Chapter Text
the moment the clock strikes twelve, nakayama is out of his seat immediately once more, on time after literally counting down the seconds prior to noon.
“ah, nakayama. welcome to the printemps café,” yuriko greets as he passes through the door.
“right on time,” he replies. “has it been busy for you today?”
“nothing out of the ordinary,” she shrugs nonchalantly. “feel free to sit wherever you’d like and i’ll get you your usual meal.”
“actually,” nakayama pauses, looking up at the menu behind her. “i was looking to get a pastry as well. do you have any recommendations?”
“well, our most popular items on the menu currently, are the cinnamon rolls, the yubari melon bread and the apple danish,” yuriko rattles off easily, poised with the air of how a professional would.
he glances at the counter, settling on the bread that catches his eye first. “alright, i’ll take the melon bread to go.” and after payment, a quick nod and a receipt, the waitress strides off swiftly to prepare his order.
nakayama hadn’t meant to return to the shop, he tells himself after he leaves the café. this trip was just to let shirafuji know he enjoyed the magazine, drop off a pastry to express his appreciation, and he’d be on his merry way. in addition, the magazine gave him the right ideas to suggest to his client. perhaps he could find another similarly helpful book to work its magic.
with that said, nakayama had exactly zero intention of letting shirafuji know he was on the dot about the book recommendation. perhaps a minimal nod of approval, but only because he was in a better mood than usual.
but walking down the alleyway, not even he could help the small smile that crept to his face as he got closer to the bookstore.
—only to find the counter empty.
he frowns to disguise his poorly-concealed disappointment. “what the..”
nakayama shook his head at himself. he was being ridiculous. it was obviously a small shop, but he was sure shirafuji couldn’t be the only employee running the entire store. for all he knew, the only thing out of the ordinary was the strange drop of his heart upon not finding the clerk at the counter. and that he even scarfed lunch down at record speed to be here!
with time to kill, nakayama wanders, minding his head on the low-hanging lights and stumbling through the seemingly endless aisles of wooden bookshelves lining the interior of the store. he stops along the way to rearrange some misplaced novels, then ends up strolling all the way to a section tucked away in the very back. he notices, to his surprise, amongst all the shelves that have been thoroughly labelled, the name card that would identify this shelf is strangely named ‘a blind date with a book’. a concept he hadn’t heard before.
however, the shelf manages to stand out from the rest — shirafuji, he assumed, had done some great decorating of the empty space, and much to nakayama’s confusion, the shelf itself contained wrapped books of different sizes, covered with colourful wrapping paper. each of the book’s wrapping had that same tidy handwriting to show what genre it had to offer.
nakayama runs his hands lightly over the glossy spines, pulling a book out at random. and just as he’s about to see what genre had fate assigned him, he’s greeted by a familiar voice.
nakayama doesn’t even need to turn around to hear the smile in the voice. “ah, i see you’ve found the collection i’ve curated!”
startled, his grip on the book loosens, and he winces as the book hits the floor with a thud, its cover now revealed for all to see.
nakayama’s stomach drops when he sees the word romance scrawled on the wrapping paper. there’s simply no way he can verbally explain to the person who’s caught him and have them believe that he just happened to have picked up this genre of material.
“that’s not mine,” he crouches down in a desperate hurry to pick the book up, but the employee he’s been looking for does the same.
their hands touch, which only makes nakayama’s prayers to disappear into thin air more fervent.
“my, i didn’t know nakayama-kun was interested in romance novels,” shirafuji remarks. dignity shattered and face now ablaze, nakayama retracts his hand swiftly. “like i said, i only happened to stumble upon it,” he sputters, his tone bitter.
much to his horror, the clerk has an amused expression — he did not believe his true story. “no need to be embarrassed,” he consoles, holding the book carefully with both hands. “oh, and if i can offer my own recommendations on that genre, if you’d l—”
“i didn’t come to ask for romance novel recommendations,” nakayama hisses through gritted teeth, folding his arms. “and besides, i was looking for you.”
shirafuji’s mouth falls open. "you were..?"
as much as nakayama is aware of every minute detail and expression, the irritable clerk looks.. more interesting up-close. he’s wearing a pair of black glasses today, golden eyes luminous and more enticing than before.
right, he’s still waiting for an answer. nakayama rummages through his bag for the pastry. “i got you this to thank you for the magazine, the contents weren’t too bad.”
and when he fishes it out after much effort, only to see shirafuji still gaping at him, he wonders to himself if this bookstore clerk is trying to make a fool out of him, or if he has trouble processing emotions. it’s quite possible, especially when he’s already found him picking out a romance novel.
“thank you,” he accepts the paper bag after a brief moment of silence, peering at its contents. “you’re a customer at printemps too?”
“..uh huh.”
“i haven’t had lunch yet,” shirafuji announces before sinking into the bread in front of him. nakayama scrapes together a smile out of courtesy, though he really just wished for this overly friendly bookstore clerk to leave him alone so he could simmer in regret. he doesn’t have it in him to feign indifference to all that shirafuji is today, and all that his being here happens to do to him. irritably, it’s already becoming a challenge to keep a smile down at the sight of him enjoying the bread he’s bought for him.
“nakayama-kun? what’s the matter?” shirafuji interrupts, frowning down at him with such intense concern that it feels devastating to look at. his eyes have the smallest speck of cyan in the pool of yellow.
shirafuji must have caught him staring, because they lock eyes, and nakayama wrenches his gaze away with embarrassment lurching wildly through his insides. “nothing,” he says, as coldly as he could possibly manage. his voice cracks. “i just didn’t realise you enjoyed the melon bread there.”
he hums as he takes another bite. “it is! you should try it if you haven’t.”
“..i don’t need any more recommendations from you, shirafuji.”
“what about the book?” shirafuji laughs — a melodic sound that sends sparks through nakayama’s body. until he snaps back into reality and recalls that it’s a laugh that’s mocking him.
with that, he’s just about finished with this conversation. “no thank you,” he turns and stalks off toward another section, any other section that would get him away from the cursed book.
ㆍ┈┈ㆍ┈┈ㆍ┈┈ㆍ┈┈ㆍ
when nakayama actually finds another magazine written by the same author, he reluctantly heads to the counter for payment. shirafuji is dusting off a book, with dust motes wandering about the chunks of sunlight that fall in through the window. nakayama raises an eyebrow.
“i’m going to wrap it,” he says as he pats off an absurd amount of dust from the book.
frowning, nakayama shuts his eyes at the dust particles hanging mid-air. the stillness that follows is dragged out painstakingly, shirafuji turning to retrieve wrapping paper while nakayama is forced to stifle a sneeze. he blinks, followed by fleeting furrow of his brow, and then opens his eyes to see the clerk already pasting on tape to finish off his packaging.
“why are you wrapping it up?”
“ah, it’s for that shelf you took a book out of,” shirafuji smiles at the memory — and nakayama says nothing after that; the heat of indignation sparking and leaving behind red on his skin. to avoid eye contact, he turns to look across the shelf behind him, at all the sun-bleached spines of sudden interest there.
“this one will say mystery on it,” shirafuji chirps enthusiastically. “i take a book and wrap it in brown paper, with the genre of the book, to show what it contains without actually giving anything away. i’ve recently added the romance and fantasy. it’s fascinating, isn’t it? the whole point is that the customer doesn’t know what book it is when purchasing it.”
“that sounds like a lot of refunds,” nakayama says doubtfully.
“you can find out yourself by picking one up,” shirafuji offers. he looks at nakayama in a way that he can’t quite decipher. it’s somewhat alert and analytical, all while his gaze is soft, his eyes a shining gold underneath the ceiling light. “so, would you like a date?”
—silence ensues.
nakayama’s eyes widen for a split second, before he blinks and looks away. the air is so stifling around them it feels as though time as stopped. shirafuji doesn’t ignore the obvious red growing on his cheeks. “i wouldn’t mind,” he clears his throat after a long pause.
confused, shirafuji doesn’t quite understand what it was he was so embarrassed for. “of course! which genre?”
his head shot up and he met his eyes. a blink, then another, followed by a long breath, nakayama sighs, straightening his clothing. his sigh seemed to cut the tension in half and shirafuji let out a breathy laugh of his own. “i’m assuming it’s not romance.”
“..anything else is fine,” he replies. his voice was steady but the words were spoken as he stared at a random spot on his left shoulder. it was only a slight duck of his head, but the red that crept up the back of his neck gave him away.
and then, the realisation finally hits shirafuji; that it sounded like he had asked him on a date.
the horror of realisation sinks in as slow as venom. shirafuji curls his fingers around the wrapped book in front of him so he doesn’t lose his nerve. the warmth seeps through his palms, a comforting presence, and he lets out a small breath to relieve the tension.
“i definitely can recommend something,” he smiles as he tries not to let his hands shake when reaching over, retrieving the book he had saved for him, the small scrap of paper still stuck in between the pages as another annotation he was in the midst of. “i was going to wrap this up for you,” he trails off while trying to ignore the pounding of his heart in his chest.
he regrets the words as soon as they leave his mouth. his stomach swirls with the hot flush of embarrassment, augmented by the way nakayama’s mouth slightly parts in shock, so his eyes dart toward the book, at anywhere else but before him, “though, i was in the middle of writing something down too.”
nakayama seizes the opportunity to get back at him. “i didn’t realise you were counting on me to be back.”
“i didn’t realise nakayama-kun felt so inclined to buy my lunch for me either,” he quips back, his still shaky hand betraying him as he pens down a last sentence.
“..i guess we’re even.”
“this is also on me,” shirafuji hands him the book with the best smile he can muster, and nakayama gives him one last stare before he steps out of the bookstore.
outside, he flips the book open to the last page, takes a precious few seconds to attempt to steady his breathing, and begins to read. sure enough, there’s a sticky note, just like last time, and at the very bottom, there’s an extra sentence he hadn’t expected —
“i’d like a date with you too”, signed off with shirafuji’s name and a smiley face accompanying it.
nakayama smiles all the way back to his office.