The Bakery - Chapter 2

Mar 08, 2011 18:15

I can't believe that I'm finally posting this chapter! ^o^
I had been really stuck in writing in these last weeks... but somehow today I've been able to finish it, and this is your reward for supporting me! XD

× Title: the Bakery
× Author: yukichan_tb 
× Length: 1639 words
× Pairing: Junba
× Rating: G
× Genre: friendship / romance.
× Thanks to: arashiislove , mongo_o_o, usermmt, lycchy, yuelnaye, jellybean6972, felixkeep for their partecipation in the First Prompt of my project ^^
× Previous Chapters: Introduction, Chapter One

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~ Chapter Two ~

Every single hope or expectation Aiba had put into his first day at work, had been destroyed in the early morning: a warm welcome, a cheery environment, a lot of frenetic activities for the most part of the day… he had nothing of these things.

He had immediately started with a stormy encounter with Matsumoto (whom he later learned to be quite a moody person, especially in the early morning), then he had spent a couple of hours with the kind Ohno-san, who was indeed a very nice person, but used to work without talking at all in order not to bother his old friend Matsujun (or maybe because he himself had a calm and introverted nature as well…). But for Aiba the worst thing was to stay still, watching his co-workers handling their own duties without being allowed to help them in any way.

Ohno had honestly very few things he could devolve to someone else, as he was in charge of cakes and artistic recipes… as for Matsumoto, even though he had a lot of work to handle (surely enough for more than one person) he absolutely didn’t want to entrust his own duties to someone else. And when the owner arrived at last, Aiba felt really bad in being witnessed while sitting lazily in a corner, being the least useful person on earth. He, who had first introduced himself by declaring that he was “a true hard-worker, able to find out his own space in any setting!”

The only thing he hoped in, was that the old man would have the same reaction as Ohno-san’s, laughing amused about his sudden collision with Jun’s well-known stubborn attitude. Useless to say, when the owner sighed sadly while looking at him, Aiba realized that he had had different expectations for him… and this made him feel even worse.
“I’m sorry Shachou!” he exclaimed with emphasis in a sudden bow “I haven’t been able to give my contribution and help my sempais in their duties… but now that the shop is going to open, I’m more than ready to take care of the customers!”

The old man didn’t reply immediately but went on checking Jun’s and Satoshi’s doings instead, making sure that the right amount of bread and cakes had already been baked, ready for the opening time. Only when he had ended checking, he finally turned towards the newcomer and gave him his first assignment: “Take out all the baked pieces from here, and dispose them on the shop’s shelves. When you’ll have taken care of all those, come back here and check carefully this list.” He handed down a piece of paper full of names and orders details “These are our regular customers. They have asked for a regular order of their daily bread and they come here every day almost at the same time to retrieve it. You have to ensure that their orders will be ready and already packed by that time, so they won’t waste time in waiting here while you’re serving other customers, okay? They are mostly working people -always in a hurry- and they are used to come here, take their order and leave right away, you got that?”
“And what about paying?” Aiba asked a little confused “Am I supposed to interrupt any order I’m taking with other customers just to make them pay and leave ASAP?”
“You don’t have to worry about that” replied immediately the owner “they are not expected to pay when they retrieve the bread every day. Instead, they come here once a week on their day off and then they’ll pay the whole bill”

The apprentice nodded, even though he was still perplexed about that way of dealing with customers: he wasn’t used to give away goods without asking for a payment and he was afraid of making mistakes about this… yet, if this was their way of working, he had to get used to it!” Without waiting any further, he quickly dedicated himself to the job he was expected to do, and went on bringing the bread and cakes from the baking room to the shop.
He was glad to have finally something to do and he was also relieved about leaving that room, which was now filled with a very heavy mood… he went on carrying baskets one after another and every time he went back into the baking room to pick up a new load, he looked more and more cheerful…

“I guess that being stuck here with you isn’t very healthy for a guy like him” giggled Ohno in amusement, while watching with interest the apprentice’s change of mood
“It’s not that I want him to stay here with me” replied harshly Jun “As far as I’m concerned, he can completely avoid me.”

And so he did.

For the rest of the day Aiba stayed carefully away from Matsumoto, dealing with his own tasks without ever bothering his colleague and asking for help to Ohno instead, whenever he happened to be in trouble…

Like when he realized all of a sudden that the sweet bread was already out of stock, so he had to rush into the baking room in order to refill the shelves, leaving the shop unattended. As soon as he saw him entering into the workshop, Ohno realized immediately what was going on and interrupted his own activities in order to help the newcomer and let him come back to the customers as soon as possible…
Or when Aiba gave away one of those reserved orders for regular customers to the wrong person, and he begged his sempai to bake it once again as soon as possible, before the real customer would come for collecting it…
And again, when he had to face his first ever “huge landing” of high school girls who weren’t willing to make their orders quickly but were more interested in acting undecided and staring at the good looking salesman instead, while making all the other customers to wait in a long queue… In that occasion as well, Ohno really wanted to “save” his kohai and he left his position to give him a hand, with poor results.

The truth was, forasmuch Masaki tried not to bother Jun asking help to Satoshi instead, he actually did worse because the shortest man wasn’t really able to help him as he was supposed to.

He couldn’t know that when Ohno had helped him in filling the baskets with the sweet bread, he had nearly burnt the cakes he had been working on for the latest three hours, by leaving them inside the oven for too much time… and only Jun’s intervention had saved the situation.
Or again, when Aiba had asked his colleague to bake again the reserved order he had lost, he didn’t realize that Matsumoto was the one who actually did it, because after all he was the one in charge of the bread, not Ohno.
But he surely realized Jun’s presence when he suddenly appeared by his side behind the counter, and with his charming smile he kindly invited all the girls to let the other customers place their orders, in order not to be obstructive… the newcomer didn’t know how it was possible, but the very same words he had told them before over and over again, sounded now more appealing with Jun’s voice, and the girls didn’t waste any further moment.

“Arigatou, Matsumoto-san!” Aiba bowed deeply as soon as the big load of customers had finally gone “I didn’t want to cause you any trouble… but I’m glad you came to help me!”
“You are supposed to handle alone your own tasks, you know that?” the strict man didn’t lose that chance to scold the newcomer once again.
“Yes, I know that… I promise that I’ll become independent in no time! And you won’t have to worry about me anymore…”
“Don’t make promises when you’re not sure about keeping them.” He now sounded even more stern that before, if possible “By assuring that you were extremely good in your job you’re been hired here, but for now you haven’t showed any of your skills”
“I am deeply sorry!” the newcomer bowed again, feeling extremely embarrassed. He was aware that Matsumoto was perfectly right, and he didn’t know how to react… apart from apologizing over and over again. He felt tears forming on the corner of his eyes once again, and he damned himself for not being able to react in a different way.
He stayed bowed in front of Matsumoto for a few minutes, waiting for him to say something while trying to force back those tears before being noticed…

“You’re a crybaby, definitely” Jun sighed at last. Apparently, Aiba’s attempt hadn’t been successful… “But it’s not good for me to treat you badly twice in a day… let’s say that for today you’re done, okay? Now please, go back to your workplace before any customer will enter and see you in this state! …And smile would be better, if possible”
It’s not that Matsumoto wasn’t expecting Aiba to regain his composure after his speech but when the newcomer looked up at him with a sincere bright smile spread over his face, Jun couldn’t help but feel disoriented… He could clearly see gratitude in those eyes, as if those last kind words had somehow given him strength and encouraged him more than any previous scolding…
If that very same morning he had reflected about not having ever seen a man crying like a girl before, now he had to admit that he had never seen such a bright and happy smile… nor by man, neither by a woman. That guy was somehow able to express his own emotion like he had never considered possible… and this was particularly disorienting for someone like Jun.

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Erm, what can I say...? Sorry for the long wait! ;)
This simple chapter is for all those people who expressed their enthusiasm about this fic... thanks girls! ^^

setting: au, genre: friendship, fanfiction, length: chaptered, pairing: aiba masaki/matsumoto jun, rating: g

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