CCC : Chapter 16 "A Business"

        "NO WAY!" A voice that combines both of my voice and Quinne's "Come on guys.. How long will you wanna fight each other?” Brugière says with a worried voice. Brugière's position right now is in between me and Quinne. “There’s no way I want to be in the same room with her!” Quinne says. “We’re just arrived here, Quinne. Please don’t just start a fight like that..” Brugière tries to calm Quinne down. She tries her best to separate us so we’re not getting into a real fight. “Ugh! I should have known something like this would happen!” On the other hand, Quinne takes every opportunity to mock me. For me, I really try my best to not get emotional about her actions towards me. But Quinne’s voice always successfully annoyed me although I already ignored all of her words. “Maybe we can talk to our teacher about the roommate thing?” Brugière says to persuade Quinne. Quinne only clicks her tongue as a response to what Brugière said. This time, I get a chance to mock her back. “Yea.. stop acting like a kid, don’t you?” scoffs while getting into the room. Mimicking how Stam always teased me these days and thankfully it works successfully to her. Quinne and Brugière gasp at the same time. Seems like Brugière knows what is going to happen next, she steps inside the room quickly. “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?!” Quinne’s voice, a really high one, I believe a voice that can be heard from the building entrance. Not long after that, one of the servants knocks on our door to tell us that all students need to gather in the field now. All of the students from other schools also gather there. Actually this wide field is right in front of our mini villa house with two steps of stair height foundation. The villa has 2 bedrooms, each of them has their own bathroom. Room at the left side of it is for the girls room, that's why it’s bigger than the right side, the boys room. In the middle of the bedrooms, there’s a small kitchen with a complete kitchen set. Lastly, about the mini villa, there’s a big enough terrace for us to gather together. There are 5 schools that are invited to attend this special event from embassies. In conclusion there are 5 mini villas that surround this wide field. Plus two more villas for the guards and other staff. One gate for way in and out. When I get out of the room, the twins finally arrive in front of the mini villa. “Vil!” Both of them call out my name then run to hug me. “Hi guys.” replying to them and accepting their hug. Mana lets go of the hug but Mari still stays. “It’s been only three days but it feels like forever, Vil!” Mari says while tightening the hugs. “Uff! Mari, mari, mari! My back, my back!” I say with a panicked voice and patting her back quickly. Because of that, Mari finally releases the hug from me. “Whoops! Sorry, bestie! I just missed you so much!” Mari stops talking for a while then gasps “You didn’t even contact us for three days!” she continues with an angry childish voice. From Mari's last sentence, Mana also comes to realize just now. “Oh that’s right, Vil. Where have you been these past three days? I’ve already contacted you since Friday, I guess? But you didn’t give any response to it.” Mana says. “I uhh..” just about to answer her, one of the embassy staff checking on the microphone takes all our attention. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tomas Haley. First of all I would like to thank everyone that is coming to this special event. Everyone please take a seat where all of you guys are comfortable.” He says. The twins and I sit together right in front of our room. Brugière, Léger, and Colombain are sitting right next to us, on the other side of the terrace. While Quinne, Görder, and Mr. Sneg are sitting a bit far away from us. When the embassies do the opening for this event, I try to explain about what happened these past three days. Wait.. Should I tell them Stam is actually a criminal before..? Maybe I’ll skip this part. “Oh my god that’s really rough, Vil.” Mana replies. “Agree. I mean you won that match, right? That’s the point! Your parents shouldn’t think that you must have an absolute win, right?” Mari says with a very frustrated voice. “Yeah.. I know but it’s fine guys. It’s already in the past and thankfully I learned a lot from my coach. It’s not that bad I suppose.” responding to the twins. “But are you okay, Vil? Are you hurt somewhere? How about your right arm?” Mari says with a worried voice and tries to check my whole body. “I’m totally fine, Mari. I think my right arm has already fully recovered. My coach is actually pretty kind for our training.” replying to Mari. “Oh by the way, Vil. You haven’t answered my question before. If you only trained those past three days, then why are you not answering our message?” Mana asks. “Oh yeah about that.. To be honest, guys I don’t know.” my first response and makes them look at me with a confused face. “On Thursday night, I put my phone right next to my bed. But when I woke up, my phone was nowhere to be found guys. Even before and after training I try to search for it again but I can’t find it.” That's my explanation to them. “Then how do you find it now?” Mana asks since my phone is right on my hand now. “It just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. When I checked my phone this morning, nothing changed.” give the twins my phone so they can check it as well. “That’s so weird, Vil. Your parents did that?” Mari asks. “Yeah I know it’s weird. That's the biggest possibility, Mari.” replying to Mari. “But the question is why would they take my phone then not do anything about it?” Twins look at each other to share that confused look of them. All of us here know that nothing changed in my phone and still have no clue what they have done to my phone. “All right, everyone! Allow me to explain what you’re going to do in these next five days together.” Mr. Haley announces. Because of that announcement, the twins and I will try to figure it out later. Now our focus is on this special event explanation. “I’m very sorry that is not actually a summer camp that you guys might imagine of. All of you guys will stay together with your classmates in those mini Villas.” For real, I thought we would build a camp or anything about the mountain or something that might have something to do with the training that was given to me But then.. What was that training for..? “Everyone gathered here is for..” He stops for a second “Can anyone take a guess?” “Vacation? Since it’s pretty far away from the town.” Mari whispers to us. “Mhm. This place is actually pretty nice, right? The best part of it is that The sunset is right in front of our terrace!” Mari replies to her twin. The other students start murmuring with each other as well. “Anyone? May I ask..” He looks at every student in the field “Ah! Is that the most well known Queen Valter over there?” He says when his eyes land on me. Just my luck.. I don’t know what to say.. One of the staff comes over to give me a mic. “Good morning everyone.” my first greeting without any nervousness in there. Waiting until everyone answers the greeting. “Much obliged for the Embassies for having us to this special event.” Bows a little to the audience “From my point of view, the special event might be about competition.” that’s my final answer then gives the mic back to the staff. “Hmm.. Close, very close. Thank you for the answer and greeting from the student, Queen Valter. Shall we just get to the point?” Mr. Haley says. Everyone starts answering with ‘yes’ together. “Wooww.. All of you guys are already pumped up! Alright then the special event this time is.. Running a business!” He says with a very excited voice. “WHAT?!” The twins and Brugière say with a surprised voice. Because of that, the other students start murmuring with each other again. After that announcement, one of the students from other school raises his hand to speak. “What kind of business is that?!” He shouts from his seat. “Everyone, please calm down..” My haley tries to calm everyone down “It’s not like all of you are going to be a businessman or anything! Hahaha” That makes all of the students silent. “Alright the point is each one of the schools will run a business cafe around here. There are five spots of the cafes and of course” He calls one of the staff to bring a box with a hole on top of it “We need to choose which place your school will get!” “A business cafe? Seems pretty interesting.” Mana says. “Oh we’re going to work in a cafe? Owwhhh yeahh! I always wanna try something like this!” Mari replies. After what mari just said, Brugière nudges mari’s elbow. Seems like Brugière also likes this special event from embassies. “Never thought the embassies would plan something like this.” My reply to the twins. Mana looks at me with a worried face. “Are you worried that we’re going to team up with Quinne and Sneg, Vil?” Mana asks. Do I look or feel worried now? I don’t think it’s that kind of feeling right now. When I think back a bit from it, exactly before meeting Stam, I should be worried about this now. “Nah.. it’s alright, Mana. You don’t have to worry much about it. Let’s just have fun with this event, okay?” At this moment, Mana probably didn’t expect that I’m going to give this kind of answer to her. But I know that it makes her happy. “Yes! Let’s make good memories together with the others!” She responds. Not long after our small conversation, Quinne, Görder, and Mr. Sneg are coming at us. “So? Who’s going to take the lottery for our cafe place?” Quinne says with a very cold voice of hers. “You can take it if you want to.” my answer to her question. After hearing my answer, she looks at me with a bit of surprised face. But that surprised face only shows for a second then changes it to a smirk. “Well well.. Are you not confident, our greatest Queen? Are you afraid that if we get the worst spot, all the blame will be put on you?” She starts mocking me again. “Quinne, please don’t start a fight here.” Mana says. “We need teamwork for this event, you know?” Colombain tries to support Mana. Then I can hear someone scoffs from behind Quinne. “Yeaa..” Mr. Sneg shows up “It will be hard to work up with someone like.. You know..” looking at Colombain with underestimate face. Because of their appearance here, the atmosphere here becomes so tense with each other. Even from where I sit right now, I can feel the discomfort from the twins, Brugière, Léger, and Colombain. “Guys.. Please stop-” Brugière is the one who tries to stop us from fighting and get cut off from me. RIght before she finishes her words, I stand up from my seat then stretch out a bit. “Mmm.. alright then. Wish me luck, guys. I will take the lottery now.” walks away from them. Leaving them speechless with how I act like nothing happened just now. Thanks to Stam that I can control my emotion better, I guess? Also from my actions this time, I can leave them with a smile on my face. Arriving at the box, the staff tells me to pick one of the papers inside of it. Pulls out the paper but I don’t open it yet. “Thank you.” bows a little to the staff then walks back to my mini villa terrace where we just gathered before. When I come back from taking the lottery, everyone still remains silent. But it seems like the atmosphere is a little bit less tense than before. “Alright then, guys. I will open the lottery now.” I say to them while unfolding the paper. With the paper totally unfolded, the place of our business now clearly can be seen. “Oh. I think we have a pretty nice place.” shows them what the paper is written with. “Beach?” Mari says. “That’s what is written here.” my reply to her. “Beach! Yeeeyyy!! We got the beach spot! We got the beach spot!” Mari says with a very cheerful voice. Hearing what just Mari said, Brugière comes to join her little celebration. Mana, Léger, and Colombain only smile looking at those two. While Quinne, Görder, and Mr. Sneg don’t react much about it. “What are the other spots, Vil?” Mana asks me. “When I arrived there before, I saw that there were three spots near this place and two spots on the beach, just like us.” replying to Mana. “Ohh! Then how lucky we got the best spot!” Mari says with her very cheerful voice. “Nonsense.” someone joins our conversation with a very cold voice. That’s a female voice, must be Quinne. Because of her, the atmosphere that was already raised up a bit before becomes tense again. “Why would you say that?” Mana asks Quinne. “Ehh? Why? Isn’t it obvious that our spot will get less customers than the cafe that is near here? That’s already a minus for us.” She explains in a sassy way. But she’s not supposed to say that because I know how the system this business has. That’s why it will be easy for me to deny her argument. “Actually we’re not like opening the cafe and looking for how many customers would come to our place. We’re just literally serving the people who are going to come to our cafe. That’s all.” This beginning of explanation already catches all of their attention. With that also thankfully can lighten the atmosphere. “The customers that come for our cafe are invited only by the embassies. That’s why our job is to give them our best services.” continues the explanation. “Then what kind of competition will it be? What kind of things should we serve the customers?” Mari asks. “The first question is simple. We must please the customers with our services in our cafe. After giving them our best services, the customers will give us feedback for the embassies to score it.” answers Mari's first question. As a response from my first answer, all of them nod but not for Quinne, Görder, and Mr. Sneg. Three of them still don't seem to care about this. Maybe just let the time fly, then they might want to be together with us. “Then for you the second question should be the topic for our first discussion today.” That's my answer to her second question “Any suggestion what kind of services we can do for our cafe?” “Should we discuss the menus too, Vil?” Mana asks this time. “Mhm. That counts as a service.” replying to Mana. “I want to do the kitchen part!” Brugière comes out suddenly with her excitement. “Alright then, maybe we should divide groups for the work groups first.” my first suggestion to them. Thankfully because of this suggestion, it attracts all of their attention to come closer so we can discuss it in a better way. On the other hand, it’s still hard to get those three attention. They stay still and don't want to join our discussion. “Since it’s a cafe, a simple business, the workers don’t have many various kinds of work, right?” Colombain asks. “Yeah. the basic things must be there will be someone working in the kitchen for food, in the bar for drinks, and the one who serves the customers.” Mana answers. “Alright then. Any volunteers to these three work groups?” I ask them to fill in the work sections. “Mana and I can handle the kitchen for food!” Mari replies still with the same excitement as before. “Alright, both of you can fill in the work group for the kitchen. How about you guys?” asking the others while writing down the twins name to the kitchen group. “I think Célia has brought us meals before, right Léger? That’s pretty good too actually.” Colombain says “Oh yeah, right. I would savor every bit of it.” Léger replies. “Ehh? No, no, no guys! I only know the basics of cooking! I’m not really good at it!” Brugière says with a panicked voice. “But at least you know how to cook, right? Why don't you give it a shot?” Colombain tries to encourage her. Seeing Colombain action that makes the twins want to do the same thing. “Yeah, Colombain is right! We can help you with it! It will be fun!” Mari says and hugs Brugière's arm. “A.. Alright then.. I will try my best.” She responds shyly about it. With that settled, the twins and Brugière start their own discussion about the food. Nice! The situation right now is a lot better than before! “How about you Colombain and Léger? Which one do you want to join?” I ask them. “Hmm.. to be honest I don’t have any experience with making drinks or cooking. I will just take the waitress part.” Colombain replies “How about you, Valter?” He asks me the same question. “Actually I’m the same with you. I will just take the waitress part as well.” But Léger stops me right before I write down our names. “Here’s an idea to make another work group, Valter.” He says “Can we have live music in our cafe?” That's his first suggestion for our cafe. “Live music?!” Both twins and Brugière turn around to face us. His suggestion catches everyone's attention. “That’s brilliant Léger!” Colombain responds “A calm live music will bring relaxation to the customers!” “Yeah. That could work, really. Wait, let me ask Mr. Haley first.” I stand up then walk to the where Mr. Haley gathered with the other embassy staff. After asking Mr. Haley about the suggestion, he tells me to wait for a minute to confirm it with the embassies The phone call ends then he confirms to me that the music instruments will be prepared by the embassies. Come back to where we gathered before because Mr. Haley will explain more about the live music. “Attention everyone! Since there’s a suggestion about having live music in their cafe, we will prepare all the music instruments that will be needed for.” From this announcement, the other students from other schools start cheering for it. Seems like the others also planned to have live music but haven’t asked for permission yet. “But in one condition.” He continues “Since it’s about students giving the best service to the customers, it will be only the students who will use the instruments.” “Any other question?” Mr. Haley says “If it’s not, then that’s all the announcement about. Thank you and fighting guys!” “Alright then. Another group of works opens now. Any volunteers for this?” asking those three cold people. “Because this is my suggestion, I will play the background music for us with a keyboard.” Léger replies. “Alright, Léger with a keyboard. How about you guys?” asking the other three who don’t say any words from the beginning of our discussion. This might be a bad idea to ask them because they might ruin the atmosphere again. But I have to bear and face them, we need teamwork now. “Who said that you’re the leader of our team?” Quinne responds with an annoyed voice. That’s what I thought. “No one says that I’m the leader here, Quinne. I just asked you if you want to join any of these work groups.” replying to her normally. “No. I’d rather die than work with all of you.” she replies codly. Just like I predicted before, her reaction successfully turns the atmosphere into tense again. Let out a sigh. Nothing comes easy if it comes with me and her huh.. Take a glance over where Mr. Sneg is. Obviously with him too..