Unlike its outside appearance, the inside of the Café is pretty clean and well maintained, having a sweet, but very faint, scent of coffee. The walls have the classic brick style look one would expect when they think of an ‘Old Café’, but there's some… peculiar paintings hung on the walls that are themed around the ocean and waves, they feel so out of place. The counter goes from the uh… left? Yeah, I am pretty sure it is left in this case. From the left side of the building to almost its other side, and has a sign alerting customers not to go behind it. There are a lot of tools and machines scattered on the counter as well, strange machines at that… I have never seen these machines before, there is one tool that looks like a stamper, other machines that look like smaller blenders and one big machine where the coffee seems to be made…? How strange. The wall behind the counter has a lot of shelves hanging on it with a lot of jars with coffee beans inside, though I can not read the labels on them, their text is a bit too small. Something else to note is a door for 'Staff Only'.

“This place feels… so much nicer inside than from the outside.”

“I know, right? A real example of ‘Never judge a book by its cover’.”

“I wonder what these machines do though.” I said while poking the stamper looking thing.

“Please don't touch them Seiko. Let's not break anything on our first visit.”

“Alright, alright.”

“Where's the staff though?”

“Or people in general, there's quite a bit of chairs and tables, but no one is here!”

Actually, they are right, there is no staff or clients in the Café, not at the seats by the counter or by the tables close to the blurry windows. It is a complete desert, it feels kind of ominous…

“We-well, the doorbell did ring. Someone is bound to show up, right? Let's just pick a table and wait!”

We picked the table closest to the corner by the blurry windows and waited. While waiting, we noticed some faint noises coming from the door behind the counter, sounds of metal and utensils falling on the ground…?

Suddenly, the door opens and someone stumbles out of it.

“Sorry, sorry! I'll clean up everything when I'm done here!” the person says back in the direction of the door, before closing.

This person is a skinny adult with dark red hair, very light facial hair, wearing an apron… Oh wait, that's my dad!

I jumped out of my seat and went to the counter to talk to him.

“Hey dad!”

“Oh!” He was caught slightly off guard by me, “Sweetheart, you're finally here.”

“Yup! Safe and sound like you told me.”

“Da-Dad!?”

“He's your father?”

“Hmm? Well yeah. Didn't I tell you guys he worked here?”

“You didn't.”

“Ah… whoops! Must have forgotten to do that hehe.”

“I assume these are your friends?"

“Yup! Dad, meet Chie and Hiroshi, and this is my dad everyone.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both, Chie and Hiroshi. I hope my daughter didn't cause you two too much trouble.”

“Hey!”

“Ni-nice to meet you mister…”

“She doesn't make too many problems, don't worry.”

“I don't make ANY problems!”

“...”

“Aside from the ones I did in the past!”

“Glad to hear that, thank you for being wonderful friends to her. You know, she talks a lot about you two at home.”

“That's enough dad, you already crossed the line!”

“Alright, alright, I'll stop. However, I still want to know why you three arrived so late, it's already 2 PM and I was really worried!”

“We had a few problems at school and on the way her-”

My dad intervenes, very worried “Wha-What happened on the way here??”

“Oh, it wasn't anything bad, we just got lost because…” Should I really say it was his map's fault, when I was, and still am confused after being told it was reversed…

“Because?”

“Because of the map…”

“On no! Did I mess up the directions??”

I guess I do not have a choice anymore… “Yup, the written directions were all reversed and confused all of us.”

“I'm so sorry, I tend to confuse left and right a lot.”

“It's fine, I also confu- I mean, it's completely fair to confuse right and left sometimes!”

“Hmm… Here, I'll make up for the three of you, I will give each of you a coffee drink, on the house of course.”

“I'll take that for sure!”

“Sh-should we really take this? The walk here wasn't that bad…”

“It's fineeee! One free coffee won't hurt.”

I went back to my seat, which was close to Chie and at the opposite of Hiroshi while my father followed me. He gave each of us a piece of paper with the menu items, then we began choosing.

“Let me see…”

There are a lot of coffee drinks here. Espresso, Lungo, Mocha, Flat White… I wonder which to choose!

“I-I'll have a Mocha mister.”

“Then I'll have a Cappuccino!”

“What about you Hiroshi?” I said while turning to him. But weirdly enough he did not respond. He is intensely staring at the menu. Can someone really be that focused on a menu?

“Hiroshi?”

“Oh! Ah, sorry… I was just wondering a bit. I-I have Lungo.”

“Cappuccino, Lungo and Mocha… alright, they will be ready soon.” My dad leaves to make our drinks.

“Well, we have some time to burn, so let's talk about strategy!”

“Strategy?”

“Yeah! Operation M.H.S. has changed, we have a new objective now! So I decided to change the name to: ‘Find The Flower.’ F.T.F.!”

“Our objective now is to walk around the Shizen Park, find and enter as many florist shops as possible, and investigate them for the specific flower Hiroshi is looking for.”

“What kind of flower is it?”

“It's a… hmm… rare flower? Thinking about it now, you haven't told us what type of flower it is, Hiroshi.”

“Oh, uh… it's a green variant of the flowers I planted in the garden. They are called gladiolus, and that variant is indeed pretty rare.”

“Our main objective is a green gladiolus, and that's the plan I came up with just now. What do you guys think?”

“Sounds like a nice plan.”

“I'm okay with it.”

“Then we are all in agreement, Operation F.T.F. will be going underway and will succeed no matter what!”

“Yay!” Chie follows up with a few claps for my perfect plan.

“I still don't know what the previous one stands for.”

“Anyways, there was something else I thought about that I wanted to share.”

“Are you guys joining any school clubs?”

“Clubs? Aren't club activities only opening in April?”

“Yeah, we're still in February.”

“They are, but I saw a few ‘Join our Club’ fliers on the announcement board already. Seems like they got permission to begin recruitment early.”

“Strange, that never happened before… Either way, I wasn’t planning on joining any club.”

“Not even a gardening club?”

“I don't think a gardening club even exists at Gakumon.”

“Oh, that's unfortunate. Well, at least we don't need to compete for garden time.”

“I-I thought about the literature club, but quickly gave up on it.”

“Why?”

“...” She responded very quietly, “talking to other people is hard…”

“I also didn't find any club that appealed to my interest in the announcement board.”

“But, It would be nice to be part of a club though…”

“Sorry to interrupt the conversation, but the drinks are ready.” My dad said, standing close to our table.

He placed each drink we ordered and said “May you enjoy your stay at L'esprit Espresso.”

“What was that…”

“It's something my boss asked me to say each time I serve a drink. It was a tradition from the previous owner he said, I kind of like it personally.”

“Th-thank you, mister.”

“Thanks dad!”

“Thanks.”

“You are all welcome. Now if you need me for anything else, I'll be at the counter, cleaning the equipment.”

The Cappuccino looks just like the one he made for me last month at home. I wonder how it will taste after a whole month of being a barista. Holding the cup, I take a sip and…

This cappuccino tastes delicious! It's so creamy and smooth, the flavors and texture are all so good and blend well together. This one is five times better than the previous one he made at home! Dad improved his barista skills so much in the past few days!

“This mocha has a very good taste.”

“Your father is a really good barista.”

“I know, right? He has been doing this for only two months as well! It's incredible.”

I also have changed my opinion on this place. It has a very nice and calming atmosphere, and I even started to appreciate the ocean themed paintings on the walls… On second thought, they still feel out of place. Either way, the coffee is great too, it’s a place I would love to stay at…

“Hey…”

“I just had a thought, since none of us are joining a club, what if we made our own club?”

“Our own club? Can we even do that?”

“There’s a few rules we would need to follow, but in the end, you would need the authorization of a council member to do that.”

“Oh! No, no, I wasn’t talking about a real club at the school. There's no way we would ever convince a council member with the idea I have.”

“What's your idea, Seiko?”

“It wouldn't be a literal club where we focus on one activity, it would be a place where we go to and stay there after school.”

“So, a place where we would do what we are doing right now?”

“Yeah, that.”

“That sounds fun.”

“Well, club rooms are off limits for that, do you have a place in mind to have this club?”

“I thought that the garden at Gakumon would be a good place.”

“That's not possible, one of the janitors closes the garden at 4 P.M.”

“Aw, that sucks, but I still have a second place in mind.”

“Hmm?”

“This table right here at this Café!”

“Uuuh…”

“I don't think we are allowed to just hang out here everyday, without at least ordering something.”

“Well, it doesn't cost anything to ask right?”

I got up and dashed to where my dad was, behind the counter.

“Dad!”

“Ah!” Whoops, I scared him a little. It's okay, I'll count this as payback for scaring me yesterday!

“Hey Seiko, you can't be here behind the counter.”

“I'll stay for just a bit, promise! I just wanted to know something.”

“Hmm? What do you want to know, sweetheart?”

“Can we have that table over there?”

“Wha-What?”

“I mean, can we make that table our spot to hang out everyday?”

“Ev-everyday?? You know I can't allow such a thing. Don't you feel like it's a little unreasonable to ask that?”

“Hmm… maybe a little. Where's your boss, I'll ask him personally!”

“Boss!?” He panics for a bit and responds “H-he might be occupied at the moment! He's a very busy per-”

Before my dad could finish his sentence, the door to the back of the Café opened gently and a tall, strong, bald man with a very big pointy mustache came out from it and walked up to us. He is so tall that he casts a shadow over my father, and the sunglasses he is wearing inside… Such a threatening aura coming from him, and he didn't even speak a single word… I'm scared!

Opening his mouth and speaking with a very deep and growly voice, he says “Rookie…”

“YES BOSS!” “YES BOSS!”

We both stiff up and quickly move in position to face him, much like soldiers who were about to get scolded by a general.

“Both of them??”

“They really are father and daughter…”

“Hm…”

He turns his head to me… WAIT! I JUST REMEMBERED THAT I'M ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE COUNTER!! THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM!!!

“Is this…”

“M-My apologies Boss! M-My daughter didn't know that she wasn't supposed to be here, and she has a lot of respect for the rules of this Café. she’s leaving right now!”

Why did you say that!? I'm just as frozen as you, he is too scary!

“So, you are his little one…”

He, very firmly, extends his open hand that is twice the size of mine, towards me and says with an unchanged expression “Nice to meet, little one.”

“Ni-Nic-nice to meet you sir.” I, very much yielding, shook his hand… huh. I thought he was a tough and mean guy, but he took a lot of care to not hurt my hand while shaking… he does not seem like a bad guy after all! I am a bit less scared of him now.

“What do you need, rookie?”

“Oh! I'm so sorry to bother you boss! It was nothing, my daughter caught me a bit off gu-”

“Hey boss! My club was looking for a place to stay, and I'm here to ask if I can have that table over there as our meeting spot!”

“Ah…”

The big boss turns his head to my father who is sweating bullets after what I said, and stares at him for a bit. My father whispered without turning to look at me, almost like a statue.

“Seiko! What are you doing!? He really, REALLY loves this Café, I saw him grab a rat with his own hands and throw him out, that's how much he likes this place!”

“Costs nothing to ask!” I whispered back to him.

“Little one.”

“Yes boss!”

“Are you going to cause trouble or damage this establishment?”

“Nope!”

“In that case, it's all yours then.”

“HUH!?”

“Awesome!”

“You really allowed such a request??”

“It's fine, I trust the little girl of my employer. Besides, we barely get customers, I'm sure the late old man would appreciate more liveliness in his Café.”

“Thank you! You're the best boss!”

I dashed back to our table.

“Did you hear that guys? This table is officially our club meeting spot!”

“Yay!” She follows-up with little claps.

“Hang on, the preparations aren't complete yet! We still need a name for the club…”

“A name…”

“You got any ideas Hiroshi?” I asked him, but he did not respond. He is looking down, is he spacing out while looking at the menu on the table? I got a little closer to him and said:

“Hiroshi?”

“Oh! Sorry, I-I spaced out again.”

“You're doing that a lot… Are you still worried about finding that flower?”

“You don't need to worry! We will find it, no matter what!”

“Y-yeah…”

“But first we need a name for our club.”

“What if we named it after something we like?”

“That's… there's still a lot of options to choose from by that logic.”

“Maybe something you have done recently that you liked?”

”That's a much thinner list, let me think…”

Something I have been doing lately that I have been having a lot of fun… I mean there is this hang-out, but a club called 'Hang-out Club' feels a little weird… 'Having fun with friends Club' does not sound right either, a little too big… I have been playing that game called Phoenix Quest. 'Phoenix Quest Club'... not that’s too specific. Wait, maybe-

“What do you guys think of ‘Phoenix Club’?”

“‘Phoenix Club’? Like the game ‘Phoenix Quest’?”

“I got it from that, yeah!”

“What does a club named ‘Phoenix Club’ even do?”

“Well, it's not a real club to begin with, so we can afford to have a name like that!”

“I guess that's fair, I'm fine with that name.”

“What about you Chie?”

“I like it as well. Phoenix Quest is one of my favorite games.”

“Alright! Then it's settled!”

“This table will be the home for the members of our club!“

“The Phoenix Club!"