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The two things An loves the most about 7-Eleven are the pre-packaged sandwiches, the carbonated grape juice, and the cute girl behind the counter.
No, wait. She only meant the sandwiches and the juice: because while the girl behind the counter is indeed very, very cute, three does not equal two and she would seriously die for the sandwiches. It’s just that whenever An thinks of 7-Eleven, she thinks of the girl by association. It can’t be helped.
And don’t think you’re in a position to laugh, either, because Azu-something Kohane (as listed by her employee name tag) is like, cute.
An isn’t talking about the kind of cute that the popular kids flaunt around as a title. She’s talking about the cute that transcends the dimension of reality itself, taking on the form of round cheeks and messy pigtails and brown eyes behind thick-frame glasses. From every angle, Kohane is cute, whether she’s awake or half-asleep or doodling on the calendar.
Even from here, behind the ready-to-eat chicken rice aisle, Kohane is adorable. An holds onto her carbonated grape juice with both hands in bitter, silent yearning.
They know each other’s names but they’ve only talked a few times, and only when An is at the checkout to buy something or when she pretends to trip and fall and forget which flavour of Haagen-dazs is the best. So An is at least somewhat aware of the fact that only staring at Kohane won’t do her any good- but she can’t help it. When she gets too close, her body locks up and loses so much strength it’s ridiculous. A gust of wind could knock her over.
That’s why she admires from afar, until her time spent holding only grape juice goes from contemplative to questionable. If this 7-Eleven were a historical ballroom, and she and Kohane were invited guests unknown to each other, An would stride forward and ask her for a dance in a heartbeat.
But it’s not a historical ballroom. It’s a 7-Eleven, and An is hopeless.
An, who feels that she personally is the best and most perfect potential girlfriend in the world, is working on becoming less hopeless.
To do that, she schemes. It’s basically rolling around on her bed and kicking her feet in the air as she daydreams, but scheming makes her sound more like an all-knowing supervillain and less like a loser writing her crush’s name in her diary. She schemes in a very scheming way, drawing lines connecting one dot to the next and hearts around Kohane’s name.
Of course, if she’s the evil villain, the scheming isn’t complete without a few background characters filling in the empty space.
She kicks the door open to Akito and Touya’s classroom the next day. She doesn’t actually kick it open because it already is open, so she gently steps in and closes it behind her instead, but those are the little details. Akito has half of his lunch stuffed in one cheek and Touya looks like he’s been trying to sneeze for the last ten minutes.
“Akito, Touya,” she says, walking forward. She pats Akito on the back and turns to him with a sharp stare. “I’m a great friend, aren’t I?”
Akito blinks and swallows his food. “What did you steal this time,” he says blankly.
She coughs. “I need a favour,” she says, crossing her arms. “Also, it wasn’t stealing if he let me borrow it and never asked for it back.”
“You can stop there,” Akito says, sticking his hand out. Touya finally sneezes. “Can you leave? We’re discussing lawn mower models and marriage tax benefits.”
“I met a girl,” she says.
At that, Akito freezes. Having known An for a long time, it also means he’s been subject to her very meaningless, very single rambles and rants. She isn’t proud of it, but it’s why she knows that mentioning a girl will grab his attention no matter what.
Maybe it’s pathetic. She doesn’t care. “Fine,” he says, eating the rest of his bread in one bite. She grimaces. “What do you need?”
She smiles. Got him. “Today, after club activities,” she says, slamming a hand on the table. “Prepare yourself. Mentally and physically.”
He doesn’t even look surprised.
Until they’re standing outside of the store, and he does.
“An,” he says, turning to her slowly. “This is a 7-Eleven.”
“The 7-Eleven of my dreams,” she replies smoothly. “Let’s go in.”
The doors slide open like they always do: creaky and unoiled, scratching faintly against the floor. The lights are orange in that sticky, incandescent way, casting shelf-shaped shadows on the gray floors.
Most importantly, Kohane is there again, in her unfitted uniform and backwards hat. She glances up at An’s entrance and welcomes her with a gentle smile. An accepts her welcome with a wobble in her knees.
Akito and Touya follow her into the store. Akito does, at least- Touya wanders off somewhere near the assortment of fruit jellies. “What do you even need us to do here?” Akito whispers harshly, staring at her in judgement.
She pretends to look through a shelf full of bread loaves. “I need an excuse to talk to her,” she says. “If I keep asking her for help, she’ll think I’m stupid. On the other hand, if you’re the one asking the question, she’ll think y-”
“Stop that,” Akito says, hitting her arm. “Stop. I’m getting out of here.”
But then between the shelves, she sees Kohane chew at her index finger and look over in An’s direction, and no other opportunity has better presented itself. She throws a loaf of white bread into Akito’s arms and stands up as casually as she can, peeking out of the aisle. “Excuse me,” she calls out, “my friend has a question.”
“No I don’t,” Akito says. She topples him with one kick.
Kohane stumbles out from behind the counter, and for some reason Touya is also there, but that doesn’t matter because Kohane is right in front of her now and her employee tag is upside down and she’s cute. “D-Did you need help with something?” she mumbles.
An holds her breath and hopes she isn’t as red as she feels. “Yeah, uh, my friend here-” She points at Akito. “-he’d like to know if. The white bread, uh, the ingredients. The ingredients in the bread.”
She looks over her shoulder at where Akito is still sitting on the floor, holding the bread like a child and raising an eyebrow at her like she isn’t normal (she is, by the way).
“Oh…” Kohane trails off and An catches her expression just as it falls in disappointment. “I think that the ingredients can be found on the label.”
“Huh.” An grabs another loaf and spins it in her hand. There is, in fact, an ingredients label right there. “Isn’t that interesting.”
“Mh,” Kohane agrees, nodding. She stares at An, and An stares at her cute eyes and cute lips and cute face. “Is there anything else I can help with?” she asks, eyes wide and expectant.
An feels like she’s missing something here. But since she can’t figure out what it is, she just shakes her head. “Nah, but thanks,” she says.
Apparently it’s the wrong thing to say, because Kohane looks down and inhales sharply. “Oh,” she says quietly. “Okay.”
Damn it. An feels a weight in her throat just seeing her like that, and even though she opens her mouth to say something, nothing comes out. All she can do is look at Kohane and the flickering yellow lights and Touya’s head-
Touya’s head. He assesses the situation in three seconds flat and pulls Akito up first, talking to An after. “I didn’t know you were talking about Azusawa,” he says nonchalantly.
An’s first thought is ‘So that’s what her last name is.’ Promptly, her second thought is ‘What.’ “What?”
“An-chan, you know Aoyagi-kun?” Kohane asks, equally confused. “He’s a distant neighbour of mine.”
Whatever a ‘distant neighbour’ is, An has no idea, because is there really such a thing as a half neighbour? A twice removed neighbour? That’s beyond the point. She carefully closes her mouth and smiles in the way she knows shows her dimples (Kohane blushes and Akito gags). “He’s my friend, yeah,” she says, leaning in towards Kohane. “Small world, huh?”
Kohane squeaks and stumbles backwards. An catches her wrists and she squeaks even more. “I guess so,” she mumbles, quietly.
“Well,” An rushes to say as the realisation that she’s basically kind of almost holding Kohane’s hand hits her. “I’ll buy the bread then. Yup.”
“The bread,” Kohane repeats.
An nods again. She feels a nudge on the back of her knee, and then another one, and would you look who it is, Akito is behind her with his bread in his hand. He mouths a few words over and over again, with each repeat more aggressive than the last, until she catches the first few- ‘Ask for her’ something. Her…
“Your email,” An blurts out. “Could I- Can we keep in contact?”
‘Very smooth, An,’ she thinks to herself. ‘Very nice.’
“My email- yes!” Kohane scrambles to pull her phone out from her pocket. “Here. Ah, can you read that?”
“Yeah, yeah,” An mumbles, and oh my god she’s getting her email. She’s getting Azusawa Kohane’s email. Maybe she’ll just crumple up and die on the spot.
They exchange email addresses through shaking hands and fleeting glances. Once Akito and Touya have stepped outside and An is the last one to leave, she looks over her shoulder and sees Kohane with her cute gummy smile and cute crinkled eyes and cute mismatched pigtails. She waves, hiding her blush in her shirt, and Kohane waves back.
It’s only when the doors close behind her that Akito stops her with a hand on her shoulder. “Are you serious,” he says.
“What?” she replies. “This is the best possible outcome in every world in the universe ever. I’m living the life right now. I can not believe it. I can not believe it.”
“You asked for her email.”
She blinks. “Yeah.”
Akito presses his lips together. “Why,” he begins, “didn’t you ask for her number.”
Oh. “Oh,” she says. That must have been what he was mouthing to her back then. That also makes much more sense, and would also probably make her life a thousand times easier.
But does it matter? Even without her number, she has her email and the 7-Eleven behind them. An stuffs her hands in her pockets and walks off first, ignoring Akito’s distant murmuring and Touya’s consoling.
She thinks about Azusawa Kohane. She loves 7-Eleven.
Azusawa Kohane
> to me
hi an-chan! i hope you don’t mind that i’m sending a message this late. i wonder if you’d prefer to text rather than email?
sorry, i don’t know what to say, but i’ve enjoyed our cash register small talk over the past few weeks. we haven’t had the chance to properly talk to each other. but you’re really cool and i want to talk if you also want to! but it’s up to you. just let me know!
i’m always at the 7-eleven too! if you need anything
- kohane ♡
Me
> to Azusawa Kohane
Yeah sounds good uhh Thanks
I’ll come see you and we can talk
Thanks
Sent from my iPhone