An Angel In All Black
I work at a 24/6 cafe near a prestigious private university. The cafe I work in is fancy and expensive (the pay is high, too). They opened in March four years ago on the twelfth and I’ve been working there since March 18. A lot of elite students have frequented our cafe since the grand opening, with good reason, too! I don’t mean to brag but our cafe makes THE BEST desserts and drinks. The first time I worked there, I already knew that I belong at the counter (I can’t stand the kitchen). Though I did give working in the kitchen a try but, after a day, the manager pushed me out to work at the counter. I almost flooded the whole kitchen with milk. The pay’s high and the bosses are nice to the employees but, due to my condition, my very distant father does not allow me to work too much. Thankfully, I have some connections [insert proud face]. I work extra (paid) hours during the summer.
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To start off, the summers are always the busiest times (other than the midterms, lol, stressed students with bad eating habits) because there is also a huge mall outlet thingy about three blocks away from our cafe and we’re the only cafe open 24/6 in the whole city. I work early in the morning on weekdays and late in the afternoon at weekends. This happened nearly half a year ago…
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As usual, I was getting ready to work at 6 o’clock in the morning. I barely had any sleep the previous night and I was feeling really shitty and tired. Needless to say, my sleep deprived-ness showed on my face. A few hours later, 2 customers were served, I was on my phone when the doorbell jingled. A woman with long, shiny, black hair stepped inside the cafe. I was stunned. She wore a black crop top with fishnet sleeves, a greyish stylish windbreaker, and she was wearing black denim shorts with black fishnet stockings and black combat boots. She also had anime-like pins on her windbreaker jacket. She had fair, jade-like skin, no make-up, and natural hair. With the sun behind her, she looked like an angel in all black. I quickly straightened my back and greeted her with a creaky smile. Despite my very awkward greeting, her smile was still very pretty and un-awkward. I asked her order and all that and when she got her drink, she took off the cap in front of me and took a sip. She smiled even brightly and said, “Thank you for your service, keep up the good work!” and then tipped us 40%.
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Starting from that day, I always saw her coming in at 7:13 exactly, wearing all black, ordering the same drink. She always greeted me with a smile. She always took a sip before thanking us. She always tipped us 40%. She’s always early and she always looked sharp. Mornings were the only time I get to see her on weekdays. I never dared to start small talk with her though. Her presence is always so intimidating. Sometimes, she would come in about 30-40 minutes early than usual. She would stay in the cafe and hang around, on her phone or reading a book. Our cafe had a bookshelf with donated books either from the employees or the customers. Fun fact: you can either take the book home with you for free, buy it, rent it, or just borrow it. It depends on the ‘status’ of the book. Usually, it’s the people who donate the book who choose the books’ status. The money all goes to the cafe. Sometimes the owner would treat us to meals or he would donate the money. As I said before, the bosses are very nice but a bit strict with the timing.
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I took on a colleague’s shift because she was sick and we were low on staff once. It was a weekend. I didn’t expect anyone since it was 10 pm. Unexpectedly, she came inside the cafe wearing some sort of costume. She was wearing cat ears and a cat tail and her clothes were white and pink. I was surprised, of course, she always wore black. She went up to the counter and smiled. Her smile was a bit different than before. It was like… she was drunk. She ordered the usual drink, opened her cup, sip…
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I was waiting for her to say something like, “Thank you for your service” or something. “Aren’t you going to ask me something?” she asked instead, raising her eyebrows. And, hey, I was suddenly flustered. She had a pouty expression and she was… cute. Of course, THIS IS A DIRE SITUATION. I went brain-dead for a few seconds. There was no doubt she was drunk. I managed to stammer out, “Are you going to a cosplay event?” which was stupid of me because there are no cosplay events at 10 at night as far as I was aware. “Cosplay? Oh! Aahahahaha… Does this look like cosplay?” she was laughing playfully, “I was about to go to a costume party but I got sidetracked…”
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“Oh?” I asked.
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She covered her cup and leaned on the counter, “Yeah, I just came in here without thinking. I had a gut feeling and I was right!”
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“Is that so? What was the gut feeling? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”
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“I had a feeling a certain someone would be here…”
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My face was flushed, Hey, I knew I had a crush on her, but, I never considered her liking me back. Besides, I don’t even know her name.
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“I see… Is that person me?” I said in a state of brain-dead-ness.
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She snapped her fingers, pointed at me, and smiled, “Correct! Waaahh you’re soooo smart!” she said sort of sarcastically.
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I laughed a little, “Ma’am, I think you’re drunk.”
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“You do? I think I’m drunk, too!”
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At this point, I was already comfortable talking to her. She accidentally nudged her drink and it spilt.
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“Ah! Oh no! I’m sorrryyyy!!” she said, unapologetically.
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My coworker popped out of the backroom with a piece of cloth. “I’ll clean it up, you go and do whatever you need to do,” he said, seriously.
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I went over the counter and helped her, “Are you okay, though?”
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“I think I may be drunk…” she looked very confused at herself, “I think I really am drunk…”
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“Is that right? Do you have anyone who can drive you home? Did you drive here?”
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“Hey, hey! Young woman, how old are you??”
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I was surprised. That’s the third time now. She kept on doing and asking unexpected things.
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“I just turned 20 this year, ma’am.” I said with a smile
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“Ah! A child.” She said, sulking.
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“I’m not.”
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“Then will you drive me home?”
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Me: “...”
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Her: “^v^”
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My coworker: “🫣”
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Well, I drove her home that night, nothing happened. I went back to work the next morning, she greeted me extra happily, got flustered, left without taking her drink. The next day I got a call from my mom that my dad’s gonna die. I went the next day. While I was out of the country, the shop relocated and I never saw her again.
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Well…
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That’s life.
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—An Angel in All Black—
–End–
Birthday Greeting
This happened over 3 years ago when I was still in high school. I didn’t have a family of my own back then. The only family I had was my great-aunt who took care of me and kept me under her roof. It was the summer of June and the weather was horrible. We were getting rain almost all year round. Since it was summer, the atmosphere was really humid, the air was heavy and sticky. My birthday is on July first, the most common birthday in my class. I know at least 16 people with the same birthday as mine but it can’t be helped. It really will rain all month in July but I don’t mind. I don’t really celebrate my birthday since I have no one to celebrate it with. I liked the rain during my birthdays, actually.
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It was also raining on that day. I just got off the bus while skipping school and I saw this girl crouched on the side of the road on my way home. She was wearing our school uniform but I’m positive that I haven’t seen her in my class. Or maybe it was because I don’t really pay attention. It was raining pretty hard. Even though she was under a tree, she’d still get soaked. I had an umbrella with me and I can’t just leave her alone so I approached her.
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“Hey,” I called out the first time but she didn’t react. “Hey!” I called out a bit louder. She was visibly disturbed when she looked up at me. At first, I thought she was crying but then I remembered that it was raining.
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“Uhm-”
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“Uhhhh, if you don’t have an umbrella, you can use mine,” I said, holding out the umbrella to cover her.
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She stared at me for a while at first. “Well, there’s no use now…” she murmured.
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I thought she was suicidal or something but then she continued, “I’m soaked. An umbrella won’t make me any drier than I am. Which I am not.”
“Still. It could help, y’know.”
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“In what way?” she retorted.
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“Good question but I won’t answer that. If you don’t want to take it, then don’t. But if you’re not going to class, then go home already.”
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She quietly stood up and took her bag beside her then snatched my umbrella. I was shocked of course, but, being the gentleman that I am, I let her take it.
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“Thank you. I’m going home.”
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I froze in place for a moment, watching her scurry away, having no idea what just happened. I guess I was pretty surprised by the situation even though It was me who started the conversation. We didn’t even know each other. I don’t even know her name. I can’t even memorize faces. To be honest, I forgot her face just then. What I thought of at the moment was how I was going to get my umbrella back…
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