The Difference a Second Makes (Open)

"No wait!" A desperate swipe of a pass turned into a desperate sprint. The stairs are completely bypassed by a long leap. It was a beautiful leap, except that he had flubbed the landing. What would have been a good running start turned into a rough roll. He was lucky, there is a lack of people in the station and the stairs are completely free so he has room to get back to her feet, but the lost time is what sticks out in his mind. He doesn't even give his surroundings a look as he makes for the last stretch.

But he's just a little too late. The fall had been costly.

There is a roar of noise as well as a rush of wind and the two things together ring out as a death toll for Judai.

"Aw nuts." Judai panted for breathe as he watched the train rush away, taking passengers away to their destination. Judai groaned and fell to his butt in exhaustion. He sees a few people giving him looks of pity, amusement, or just annoyance, but he could care less about that. He pulled out his phone and checked for the next departure time. He had a decent bit of time until the next train.

"Man... never lucky." No matter what way he looked at it, he's going to get home late for dinner. Judai punched out a quick text to his parents that he would be late and just collapsed onto his back. His legs burned from the dead sprint as well as the terrible jump down the stairs and as if to add insult to injury, his stomach decided to remind him that he would be missing dinner at this rate.

The loud grumbling of his stomach caused Judai to groan and throw an arm over his eyes. "Ugh... why~?"

If he was feeling honest, Judai wanted to sob a little bit. He had flubbed an awesome jump landing, embarrassed himself in public, missed his train, and he was feeling hungry. Luckily for Judai, he rarely felt the need to be completely honest. So he settled for silently bemoaning his terrible luck.

But luck has a tenancy to flip around. As Judai picked himself up and started a slow trudge towards a bench or something where he could waste his time on his phone or something, he heard the siren song of hope.

"Bake sale?" Judai's head picked up at the quiet advertisement. He looked around for the source of the call and found a small wagon turned stand sitting against one of the walls. People seemed to just be streaming by it.

Curious and hungry, Judai decided this needed to be investigated. He slipped past the streams of people walking through the metro and approached the stand. Rather than an old man or an old woman, there was a kid manning it. Judai gave the smaller boy a bemused look, taking in the yukata along with the stand. The entire thing looked like something that belonged in Little Tokyo and for that alone, Judai was definitely going to buy stuff here. The bakeries in Little Tokyo were the best.

"Yo." Judai gave the boy a friendly smile as he walked up, his hands shoved into his pockets leaning in to take a look at the baked goods. "Is there anything you recommend? I'm looking for something a bit more filling."

"A quiche?" Judai tilted his head at the foreign term. He had heard the word before and he was (almost) sure that it was a food, but it really did not sound that appetizing. The fact that it would be cold made it less so, especially with cheese involved. Cold cheese was not a problem, cheese that had been melted and then let to cool tended to not agree with Judai's palette. "I think I'll pass on that one."

On the other hand, the last two had potential. There was nothing Judai loved more than a good baked good, but he had a partial weakness for muffins. They were his favorite breakfast food and quite possibly his favorite food. The fact that this little stand had muffins was almost a deal breaker, except for the words 'vegan' attached to them. Now, Judai had no problem with vegetarians or their more hardcore counterparts, but well, he liked his baked goods cooked with eggs, not egg substitutes. Oh the other hand... muffins.

Ultimately, the solution to Judai's problem had nothing to do with the muffins, but everything to do with the sellers choice in dress. The boy was dressed in a yukata, and in the privacy of his own mind, Judai admitted that the boy looked adorable in the outfit. Damn his weakness for cute things. So obviously, the right choice was to honor the seller's dress and Judai's own nationality with some Japanese baked goods.

"I think I'll take some taiyaki." Judai nodded to himself. "Yeah, that sounds good right about now."

"Mmm, alright." Judai accepted with a lazy shrug. That seemed a bit pricey for some Taiyaki, but oh well. Judai was hungry enough that he was not really thinking about the price. He paid for his snack and received it with relish. Taking a bite out of his fish shaped snack, Judai hummed appreciatively as he ate the bread.

"So... do you open up shop around here often? I can't say I've ever seen this thing open here before." Judai asked the stall owner in between bites. "With the travel cart and how you're dressed, this seems more appropriate for the streets rather than the station."

It also felt a bit odd that no one else was buying from the kid. The food was pretty good and a cute kid selling things typically would at least draw a small crowd. Maybe not exactly the best type of people all the time, but it would have gotten a little attention. Then again, the only reason Judai was even here was because he had missed his train. Maybe everyone was in too much of a rush?

So it was a mistake that this little shop was here. Odd, but Judai was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Huh, so you normally set up in the Palms. Weird, I guess I'll have to look you up sometime. I live down there." Judai took another bit of his snack and nodded. It would be nice to have an Asian styled bakery near by, even if it was just a small stand.

"Hahaha, that makes more sense. You certainly look like you belong in Little Tokyo." Judai himself had stopped wearing Yukata a long time ago. He tended to avoid the clothes even when heading down to the festivals. He always felt a little odd in them, like he was at the age where he was too old to look cute in them, but too young to look distinguished like his father did.

"But I'm surprised that your parents let you run a stand like this by yourself." Judai finished off his Taiyaki and dusted his hands off the crumbs. "Isn't it hard to lug this thing and man it all without any help?"

The kid looked young. He couldn't be out of middle school. Not only was it hard for someone of his age to be selling things by himself, wasn't it dangerous. Criminal activity wasn't that bad in the city unless it was night time, but that still did not mean that people would not try stupid things.

"The yukata and the hat that you've got going there kind of point towards Little Tokyo." Judai pointed out with a little grin on his face. It was a little odd out here in the station, but most people would probably just assume the kid was either coming from or going to Little Tokyo. "Though I do get what you're saying about them not being special anymore. Saying that they're for festivals only kind of loses its point when there's a festival all the time." Judai shook his head at that. It was a little excessive to constantly have a festival. It made actual celebrations less impactful.

"Do a lot of people ask questions about baked goods?" Judai tilted his head at that explanation. He knew that some people were particularly picky about their food, but he thought that would be more about ingredients and nutrition values. His parents were always harking on him to pay more attention to what he ate, but he tended to mostly ignore it. He ate healthier than most people just from his life style, that was good enough for him. "You guys must get a lot of food nuts. I don't think I've ever really cared about the history of the food I eat. I mean, if it comes up on a tv show or a manga it's interesting, but to actually ask a baker about the origins of the muffins seems kind of out there."

"Well I guess it must be, or you're a lot stronger than you look." Judai gave the cart a once over. Maybe he was overthinking it. He knew how exhausting dragging something could be over the long term, but there was a big difference between dragging a tire along the ground and pulling a cart with wheels. He had a lot of experience with the former and almost no experience with the latter.

"But I can get the whole, helping the parents along thing. My dad is always on my case to help him out at the dojo. I help out with the kids classes in the afternoon." Judai shrugged lightly though his smile turned into a grimace at the end of the thought. Lately, martial arts was becoming more of a chore. He had been teaching more lessons lately and teaching was just a lot more tedious than learning and practicing. "Though he's been piling more and more work on me, lately."