"Molly posted a photo to everyone." Checking new pop-up notifications on his phone, but this appeared thrice, Aaron was brushing his teeth. "College nights & City lights." Molly ended the caption with a city dawn icon, not an evening city.
"No classes were harmed in the making of this party." The caption with a rock hand sign and fire emoji, Molly wrote this indeed, on a photo of portable gas burners. She finally followed his advice after paying attention to Aaron's previous persuasions. An A4 sketchbook lay on the floor, he supposed she took the photo at somebody's house, not hers, and the sketchbook must belong to someone else, not Molly. It took him months to keep in touch with her, although Molly was a social butterfly and bad at recognizing people she talked to, his patience paid off.
"Dressed to impress, partying to de-stress." Molly took a photo in a changing room, wearing a revealing dress, discounted as shown on the price tag, she enjoyed trying these out. "You didn't buy this in the clothing store, did you?" Aaron replied to her OOTD post, knowing how impulsive she could be.
"Yeah, how do you know that?" asked Molly, she took a look at her mix-and-match photo again. "You behave spontaneously, always." The library assistant was texting while keeping the brush inside his mouth, little foam fell into the cup of water, and he poured the floating away. "Hey, can I call you now?" She just remembered what she had to tell him before she forgot, Molly called him and didn't wait for his reply.
"Can you look after other students' motorbikes and cars? Luke and Jon will be there. By the way, one of you guys must clean up the parking lot." Molly started ordering people around. He was the first one, and she heard him gargle. "If I say yes, then what do I get?" Asking for a payback, Aaron wanted to hear her answers personally.
"Girls want to ask you out on a date. Got a line-up of special guests for your approval!" That was what Molly could come up with, she avoided talking about money. "Not interested in party people and you at all," washing his face, he refused.
"Just kidding, I don't care if you don't want to mention it, but this time, I'll do it for free," no wasting time making a deal with her, "So next Friday, you guys will cook some before the day, won't you?" Aaron made a move. "Yes, I asked other girls how they felt about that, and all of them thought it was a good idea. I told them I borrowed yours and boom, you got invited!" said Molly, good news for Aaron, it was going according to plan.
"Cool. Talk to you later." He ended their conversation quickly. "Thanks, see you at the party. B-" Aaron closed the call before Molly finished her line.
Preparations for the party college were proceeding more smoothly than he expected, switched into waterfall mode, and the morning shower eased his mind.
---
"Akira, when will you take the final exams?" Mrs. Azusagawa, who started a conversation with her son first, put her chopsticks down gently. "Have a good day, sweetheart. Do your best and don't forget to eat the lunch I packed for you, it has all your favorites," prepared the dishes for her youngest child, and his mother saw him packing his breakfast into a paper bowl, although she wanted him to stay with her a little longer. "Don't stress too much, you'll be fine! I know you can figure out the next step," Mrs. Azusagawa had no clue about what let her son down, she assumed. Lemonade tasted bittersweet for her, he didn't answer Akemi's questions at breakfast that day.
"I'm fine. I don't have any trouble with the upcoming test. Bye, Mom. Got to go now." The worn-out boy grabbed his back neck and let out a sigh. Closed the door at about 7 AM, his morning shower thought helped him keep his chin up. It wasn't intensely sunny here, Aaron was testing his latest self-custom skateboard by riding it.
Nothing changed him last Friday, Akira seemed moody, and his schedule had worn him out on the rest of the weekdays before. Next Monday, the youngest of the Azusagawa family would still work in the school library, this quiet boy wasn't going to be absent next week. Thinking of the upcoming notification from the librarian on his phone, this hard-working rascal looked forward to getting paid, he hadn't been absent once in the summer semester.
Their son usually has about one hour to taste the silence when walking along the street, but his class starts at 8 AM, so going to school on foot would make him late for school. This smart boy doesn't go outside much, but skateboarding might be the best transportation option he's ever chosen. No driving license, no parking tickets, and no paying fines for speeding. Aaron casually ate leftover breakfast in the classroom. He was sitting on the first row of desks, no female students signed up for this subject.
"Alright uhm... Let's get started, the topic of this week is... something about the Transport Layer. Or was it the Transport Layer? Uh, doesn't matter. The test probably won't cover it," morning with Mr. Pearl in his suit and tie, he was checking his presentation slides, that old man's never prepared his lecture once by himself.
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"Should we take notes? The outline says we are allowed to use our notes during the exam next Monday," one guy raised his hand and then asked the well-dressed man. "I do not remember I've written that. I never allow my students to bring their cheatsheets on their exams," Vincent put on his glasses, squinted his eyes when reading the subject outline, and shook his head. "I mean, sure, if you feel like it. But honestly, just Goodcatch it later. That's what I'd do," The clumsy teacher unpinned, and the handwritten poster fell.
---
"See? Even protocols have to follow rules to communicate properly, you guys should learn a thing or two from them!" This boomer wanted to have a good sense of humor, as usual, his audience stayed silent. "I told a joke about packet loss, but no one laughed. Guess it got dropped!" The lazy professor told another joke about IT Networking, but no one reacted.
"Look, education is important or whatever, but have you seen my degrees? That's real learning, explaining everything, doing anything myself, and patience in one body. You'll thank me someday", the professor switched gears to put his embarrassment aside, and he continued. These boys were repeating his previous Dad jokes in whispers and couldn't hold their giggles, some individuals left earlier to buy some food in convenience stores for lunchtime.
"Tell me, what did I just say about the role of Transport Layer? Jonathan, where's Jonathan?" Mr. Pearl was checking names in the list, he was choosing any clueless students to answer his questions, and Aaron was the only exception. Whenever the humble brag looked at his unbothered face, he fidgeted and swallowed the flowing saliva down his throat before speaking, the boomer questioned himself if he wanted to point at the students who understood what this man just explained like this guy did a few more times.
"Vin, you haven't returned our papers yet. It's been more than a month," Aaron reminded the professional-looking old man to do his job. "Oh, right. Those. Yeah, uh... I started grading them, but then I realized they all kind of said the same thing. You know, so... everyone gets an A. Congrats!" Just ended his four-hour preaching, the professor waves goodbye to the class. Like squirrels fill their cheeks with chestnuts, Jon opened the door with mini fried chicken balls stuffed in his mouth, Luke was holding bags of hot instant food, and Aaron was heading to where he could get tap water. Drank in one go, drinking water kept him cool better than any passerby strangers told him to calm down when he was holding his temper.
Aaron returned fast to take his backpack he left in the classroom and gulped hot miso soup in his drinking bottle. Tempura seafood, mini sushi slices from a simple maki roll, boiled vegetables in one box, fruit salad in the other box, didn't cram for exams, he stopped eating as long as there was no food left in the lunchbox. Aaron walked to his familiar workplace, unlocked the see-through door, and switched sides of the hanging sign.
"To be honest, you are not physically attractive, but your charisma tempts these college students into reading books and working for us here!" Mrs. Moon concluded after observing Aaron's appearance with a talent show judge's dramatic face, the school library was opened in the afternoon.
"I don't bring luck to you here. Can't wait for the summer break," Aaron put on his name tag and took another gulp of miso soup. "Don't worry, your beckoning cat will be back in the fall semester this year," raised his fist, he made a gesture like a cute cat's paw was calling humans, in front of his boss and his potential customers. Despite knowing how unexpectedly popular he was, he never liked offering fan service. Lucas and Jonathan witnessed Aaron being awkwardly adorable, they looked at each other, and both had no idea what was behind his casual intimidating face. Aaron was signaling the freshman girls in the hallway, but the boys came in together, he wasn't happy with the result although it was still going as planned. He bowed, "Hope we won't fail the upcoming exams," these shorter guys gave him two aggressive head pats and put two stickers on the "very satisfied" section of the rating board. They picked random novels to stay in the room longer, Aaron looked at Jihye, raised his eyebrows, and tilted his head, waiting for her response. He was into deadpan annoying his boss, though, it distracted him from dealing with being caressed by these naughty guys. The fresher girls and her female librarian assistants burst into giggles, their boss was keeping her temper, Jihye couldn't scold him for promoting this college library better than she could, Aaron broke his character while scratching his head.
"If I can't come back, you can get yourself a calico cat, name it 'Akira' and put his name tag on a pet collar. It's my real name, he'll attract as many as you wish, Grace." Aaron sat down, one of Grace's assistants, who stood behind Aaron, was showing double upside down V signs on his head, "Someday I'll get you a meow meow headband," the other took photos of him. "Not your pet. Please stop. Got to work now." Aaron disliked being involved in photos and videos. "Got it!" said both, pouty lips between twin V signs, the standing girl returned to posing cute, and the other took more portraits of her and they took turns.
---
Aaron got off after working for four hours in the afternoon, Funhouse was there, reflected in his dull black eyes. "Jon, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Lucas whispered, being surprised, Jonathan dropped his phone, at least he caught his phone on his own after a juggling. "Dude, seems like you're into this," Jonathan showed Aaron some important photos: a screenshot of the Funhouse address, the building's first floor, and cheap booze racks.
"So Molly already told you we were going to work together," Aaron was observing the first-floor photos precisely. "Yeah. Didn't think you would say something about her spicy outfit for her sexy time. That's what she said." The class clowns were excited to tease him more, and Aaron rolled his eyes. "Wow, chill. Man, why so... serious? Alright, we're going now, see you soon." Jonathan shrugged and roughly waved at Aaron, he went with Luke.
"Hope you will be motivated. We need you next week, have a nice weekend." Mrs. Moon sent a message and a hissing cat sticker. "$9300, 10:12, 21/07/2022. From account: MOON JI HYE. To account: AKIRA AZUSAGAWA. Message: You got a bonus, good night." Aaron checked his transaction history, feeling overwhelmed but that night, he didn't have trouble falling asleep.
