Chapter 53: Volume 1, - 53: The First Morning with a Girlfriend
Ren woke up six minutes before his seven o’clock alarm, his hand reaching for his phone on the nightstand before his eyes were fully open.
A single notification illuminated the screen.
Suzune: Good morning, Ren. Don’t skip breakfast today.
He read the message four times. He didn’t alter her contact card in his address book. It still read Akiyama Suzune in plain Japanese text yet holding the small glowing rectangle felt strangely different. The weight of it in his palm carried a quiet, electric reality.
He typed a response, erased it, and settled on a short, steady reply:
Ren: Good morning. I won’t. Have a good shift.
He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and stood up. He stretched his shoulders, made a quick meal of rice and natto, and left his apartment twenty minutes earlier than usual.
Their schedules didn’t offer a leisurely morning together. Suzune was already on the floor at Akiyama Bakery by seven-thirty, assisting Hiroshi with the morning prep and setting up the display cases. But their route crossed near the narrow alley behind the shop where the delivery bicycles were parked.
When Ren walked up, Suzune was standing by the back entrance, wearing her green bakery apron over a grey woollen cardigan, holding a fresh paper bag containing two warm cinnamon rolls.
"You’re early," she said, her amber eyes brightening as he approached.
"I wanted to see you," Ren said.
Official status made the air between them remarkably easy. He stepped close, reaching out to tuck a stray lock of chestnut hair behind her ear, his thumb brushing her cheek. Suzune didn’t pull back; she leaned into his touch for a second, then tipped her head up and kissed him softly on the lips. The kiss was brief, quiet, and entirely natural.
"For your break," she said, handing over the paper bag.
"Thanks," Ren said, holding her fingers for a moment. "Are you free after six tonight? I can come by after my shift at QuickMart."
Suzune offered an apologetic, wry smile. "Not tonight. Mum needs me to help with the month-end inventory until eight, and then Aya and Haruka are coming over. We planned a hot-pot night two weeks ago."
A sharp, sudden spike of possessive irritation flared in Ren’s chest.
’I’m her boyfriend,’ he thought, the impulse rising raw and selfish before he could check it.
He almost asked her to cancel. The words reached the back of his throat before he stopped them. He wanted to argue, to ask if she couldn’t push the inventory back or reschedule with Aya, but he swallowed the surge, forcing his breathing to remain level.
"Understood," Ren said, keeping his voice smooth and calm. "Have fun with Aya and Haruka. I’ll see you tomorrow after work like we planned."
"Wednesday," Suzune confirmed, her smile warm as she squeezed his hand once before stepping back inside the kitchen door. "Work hard today, Ren."
Ren walked toward the station with the paper bag in his coat pocket, his hands jammed deep into his coat pockets. He still felt the faint sting of disappointment, but beneath it was a quiet respect for her independence. She hadn’t erased her life for him, and he had no right to demand that she should.
By nine-thirty, Ren was at his desk in Suite 302 of Kisaragi Business Support.
The small office was quiet. Today was Tuesday, which meant Nanami was off. Her fixed schedule was Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons. Ren had the room to himself, the morning sun casting long, pale bars across his desk through the window blinds.
He opened his laptop and reviewed the last month of completed work alongside the opportunities still developing. Okada Stationery had already hired him twice for bounded administrative support. The Akiyama Bakery engagement had proved the family would pay for useful, structured work. Kawashima-san’s proposed three-month retainer remained under review.
None of that guaranteed April income. But when Ren ran an optimistic scenario based on repeat work continuing and Kawashima signing the proposal, the realisation hit him like a physical jolt.
KBS could cover a meaningful share of what QuickMart reliably paid him every month. It wasn’t enough to replace the wage safely, and he knew that. But for the first time, leaving the store no longer felt like an impossible fantasy.
The store shifts. Standing behind the register under Endo’s watchful eye, stocking shelves late into the evening, and dragging cages of heavy inventory through the back stockroom were the single biggest drain on his time and physical energy.
’I could quit,’ Ren thought, a sudden, bright surge of impatience rising in his chest. ’If the consulting work covers this much, I don’t need to stay at the store.’
He immediately opened a chat window with Nanami and typed out a message summarising his thoughts.
Ren: Shindo-san, if repeat work continues and the Kawashima retainer is accepted, KBS could replace a meaningful part of my QuickMart wages. I want to model when I can hand in my notice.
He waited, pacing twice across the small rug in Suite 302. His eyes drifted to his phone on the corner of his desk. He picked it up, opened Suzune’s morning text again, and lingered over it for a full two minutes, completely distracted. He opened a client draft email, went back to read her message once more, and only realised five minutes later that he had left the email sitting blank without attaching the requested reconciliation files.
Ren shook his head with a faint smile, closed Suzune’s message, attached the documents, and sent the file.
A few minutes later, his phone buzzed with Nanami’s reply.
Nanami: I am off today. Please do not make major employment decisions based on an optimistic single-month outlook.
Nanami: Place your QuickMart pay slips, store shift records, and personal living baseline figures in the blue file folder. We will run a proper bad-month model tomorrow at 13:00.
Ren looked at the blunt text message and sighed, resting his forehead in his hand. He disliked the cold bucket of water she had dumped on his enthusiasm, but he knew she was right. He felt as though he had reached out, gripped the door handle leading out of QuickMart, and Nanami had politely but firmly locked it from the outside until tomorrow.
His phone buzzed again a minute later with a new notification.
Suzune: Mum brought out the fresh melon pan. I saved one for you for tomorrow.
Suzune: Don’t stare at your spreadsheets until your eyes hurt, Ren.
Ren looked down at the screen, and despite the lingering frustration of being kept at the store, the tension in his shoulders broke. A small, helpless smile touched his face.
Running a growing business hadn’t magically freed him from his register shifts at QuickMart. Neither milestone guaranteed an easy path forward. But as he reached into his drawer for the blue folder to organise his store pay slips for Wednesday’s meeting, Ren knew he was no longer running in the dark.