Among the numerous shops in the oak district, the Akiyama Confectionery was slightly smaller than average despite being two stories tall. A colorful sign helped to draw attention to the shop, bearing the shop's name and a depiction of autumn leaves and assorted sweets. Although it wasn't especially eye-catching, even passing near the shop would draw attention to the lingering aroma of sugar, spices, fruits and pastries that perpetually hung around. For good reason, as well, with the first floor of the shop packed full of a wide variety of kohonha's favorite sweets on display - from the shops signature filled pastries shaped like autumn leaves to colorful and crystal-like jelly candy.
Every morning, the handful of members of the Akiyama family that resided in the second floor would wake bright and early and engage in many of the household activities any other family would. Then after breakfast was had, they would descend to the first floor to set up and get ready to open the shop for the day. Anything getting stale had to be thrown out, though they only rarely had to do that as the family usually ate whatever didn't sell themselves, and fresh product had to be made to replace it.
Even at a younger age, Tomiko herself was no exception to this routine, and the only real deviations from it were the occasional errand. Today, the young girl was clad in a simple blue dress and a white apron as she swept the shop floor and was left in charge of handling any customers for the morning. It was the job she disliked the most, finding it incredibly boring. The rest of her small family was dealing with the much more fun tasks, either busy in the kitchens or handling other errands out and about.
Simple tasks like sleeping the floors couldn't last an entire morning, and the early rush of customers eager to get the fresh made pastries and other such goodies eventually trickled off as it got closer to noon. Which was the part she disliked so much, where she had nothing left to do but sit and wait for a customer to maybe show up. Eventually she found herself perched on a stool behind the counter looking as bored as she felt: one elbow propped up on the counter, hand squishing into one of her soft cheeks as it supported her head, pigtails dangling down onto the counter beside the book she was idly reading. It was a book she had already read before, and if she had a choice she would have preferred to at least study - but her parents had made it clear that while she would be given plenty of time to train and study for the academy whenever she needed it, she wasn't allowed to when tending to the family business.
Worse was that Tomiko knew for a fact many of her friends were either still free to roam around playing, or busy studying and training. Sure, she knew the shop was important, and she had promised to help out whenever she had the time in order to get enrolled at the academy... But she was really, really bored!
Every morning, the handful of members of the Akiyama family that resided in the second floor would wake bright and early and engage in many of the household activities any other family would. Then after breakfast was had, they would descend to the first floor to set up and get ready to open the shop for the day. Anything getting stale had to be thrown out, though they only rarely had to do that as the family usually ate whatever didn't sell themselves, and fresh product had to be made to replace it.
Even at a younger age, Tomiko herself was no exception to this routine, and the only real deviations from it were the occasional errand. Today, the young girl was clad in a simple blue dress and a white apron as she swept the shop floor and was left in charge of handling any customers for the morning. It was the job she disliked the most, finding it incredibly boring. The rest of her small family was dealing with the much more fun tasks, either busy in the kitchens or handling other errands out and about.
Simple tasks like sleeping the floors couldn't last an entire morning, and the early rush of customers eager to get the fresh made pastries and other such goodies eventually trickled off as it got closer to noon. Which was the part she disliked so much, where she had nothing left to do but sit and wait for a customer to maybe show up. Eventually she found herself perched on a stool behind the counter looking as bored as she felt: one elbow propped up on the counter, hand squishing into one of her soft cheeks as it supported her head, pigtails dangling down onto the counter beside the book she was idly reading. It was a book she had already read before, and if she had a choice she would have preferred to at least study - but her parents had made it clear that while she would be given plenty of time to train and study for the academy whenever she needed it, she wasn't allowed to when tending to the family business.
Worse was that Tomiko knew for a fact many of her friends were either still free to roam around playing, or busy studying and training. Sure, she knew the shop was important, and she had promised to help out whenever she had the time in order to get enrolled at the academy... But she was really, really bored!