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Most days, Kaede commends herself on a positive mental attitude even when most people would be tearing their hair out in frustration.
Today, however, she can’t exactly say that. She’s about three steps beyond aggravated and one step away from pulling all her hair out and dropping out of college. Music education is something that comes to Kaede easily, most things to do with music usually do with her, but today she went off campus to sit in on a music class and it went less than desirable.
Needless to say, Kaede will be declining any job offers from any middle schools in the foreseeable future.
Sighing to herself, she heaves her satchel further up her shoulder. It’s not unusual for it to be heavy, it doubles as both her personal purse and bag for school work, but today she has a particularly thick book about music theory in it she needs to read over the weekend to write an essay on.
Her head aches just thinking about it, but she tries not to think about it too hard as she throws open the door to her favorite cafe.
The little bell jingles above the door and Kaede almost feels as though all her worries have melted away. The atmosphere is cozy and warm, instantly soothing away the chill from the late autumn air. Quickly spotting a mass of dark brown hair, she begins weaving through tables to reach Maki as quickly as possible.
When she gets to the booth she wastes no time throwing her satchel into the booth and herself down after it with a rumbling groan. Her display of dramatics only earns her a half raised eyebrow from her best friend, who had been leisurely texting on her phone before Kaede had shown up.
“I’m never going to pick on you about your nannying job ever again,” The blonde whines, her tone bordering a whimper as she lazily throws her hair up into a bun. She can feel that it looks awful, but she has lost any and all energy to care about how she looks after the day she just had.
“That bad?” Maki says, briefly typing to finish off what Kaede assumes is a text to Kaito, before throwing her phone into the small black backpack sitting next to her.
Kaede spends the next several minutes ranting about the behavior of the class she oversaw, only pausing when the drinks Maki had ordered prior her arrival got to their table. She finally finishes her rant with an aggressive gulp of her caramel latte, “I didn’t even know kids could be that mean! No one is that mean in middle school.”
“Speak for yourself, I was mean as hell.” Maki says decidedly, blowing softly on her coffee in an attempt to cool it down. The smell of dark roast hits Kaede’s face and she scrunches up her nose in response. It smells awful and she’s told Maki as much before, but she knows the sugary sweet smell of her drink makes her friend’s stomach turn as well.
“That’s when you met Kaito, right?” Kaede swiftly changes the subject, more than happy to see the restrained smile tugging up on Maki’s lips at the mention of her long time boyfriend.
“Yeah, we met in seventh grade and began dating sometime in freshman year of high school.” Maki offers with a soft blush, surprising Kaede with the realization that she hadn’t known those specifics about her friend. Sometimes it feels as though the two have known each other much longer than a year, it never fails to shock Kaede that she doesn’t know everything about her friend yet.
“I want what you guys have, you two are so cute.” Kaede sighs softly, taking another sip of her drink to hide her unmanageable grin.
“No you don’t, he’s a menace. This morning he left his socks on the kitchen table. The table Kaede.” Maki says, practically spitting out the word table as if it committed a crime against her.
They spend the next half an hour talking about their day and other things going on in their lives. Maki complains about Kaito trying to rope her into adopting a dog, and Kaede knows as her friend she’s supposed to take her side, but Kaito’s side includes a dog.
When their drinks run dry, and Maki heads to use the cafe’s bathroom, Kaede finally checks the time with a wince, realizing that if she didn’t get home soon she would risk missing the next bus and wouldn’t make it back to her dorm until much later.
She texts Maki a quick goodbye, slinging her bag unceremoniously over her shoulder as she rushes towards the cafe door. In her rush, she fails to see the person turning away from the counter with his drink, promptly running into him and splashing his drink all down the front of his white dress shirt.
Belatedly, Kaede realizes that thankfully it had only been an iced coffee, but she’s already grabbing napkins from the counter and clumsily patting at the stranger’s shirt with sputtered apologies.
“Uh, I’m fine, it’s okay.” The guy mumbles, his hand gently pushing Kaede’s hand away to dry his shirt himself.
Hearing his voice Kaede nearly goes red all over realizing she just bumped into a guy and spent the better half of a minute wiping him down. She quickly rises from her hunched position, finding that she’s just a little bit shorter than this stranger. His face is tilted down as he focuses on drying the wet spot on his- admittedly very smart looking- button up.
Looking at him, even from this awkward angle, Kaede realizes this stranger is unfortunately very handsome. He has black hair that almost looks navy blue under the cafe’s lighting, and it’s long enough to fall into his face. His long dark eyelashes casts shadows over his high cheekbones and Kaede hates the way her heart picks up at the sight. He looks up from his shirt to make eye contact with her and offers a shy grin. Kaede isn’t sure if she’s insanely lonely or just plain hopeless, but his grey eyes are warm and send pleasant tingles down her spine.
She goes to ask for his number, maybe offer to buy him a new coffee if he agrees to a date, but the stranger opens his mouth and shatters all hopes of that.
“Thanks for the help, but I really should clean this up in the bathroom.” He doesn’t wait for her response, quickly shuffling around her to rush into the bathroom.
Kaede’s words shrivel up in her mouth, discouraged, resigning herself to a life without a pretty boy she literally wasn’t able to speak a single word to beyond apologies.
‘Man, I’m a bit sad aren’t I?’ Kaede thinks to herself, finally resuming her hustle, running out the door so as to make her bus on time.
She doesn’t.
For the next week Kaede’s schedule is full to the brim with school work and her part time job that she feels as though she barely has time to think. In those moments where she actually has time to sit and exist without a million things to do, her mind keeps wandering back to the guy she had ran into at the cafe.
He wasn’t really her usual type, but something about him had grabbed ahold of her and has yet to let go. She doubts she’ll run into him again, but finds herself keeping her number on a folded up piece of her paper in her bag on the off chance she ran into him again.
Maybe it’s a bit weird of her, but she’s refusing to let him slip away a second time.
Finally after dealing with a week that felt slow as molasses, Kaede finds herself on Saturday, excitedly waiting to meet up with her friends. The group (consisting of herself, Maki, Kaito, Miu, and a friend of hers that Kaede doesn’t know) is going to be grabbing coffee before heading to the festival in town. Thinking of the cafe makes her giddy in excitement, hoping that he’s also student and frequents the coffee shop much like other students did.
Even without the hopes of seeing mystery guy again, Kaede finds herself more and more excited as time rolls by until Kaito and Maki come to pick her up.
It’s cold outside her dorm, but she’s always preferred waiting outside instead of inside. The signal outside of the building is atrocious and Kaede would rather be outside when they get there than to have to constantly be checking her window for Kaito’s car.
It doesn’t take much longer until the junky car pulls into the parking lot of her dorm, and Kaede hops into the back. She tries not to talk too much shit on Kaito’s car, especially since she didn’t have one herself, but Kaito’s car is a special type of worn down.
Kaito waits until she’s buckled in, offering her a quick grin, before turning down the music just enough so they could talk over it without yelling.
“How ya been, Kae?” Kaito asks, mirth clear in his tone as he pulls out of the parking lot, his eyes meeting hers quickly in the rear view mirror before going back to the road.
Kaede has always liked Maki’s boyfriend, finds him to be a really good guy, but she doesn’t get to see him all that often because of their conflicting schedules, so seeing him is always a nice time for her. Especially since the two of them have very similar energies and seem to drive Maki insane when paired together.
“Good, unbelievably busy though. You talk Maki into a dog yet?” Kaito laughs boisterously at her words, earning him a lighthearted swat on the shoulder from Maki who urges him to stop laughing and keep his eyes on the road.
“Yes, he did. I wish you would’ve been busy enough to stop sending me messages about that guy you bumped into.” Maki mutters, rolling her eyes.
“Oh, really? About time, thought I was gonna have to install tinder into your phone while you weren’t looking.” Kaito teases, but he’s very clearly interested in this mystery guy.
Which is insanely embarrassing when she realizes she’s going to be admitting that her mind has been stuck on a random guy she bumped into one time a week ago.
They pull into the parking lot of the cafe right as Kaede utters, “See... about that.”
By the time she’s caught Kaito up to speed they’re sat down inside the cafe, sipping their respective drinks as they wait on Miu to arrive with whatever friend she’s bringing.
Rarely did Miu ever actually bring friends though, about ninety percent of them end up being her secret partner or hookup buddy of the week. Kaede loves Miu, truly, but a lot of the people she brings around almost always lack substance beyond being pretty.
“Oh she’s finally here!” Kaito exclaims, waving a hand excitedly to catch her attention. Kaede looks behind herself at the counter and feels her breath catch in her throat as she realizes that Miu brought the guy she had bumped into last week.
“That’s him,” Kaede whispers in a panic, her head turning back to the two of them so quickly her hair goes flying into her face.
“Your mystery guy is Shuichi? Man, you definitely know how to pick them, in another life he would totally be my husband.” Kaito says solemnly, making Maki puff up her cheeks in a pout.
“Do you wanna die?” She questions. Kaito just laughs at her, throwing an arm around her shoulders to pull her in close.
“Ugh this sucks, I never even thought to think that he might be dating someone.” Kaede mopes, dejectedly taking a long sip off her drink.
“Nah, he is definitely single, it’s all Miu bitches about to me. So you definitely have a chance.” Kaito corrects, wiggling his eyebrows conspiratorially at her. His eyes leave hers to glance behind Kaede and that’s all the warning she gets before Miu and the guy- Shuichi- are there.
“Hey losers! Brought Pooichi with me,” Miu greets in her usual crass manner, jabbing a thumb back behind her at him.
He’s standing just behind her, his hands awkwardly cupping his iced drink as he grins at the group. Instead of a button down, this time he’s wearing a striped black and white t-shirt, rolled up just above his elbows. He’s clearly wearing eyeliner and it makes Kaede feel a little giddy to see paired with his pretty eyes.
“Oh hi, you’re the girl from last week. I’m Shuichi,” He grins at her, offering his hand for her to shake. She grasps his hand in hers, feeling a bit weak kneed when he squeezes gently.
“Hi! I’m Kaede, it’s really great to see you again.” She says sincerely, if not a bit too excitedly.
“Alright budge over you two, I ain’t got all day to see you two fuck each other with your eyes.” Miu rudely interrupts, a bit too loud for the environment they’re in.
Kaede goes to scold her but stops abruptly when she sees the bright pink blush dusting Shuichi’s face as he quickly slides into the booth next to her. Miu slides in after him, pushing up against Shuichi’s shoulder and whining loudly about him taking up too much space. He scoots even further, his shoulder pressing into hers as he offers an apologetic grin.
Miu catches Kaede’s eye when Shuichi is preoccupied talking to Maki about a class they share and winks.
By the end of the night Kaede has a date with Shuichi and immense appreciation for Miu.
One date becomes two and before Kaede even realizes it it’s been two months since they’ve made it official.
Maybe Kaede is just helpless, but as days go by she stops thinking about how she’s falling in love and realizes she’s already there. She spends more time with him at his apartment than her own dorm room, he brings her lunch every day when she’s working, and she’s even started joining him in working out with Kaito and Maki.
Parts of her became so integrated with parts of him that often times she has a hard time recalling how life was without having him in her life. She stops thinking of it as her future and begins thinking of it as their future.
It’s a scary realization and Kaede hasn’t ever really been serious about a partner like this before. She’s not sure if she’s getting ahead of herself, but every time he calls her “sweetheart” or presses a kiss into her hair she falls all over again and just confirms what she already knows.
She’s irrevocably, undeniably in love with Shuichi Saihara.
The easiest part is admitting it to herself, but telling him how she feels is a much scarier task. She wants to tell him so badly that it almost hurts her to not be able to.
For all that Kaede is, words have never come quite as easily to her as music does.
Realizing that, Kaede grabs her lyric journal and settles down in front of the portable piano keyboard that she’s tucked into a corner of Shuichi’s living room.
Hours pass and she’s not exactly surprised when she realizes she spent all day working on this piece, but she is a bit frantic to at least look presentable when Shuichi gets in for work. However, before she can get a chance to dart into the bedroom to change out of her pajamas, the lock in his door clicks open and Shuichi walks through the door in all his glory.
Even with nerves stewing in her stomach, she smiles happily at him, moving from the bench to greet him at the door. Hearing her footsteps, Shuichi looks up and grins in the way that always make her knees just a little weak.
“Hey sweetheart, busy day?” He hums warmly when she rises just slightly on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck in a hug. His hands find her lower back and he ducks to press a chaste kiss to her neck.
“Uh kinda,” Kaede replies when she lets him go, her voice slightly cracking with nerves. If her nervousness is obvious Shuichi doesn’t make note of them, hanging his keys on the hook by the door as he shuts the front door with his foot.
Kaede watches him do so before softly grasping his hand between her own, drawing his eyes back over to her.
“Is there something you need me for? Sorry I’m taking so long.” Shuichi murmurs, squeezing Kaede’s hand gently between his own, bringing their intertwined hand up to his face to press a kiss to the back of her own.
Kaede’s face burns and before she can talk herself out of it she finally says, “Um... can I show you something I wrote on the piano? It’s for you.”
“Of course, I love hearing you play.” They let go of one another so that Kaede can play and since they both can’t fit on the flimsy bench, Shuichi pulls a chair from the kitchen so he can sit next to her as she plays.
It’s the most nerve-racking thing Kaede’s ever done, but she manages to keep her hands steady as she plays the soft melody. The same can’t be said for her voice, as it quivers when she switches pitches, but she definitely doesn’t sound bad.
The song breathes life into a lot of her feelings towards him she’s never been able to vocalize before, but as it draws to a close she miraculously keeps her voice even as she finally sings those words, “I love you.”
Her hands go still on the keyboard, her lilac eyes peering up at him through her lashes as if they can shield her from his reaction.
Shuichi’s eyes are gleaming like polished jewels and before Kaede can ask the question hanging off her tongue, Shuichi is leaning in to kiss the words from out of her mouth.
When he pulls back he doesn’t go far, cupping her cheeks in his hands as he leans in for a shorter, much simpler kiss. When he pulls back, Kaede is breathless and on cloud nine.
“That was so incredible, sweetheart. I love you too, I love you so much.” This time Kaede is the one to pull him in and she feels like she’s drowning in his affection that goes rolling off his skin like waves in a tide.
Most days, Kaede commends herself on a positive mental attitude even when most people would be tearing their hair out in frustration.
Today, however, she wouldn’t be needing that superpower of hers. The man she loves loves her back and that’s all she needs in this moment.