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 Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:56 am
The cafe had been having a busy afternoon, and it had felt more stressful than usual - probably because Jun knew he didn't truly need the money from working there anymore, and thus felt less inclined to put up with it. His sister came here occasionally, though - how would he explain why he'd quit? He had to come up with something to tell his family, to explain why he suddenly had money. As it was, he'd been in something of a standstill, keeping everything the same because he couldn't think up a believable lie. The truth, of course, would likely make them think he was insane.
Which he had to admit, was a possibility. This whole thing could be a crazed hallucination with Jun drooling in a straightjacket somewhere.
Carrying some empty plates back to the kitchen, he passed a table of girls that started giggling madly. He wasn't sure why they had started giggling, but they'd been doing it every time he passed them and actually going over to serve them had been somewhat mortifying. Jun might have dropped a couple of things, and the girls had seemed to enjoy making it as awkward as possible.
Casting hopeful eyes up to the clock, he felt some relief - his shift was over.
"Matsura! Before you go, tell that person to move on. We don't need her bothering our customers."
Jun turned his gaze onto his manager, and older man who was currently staring grumpily out the front windows, "Uh..." he wanted Jun to tell someone to move on. How was he supposed to get someone to move on?! He could barely manage an angry customer, confrontations were really not his strong suit. Opening his mouth again to suggest that someone else might be a better choice, his manager cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"Don't argue, just go do it."
Reluctantly, Jun looked out the front windows. The cafe was just a little place, but it had a few tables outdoors to extend their seating onto the front sidewalk. Wiping his hands on his apron, he trudged out towards the front doors, feeling anxiety at a potential confrontation building in his chest already. They were in a busier district, with lots of people around shopping, so buskers weren't an uncommon sight; unfortunately, his manager seemed to think that any busker who settled in front of their cafe was annoying their customers. It was true that sometimes they were annoying, but sometimes they were pretty good, and surely their customers didn't mind too much.
Jun just hoped this wouldn't be a repeat of the last time. That busker had been horribly offended when told to move, and Jun hadn't handled it well at all - one of his fellow servers had to come over to help him out and get the man to move on. It had been a pretty horrible day.
He really needed to quit this job.
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:22 pm
Sure she didn't really have to busk any more. Nanako had the money so it wasn't like this was her only income any more. Still she was a little disappointed when she finished up the song she was playing and looked down at the case at her feet and saw that it was practically empty.
It was one part habit and one part forgetfulness that brought her to that corner. She had gotten up and looked in her cupboards to find them bare. She was so use to being incredibly broke that she hadn't bothered to check to see if she had money to go buy food, she had just picked up her flute and left to find a place. It wasn't until half way through that she remembered her current money situation. She had decided to stay at the time because she figured this way she wouldn't have to practice later. She did need to keep up on her one marketable skill.
Though right at this moment it didn't seem all that marketable. Nanako knew she was awesome this, these people clearly just didn't have any appreciation of artistic talent, clearly. She let out a hmph and decided not to give up, it was now a matter of principle that she scrounge enough money to buy a meal. She picked a song from her memorized repetoire and brought her flute back to her lips and started to play. She would play until someone thought she was good. Or gave her enough money, which ever one came first.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:40 pm
When Jun had reached the front of the cafe, he could see that the busker had started another song. He stopped, not wanting to interfere in the middle of a song - although he began to feel awkward just standing there by the entrance, not doing anything. After she had started playing though, he felt even more glad to not interrupt her - he hadn't been able to hear her music from inside the cafe, but she was actually very good.
Which honestly just made it that much more embarrassing to tell her she couldn't perform there.
He shifted from foot to foot, twisting one of his hands against the fabric of the apron nervously as he glanced back through the glass door at his manager, catching an annoyed stare. He couldn't bring himself to interrupt the song, even with that stare burning away at the back of his neck.
When the busker reached the end of her song, Jun stepped forward, a small smile of appreciation breaking through his nervousness.
"That was really good, it surprised me. Oh! Uh, not that I expected you to be bad! Some of the buskers are really good, the weather just alters the sound. You know, the humidity, or...well, sometimes they are just bad. Um..." Jun closed his mouth, stopping himself from saying anything more for a moment - the moment he had offered up his compliment, he had realized the potential insult in it, and panicked. Then the spiral of panic happened, and he knew if he kept talking, it was just going to get worse.
Taking a breath, he closed his eyes for a moment before restarting. "Your playing was very nice," he reopened his eyes, and noticed one of the other servers at a table off to the right giving him an incredulous look. Jun reached up, fixing his glasses as he continued then, his voice getting a bit smaller, "Um. It was nice, and I'm really sorry, but you can't play here."
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 10:14 am
When playing from memory Nanako had a habit of closing her eyes as she played. It let her remember the notes on the staff better that way. It also kept her from being distracted by the people passing or trying to see what it was that had been dropped in her case. There had been some unsavoury things in the past and they usually caused her to mess up.
So she hadn't noticed until she had finished that Jun had approached her. She was rather pleased with herself to see him standing there though, she thought it spoke well of her skill. She smiled back at him that just grew when he confirmed that yes, she was good, even if he got a little ramble-y after that point.
"Thanks, Momo holds up alright in the heat," she said making a small gesture with her flute to indicate that she was talking about it. Sometimes people looked at her funny when she called her flute by name, or when they found out that she had named it at all.
She looked down to inspect her case when Jun started to talk again, pleased to hear him compliment her more but annoyed to find that nothing had really changed since before her last song, maybe a little more money, maybe. It was starting to bother her. It took her a to actually register what it was that he had said and when she did her head snapped up and looked at him with a look that was shock, sadness, and annoyance all rolled into one.
"What? No, I can't. Look at that," she said and pointed down to the open case at her feet, that had barely a handful of change in it, "It's terrible and..." She didn't think that it being a mater of pride was a good enough reason to convince someone to let her stay, so she needed something else, "I mean I couldn't buy the food I need. I mean need, like starve otherwise," as she spoke she gave him the best hopeful look she could muster.
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