The Last Four Taiyaki
a Bonten!Mikey x Clueless!Caféowner!F!Reader
Contains : toxic, obsessive and possessive behavior, blood, yandere, mention of murders, lowkey fluff at one point ???, mention of an agression, reader is an absolute dumbass and makes me wanna strangle her ( just like Mikey ). 3.5k words.
Summary : Boten. The biggest and most feared criminal organization of Japan was practically everywhere. Everyone knew who Mikey was. How dangerous he was. But not you. A clueless and broke young woman who owned a café that was open every day until 3am. And you didn’t know that every day, you were serving the most lethal individual you could ever encounter in your life.
Notes : English isn’t my first language. Do not expect a lot of vocabulary and do expect a LOT of errors. I only write for fun. Also first time writing in English help😭🙏
2:58am.
The faint smell of coffee and homemade pastry were filling the small and cozy café you called your safe place. It was a familiar and comforting sent. And being the only café opened this late every day, no one outside could miss the lights that emanated from this place known for being owned by a cute little clueless young woman.
Because, seriously. Who would open their shop this late into the night while Boten was practically everywhere in this town ?
You. You would. Because you couldn’t care less about that organization. They wanted to kill you ? Fine. They wanted to take away your café ? Over your dead body.
And so here you were, humming cheerfully to yourself while wiping the dirty floor of your dear café.
You were trying to think about something else. Trying to not act like you were waiting impatiently for his arrival.
You knew he would come at exactly 3am.
He always did.
And just as you were about to check for the nth time the clock on the wall…
ding
The sound of the little bell that signaled that someone opened the door of your establishment resonated in the empty small café.
You couldn’t help but smile, not even greeting your client yet. You already knew who it was. Your warm and polite smile grew wider once you turned around to see your daily last client of the day. "Welcome in dear customer." You greeted the man at the door while walking back to behind the counter. "The usual ?"
The man barely glanced at you. But his feet moved mechanically towards the counter like he did dozens of times before. It was almost instinctive. He just nodded at your question, and you went to grab the last four taiyaki in stock and put them on a plate. "600 yens please." You calmly said with a polite and professional smile.
He froze as he was about to grab his wallet. And he finally met your eyes, his gaze inscrutable as always. "Only 600 yen ?" He finally talked since he first entered here tonight, his voice cold and detached.
But you were used to it by now.
"The last one is on the house." Your smile softened as you went towards the coffee machine. "I’m feeling generous tonight." You prepared yourself a coffee with ease. You could feel his gaze on your back. But you didn’t know if that was a good thing.
He glanced at the fourth taiyaki like it personally offended him, then at your back once again before placing exactly 600 yen on the table. "Generosity will get you nowhere." He blankly said while sitting on the stool next to him, putting the plate on the counter as he took a bite of one of his taiyaki.
He used to buy his sweets then leave right away. But he noticed that it tasted better in your café. He didn’t know why. He didn’t want to know why.
You just chuckled at his words. Now sitting on the work plan, your coffee in hand. "You think so ?" You asked as you took a sip of the hot liquid. "I think a little kindness and generosity never hurt anyone." His eyes slightly darkened at these words.
Kindness and generosity.
Two words that were now strangers in his daily life. He was a cold and ruthless mafia leader. The leader of Boten. He was killing people and ruining lives every day. The blood on his hands could be washed off, but it would never erase the pain and suffering he caused and is still causing today.
But you didn’t know that. Because you were an idiot. You only thought of him as a weird rich guy who came to pick up his four taiyaki at exactly 3am every day.
You were clueless.
Everyone in this goddamn city knew who Mikey was. What the tattoo at the back of his neck meant.
But you didn’t know. And he wasn’t sure that even if you knew, you would treat him any differently than any other customer.
He should have honestly burnt this place down when the first time he came, you asked him to pay with that stupid annoyed expression.
But he didn’t. He paid.
And he came back. Everyday. For months. And now it was like some kind of dumb ritual. He was looking forward to his taiyaki.
And you, you didn’t know that the most dangerous man of all Japan was in front of you. In your eyes, he was reduced to some kind of regular who couldn’t live without his sweets at 3am. And he found the thought oddly amusing.
Nobody treated him like that in years.
"Kindness and generosity…" He mumbled unconsciously. His plate already missing two taiyaki.
The exchanges between you were mostly silence. He would eat, you would drink your coffee. You would rarely talk, but it felt oddly comfortable. He took that time and started to look at you. Really look at you.
Since the very first moment he led his eyes on you, you always had that stupid exhausted expression that you would hide under that cheerful smile and behavior. But Mikey is an observer. And he notices things. Like how you would quietly sigh when you thought he wasn’t paying attention, or how the bags under your eyes seemed to grow each day.
You were exhausted. And I mean, how could you not ? What kind of idiot works from 8am to 3am every day even on weekends ? Even he works less than that. And what kind of idiot goes to work on a bicycle when literally anyone could take advantage of them this late into the night.
Of course he did some research on you. And of course he knew you were broke and in debt because of your stupid deceased father who left you to pay his debts. But at this rate, you would only die without being able to pay back anything. It was ridiculous.
You were dumb. And naive. And clueless. And stupid-
"If you’re breaking the plate, you’re paying for it." Were the words that pulled him out of his thoughts. He didn’t even notice how tight his grip on the plate was. You couldn’t help yourself and started to softly laughed at his slight confused expression. You never saw him like that before. It was almost refreshing. "What were you thinking about for wanting to destroy my plate like that ?"
He stayed silent, putting back on his stoic face like it never disappeared to begin with. He should have shoot you for laughing at him like that. But he didn’t. "My associates are getting on my nerves." A lie. But not quite. Sanzu and the others were really annoying lately.
You chuckled, placing the now empty cup in the sink next to you. "Can’t relate. I have no employees." You continued to smile like usual and grabbed the empty plate from the counter, letting it join the rest of the dishes in the sink.
His eye almost twitched. And before he could stop himself—"Maybe if you’d hire someone, you wouldn’t be so tired." He regretted his words right away. He didn’t care about you. But it was too late for that now.
You froze when you heard those words, your hands stopping washing the dishes for a second. You never talk about your fatigue with your clients. Hell, you barely talk to him. But you couldn’t help but keep your smile to hide the embarrassment. "You noticed ?"
"I would be blind not to notice." He dryly said, his voice holding more frustration than he wanted to admit. You almost grimaced at his words, but kept your usual smile. "I’m not that tired."
"(Y/N)." You froze as you turned off the water. You were not surprised by your name coming out of his mouth. You both knew each other’s names after all. No. You didn’t expect the tone in his voice. Your back was turned to him, but it felt like he was shooting you directly with his gaze. You almost felt threatened. Almost. "I despise liars."
You always knew that your ‘dear customer’ was not some random dude you would see on the street, but it was the first time in months that you acknowledged the fact that he could maybe be dangerous. You didn’t know what to do in this situation. So you decided to brush away your growing stress, like always. "Ah. I’m sorry dear customer !" You turned back to him with an uneasy smile. "It’s true that I’m tired… but i’m doing fine ! Don’t worry about me."
His expression darkened instantly like you personally offended him. "I am not worried." You almost wanted to argue, but the look on his face dissuaded any kind of comment of going out of your mouth. "… Right. Sorry."
Then, a tensed silence fell into the room. Room that seemed way too small all of the sudden. He was staring at you, and you were staring back with those big, innocent and colorful eyes that he hated. You. And your stupid, dumb and careless self that treated him like a normal human being instead of a dangerous man to be afraid of.
Instead of what he was.
He suddenly broke the silence by getting up from the stool, walking straight towards the door. "Thank you for visiting !" You quickly said as he had his hand on the doorknob. He stopped, just enough to glance at your smile for one last time, then opened the door and left the place.
Hating himself for the fact that he wanted to see that smile again.
Mikey thought he was gonna kill someone when he saw your defeated face the next day.
You were never sad. Never crying. Always smiling. You never allowed yourself to do otherwise. So if you didn’t have the strength to smile anymore ? Something must have happened.
Something big.
You didn’t even get the time to welcome him like usual, that he was approaching the counter with an unusual determination that he failed to hide. "What happened." Was all he said. But you knew by the look in his eyes, that lying wouldn’t get you anywhere. It would only bring you trouble.
You tried your best to regain your usual composure. But you knew that stranger was reading through you like a book. It was useless. So you finally let yourself sigh and your expression darkened, almost as if you were done with your life.
Because honestly ? You were.
And honestly ? He hated that.
"Explain." He was still staring at you with his cold and detached eyes, but you could feel the very slight sign of anger in them. Which didn’t reassure you at all. You looked away from his gaze, suddenly feeling ashamed of the situation. "… I got robbed." You quietly confessed, your grip tightening on the counter in front of you. Likely to punish yourself for talking about this to a customer.
Mikey thought he saw red for a second. But his expression didn’t change one bit. "You… were robbed." He echoed, almost as if testing the sound of the idea. He didn’t like it. He took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. He never loses his temper. Ever. The only time he did when was you briefly mentioned that a guy tried to hit on you earlier in the day.
You told him because you thought it was funny.
He didn’t find it funny.
Now that you think about it you never saw that guy again….
"Explain everything." You didn’t know if it was the way his cold eyes were staring at you, or the fatigue that finally caught up to you, but you sat on the stool next to him and began to share everything.
You really needed someone to talk to, didn’t you ?
You started to ramble about what happened. As he was listening with an awfully blank face.
Like every morning, you took your bicycle to go to work. It was 7am, the sun was barely up yet, but you were used to it. You were taking the usual route that you knew by heart now, when you remembered that you needed some cash because a friend of yours asked you some yesterday.
Yes. You were way too nice.
So you decided to quickly stop at an ATM on the way, not noticing that a group of teenagers were behind you. Maybe they wanted to brag about the fact that they successfully robbed someone at their school ? Maybe they just wanted your bicycle or your phone ? But they hit you on the head, and as you were confused, grabbed your bag and left with your bike. You barely had the time to react, and when you did, they were already too far away for you to have any chance of catching them.
"So I just… gave up." You finished explaining with a sigh, glancing at your credit card on the work plan. "At least they didn’t manage to get my credit card, it was already in the ATM." You grabbed the edge of your sleeve. "I didn’t know what to do. So I just walked the rest of the way to the café."
You weren’t looking at him. But you were practically feeling the anger in his eyes. Which was extremely unusual. And terrifying. You finally glanced back at him when you noticed him grabbing his phone and typing, probably texting someone. "Who are you texting ?" You asked, too curious to stop yourself from being professional. "None of your business." He replied quickly, way too coldly.
You almost grimaced at his tone. But your eyes followed him as he suddenly got up from the stool and started to walk towards the door. "I’m walking you home." He didn’t ask. Didn’t give you a choice. You blinked. "But what about your taiyaki ?"
You were seriously thinking about the taiyaki now ?
He practically glared at you, which made you shivered from a fear you didn’t want to admit. "(Y/N). Do not test my patience." You practically ran to him at his tone. "Okay okay sorry !" You didn’t know what you were apologizing for, but you did.
You quickly grabbed your coat and closed the door of the café. Catching up to him as he was walking towards your apartment, even if you never told him where you lived. But you decided to not comment on it.
Sanzu, him, sighed seeing the text his boss sent him.
Find the guys who robbed (Y/N). Now.
The walk to your apartment was quiet. But it wasn’t uncomfortable. He was close, but not close enough to touch you. Just to remind you that he was here. You didn’t know if it it was in attempt to reassure or pressure you. But you liked the presence nonetheless.
You almost cursed at yourself for letting a client walk you home, but you didn’t find the strength to argue with him earlier.
And it’s not like he let you a choice.
The silence helped you think about your relationship with him further. You knew by now that the guy wasn’t a gentle soul. Even if you didn’t know how bad and dangerous of a person he was. You began to wonder what he wanted from you. You two always had a typical customer—server relationship, never more.
Even if you didn’t want to acknowledge all the times you two sat in comfortable silence every time he went to grab his taiyaki. Or the way you two slowly started to open to each other, even began to small talk. You would ramble about your day with a smile, and he would listen. Actually listen to you. His expression over the days, weeks, months, never changed. But his eyes, god his beautiful eyes, they would slightly softened when they landed on you. And he didn’t want to admit that either.
He didn’t care about you. But the questions about your health and security started to enter the short conversations.
You told him that you couldn’t care less about Boten. He wanted to strangle you at that. He should have.
You told him that if the universe decided that you should die, you’d die. And he wanted to strangle you again.
Not because you insulted his organization without even knowing he was the leader this time, but because you insulted yourself.
"We arrived." He got pulled out of his thoughts at your voice, stopping to look at your apartment.
… He forgot you lived in a shithole. But he wasn’t supposed to know that.
"You should move out. It’s not safe." He simply replied, and you scoffed at that. "Buy me a new apartment then." His eyes glanced at you. "Don’t tempt me."
You laughed, thinking he was joking.
He wasn’t.
You then climbed the stairs, and he followed you quietly. You both stood in front of your door and you turned to him. "Thank you for walking me home." Your breath hitched unconsciously when you noticed him. Really noticed him. He was taller than you, closer than he ever was before and your back was almost hitting the door.
You were trapped.
But you weren’t scared.
He didn’t make any move to back away. And you didn’t either. You just stared into each other’s eyes. Like you always did. In silence.
It was comfortable.
Familiar.
Then, slowly, and for the first time ever, he raised his hand and barely touched your cheek. You didn’t flinch. You never did. You let him.
His touch vanished quickly, putting both of his hands in his pockets. Almost as if stopping himself from doing something stupid. "Take a day off tomorrow." He said, not commenting on this moment of weakness.
You blinked, af if you were finally back on earth. Then just quietly agreed, surprising even yourself. You never took a day off. But when he asked demanded ? Any complaints died before opening your mouth.
He hummed. As if satisfied by your answer. "Goodnight (Y/N)." He said, then he finally took a step back and started to walk away from you.
You felt like you could finally breath normally again. But you still turned to him to tell him to come back home safely. He stopped on his track at your words and almost, almost, let a scoff escape him.
Idiot. He was the danger.
But he didn’t comment on that and just left. As you finally opened the door to your home and closed it behind you.
Wondering why your heart was beating so fast in your chest.
You woke up early the next day. Not because you were going to go to work. But because you were used to.
You were bored. Your small apartment didn’t have much to offer besides the very old tv your dad left you, and you still didn’t have your phone back.
… Now you wonder if you should go report the robbery to the police.
You should have right away. But work was all that was on your mind.
You sighed, getting up from the couch when—
ding
You blinked. Then turned your attention to the door.
You weren’t expecting anyone. And your friends barely came to visit you at your apartment. If they wanted to talk to you ? They were 99% sure to see you at the café.
But it was close today. And you didn’t have your phone. Maybe they concluded that you finally took a day off ?
You stopped overthinking and took some step towards the door, opening it without even checking the eyelet.
How careless.
What you found behind the door made your eyes widen. There wasn’t anyone at the door, surprisingly. No. There was your stolen bag and bicycle.
You blinked. Once. Twice. Before checking your surrounding to try to find the person who could be responsible for this.
There was no one.
"What the…"
So you just turned your attention to your bag, kneeling down on the ground to check if everything was still there.
Nothing was missing.
How was that even possible ?!
You didn’t even report anything to the police yet !
"Am I hallucinating ?" You couldn’t believe your eyes.
Searching a little bit more, you finally found your phone in the bag and grabbed it. You sighed of pure happiness and turned it on. The thieves didn’t seem to have changed anything.
But your eyes caught something in the corner.
And your stomach dropped.
There was blood on the edge of your phone’s case.
And as you finally realized that maybe something terrible happened.
Your tv on the background announced the disappearance of a group of teenager.
And you received a text from a contact number named "Mikey".
You never gave him your number.
Let’s talk more (Y/N).
And that’s when you realized.
You made a big mistake.
That man is no normal customer.
