Job Listings
Ichika needed a part-time job.
Desperately.
Payments for the dorm she was currently residing in were going to go through a price hike that was just ever-so-slightly outside the coverage of her monthly allowance. Her university tuition may be covered by her scholarship, but the woes of rent were an inevitability she could not escape.
She could have tried to adjust her spending habits, but one week of trying to change that had left her in a barely functional state. If she had gone on any longer, then she wasn’t sure she’d live to see graduation day, especially with the workload she had to deal with.
So, here she was, desperately searching for any establishments that had open job listings that she could work into her mess of a schedule. Unfortunately, almost all the listings she found did not offer good time slots or negotiable work hours.
After what seemed like an eternity of scrolling through job listings, however, it seemed that the gods above decided to cut her some slack, and she stumbled upon a listing that seemed promising.
She clicked on the listing and read through it, hoping that this wasn’t a red herring.
“Hm. Cafe 39?” She read aloud. What an interesting choice of name.
“Let’s see…” The girl kept reading through the listing. “Currently looking for part-time waitstaff for… late afternoon to night shift hours!”
This was it! After thoroughly reading through the listing, it seemed that the cafe was looking for servers that could work from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. and luckily (or unluckily) for Ichika, her classes would typically start at 12 p.m. and end by 7 p.m.
‘Alright!’ Ichika thought to herself. ‘I just need to send in an application right now and hope things work out!’
After quickly sending in her CV, Ichika expected to wait a couple hours before she could receive a reply, if any at all. Surprisingly, however, she received one almost immediately.
Ichika read the message aloud. “Would it be possible for you to come in for an interview today at 7 p.m.?”
She immediately responded, as professionally as she could, with an affirmative, since she didn’t have any classes scheduled today. She received a thanks, as well as instructions for where to find the cafe and who to look for.
“When you arrive at the cafe, please ask for the person named Leoni and tell them that you are here for the interview.”
The time was now 6:30 p.m., and Ichika ran into one small issue: she was kind of lost.
She knew that something was wrong the moment she ended up circling back to the entrance of the area for the third time without seeing the cafe.
“Okay, focus Ichika!” She said to herself, mostly to calm herself down from the worst case scenario— being late to a job interview. She decided to ignore the nagging voice in the back of her head that kept telling her this was too good to be true, and that she was wasting her time.
She read through the instructions again. “Once you arrive at the complex, move forward through the street until the third split in the path.”
She followed and continued again. “Take the left path and move forward until you see a yellow barrier and turn right.”
“Once you see a large yellow sign with a banana on it, turn left.”
“Then move forward and stop once you see a blue trashcan and turn right…”
This was the problem. There was no blue trashcan. In fact, there were no trashcans on this path and it was frustrating Ichika to no end. It did not help that the dark sky made going through this area and seeing where she was going much harder because of the lack of sufficient lighting. Every path seemed to lead towards a shadowed passage that she was too scared to test where it would lead.
Ichika checked her phone for the time.
6:45 p.m.
This was not good. Her hands were getting clammy as her nerves started to get the better of her. She already had enough on her plate with university, and this rent issue was starting to make that plate overflow. Add on the general fear and unease she felt from being in this place without anyone to ask for directions, and yeah, Ichika’s already overflowing plate was about to shatter. Her last straw was seeing this potential job opportunity start to look more and more like a scam.
With so much weighing on her mind, the girl felt tears prickle her eyes. She did nothing to stop it. She just stood there, clutching her phone to her chest and let her tears fall as she let out silent sobs.
She needed to get it out of her system, at the very least.
Things were not going her way at all, nothing really did since middle school, and it left her with the familiar feeling of defeat and uselessness.
‘Screw it,’ she thought to herself as she began to wipe away her tears. ‘I’ll just go back to the dorm and figure something out. I guess cutting my budget for most necessities will have to do…’
As she steadied herself, the girl began to make her way back to where she came from but accidentally bumped into someone, if the ‘oof’ sound she let out meant anything.
The resulting sound of someone shrieking and boxes falling immediately told her that she had walked into someone a bit too hard.
“Ah! I’m so sorry!” She apologized immediately to the stranger.
“H-here let me help you!” Ichika said as she began to gather the various boxes that had fallen about.
The person she had bumped into, after recovering from their fall, was surprised to find the previously fallen boxes quickly arranged neatly in front of them.
“Again, I’m so, so, so sorry!” Ichika’s voice rang out in the stranger’s ears as the girl once again apologized profusely with a bow.
The stranger, a girl apparently, waved off Ichika’s concerns. “Oh, no, it’s okay! It’s kind of my fault for carrying so much at once.” She let out a small laugh.
“Still! It was my fault for not looking at where I was going!”
Another small laugh filled the air. “Alright, alright, apology accepted then. You and I should definitely be more careful with where we walk in the future though.”
“O-of course!” Ichika then realized that she could ask this girl for directions. “Um, excuse me, Miss?” she asked as she looked away from the girl, her hands fiddling with her jacket.
The girl hummed back. “Yes?”
“May I— may I ask if you know where Cafe 39 is?”
“Cafe 39?”
Ichika nodded. “I’ve been trying to find it for the past half an hour, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.”
The girl nodded back at Ichika. “Sure, I can take you there. I’m headed there myself to drop these supplies off.”
“O-okay! Thank you so much, and sorry for bothering you!” Ichika looked at the boxes hesitantly. “If you’d like… I mean, if you’re okay with it, I could help you carry these boxes on the way?”
The girl giggled again before she replied. “Alright, since you’re offering so nicely. Thank you, Miss…?”
“Oh, um, Hoshino!”
“Okay then, Miss Hoshino, thanks for your help.” the girl said as she held out a few boxes for Ichika to carry. “Now come on then, follow me.”
The girl seemed to be very familiar with the layout of this area as she effortlessly navigated the different routes with confident steps. Soon, the pair ended up at a more scenic location, with a large, well-maintained wooden footbridge allowing passage over a calm river that flowed out towards the sea. Instead of crossing the bridge, the girl walked past it and continued on, following the river.
Finally, they arrived at the end of the boardwalk, fencing in place to prevent people from falling into the water and allowing anyone interested to lean over and gaze at the view of the vast waters, the horizon blending into the darkened sky.
Ichika must have been staring at the view for a while, because she heard the girl say: “If you arrive earlier, you can actually see the sunset from here. It’s really pretty.”
She flushed a bit at being caught spacing out, but immediately moved to follow the girl again.
The girl stopped, then turned to Ichika, and said to her, “Well, here it is: Cafe 39!”
Ichika wasn’t sure what to expect from a cafe named Cafe 39, but she certainly wasn’t expecting the store sign to have the image of a giant spring onion. She also wasn’t expecting the interior of the cafe to look so… minimalist, for lack of a better word. It was an interesting mix of black floorboards, white walls, and a splash of teal here and there. If anything, Ichika thought the decor was strangely reminiscent of Hatsune Miku.
“Wow.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot from people who come in for the first time.”
“Huh?” Ichika turned to her, surprised. “Wait, are you an employee here, Miss?”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
Now that Ichika actually paid proper attention to the girl she had been helping, she noticed their teal green hair with red highlights that was tied into two large twintails, which reminded her of a certain diva. Only when the girl’s blue eyes locked with her grey ones did her brain finally connect the dots – this girl looked A LOT like Hatusune Miku!
“If you don’t mind, could you help me bring these into the cafe?”
Ichika realized that she was staring a bit too much and replied back with a very high-pitched “Yes!”
The Miku look-alike took out a key and opened the door, and ushered Ichika into the establishment.
“Okay, Miss Hoshino, you can just leave those boxes here.”
“Oh… um, okay.”
After properly organizing the boxes and moving them behind the counter – with some help from Ichika – the Miku look-alike extended her hand to Ichika with a smile and motioned toward the machinery behind her. “Seeing as you’re already here, would you be interested in a drink?”
“H-huh?”
Ichika looked at the door, where the sign had currently been turned to the ‘Closed’ position.
“Well… I wouldn’t want to impose, especially since the store is still closed!”
The girl giggled. “I don’t mind. Just think of it as thanks for carrying these boxes with me all the way here.”
Ichika looked at the girl and shook her head. “I’m so sorry, but I have to refuse, Miss. I don’t really deserve it since I did knock you down back there.”
The girl seemed to be slightly disappointed by her response. “Oh… Okay then.”
Ichika, disheartened by the girl’s response, immediately said the first thing that came to her mind. “But I… I’ll be sure to come back here as a paying customer when I can! I just need to go to my interview with Leoni!”
The girl tilted her head to the side with a confused look. “Leoni?”
Ichika flushed. She was so preoccupied with helping this girl that she forgot to tell her that she was looking for someone. She might as well explain herself in full now that she’s here. “Well, I applied for the listing for a part-timer here, and was told to come here by 7 p.m. and look for Leoni for an interview.”
The eyes of the girl in front of her widened slightly as she came to a realization. “Oh. Well, why didn’t you say so? You’re talking to her right now!”
“H-huh?!”
The girl cleared her throat and began to speak more formally. “It’s nice to meet you Miss Hoshino. I’m Miku L., though you can just call me “Miku” or “Leoni” – whichever you’re more comfortable with. I’m the owner and manager of Cafe 39!”
It took Ichika’s brain 5 seconds to process that the girl was the person she was looking for. It took her another 5 seconds to process that the girl’s name was actually Miku. Then it took her 5 more seconds to realize that she should probably reply to the girl who would (hopefully) be her future boss.
Unfortunately, no words left Ichika’s mouth, only a weird strangled noise did.
“Um, are you okay Miss Hoshino?”
Realizing that Mi– no, Leoni was talking to her, Ichika spewed out the first words that immediately came to her mind, again.
“YESI’MFINETHANKYOUFORASKINGIT’SNICETOMEETYOUMYNAMEISHOSHINOICHIKAANDI’MHONOREDBYTHEOPPORTUNITYTOHAVETHISINTERVIEW!”
Ichika immediately covered her mouth as her face started to turn into a very bright shade of pink. She really needed to work on not making a complete fool of herself when in social situations like this.
Leoni just stared at her, surprise written all over her face before it morphed into one of amusement.
Ichika just wanted to die right then and there. There’s no way she would be getting this job.
Leoni let out a small giggle and asked her a question, a gentle smile on her face. “Well, before we get to the interview, Miss Hoshino Ichika, what do you say to a refreshing iced coffee?”
Ichika did not trust anything that would come out of her mouth, so she settled for a meek nod.
Leoni gave her a nod and an amused smile in return before moving behind the counter to make said iced coffee.