I think carefully about July in Kyoto this year.

I remember very well that there was very little rain this month.

In the summer, the climate is so hot that the skin can't breathe, and this feeling is even stronger in the bustling city center. The café where I work part-time has been offering latte art coffee and summer-limited desserts that can be selected by customers in the summer, and because of this, the number of customers who come to the café to escape the heat has increased a lot, and the whole café is almost full because of the long queue in front of the bar that is full of customers who choose to take out. Qin Chuan and I, as well as Sho Matsubara, who has not yet turned regular, frequently go back and forth between the main hall and the back kitchen, and it is not easy.

"If only that kid Yagyu were here. This Matsubara is really ......" When I went to the back kitchen with the packed dinner cup, I ran into Qin Chuan who came out with coffee, and when I passed by, Qin Chuan couldn't help but mumble with a Chinese.

Not only Qin Chuan, but I am also dissatisfied with him. Even Ken Watanabe, the barista at the store, complained to us in private.

Why Sho Matsubara hasn't turned positive yet, we all know it. But this is the opening hours, and with so many guests here, Qin Chuan is too unpleasant.

I interrupted him: "Don't complain, I'm too busy." ”

Qin Chuan knew that he was speechless, put away the unfinished words, and went to deliver the food with a tray.

I walked into the back kitchen, and Watanabe was making a fancy cup of coffee.

"Good work." He said.

I also said a word of hard work to him.

"Two cups of signature coffee on the rocks." I reported the coffee that I had just ordered from a guest.

"Understood." Watanabe replied, I was about to leave, and he stopped me.

"Chuanjun is very angry." He said, "Xiangjun still can't do it well?" ”

I was silent.

We all looked at the fragments of several coffee cups and plates in the pool, which had been broken by Sho Matsubara.

"Hey, one latte art and one limited dessert from the capsule toy machine." Sho Matsubara, with a leisurely gait, walked in.

"Didn't I just tell you? Sho-kun and Kazuya-kun took an hour off, and no desserts were served during this hour. ”

Kazuya-kun is the pastry chef in the store.

"But the guest has already ordered, what can I do?" Sho Matsubara pursed his lips and said nonchalantly, "You don't know, you can't just make one?" ”

"What did you say? Xiangjun, look, I'm too busy!

"I don't care if you're busy or not. Too lazy to waste time with you. Sho Matsubara glanced at Watanabe, picked up the freshly made coffee, the coffee cup was almost thrown into the tray by him, white milk foam and brown coffee spilled in the tray, this was originally a fancy coffee with the image of the anime character Edogawa Conan, at this moment the milk foam and coffee are integrated, where can you still distinguish the appearance of Edogawa Conan.

Watanabe was suddenly furious, his face turned red, his eyes were bloodshot, he picked up the fragments in the pool, and rushed towards Sho Matsubara!

Sho Matsubara was stunned for a moment, and then reacted. He looked around and picked up a tray and threw it at Watanabe, who instinctively raised his hand to block it, and took advantage of this gap to run away from Sho Matsubara. Seeing Matsubara running out, Watanabe immediately took steps to chase after him. At this time, I came back to my senses after being frightened by his actions, and hurriedly reached out to grab his arm, almost not holding him, and I shouted at him: "Watanabe, calm down!" ”

Watanabe stopped, his hand deactivated, and the fragments slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground. Such a good-tempered person, his whole body trembled with anger, but he never made any further movements.

After a few minutes, Watanabe calmed down and the first thing he did was apologize to me.

I breathed a sigh of relief and said to him, "You know, Watanabe, it's not worth it. ”

He was silent.

He got a haircut, and then he said, "You know, Sho Matsubara never eats lunch, does he?" He couldn't afford lunch, so he stole coffee and desserts from the kitchen every day and took them to Shijo Haramachi Park to eat. ”

"But aren't all desserts freshly made?" I say.

"Yes Kazuya-kun. Sho Matsubara's bastard stealing things from the store was discovered by Kazuya-kun, and Kazuya-kun saw him pitiful, so he deliberately did more every time so that he could steal it! ”

"Gotta get the boss to fire this bastard!" He said through gritted teeth.

"Susu!" Qin Chuan opened the door and came in, "Why haven't you come out for so long?" He saw the debris and tray on the ground, and then looked back and forth at Watanabe and me, frowning, "What's going on?" ”

"Hey, it was Xiangjun who just broke it." Watanabe took his words, "Susu and I are planning to clean up this place. ”

"Broken again?" Qin Chuan raised his voice.

Watanabe sighed, looking helpless. Qin Chuan pulled his hair depressedly.

"There are still so many customers in the store?" Watanabe picked up the broom on the side, "Go ahead, I'll be fine here." ”

"So...... I'm sorry for you, Watanabe-kun. Qin Chuan seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and said to me, "Susu, hurry up." ”

After Qin Chuan finished speaking, he closed the door and left.

Watanabe turned around and winked at me, a little gloating.

"I need two cups of signature coffee here, on the rocks." I say.

"Okay, right away." Watanabe replied as he cleaned up the mess on the ground.

I pushed the door open and walked out.

This was not the only unpleasant thing that happened on this day.

Sho Matsubara had such a scene with Watanabe, and after that, he relented a lot, and I was relieved that I was worried that something would happen to him again.

The restaurant doesn't serve dinner, and as dinner approaches, customers start to leave one after another, and after a busy afternoon, they finally get a respite.

I cleaned up the slightly messy bar, and Qin Chuan came out of the back kitchen and tidied up with me. Then, he switched songs on the computer, and I didn't have to think that it must be the song of the American female singer he liked, and I could hum the tune as much as he played.

The singer herself seems to be an American beauty who came out of a retro pictorial, her full lips are smeared with red, she lazily whispers the sound of drunken dreams and death, and her noble and elegant face wraps her indulgent and wild heart, singing praises and appeals day after day, lonely and depressed.

Qin Chuan really played her song. I glanced at the title of the song, and it was simple and straightforward.

That talented and well-pocketed lover, she longs for everything he has, plunders everything from him, she sings, baby, you are such a rich man, you have everything I have, I don't know how to end it.

I love you so much, but I'm going to leave you eventually.

I'll all leave you eventually.

I think I'm losing my mind again, otherwise Qin Chuan wouldn't have shaken my arm.

I came back to my senses, and he reminded me, "Susu, you're almost there." He said, "You received Mrs. Sasaki today?" ”

"Yes." I nodded.

The old lady I met was a regular customer at the store, and she occasionally came with her husband, but most of the time she was alone, and she only ordered the sweetest caramel coffee and drank it on the rocks. I heard that even in winter, she would add ice cubes to her coffee. She only visits around four o'clock in the afternoon, dresses up in the season's Jinian Sook-hee, reads in the corner, and then leaves around five o'clock, leaving a tip for half the price of coffee.

Locals here are not in the habit of tipping, and I have met very few guests who do.

I glanced at the time display in the bottom right corner of my computer, and it was less than a minute before five o'clock. Looking at Mrs. Sasaki again, she took a sip of her coffee, closed the book in her hand, put it in her handbag, and took out a square purse from the bag. Pull out three thousand-dollar bills and place them on the table. With that done, she closed her handbag, rang the service bell, and headed for the door.

"You walk slowly." Qin Chuan and I bowed together.

When she walked out of the storefront, I walked over to the table where she had just been sitting. On the table, where she had just placed the banknotes, there were only two bills left, which was the price of a cup of coffee.

I turned around, and Sho Matsubara, who had just passed this table, was walking towards the back kitchen, he stretched out his left hand from his pants pocket and waved his hand to Qin Chuan: "I'll go out to eat." ”

"Come back early." Qin Chuan said.

"Cut, long-winded." He broke a bite and carried it into the back kitchen.

"Sister Susu, it's time to get off work after cleaning up this table!" Qin Chuan shouted at me.

I answered, turned around and quickly packed up the cups, wiped the table again, and handed over the money left by Mrs. Sasaki to Qin Chuan.

I said goodbye to him, changed into my clothes, passed through the back kitchen, and left through the back door.

Only one person will take that bill.

"He couldn't afford lunch, so he stole coffee and desserts from the kitchen every day and took them to Shijo Haramachi Park to eat."

That's what Watanabe told me.

I walked towards Shijo Kawaramachi Park.

When I found Sho Matsubara, he was sitting on a double bench with two boxes for storing desserts next to him, he picked up one of the store's packaging paper cups and took a sip, leaned over, stretched out his arms, unscrewed the public faucet next to him, took a glass of water from the paper cup, and drank it with his head up. A pedestrian passed in front of him, threw down a cigarette butt, his eyes lit up, he picked it up, wiped the filter with his uniform, took a puff, leaned against the back of the double bench, and spit out the smoke leisurely, and then, with his left hand, reached into his pocket and pulled out a thousand-dollar bill, which he flicked on it with a mocking smile.

This bastard!

I cursed in my heart and walked quickly to him with the lunch box in my hand.

Sho Matsubara raised his head and whistled at me, "Yo, Miss, off work?" ”

"Please give me back the money." I'll put it bluntly.

"That's what the eldest lady is talking about?" He waved the money in his hand at me, "This is the tip I earned with great difficulty today, how did I become yours, Miss?"

"I'm not a big lady." I looked at him, "This is the tip I earned, please give it back to me." ”

Sho Matsubara stood up, the tall and thin man was in front of me, he looked at me condescendingly, and suddenly, he grabbed my hand holding the lunch box, and I was in pain, and I couldn't help but struggle, but his strength was too great for me to break free. He wrapped his hands around me, approached me with a mocking face, and the bad smell of tobacco breathed on my face, and he said, "Double bento box, high-end sushi, are you stupid?" ”

I turned my head sideways to avoid it, and he pinched my face with his hand, and pulled it back to face him: "You say, you are so rich, why should you take this money?" "He made a lot of effort in his hand, which made my cheeks hurt," Lao Tzu told you, this money is now Lao Tzu's! In the future, your tips will be all Lao Tzu! ”

This man is sick! I lifted my foot and kicked him hard at his calf bone, he was in pain, and immediately let go of me, I took two steps back with the lunch box, and held the general, but he grabbed me again, he dragged me to the public faucet, pushed my head into the cement basin under the faucet, closed the drain plug, and he unscrewed the faucet.

I struggled to resist, but he held my head down with more force and yelled at me. The water drenched my hair and ran down it, and more and more water was being filled in the basin, and my whole face was so stuffed in the water that I could barely breathe.

On my way to Sho Matsubara, I wondered what he would do, but I didn't foresee that I would make myself like this on this trip.

It was probably the previous experience of tearing my face with Tomomi Nagasawa that made me confident in my ability in this area, and I was confident that I could handle this well. I overlooked that I was dealing with an adult male with a huge disparity in power. And now, reality has taught me a big lesson.

I tried to hold my breath and force myself to calm down. That's when I noticed that I had been clutching something in my hand, a knot tied in a fruoshiki, a blue furoshiki with a wavy pattern, and I used it to wrap the valuable double bento box.

I realized this, and my palm held Furoshiki tighter, rounded my arm, and knocked on Sho Matsubara behind me, presumably in the head, Sho Matsubara snorted, the movement of my hand stopped, I immediately turned around and made up for his head, he staggered a few steps, and before he could stand firmly, I quickly kicked him in the stomach again, and then hugged the lunch box tightly, and ran away.

I once said that as an excellent student with all-round moral, intellectual, physical and labor development, I ran very fast.

I ran as hard as I could, ignoring the strange looks of passers-by, as I had done in every physical education exam, and I breathed a sigh of relief, and I didn't know how many street corners I had crossed, until I almost collided with a moving car, and then I stopped.

It was at an intersection where the owner had apparently slowed down as he went straight, only to suddenly rush in front of his car. After a screeching sound of brakes, the owner braked the car perfectly, and the front of the car was only half a fist away from me.

The breath I had been holding fell out of my throat, and my legs went limp, and I sat down on the ground.

The owner of the car who got out of the car to check the situation was very slow, and the sound of steady footsteps was accompanied by a dull knock on the ground, I should have reacted keenly, but at this time I couldn't care so much, I let go of the lunch box, and gasped for breath with both hands on the ground.

"This young lady, are you okay?"

A male voice sounded overhead, gentle, clear, and even more ...... Familiar.

This voice belongs only to a certain person.

He's a native, and I've never seen him speak Kyoto, so he must sound good at those vague notes.

I thought so.

At this time, I forgot to catch my breath, lowered my head, and did not dare to lift up. My long hair, combed in a bunch, had long since fallen from my shoulders, wet, and I couldn't tell whether it was water or sweat. And the shirt on my body, black wide-legged pants, they were all wet, clinging to my body, how embarrassed, I hugged the lunch box to my chest, buried my head lower.

Yuichi Fujisawa recognized me, and with surprise and doubt, he called my name: "Susu? ”

How I wish I could say goodbye to this man. If we could see each other again, I said to myself, there would be no more embarrassing scenes this time.

But at present, this is not the case. I escaped from Sho Matsubara, I ran through the streets of Kyoto with my hair scattered, and I was tired and sloppy.

It's better not to see.

I didn't want to respond, I didn't look away, I could see the sign of his Bentley.

"Susu."

He crouched on one knee in front of me, his cane set aside, and he draped a garment over me, his suit, with a light fragrance on it.

I couldn't escape, so I had to look up, and I whispered to him, "Long time no see, Mr. Fujisawa." ”

It's been a long time.

I plucked up my courage and looked up at him, his swirling eyes, I glanced at them, and then lowered my head.

He seemed to sigh, inaudible.

"Get up first. Susu. He held out his hand to me, "Here." ”

That's when I realized I was sitting on a zebra crossing. Fortunately, there were not many people at this time, there was no crowd around, only a few people watched from afar.

Even the traffic police on duty.

"I can do it myself. Thank you. I thanked him and helped him up with one hand, the car was already hot from the sun, and I withdrew my hand as soon as I stood firm.

Yuichi Fujisawa stood up with his cane, he was dressed very formally as usual, the white shirt in the suit was long-sleeved, and he was still cool, obviously in such a hot and humid weather.

He walked towards me, but instead of stopping in front of me, he walked around me and opened the passenger door.

"Get in the car." He said.

"No need." I said, "I ......."

"Where are you going to dress like this? Susu. He interrupted me and looked at me, his eyes deep, with a vague smile on his face, and spoke to me in a gentle tone, but not for me to refuse, "Get in the car." ”

He's right, I'm not fit to walk on the street dressed like this.

I stopped refusing and walked towards him. He held the handlebar with one hand and the roof with the other, and I sat into the car carefully, but he didn't close the door.

I looked up at him.

"Fasten your seatbelts."

I hurriedly did so, but I couldn't tie it after a long time.

"I'll come." As he spoke, he leaned over to me, and I was startled, and hurriedly stepped behind me, leaning against the leather backrest. At the same time, he found the hitch, fastened it for me, and closed the door for me.

I secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and I couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic.

In the narrow air, the crisp aroma of his body was all around.

He's a little different today. I thought about it in hindsight.