Renegade

A Tall Dark Stranger

Maybe she shouldn't have taken up the job after all.

Of course, realizations always came later than they should have. It was no different for Ren—in her case, the realization came after she noticed the bar was almost always frequented by the lowlife of Yokohama City—it was a hotspot for the denizens crawling from underbelly of the city she had grown to know, but had yet to love.

Villain. It was such a simple word, but crude. A generalization that, not unlike its counterpart, invited all sorts of stereotypes, as the rookie bartender eventually came to realize later in her career. But as with most of society, Ren fell for that stereotype—it was what made her have second thoughts about keeping her job at the bar in the first place, until she had to be talked out of her own prejudices by none other than her own ever-generous employer.

"You're here early."

The red-haired young woman greeted the old man standing by the back of the bar with a small and curt smile as she flipped back the hood of her coat. "Not like there's anywhere else I need to be, anyway."

Yoshinaga spared her but a brief glance before his attention went back to the handful of bottles inside the small wooden crate in front of him. "School, perhaps? That's what most kids your age should be doing, yes?"

She encircled around the bar, taking off her shoulder bag before stashing it in the cabinet underneath the first counter. "You and I both know that's not where I belong."

"Do you belong here, then?" he asked, without turning around to look at her this time. "This is not a place for innocent children like you."

She almost scoffed out loud as she began taking off her coat. "You and I also know that I'm anything but innocent. And besides, you were the one who chose to take me in."

"You told me you needed a distraction." His croaking voice was a bit distant, only because his attention was being split between the bottles and their conversation. "Speaking of which, would you be so kind as to help me sort these out before we open for the night?"

"Sure." She took off her coat and stashed it inside the cabinet alongside the rest of her meager belongings. She frowned as soon as her eyes rested upon the unfamiliar bottles she was just assigned to. "New shipment?"

The old man hummed in confirmation. "The list's right there. You know what to do."

She moved to take his place, eyes briefly glancing to the palm-sized streak of paper cast off to the side before turning back to the case of bottles. She picked up one of the bottles and twisted it around—the label was written in English, as with the other bottles, she soon realized. There were translations scribbled down on the list, but one could only do so much after dropping out of high school when the curriculum just barely scratched the surface of English studies.

"Some fancy stuff we've got tonight, huh?" she murmured—an off-handed remark, before she began scanning the sheet of paper for the letters she read off the label.

"A new office space had just opened up around the corner," Yoshinaga replied, his voice growing distant and softer. When she turned to her side, she frowned as she just caught the sight of the frail old man disappearing through the black curtains, voice echoing from the back as he went around. He re-appeared where she had entered earlier several seconds later, with a winter coat of his own in his hands as he started to put it on. "It might invite a few new high-class clients in to fill up the extra space during Friday nights. I'm sure you can manage them just fine without much problem."

"You're heading out?" She felt her shoulders fell, and a sinking feeling settling in her stomach.

He must've heard the uneasy tone in her voice as he turned around the moment she spoke, a gentle gaze coming from the hardened grey eyes of her aging mentor and—dare she say it—father figure.