Bills, Coins, and a Crush

"Hey, Airi…"

The blonde girl walked on in silence, brows still knit in displeasure. Chasing after her with the dryer still clutched in one hand, Fino timidly broached the subject.

"What were Raul and that woman just now even doing, with their faces pressed together like that?"

"…!"

At that, Airi came to an abrupt halt, then whirled around irritably, looking somehow exasperated as she glared down at Fino beside her.

"… You don't even know what a kiss is?"

"What's that?"

But the wide-eyed, blank look she got in return left her flustered instead.

"E-er, well, how do I put it, um… it's something a boy does with his girlfriend, you know…"

"Ah, that, I know that one!"

Catching a word she recognized, Fino piped up.

"A 'Girlfriend' is the relationship where the two of you hold hands and stuff, right!?"

"It is NOT!!"

… Airi found herself reflexively narrowing her eyes at the confidently-delivered pronouncement she had to refute.

"… Honestly. Just what kind of education has Raul Chaser been giving this kid… uh, well, that is… h-how do I even explain…"

"So, why is Raul kissing making you mad, Airi?"

A blunt, candid question, tossed at Airi while she was still racking her brain over how to explain the concept of a lover.

"Huh… …? Th-that's…! That's…!"

Caught completely off-guard. She tried to answer in a hurry, but the right words wouldn't come, and faced with a now tongue-tied Airi, Fino tilted her head, puzzled.

"… I don't really get it, but a 'Girlfriend' is probably a good thing, right? If it's something a 'Girlfriend' does, then kissing has gotta be a good thing too, no?"

"Th-that's true, but…! Th-that's not what I'm mad about…!"

"But if what you're saying is right, then that woman is Raul's 'girlfriend,' isn't she? So even if they were kissing, there's no real problem…"

"L-look! I-I'm…"

"… … … … Ah."

Fino, who had been stacking up question after question, suddenly sounded as though something had just dawned on her.

"Could it be… Airi, that you don't like that that woman is Raul's 'Girlfriend'?"

"…!!!!"

In that instant, Airi's cheeks flushed bright crimson.

"H-hey…! Y-you, what…!! D-do you even know what you're saying…"

"… I think I might get how you feel, Airi."

Almost as if to herself.

At the quiet murmur Fino let slip, Airi swallowed back the words she'd been about to spit out.

Fino, faced with an Airi who'd lost her words despite herself, wore the serious face of someone thinking hard about something, and at last, haltingly opened her mouth.

"… Hey, Airi. Ever since you came to work at our shop, Raul's been looking at you the whole time, hasn't he?"

"Huh…?"

At Fino's hesitant words, Airi's eyes went round in spite of herself.

And, all of a sudden, she found herself remembering something that had happened just the other day.

 

*

 

"Ah, welcome!"

A clear, bright voice came carrying over from the other side of a tall shelf.

"Adwards-san, hello!"

"Hello, Fino-chan."

"Hehehe, thank you, as always! Ah, Raul! I'm gonna take this out to the floor, okay!"

Through a thin gap between shelves, Airi caught a glimpse of Fino bowing crisply with an armful of stock and then pattering off to the sales floor.

… After a beat, an impressed-sounding man's voice carried over.

"Fino-chan really is such a good kid."

"W-well, I mean, she's, uh, still kind of half-trained, you know… she makes a lot of mistakes too…"

"Nah, come on, she's doing splendidly."

The man's voice cut off Raul's modest deflection, then suddenly shifted in tone.

"But, what was her name? You know, that other new girl who started recently, her attitude really isn't great, huh. She's fast on the register and seems competent at the job, but she's just kind of cold… I mean, she's a pretty face and all, but, come on, it's not a good look, you know?"

… … And why, exactly, am I supposed to be sucking up to anyone!?

The long, narrow space inside the register counter was partitioned off by a tall shelf. Airi, just back from her break, had stepped behind it to fetch some supplies when the small talk between Raul and a regular customer who happened to come up to the register filtered into her ears.

"S-sorry. That's my fault for not training her properly…"

Raul's voice, sounding a little troubled now that he was on the receiving end of a regular's complaint.

"It's just… she's a bit prickly, and it's not easy to…"

"Gahaha, well, with a sharp-looking girl like that, you can't exactly come down on her too hard, can you, Raul-kun?"

"Ha, haha… yeah, really, sorry about that…"

The man's haughty laugh and Raul's voice obligingly laughing along. Listening to that exchange from the shadow of the shelf, Airi ground her teeth in frustration.

… Why are you the one apologizing for that!?

Anger boiled up in her gut until her insides churned.

Neither you nor I have done a single thing wrong, and yet you're flashing a hollow smile like that…!

"… Oh, 'All-A,' you're back from break?"

After the customer left, the moment Raul caught sight of Airi returning to the register counter with a stormcloud on her face, he called out to her as if nothing had happened.

"Then I'll send Fino on break next…"

"… Why are you apologizing to a customer like that?"

Airi's voice came out low and tight.

The instant he heard it, Raul's face twisted into an awkward grimace.

"… You heard, huh."

"Of course I did. Any way you look at it, that was wrong!"

Faced with Raul as he muttered uncomfortably, Airi raised her voice at full strength.

"A store is a place to sell merchandise, not to peddle flattery! As long as we're doing the actual job perfectly, there's no reason to put up with weird complaints like that!"

"H-hey, 'All-A,' you're being loud…!"

"And honestly, he's the one being full of himself, isn't he!? Acting all important just because he's the customer… if he wants girls fawning over him, he should go to that kind of shop in the first place!"

"… For the record, it's not just that old guy from earlier. The regular old ladies have been saying the same kind of thing too, you know."

"…!"

At those words Airi choked up, lost for a comeback… and Raul, watching her through half-lidded eyes, let out an exasperated sigh.

"How do I put this… I'm not telling you to lay on the charm or anything, but couldn't you try to be just a little friendlier? At least crack a smile every now and then…"

"Why are you so meek about it!?"

But Airi rounded on Raul's well-meant advice instead.

"You're always grovelling to the customers like that, plastering on this fake smile and laughing along even when they're saying things that don't sit right… don't you think that's pathetic? A clerk and a customer are equals! That's exactly why a clerk should have more pride, and stand their ground…"

… That's right, Airi declared inwardly.

The customer is not a god. If a clerk is a person, then a customer is a person too. A relationship of equals, exchanging money for goods. So there's no reason that only our side should have to grovel like that…!

Glaring back at Raul, who was now looking at her with a vaguely troubled expression, with hostility in her eyes, Airi murmured in her heart. … The you that I look up to isn't the kind of person who should bow his head to others like that. So hurry up and admit you're wrong about this, stand a little taller…

"I totally get what you're trying to say."

… came his voice.

"… Even I've had plenty of moments where I get this hollow feeling, wondering why I'm always plastering on a fake smile like this."

Having her emotional outburst so straightforwardly agreed with, Airi, who had braced for a war of attrition, was caught utterly off guard.

Across from her, Raul let his gaze wander hesitantly, and at last said, "But."

"… But it's not quite like that. Whether the fake smile is meek or pathetic or whatever, in the end, that's all about your own feelings… what really matters is 'Consideration' for the customer."

"'Consideration'…?"

Parroting him in spite of herself, Airi got a nod from Raul, who opened his mouth a little diffidently.

"This is borrowed wisdom from the Manager, but… it's not anything complicated, really. A grumpy face and a smiling one. If you were the one being smiled at, you'd prefer the smile, right? Instead of thinking from your own perspective, with your own situation in mind, try thinking from the customer's perspective, and the right way to act kinda just becomes clear…"

As he spoke, almost as if embarrassing himself in the process, Raul looked away from Airi and gave a small shake of his head.

"… I mean, honestly, I'm not confident I've got it perfect myself, and I'm in no position to lecture, so I can't really come down on you that hard about it…"

"… B-but!"

Against Raul's gently coaxing tone, Airi couldn't help but push back.

"Unlike you, I'm not doing this job because I want to! So I don't owe it to anyone to go that far…"

"But the nurse job you're aiming for is customer-facing too, isn't it? If anything, smiling matters even more there. Think of this as a good chance and get the practice in now."

"Th-that's a different…"

"And besides, you know, you… with the bills and the coins, and stuff…"

"Huh?"

Bills and coins. Raul muttered the phrase in a flat, casual tone, with no apparent connection to anything.

As Airi let out a baffled noise in spite of herself, Raul, his face turned away as if a touch self-conscious, continued in a low mutter.

"… You know, when you're handing change back to a customer, the manual says you do bills first and then coins… but you, if the customer's got their coin purse open, you give them the coins back first, don't you?"

In that instant, Airi's eyes went round in spite of herself.

"How do you know that…"

It was something Airi had been quietly doing ever since back at her old shop (Amada), a small touch she'd thought up and started on her own.

… And yet up until now, not a single person had ever noticed.

But faced with that reaction from Airi, Raul looked puzzled instead.

"How, I mean… if I'm standing next to you watching, of course I'd notice, wouldn't I?"

Saying it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Raul scratched his head bashfully.

"… To be honest, I thought that was a really nice touch, and I tried to copy it, but it's tricky, you know… I always almost end up forgetting to hand back either the bills or the coins, so I gave up. But you always do it so naturally, and I just kept thinking, yeah, she really is something…"

"… …"

… He'd been watching… me…

The moment that thought hit her, Airi's cheeks went softly warm. Her chest filled with a ticklish kind of feeling… and as if to cover that feeling up, Airi made a sour face and offered an excuse.

"O-of course! If you hand back the bills first while they've got their coin purse open, then the customer has to put things away twice, which is a hassle for them…"

"… See. You're doing it perfectly, aren't you. Thinking from the customer's perspective."

"… …"

"Just goes to show, you really are 'All-A,' huh… I'd better step it up too, or you'll leave me behind."

In front of Airi, who couldn't quite manage a comeback, Raul gave a shy little laugh.

 

*

 

"… When Raul and Airi are together, my chest goes all… fluttery, somehow."

The harsh sunlight of a summer beach picked out the contours of everything around them.

In front of Airi, who came back to herself with a start, the silver-haired girl stayed looking down at her feet, hesitantly stringing her words together.

"I like you, Airi, and I get that it's your turn now to have Raul teach you about the shop… but it's no good. Whenever I think Raul might stop being just my Raul, my chest squeezes up tight, and it stings, and aches… and I keep thinking, if only I was the one standing where you're standing…"

Fino balled her palms into tight fists, her small shoulders trembling.

"… And, like, it feels really gross. It's selfish, and self-centered, and feels like something I shouldn't be doing, and yet, I can't make it stop… I can't do anything about it… and when I think maybe it's because I'm a demonkin that I'm having these ugly thoughts, I just don't know what to do anymore…"

"Fino-san…"

"… Hey, isn't it just me?"

Almost as if pleading for help.

The girl suddenly raised her face, and with a terribly serious gaze, looked up at Airi.

"Is it because I'm a demonkin… because I'm an evil being, that I'm feeling this way? Do you, do humans, get feelings like this too? This feeling, it isn't a bad thing, is it? Hey… what am I supposed to do…?"

Fino's blue eyes, desperately pressing for an answer, looked as if they were about to spill over with tears.

Things like love, or romance… the kind of concepts a demonkin girl surely didn't know.

A painful feeling that such a girl had tried her best to put into words using only the vocabulary she did know. It was probably, just as the girl had said, the same as what lived in Airi's own chest, and… oh, honestly.

"You really are… why are you the way you are, I wonder."

… Before long.

With an exasperated sigh, Airi reached out a hand toward Fino…

"…!!?"

… and, just like that, gently patted her head as if to soothe her.

As she looked down at Fino, who blinked at her in startled surprise, Airi gave a small shrug of her shoulders.

"How do I put this… it's not like I'm planning to get all chummy with demonkin, but maybe you all and us aren't as different as I'd thought."

"H-huh, what does that mean?"

"… That you really do love Raul Chaser."

"Huh…? Of course I love Raul?"

Fino parroted the question back at her with a puzzled look, wearing an expression that asked why on earth Airi was checking on something so obvious. Airi smiled wryly and shook her head a little.

"That's not what I… well, never mind."

'Consideration'… huh.

… You know, here I am thinking only about my own situation again, Airi thought, reflecting on herself.

Saying only what I want to say, without thinking about the other person's feelings… really, I've got to be more careful. So I don't lose to Raul Chaser… to my rival.

Murmuring this in her heart, Airi reached out without thinking and took the hand of Fino beside her.

"… Well then, shall we go?"

"Huh, go where?"

"Where, you say…"

To Fino, who looked baffled and asked again, Airi put on a surprised face of her own.

"… You want to play together with Raul Chaser, don't you?"

"…!!!!!"

The moment Fino heard those words, her face broke into a brilliant smile.

At the happy expression of Fino's quick nod, Airi couldn't help but soften her own cheeks into a smile.

"… Well, I should probably apologize to him too… wait."

As she said this, glancing up casually… in that instant, Airi's eyes went wide in surprise.

"Th-that's…! M-mmph!"

Fino looked up at almost the same moment and, evidently spotting the same thing, was about to cry out reflexively when Airi clapped a hand over her mouth, and at last narrowed her indigo eyes.

"… … … … Heh."

… Wearing somehow an amused look.

The corner of her mouth tugging upward, Airi leaned in toward Fino in her arms and whispered something softly into her ear.