Beyond Average | Saiki K. x Reader

22| Nendou's Job and the School Marathon

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-Author

3rd Person P.O.V

Walking down the street after the end of a school day, (Y/N) peeked inside the convenience store she was just passing by. The sight in front of her left her quite speechless, with only one word coming out of her mouth.

"Nendou?"

Nendou was inside the convenience store, in the least expected place. Standing behind the cash register, one would have thought he was a thug robbing this store if not for the uniform he was wearing.

An elder man, whom (Y/N) assumed to be the manager, bowed and shooed him out of the store with his hands, kicking out three other boys as well.

Aren, Kaidou, and Saiki walked out of the store with looks of pity on their faces as they glanced at Nendou.

"Oh, hey (Y/N)," Kaidou was the first to notice (Y/N) standing outside, watching as Nendou got fired from his job. 

She waved in response and tilted her head.

"Since when does Nendou have a job?"

"The manager was in debt to him, so he offered him a job...but fired him just now. Can't really blame him though..."

Aren recapped the story, feeling sorry for Nendou's attempt at working in a convenience store.

(Y/N) thought that was a reasonable response, so she followed after the group of boys.

Five students walked down the street in silence, dark expressions on their faces. They were all (except for Saiki) wondering what Nendou would do after getting fired from his job. 

"Yeah, don't cry for me guys. I still have another job." 

Nendou mentioning a second job rose everyone's hopes for him, and his friends curiously followed him.

'So now we're letting Nendou lead the way? What if he gets lost?!'

(Y/N)'s glasses almost fell off her nose as she feared Nendou's sense of direction. Luckily, he didn't lead them to the edge of a cliff like she expected. Instead, they stood in front of a low-class ramen shop.

"Um..well, ramen is his favorite food after all," Kaidou sweatdropped as they entered.

A tall and muscular man greeted Nendou with a wide smile, not even faltering when Nendou told him his reason for arriving earlier than his designated time. 

"Don't worry about that, Nendou! Listen here, everyone makes mistakes! As long as you don't lose motivation, you'll always have a job here!"

He spoke wise words of motivation but slowly swallowed them back as Nendou repeatedly spilled ramen on customers, slipped inside the kitchen, accidentally broke a window when handing a customer a spoon, and overall made a mess of the restaurant in a span of one hour.

"Or not...you're fired."

-

Nendou sat on a swing, a downcast look on his face as the wind blew leaves across the floor.

Kaidou handed him a banana, pity in his eyes as he said, "Here's the banana you wanted to bu-"

"That's not what I wanted!" Nendou stood up and towered over all of them, determination flashing in his eyes.

"I wanted to buy my mom a present for her birthday with my own money. My dad ain't with us anymore so there's no one to help with the rent. She works three jobs and cooks and cleans for me, and that's just tough, you know? That's why I'm searching-wait, why are you crying?"