Ena takes a bite and enjoys her first proper meal since yesterday afternoon. “The flyers need QR codes for the website. It just makes sense. I should have made the site first, then the flyers.”

Elio resumes his meal. “Eh, I’m sure these flyers will still work.”

 “We could,” Ena says between bites. “Make new flyers with QR codes, or we can make stickers of the QR code and put them on the flyers.”

Elio finishes his sandwich. “Stickers? That sounds fun and easy. Let’s do those.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” Ena reaches into her bag and pulls out a small cardboard box. “I got these at the print shop on my way here.”

Elio takes the box and opens it to see stacks of stickers of QR codes. “Whoa.” He laughs. “You’re on top of this.”

“I try.” Ena puts her half-eaten sandwich down and gets up. “I should have shown you the site before making these.”

Elio laughs. “I trust you, by the way. Can I have my card back?”

Ena gives back his card. “Here you go. Maybe you should get a real company card.”

Elio puts the card back into his wallet. “That sounds like a lot of work.”

“Hmm,” Ena mutters as she walks over and turns on the computer. “Do you have one of those open-and-closed sign for the front door?”

“Huh?” Elio looks at the front door. “No, I should get one, huh? Unless you have one in your bag.” He jokes.

Ena sits down at the desk as she waits for the computer to start. “Sadly not, but I can get one if you tell me what style you want.”

Elio walks towards the desk. “You can get any. I’m not too picky. Do you want my card back for that?”

Ena starts typing on the computer. “No, I can pay for it myself. It won’t be that much.”

She brings up the site she created last night and presents it to Elio. “Here’s what we've got.”

Elio leans over Ena’s chair to get a good look at the site. “This is nice. You did all this in one night? Good job.” He says, impressed.

Ena smiles as she scrolls through the site. “Yeah, it was fun doing it, so I kind of lost track of time. I will make you an admin so you can check the requests and handle stuff here on your computer too.”

“People can make job requests on here!” Elio looks shocked. “They don’t have to come to the office?”

Ena nods. “Yep.” She finishes showing the site to Elio. She spins around in the chair to face him. “This should get us some work.”

Elio looks ecstatic. “I bet.”

Ena gets up to retrieve her bag. “We could also make some ads later.” She pulls out some receipts. “But first, here are the receipts for what I’ve done so far. The flyers, the site, and the QR stickers.”

Elio’s face sinks as Ena hands him the receipts, and he sees the price. “Ah… yes.. very good. Let’s hold off on the ads.”

“I had a feeling that would be your response.” Ena chuckles. “The flyers should work for now. Let’s put the QR stickers on the ones here, then go out and put them on the ones you already put out.”

Elio brings over the flyers to the table. “You sure are eager for all this work.”

“It’s better than being home all alone.”

“I guess it is.” Elio says with a concerned smile.

Ena puts on a podcast as the two sit down on the couch to add the stickers onto the flyers. They debate where the stickers should go on the flyers for a few minutes until they start the monotonous task of sticker placement. Things are going smoothly, but after some time of this boring activity, Ena’s eyes start to feel heavy, and soon she struggles to keep them open. She closed them for what she thought was just a moment, but when she opened them again, she was lying down on the couch, and in front of her was Elio sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, working on the stickers. She closes her eyes again and as she does, she notices the podcast isn’t playing anymore, instead, it’s some Nu metal music. “Elio must have changed it.” She thought as she drifts back to sleep. 

KLONK

Ena wakes up to the sound of the front door closing. She feels a blanket on her as she opens her eyes to see Elio holding a bag as he walks inside. She sits up with the blanket sliding off of her.

“Good morning.” Elio says as he places the bag on the counter.

Ena darts up. “MORNING?” She shouts.

Elio laughs. “No, it’s just after four.”

“Oh. I see. Sorry about falling asleep.”

Elio puts a few items into the fridge. “It’s no problem. You did a lot of work already, so finishing the sticker and going out to the ones I already put up was the least I could do.”

Ena scans the office for her phone; she spots it charging on the desk. “Oh, the Flyers are done? What else should we do today?”

Elio closes the fridge. “I would say so. We could try to put some more flyers up, but I don’t want to. I think we can call it a day. Why don’t you go home and sleep.”

Ena yawns. “I guess I can do that. I need to do some shopping anyways.”

“This would be a good time to go. You could beat the shopping rush. Make sure you get plenty of rest, cause we are sure to get super busy from now on.”

Ena gathers her things. “That sounds good to me.” She says with a joyful smile.

Ena leaves for the day, doing a little shopping before she comes home. On the following days, Ena would come to the office on days she was either off from work or worked night shifts, but no work had come yet. So to kill time, Ena would work on her ability with Elio’s assistance. Unfortunately, Ena hasn’t yet been able to activate it, but at least her calves are getting a good workout. Besides working on Ena’s ability, they would walk around town to try to give out more flyers. While one went out to hand out flyers, the other would stay at the office just in case someone came by and to keep an eye on the site. Elio only gave out a few flyers to some older folk, but Ena was able to get some more shops to put the flyers in their windows. She was even able to put a few on some community bulletin boards.

A week later, Ena arrives at the office. Elio rests his chin on his hand as he scrolls through the website. With a bored expression, he looks at Ena. “Nothing, there is nothing.”

“Good morning,” Ena says with a smile. “It will just take some time. Our flyers will catch some eyes soon.” Ena rustles through her bag. “But look what I got.”

Elio stands up with a gloomy posture. “Is it work or food?”

 “Sadly not.” Ena says as she pulls out a small wood-carved open and close sign.

Elio lights up as he sees the sign. “Oh, a sign!”

Ena hands the sign to Elio. “I was trying to find a burned one like the other sign, but this is the best I could find.”

Elio examines the sign with delight. “This is great. Let’s put it up.”

 He grabs a little hammer and some nails from the drawer and hurries to the front door.

Ena follows him. “I bet this will get us some work.” She jokes.

“Let’s hope so,” Elio says in full earnest.

He tacks up the new sign under the JOAW sign. He nods with a smile of satisfaction towards Ena. “Looks great, Right?”

Ena flips the sign to say open. “It sure does.”

They go back inside the office where they resume what they have been doing the past week, which is Ena doing her exercise, and afterwards they discuss who should go out for the flyers. However, neither wants to go out, so Elio makes a suggestion. “Wanna play Go?”

Ena shrugs. “Sure.”

Elio goes to the shelf under the TV and pulls out an old Go board, along with a bag of Go pieces. He then goes and pushes the coffee table out of the way to place the Go board in the center of the room so they both can sit on the floor to play. As Elio places the board down, Ena gets a good look at it. Rough is the kindest way to describe its condition. It’s old and it shows; the sides of the board are covered with chips and gashes. One could assume it was thrown down a cliff. All the legs are in rough shape, but one of them has been broken into chunks and put back together in various ways, judging by its various nail holes and old glue stains. The top is in good shape compared to the rest of it. It has some scratches and chips. The black lines have faded in areas, but it’s still playable.

Ena looks at the rough board. “I’m guessing this was left behind too.”

 “Yeah, we got a few board games and some decks of playing cards.” Elio lifts up a black and white piece. “What color do you want?”

Ena chooses the black pieces, and they begin to play throughout the day, switching colors between each game. The winner went back and forth between the two, but then Elio starts to get into the zone. He starts winning back-to-back, but Ena still puts up a good fight. These two are having quite a good time.

At 3 PM and after another win from Elio, Ena leans back and lets out a sigh. “I almost got you there.”

Elio starts to collect the pieces. “You’re pretty good. This is much more fun than the computer. We should have played this from the start.”

Ena checks her phone for the time. “Geez, we’ve been playing for a while. Should we take a break? Or maybe try a different game?”

Elio pauses and looks at the drawers with the other games. “Another game could be fun. There is—”

Ding dong

Both of them shoot up from the doorbell and look at the door with excitement, then at each other. Then they look at their messy play area.

“Hurry!” Elio says as he rushes to put the Go board away.

Ena starts moving the coffee table back as Elio quickly returns to help her set things back to normal. They get the office back in order. As they do, the two give the room a quick scan to make sure it looks right.

Elio looks at Ena. “Looks good?”

Ena nods. “Looks good.”

Elio grabs the handle to the front door, and he looks again at Ena, who gives him a reassuring nod.

Ena, unsure what to do while Elio opens the door, stands in a stiff pose by the desk. She spots the kettle. “Tea!” She thinks.

Elio opens the door with a smile and spots a timid and nervous looking high school-age boy who is wearing his uniform and a backpack. His hands are firmly holding the strap of his backpack.

Sensing the boy’s nervousness, Elio widens his smile. “Welcome to Joaw.” He says as he gestures inside. “I’m Elio, how can I help you?”

The boy’s eyes dart at Elio. “I’m Tomoki.” He says as he steps past Elio to go inside.

Tomoki spots Ena making some tea as the two step inside. They make eye contact, but he quickly looks away as she greets him.

Elio, seeing Ena making tea gives her a thumbs up, and she returns one back. He gestures for Tomoki to sit down on the couch, which he quickly does. Elio slinks off to grab the desk chair and rolls it to the other side of the coffee table to face Tomoki.

Elio sits down. “So what can I do for you?”

Tomoki nervously looks around the office. “Uh well, it’s just.” He pauses and looks at the ground.

Elio thinks for a moment and puts on his best professional voice. “We here at Joaw do all sorts of jobs. We can help with any problems you have. So, whatever you want us to do, we can do it. As long as it’s not too illegal, we can do it.” Elio lets out a courteous laugh.

Ena pours a cup of tea for Tomoki. He once again quickly glances at her as she places the cup of tea on the table. But his gaze quickly returns to the floor. Ena and Elio both take note of this odd behavior.

Elio’s lips pursed as he looks at Ena. “Can you check the stock in the back?” He points to the loft door.

 “Sure,” Ena says as she starts to understand this teenager’s attitude.

Elio gives her a nervous smile as she goes into the loft, leaving the door slightly cracked open so she can still hear the conversation.

Tomoki’s shoulders relax as Ena leaves. He finally lifts his head and gives a sigh of relief now that it’s just the two of them.

“So, what’s going on?” Elio asks in a more direct tone.

Tomoki takes a sip of his tea. “You do any job right?”

“Yes, within reason.”

“Good.” Tomoki takes another sip from his tea. He holds the cup for a moment until he places it down with force. “Get me a girlfriend!” his shaky voice demands.

Elio’s eyes widen as Ena’s mouth opens in shock from the cracked door.

“What?” Is all that Elio could utter out.

“I want a girlfriend,” Tomoki states. “And you will help me get one.”