Big Sister Fujioka

The Fujioka Café!

For just pennies a day, you can help poor souls like myself... who are suffering from severe writer's block.

I'm so very sorry for how big these gaps between my updates have been getting. This took, what, three months? Geez, I need to figure it out. Maybe it's because I keep on adding stories to my chapter writing list? I'm up to 8... Ugh, I can't wait until school starts back up in a few weeks, then I'll finally have something to procrastinate again and I might be able to speed my muse up again.

For the purpose of this story, none of the boys are rich. They're slightly above middle class and everyone still goes to the same high school, but it's a public school.

Disclaimer: No.

"Girls, I have an announcement!"

Jin and Haruhi looked up from their plates, a little surprised by their father's outburst. They hadn't seen him this excited or peppy since the construction had started a few months back. They gave each other a questioning glance before setting their chopsticks down.

Ranka leaned forward in his chair, "According to the contractor, the café's renovations should be completed in two weeks!"

As one, all three of them cheered. Ranka was referring, of course, to The Fujioka Café that they ran as a family. Ranka and Kotoko, the girl's mother, had bought the building together almost twenty years ago to start their dream of owning a family-run café. With Ranka's skills from his years of bartending and Kotoko's business law minor from college, they managed to keep the place going for years. Their two daughters, Jin and Haruhi, had been working in the café ever since they could turn on a mixing machine. It was their life.

Last year, however, was when the Fujioka's really got their big break. That was when the community college had finished their expansion. They purchased quite a few of the older buildings downtown and demolished them, building brand new student apartments in their place. There was a bit of a walk between the college and these new apartments, of course... and The Fujioka Café was smack dab in the middle of it.

Business had boomed, so to speak. Unfortunately, they were so busy that it was almost impossible to keep everything running smoothly, even with Misuzu-chi finally agreeing to take up the second managing position. There would be a line leading out the door every day for hours on end in the summer, and during the school year the building was practically overrun with students in the afternoon. The booths and tables were almost never empty, and there was never time to clean them off during the rush, so the café was always trashed by the time they hit a lull. Not to mention with all four of them working the front, Ranka and Misuzu-chi barely kept up with the paperwork. It was... stressful, to say the least.

But, like Kotoko used to say, every cloud has a silver lining. With the sudden increase in sales and customers, and the building beside them being completely empty, Ranka decided to expand. Once everything was completed, the café would be double its original size, which would help with the expected crowds.

Unfortunately, the Fujioka's also happened to live above the café. So knowing the loud construction was almost completed was pretty amazing news.

"That's awesome!"

Ranka beamed, "Of course, that means we should probably start training the new employees sooner rather than later."

"Yeah... I still don't think we need six people."

Jin rolled her eyes, "Just because you didn't interview them doesn't mean they're gonna be bad employees."

Haruhi stuck out her tongue.