Yuuto slept until an hour before he had to start working.
After going to the bathroom and cleaning up, he jogged to the gym and spent twenty minutes on exercises to help him wake up. He quickly rinsed off in the locker room shower after finishing his exercises.
Having worked up a large appetite, he walked to the kitchen to get a quick bite to eat before the meeting.
As he exited the kitchen, Yuuto met up with Pretty boy who was heading towards the meeting room.
“Ready for another night out on the streets?” asked Pretty boy.
“It’s a harsh life being a host, and a hard job trying to get customers,” replied Yuuto.
“Don’t worry, even I wasn’t able to get anyone for the first few days. With more experience, you’ll be able to make more money and advance out of probation.”
They stopped talking when they reached the meeting room and sat down at one of the chairs.
Everyone in the room was already quietly waiting for the old man to join them.
They didn’t have to wait long as they were able to hear the tapping of his cane on the floor in the hallway as he got closer and then entered the room and sat down at the head of the tables.
“No new probationary hosts have joined today so I’ll keep it short. This is a reminder for those who forgot or don’t know yet, every day the kitchen helper and front desk duty is shuffled between the hosts who are not in the top 10 ranks.
Today’s pair will be Yuuto and Takaji. When you are done with the daily cleaning, one of you is to report to the front desk, the other to the kitchen.
Do not slack off, if you perform well it will be a great help towards getting out of probation. That would be of course after you have shown you can consistently bring in customers.
That is all, you may start the preparations for opening,” said Kentaro.
Yuuto and Pretty boy both went to the supply closet and equipped their battle gear. When they were ready, they marched off to clean the bathrooms.
The second day of cleaning wasn’t any easier than the first but Yuuto managed to not die from germ warfare.
When they had finished cleaning and the club was deemed ready to open, everyone went to the locker rooms to freshened up and change into their suits.
“Let’s play rock-paper-scissors to see who will be working in the kitchen,” said Pretty boy.
“Fine by me,” said Yuuto.
The person who lost was… Pretty boy.
So while he walked to the kitchen Yuuto went to the front desk where another host was waiting for him.
“I’m Kan, rank eleven. I’m here to explain the few simple rules you have to follow.
You are not here to accept any type of payment from the customers, you are only here to greet them. The front desk supervisor will take care of the customer’s payments.
If a customer has any questions, you are to answer them to the best of your knowledge.
One of your main jobs will be checking to see if the females are old enough to enter.
You must ask if they are a returning customer or if it is their first time. If it’s their first time, the cost to enter is 2000 yen instead of 5000.
If the customer came in by themselves, you are to escort them to the elevator and then press the button labeled number one which will take them to the host club on the third floor.
You are to be polite to all customers. If there is a problem, press the big ‘I’m not red’ button next to the blue one right here. Security will show up shortly after and take care of the problem. That’s all there is to it. If you do a good job here it will help you out later,” said Kan.
“Thank you for your help,” replied Yuuto.
Kan waved his hand as if to say no need to thank me and left the lobby, using the elevator to return to the club room.
Yuuto waited behind the desk while the other probationary hosts were waiting for the front doors to unlock.
When they did open, it was only a few minutes before the first few ladies started to enter the front lobby. It was a slow trickle, one at a time.
Many women commented on seeing Yuuto for the first time, asking how long he had been a host for.
He politely replied to them all, “This is my second day. Thank you for coming to club Winter Night. Please enjoy your stay.”
Some of the women acted very coldly to him and only spoke the minimum few words they needed to, to be allowed to go up to the club room.
The night wore on as more and more women either came to the club by themselves or were brought in by other probationary hosts.
After the female customer was escorted to the elevator and sent to the club room, the front desk supervisor would pay the 5000 yen reward to the host who brought in the customer.
Late into the night when Yuuto was starting to get hungry, Pretty boy came to the front desk and offered to cover for him so he could go eat.
Yuuto gladly took him up on the offer and walked to the kitchen.
He ate another one of the kitchen’s famous leftover dry sandwiches with soup.
The kitchen didn’t dare serve it something like leftovers to the customers, so the hosts were the ones who were forced to eat it all.
When he was finished eating and was getting ready to leave, the head cook tossed an apron at him.
“Now that you’re finished eating, help me prepare more appetizers,” commanded the head cook.
“But I’m supposed to be working at the front desk,” Yuuto protested.
“Takaji told me that you would be taking over for him after you eat so stop daydreaming and get over here and help me.”
Yuuto cursed Pretty boy under his breath, “He tricked me into switching with him.”
He spent the rest of the night helping the head cook with chopping, mixing, and cooking the appetizers needed to fill all of the client’s orders.
It was around 6 am when the orders stopped coming in as the club would be closing in less than an hour.
Yuuto gave a big sigh and was getting ready to leave the kitchen when the head cook placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“Where are you going? We still have to clean the kitchen, and do the rest of the dishes before you leave.”
Yuuto groaned and started putting away the cleaned dishes.
He scrubbed and wiped down the counters, cabinets, stove, and oven. Then he mopped the floor thoroughly.
When the head cook deemed the room was clean enough, he gave a nod and let Yuuto leave.
The post-work meeting was already finished when he got to the staff room so he walked to the locker room and changed out of his suit.
He took a quick shower and thought about getting revenge by giving Pretty boy a nice hearty manly smack on his back for tricking him.
When he was changed, he went to their shared room but Pretty boy wasn’t back yet.
Yuuto flopped into bed and waited for his evil best friend to get back. But before he could get revenge, he fell asleep.
Pretty boy quietly entered the room so that he did not awaken Yuuto and got into bed and fell asleep as well.
Yuuto woke up earlier than Pretty boy the next day and decided to play a prank on him.
He put some shaving cream on Pretty boy’s hand then started to run a dry washcloth back and forth over Pretty boy’s nose.
Smack! Pretty boy’s hand smacked down on his face trying to swat away whatever it was that was on his nose. He woke up due to the cold shaving cream being smeared all over his face.
Yuuto quickly exited the room and quietly listened from right outside of the door.
“Huh? What is this all over my hand and face?” muttered Pretty boy.
Yuuto was trying to stop himself from laughing but a few muffled chortles escaped, forcing him to escape to the bathroom.
After cleaning up in the bathroom, he went to the gym for his daily training and then went in search of some food.
When it was time to hit the streets that night, Yuuto decided to go down a different street from what he had tried already.
Yuuto could feel that the wind was blowing a lot harder today than was normal.
While walking and trying to entice people to go to the club, he saw a scene of fliers being blown everywhere by the wind.
A frantic girl was chasing after the fluttering fliers trying to gather all of them that had escaped from her basket.
Yuuto bent over and began picking them up as he walked towards the flier girl.
When he drew near her, she noticed Yuuto helping pick them up.
“Thank you!” she said in a quiet voice as she accepted the fliers from Yuuto.
“It was no problem,” said Yuuto as he waved to her and continued his search for potential customers.
Unfortunately for Yuuto the rest of the night was uneventful and again, he was unable to get a single customer to go to the host club. It was the same thing for the next two nights.
During the post-work meeting on his third night in a row of not bringing in any customers, the old man stood in front of the hosts not saying a word for several minutes.
He looked at Yuuto and then a few other hosts before speaking, “If you are unable to bring in a customer by the end of your first month then you will be fired. I suggest you try harder. This job is a great opportunity for all of you. Don’t mess up this chance.”
With that he dismissed everyone.
Yuuto went to sleep worrying about not being able to get anyone to go to the club before the month ended. He still had two weeks so he would have to up his game.
Over the next 8 days, he tried experimenting with different ways of getting new customers to come to the club but failed every time.
Sometime around 4 a.m. on the 9th day of walking the streets, someone tapped on Yuuto’s shoulder from behind, trying to get his attention.
Yuuto looked behind him and saw it was the cute flier girl whom he had seen quite a few times over the past 8 days.
“Um…hi. I’ve seen you out here over the last week or so trying to get people to go to your club. What was its name?” she asked.
“The name…? Ah! Its name is club Winter Night,” said Yuuto. He had gotten tense and almost forgot the club’s name.
She placed her hand in front of her face to try and stifle a giggle, “I would like to go. Would you please take me?”
Overjoyed that he wouldn’t be fired, Yuuto mindlessly hugged her. It was only for a few seconds until he realized what he was doing and let go.
He quickly bowed and apologized, “I’m sorry for being overly formal with you, I was just overcome with emotion and it got the better of me.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t mind it too much,” said the flier girl as she waved her hand back and forth.
While looking at her, Yuuto could see her face had changed to a light shade of red. She silently offered her arm to him.
Yuuto remembered seeing Pretty boy escorting several women to the club with their arms linked together. So he linked her arm with his and started walking to club Winter Night.
A minute into walking to the club she quickly blurted out, “My name is Misa Hayami. You may call me Misa if you want.”
“Well Misa, that is a fine name you have there, it’s very nice.”
“Thanks, I’m glad you find it so pleasing,” she giggled.
“Allow myself, to introduce myself, I go by the name of Yasuo. I will be escorting you to the club tonight,” replied Yuuto using his work name.
“Oh, Yasuo, meaning honest man. A nice name,” said Misa as she smiled at him.
The short walk to the club was filled with small talk until they entered the front lobby and decoupled their arms.
Yuuto walked Misa up to the front desk where she was greeted and asked for her ID.
After she was OK’d, she paid the first time entrance fee to the front desk supervisor, Yuuto escorted her into the elevator and pressed the #1 button.
The elevator dinged as it reached the floor with the club room and opened up.
“It was nice meeting you,” said Misa.
Yuuto bowed and replied, “The pleasure was all mine. I hope you have a wonderful time during your stay.”
She exited the elevator and he pushed the button for the lobby. When he was back into the lobby, the front desk manager waved him over.
He smiled at Yuuto as he handed him 5000 yen and said, “Nice work on earning your first bit of money.”
“Thank you,” said Yuuto as he gave a half bow.
Yuuto went back out onto the streets to recruit more customers, but he was unable to get anyone else the rest of the night.
Even so, he was still happy that he was able to get a customer to come to the club and he wouldn’t be fired, at least for now.
During the staff room meeting, when they tallied the money gained by everyone, the zero next to Yuuto’s name was erased and a 5000 was added.
Everyone gave him a few claps congratulating him for his first gain.
Pretty boy slapped him a few times on the back and said, “See I told you that you would get used to it when you had a little more experience.”
Yuuto smiled.
That night, he was able to soundly sleep without worrying about being fired.
