The Rogue Phantom

CHAPTER 4 | Lucy

Caffeine Bean-- Osaka, Japan

      Lucy sighed a breath of relief. At this hour—2 am, to be precise—there were few people that would venture out to Caffeine Bean for a quick coffee fix. There had been a group of customers, American tourists, who had just checked into their hotel and were exploring the city. They were wide-eyed at all the sights Osaka had to offer at night, and upon consulting some review app, they stumbled upon the quaint café she worked at. Once the overenthusiastic group had realized she could understand English, they had relayed all this information to her in the five minutes it took her to prepare their orders of coffee with a concerning number of espresso shots. She deigned to comment, too exhausted by the customers who just kept talking.

     She'd bet that they would sooner finish telling her their entire life story than she could politely usher them out of the café. But once the bell jingled, indicating their leave, she could finally relax again. There was no one else present to disturb the peace and quiet, the cozy atmosphere of the homey café. At this time, she'd usually be at home, in her bed and cuddling with Miso as she slept blissfully. But no, she just had to cave in and agree to take over her coworker's shift at the café because he 'had some other important matters to attend to.' Knowing him, he was probably ditching work to go to a club or something.

     She glanced at the clock. It was 2:13 am. Another 2 hours and 47 minutes until she could renounce the hideous beige apron and uniform she had to wear, until she could change into comfier clothes and laze around. The benefits of working at a coffee and tea shop that was open 24/7, she thought with a huff. Right now, more than ever, she missed the feeling of running her fingers through Miso's soft cream fur and hearing the little satisfied purrs that her cat would always make. Okay, so maybe she was on the verge of becoming a crazy cat lady, but honestly, who could say no to such an adorable face? Even if cats were plotting the takeover of the entire world, she wasn't sure it'd be so bad.

     She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Staying up so late was definitely messing with her brain. Perhaps playing some music would make her thoughts stop wandering so much. As she took out her phone and a set of earbuds (unfortunately, she wasn't exactly rich enough to blow off ¥15000 just for some wireless Airpods), she let out a sigh of contentment. Music was always a refuge for her whenever her thoughts started spiraling out of control.

     As the first familiar bars of music played, she grinned. It was "Psycho"—a Korean song she often belted out loud and danced to when she was alone in her house, with only Miso judging her with a condescending flick of the tail. There probably weren't going to be any more customers for a while, so she was free to sing and dance as much as she wanted without anyone watching.

     Pretending that her phone was a microphone, she sang the lyrics at the top of her lungs, grinning all the while. She closed her eyes and twirled around, hoping that no one witnessed her accidentally crashing into one of the wooden tables. Whoops. She quickly adjusted the table and resumed her attempts to dance the choreography. Sure, she wasn't the best dancer in the world, but she was certainly enjoying herself.

     Unfortunately, preoccupied with herself, Lucy didn't hear the bell chime again, informing her that there were more customers. She was too busy still butchering the lyrics to "Psycho" and, quite frankly, dancing like a psycho.

     A gentle tap on her shoulder jolted her out of her own impromptu performance, and she jumped back in shock, seeing a flash of black and green hair. An involuntary scream came out, and she stared in shock at the two people who had entered without her noticing. The tips of her ears were turning red from embarrassment at an alarming rate, and she just stood there for a couple of moments awkwardly. She subconsciously tugged at her sleeves. However, the amused customers were grinning at her widely.