Shouta Aizawa has inherited his parents' teahouse and is having trouble finding new staff. Y/N has quit her job and is about to end her life, when she sees the poster about the open position and decides to give life another chance.
TW: themes of sui...
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Shouta knew that something was up with her. It started about two weeks into her working at the teahouse. She seemed more absentminded than usual, as if there was something on her mind. She wasn't as focussed as usual. Which didn't mean her work was suffering, but it was noticeable. At least he noticed it. He wasn't sure how much anyone else noticed how distracted she was all the time.
Shouta was wondering whether he should talk to her about that or not... he wasn't sure whether it was a sensitive topic or not. Or whether it would put her on the spot if he asked her about it. After all, they had only known each other for about two to three weeks at this point and Shouta didn't want to overstep any unspoken boundaries that might be there between them.
But he also wanted to help her. He wanted to be there for her, he wanted her to talk to him. Maybe this was something he could actually help with, even though he wasn't the best person to go to when it came to interpersonal problems. But what was the worst this could be? Actually, Shouta didn't want to think about it. There were a lot of things this could be about.
And while he was thinking about all that, Shouta realized that he actually didn't know a whole lot about Y/N. Sure, he knew her name, he knew how old she was, where she lived, he knew her account information, so he could transfer her pay to her. But other than that, there wasn't a lot he knew about her. And he hadn't really bothered to ask, if he remembered correctly.
Shouta felt incredibly stupid as he realized that. Maybe he really should have talked to her a little more before hiring her. Well, it was too late now. He wondered whether it would be awkward to ask her a lot of personal questions all of a sudden. Maybe those were things she didn't want to talk about... She seemed like a rather private kind of person, if he was being honest.
Well, it was way too late now anyway. She had already finished work for the day and presumably gone home, so there was no use thinking about it now. Maybe tomorrow would be a good day. They could close the teahouse early, since he didn't expect a lot of people anyway. They could both take half a day off and just... talk. Or whatever it was that people did to get to know each other. It had been such a long time since Shouta had to be social beyond being hospitable to his customers.
Maybe it was better if he left it all alone. Well, either way, he would be better off calling it a day. Shouta put away the dried teacups into the little shelf behind him, before checking whether everything else was in order - everything was cleaned up, the menus were in one place and the tea was filled up. Perfect. With a sigh, Shouta walked around the counter and up to the door.
Normally he'd just check whether the door was locked, but when he got closer, he heard some unfamiliar noise from outside. Shouta stood still and listened closer. It wasn't easy to make out what exactly it was, because it was raining heavily once again and the noise of the rain was drowning out most other noise. But this was something else. Something distinct. And it came from directly outside the door.
