Work Text:
And… post.
Ena smiled in satisfaction as she uploaded some new selfies to her Instagram page. She captioned it, "Tried a new style today 🥰" and proceeded to add multiple hashtags.
Placing her phone down, she walked to the living room to watch some TV. She was sure that once she checked after a few episodes of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, she would already have many likes by that point, as usual.
She did not have many likes at that point.
She stared in horror at her phone, her post only hitting 354 likes. She had posted it hours ago. Usually by now, she would've gotten over a thousand likes, at least 600+.
What was she doing wrong?
She sulked around the next day, laying on the couch.
She had tried uploading some more selfies, but it was the same result. It was even worse, if possible.
There was a tugging feeling in her stomach. She hated this. Her drawings never got any attention, but she could always count on her selfies to blow up. Comments overflowing with, You're so pretty! What makeup do you use? I'm so jealous!
Now, she could barely find recognition from that.
All of a sudden, she heard someone running down the stairs.
Blinking, she glanced up at the ginger who was frantically pulling on his jacket, smoothing down his hair.
"Fuck are you doing, godzilla? Try walking a little quieter. I swear I felt the whole house shaking."
Akito rolled his eyes. "Don't got time for this, Ena… I was supposed to meet with Kohane and her new girlfriend at the new café that opened up at 11…" He opened his phone, time reading 11:03. "Shit!"
"New café?"
He looked at her lying down. "You didn't hear? It opened a few days ago. However, of course you wouldn't know, since you never go outside."
She was about to rebut his insult, until her eyes lit up.
She immediately knew she had to go. She was running out of cute new locations and places to photograph and post on Instagram, and her like count was starting to go down more and more with each new selfie. The reason must be because she's practically posting the same thing again and again.
She was sure that if she took a few aesthetic pictures of her pastries and drinks (and herself, of course) she would get her likes back in no time.
She stood up, running over to Akito and hugging him so tight.
"Akito. I love you."
She let him ago and ran up the stairs, while he stared up at her, looking very distraught.
"The fuck, Ena?"
She decided— She was going to the café after lunch.
After doing some research online, she found that the name of the café was 'Swirly Sweet'— Which, honestly, kind of sucked. But looking at the menu and pictures, her mouth was practically watering. She decided she would let the café's cheesy name slide.
First, she took a shower, since she immediately regretted hugging Akito. She didn't want any of his male-liking germs rubbing off on her, after all.
She then picked out her outfit— A baggy green and gray argyle patterned sweater with a white skirt. She then slipped into it, adding some long white socks and Mary Janes.
Finally, she tied her short hair into two low ponytails.
She didn't have much high hopes for the experience. She was just planning on eating, taking some pictures, and then going home. She considered inviting Airi, but she knew that she was most likely busy with her new idol group, More More Jump! Airi barely had any time to herself, and she wouldn't want to jeopardize the idol's little relaxation.
God, when was the last time she hung out with a friend?
Akito was right— She really did barely go outside. Sure, she had a lot of friends from school. But they all felt like duplicates of each other— Their only common interests being social media, sometimes fashion. Airi was the only one who was different.
It wasn't that Ena didn't like fashion— She could spend hours shopping and creating outfits. But there was a side of her that she felt was locked inside of her, begging to break free. The part of her that was interested in drawing, music…
She blinked back to reality— Honestly, she was just depressing herself. Her life was fine as it was. The little amount of attention her art got? It was fine. The only thing that mattered right now was getting her ass to that café.
By now, it was 1:32.
Ena looked up at the new café, Swirly Sweet in white cursive letters on the top, with a cute coffee symbol next to it. There was a decent amount of people there, however it wasn't very crowded. She assumed that most people had dropped by earlier for breakfast or coffee.
She walked inside, and fuck.
Immediately she fell victim to the smell of the pastries and desserts inside. She wanted to immediately run to the front and order everything they had, but she paused for a minute, taking in the pretty interior and studying the menu.
After a few moments of looking at the options, she decided on getting a fruit tart and green tea.
She smiled, and walked up straight to the counter, but suddenly, her words were locked in her throat.
Behind the counter was a cashier about her age with light pink hair carefully tied up in a side ponytail. They had two long locks of hair in front of their face that framed their features, and long eyelashes that curved upward. They wore a standard brown t-shirt under a black apron with Swirly Sweet printed onto it. There was a name tag on their chest that read Mizuki. It was written in pink gel pen that contrasted the basic colors of the rest of their outfit. Next to their name was a smiley face and cute sparkles decorating the rest of the name tag.
"Hey there!~ What can I get for you?"
The cashier's— No, Mizuki, smiled standing up straighter.
"Oh— Well, I, uh…" She stammered very cleverly. "C— Uh, may I have a minute?"
"Yeah, no problem!" Their grin was so bright, Ena had to tear her eyes away from them.
She could feel her face burning. Since when did she become so embarrassing just from laying her eyes upon someone who was slightly attractive?
Though, she couldn't lie. This Mizuki was way more than 'slightly' attractive.
She shoved the thought out of her head, assuring herself that it was just because of the fact she hadn't gone out in quite a bit.
After regaining her composure, she looked up, smiling.
"Could I have a fruit tart and a small matcha boba tea?"
"Will that be all?"
Some small part of the brunette was tempted to order something else just to prolong the conversation, but she nodded.
The pinkette clicked some keys in the register, adding up to her total. "A name for the pretty girl?"
She almost exploded right there and then. However, she then realized that considering the person's casual and friendly demeanor, they probably said this sort of stuff to all of their customers.
"Oh, yes. My name is Ena."
"Alright! Your order will be done soon~"
It had been some moments, when her order was called.
She looked up to see a tall boy with split dye hair slide her tea and pastry onto the counter where people would collect their order. She walked down to the area, studying him for a moment. He looked around Akito's age, or hers.
She smiled at him and picked up her things, lifting the drink up. On the side, the sticker was labeled Enanan, Order item 2/2.
She stared at it for a moment, narrowing her eyes in confusion.
Who the fuck was 'Enanan?'
She had friends who would often complain about cafés messing up their name or the spelling. Considering Ena's name was fairly simple— Only three letters long, and an easy pronunciation— this was never a problem she had to deal with. How was Ena screwed up?
Maybe that Mizuki's fluffy hair was starting to plug their ears. Or maybe she was just that mediocre— It was rather embarrassing how much Ena had fawned over the other's appearance, and they couldn't even remember her name. Or maybe she was reading too much into this.
She scoffed. Whatever. She would forget about this Mizuki in a week.
She did not forget about Mizuki.
For the past week, that brief interaction had replayed in her mind nonstop.
She was determined to make sure that cheeky cashier found that her name was worth remembering. That was it. She wasn't still thinking about that grin, or the compliment they dropped. Not at all.
So when she spent 1 hour getting ready to leave the café at the same time she did last week, it was just to make sure they knew her name. That's it.
She finished the small braid in her hair and ran downstairs and— Clashed right into Akito.
Stumbling backwards, she rubbed her forehead. "Ouch! Watch where you're going…" she snapped, as if she wasn't the one who had ran into him.
"Whatever. You're fine." he scoffed, fixing his hair slightly. Ena looked at him, realizing he wasn't dressed normally. He wasn't wearing the same jacket as he always did, and he looked much more kept together. Honestly, he looked kinda good— But she wasn't going to inflate his ego by telling him that, of course.
"You going somewhere?"
He glanced at her outfit. "Yeah. You?"
"Mmhm." She replied awkwardly, and headed out the door. Akito left right after her.
After a few blocks, she turned her head around, realizing that Akito was still right behind her. He was staring down at the ground in horror.
"…Are you fucking following me?" she narrowed her eyes.
He looked up, making a face of disgust. "Not everything is about you, Ena. Why would I do that?"
"…You going to Swirly Sweet too?"
"Yeah."
Suddenly Akito had become very interested in the ground again. Ena picked up on this, raising her eyebrow.
"Meeting up with someone?"
"Nah, I'm going by myself."
"Yet you're so dressed up."
His face flushed. "You meeting up with someone? Well, you must be, considering you spent an hour getting your mascara just right."
Ena just grunted, and the two walked in silence.
Once they got there, the first thing Ena did was look at the counter— And, sure enough, the pink haired Mizuki was at a cash register.
She swiftly made her way there, standing up straight. She was not going to be as shy as she was last time.
Akito was right behind her, except he went to the other register. She didn't think too much of this, until she stole a glance at him. Behind the second cash register was the split haired boy, his name tag reading Toya.
He was smiling softly, asking Akito for his order, while he awkwardly spluttered it out, looking anywhere but at Toya.
Ena was resisting the urge to laugh. Her brother seriously was down bad.
"Cute, right?"
She was snapped out of her daze, blinking and looking up at the person behind the counter.
Shit. Just how long had she been staring at the two?
She was about to apologize— Then she realized she was supposed to be annoyed. Right.
When Ena didn't answer for a moment, Mizuki continued.
"I'm pretty sure Toya has a big crush on him. He's not very good at hiding it." they grinned, turning their head and speaking loudly enough so that both Akito and Toya heard.
Toya just looked at them with a puzzled expression, while Akito's whole face flamed red.
"Akito's is pretty obvious too." Ena replied.
Mizuki laughed, making the brunette's heart skip a bit. "So, his name is Akito? He a friend of yours?"
She scoffed. "As if. He's my brother."
"Really? Huh. Well, he seems to be living a romance. What about you? You got a boyfriend— Or girlfriend?"
Ena looked down at her feet, shoving away the temptation to say, No, but please change that! Instead, she looked back up and rolled her eyes.
"This is conversation is getting far too personal for someone who doesn't even know my name." she responds, huffing.
"Haah? You don't remember me? I took your order last week! Name's Ena, right?"
"Yes. E-N-A." she reminded.
Mizuki playfully pouted. "Hey, don't you think I have the brains to spell Ena? Let me assure you, I get very good grades on my tests!"
"Well, last time, you didn't seem to do a very good job."
They leaned their head over the counter, eyes locking with hers. "Did I not?"
She stared at the other, her gaze softening for a brief moment. However, she quickly cleared her throat. "Ahem— No, you did not. Somehow, you managed to get Enanan."
"Mmn, my bad~ Isn't that a cute nickname, though?"
"…I mean, yeah." She admitted. Last time when she saw the name on her drink, she changed her Nightcord username to it. But it wasn't like Mizuki needed to know that, anyway.
"Enanan~ Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?"
Her face was flaming up. How could someone make her so flustered by simply saying her name— Not even her name, a nickname.
"Uh-huh."
Mizuki suddenly stood up taller, glancing behind Ena. "Well— We gotta speed this up. There's some people behind you."
Behind her were two girls around her age— One with purple hair tied up in a neat ponytail, and a short girl with beautiful, long straight silver hair. They didn't seem bothered, but suddenly she felt much more embarrassed that people had been witnessing that whole conversation.
"R- right. I'll get a taro bubble tea this time, please."
After a bit of waiting, her order was slid onto the counter. Again, it was the tall boy with the gray eyes. Toya, she remembered.
She absentmindedly took it in her hands. So, that was the boy Akito seemed to be crushing on.
Before he walked back to make more orders, Ena blinked.
"Ah— Wait, please?"
He turned around, looking at her. "Me?"
"Yes, uhm, Toya, right?"
He nodded, looking down at his name tag. "Yes. Was there something you needed?"
"You were the one who took Akito's order, right? That's my brother."
The boy's expression softened, smiling faintly. "I was."
As much as she wanted to say, My brother seems like he has a massive crush on you! Want his number?, she held back.
"Mn, okay. Good luck, Toya."
He blinked, his cheeks slightly rosey. "Oh— Bye, Enaemon."
She smiled at him, almost reaching the door before stopping. Enaemon? She lifted up her boba tea, reading the tag. Sure enough, it read Enaemon: Order Item 1/1.
She jerked her head around, looking at Mizuki laugh from behind the counter while Toya stared at them, clearly very confused.
They were definitely doing this on purpose.
"Ugh! They're so insufferable— What kind of person purposely messes up someone's name!? That's horrible customer service!" Ena groaned, flopping down onto her bed while holding her phone to her ear.
It had been a few days since she last went to Swirly Sweet, and Mizuki was living rent free in her head. Again.
If she had to see them laugh like that, wear that catlike smirk on their face one more time—
Her thoughts were interrupted by a short laugh from her phone.
"Oi— Airi! What are you laughing about?! This is not funny—"
She heard yet another short giggle. She could imagine Airi sitting in her room, smiling about Ena's misfortunes. "Sorry, sorry! I just haven't heard you talk like this in a long time."
"I literally complained about them to you yesterday." she replied drily.
"You know what I meant! It's just fun to see you so… Well, whipped?"
Ena's face burned, heat rising into her cheeks. "Wh— whipped!? I do not think of them like that!"
"Well, be honest. Yesterday, all you could do was complain about them— Not that I mind, of course! I love hearing you talk. But, if you really despised them as much as you say, would you really be thinking about them so much? You did let a few comments slip about their pretty lips or long eyelashes—"
If Airi was next to her, she would've hit her with her pillow. "Stop! Stop talking. That's enough!" she squeaked.
"Ahah, alright, alright. Actually, I have to meet up with Shizuku and the others pretty soon, so I gotta go. Love ya, bye!"
"Love you t—" Before Ena could finish, Airi had promptly hung up. To be honest, she was rather glad because she did not want to continue a conversation about her love life. If it could even be considered one…
She sat up in her bed. She couldn't handle thinking about this right now. She figured she would rather bother Akito.
With a sigh, she straightened up, walking over to her brother's room.
"Akitoo." she knocked a few times, waiting for him to open the door.
She heard a grunt, and some footsteps. Soon, he opened the door.
His hair was messy and all over the place. He wasn't wearing his makeup— Ena's makeup, actually— which he usually applied to cover up his freckles. She would never understand why he did it, for she thought freckles were cute. Mizuki had a few freckles dusted across their nose, in fact…
No. She shoved the thought of them in the furthest corner of her mind. She was here to get her mind off of them.
With a grin, Ena pulled out her phone, snapping a quick picture of her younger brother. "Looking cute, Aki."
He scowled, his cheeks growing red. "Delete that— What do you want, anyway?"
She sighed, walking past him and sitting down on his bed, smiling innocently. "I have something I want to help you with."
"Well, I didn't ask, so fuck off?"
Her smile faded. "Give me your phone."
"What— No?"
"Just do it!"
With a groan, Akito picked up his phone from his dresser, tossing it to Ena. Immediately, she began to input the password.
"Excuse— How the fuck do you know my password?"
"Because you made it '4321', dumbass."
"What are you gonna do anyway?"
She simply hummed. She opened Instagram, and typed Toya into the search bar.
Thankfully, she was spared the effort of searching for his account, because it looked like he had some mutual friends with him, so he was one of the first results, @aoyagi.toya.
His account was public, and he had 581 followers. Amateur numbers.
She took a peek at his posts. His most recent one was a picture of Mizuki, who was grinning widely with their hands on their hips. Their account was tagged, and they commented, i'm so cute!
She didn't let herself remain at that page for much longer, and clicked follow. She then clicked the message button. She typed in, hey, it's akito from swirly sweet :).
After a few moments, Akito walked over to her. "Are you done with whatever—"
He glanced at the phone, and then snatched the phone out of her hands. His eyes went wide, as he looked and saw that he was following him.
"Shit! Shit, Ena, what did you do—"
"Helping you, since you suck at flirting. I saw you back there."
"Oh my g— Ena, Ena, Ena!" his fingers fumbled over the unsend button, but it already read 'Seen.'
"My work here is done. See you later." she yawned, standing up and walking out of the door.
"I'm gonna fucking kill you!"
"Love you too. Bye!"
For the rest of that day, Akito was clicking away at his phone. He had almost crashed into the wall multiple times, because he couldn't tear his eyes away.
Ena, on the other hand, still was debating if she should request Mizuki's instagram account.
They had 719 followers. Their account was set to private, their bio reading, the cutest at kamiyama high school. It seemed that they went to the same school she did, but Ena took night classes, since she couldn't for the life of her wake up early enough. Maybe, if she tried hard enough, she could catch them before they left…
She looked at her own profile. @shino.ena, 10,213 followers, 364 following. Her bio was simply, nice to see you! with a heart emoji. She then pressed the back button, and resumed staring at Mizuki's profile.
She didn't know why this was so hard to her. People followed others who were in the same area all the time.
With an inhale, she clicked Follow. The button then changed to Pending.
She set her phone down on the table, trying not to let herself cancel the request. After a few minutes, she received notifications.
Mizuki 💗 has accepted your follow request.
Mizuki 💗 has followed you.
She then saw a new DM, and immediately went to click it.
Mizuki, 3:16 PM
how tf did you find my account? 😥
you scare me, enanan..
She scoffed, typing up a response. It wasn't like she was searching specifically for their account— She had just found it from Toya.
Ena, 3:17 PM
mutual followers. i go to kamiyama as well
Mizuki, 3:17 PM
really?? i've never seen you around b4 until we met at the cafe, but i barely go anyway LMAO
Ena, 3:17 PM
i take night classes
Mizuki, 3:19 PM
oh, so you're js too lazy to wake up. ok!
Ena, 3:19 PM
excuse me?? you're the one who said you barely go to class, make it make sense 🤓
Mizuki, 3:20 PM
so mean :((
Ena, 3:21 PM
nah you started it
Mizuki, 3:22 PM
#wake up early 🫶🫶
wait gimme a sec i gotta change the song playing rn
Ena, 3:22 PM
what ru listening to?
Mizuki, 3:23 PM
hold on, ill send u my playlist
[ Link Attached ]
Ena, 3:25 PM
i love those songs!!
minus the anime openings 💀
Mizuki, 3:26 PM
hey, we all got a guilty pleasure song 😒
For a while, they continued texting. It seemed they had some things in common— Interest in art, fashion, makeup, music, and more. Honestly, could Mizuki get any better? They were cute, funny, and similar to her. They were kind of annoying, yet it was strangely endearing.
Mizuki, 4:09 PM
ah shit, i got my shift soon
ttyl?
Ena, 4:11 PM
yea, ofc :)
what time? i was planning on going soon actually
(She was not, but it wasn't like Mizuki needed to know that.)
Mizuki, 4:13 PM
like, 10 minutes 💀
i got distracted talking to you, but maybe i'll see you there??
Ena, 4:14 PM
yea, probably! cya soon
Mizuki, 4:15 PM
bye ❤️
She tried not to let herself think too hard about the heart. Instead, she placed her phone down and started getting ready.
15 minutes later, she was dressed up. She ran downstairs and opened the door. "Bye, Akito."
He shouted a farewell back from a few rooms down. She then grabbed her keys and closed the door, locking it behind her.
When she opened the door to the café, Mizuki was pulling their apron on. It looked like Toya wasn't there today— Rather, the other cashier was a girl with long, uneven black hair, yet she somehow managed to pull it off. Of course, she walked over to the cash register the pinkette was behind. They looked up, noticing her, their eyes lighting up.
"Hey, Enaemon!"
"Hi. Write my name as Ena this time." She insisted. It wasn't a very big deal, but she knew they were just doing it to make her annoyed.
They looked at her with innocent doe eyes. "But that's what I always do!"
"Whatever. I'll get a slice of strawberry shortcake."
"Alright~" They entered the price into the cash register, while Ena grabbed money from her pocket.
Was this how things were going to stay, she wondered?
Bantering while they were on their shift, texting occasionally on Instagram.
It wasn't a horrible situation. In fact, she was sure there were many girls who desired to have this sort of friendship middle with their crush.
Ena? She wasn't sure if she could completely handle it.
It was too much, yet too little. Despite there being 10,000+ people who found her pretty, she had zero romantic experience. How did this work? Could she really handle the rejection that came with it? She was rejected by her own father every day, art rejected from society.
In reality, Ena knew very little about Mizuki. Yet.
Yet, she remembered the way Mizuki's face would break out into a grin, when they pouted, when they would tuck their hair behind their ear. She remembered how they told her that they liked to animate. That they stayed up way too late to watch anime.
Yes, she knew very little about them.
But every part of her desired to learn more.
She snapped out of her thinking, looking up to see Mizuki putting her cake on the counter. She walked over, slowly taking it. It was in a plastic box, a sticker on it. Order item 1/1, Brunette.
She narrowed her eyes. "Do you really have any right to be speaking out about my hair color, when yours is literally pink?"
They raised up their hand, covering their mouth slightly as they turned their head to the side, laughing. "I wasn't insulting it…"
She just scoffed. "Okay. Thanks."
"Come back soon~"
They began to walk off.
She blinked, and before she could stop herself, she called out. "Uhm— wait!"
They turned back around. "Mn?"
"I—" she inhaled. "Would… would you like to go out sometime?"
They blinked a few times. "Like… hangout?"
"No. Like, a date." she muttered, trying to keep eye contact. Ena could feel the heat rising in her cheeks.
Their usual cheeky demeanor fell, their face flushing red. "Oh. Uhm. Really?"
"Yes, really. Now, yes or no?" she huffed.
They smiled, their gaze softening. "Yeah, I'd love to."
Her eyes widened, and she tried not to show her joy. "Oh— Great. I'll DM you my number on Instagram."
"Okay. See you later."
She turned around, briskly walking out.
Maybe a few variations of her name weren't that bad.