That Customer

•Chapter 1•

Sendai, Japan
10.15 AM

I headed inside 'Niku Electronic Mall', a mall designed for electronic needs. The biggest in Sendai city, only electronic shops and repair services are available here, which means there are no thrift shops or shoe shops. But on the 8th floor, there's a food court.

I took the elevator to the 5th floor, and went straight to 'Tanaka Repair Service', the place where I worked for the past 1 year.

"Ohayo" (Morning) I greeted both my co-worker, Asano and Haruka.

"Ohayoo gozaimasu" Haruka sounded energetic.

As usual, Asano would repair our customer's damaged electronic device with a speaker next to him as he sat on his desk, with tunes blasting loudly from his favorite band, L Arc En Ciel.

Haruka constantly applies lip tint every 5 minutes because she's determined to impress our customers with her appearance.

"Momo-channn!!" Asano greeted me excitedly out of the blue.

"What is it?" I sighed.

"Why are you grumpy? I know it's still tuesday but-"

"You played that song for 3 days in a row now, Asano-kun" I whined.

"You noticed it? I'm amazed by how attentive you are, Momo-chan" Asano laughed.

"Grrrr turn it off, will you?"

"I won't" Asano stuck out his tongue like a brat, and he returned to his desk.

I sniffed upsetly. Asano is cute, but sometimes I just want to smash his head.

"Excuse me.." Our first customer finally showed up.

A tall guy who dyed his hair ash gray, seems like he's in his mid 20s, wearing suit and looked really attractive.

"How can I help you sir?" Haruka immediately approached him.

I refused to be defeated by Haruka, so I decided to stand up next to her, acting as an assistant.

"My phone is damaged, I can't turn it on" He pulled his phone out of the breast pocket of his suit. I was stunned to learn that his phone is the newest phone type of the most hyped brand.

"Do you know what might be the cause, sir?" I asked.

"Hey, what the heck are you doing? Let me handle him," Haruka whispered in annoyance.

"You can take care of others, I'll handle this one" I told Haruka.

"Gggrrr, damn it" Haruka gritted her teeth then she left and approached another customer who happened to visit our shop.

"I didn't know. I'm unable to turn it on, since this morning" He replied.

"Oh, can you explain why? There must be a reason why your phone is in this state"

He chuckled and said,"That's what I want you to find out"

"Cut it out, and tell us the reason your phone can't be turned on, otherwise we have to deal with another customer" Asano abruptly meddled in and gave the guy a stern look.

"It wasn't my phone" He smirked.

"W-WHAT?!" I was shocked to hear that.

"We're not fixing stolen item, now if you don't mind, we're busy now" Asano reprimand the guy.

"I drowned it on my bathub"

"So, you held your phone underwater by purpose?" Asano said.

"It was an accident. I didn't do it by purpose. Can you check the severity?"

"Have a seat, I will" Asano replied.

The guy then sat on the round chair just outside our shop, while Asano returned to his desk to check his phone.