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Sasaki was bored.
Not that he didn’t like his job, no! He loved his job! He liked baking and the free coffee was nice- even though his mum had told him that the coffee was for paying customers only multiple times.
The new book smell from their recently installed bookstore was also very relaxing. So yeah, Sasaki loved his job.
The problem was that Sasaki thought it would be more interesting. He thought their clientele would be wide and diverse so he could people-watch freely. But no, the only people who came in were salarymen stopping to grab a snack before they went to their long, tedious, soul-draining jobs, and stressed-out, tired college students on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Sasaki wanted weirdos, fashion icons wearing bizarre clothing, and completely normal people who placed crazy coffee orders. Would a salaryman come in here and order a cup of black coffee with a single shot of blueberry espresso? Sasaki didn’t think so.
Sasaki sighed. To make matters worse, today was a slow day, with only one customer coming in, ordering an ordinary cup of coffee and then leaving immediately. Well, if there were no customers, he might as well do some practice questions. Hirano had been hounding him for weeks to do more revision, so he decided to follow his advice for once.
He bent down, looking for the practice sheets Hirano usually left there after his shift. Stretching up, Sasaki came face to face with the cutest person he had ever seen in his life. The person- a boy? But they had a soft-looking face?- had fluffy brown hair and the prettiest pair of eyes he had ever seen. Those pretty eyes were a bright, warm shade of hazel, looking almost gold in the mid-morning sun. They had a small shy smile on their face, quirking to one side, almost as if hiding something.
Sasaki was mesmerized.
“-ello? Um, Helllooooo? -Why couldn’t Kuresawa do this ohmigod,” the person muttered, “Hiiii??”
Sasaki blinked, realized he was staring, blinked again, and cleared his throat, blushing slightly.
Pasting on a smile, Sasaki leaned in a bit, trying to seem as charming as possible.
“Good morning! How may I help you today?” he chirped, watching the person- boy, definitely a boy, his voice was kind of deep- shuffle nervously a bit before taking a breath.
“H-hi! I’m Miyano, and I work at the flower shop that just opened across the street! We thought it would be nice to bring our new neighbours a little gift,” he said, thrusting his hands forward.
Sasaki blinks, finally registering the bouquet the boy- Miyano, he said his name was Miyano- had brought with him.
“Wow, these are pretty!” Sasaki said, collecting the bouquet from Miyano. He smiled a bit, deciding to mess with the boy a little to loosen him up.
“But I’m stunned at your nerve, Miya-chan, you barely know me and you’re already bringing flowers!”
The boy turned red, sputtering. Before he could defend himself, Sasaki laughed, deciding to take pity.
“I'm just kidding! Thank you so much for the flowers! Wait a sec, let me go get somewhere to put these in.”
Sasaki turned around, looking around the messy counter before moving into the backroom. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to leave the shop unattended but he figured it’d be okay seeing as Miyano was there and could explain to anyone that he’d be back soon. Searching the place a bit, Sasaki eventually found an old vase for when his dad wanted to give the cafe a “hippier” look. They had abandoned the idea fairly quickly.
Grabbing the vase, he turned around to go back to the counter, manoeuvring it so he could open the door with his elbow.
“-I found a vase! I don’t know if this is oka-”
Sasaki stopped short, not finding Miyano where he left him, wondering if he had left. Eventually, though, his eyes found the brunet standing next to the bookshelves holding a book. The boy looked up, and Sasaki was taken aback by how much his eyes were sparkling. He didn’t think anyone could be that cute. Sasaki restrained the urge to clutch his heart, which was acting funny for some reason.
Miyano started towards the counter still holding the manga. He seemed much less shy than before.
“Is this for sale? I’ve been looking for it forever! It’s one of my favourite mangas and I can’t find my old version of this volume. And it’s one of the BEST in the series! Like the character development alone!”
Seeming to realize what he’d said, he stopped talking and blushed deeply.
“Ahaha sorry, I just really like this manga, how much is it?” he said, staring at Sasaki.
And Sasaki was just blank. His head was empty. The only thing he could think was whatthefuckwhatthefuckhowwasthatsocutewhatthefuck .
Not very coherent, he knew, but as he said. Head empty.
He blinked and cleared his throat, snapping back into his body.
He smiled at Miyano, taking the book from his hand. “Yeah, it’s for sale. You really like it huh? Maybe I should read it.”
He meant it teasingly, but Miyano nodded his head rapidly, clearly agreeing with him.
“You definitely should! It’s very good! The characters are very relatable, and it has lots of funny parts, but it’s BL… so if you’re not into that then…” he said, trailing off at the end.
Sasaki looked at him. “I’ve never read BL before, but I’ll give it a go since you seem to like it so much.”
Sasaki rang up Miyano’s book for him, and puts the flowers in the vase, arranging them so they sit prettily.
“Thank you so much for the flowers, Miya-chan! They’re very cute. But not as cute as you.” He said winking at the last part. Miyano turned red and spluttered for some time before he gave up when he saw Sasaki quietly laughing. He huffed, cheeks blowing up adorably, said a decidedly more adorable, ”See you later,” dramatically turned, his hair spinning adorably along with him and stomped- quite adorably- to the door.
Sasaki finally gave in to the urge and clutched at his chest, covering half his face with his other hand to hide the rising blush.
How could someone be so adorable??