coffee shop
main story
Takazawa and Natsuki are (sort of) childhood friends. The two met around their early teens, and only by chance started to know each other. Natsuki, having a hard family life, had to work a job on the side alongside school, and Takazawa would come to visit him and the like at work. They became close friends, and in college, when Takazawa was looking for a job, Natsuki suggested a now open position at the place he'd been working at since high school - and he accepted.
At this new workplace, Takazawa meets a certain girl, one who Natsuki warns him about immediately after their meeting. He says that girl does shady work, and to stay away if he doesn't want trouble. Intrigued, but for the time being deterred, Takazawa's curiousity mounts as the days go by.
One day, she comes in with someone he doesn't recognize, and comes up short when paying for her bill. Finding this somehow thoroughly flustered side of the normally mischievous-looking girl he'd seen at first, he helps her out, lending her some cash to cover the rest of the bill; having piqued her interest, she playfully hands him her number with a wink, and walks off to her table with a happy "thank you." Surprised, confused, and embarrassed, Takazawa keeps it, even though Natsuki's warning is still fresh in his mind.
He waits a week, then calls her hesitantly, with the intent of scolding her for giving her number to strange guys. To his surprise, he hears a jingle in the apartment next door. He hangs up. The ringing stops. A cold chill runs down his spine. He calls again, and hears the ringing again -- and this time, before he can hang up, it gets picked up by someone on the other side. Bracing himself for an attack from the girl's parents, he instead hears her shocked voice on the line - and, having been pacing about nervously the whole time, stubs his toe on a nearby chair and yelps out. The next thing he knows, his door's being pounded on, and he meets Otome properly for the first time.
After talking (and a light scolding), Takazawa finds himself enamored. He doesn't really get it, and he doesn't want to, either. After she leaves, he finds himself being visited by her every so often by her banging on his door, and they grow closer, despite his best efforts to remain uninvolved and inconspicious.
A particular day while they're hanging out in his apartment and playing vidya, he accidentally gets drunk (in part due to Otome's shenanigans) and pins her down, unaware of what he's doing. He sobers up once he sees her below him, and the gravity of the situation dawns on him. He is forced to realize his growing attraction towards her, and she shyly admits to sharing that interest.
They do things after that :3
Buuut, plot twist! Natsuki finds out inadvertently at some point, and a second part of the story focuses on that and his unlikely friendship with Otome's friend, who had similar feelings (though a bit different) towards Otome.
The third part involves a third coworker at the cafe Takazawa and Natsuki work at.