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“Hey Chisato-chan, have you heard about the new café that opened up downtown the other day?” Kanon said, walking next to Chisato back to class together. “I went there yesterday and the tea was really good. Do you want to go there after school?”
Never being able to refuse an offer to go grab some drinks from Kanon, the blonde smiled, earnestly agreeing and sat through final period thinking about what drink she was feeling like, of course, while paying attention in class. “ Meh, I’ll have the staff recommend me something.”
The pair quickly packed their bags and left the school grounds. Luckily for them, neither Hanasakigawa nor Haneoka were too strict on detour rules after school, or practicing for the bands would be an absolute pain in the neck and that’s just practicing. Chisato would never be able to go out for tea with Kanon, except from during the weekends, which she couldn’t do very often anyway due to work.
Once they reached downtown, Kanon gently pulled Chisato by the hand, to the new café that just opened. A small bell rang as they pushed open the door, and all Chisato’s expectations of a coffee date with Kanon immediately got overridden with how damn cute the waitress was. Chisato’s jaw dropped, staring at the pink haired girl with her hair in two low plaits, in a cute, frilly white blouse with short, checkered suspenders, her legs left bare. She also wore a beret, which matched with her suspenders. Muttering under her breath, Chisato sighed. “Shit… She’s so damn cute…”
Kanon tilted her head in confusion. “Did you say something Chisato-chan?”
Coughing, she tried keeping her composure, the tip of her ears tinting red. “N-No. I was just thinking how beautiful this café looks. I’ll need to judge their menu though.”
As the pair moved around the café to the bar, Chisato’s gaze followed wherever the pink haired girl went. If Kanon wasn’t busy watching another waitress do latte art, she probably would’ve noticed. Thank god for the latte art.
Once Chisato and Kanon reached the front of the queue, Kanon ordered the daily special. Now, Chisato was stuck in a situation where she had no idea what to get, as she spent her entire time watching the girl instead of having a look at the menu. “Um…” She stood staring at the menu for a full two minutes, her mind going blank, completely unable to process words.
“I recommend our caramel macchiato. It’s very sweet so if you like sweet things, I’m sure you’ll like it.” said the pink haired girl, appearing behind the blonde.
“KY-” Chisato jumped, quickly slapping her hand over her mouth. “I-I’ll take that… Regular sized… Thanks…”
Kanon looked over at her dear friend, whose face had completely been flushed red, something that she and most people had never seen before and probably will never see again. “Are you okay, Chisato-chan? Are you not feeling well?”
Flustered, the actress put her hands to her face, trying to cool herself down. “I’m fine, everything’s just a little overwhelming…”
Of course Kanon was still very concerned but didn’t try prying into her heart, which was something Chisato loved her for. The two were directed to a table, by a waitress that unfortunately wasn’t the pink haired girl, and the two sat down and started discussing jellyfish, except from the fact that it was more of a one sided conversation with Chisato replying with a “Hmm…” to everything, only worrying Kanon more as she’s never been like this. Chisato was only fixated on the cute girl though. There really was nothing wrong with her, other than her intense, love at first sight for the girl, her heart twisting whenever the girl smiled, even if it wasn’t to her.
Realising that Chisato wasn’t paying attention, Kanon stopped talking as a whole, the awkward silence catching her attention. “Kanon?”
“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re daydreaming too…” Kanon said, twiddling her fingers, finally meeting Chisato’s gaze.
“Yes, yes.” She replied, while looking for the girl again, to see her carrying two drinks, approaching them. “I think I’m going to die.”
“Sorry to keep you waiting!” She clumsily placed down the drinks, and put away her tray. “I’m going to do some latte art on yours if you’re fine with that.”
The bassist could only stare at the waitress’s thin, small fingers as she appeared to be doing a drawing of a cat. “...Cute.”
The art was finally done. It didn’t look anything like a pro could do. In fact, Chisato thought that she probably could have done better but some things are easier to keep to yourself. “Can I… Have your name?”
The girl almost jumped back, surprised that someone would even ask for main. “A-Aya… Maruyama Aya.”
In her head, Chisato repeated her name a hundred times. “Aya, Aya, Aya, Aya and Aya.”
Chisato graciously took the cup off Aya’s hands. “Thank you Aya.”
The blonde took a sip of the drink. She wasn’t the biggest of caramel, but the caramel in the in the drink was so sweet, it made her mouth tingle. “It’s very good!”
Chisato decided to turn up again, the next day. Not just the next day. Every day. Chisato seemed to figure out her shift. Mondays to Fridays, four to six. She didn’t show up every day, with nothing in hand, just to watch Aya do her for two hours. This time, she brought in revision material, her midterms beginning the next week. There were more people than before, but the blonde quickly found a seat and waited for Aya to approach her.
“The regular?” Aya said, appearing beside Chisato.
“Oh, of course. You know me well,” she replied, looking away from her books, smiling at the pink haired girl, feeling giddy.
Aya took a glance at her books, eyes widening at the amount of content Chisato was getting through. “Are you revising for midterms?”
“Yeah. What about you?”
Aya froze. It’s not like she didn’t revise. “I do it at home, not that I get much work done anyway haha...” She had nothing compared to Chisato’s pile of books though. “ She’s an honor student…”
“After your shift, if you have time, do you want to study together?”
It wasn’t the most surprising thing Chisato had said, but she still jumped a little. Quickly agreeing, she ran off with the girl’s order.
Chisato hummed in joy, proud of her achievements of asking the girl for a study session, even if it may be short. They shouldn’t stay out for long after all…
It was only about five, when Chisato’s eyes couldn’t keep up, tearing up and her vision going hazy. “It’s fine if I just sleep for a while… Right?” Completely giving up on her eyes, she dropped her head onto her world history textbook, and slept.
Later, she woke up, to find herself covered with a blanket, a free caramel macchiato in front of her, as well as the girl who had just finished her shift, diligently engrossed in her English textbook. She sat up, to be greeted with a cute smile from Aya, before she returned to her books. “Seeing you made me more motivated for revising.”
“Thanks for all this, Aya.” Chisato looked into the macchiato, seeing the words ‘GOOD LUCK!’ floating on the surface.
“N-No problem…”
The two stayed there till seven, sat almost in complete silence, save for the sound of page turning, only speaking when one of them had a question, or they’d never get anything done. It wasn’t like the silence was suffocating them. It was calming, in fact, just with the two of them.
It was winter, so it was already pretty dark outside. Chisato couldn’t not offer walking Aya home, even if she realised that they were in complete opposite directions. Not wanting to accept Chisato’s offer, the two quickly exchanged their goodbyes and dashed home.
During exam week, Aya took time off her part-time job, and instead, studied with Chisato. Thanks to their short, but effective study sessions, the week went by without any difficulty. For an honor student like Chisato, getting into the top 10 for midterm scores was nothing too difficult, but even Aya managed to reach the top 50 in her school.
After the shop cleared out, Aya slid Chisato another latte, with the wispy words ‘congrats!’ drifting on it. “You did really well so um…”
Without further warning, Aya ran over to Chisato, trying her best to not trip like she does, not so rarely, and pecks her on the forehead, her cheeks flushing pink, matching with her hair. “It’s not much but… It’s a gift from me for helping me.”
“ She’s too cute…” Chisato muttered, wrapping her arms around the girl’s neck, “Here’s a present from me, because you also did so well,” and pushed her lips onto Aya’s for just a brief moment, before pulling away just to have a look at her expression -which didn’t fail her expectations-. Her face grew redder than her hair and she just couldn’t meet her eyes.
“Chisato-chan, you dummy…”