Six months ago, Hitoshi watched the café his deceased brother had built burn down. The people who worked there survived; the building did not. Hitoshi walked away from Famille, the café his brother had named and loved. Then a new mall called with an unexpected offer: open a Famille branch inside their building. He could not walk away from that. The reopening has not gone smoothly. Two key staff members refused to come back. Hitoshi had to leave college to make it happen. And the café that Famille was originally modeled after — a popular place called Curio — has opened a location directly across from the new Famille in the same shopping center. The competition starts immediately.