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“Bread~! Bread~! Yummy, yummy bread~!” Mamoru sang as he skipped in his steps with Kensuke following right behind him.
Kensuke laughed. “Mamoru, don’t rush too fast or you’ll trip! The bread isn’t going to run away anywhere,” Kensuke told Mamoru.
“That’s because it’s been so long since the two of us have had the same day off from work! And it’s been so long since I’ve been able to go to a bakery or cafe!” Mamoru was excited.
“Ahh, you’re right. We’ve been so busy since they announced that GROWTH will be singing the theme song for the Moon Forest Fantasy anime series,” Kensuke understood.
“Mm~! That’s why I’m happy to enjoy delicious bread with Ken-kun today!” Mamoru smiled as he hummed. “Maybe I can find some inspiration for the theme song!”
“You’re always thinking about music, Mamoru?” Kensuke wondered. Kensuke loved music and singing too, but he never got himself too deeply involved as much as Mamoru did whenever Mamoru composed songs for GROWTH.
“Yes, because music is all around us! There are so many sounds and melodies as people, animals, and even objects go about living their days,” Mamoru expressed as he watched a person jog by with their dog barking happily.
“I see, that’s very like you, Mamoru,” Kensuke said.
“Ah, we’re here, Ken-kun! Look, there’s the bear bread sign I told you about!”
Mamoru pointed to a small bakery cafe that stood on the corner of the street. With green and white striped awnings above the glass windows, potted flowers and greenery around the entrance, and a tall wooden sign with a painted picture of a bear wearing an apron and holding a basket of bread to welcome them inside.
Mamoru and Kensuke entered the cafe with a soft jingle of a bell on the door. It was the late morning hours, so the morning rush had already passed and the noon hour had yet to arrive so the cafe wasn’t too crowded. It was a lucky timing for Kensuke and Mamoru so they wouldn’t get spotted by their fans and cause a commotion.
On the right side of the cafe was the bakery section with self serving tongs and trays. The display cases were filled with freshly baked bread and pastries of the morning. On the left side was the checkout counter, as well as the display cases for the decorative cakes and pastry desserts, and the table seating area.
“Are you sure it’s okay to let you pay for the bread?” Mamoru asked as Kensuke picked up a tray and tongs for them to use. “I don’t mind paying for my share at least,” Mamoru said.
“It’s totally fine! It’s only pastry bread!” Kensuke reassured Mamoru as they browsed to decide what to get. “It can’t be as bad as the time Ryo had me treat him to sweets at a patisserie cafe as an apology for accidentally getting his shirt muddy when I borrowed it.” Kensuke laughed darkly at how light his wallet felt after. “That fancy eclair Ryo ordered alone was 1500 yen, and he ordered TWO.”
“H-Hehhh, sounds tough,” Mamoru commented.
“Hmm, I think I’ll go for a pork bun!” Kensuke decided. “What would you like to eat, Mamoru?”
“Ah, I’m happy with melon bread!” Mamoru discovered a tray of fresh baked melon bread in a case.
As they passed through the pastry bread section and made their way up to the counter, Kensuke and Mamoru saw a wide variety of decorated cakes and fruit tarts.
Kensuke hummed in thought. “Ryo will probably say something if we don’t get him and Kou anything, so let’s grab a strawberry tart and slice of opera cake for Kou!” Kensuke added to their order.
“O-Opera?! There’s such a cake?” Mamoru was surprised.
“It doesn’t sing to you if that’s what you imagined, Mamoru,” Kensuke had to break reality to him.
“I-I didn’t imagine that at all!” Mamoru denied, but Kensuke could see he made a funny face.
While the staff member was ringing up their pastries, Kensuke asked Mamoru, “Want anything to drink?”
“Mmm, then coffee!” Mamoru decided.
Mamoru was pulling out his wallet to pay for his coffee, but he was surprised when Kensuke stopped him and paid for their whole order.
“You’re paying for my coffee too?”
“I told you it’s my treat! We’re on a date after all, Mamoru!” Kensuke beamed with happiness.
“D-Date?” Mamoru was surprised.
Mamoru went ahead to grab a table for them while Kensuke paid and waited for their coffee orders. He found a nice small round table with two chairs in the corner of the cafe by the windows.
“Date…” Mamoru was still surprised by the fact Kensuke called it a date. He couldn’t help but wonder if Kensuke went on dates like this with his ex-girlfriend in high school that he mentioned before.
Mamoru shook his head out of the day dream and tried to admire the plants and flowers around the cafe instead. It was the start of October, and the autumn seasonal flowers were beginning to bloom.
“Thanks for waiting and getting us a table, Mamoru!” Kensuke said as he brought over their coffees and bread. The strawberry tart and opera cake slice were neatly wrapped and boxed up in decorated to-go cake boxes.
“No problem, Ken-kun! Thank you again for paying for the bread and coffee!” Mamoru expressed gratitude.
When Kensuke handed Mamoru his coffee, he noticed Mamoru was reaching over for the sugar packets.
“Ah-hang on, Mamoru, you don’t need to add sugar,” Kensuke mentioned. “I made sure to tell them to make yours sweet with cream and sugar!”
“Thank you, Ken-kun! I’m amazed you remember how I like my coffee!” Mamoru said.
“Haha, we’ve been friends for years, I can at least remember your coffee preference,” Kensuke told Mamoru. “I still remember when I gave you black coffee by accident the first time and you immediately spat it out right in my face!”
Mamoru groaned. “You remember that, Ken-kun?!” Mamoru felt a wave of embarrassment and hid his face behind his hands.
“Of course, I remember everything I’ve learned about you, Mamoru!” Kensuke answered. “Like the time when you sang baby lullabies to Pakira-kun, the time when you accidentally left a purple sock in your laundry with white shirts, also the time when you ran out of the shower in a towel because you were out of shampoo and had to borrow mine–” Kensuke went on until Mamoru held up his hand.
“STOP! Ken-kun! My heart can’t take any more damage!” Mamoru buried his head on the table.
“Haha, sorry.” Kensuke laughed.
The bread and coffee looked so delicious and pretty that Mamoru got an idea. “Ken-kun, do you mind if I take a picture before we eat?” Mamoru asked.
“Sure! Go ahead!” Kensuke was cool with it.
Mamoru reached into his bag and pulled out their small dog mascots. “Ja-Jaan! Mamoru arainu and Ken-kun arainu!”
“Oh! Nice! You brought them!” Kensuke laughed.
“Of course! They’re our little friends who wouldn’t want to miss out on an delicious adventure!” Mamoru stated proudly.
“Then let’s set up a little arrangement for them!” Kensuke suggested.
Kensuke and Mamoru set up the coffee and bread in a nice arrangement for their arainu mascots to be in the picture with. Kensuke even snuck in some candid shots of Mamoru carefully arranging the mascots with the bread with focused concentration. It was cute how Mamoru had the tip of his tongue sticking out as he tried to make the mascots stand properly after they clumsily fell over a few times.
“Cute! Let’s upload one of these pics to GROWTH’s instagram later! I’m sure our fans would love it!” Kensuke said as they took pictures with their phones.
Kensuke put his phone back in his pocket and opened the plastic sealed wrapping around his pork bun to dig in. “Let’s eat!” Kensuke took a big bite. “Mmm! Tasty!”
Mamoru chuckled and took a drink of his coffee as he watched Kensuke start to enjoy his pork bun. “You sure enjoy eating food, Ken-kun!” Mamoru complimented.
“I’ve always enjoyed eating anything tasty! Ryo would always complain about the calories or eating too many snacks before meals when we were in school,” Kensuke mentioned. “But getting to eat tasty food is a fun activity itself!”
“Speaking of school, buying bread from the bakery reminds me of how everyone would always fight over the most popular bread items from the school cafeteria,” Mamoru laughed as he reminisced.
“Yes! Yes! It was always a mad rush to get to the school cafeteria during lunch hour to buy the special school bread!” Kensuke agreed. “The teachers always got mad when we ran down the halls.”
“I’m not good at running and I’m slow moving out of the classroom, so by the time I got to the school cafeteria, all the bread would be sold out!” Mamoru remembered sadly.
“The fastest wins the special school bread, Mamoru!” Kensuke pointed out.
“Ah, but some of my school friends who were lucky enough to buy bread, even the regular bread, were kind enough to share with me!” Mamoru perked up. “Like my school classmate who runs that bakery now!”
“Hmmm,” Kensuke listened with a thoughtful look as he chewed.
Mamoru noticed the sudden slight change in Kensuke’s facial expression. “Ken-kun, are you still mad about what happened before? With me lending my money to help the bakery?”
Mamoru fiddled with his coffee cup as Kensuke chewed and swallowed before he talked.
“Mm-mm, I’m not mad anymore, Mamoru,” Kensuke answered honestly and Mamoru let out a breath of relief. “Sure I was a bit mad before about what happened during that time, and I admit I felt a bit more annoyed when we learned the fact you already knew from the beginning that you were lied to.”
“Ken-kun…”
“But that’s the kind of person you are, Mamoru, and I respect that,” Kensuke told Mamoru. “I’m not good with any kind of real life drama, but next time talk to me, or even Ryo or Kou, about this kind of thing. We care and worry about you, Mamoru.”
“Mm, I’ll make sure to talk with you all properly from now on,” Mamoru agreed.
They switched topics and Mamoru started to excitedly talk about his ideas for the Moon Forest Fantasy theme song, with Kensuke chiming in thoughts and ideas since he’s a fan of the game himself. As Kensuke listened, he looked down at the table and noticed that next to their near empty coffee cups and arainus was Mamoru’s melon bread.
The melon bread was still sealed in its plastic bag and untouched.
Kensuke glanced up at Mamoru and wondered if Mamoru forgot that his melon bread was left unsealed on the tray.
Mamoru continued talking, “I wonder if I should start the opening melody with a forte high chorus range, or if I should start with a piano melody that gradually builds up with a crescendo and–”
As Mamoru kept talking about music, Kensuke kept staring at Mamoru’s melon bread.
Not wanting to interrupt Mamoru’s musical speech since he was so excited and Kensuke didn’t want to risk breaking Mamoru’s rhythm in case it might cause Mamoru to fall into a slump, Kensuke tried to get Mamoru’s attention on the bread in a different way.
At first, Kensuke tried to point at Mamoru’s bread to get Mamoru’s attention; that didn’t work as Mamoru wasn’t watching Kensuke’s hand. Next plan was to take the orange arainu and have him gently nudge the melon bread closer to Mamoru; that also didn’t work.
After nearly thirty minutes passed without Mamoru picking up on any of Kensuke’s hints to point out the poor forgotten bread, Kensuke went for a last resort. Kensuke grabbed Mamoru’s melon bread, unsealed the plastic wrapping and said, “Mamoru, say ahhh~!”
“Eh? Ahhh-” Mamoru stopped rambling about his music ideas and held his mouth open as Kensuke shoved the melon bread towards him and fed Mamoru himself. Mamoru instinctively took a bite of the melon bread and ate it with a very confused puppy look on his face.
“Is it tasty?” Kensuke asked.
“Mm! It’s really good melon bread!” Mamoru exclaimed.
“Good! Let’s do it again! Say ahhh, Mamoru!”
“Huh? Wait-Ken-kun!”
Kensuke continued to hold the bread as Mamoru took bites off of it until the bread was all gone.
“Ken-kun, why did you feed me like that?” Mamoru finally questioned when they finished. His face blushed with bashfulness when his mind caught up to the fact that Kensuke fed him the melon bread by hand.
Kensuke laughed really hard. “Mamoru, you didn’t notice at all? You left your melon bread untouched ever since we sat down! The poor bread was ignored!”
Mamoru stared blankly at Kensuke and gasped. “Ehhh? I didn’t notice at all!”
“You really get into your own little world when you talk about music, but that’s what I really like about you, Mamoru!” Kensuke said honestly, resting his chin on the back of his palm as he leaned forward close to Mamoru.
Mamoru blushed even more as he hid his face behind his hands. “Ken-kun!”
Kensuke laughed and picked up their orange and purple arainus and held them up to pat Mamoru’s hands.
“Mamo-chan! Mamo-chan! Smile!” Kensuke gave the inus little voices.
Mamoru peeked through his fingers and couldn’t help but laugh when he saw Kensuke making funny faces and voice impressions with their tiny mascots.
“Let’s come here together again for another date sometime!” Kensuke suggested.
“Mm~! I’m really looking forward to it!” Mamoru felt a warm happiness in his heart.