Note: People posting that they disapprove of the term "weeb". I don't know any other term equal to someone who likes manga, Japanese stuff, so I used the term weeb. English is my second language, weeb is just a noun for me at the moment because after coming to the West many ppl around me used it to convey their love for Japanese art and anime with this term. But I'll change it since in western internet culture it might be considered different and negative. I don't want to use Otaku cause of its negative term in Japan.
I was still not sure how to process this information. Everything felt random. I felt like a snitch although I never revealed who bought the cake.
Suddenly, I see Ryan waving at me from the kitchen. I waved back.
"Ryan working today?" I ask Marie. She nods while distracted in her work.
"If you want to get to work, go ahead. I don't think you would want to be home now." Marie winks. I blush a little. It was true Ryan had a crush on me. He was kinder than most guys I met, but it was not special. I never had luck with "good guys".
I took off my coat and walked to Boss.
"I want to work right now. Can I?" I ask him. He did a little funny face that made me chuckle.
"Uh sure, but WHY?" He asks.
"Cmon Boss. I am bored plus I need that extra cash." I whine.
"Hmmm," Boss thinks for a while. "So whos shift I shall be covering..." I ask.
"Marie's!" Boss exclaims. I am almost confused.
"What?" Both Marie and I ask, alarmed. Marie almost thinking the boss is firing her.
"Well, I have to head to the market and get supplies. I won't be here for a while I think. Marie going to take over my place, and you, Marie's", He explains.
"Here catch." Marie throws her keys to the counter. I caught and wore my apron. At that time, Ryan came out of the kitchen.
"Hey y/n" He greeted. I smiled and replied, hey, as well.
"You working? Day shift?" He asks.
"Yeah, I just got bored at home, plus Boss agreed," I explain.
"Damn lucky..." Ryan joked.
"Haha hilarious Ryan," I say sarcastically.
"So, um...I was wondering. If you wanted to...." Ryan's voice wavered.
"Cmon Ryan, spit it out..." Marie yelled from the back. I make a little frustrated face signalling Marie to shut it. The boy is doing his best.
"Yeah...?" I encourage him.
"Yeah so, got like tickets for Volleyball World Finals...and I know you do not like sports, but I was still wondering if you would like to join me?" He asks.
My mind suddenly shifted to that Ushijima person. Was there any chance I shall be seeing him play? Will he recognise me? Was I even important enough that he will remember me? I can spill his secrets. I had so many questions. But it's just a muffin that he bought, and surely it won't end his career.
Ryan's confused face snapped me back to reality. "Ohh Volleyball...um I am..." As I was trying to reply.
Bunch of tall guys entered the shop. All the heads inside the cafe turned. Even people from the kitchen came out. I saw Marie taking off her apron and running to greet them.
"Welcome to Glace cafe. Thank you for choosing us. Your reserved table is this way..."
I saw an orange-haired cute boy, a charming blonde with an under-cut, a soft-eyed dude with face mask, a seriously fit man of African origin, a cute dark haired boy sipping a milk carton, a spiky with black and white shades of hair boy who looked extremely hyped.
A few other boys followed, a relatively short cute boy, a narrow-eyed cute boy, another handsome boy who literally looked like a cute seagull. And then my heart stopped...he was here too.
Wakatoshi Ushijima. His presence turned even more heads inside the cafe. He definitely was a man with a strong presence.
This was the Japanese National Volleyball team. I almost choked up. They all wore casual clothes, so did he. I have never seen professional players outside their sports suits. This was new. They were rather stylish.
"Woah those are some big boys...." Ryan spoke. I slowly nodded, still mesmerised with their presence.
Ryan waved in front of my eyes, and I got back into reality.
"I um..." I try to reply, but my mind was elsewhere.
Marie came running to us. "Both of you carry on your romance later. Ryan get back to the kitchen, and we shall be huge orders coming up. Y/N help me out. I am taking over Boss's place so you gotta be near the counter and keep the table's orders and tally it out quick if they try to split bills." Marie instructs.
Ryan nods, "Let me know soon okay..." and gets back to the kitchen.
I roll my eyes, I hated people splitting bills, its just too much math, but I agreed regardless. Why did I even decide to work today?
Still distracted but this time I heard Marie...
"Y/n what you are doing...? Go give them the menus" I heard Marie muttering. I quickly nodded. I counted how many boys sat on the table.
I tried to be low-key as possible. But it was too late. I caught him looking at me. He was intense.
As I counted from afar, I saw the corner of his eyes, taking a quick look at me. I could see his jaw. It was smooth and sharp. He wore a simple shirt, but I could literally see how broad shoulders he had and wondered how ripped he is really inside that shirt.
I take the number of menus, and head to our diner section with large seats.
"Hello, my name is Y/N. I shall be the server for your afternoon. These are the menus. And let me know if you need anything to drink ...We have..." I tried to speak.
"Ah...slow English, please" the orange-haired boy spoke. It made me realise their English might not be great.
"Oh, I am sorry," I say with a smile. I see Ushijima looking at me. Although his eyes looked disinterested, I felt like he was observing me.
"Nihongo?" I ask. All of them nodded in unison. It was a little adorable. I chuckled. So I decided to switch to Japanese. I knew how to speak since I took in high-school and as college electives due to my "liking anime" phase.
I repeated my introduction in Japanese and listed out our entry drinks. Their eyes said they were impressed. The spiky cute owl and few others even clapped after I was done.
"Miss Y/N, your Japanese is good." The blonde with under-cut said.
"Thank You..." I said, unsure, trying to get his name.
"I am Miya Atsumu...this is Bokuto-san, Hinata, Kageyama, Yaku-san, Aran, Rintaro, Hoshiumi, Sakusa, and lastly our mighty captain Ushijima Wakatoshi." Miya introduced all of them.
They all greeted with smiles. Some were grinning. However, of course, no smile from Ushijima. He just raised his palm to greet. It looked like he was blessing me instead of greeting me.
I smile back at all of them, but slowly my smile becomes an awkward expression in front of Ushijima.
"Y.n-san, what do you recommend?" Yaku asks. Aran and Rintaro hum in agreement. The others still looked at the menu.
I gave my recommendations.
They all started arguing in a few mins. Arguing what they should order and how they would split. I swear it felt like they just graduated from high school.
"I will give you all a few minutes to discuss. I'll be back in 10 minutes to take your orders, is that okay? Is hot-chocolate okay for beginner drink?" I inform.
They all nodded with fascination. As I head back, Hoshiumi got up and followed me. I turn and awkwardly stand for few seconds...
"Can I help you?" I ask.
"Yes, Umm...I want to check the pastry counter.." He replies. I nod and smile and ask him to follow me.
Later, Yaku and Kageyma followed him. Aran, Rin and Miya busy with arguing over the food. While Bokuto and Hinata laughing, Sakusa looked like he was suffering. Ushijima just sipping water like a robot.
"cmon. We gotta eat tons of junk food and sweets before our new nutritionist takes over. We are all allowed to cheat meals with Sho-san" I heard Miya convincing Sakusa. The others agreed. I saw Hinata and Kageyama bring a few desserts to the table since customers can buy displayed desserts.
As my eyes shifted, I see Ushijima looking at Hinata, Kageyama and Yaku eating brownies. The others got inspired and got themselves desserts as well...
Now everyone except him was enjoying the sweet pleasure.
My heartfelt sad.
I quickly went to the counter and secretly packed three medium-sized custard souffle...
As I kept the box aside. I went to the table.
"Are you ready to give orders.." I ask. I knew they would still be arguing. So I gave them a solution as chaos started in the table.
"Ushijima-san?" I call. His eyes widen a little, and he turns towards me, stoic as ever.
"How about you order for everyone else?" I ask. All of them almost groaned.
"Nooooo" Miya exclaims.
"Ushijima will end up choosing Hayashi-rice..." Aran explains as a joke.
"WOW, they have Hayashi-rice?..." Bokuto hoots.
"No you silly, its a joke..." Hoshiumi corrects.
"Now I want Hayashi-rice..." Hinata groans.
"THEY DONT HAVE HAYASHI RICE Hinata boke-" Kageyama.
"Ushijima only likes Hayashi rice.." Sakusa warns me.
" I would like to continue with the desserts. Thank you..." Rintaro explains.
"Okay...okay...Ushijima-san..help us choose. ..." Yaku asks.
"But I don't know what you all like," Ushijima replies.
"But you are the captain, and you should help us," Miya explains.
"But for Volleyball," Ushijima says.
"Food dishes and volleyball... the same thiiiinggg" Hoshiumi exclaims.
"Volleyball is a hand-sport. They are not the same" Ushijima replies.
Is this guy for real?
"Yes but...at this point, no one will know what to eat unless...," Sakusa warns Ushijima.
"...You be our leader here too. " Yaku signs.
"Help us, SENPAI" Bokuto exclaims.
"If you say so," Ushijima finally agrees. The guys cheer except for Miya who was suspicious Ushijima might order something boring.
"Ok good. If you kindly follow me to the counter so I can register your order." I ask. He gets up.
As he stood beside me, waiting for me to lead him. I realise he was indeed a giant. I had this random thought to squeeze his biceps, but I shook my head to wake myself up.
After we reached the counter.
"hi," I say. "Hi" He replies, confused. "How was the muffin yesterday?" I ask. His eyes widen a little. "good" He replies. I smile. Awkward silence
"It was less sweet." He spoke again. What the hell? It is too sweet for me.
"I don't know what to order for them.." He continues. I was expecting that answer. "I see," I say. "Can you guess their favourite flavours or dishes and I can pick something for them?"
"okay" He sternly replies.
"Bokuto likes spicy beef, Hinata cannot tolerate spice and likes something with eggs on it, Kageyama likes curry. Sakusa will prefer anything with pickles, Miya likes seafood, Hoshiumi and Aran likes crunchy and savoury, Yaku prefers vegetables, and Rintaro likes sweets..." He blatantly points out. What an observant captain. He did care and knew his team-mates.
"And you?" I ask. I realised I caught him off guard.
"Nothing for me." He simply replied. "Oh. Are you sure? I can get you something sweet." I say. "No, I shall keep having the lemonade. Thank you." He replies and turns to leave.
"Ushijima-san" I call softly. He looks back. "About yesterday evening." I continue.
"Yes?" He asks with a stoic face. Awkward silence
"Nothing! I hope to see you today evening as well." I smile widely but sadly. He nods and leaves.
But he turns back again, which caught me off guard.
"Thank you, Y/N San". For some reason, I think the thank you was meant for something else.
My face was now red and flushed with warmth around my cheek.
With that, I arranged the orders and picked out the dishes for the boys and their captain.