𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐔𝐬

♡︎4♡︎

I came out of Ever After Boutique carrying an application and had to wait while Eijiro finished talking to a redhead with her hair pulled into a side pony tail and her shorter brunette friend with bangs that covered her eyes. He showed off his hardening quirk to them and they just fell more in love with how "manly" he is.

I listened to the sound of the ocean, only three blocks away, and took a deep breath of coastal air. Kyoto was off coastal air. Saitama was only ten minutes from our house, but the air tasted different here.

"Did you come to help me or to pick up girls?" After the way the lady behind the register looked at me, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be a future employee of Ever After Boutique. Perfectly fine with me. There were so many sequins reflecting the fluorescent lighting in that store, I was sure it would produce a massive headache after five minutes.

"I can do both at the same time," he assured me. "I'm talented like that."

The only reason I chose Saitama to look for a place of possible employment was because it had so many stores so close together and I wouldn't have to drive all around town picking up applications. And unlike the mall, hopefully nobody I knew would come around. It was near the beach, so mostly tourists or rich-types shopped here. The stores consisted mainly of local owners with local wares- lots of antique shops and vintage clothing stores. And although I liked the feel of the area, what I truly and sincerely hoped was that I wouldn't be able to find a job. Maybe that was why I stayed in my jeans and T-shirt, my hair pulled up into a ponytail, still wet from my shower.

"Never date a guy whose jeans don't cover his ankles," Eiji said, pointing to a guy twenty yards ahead. He shuddered.

"But he'd be able to walk through puddles and stuff without even getting his jeans wet. He's a planner."

I often wondered why my brothers insisted on making these lists for me. It wasn't like u had been waiting anxiously on the sidelines for the dating buzzer to sound.

He laughed then steered me to the right. "That looks like a good store." So far Eijis' employment suggestions had been influenced by whether there was a girl in the vicinity. This store just happened to have an outdoor where a girl and her little sister (maybe?) were throwing spare change into the water.

"Do you think there's two hundred and sixty-four dollars' worth of change in there?" I watched the coins ripple the surface. "I could just come here once a week and collect the money out of the fountains."

"Now you're thinking creatively," Eijiro said. "I could totally get behind that idea." Then he cleared his throat and spoke a little louder. "My sister"- he always made sure hot girls knew our relationship-"and I were just trying to guess how much money is in this fountain."

"A million dollars," the little girl with a horn on her head said.

"See, there you go," Eijiro said, looking at me. "Problem solved."

The periwinkle-haired girl in low-rise jeans playfully hit her sister's shoulder and batted her eyelashes at Eijiro with a giggle. Before I hurled, I stepped into the store behind her and looked around.

The store smelled like old people- like books and bread and perfume. It was full of...stuff-- mirrored boxes, colorful lamps, small dog statues. Did people buy small dog statues?

There was a girl. She had black hair tied up into a high ponytail. She stood arranging knickknacks on a shelf.

"Hi. Could I get an application?" I asked.

"Of course." She walked to the counter and pulled a paper from beneath it. "We're not really hiring right now, but it doesn't hurt to try, right?"

"Right."