Finally! The familiar sight of Leon's head appeared in the doorway of "MacDuck." I almost teared up with relief.

  "Ruzvol! I'm taking a break!" I yelled, ripping off my cap.

  "What do you mean?" The Dwarf popped up from behind the counter, shifting his gaze from me to Leon. "You've only worked two hours, Squirt!"

  "I have an important diplomatic meeting," I cut him off in a tone that brooked no arguments. "The fate of my nervous system depends on it."

  The Dwarf grumbled something about "irresponsible vegetables" but waved his hand dismissively. Leon and I sat down at a far corner table.

  "So, how's work?" Leon asked, taking in my crumpled appearance.

  "Oh, you know, slowly... Patties are frying, life is passing by," I leaned back in my chair wearily.

  "...she's kind of late."

  I froze, stopping my glass of water halfway to my mouth.

  "Who?"

  "What do you mean, 'who'? Rabuki."

  "WHY DID YOU INVITE HER?!" I flared up, almost vaulting over the table. "She... she! She annoys me! She hits me for no reason! She calls me Squirt! Leon, do you even understand what you've done?!"

  The door of "MacDuck" flew open with such a bang that the little bell above it almost catapulted into the ceiling. Rabuki walked into the hall like she owned the place. She was wearing a stylish jacket, and her gaze expressed the utmost degree of condescension toward the surrounding world. She unceremoniously sat down next to Leon, squishing him against the wall.

  "Well, it's been a long time since I've been in establishments like this," she drawled, wrinkling her nose. "Smells like... hopelessness. Oh, Squirt! How are things?"

  Before I could open my mouth, she waved her hand.

  "You don't have to answer. I can already see it sucks. You look like a potato someone forgot in the cellar."

  She lazily delivered a slap to the back of my head, sending my work cap flying from the table to under the next chair.

  "WHY YOU L-L..." I jumped up, but Rabuki merely raised an eyebrow sternly.

  "Alright, alright, quiet, Squirt. Sit down and don't embarrass the establishment."

  "Why did you come, Rabuki?" I sat back down, feeling maximally humiliated.

  "Just when Leon told me you were slaving away here, I got curious to see this wonder of nature," she smirked.

  "LEON!" I turned to my friend, who was sitting suspiciously calmly next to her. "Why are you telling her everything?! Whose side are you even on?"

  "Leon, how are things?" Rabuki ignored me, turning to him.

  "Good. And you?" Leon smiled at her.

  "Training is going great, the metrics are going up," she answered him with an equally friendly smile.

  Stop. Stop-stop-stop. STOP!

  I shifted my gaze from one to the other. They were smiling. They were discussing some "training". There was some strange, frightening harmony between them.

  "No... no-no-no..." I waved my hands. "LEON! Are you two... are you two playing house? Did you team up behind my back?!"

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  The world froze for a fraction of a second. And in the next second, two fists landed in my solar plexus simultaneously. From the right—Rabuki's heavy, trained punch. From the left—Leon's fast and precise strike.

  "Kha-a-a!.." I doubled over, gasping for air. "You... you are terrible... Both of you..."

  "Nothing of the sort," Leon said calmly, adjusting his collar.

  "Yeah, Squirt, you're always making up all sorts of nonsense," Rabuki snorted. "We just became friends. We have a lot in common. Common goals, common interests."

  I lay with my forehead against the cold plastic of the table, feeling the remnants of my pride draining into the sewer along with the dirty water from Cucumber's mop.

  "Oh no..." I wheezed. "I am losing my only friend. The dark side of the force has consumed him. Leon, you betrayed our friendship for her..."

  They exchanged glances again and sighed simultaneously. It seemed they now had another common goal: tolerating my antics.

  It was the longest and most humiliating twenty minutes of my life. I sat with my head propped on my hand, feeling like a ghost that had accidentally wandered into someone else's celebration of life.

  Leon and Rabuki were completely immersed in their own world. They spoke in a language that seemed like a collection of meaningless sounds to me: "synchronization index", "interval training", "biotic response", "tactical analysis". They discussed how the day at school went, what the new standards were, and how to properly set a block against a side hook.

  I just sat there, lazily tracing a drop of sauce on the table with my finger. I waited. Waited for one of them to at least remember my existence. I don't know, ask if the patties burned today or if I mixed up the regular cola with the diet cola again.

  But no. To them, I was part of the decor, something like a potted ficus in the corner.

  "Alright, Arkgrim, we have to go," Leon finally looked at me, but his gaze lacked its usual softness. He was focused and businesslike.

  "We're off, Squirt," Rabuki stood up, adjusting her jacket. "The training won't do itself."

  "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!" I almost choked on the remnants of my soda. "You're leaving together too?! Right now?!"

  "Well, yeah," Leon shrugged. "We have a shared training schedule. We decided it's more efficient this way."

  "TRAITOR!" I yelled after Leon as they headed for the exit. "You traded our noodle nights for her sparring sessions! You're abandoning me alone in this temple of cholesterol!"

  They didn't even turn around. The door jingled its bell, and their silhouettes dissolved into the evening twilight of Yokohama.

  I was left sitting in the empty corner. The smell of burning and old oil, which I had barely noticed before, suddenly became suffocating. I looked at the empty cups on the table and felt something scraping unpleasantly inside me.

  'Traitors,' flashed through my head again, but this time without the former anger.

  Looking after them, I suddenly clearly understood one thing. They... they were living. A fire burned in their eyes, they had a goal, they were running somewhere, falling, getting up, and running again. They tasted every day, even if that taste was bitter from sweat.

  And me? I just existed. I flowed from the night shift to school, from school to the register, from the register to an empty apartment with stolen forks. My life was like a broken record. I was like that dry instant noodle I gnawed on yesterday: ostensibly food, but there's no life in it.

  "Hey, Squirt!" The Dwarf Ruzvol's voice ripped me from my thoughts. "Break's over! Go wipe the tables, they're as sticky as your excuses!"

  I stood up silently, grabbed a dirty rag, and trudged off to fulfill the order.

  'They are living,' I repeated to myself. 'And I'm just waiting for this day to end.'

  For the first time in my life, I felt truly envious. And even the heat of the kitchen stoves couldn't chase away this coldness inside me.

  It was a week soaked in the smell of old oil and sticky boredom. Another one passed, then another. Leon visited less and less—his world now consisted of training and Rabuki, while mine... mine had turned into an endless "Groundhog Day."

  Money, orders, receipts, patties. I began to forget why I even woke up in the mornings.

  During one of the night shifts, when the city outside the window was frozen in a bluish fog, I was sitting on an overturned crate in the back room, staring into the void. Why? Why am I living like this? Do I even need this job? Maybe it's all about the money? But I don't think I ever dreamed of mountains of gold. So what am I pulling on this stupid apron for every morning? To buy another portion of noodles?

  "Maybe to hell with all this..." I muttered. "I'll just survive. I'll become a flower. A flower doesn't need much—just sun and tap water. No shifts, no Ruzvol..."

  I rubbed my face with my palms. What utter nonsense creeps into your head from sleep deprivation. He'll become a flower, right. And this in a world that tries to eat you every day. On the news, it's nothing but Kaiju. These creatures are destroying cities, wiping countries off the face of the earth... Couldn't they just come and blow this joint to hell so I don't have to fry fries anymore?!

  'DAMN IT, what stupid thoughts!' I shook my head, chasing the delusion away.

  Ding!

  The sound of the bell above the door made me flinch. I reluctantly stood up and walked out onto the floor.

  "Hello," a soft female voice rang out.

  I walked up to the register without looking up.

  "Hello. Here is the menu, what would you like?"

  A quiet, clear laugh sounded in response.

  "I never would have thought I'd see you here, behind this counter."

  I looked up. A girl was standing in front of the register. She was looking at me with a strange, knowing half-smile.

  "Umm... do we know each other?" I asked.

  She laughed again, but this time a note of sadness cut through the laughter.

  "Well, of course. Is there really not a drop?"

  "I... I don't know you," I answered honestly, feeling a vague unease stirring inside me.

  "These words again..." she said quietly, and her gaze dimmed for a second. "Alright, Arkgrim. So you really don't remember anything."

  "I don't think so," I shrugged, feeling like a complete idiot.

  She thoughtfully slid her finger along the edge of the menu.

  "You know, we used to be neighbors. A long time ago, back in childhood. We played together all the time until I moved to another city. And when I finally returned... it turned out you had left too. I looked for you for a long time. I remember all our conversations, all those promises..."

  I froze, staring at her.

  "What? We've known each other since childhood? What do you mean?"

  "Yes, silly," she smiled sadly at me, and something flashed in her eyes for a moment that made my heart skip a beat. "My name is... Yoto. Yes, that's right, Yoto. At least remember that this time."

  She gave me a nod, turned around, and walked out of the cafe as quietly as she had entered.

  I stood there, gripping the edge of the counter. My head was spinning. What the hell was that just now? She knew me? Truly knew me, even before that damn crash, before the hospital, before all this nonsense?

  "WAIT!" I yelled, finally coming to my senses.

  I vaulted over the counter, nearly knocking over a pyramid of empty cups, and dashed outside, throwing the doors wide open. The icy night air hit my face. The street was empty. Not a sound of footsteps, not a shadow in the glow of the streetlamps—only sparse snowflakes swirling over the dark asphalt.

  "Strange..." I whispered, looking around. "Where did she go?"

  I stood in the freezing cold for another couple of minutes, hoping to see the familiar silhouette, but the city was dead.

  "Alright..." I returned to the warmth of the cafe, feeling everything trembling inside. "Blew my only chance to find something out. What an idiot I am."

  I sat on the floor right behind the register. The name "Yoto" echoed in my head, but my memory remained stubbornly silent, offering up only empty, black frames.