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All Sousuke really wants is some coffee.
He’s been waiting in line for almost ten minutes, irritated and tired. He would have walked out by now, if it weren’t for the fact that this was the closest coffee shop to his dorm and he also didn’t want to waste time searching for another coffee shop.
It’s busy inside The Dolphin for a Wednesday morning. There’s only one person working the register and two people behind the machines, making all the drinks. They’re trying their best to keep up with all the orders coming in but they’re slightly lagging behind. The register hasn’t given them a break and has just kept giving them orders to make. Ever since Sousuke stepped in line, he has barely moved from his spot.
As the minutes go by, Sousuke gets more irritable. He’d stayed up late the previous night, finishing off a paper that was due the next day. It had been four in the morning when he’d finally fallen asleep. It’s only eight in the morning; Sousuke is exhausted and needs a coffee to wake up.
The queue moves slowly and after another five minutes, Sousuke is now in front of the queue. However, just as he steps up, the cashier chooses that moment to go and help the other workers make the drinks.
"You’re kidding me," Sousuke grunts, his head falling back in frustration. He crosses his arms over his chest and waits impatiently for the cashier to return.
Five minutes pass and the cashier returns. “Hello, sorry for the wait,” he says, his voice sluggish and dull. “What can I get you?”
"It’s about damn time," Sousuke snaps.
The cashier looks up, frowning slightly. Something flashes in his dark blue eyes. Annoyance? Anger? But it’s gone before Sousuke can recognize it. The frown disappears and the cashier smiles brightly. However, it looks forced and unfriendly.
"Again, I’m sorry for the wait." He’s voice has taken an edge to it. "What can I get you?"
Sousuke rattles off his order - a large cappuccino to go - and the cashier - Haru his nametag reads - punches it in. Sousuke pays for the drink and is about to walk off when Haru speaks again.
"Name?"
"Huh?" He sees Haru holding a large cup in one hand a pen in the other. "Oh, it’s Sousuke."
"How do you spell that?"
He spells off his name and watches as Haru writes it down with a flick of his wrist. Sousuke turns and walks to the waiting area, where other people were standing and waiting.
"Oi, Makoto." Haru hands over the cup to fellow co-worker. "Spit in this guy’s drink."
"Haru, no!"
"Tch." Haru returns to the register and continues taking orders.
It doesn’t take long for Sousuke’s drink to get made. The tall barista that Haru handed the cup to is quick to make it and place it on the counter. A small blonde slides up to the counter and starts reading out orders. He grabs Sousuke’s drink, reads the name to himself and frowns slightly.
"Uh, Sucks?"
Sousuke freezes into place. There’s no way that could be his. When no comes forward for the drink, the blonde barista huffs and yells, “A large cappuccino for Sucks!”
Sousuke feels his heart sink and his eyes quickly snap over to the register. Haru was busy serving someone, but there were was a small smirk on his face. So it was his drink.
"Yeah, that’s mine," he says, stepping up to the counter. The blonde beams up at him and hands over the drink. Sousuke thanks him and steps away. He grabs some napkins and a few sugar packets before he leaves. Before he goes, he inspects the cup. In perfect writing he reads ‘Sucks’.
Glancing back over at the cashier, Haru is staring right back at him, smirking. Sousuke flips him off before leaving the shop, more annoyed than when he arrived.
The next time Sousuke needs a coffee, Haru is the one behind the register and serves him again.
When Sousuke steps up to the register, Haru recognizes him and bites his lower lip, stopping himself from breaking into a smile. “Hi,” he says, trying to keep his voice even. “What can I get for you?”
Sousuke orders a cappuccino from last time and pays for it.
"Sousuke, right?"
"Yeah," Sousuke confirms. He leans down over the counter. "S-O-S-U-K-E," he pronounces.
Haru glares at him as he walks off. He hands the cup over to Makoto and tells him to spit in the cup.
Sousuke stands in the waiting area. It takes longer for his drink to come than the other day and the blonde is the one to read the orders out again. He grabs one cup and stare at it, blinking at it a few times.
"Large cappuccino for S-Uke!"
Sousuke’s eye twitches. You’ve got to be kidding me, he thinks, flashing a glare in Haru’s direction. However, Haru was facing the other. But from the slight shaking of his shoulders, Sousuke guessed that he was laughing at him.
"Thanks, have a nice day!" the blonde exclaims once Sousuke collects the drink.
After those two moments, whenever Sousuke needs a coffee, Haru is always the one behind the register and it’s always a new name. The third time he goes, Seesaw gets called out. The fourth time it’s SoHo. S-Uke gets used again, as well.
One morning, Sousuke goes up and uses his last name instead.
"Large cappuccino for… Yama Sucky!"
He doesn’t use his last name again.
Sousuke doesn’t go to the coffee shop for a couple of weeks. He gets swamped with assignments and exams and a lot of his free time is spent in his room studying. His roommate is the one to get him his coffee each morning, so that Sousuke can pay attention to his work and not lose focus.
On the morning of his last exam for the term, Sousuke stops off at The Dolphin. There’s only a few people inside, which is surprising to Sousuke, and Haru is standing behind the register, looking bored. When Sousuke steps up, Haru’s eyes widen slightly.
"Yo," Sousuke says.
"Hi, what can I get you?"
"Hm, I’ll have an iced coffee today."
"Large?" Haru asks.
"Of course," he replies.
He fishes out some money while Haru puts in the order. “You haven’t been around for a while,” Haru says, his voice uninterested. “I thought maybe I’d finally gotten rid of you.”
Sousuke snorts. “Yeah, right,” He pays for his drink. “Like you could get rid of me that easy, Haru.” He walks off with a smirk on his face, leaving a bewildered Haru staring after him. Today, Haru hands the cup over to Makoto and doesn’t say anything about spitting in it.
Waiting for the drink, Sousuke thinks about what the name will be today. At first they were annoying, but he can’t help being impressed by how creative some of the names were.
Once again, the blonde slides up to the counter and grabs the drink. “Ah, is this yours?” he asks Sousuke. “Large iced coffee for Sousuke?”
Sousuke stops. Did he just hear him correctly? That was his name, his actual name. No annoying creative name. The blonde stares at him, holding it out for him.
"Oh, yeah. Thanks." He takes the drink and turns away. He looks over at Haru, but he was busy with a customer to look over. Sousuke grabs his things and leaves the shop, confused. What the hell? he thinks, walking off.
Looking at the cup, Sousuke recognizes Haru’s writing. And in said writing, is his name. “Huh,” he mumbles. Maybe Haru couldn’t think of anything creative today. He’ll probably make up for it for another day. Before he can take a sip of his drink, something else catches his eye. Just on the bottom of the cup are a line of numbers. Ten digit numbers to be exact. A phone number?
Sousuke’s eyes widen. Haru’s number? There’s no way it could be. But it was in the same pen that his name was. So it had to be Haru’s number. He had to have written his own number down. But why? They’d been nothing but assholes to each other.
Wanting to get to the bottom of this, Sousuke pulls out his phone and punches in the number on the cup. He puts it to his ear and listens to the dialing tone.
"Hello?"
"Hi. Is this Haru?"
Silence. “Yeah. Who’s this?” he asks.
"It’s Sousuke," he answers.
Silence again.
"How did you get my number?"
"What? It was on the bottom of my cup…"
There’s silence again. Then Haru harshly says, “Nagisa." Sousuke is taken aback but how harsh his voice, considering he’s pretty quiet and bored half the time.
"So, it wasn’t you who put your number?" Sousuke questions, frowning.
Haru sighs. “No, it was Nagisa. He works here, too.”
"Oh." Well, that explains it.
"He thinks we’ve been flirting with each other."
Sousuke freezes. “What?”
"He thinks we’ve been flirting with each other," Haru repeats.
"I heard you the first time," Sousuke grunts. "Why would he think that?"
"I don’t know," Haru replies.
"Have we been?" Sousuke tries to think back and see if he had given off a vibe that he was flirting. Haru was a cute guy and he did enjoy teasing him, but he just thought it as the two of them being dicks to each other.
"I don’t know," Haru repeats, his voice a little hesitant.
Sousuke raises an eyebrow. “Did I just hear a little hesitancy in your voice, Haru?”
"No!" Haru huffs.
Sousuke chuckles. “Okay, okay. No need to get so defensive.”
"I’m not being defensive."
"You are. It’s okay; you can tell me if you were flirting with me," he teases.
Haru huffs again and Sousuke laughs. Teasing Haru really was fun.
"I’m hanging up now," Haru states.
"Wait!" Sousuke shouts before Haru can hang up.
"What?"
Sousuke takes a deep breath. Is he really going to do this? “Did you, I dunno, maybe want to-” Sousuke’s mind blanks, “Get some coffee sometime together?”
Haru is silent on the other end. Sousuke checks his phone to see if he hung up. But the call was still connected.
"Coffee, really?" he finally asks.
"Yeah, I know a great place! It’s called The Dolphin and the coffee there is pretty good. Although, the cashier can never get my name right, but he’s a bit of a dick so.” He can hear Haru softly chuckling on the other line.
"Sure.”