Coffee shops, like flower shops, are the dreams of many middle-class romantics.
However, in reality, the probability of these two types of shops failing is extremely high, and it is also difficult to make money from them.
Most people who open coffee shops and flower shops have other businesses. Opening such shops is just for a certain atmosphere. They do not even think about making money.
This two-story coffee shop located not far from Ikebukuro Station was very famous in Tokyo, with a constant stream of customers, mainly students.
And the main reason why so many customers came here, aside from the fact that the owner was named Fujiwara Toru, attracting many people because of his reputation, was that the coffee here was extremely cheap and of very good quality.
There were even television programs in Japan that investigated and interviewed this coffee shop, not with Toru as the main focus, but the coffee shop itself.
Finally, these programs concluded that this coffee shop actually did not make any money at all.
In fact, the investigations of these programs were completely accurate. Toru's coffee shop barely maintained a balance between income and expenses.
Toru mainly used this coffee shop as a reason to get money from the Central Intelligence Agency.
After Spencer's death, Burns temporarily became the acting director, and he would only become the real director once the former president officially took office.
And Burns was now on their side, with leverage in Toru's hands, so Toru could get money from the Central Intelligence Agency even more openly.
He still had some conscience, knowing that using a coffee shop as a pretext to ask for money would easily draw criticism.
Therefore, he did not ask for much, just 100 million US dollars per year.
Anyway, a bag of screws from the great U.S. military could be sold for 80,000 US dollars. I'm also Commissioner Smith, so asking for this little money isn't excessive, right?
Precisely because Toru's coffee shop was so conscientious, it was always packed, whether on holidays or weekdays.
Today was Saturday, and Toru rarely came to the coffee shop, resting in his manager's office.
Not long ago, he had just returned from Hokkaido, reluctantly saying goodbye to Momiji at the airport.
Only after promising Momiji that they would meet often was Momiji willing to leave.
There was also Ms. Hattori Shizuka, who was equally reluctant to part with Toru.
But it was impossible for her to cling to Toru like Momiji. She only got Toru's LINE and chatted with him in somewhat ambiguous tones.
It seemed Hattori Shizuka was also afraid of the chat content being leaked, which was why she was so cautious.
Toru also promised Hattori Shizuka that he would definitely visit the Hattori family in Osaka when he had the chance, which made Hattori Shizuka leave in a good mood with her son.
Toru did have the intention of going to the Hattori family in Osaka.
If it were at the Hattori family home, having some kind of relationship with the mistress of the Hattori family would surely be more exciting and interesting, right?
And after returning from Hokkaido, Toru had been working honestly during this period, not doing anything extra.
It was just that Toru had not expected that even though he did not go looking for trouble, trouble would eventually come looking for him.
Kawakami Tomie, dressed head to toe in Chanel, was fashionable and elegant, and the beauty mark at the corner of her eye added an indescribable allure.
This outfit alone cost as much as 600,000 yen, an absolute luxury item, and something the past Tomie could not even dream of wearing.
Today, in order to achieve her goal, Tomie was truly fully armed and ready to go into battle, determined to settle everything in one fight.
She took a taxi, and just by batting her eyelashes at the sixty-year-old driver when getting out, he waived the fare for her.
In the past half year or so, Tomie had become adept at using her abilities. Even if she could not control them, she knew when to use them.
After getting out of the car, she looked at the shop in front of her.
The shop's name was Ring. The first floor was a venue for live concerts and a place for band practice.
The second floor was where the coffee shop was located.
Girl bands were very popular in Japan. As a girl who chased trends, Tomie had also once had the idea of playing a musical instrument.
It was just that instruments were too expensive, and Tomie could not afford them at all.
By the time she had her abilities and could afford expensive instruments, she felt that practicing was too tiring and not worth doing at all.
She did not need to practice instruments at all. Her singing was still very pleasant.
With her beauty, she was sure that as long as she stood on stage and casually sang a couple of lines, all the male audience members would kneel on the ground, shouting, "Tomie-sama!"
Tomie thought about these random things. Ignoring the men around her who were staring at her with infatuated eyes, she simply lifted her head proudly and walked into the shop.
"That woman has already gone in, what are you still looking at?!"
The woman on the street was furious when she saw her boyfriend's dazed look and stomped hard on his foot.
The man snapped back to reality from the pain and quickly smiled apologetically at his girlfriend, but his eyes still unconsciously glanced toward the shop, and he could not help saying, "Darling, how about we go for a coffee?"
The woman immediately knew from hearing this that her boyfriend had taken a fancy to that cheap woman from earlier.
Drinking coffee was just an excuse. He simply wanted to go in and take another look, so she immediately turned her head and walked away.
Tomie was unaware of the commotion she had caused, and even if she knew, she would not care.
As she walked toward the second-floor coffee shop, the originally lively coffee shop seemed to suddenly fall silent for a moment, and everyone's gaze turned toward her.
If it were Tomie from half a year ago, she would definitely have fallen into panic under so many gazes.
But at this moment, she held her head high like a proud swan, walked toward the bar, and smiled at a dark-skinned man.
"Handsome, is your boss here?"
Rei's expression became dazed for a moment. He instinctively felt that something was wrong, but the words from his mouth were uncontrollable. "The boss is in the manager's office."
Tomie's expression brightened. She knew that Toru did not come to this shop every day, only occasionally.
She had not expected that just by coming on a whim, she would actually be able to see Toru. Is this fate between us?
Her smile became even sweeter. "Just to be sure, let me confirm again. Your boss is Fujiwara Toru, Fujiwara-kun, right?"
Rei smiled gently. "Yes, the boss is Fujiwara-kun. Ms., are you a friend of the boss?"
Tomie smiled charmingly. "I'm not Fujiwara-kun's friend, but I think I will be soon. Handsome, could you take me to see your boss?"
Rei was still in a daze and nodded, saying, "Alright, Ms., please follow me."
Tomie swayed her graceful waist, her slender legs in black stockings stepping forward in high heels as she followed behind Rei.
Rei led the way, and a sudden jealousy toward Toru arose in his heart.
This jealousy came out of nowhere, but Rei clearly knew that the reason for the jealousy was that this beautiful lady was going to see the boss, not him.
When this thought surfaced, Rei suddenly woke up.
What's going on? My lover is this country, so why would I have such a thought, becoming jealous of Toru because of a woman?
This woman is not right!
By the time Rei reacted, he had already led Tomie to the door of Toru's office.
(To be continued.)