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They got coffee together now, every few days after lectures were done. Usually, it was just Tsubaki and Aoi, often it was Tsubaki, Aoi, and Hiiro. Nagisa showed up when she didn’t have other plans but was decidedly less common. Secretly, Tsubaki liked it best when these thirty minutes at the end of the day were spent with Aoi alone, where they could chat, and learn more about each other, even if what they learned amounted to little more than each other’s favorite drink order.
Today’s coffee outing was one of those special, Aoi-and-Tsubaki alone days. The cafe lay essentially abandoned, with just one gaggle of schoolgirls sat at a table on the opposite side. A banner had flashed up on Tsubaki’s phone to alert her to a sale on foreign dramas, and Aoi noticed, arched one eyebrow at her over her mocha.
"So you watch those shows with Japanese subtitles?"
What a funny question. Tsubaki flinched all the same, just because she flinched as a default response when taken by surprise, or when confronted with the mortifying prospect of being known. It was reflexive at this point. Nagisa was the only one to tease her about it, but she knew how she looked; big terrified eyes, twitching rabbit nose, body frozen in terror.
Aoi never brought up her obvious panic, which was almost worse. Instead, she waited patiently for Tsubaki to soften back into herself.
"Of course. Do you really think I'm good enough to watch without them?"
"Perhaps," Aoi said neutrally. There was a gentle smile forming on her lips. "I just assumed, I guess. Foreign dramas seem like something someone good at English would watch without subtitles. Nagisa said you're good at English."
Nagisa...! When had she even had time to pass that along? Not that Tsubaki especially cared if the other members of Rondo discussed her when she wasn't present. Mostly, she didn't care. The thought of Nagisa sharing commentary on her hobbies or skills with Aoi, though, made her blood turn to ice in her veins. As though Nagisa knew anything...!
Aoi's smile stayed resolute. "If you watch them with subtitles, then maybe we could watch some together. I'm not especially good at English..."
She probably hadn’t meant it, Tsubaki was telling herself as she sat up late, darting between the recommendations on her streaming service. Aoi was usually much blunter when she really wanted something. She knew that well, by now. “Maybe we could watch some together” was a deflection, a platitude, a pleasantry, and so there was no reason to specifically curate a list of dramas to watch with Aoi should the topic come up again.
But what would Aoi want to watch? She couldn’t imagine her sitting through the bombastic, glittery choir drama Tsubaki was three seasons deep into, nor did she seem the sort to appreciate the bevy of other teen dramas she indulged in, with their werewolves and vampires and dramatic high school gossip. She doubted Aoi was one for murder mysteries or the grizzled, gun-toting dramas that were always splashed across the home page. Maybe she only thought that because she, Tsubaki, wasn’t especially into those dramas either.
It was an invitation to watch dramas together, though, wasn’t it? So Tsubaki should pick something she liked, too. Would Aoi like dense, plotty affairs or something engineered to tug at every last heartstring? Comedy? Musicals?
Tsubaki shifted her weight on the sofa so that she could reach for her mug of tea. The honeyed chamomile within was no longer steaming hot, but gently warm, and felt good on her throat. She put it back down and nestled back into the blanket, her long hair pressed heavy and tight to her neck, and looked back up to the screen.
It had resumed an episode she’d been part-way through. She’d watched the confession scene between two characters, realized it was going to be rejected, and then backed out, unable to take the pain for some unspeakable reason. Now it resumed with the brunette actress rocking herself to-and-fro as she talked to someone on the telephone, muddling over her feelings and wondering why she had turned down someone who she was obviously in love with...and then, approaching her from the side of the room…
Tsubaki took a sip.
“I have to go,” said the woman, moving to put down the phone. “I will. Listen--”
The two met in the dark and kissed. Tsubaki felt her breath hitch, the cooling steam of the tea misting her lips. For a second she forgot all about recommending series for Aoi, though Aoi loomed very present in her mind. She imagined herself putting down a phone, turning around to be confronted with Aoi’s narrow chest, her warm eyes, the gap closing between them.
Her phone buzzed hard against her thigh, shocking her enough to spill chamomile over herself. Cursing, Tsubaki reached over for a tissue to dab at herself. The phone continued to buzz. She fumbled it, dropped it in the folds of the blanket. It was a miracle it was still ringing when she finally fished it back out again.
Aoi.
“Hello?”
“Hey.” Definitely Aoi. “Sorry, did I call at a bad time?”
Tsubaki realized how tightly she’d been holding herself and how agitated her breath was. She forced herself to relax. “No, no, I’m… I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
The episode was still paused on the two figures kissing in the half-light. Tsubaki’s hot cheek pressed tight against her phone.
“...Yes. I was just watching a drama.”
Aoi chuckled. It sounded metallic and pale through the phone speaker, nothing like her real laugh, but it still sparked its own twinge of delight. Suddenly even more self-conscious, Tsubaki cleared her throat.
“I was trying to find something we could watch...just the two of us.”
“That’s actually why I was calling.”
Tsubaki drew her legs in closer. She and Aoi parted about four hours or so earlier, but now it felt like seconds, as though all the time spent heating her dinner and tidying the couch and making tea and finally sitting down to interrogate her streaming library had just melted into nothing.
Aoi continued, “I wanted to make it...a plan. I realized after leaving that you might have thought…”
Oh, no, don’t bring all that old unpleasantness back up. Tsubaki shook her head without thinking, agonized at being called out. It was all the worse because Aoi was right to have worried.
“...Anyway, I wondered if tomorrow worked for you. After we finish up with Rondo we should probably give it an hour or so. Otherwise, Hiiro and Nagisa will want to tag along.”
Aoi wanted it to be something small and intimate too? Tsubaki swallowed. The heat in her face changed from painful to pleasant. She was beginning to smile.
“I found one I’d like to try watching, too, if that’s all right. It has a funny name… I don’t remember the first part, but the last part is something like ‘A Piemaker in Love’, I think?”
Tsubaki nodded so hard she almost knocked the phone out of her own hand. She backed out of the episode and scrolled through the list of foreign dramas on offer, stopping on the bright saturated promotional image for the drama in question.
“I have it.”
“Great! Then I can come over and watch it at your place. I’m, um…”
There was a long pause. Tsubaki froze alongside it, unable to swallow or even blink. Aoi’s breathing on the other end of the line was soft, measured.
“I’m excited to experience something you’re so passionate about.”
“I’m excited to show you,” Tsubaki whispered. She ended the call.
The tea was cold now, but she didn’t mind. She held it close, cocooned in her nest of soft blankets, and let the warmth from the conversation wash over her. Aoi would come over to her place, and Tsubaki would buy popcorn in advance, and then they would watch a series tagged with fantasy, mystery, and…
Her eyes widened.
Romance.
Uh oh.