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The first day Tohru visits the cafe, her gaze passes by Rin without a thought. She's new to the neighborhood and nervous about bungling her order, leaving a bad first impression. The barista seems nice enough, even if he sweats a little as Tohru's brain dies and the entire dictionary disintegrates from her mind. Next thing she knows she's standing at the pick-up counter with a small, bitter espresso.
But she smiles brightly at the barista and offers an enthusiastic farewell and thanks with a bow.
Rin spares a tiny glance for the peculiarly polite girl and forgets her the second she looks back at her laptop.
The following day, the barista starts sweating the moment Tohru steps foot in the cafe. But today Tohru's ready. Nothing could be as intimidating as her Psychology 1010 professor. The barista breathes out in relief, but he's mostly thankful Tohru isn't as frazzled as before, for her sake.
Tohru takes her iced mocha with whipped cream two tables away from Rin, with a delightful view out the window of the bakery across the street. She might stop by after studying. Her biology professor has already given out a pile of reading and homework, but she's thrilled to dig into it.
A sweet roll sounds like the perfect post-study treat.
As she opens her laptop, she meets eyes with Rin. The black-haired woman is staring at her in the most intensely nonchalant way, and Tohru can't decipher if she's angry or what. She offers a smile, but Rin immediately looks back at her screen.
Tohru wonders if she's a student, what she's studying. She hasn't made any friends since moving here, though, Rin looks a few years older.
Rin leaves before Tohru, who can't help but look at her pass out of the corner of her eye. The beautiful silver jewelry in her ear, on her eyebrow. She's so cool, so confident. Tohru feels her heart flutter a bit, but as the door clicks shut, she quickly shakes her head and focuses on chapter one.
They always catch each other during the weekdays. Tohru can't help stealing glances, but sometimes she catches Rin looking too.
She texts the group chat and tries to mention it as casually as possible.
Uo immediately replies and Tohru's face turns red. She slumps in her seat so the laptop hides her face. A simple suggestion to ask her out isn't exactly anything scandalous or out there, but when Tohru imagines herself actually doing itㅡ
"I don't want to bother her!" she texts back. "What if she likes being alone?"
Tohru sits back up when her face feels a little cooler. Rin is focused on her work, probably hasn't seen a thing.
"Tohru, my love," Hana texts, "trust your heart. It's never led you astray before."
Her heart, that meant not to listen to the constant worries that often hounded her interpersonal decisions. Of course, they're not always wrong. She would rather overthink things than jump in without regard for how the other party may feel.
"I think I recall someone saying something about 'new town, new experiences' when she left us at the train station," Yuki adds in. "What better first opportunity?"
Tohru chews on their words all night. She hasn't responded yet, even by morning. She's preoccupied during class, and maybe the universe is sending her a sign when the last class of the day is dismissed early because the professor isn't feeling well.
"Buy her coffee," Uo says when Tohru tells them, and the others agree with this plan.
It's simple enough.
As fate would have it, Rin isn't there when Tohru arrives. The barista is surprised to see her there so early.
"The pretty girl with the black mullet and piercings that comes in here, does she…" But Tohru's face grows hot and can't bring herself to continue.
The barista, bless him, grins. "She's been coming here for almost three years now and always gets a cappuccino with almond milk. Never ordered anything else."
Another ally. Tohru wants to melt into the floor. "Can Iㅡ?"
"Sure thing," he says easily. "One medium cappuccino with almond milk and one small mocha with oat milk?"
Tohru only nods and hands him a pile of uncounted cash with a trembling hand. She feels a bit dizzy.
The barista has to hand back 600 yen.
Tohru opens her laptop and homework and stares at it blankly. She's sweating a little, and has to grab a handful of napkins to dab at the moisture on her hairline.
When the bell rings and in strides Rin, Tohru's heart nearly beats out of her chest.
"SOS!!!” she sends to the GC.
They all send back unhelpful, zealous emojis.
She jumps out of her skin when she hears the barista, talking a bit louder say, "Your drink is already paid for by Tohru-chan--oh, sorry, I mean, that girl by the window."
Tohru risks a glance without thinking and again meets Rin's eyes, but this time Rin doesn't look away, and Tohru feels like she's being challenged to something. She only looks away when they call that her drink is ready.
But all Rin does is sit down and study. No thank yous. No glances.
It takes all of Tohru's power to stay until Rin is gone.
As she stumbles her way home, she texts the group. "Does she hate me??"
"No one could hate you, love," Hana says. "If they did, I would put a stop to it."
"I wouldn't call defeat quite yet," Yuki says. "Maybe she's shy too."
There's no way, Tohru thought. But the idea did comfort her a little. Maybe Rin's shy in her own way, maybe she was unused to things like these. She couldn't assume anything based on appearance alone.
"I'm with the prince here--let's wait and see," Uo says. "You know how long I had to wait for my dumbass boyfriend to finally come around."
So Tohru tells herself to be patient. She's good at that. At the first sign she's making Rin uncomfortable, though, well, the bakery across the street has seating and wall outlets too. They even serve a limited drink menu.
Patience is one of her greatest virtues, but Tohru hopes this doesn't take too long because once again, she's finding it hard to focus in class. Her psychology professor asks her if she's bored in the middle of his lecture, and she has to vigorously shake her head no as she apologizes and the class laughs.
The embarrassment follows her like a cloud of gnats all the way to the cafe. She has to steel herself outside the door, refusing to look in the windows to see if Rin is already there.
Even as she waltzes in, a sunny smile on her face as if there isn't dread pumping through her veins, she doesn't look at the side. She keeps her sights on the barista, who gives her the same shit-eating grin as yesterday. She takes a deep breath and in a tiny voice asks, "I'd likeㅡ"
"Already paid for by Rin-chan--I mean, the girl over there," the barista says pointing.
Such a beautiful name, Tohru thinks.
And then it clicks.
"What?" she gasps and then quickly backtracks to add in the correct honorifics and tone markers.
The barista chuckles.
Tohru can't look over. She feels like she's gonna explode right there, and she doesn't want to make an extra mess for the employees. This is the only way to keep it together.
She walks to her table and sits down, eyes downcast like her drink is more interesting than anything else in the store. She's scared to pull out her laptop. Because that means risking getting caught in Rin's magnificent eyes…
The slide of wood over tile draws her attention, and she looks up with a start. Rin slings her backpack over the chair across from Tohru and carefully sets her laptop on the table. From here, Tohru can see the stickers placed on it: roses and thorns, a valkyrie, and a lot of stickers about something called Nine Inch Nails.
Rin takes a seat, and Tohru squeaks.
But one thing's for sure, she absolutely cannot take her eyes off of Rin now. She has a piercing in her septum too, silver with a red jewel that matches her eyeshadow. Her eyelashes are long and thick, and Tohru gets a strange urge to gently kiss her eyelids.
Rin is busy doing something on her laptop, but she glances up a couple times at a speechless Tohru. And then she stares off at the wall, lips pursed, a light dusting of pink across her nose and cheeks.
"Thanks," she says in a deeper and surprisingly quiet voice. "For yesterday, I mean."
Tohru clutches her coffee tighter, and warmth blooms in her chest. "Thank you."
Rin blinks, and the derpy surprise on her face is so unexpected that Tohru laughs and smiles as gently as a petal fluttering through the sky. The pink darkens to red, and all of Tohru's nervousness fades away.
"I'm Honda Tohru," she says.
In a mumble, Rin says, "Sohma Isuzu."
She glances at Tohru, and the corner of her mouth lifts the tiniest bit.
Even though it's only been a few minutes, Tohru just knows the group chat is gonna be so ecstatic about this evening's update.
On the ninth day Tohru visits the cafe, she beams at Rin with a head full of thoughts all shaped like roses, not knowing the two of them will sit there together every weekday for the next two years.
After that, the venue will simply change.