At age twenty-seven, Hakuhi would like to think that she's become financially stable. Successful? Not yet, but she's getting there.

She had moved to a bigger apartment, a nice improvement from her first space in Tokyo, and working two part time jobs — a waitress in a japanese restaurant in the day and a bartender slash waitress in a nightclub at night in Roppongi.

Her night job pays twice than her day job so she had been thinking of quitting her job at the restaurant but Hakuhi is no stranger to working two jobs at the same time and certainly would not dare turn away an opportunity to save up more money.

After a long shift at the restaurant, Hakuhi finally returned to her apartment and managed to get some good rest for three hours before she needed to get to the nightclub before the sun set.  She sat at the dining table, a mirror in front of her a slew of cosmetics on the table. Even though she's just a bartender at that place, it's basically an unspoken rule for all the staff (especially the girls) to look good and presentable and to always smell nice.