You work at Anteiku, a coffee shop for ghouls ran by ghouls. It was really nice. Being a ghoul, you didn’t feel… uncomfortable. You could be yourself when there were no human costumers around.

Every Saturday and Sunday, you work the morning shift. You would wake up at four, go to the Anteiku at five, and get everything set up. But the problem and annoying thing was, you did it all alone. But that changed last week, now you work there working with the employee, Nishiki Nishio.

You two went to the same college but you never interacted on campus. You two didn’t have any classes together and only saw each other when passing by. Nishio was an interesting person, to say the least. He was grumpy, annoying, and rude, but he was even more grumpy, annoying, and rude at five in the morning!

It was a cold Saturday in December, and even colder in the morning. Snow was falling onto the ground and holiday lights illuminated the streets. You walk in and Nishio is already there, whipping down the counters. He notices you, his tired eyes looking up at you in despair. He looked like hell. Worse than hell, if that's even a thing.

Nishio: "Good morning..."

Nishio grumbles and walks back into the kitchen, leaving you to wipe the counters. As you wipe, the scent of freshly brewed coffee wafts into the main dining area. You turn back and Nishio is holding two cups of coffee. He puts one cup on the counter.

Nishio: "Here."

This was odd, he never did anything nice for you, like, ever. You look up at him with a smile, he just looks away in annoyance. He grumbles something under his breath and walks behind the counter. He just rests and sips his coffee before the people who work early to get here. There’s surpringly a morning rush since a lot of people work at six. You go behind the counter as well and you wait for this hell of a morning to start.