Chapter 4: That Sinking Feeling

For the next couple of hours, business would continue to move slow.

But once 5:00 would arrive, things would finally began to pick up.

Customers began to swarm in, after long days of work, school, and afterschool clubs.

Miharu, being the apathetic individual that she is, had decided to take her lunch break during that busy hour; leaving Kenja to do most of the work.

But as she was sitting at the counter, eating her cheeseburger, she was interrupted, when someone from across the room, had called her name.

"Hey, Miharu!"

She turned her head, and had nearly choked on her food, once she saw Duza, along with Quiru, standing in front of door.

While in between coughs, Miharu attempted to speak to them. "D-Duza? *cough* What are you doing here?"

"Me and Quiru just got done with volunteer basketball workouts. So we decided to stop by for a quick burger to-go." Duza answered.

"Oh well...I'm the waitress here, so I can get you your burger."

"That'd be great. Could I get a double cheeseburger meal and medium fries? What about you Quiru?"

"Let me just get a bacon burger." Quiru requested.

"Coming right up!" Miharu said, before she jumped out of her seat and hurried to the kitchen.

A couple of minutes later, she had returned to the dining area, with two brown paper bags stuffed with food inside.

"Here you go." She said, as she handed the bags to the two boys.

"Thanks so much." Duza said. He opened the bag and peaked inside, only to find a little surprise within. "Hey Miharu, I think you may have messed it up. There are two burgers and large fries. But I only asked for a one and medium fries."

"Oh, um...I-I was feeling generous. That's all."

"Really? Wow, thanks."

"Hey, there's only a bacon burger in here." Quiru complained. "I didn't get any extra food."

"My generosity only goes so far." Miharu quickly responded.

"So how much do we owe you?" Duza questioned, as he glanced up at the restaurant menu, to view the prices.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about the price. It's on the house."

"Oh no, we can't do that-"

"No it's fine. I take food from here all the time, and my boss never notices."

"Well if you insist." Quiru quickly said. "Come on Duza, let's go."

Quiru then turned around and began to make his way to the exit, before Miharu would decide to change her mind.

"Thanks again for the food, Miharu. You're so cool." Duza said. He then turned around and caught up to Quiru as they both exited the restaurant.

After the two's departure, Miharu sat back down at her seat and continued to eat her lunch.

Yet, she was unable to even focus on the taste of her food, due to the butterflies that were still fluttering within her stomach, along with Duza's last compliment playing on repeat in her head.

"He thinks I'm cool." Her inner voice cheered.

"Psst. Hey Miharu."

Interrupting Miharu's happy moment, was Kenja, who was peaking his head through the kitchen door.

"Hey, did you just give away those two meals for free?" He asked.

"What on Earth would give you that idea?" Miharu replied.

"You know what, that's not important right now. Do you see that woman over there?"

He pointed over to the back corner of the dining area. There, a lovely woman with long red hair, sat alone at a table, as she ate her food and fiddled with her phone.

"Yeah, what about her?"

"I need you to do me a favor."

*Sigh* "What stupid pickup scheme are you going to try this time?" She asked.

"I just need you to 'accidentally' spill her drink. Once you do, I will come over and apologize for your clumsiness. Then offer her a free water."

"What do you plan on doing after that?"

"I'm not sure. We'll see where it goes from there."

"That's it? You plan on stealing a woman's heart over a glass of free water?" Miharu questioned, as she stood up and grabbed a spray bottle and a towel.

"It's not about the water, it's the principle of the action."

"This is going to end up a disaster."

But despite her lack of confidence in Kenja's plan, Miharu would still go along with it, and ended up walking her way over to the back corner.

When she arrived at the table, she began to spray and wipe down the surface, disregarding the ingenuous woman and her food.

"Um excuse me Miss, I'm still eating here." She said, trying to be polite.

Miharu ignored her and continued wiping, until she purposely knocked her half-drunken soda onto her lap.

"Whoops. Did I do that?" Miharu wondered, with poor acting.

At that moment, Kenja burst through the kitchen door and arrived at the table in an instant.

"Oh no, I'm deeply sorry for the clumsiness of my dumb waitress." He said.

"Dumb?" Miharu repeated. "You can't call me dumb, when you're the one who formulated this entire-"

"I'm Kenja, by the way." Kenja interjected, as he placed his hand over Miharu's mouth. "I'm the head chef and owner of this restaurant. Is there anything I can get you to make up for it? Free drink?"

Miharu ripped his hand from her mouth and turned her back to the table. At that point, she decided to let the entire plan implode on it's own.

"It's not going to work." She said under her breath. She then grabbed her bottle and towel, and walked back to the counter to finish her food.

"Oh, no thank you." The woman replied to Kenja's question. "I need to get going anyway. My daughter is waiting for me to pick her up from soccer practice, since my husband is working late tonight."

Miharu suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, after overhearing the woman. "Daughter?" Her inner voice repeated.

"Husband?" Kenja repeated, in disappointment

"Yea, she's 8. I promised her that I would always be there for her, so I can't let-"

"Oh no, I'm sorry ma'am," Kenja interrupted, "I completely forgot that we ran out of water anyway. So it looks like there's nothing I can do for you anyway."

As quickly as he had arrived, Kenja fled the scene and hurried back to the kitchen; leaving the poor woman alone and confused. After having to clean the mess off of her, by herself, she grabbed her stuff and left the restaurant.

"An 8 year old daughter, huh?" Miharu muttered, as she went back to her break.

A little while later, after finishing the last crumb of her food, Miharu walked back to the kitchen to hand her plate to Kenja. But as Kenja took her plate, he immediately noticed the glum expression that sat on her face.

"Hey what's going on?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you look down, kid."

"It's nothing Kenja."

"Your face tells a different story."

*Sigh* "I don't know." She admitted as she leaned up against the door. "I guess... hearing about women brag about her loving family with her daughter...it kind of bums me out."

"You're talking about the woman who I rejected?"

"She rejected you, coward. But yes, that woman."

"Listen. I know that things have been rough, with your mother not here. But you need to understand, that she would've loved, more than anything, to share a beautiful mother-daughter relationship with you."

"Did she though? If she did, then she wouldn't have-"

"Miharu." Kenja interrupted. "Why can't you just accept my word for it. She had a reason for what she did."

"Which is what, Kenja?"

"I told you. It's not for me to tell. If you want to know, then you know where to go."

"Looks like I'm never going to find out than."

"Why Miharu? I understand your frustration. But what I don't understand, is why you choose to stay angry. There are so many ways that you could better yourself emotionally, yet you choose to walk around, pissed off at the world and refusing to put your trust in anyone. I promise you, that if you keep that up, all those friends of yours won't be there. All you will have, is me and maybe Hana."

"Oh, would you look at that." Miharu said, pointing to the clock on the wall. "Is it 9:00 already?"

Kenja turned around to look at the clock, only to see that it had actually read 5:23. "Are you blind? It's not even close to-"

He turned back towards Miharu, only to find that she was no longer present. Meanwhile, her apron was hung on the rack, and her bookbag was gone. She had snuck away without him noticing, and was now making her way to the exit.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

He hurried out of the kitchen and called to Miharu right before she could reach the door.

"It's quitting time, boss." She answered.

"Quitting time? What the hell do you mean? You've only been working for 4 hours!"

"Yeah, but I got a lot of homework to get to."

"We all damn well know that you haven't done a single page of homework all year."

"Which is why I better jump on it right away."

"Miharu Mores, if you walk out that door, then you're fired. You hear me?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. Did you say that my shift starts at 4:00 tomorrow?"

"What? That's not what I said at all. I said that you're fired if you leave early."

"So what you're saying, is that I get the day off tomorrow? Wow boss, you are too good to me. I'll see you on Friday." Miharu then exited out the door of the restaurant; starting her walk home.

"Damnit, that girl is such a handful to deal with sometimes." Kenja muttered to himself.

After a moderate walk through the center of Bensana and into the neighborhood area, Miharu finally arrived home.

She stood before a 1200 square foot, two-story, 5 bedroom house. It was a house that was large enough to fit a man, woman, and a whole pack of children. But in this case, it would only be inhabited by a single person.

Miharu opened the front door, only to find herself standing alone in her empty house. All over the living room floor, food wrappers had been scattered; neglected to be thrown away. The kitchen sink had piled up with dishes, to the point where the faucet was absolutely buried.

"I'm home! Who missed me?" She announced, despite knowing that she was the only person in house. "Geez, you would think that someone would clean this place while I'm gone..."

She then walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, as she continued to speak to herself.

"Let's see what there is to make for dinner tonight."

But as she cracked the refrigerator open, all that lied inside, where a dozen cans of soda that were labeled "Coco Cola". Those, as well as multiple trays of tupperware, with leftover dinners that were given to her by Lentia.

"All this food...just for me." Miharu muttered, as she grabbed a can of soda and shut the fridge.

She jumped up and took a seat on the kitchen counter before cracking the can open and taking a sip.

While sipping on the soda, she took a glance over to her right, and spotted a picture frame that she had completely forgotten to be sitting there on the counter. She picked it up and stared into the photo deeply, as she instantly felt a deep sense of nostalgia eating away at her heart.

Because, in that photo, it was a picture of Miharu, from when she was just a child. She was joined along by a lovely grown woman with black hair and brown eyes. And the two of them were sitting on a blanket in the middle of a public park while holding each other tightly, as joyful and radiant smiles were shown on their faces. They smiled and stared at each other, as if nothing in the world would be able to take their happiness.

That woman who was in the photo with Miharu, she was her mother. And the two of them had not seen each other, since Miharu was 8 years old, which was 8 years ago.

"Damnit. Why did that lady at McDaniel's have to go bragging about her stupid 8 year-old daughter?" Miharu wondered, as she tightly gripped the picture frame with anger. "The last thing that I want, is to reminisce about my own damn mother. I don't even understand why I even still keep this photo up!" She shouted as she tossed the frame behind her.

Luckily, she had blindly tossed it into the living room, causing it to land safely one of the of the chairs.

Meanwhile, Miharu remained seated on the kitchen counter, as tears of frustration slowly began to well up within her blue eyes.

"Damn it." She pouted. "When is shit going to change for me? Why can't I be blessed with a life that's not so redundant. A life where I can trust people with ease. A life where I could become a much more open person?"

Miharu may have not realized it yet, but on that day, it would only be the start of a big change for her. Because, coming soon, new people will be entering her life. New blessings will be in her possession. And the endless cycle that haunts her so, will eventually come to an end.

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