Ye Ol' coffee shop

[Observer]

The downtowns... The hustle and bustle of the big city... Lots of people, lots of new places... Among so many alleys, little shops and cafeterias, there was one marvel of a coffee shop. Despite the quality of the products it offered, few actually knew of it's very existence, for nowadays people seem to appreciate flashy signs and advertisements over quality of a good coffee.

The insides of this relatively small shop were made in "old style", as if ye ol' coffee shop, with almost every closet with samples, every jar and every instrument for making coffee in front of the customer looked like it was taken straight from the museum. An old man owed and worked in the place, renting the space for it, and was a nice ado to the whole spirit of the place...

Larry discovered this place not too long ago - a classmate's advice, and it was a good one too. The young man fell enamored with this place, it reminded him of home, where he used to visit the coffee shop that looked exactly like this one. And only here they would make the coffee YOU want them to make...

- You sure about this one kid? This stuff so tough one cup will make ye stay awake for, like, a night. Not to mention it is bitter as hell... - the old man asked incredulously. Larry answered his question partially with a dead-tired glare. Didn't have any sleep for quite some time. There ... were reasons... And he needed something to keep himself standing.

- I'll take two then. - a somewhat weary reply came.

- Aye, lad. I'll go get it for ye. Wait here for a few minutes... - the old man replied, going somewhere behind, while Larry remained waiting at the stand, leaning to the wooden wall, looking at the walls with stands of coffee with a blank glance...

[Jenny]

Jenny had known about this shop for some time now. Considering she wasn’t as social as she use to be, she liked that it was a quite little shop. It made it easier for her to do her own thing. Sipping a cup of her favorite caramel coffee, she had her laptop out and a biscotti next to her as she did some web surfing. Jenny didn’t have internet in her apartment, so she liked to come to coffee shops to get some internet time in before she headed back home.

As a man about her age walked in, she had failed to notice as she was looking up a new brand of paint, seeing what reviews people said of it. The kind she had got really watery after a while, though it was cheap she wanted the best paint she could buy on her budget. Which wasn’t an easy task. Taking a bite of her biscotti, she continued to click around…the reviews were mixed….was it worth trying out herself?

Jenny’s laptop was silver, but it had a light blue rubber cover on it, with a little cat head etched onto the back. It was smiling and saying ‘hello’ in English. Yes it was quite ‘immature’, but hey, Jenny was an artist so it was okay! Plus, it wasn’t that uncommon for girls her age to still like cute things anyways.

[Observer]

The old man returned soon enough with two cups of coffee. Or something like that, the liquid in the cup was pitch-black, as deepest night, one would think twice before even approaching this thing. His eyes widened beyond proportion when Larry drank one cup at an instant, as if it was water, or juice, and not bitterest coffee. As for the young man, this one just got him a bit less weary, or at least returned whatever spark there was in the eyes.

- Thanks man. - he replied, leaving payment for two cups, and took the second cup, looking for a place to sit. There was a lot of tables to choose from, since the shop was almost empty, but he noticed one was occupied - there was a lovely young lady sitting at it, busy with her laptop, using the benefits of wi-fi internet connection of this place. It was boring enough to sit all alone, so the young man decided to go ahead and ask:

- Excuse me, miss, would you mind if I take a sit here? - he inquiring, approaching with his cup of coffee. He wasn't the type to ask that kind of question after sitting, considering this rude, and just waited for an answer. Maybe said young lady was busy and did not want to be disturbed by someone's presence, who knows?

[Jenny]

By the time the young man approached her, Jenny had quit looking at paint and had moved on to yoga. She likes to practice Yoga at home, it calms her and helped keep her from getting sore when she sits or stands all day. She was examining the positions for the pidgeon and the sun salutation.

As she took another sip of coffee, suddenly the man approached her. Looking up with her emerald eyes, Jenny nodded and held out her hand, motioning to an empty seat. “Sit where you like. No one is sitting there.” said Jenny, before she continued browsing the web.

Jenny wasn’t quite sure what to say after that, she wasn’t very good at ‘socializing’ with people. She looked up after a few moments….well this was awkward. “So um…I haven’t seen you here before. Is this your first time here?” asked Jenny, attempting small talk with the stranger.

[Observer]

- Thank you. - Larry replied, taking a seat at the table. Well, this was nice enough, because some people he met had a habit of shooing everyone away with a cuss word or two, and it was good to see change for a change. The young man didn't peak in the laptop the girl had - this would have been considered rude, again, so he just sat there, sipping his coffee, slowly feeling a bit better with each sip.

- Yes, I'm new here, a friend of mine told me about this place... - he replied to the question, between sips. - Was told they make strongest coffee here. That wasn't a lie, this stuff can be used for rocket fuel... - he added, putting his cup of coffee and looked at the girl again. She certainly was a pretty young lady, the emerald green eyes in particular. She peaked from behind her laptop screen several times, but did not say anything.

- You must be a frequent customer here... I didn't know they have wi-fi... Gotta remember that. Name's Larry by the way, and what's yours? - he asked easily without any hint of awkwardness. These were just simple questions, nothing too intrusive. More by an accident than ill intent, the young man accidentally picked at the screen, seeing that it was some ... forum about yoga. Larry never really was into that into that sort of thing, and never really knew what it was about, which lead to comic situations at times.

- Forgive me my curiosity, but are you a gymnast by any chance? - he asked, drawing a rather weird conclusion from what he managed to see...

[Jenny]

There was silence for a while, until the man spoke up. And just…kept talking. Well he seemed to be rather social now didn’t he? “Oh, um yes it is very good. Better then those chains.” said Jenny after a few moments as she nodded, though wasn’t quite sure what the ‘rocket fuel’ comment had meant. Jenny never considered herself pretty, she was rather plain. She rarely wore makeup anymore, and her hair was typically just held back with a brain or a ponytail.

“Oh well, its pretty common for coffee shops to have wireless net..” Using the term ‘wi-fi’ had always seemed a bit awkward for Jenny. She was fine with others using it, but didn’t quite see herself using odd terms like that. “Jenny…nice to meet you Larry.” she said as she continued to click around on the net. However, when he suddenly asked his last question, she quickly closed her computer and blushed a little.

“Oh um, no. I’m not. It is just good for staying relaxed and keeping my body healthy. I rarely have aches and pains because of it..” said Jenny as she continued to drink her cooling cup of coffee.

[Observer]

- Pleased to meet you Jenny. - Larry nodded, taking another sip from his cup of coffee. He used the term "rocket fuel" because of the effect it had on one person. Any normal one would probably go hyper from one cup, Larry on the other hand just returned to normal. Well, maybe he was a bit overanxious, but just a tiny bit.

He regretted asking the second question though, it clearly made jenny feel rather uncomfortable, as she quickly closed her laptop, and replied a bit nervously, while blushing. It was a pity, Larry never wanted to cause any discomfort, so he prompted to apologize:

- Sorry about that, I did not mean to peak like I did. Happened unintentionally... - he replied and turned his head a bit away, not wishing to peak anymore. - Us guys never have to worry about aches though, if our job involves a lot of leg-work instead of sitting in an office... - he added though.

So, the girl's name was Jenny. That clearly wasn't a japanese name, and, adding the fact that the girl did not quite look like an asian, the young man thus made a conclusion that she was a foreigner. And foreigners usually came to this place either to study or to work. Larry cursed himself almost immediately after making such conclusions - it wasn't good to try guessing everything about people. So he felt like asking, if only to confirm his guesses.

- You're a foreigner, aren't you, Jenny? Did you also come here to for study? Or work? - he asked, wishing to change the subject. He would have noted the accent, but that would have been too much for one question, wouldn't it?

[Jenny]

Jenny just had never used a term like that, so she hadn’t really caught the reference. Larry shouldn’t have felt bad over her reaction, Jenny was just a little shy around strangers, and figured it was best to close it if she was going to have a conversation with Larry. It would be rude to be browsing the web while chatting after all.

“It’s alright. I know that sometimes you just happen to see things. No big deal.” said Jenny with a slight smile. She use to be so social when she was younger, time has a way of changing people, even if its just a short amount of time. Just like how she didn’t want to be an actress anymore, though that had other reasons attached to it rather then just time.

“I needed to close it anyways. It would be rude to be typing on my computer while holding a conversation.”” said Jenny as she took another sip. “I think everyone gets aches and pains. No matter what profession. People just have different ways of dealing with it, or you just get so use to it, that you forget about it.” she said softly before taking another sip.

Jenny was indeed not Japanese, she was born and raised in the states, quite far from Japan. And she could tell by how he looked, and his accent that he most certainly was not Japanese either. “That would be correct. I am from The United Sates, I came here to study and wound up making a life here.” she said, not like she had a life to go back to back in America. And that was a bit of a lie, she hadn’t planned to go to school in Japan, but little details like that weren’t implrtant. And she didn’t need to get into her life history with this stranger.

“From your accent I would guess you are….british?” asked Jenny, though he might be Australian, sometimes they sounded similar depending on what part they came from. And she had never known any British people before, so she wasn’t completely certain.

[Observer]

- That would be correct, I am indeed from Great Britain. Have family there. Here, however, I'm just an exchange student. - Larry shrugged and took a sip from his cup. It happened to be the last one. Cups tended to get empty on a quicker pace when he had to talk with somebody, since he didn't waste time on staring in the reflection in the cup. - Nuts. - he muttered in disappointment, putting the empty cup on the table. A caffeine addict, what else can you say?

- Would you mind if we speak English between each other? As much as I like japanese, it is not quite my thing. And it would be good to hear native language every once in a while... - he said in english. In truth, speaking native tongue reminded him of home, the home he missed so much since setting foot here. And while being in a European-style cafe, talking to another foreigner, made him wanna pretend he was back in England.

- Excuse me for a second... - he said, standing up, returning in a few minutes with a fresh cup of coffee, luckily it took only so little time to make. That should do enough for at least another 15 minutes of conversation. Or, at least, he planned on staying for so long.

- A night delivery guy. You won't believe how many things people have a sudden urge to buy at night. We cannot live without this stuff. - he explained, taking a sip from his fresh cup. What he said was a blatant lie, but it was also his legend, and back at Hypnos they made him learn to tell it without as much as a bat of an eyelash. - You do not look like the rest of us grinders though. Who do you work as? If not a secret, that is... - he asked curiously.

[Jenny]

“Ah I see. So you must attend one of the local colleges then.” said Jenny. He seemed too old to be in high school, so she took a guess since he said he was an exchange student. When he emptied his cup and got up to get another one, Jenny gave him a curious look. He just drank too cups…why would he go back for another?

When he came back, Jenny couldn’t help but ask. “Why did you get another cup? I hope you don’t drink that much normally, that much caffeine is really bad for you…” after she said it, Jenny quickly covered her mouth. Oh how rude of her! “I am sorry, that was out of line, I shouldn’t pry into your life like that.” she said as she blushed a little.

Moving on, was he mentioning his job? “But being up all night like that can still make your body ache. And how do you go to school and work a job like that? It must be tough. When do you have time for a life?” asked Jenny curiously. Was she crossing the line again? This is why she didn’t talk to people. She always said the wrong thing, it was a nasty habit…

“Grinders? Like the sandwich?” that…probably was not he meant…. “I work as an interpreter for people visiting Japan from English speaking countries. Typically they are business men, since the average person just learns Japanese rather then hiring an interpreter. My work is a little erratic, but it pays the bills.” she said.