All You Need Is Love II (MewGulf AU)

🌻Chapter 6

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Kabuki-cho in Shinjuku is a wild-renowned entertainment area. Shops stained with the lurid light of neon signs were everywhere in this place of mingling ages, professions, and nationalities. One side street in particular housed a long row of porn shops with photos of topless women plastered on billboards, uncomfortably conspicuous everywhere.

"Want to give our girls a try, my man? Only the best."

Gulf answered these incessant calls with an ambiguous smile and a quick escape. True, Gulf was a healthy young man and it was impossible to say that he had no interest in the offers. But the flamboyant neon didn't attract him.

His former boss had loved places like this. It was during one of the excursions this boss had dragged him along on that Gulf had been reunited with Mew.

Gulf knew that if he hadn't gone with his boss that night, he probably would never have seen Mew again. But that didn't mean he liked going to these places, even if Mew himself owned them.

Mew had taken Gulf to many other similar places after that. Gulf knew he looked unhappy, and that this made extra work for Mew. The girls always flocked to Mew since he was the owner. They flirted with their good-looking manager, heady with cheap perfume. Gulf always felt repulsed as he watched these women suck up to Mew, snuggling against him as if it were natural.

Mew easily ignored their sultry, immodest behavior. He grabbed them by their slender waists without a second thought, and laid kisses on the backs of their white hands or kissed the thick lipstick on their mouths. He didn't seem at least bit daunted even when Gulf was right there watching.

Of course, their relationship was a secret. Mew owned the company that managed a whole segment of Kabuki-cho. He was generous and bold, and Gulf knew he had to put on a show. But he couldn't stop something from smoldering deep in his heart. Their relationship was like crossing a precarious bridge, so naturally Gulf had imagined what might cause that bridge to break.

He knew if he mentioned this to Mew he would just get a quick smile in return, so he never brought it up. He simply buried it deep in his heart.

Gulf went through the narrow doorway into the building that housed the cabaret and entered the elevator. There was a loud clank and the light inside the elevator went out for a moment. It was an old building, so the wiring was probably unreliable. He reached the fifth floor and, after another loud clank, the door opened.

Gulf saw the chocolate brown door. Written in thin letters in the middle of it were the words 'Number Five.' Nothing else was written there, so it was impossible to tell at a glance what sort of business they did.

If Mew hadn't told the bars name the first time they were to meet there, Gulf doubted he would've had the courage to open the door and go inside.

But now it was different.

The open hallway continued toward an emergency staircase and Gulf heard the rowdy noises of Kabuki-cho outside. He heard the voices of drunks, and the sounds of cars and people going by on Yasukumi Boulevard. But the instant Gulf passed through the doors, the cacophony disappeared.

"Good evening, sir."

Gulf was surprised to hear an unfamiliar voice and looked up quickly.

Normally, there was a gentlemanly-looking bartender with white hair, but standing behind the simple designed real wood bar was a young man in his late twenties.

"Er."

"Is something the matter, sir?" the young man asked, noting Gulf's confusion.

"Uh---where's the regular bartender?"

"If you mean the manager, he had to step out for a moment. He should be back in a few hours. I started here two weeks ago," the man andwered pleasantly. "Did you have some business with him?"

"No, not really. I just wondered, since he's always here."

Gulf pulled out a stool and sat down.

"What'll it be?"

"How about a gin and lime?"

"Coming right up." The young bartender set out a warm hand towel for him, then started on Gulf's order.

"Actually, I'm supposed to be meeting someone here. Has anyone else been by?"

"You're the first customer of the night."

"Oh. I see."

Mew told him that Thursday was the only day that might work for meeting up. He must have been very busy. But he hadn't called Gulf to say he couldn't make it, so Gulf figured that if he just waited a little while, Mew would come.

He hardly ever met up with Mew in public. But on those rare occasions that they did, they almost always met here. The easy, relaxed atmosphere that the manager created appealed to Gulf and he had even come here alone sometimes. The man seemed to know Mew well and spoke about him with a tender glint in his eyes, as if he were his own or grandchild. That alone eas relaxing.

But the bar's atmosphere changed completelyn without the bartender.

Gulf couldn't relax. He glanced at his watch several times while waiting for Mew. He finished work before seven o'clock, so he had reached the bar ahead of schedule, even without hurrying.

Despite the fact that Mew wouldn't even make time to see him this weekend, he had asked Gulf to clear some time for him tonight. Lately Gulf had been taking a tough attitude with Mew's arrogant tone, but inside he was happy. The reason he didn't show it on the outside was that he suspected Mew could seen straight through him even if he said nothing about it.

"Here you are, sir."

At almost the same moment that the bartender set Gulf's cocktail down in front of him, he heard the door open behind him.

Mew.

TBC