Biyaku Cafe [Chapter 4-7]

Summarised by Anne




Chapter 4

This chapter starts off with Kaoru hurrying off to the café right after school ends. She meets Tomo-chan along the way and chats with her for a bit. Upon reaching the café, she finds the ‘Closed’ sign hanging in front of the door. Kaoru sighs. She enters the café and sees Kagetsu lying on the coach in the Staff Room, with a newspaper over his face. She peers underneath the papers and sees that he is sleeping. She waits for him to wake up. When he shows no sign of waking up, Kaoru grabs the newspaper to hit Kagetsu with. Alas, Kagetsu grabs her for a surprise kiss. Things are starting to get pretty heavy when Omi walks in on them unexpectedly causing both Kaoru and Kagetsu to look like a couple of deer caught in the headlight. Kaoru screams in mortification.
The scene then changes to the main café. A bunch of students has just come into the café, looking very arrogant by talking loudly and kicking the door since it needs to be open or close manually. Everyone is disturbed by them. Kaoru tells them the system of their café; how the employees make the customers tea by first impression. But the student is still being rude and while smoking, tells her to get him a cup of coffee and an ashtray. Kagetsu interrupts them and tells the student that there are no coffee and ashtray. He takes away the cigarette that the student is smoking and starts to smoke himself. The student gets annoyed and tries to leave but Kagetsu tells him to be calm and stay. He tells him that he will make him a cup of coffee, and ask him whether he wants the coffee to be hot or cold (with a sexy-looking face). The student tells him hot while looking a bit overwhelmed by Kagetsu’s face. Omi asks Kagetsu whether he really is going to make that student a cup of coffee. Kaoru hears this and asks what’s wrong with a cup of coffee. Omi answers that before, Kagetsu told him that he isn’t going to make coffee. She’s thinking about what Omi said and sees Kagetsu pouring Coffee milk (it’s a Japanese drink which kind of taste like coffee but it’s cold and sweet-more for children). Kaoru is surprised and asks Kagetsu if he really is going to give that to the customer, and he answers with evil expression on his face, “Of course.” The student drinks it and gets angry since it’s just plain old coffee milk. Kagetsu gets closer to him and asks if it tastes bad. The student gets annoyed/embarrassed. Kagetsu takes away his cigarette again and tells them to leave after they finish drinking. The students are so angry that they storm out of the shop with Kagetsu looking at them, cheekily. Megu-chan then tells Kagetsu that she also wants to drink coffee milk but Kagetsu says no since it’s his (referring to the drink). Kaoru doesn’t understand why he would have that kind of faces, but thinks she also want to be stared like he did to those students. Kaoru asks Kagetsu to make her a cup of tea and asks why he doesn’t have any menu in his café. He answers that it is because he doesn’t like coffee so if he made a menu, he has to put coffee on it, and he doesn’t want to put anything he dislikes. Therefore, he decided to not make a menu, and also, it’s more exciting to not know what’s going to come out. Kaoru drinks her tea, and tries to leave but Kagetsu stops her since he thought they were going to have sex. Omi and Mako are waiting outside since they can’t go into the cafe. Then, they see the troublemaker student coming over to get his cigarette back (probably just wanting to go into the shop again). Though Omi tries to stop him, the student goes in and witness Kagetsu and Kaoru in the middle of having sex on the floor. Kagetsu continues on after the door is shut, and Kaoru is thinking it’s not ‘fun’, it’s ‘dubious’.




Chapter 5



The chapter begins with a beautiful girl (called Ami) coming into the café. She seems to have some kind of relationship with Kagetsu since she’s talking to him in a familiar way. She is being served an espresso. There’s a flashback to the time when Ami was seventeen years old. Ami is drinking espresso (even though she’s rubbish at making it) because it has the same smell as her cousin (called Shi-chan) who is living with her family and who she is in love with. Ami has always been in love with Shi-chan even though he is always treating her like a slave. Shi-chan is being hit on by the girls at his university, but he can’t even remember their names. Ami asked him why he doesn’t remember their names and he answered that they seem all the same to him. Also, he doesn’t need a lot of friends as long as there are two the three people who would cry over him when he dies. Shi-chan and Ami go to the café since Kagetsu and Shi-chan are close friends. When Ami and Shi-chan are walking home, he asks her why she is drinking espresso when she doesn’t even like it. She confesses that it’s because it has the same smell as Shi-chan so that’s why she likes it. But Shi-chan tells her that he only see her as his cousin. So Ami pushes Shi-chan on the ground and kiss him. She asks whether she is included in one of those “two to three people who he wants crying at his funeral” and he tells her no. She leaves him while crying but Shin-chan is also looking troubled (looks kind of like in pain). The next day, Ami is back in her room, and hears Shi-chan coming back. She also hears something fall, and sees Shi-chan lying on the ground. She runs over to him and when she gathers him close, realises in alarm that his body is burning.



Chapter 6



Ami calls for help but Shi-chan tells her to shut up since it’s not that big of a problem. But Ami still goes on so he kisses her. He leaves, telling her sorry if she catches his cold. In the morning, Ami goes to Shi-chan’s room to look after him. She tells him that she is not going to give up no matter what he does. Shi-chan is looking very sick, and coughing so much but he refuses to go to the hospital. Ami falls asleep on Shi-chan’s bed. He wakes up and upon realising that she is sleeping beside him, touched her hair and kisses her on the forehead. After looking at her, he says, “Half a year left…” The scene changes to Ami going to Kagetsu’s café and asking him to teach her how to make espresso. They talk about how Shi-chan and Kagetsu has been friends for ages and he tells her that Shi-chan has skipped a year. Ami didn’t know this because at that time, he has made no contact with other people. Shi-chan sneaks from behind her back, and tells her that it’s only because he skipped too many lessons. He sees how close Kagetsu and Ami are, so he tells her that he can have Ami. She spills the espresso, so he goes over to her but she tells him not to touch her. He does it anyway so she can cool down her hand. Kagetsu forced them to move to somewhere else. Ami asks Shi-chan whether she’s a bother. Crying, she says that she can’t hate him and she doesn’t want to hate him. Suddenly he hugs her while saying sorry (in Japan, hugging people is quite a big thing). He tells her that what he said to Kagetsu is all lie and for everything that he has done, he is sorry. Ami starts to cry and Shi-chan kisses her. The last page narrates that she didn’t realise from that kiss and the hug, what kind of face Shi-chan is making.



Chapter 7



The chapter begins with Shi-chan and Ami starting to kiss on other places, while Kagetsu is waiting for them outside. Next scene is at the hospital where Shi-chan is told that the cancer has appeared again. If it has appeared half a year later then everything would have been fine. Shi-chan could have just laughed and tell people that he had a disease. He would also tell Ami that he loves her. But the doctor tells him that he’ll be hospitalised in 3 days so let’s work hard together. Ami is at school looking so happy, and Shi-chan is waiting for her outside the school to walk home together while holding hands. On Saturday, they go on a date but Ami’s mum is worried about Shi-chan. They go for a normal date but he receives an e- mail from Ami’s mum saying that they are going away since they have to go and talk about Shi-chan going to be hospitalised. So he tells Ami that they should head home since it will only be the two of them together. Back in Ami’s home, they have sex, and he tells her that he won’t be able to do these kind of things anymore with her. Also, since he is going to be hospitalised, and the cure takes a long time, he might not even be able to make it through. He promises Ami that he will definitely heal the cancer. Ami is visiting Shi-chan. Because of the medicine he is taking, he can’t drink espresso so she drinks it and kisses him so he can have some taste. She’s been visiting him every day, but one day, she sees Shi-chan talking with Kagetsu. Shi-chan tells Kagetsu that he might die this time, since it’s not getting any better like how it did before. He is scared. Kagetsu is unable to say or do anything. Kagetsu realises Ami is there and so he leaves. She tells him that because she is Shi-chan’s special someone, she won’t cry, so “kiss me if you are going to waste time on saying that you are going to die”. He tells her that he is so in love with her and they kiss. The narration goes - even without espresso, the kiss was bitter and sweet. That was the last kiss. After Shi-chan’s funeral, Kagetsu and Ami go to the café. He tells her that because she is Shi-chan’s lover, she can come to the café anytime she wants to drink espresso. Ami cries when she hears this. It’s been 3 years since his death, but espresso is still dark, bitter, sweet, and has Shi-chan’s smell. She tells Kagetsu that the espresso tastes bad, but she likes it that way since for her, drinking espresso means a kiss so she’s happy that the taste hasn’t changed since then. Kagetsu is initially angry when she tells him that the espresso doesn’t taste good but he smiles at her comment. She tells him that she will come here again to kiss, and leaves. She wants to be hugged, being told he loves her, and wants Shi-chan to do many things for her, but since that will not come true, kiss her with that unchanging bitter and sweet kiss, forever.

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