Ever since that weekend event with Dani, Kuro had been pondering on the question about how she feels towards Jade, whether it's just a crush or more than just admiration. She had been puzzled about the idea since she realised she might actually have feelings for the girl, clueless on how to act base on the emotions alone - knowing full well she can't just base her feelings off of Disney movies - or how to figure out if Jade see her the same way and not to mention, keeping it quiet from her family. Her closeted ass really didn't help her in making any decisions life.

Whilst doing her bed and tidying up her desk from last nights painting, she was thinking how easy it would have been if her and her brother were with their dad and no with their mum and how different it would end up being.  Her brother would actually be loved by stable adults and she would have a somewhat normal childhood, dealing with normal teenage bullshit not ever needing to bite her own tongue.

From the distance out in the hallway, she could hear loud steps and babbles nearby. Pulling herself up, she witnessed the door swung open revealing her little 2-year-old brother waddling over to Kuro, his arms in the air with a really big smile. "Sissy!" he cooed, jumping excitedly for a hug once he was standing in front of his sister. "'Ug! 'Ug!!"

Kuro giggled, stretching her arms out to pick him up and hugged him tightly "Hello Shelly! How's the world's cutest little monkey doing?" She asked, tickling his tummy a few times (making him clap whilst giggling) before laying him down beside her teddy bear.

"S'owy," he responded, sitting up and pointed at books on his big sister's shelf. "S'owy!"

"You want a story?"

Kuro's little brother nodded, ecstatically clapping loudly. "Piggy!! Piggy!!"

She smiled, tucking her brother in and proceeded to read out the story of the Three Little Pigs written by the Grimm Brothers.  Sheldon listened and 'read' the pages as his sister was reading through, occasionally pointing out the characters off the book like they were celebrities.  Kuro could never get over her brother's amazement and awe towards the villain of the book; he would pretend to huff 'n' puff every time the wolf popped up, trying his best balancing on his two feet.

Once the story ended, Kuro re-tucked Sheldon into bed in his own cot, giving him a kiss on his forehead. "Goodnight, darling... sweet dreams."

The next morning, Kuro had to leave early in the windy weather to handout menus in town centre, trying her best to earn extra money for the week and, hopefully, increase the percentage income for her mother's restaurant; the universe clearly wasn't happy with her today either since she was splashed with puddle water when a few cars were driving past, leaving her and some of the menus soaked and tearing apart.  

By the time she finally finished handing out all the menus (she used hand dryers in the McDonald toilets to dry the menus up), she only had an hour before her shift at 5PM which means she only had about 10-20 minutes after she ate, drunk and did her homework.  Today was just not her day.

To make matters worst, it wasn't even a busy night and Kuro had to work extra hours since there was low on staffs. She groaned, feeling the drowsiness kicking in and her head banging like loud bongs from China temples - ended up needing a couple of paracetamols and a cup of water.  After that mental fiasco, she then proceeded to clean the tables up for the next customers and adjusted her uniform and hair making sure she looks smart, or at least, awake.

The bell rung as the door opened, signalling the waiters to rush to the door and greet the customers with a big smile and a bow, "Welcome!"  

Most waiters and waitresses who works in the restaurant wear roller-blades and a black and white gender-specific uniform, this was to improve the serving time from the kitchen to the customers freeing more "efficient" time for other things, at least that was what the owner would say if she was here - though those more "efficient" time was never told to be used for what - and the uniform?  Well...

"Tables for how many fine guests?" one of the waiters asked, smiling at the only parent whilst the others - including Kuro - were either taking their coats or entertaining the children in a way to not disturb the other customers or annoy the parents.

"Three," the parent responded, feeling a little weirded out by how the waiters were dressed and questioning why nearly all of them were wearing roller-blades.

The waiter lead the family to one of the four-seated tables decorated with handmade table cloth and origami made from napkins, ignoring the confused looks.  "Kuro, 2 kids, 1 adult. Move it!"

"OK!  Three drinks coming right up!" Kuro exclaimed, trying to perk the room up whilst skating towards the bar to prepare three starter drinks to start the customers' appetite, not realising or caring who the customers were except for the age.

As soon as the drinks were made, she roller-bladed over to the table with a tray of three coloured small glasses, serving them with a smile. "Here's your starter drinks, ma-" Kuro stopped when she noticed Jade was at the table; her brain seemed to stop functioning for a few seconds which felt like hours; she could feel her heart beat start to quicken up and the urge to freak out mentally but keeping cool and not fuck everything was starting slither its ass to priority and she was not prepared, "...am...Ummm...justsignaloneofuswhenyou'rereadytoorder."  She smiled, placing down the drinks and made a run for it. I don't need her to see me in a DRESS, let alone a maid uniform!  This is so embarrassing! She screamed in her head, wondering if the day could just get any worst.

"I didn't order this," the mum said, pointing at the drinks.

"Oh of course you didn't!" Jackson smiled. "Everyone of our customers would receive a starter drink, no price, just flavours to refresh you of a long journey and open up your appetite."

"Sweet but what's in it?" Jade asked, staring at the three drinks with different colours (her own being blue).

"Kuro!" the waiter screamed her name as if it was a cursed spell, giving the young waitress a glaring look. "Why don't you explain the lovely family what are in the drinks hm?"

She gulped, skating back to the table and began to explain what each drink were, "The pinkish orange one has pomegranate juice squeezed from this morning and chilled for 4 hours before mixed in with cranberry, lemon and rose water. I added ice to make it more refreshing in this summer heat.  The purple one is made out of grape juice deported from my family's vineyard in China, Fujian, mixed with dried vermouth and some lemon and lime.  The blue one is made out of blueberries, freshly squeezed lime mixed with frozen strawberries and watermelon."

"Wow... you guys give these away for free for every customer?"

"Yes. It is customary for us waiters and waitresses to take care of each and every customer with patience and hostility," Kuro answered, trying to catch her breath, "which also means being observant to the tone of your voices or the actions to know what drink would satisfy you the most. Every drink is unique and not always the same.  If that is everything, please take your time to look through the menu and signal any one of us when you're ready to order."  Kuro bowed and skated behind the bar counter when she was done talking, trying to catch her breath again  whilst at the same time keeping her calm.

She wasn't having a great day to begin with and now she was in the restaurant, she had no idea what to do except to panic internally.  Luckily for her, she was only going to focus on making and serving drinks otherwise she probably wouldn't have survived for more than 5 minutes.

"Kuro," one of the waitress were skating up to her and placed down a piece of paper in front of her, "one sidecar cocktail, two bottles of beer and one glass of Appletiser."

"3 alcoholic drinks?" she asked, getting three glass mugs out of the cabinet placing them on the trays then got out the Boston shaker. "Sounds like someone's a lightweight on the table."

"Actually the boy just turn 16," the girl responded, lifting the tray and placed it on her arm, "the kid wanted to try strong shit but let's face it, he's gonna blackout if he can survive."

"We're in the UK, I'm pretty sure they can survive beers," Kuro told her, shaking up the mixture as they talked about young drinkers.

"I don't wanna deal with blackout children so let's play it safe," the waitress groaned before skating away to serve the drinks.

The young bartender sighed, pouting the drink in a round glass type of cup and decorated it with a little yellow umbrella, wondering what alcohol tastes like.  Of course, she learned how to make martinis due to her mum, having to make drinks to either calm her own mother or make her sleep easy during the night. All without tasting it - too afraid to, even.  Deciding that it was pointless to wonder, she decided to recite her lines in her head as she cleaned the counter and her shaker.

Her phone vibrated in her apron pocket.  Hearing the buzzing sound, Kuro checked her phone to see what the notification was about, turning out to be a text from Jade.   Confused, she lifted her head towards the table she was sitting and noticed Jade waving whilst smiling goof.  She waved back, smiling sheepishly.

She then noticed Jade talking to her mum before getting up and walked towards the bar whilst narrowly avoiding the waiters and waitresses skating past her.  Eventually she survived and reached the counter.

"Heyyy," Jade smiled, doing a little wave then leaned against the glass counter.

"Hey yourself," Kuro chuckled, getting some wine glasses and whiskey cups out of their cabinet to clean and polish from dust. "What's up?"

"You never told me you work, here of all places," she said, "and you're a bartender?"

"Just for today."

"Can I order a drink?" Jade asked, a little cocky with her sly smile.

Kuro watched the cockiness going from her lips to her eyes and laughed, adjusting Jade's glasses for her and smiled at her, "Suurrreeee... What would you like, gorgeous?"

"Surprise me."

"You're not a lightweight are you?" she asked, pouring out a transparent like liquid in a whiskey glass in front of Jade and added a block of ice. "Enjoy~"

Jade looked surprised but took a sip of the drink Kuro poured for her and almost immediately spat on the floor. "That's water!"

Kuro was stifling with laughter, trying to find tissues for her. "Did you think I'm going to serve alcohol to an underage minor?  I don't want to lose my job."  

"Haha very funny," Jade laughed, placing the glass of water on the counter whilst wiping her face clean with the kitchen towel Kuro gave her.

"Thank you."

"If you're done flirting," Jackson cut into the conversation like a newly polished knife, slamming the paper on the counter which startled the drink to spill. "Clean that. And also here's the order for Table 15."

Kuro sighed, making the drinks as ordered.

"Why do you need to wear a maid uniform?" Jade asked, watching Kuro making the drinks.  "Isn't it kinda weird?"

"My mum said it's because I'm too fat to be in those traditional Chinese outfits," Kuro responded "so... she went with maid and butler uniforms just so I can wear something."

"You're not fat," Jade blurted out, cleaning her glasses from the water droplets, "I think your mum needs glasses."

"Like you?" Kuro teased, putting the drinks on the trays and skating towards the table to serve since Jackson entered the kitchen rather than wait.
_____________
After work was finally over, Kuro retreated to her room exhausted and half dead.  She stared at the ceiling in her pyjamas now, wondering about how her life was going to turn out in the future. If she'll ever meet her dad again?  If she'll get enough money to move out of her mum's reach?  Or even small things like dating.  All her ambitions and hopes were starting to fade as she grows older every day; it was getting more and more unrealistic for her to plan to workout. 

I can't keep doing this, she thought to herself, pushing herself up to switch the lights off before dropping herself on her soft mattress, practically hugging her in cotton and fabric.  "I wish dad was here..."

Slowly feeling her eyelids getting heavier and heavier, she relaxed her muscles and was preparing for another amazing dream.  Then- 

- her phone pinged with a message from an unknown number.  It read:

Hey baby!  It's me, your father!  I got a new number and wanted you to save this on your contacts.  By the way, I'm going to be in your neighbourhood soon, if you're free, come and meet me near the forest around 9 o'clock, Thursday!  

I can't wait to see you and catch up!  Love you!  Night xxx 

Kuro read the message with glee!  Even though it was a huge surprise, she was still extremely excited.  She haven't seen her dad in years and now they can finally catch up and maybe, just maybe, she could finally escape her mother's wrath and live a calm life with her brother just like how she dreamed.  Things were finally turning around and she couldn't wait.