Chapter Text
“Sara!!!”
The highschooler in question didn’t need to turn around to know who that voice belonged to. She smiled knowingly, listening to the rapidly approaching footsteps. “Shouldn’t you be with Ryoko right about now?” she asked, a teasing lilt in her words.
“Wow, not even a hello?” Joe whined. He slowed down to a walking pace now that he had caught up to her, casually resting his elbow on her shoulder. “That’s so mean…!”
“You’re avoiding the question,” Sara grabbed onto Joe’s arm and shoved it off of her shoulder, ignoring his yelp of pain. “You’re not standing her up again, are you?”
Joe cringed, rolling his shoulder. “Don’t remind me about that…” He mumbled, a dejected look on his face. “I couldn’t just leave that kitten all alone like that! And besides, Ryoko told me she couldn’t hang out today, so here I am! Wait, you don’t have kendo practice today, right?”
Sara shook her head. “Luckily for you, I’m free today. Although…” she pursed her lips in thought. “Are you implying that I’m just a rebound, then?”
“No! It's not like that!”
“I’m just teasing, Joe.” Sara chuckled, waving her hand dismissively. “Of course I’ll hang out with you.”
“Aw yeah!” Joe pumped his fist up into the air, grinning widely.
“You’re just like a dog, y’know? If you had a tail I’m sure it’d be wagging right now.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Oh, nothing. Now, what should we do today?”
Joe froze in place. “Ah… I dunno…”
Sara stopped as well, turning her head to give Joe an inquisitive look. “What do you mean you don’t know? Wasn’t this your idea?”
“Well, I didn’t think I’d get this far, to be honest…” He chuckled, scratching the back of his neck and giving Sara a sheepish smile.
Sara rubbed her temple, letting out a rather disappointed sigh. “Why am I not surprised?” In spite of her tone, there was a small smile tugging at her lips. “Typical Joe-”
“-Oh!” Joe snapped his fingers together, eyes widening in realization. “I just remembered! Look…!” He started rummaging through his left pocket, his tongue sticking out from his lips ever so slightly in concentration. He then switched to his right pocket, and not even a second later his face lit up as he fished something out of his pocket, a few empty candy wrappers falling to the floor in the process. “I found this earlier today!” he exclaimed, holding onto a 1,000-yen bill and waving it excitedly.
“Joe!” Sara gasped, putting her hands on her hips and giving him a look of disapproval. He stilled in an instant, smile falling and metaphorical ears drooping. Ignoring the twinge of guilt she felt, Sara continued on. “Shouldn’t you report that to the police?!” she scolded, reaching her hand out in an attempt to swipe the money from her friend.
“...Do they really have to know…?” Joe whistled, somehow dodging her swift movements by shoving the money back into his pocket. “I mean, we could go to the convenience store and get us each a bento with this! Please…?!” he pleaded, pulling his hands out of his pocket and clasping them together, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.
At the mention of food, Sara felt her opinion start to sway. She crossed both of her arms over her chest, closing her eyes in order to avoid Joe’s puppy dog eyes. As incredibly tempting as the offer was, she still felt that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do. With her mind set, Sara opened her mouth to voice her stance- only to get interrupted by her stomach letting out the loudest growl either of them had ever heard. Sara grit her teeth in shame, her cheeks reddening from the force combined with the embarrassment of her body’s betrayal.
“C’mon, Sara!” Joe took a step closer to Sara, leaning forward. “You’re always so selfless, putting others before yourself! Why don’t you think about yourself for once?!”
“You’re the one who wants this, genius.” Sara grumbled, turning her head away.
“You can’t deny that you want it too!” Joe watched intently as Sara visibly flinched. “No one has to know! This can be between us! Whaddya say?!”
Sara’s eyes fluttered open in reluctance as she turned her head back to face Joe, staring intensely into his own eyes. After a minute or so of silence, she unwound her arms from around herself, her shoulders relaxing as she sighed softly. “Alright.” she relented, a small smile on her face. “But you better give me a bite of your bento!”
“What?! But-” Sara’s brows furrowed, the sudden glare making Joe yelp. “Deal!” He exclaimed, letting out a small laugh. “Now c’mon, let’s go!” Motioning with his hand for her to follow, he started jogging toward the school’s exit.
“Hey!” Smoothing out her skirt, Sara swung her bag over her shoulder and sprinted towards him. “This isn’t a race!”
“What?!” He yelled out, cupping his hand around his ear. “You wanna race?!”
“That’s not what I said and you know it!”
“Okay, then let’s race!”
“You had a head start, that’s not even fair!”
“Onward! To the 7-Eleven!”
“Get back here, you!”
Sara jogged into the convenience store, a victorious smile on her face. “Aha! Take that!” she laughed, twirling around to face her friend.
Joe was right outside the convenience store, trudging along with a miserable look on his face. “How… did you even…” In his sluggishness (and his stupidity), he somehow failed to notice the door was closing, promptly walking smack dab into the glass. He yowled out in pain, stumbling backwards and falling flat on his ass.
“Joe!” Sara’s joy quickly warped into worry as she rushed to the door, swinging it open and kneeling down next to her friend. “Are you okay?!”
“I’m… ‘m fine…” He mumbled, rubbing his forehead, now red from the impact.
“Can you stand?” Sara frowned. “Do you need me to carry you inside?”
Joe jolted at her offer. “No!” He blurted out. “No, I’m fine!”
Ignoring his pleas, Sara slipped one arm underneath Joe’s knees and held up his back with the other. “Up we go!” With a lot less effort than a normal highschool girl would need, she hoisted Joe up into the air.
“Let me go…!” He cried out, covering his face in embarrassment.
“There, there,” Sara cooed, shifting his weight to one arm for a split second in order to open the door. She pressed her knee against the door, pushing it open the rest of the way and quickly slipping inside.
“What are people going to think if they saw a girl just lugging around a boy like this…?” Joe whined out in dismay.
“Well, they’d either think the girl was crazy, or the boy was pathetic.” Sara answered, taking the hint and setting down her friend. “Even so, you already proved the latter by losing the race you had a head start in, so…”
Joe dusted off his pants. “How are you so fast?!”
Sara merely shrugged. “I sometimes run as warmup for kendo practice. Or maybe you’re just slow.”
“Hey!”
Sara promptly turned on her heel, ignoring Joe’s protests and excuses. “Yeah, yeah, let’s just get our bentos now!” She chirped, happily making her way to the bentos.
Joe followed suit. “I’m kinda hungry after all that running…” He mused, perusing the selection with his friend. Once they picked out their bentos, they both made their way straight to the counter with thankfully no line to wait in.
The cashier had a small smile on his face as he scanned the items presented. “That’ll be 1,000 yen, please.” he said, his unamused voice contrasting greatly with his expression.
Joe furrowed his brow, staring intently at the cashier. “Joe, are you just gonna stand there…?” She mumbled, nudging his side.
“Ah! Sorry,” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the money from earlier. “It’s just…” He slid the money onto the counter, peering curiously into the cashier’s blue eyes. “You seem familiar.”
“Do you come here often?” The cashier asked as he took the money.
“Not really. But…” Joe’s eyes flickered down to the nametag on his shirt- Tsukimi Shin. “Tsukimi Shin…” He rubbed his chin in thought, before promptly turning to Sara. “Doesn’t he seem familiar?”
“Now that you mention it, he kinda does…” Sara murmured.
The cashier pushed a few buttons on the computer, the cash compartment opening with a loud click. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you guys before.” He answered, placing the bill into it’s respectful slot. “But then again, I do see a lot of people come and go, so maybe I forgot. Sorry.”
Sara watched as he pushed the compartment closed. “Actually, he sounds just like Tsuki”
Shin flinched at the nickname. “Tsuki?” Joe didn’t notice. “Oh, you mean from the discord server? Hey, you’re right! Though, I thought Tsuki was a girl…?”
“I-I’m sorry, you must have me mistaken for someone else…” Shin turned his attention to the receipt slowly whirring out from a small machine next to the register, his blue eyes fixated on the small paper. “I don’t know any-”
The sound of an all too familiar ringtone immediately shut him up. To make matters worse, it was coming from his phone. He whipped his head up to see Sara smirking at him, waving her phone in her hand with her screen facing in his direction. On the screen, she was making a call to a certain someone. “Dammit!” He hissed, swiping his phone from its spot hidden behind the counter and declining the call.
Joe’s face lit up. “So it is you, Tsuki! Though, uh, I thought you were a girl? I mean, why would you have some random anime girl as your profile pic-”
“Not so loud!” Shin slammed his hands on the counter, speaking in a panicked whisper. “You don’t gotta shout it to the whole world! No one needs to know about my Hatsune Miku profile picture!”
Sara chuckled, shaking her head. “I don’t think that’s what’s important right now; we gotta tell the others!” she exclaimed, swiping out of her DMs.
“Oh, no, you are not telling the server that you found me here!” Shin growled, lifting one of his hands from the counter and gesticulating wildly. “Do you know how hard they’d roast me if they found out I worked at a convenience store?! I’d never live it down!”
“Oh, relax,” Sara waved her hand dismissively. “They’re not as bad as you make them out to be.”
Shin tilted his head to the side, raising his brow and giving her a peculiar look.
Sara looked away. “Okay, maybe they’re a little bad at times… but still!”
“‘But still’ my ass!” Shin’s hand dropped back down to the counter. “You can’t-!”
Shin’s phone suddenly pinged, making his face go pale.
Sara’s phone pinged at the same time. “Hey, that wasn’t me.” she shrugged.
Both of them checked the ping to find a certain message awaiting them both.
“Joe!” Shin yelled out in horror. “If you’re gonna send a photo of me at least send one that’s not so ugly!”
“Wait, how’d you know it was me?!” Joe gasped.
Shin and Sara both gave him the same look of disappointment.
“Okay, you know what, fair.” Joe raised his hands up in defeat.
Shin turned his attention back to his phone screen, groaning. “Oh my god…” He wailed, running a hand through his teal hair. “Okay, you know what, it’s fine. There’s a lot of 7-Elevens in the area. Just as long as they don’t know which 7-Eleven I work at, it’s gonna be fine.”
“Oh?” Sara hummed. “Is that so… Would be a shame if they were to… find out…”
“Sara…” Shin snarled, gripping the counter tightly. “Don’t you dare-!”
His phone pinged. Sara smiled.
“NO!” Shin cried out in defeat, slamming his head unceremoniously against the counter.
Just what had he gotten himself into?