CONNECTIONS, H. Kazutora

027

"Chifuyu, goodmorning!!" I greeted Chifuyu as I dragged Kazu into the pet shop swinging the glass door open.

"Goodmorning (name), oh Kazutora? What's he doing here?" Chifuyu picked up the cat he was playing with and used its paw to point at us.

"He'd like to work here with us" We both exchanged a look of excitement. I could see his eyes lighting up with sparkles.

He carefully picked up the cat as he stood up and walked towards us. "Here, this little guy is kind of in a playful mood today so you can just play with him while I have a short interview with Kazutora" I carefully grabbed the cat from Chifuyu and dashed over to the play mat, I took a quick glance at Kazu and noticed that he was a bit nervous. He turned to me so I took that opportunity and gave him a thumbs up and a grin to reassure him that everything will go well.

It's been 25 minutes and i'm still at the play mat with the cat Chifuyu left me with. I got bored after 10 minutes since all the cat wanted to do was try to snatch the feather from the toy I was holding from me, there weren't any customers who have arrived yet since it's pretty early in the morning.

"Pfft i'm boreddd" Suddenly the bell from the door rang meaning a customer has arrived. I jolted up and placed the cat into its cage before greeting the customer.

"Good morning! How may I help you?" I slightly bowed at the girl who was standing in front of the door, she seems to be in middle school.

"Good morning miss! Do you know where I can find wet food for dogs? I forgot to buy some yesterday or my dog"

"Yep! Just follow me" I led the girl to the aisle where they have wet food and explained to her that there are different flavors. It took her a minute but she grabbed 3 cans of beef flavor wet food and we went over to the counter to check out her items. While I was checking out her items, the door from Chifuyu's office swung open revealing Kazu wearing a shirt with a turtle neck covering his tattoo. "So, you' got the job?" I turned to Kazu forgetting that I have a customer waiting for me to finish checking out their items. Kazu looked at me with a soft smile as he nodded a 'yes'. "That's great!" I congratulated him and turned back to continue checking out the items. "Okay, that will be 300 yen" I stared at the girl waiting for her to pay but she just stood still staring at something, I also noticed a blush forming on her cheeks. "Hello?" I snapped my fingers near her ears getting her attention, she paid for her items and left. It was kinda weird but I didn't think much of it and just went towards Kazu.

"Hey Kazu, what's up with the turtle neck?" I asked him as I pointed at him.

"He'll be wearing a turtle neck to work everyday, he needs to cover up his neck tattoo" Chifuyu responded as he walked out of the office next to Kazu.

"What why?? The tattoo looks good!" I complained, jumping up and down like a little kid.

"We wouldn't want to scare our customers away right? They might get the wrong idea and think Kazutora's in a gang or something.. AHEM well he used to be AHEM" "Finee I guess you're right, anyways Kazu follow me i'll show you around!" Grabbing Kazu by his forearm, I dragged him around the whole place and teaching him some stuff that he needs to know while working at the pet shop. He's a quick learner so it was easy for me to teach him. A few customers passed by to buy a few stuff so I took that opportunity to let Kazu interact with them, it went pretty well!

"(name)! Kazutora! Lunch break!" Chifuyu called out for the both of us from the front door. "Oo! What did you get this time?" I peeked my head from one of the shelf as I stared at Chifuyu who's holding a plastic bag. "Peyoung yakisoba".

The three of us went to the bathroom and cleaned our hands before eating. Chifuyu and Kazu went over to the play mat holding their box of peyoung yakisoba, while the others they weren't looking I went over to one of the cages and took out a black cat to come keep us company while we eat because why not?
I came back and placed the cat in the middle before taking my own box of peyoung yakisoba. As I was shoving the noodle into my mouth, I took a quick glance at Kazu and noticed that he wasn't eating it. Just.. Staring at it. "What's wrong Kazu? Do you not like it?" I asked and waited for a response. "It's just... This reminds me of Baji. We would go to the convenience store almost everyday to just buy peyoung yakisoba." I could see the pain in his eyes. He was just looking down at the box, frowning. While I was too focused on Kazu, Chifuyu picked up the black cat that was just sitting in the middle and shoved it at Kazu's face.
"Look I am Baji Keisuke!" Chifuyu said as he moved the cat around to make it look like it's the one talking, the cat grabbed Kazu's attention making him look up, slightly widening his eyes. "First Division captain of tokyo manji gang, I love peyoung yakisoba and animals! Why are you suddenly getting so gloomy over a box of peyoung yakisoba? Cheer the fuck up Kazutora!" I watched Kazu slowly took the cat from Chifuyu and stared at it. After a few seconds a smile started appearing on his face as he leaned his forehead to the cat's. "Baji..." He muttered out and lifted his head back up. "Sorry" He apologized and looked at both me and Chifuyu, we both gave him a smile and continued eating our lunch before it was time to get back to work.
The rest of the day I just taught him a few more things to make sure he's ready.

—————————
I decided to reread this chapter before publishing it, and it's really boring idk