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Megumi had successfully prevented his fifth breakdown of that day. He wasn’t so sure he’d be able to do the same for the sixth one, though.
However, he was not an impulsive or presumptuous person by any means. He had to be level-headed about this. He needed to be calm, to think straight, to give that boy the benefit of the doubt.
Working at a cafe had to be stressful, right? There were so many customers going in and out. He had visited the shop during rush hour, it was only natural for the barista to be under a bit of stress. That’s exactly what it was.
Except that it wasn’t. He knew because he had tried testing the theory out once by going right before closing time. He was devastated at experiencing the same disservice again.
Fortunately for the barista, Megumi was a generous person. He excused it once again. It had been closing time! Maybe the barista was sleepy. The cafe received a lot of customers, he was exhausted, and rightfully so. This was all him willing to give the poor guy the benefit of the doubt. It’s not like he needed to make himself feel better about something so trivial. Definitely not!
But he couldn't excuse it anymore. He knew the barista recognised him. Megumi was sure the barista knew what he was doing. He despised it with every single active nerve in his body. Everything indicated and assured him of one thing: the barista hated him.
It really wasn’t something Megumi should have taken personally. He could just go to another coffee shop. It was as simple as that. Except that it wasn’t. There was one small thing that made this entire ordeal excruciating, and it was that the barista was exceptionally, undeniably cute. He was the type of boy whose face would make someone smile upon one look.
Clumsy yet adorable guys weren’t necessarily Megumi’s type, but this particular one filled him up with absolute rage.
Megumi knew he was being ridiculous. He didn’t even see the barista’s name! He indeed hadn’t expected this to phase him as much as it did, but he also couldn’t help it.
Hence, he was back here, sitting on his couch, trying to come up with another plausible theory as to why the barista had been misspelling his name constantly ever since he first went to the cafe. Why, even after he had explicitly spelt out his name in front of the counter, had the barista got it wrong? What could be the reason for this god-forsaken prejudice?!
The only thing hours of long, hard thinking had resulted in was absolutely nothing. He was a blank slate.
Megumi wasn’t one to give up, though. He was going to give this another try. He was going to craft his next visit to the coffee shop carefully; he was bringing out the papers and pens in his head. He would go a little after opening time, a little earlier than rush hour, exactly when the barista was at the counter.
He was going to settle this.
____
Yuji's POV -
It was a weirdly subtle conversation. Yuji almost couldn't tell what exactly he was being accused of.
When he saw the cute, green-eyed boy enter the coffee shop that afternoon—without any of his friends—he was almost sure he had succeeded in getting his attention.
You see, for two weeks now, Yuji had been misspelling Megumi's name on his coffee cup, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he would notice something was wrong, that he'd come up to Yuji and complain about it. Then, next time, Yuji would write his number on the cup, and they’d go on a date.
It seemed like a perfect plan. Yuji had no idea what he had set himself up for.
Megumi came in and placed an order; Yuji misspelt his name as he usually would and handed the cup over to him. Megumi took it and left to get a seat.
Yuji had this giddy feeling inside himself; he felt like things would work out today.
Megumi sat down on a table for about two seconds, got up again and started making his way up to him.
And he did not look pleased.
"What," Megumi raised an accusatory finger at Yuji, "is your problem with me?"
Yuji was, to say the least, absolutely dumbfounded - partly because this didn't make any sense, partially because Megumi was just way too gorgeous, and it was hard to concentrate on anything but his face.
So he gave the raven-haired boy his most intelligible response: "Huh?"
"You hate me, don't you? That's why you're doing what you're doing! You have a vendetta against me. You want to see me distressed!" Megumi was spitting venom at him.
Yuji had no idea what to say.
Well, not like it seemed to matter to Megumi, he didn’t look like he wanted to hear Yuji out.
Megumi took a slight pause then started again. "Well, I'm not giving you that satisfaction. You think you can get in my head, but you can't. Your charming looks won't work on me! In fact, I'm going to find another coffee shop, and I’m going to make sure this dumpster never makes a penny again. I hope you’re ready to kiss your income goodbye."
Unfortunately, all of Megumi's comments got lost somewhere because Yuji's focus was now entirely on Megumi, calling him charming.
However, he did notice the boy’s eyes growing wide.
"You're ignoring me?! Oh, my god! I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I confronted you, it would make you apologise and own up to what you're doing, but you don't even care?!" Megumi half looked like he was about to explode, "Do you have a personal problem with me? Because I don't even know who you are."
And it finally hit Yuji.
Oh god.
All this while, Yuji had been misspelling Megumi's name in order to get his attention, but he had utterly misinterpreted his actions.
Megumi thought that Yuji was misspelling his name because he hated him.
Except, the realisation had dawned on him much too late, considering Megumi was already smacking a couple of loose change on the counter and furiously stomping out of the shop.
Yuji was lost on how he could salvage the situation.
.
It had now been a week since Yuji's encounter with Megumi and one week since Megumi had stopped coming to the coffee shop.
He had been hoping to see any of Megumi's friends, which he didn’t, all thanks to his horrible luck, hence why he was racking his brain trying to note down what exactly he knew about the boy.
He knew that his name was Megumi Fushiguro. He was an engineering student at the university near his coffee shop, the same one as Yuji.
He also knew that Megumi was, for the lack of a better word in any language, absolutely flawless. He knew he had lost himself in Megumi’s pair of emerald eyes the moment his own landed on them, the messy hair that never seemed to stay under control. And if this wasn’t torturous enough for Yuji, he had these lips that looked so soft, rested together so gently, as if a single touch could coax them open.
Yuji was not going to write down a poem in Megumi’s honour (although he felt like he totally should. Someday, maybe). He had to bring his attention back to the matter at hand.
Megumi was often quiet but quick-witted. He had a reputation for being a bit cheeky. Yuji knew because he would sometimes listen in on the conversations Megumi had with his friends in the coffee shop.
Yuji spent the next five minutes remembering the witty remarks Megumi would make, which led to him spending another five minutes trying to convince himself that he wasn’t a creep or utterly obsessed with the green-eyed boy.
He knew that Megumi had completely missed the point behind his actions. He needed to know where he could find the boy and maybe explain what exactly he was trying to do.
But he didn't know where he could find him. Sure, they studied at the same university, but Yuji was majoring in kinesiology, which meant that his lectures happened far too far away from Megumi’s.
Another thing that Yuji knew about Megumi was not exactly a people person. Megumi always came in with the same two people. He stayed on the low and would rarely ever be seen at parties. Definitely not the kind of person who enjoyed having too much attention on him.
Yuji, on the other hand, was a little more on the popular side. He knew a lot of different people, courtesy of the fact that it was ridiculously easy for him to make friends, even more now that he was working at the cafe. He could get along with anyone.
Well, almost anyone, as he seems to be learning now.
Simply put, he and Megumi were on two different ends of the spectrum, meaning they had little to nothing in common. This, in turn, meant that Yuji had no reason to ever look for Megumi, no topic he could use to strike up a conversation.
Yuji had been spending a good chunk of his days in thought. Deep thought. The exhaustion of which had started catching up to him. He decided it was best for him to get back to his predicament with a fresh mind; he needed some well-deserved rest.
Yuji, too lazy for a change of clothes, climbed into his bed and couldn’t believe how comfortable it felt. He hadn’t even realised how badly he needed this. With his brain too foggy to form any more coherent thoughts beyond, “It’s so warm under the comforter,” Yuji fell asleep the minute he closed his eyes.
____
Megumi’s POV -
Megumi rubbed his hands together to produce some heat. It was now mid-November, and the cold nights were nothing short of brutal despite it being so early into winter.
Because God hated him, Megumi needed a warm cup of coffee more than he’d ever like to admit. Tragically, the only coffee shop near his house was the one where that guy worked, and he had decided that he would sell his soul to the Devil before he visited that place ever again. Over his dead body would he ever lose his dignity in such an unthinkable way.
The feeling of supposed self-importance lasted for about three seconds before he was forced to give in to the November cold by the harsh weather and swallow his pride. He had no choice but to visit the coffee shop. The thought of doing that was colder than November could even think of being. In the end, his dire need for caffeine won over his pride. He made a silent prayer for the barista not to be there and made his way to hell.
.
Fate seemed to have a bone to pick with Megumi.
Upon his arrival, he was greeted with the sight of the cute boy closing for the night.
Megumi couldn’t hold back from being a little shit, “Well, well,” he started, not trying to hide the bitterness evident in his voice, which made the barista flinch a bit, “if it isn’t Mr. I-Dont-Know-How-To-Spell-Names.”
Megumi mentally facepalmed himself the second that insult left his mouth. He wanted to blame it on the weather giving his brain frostbite, but he ultimately decided he was better than petty excuses. He took, albeit begrudgingly, the embarrassment like a grown-up.
The barista looked at Megumi and opened his mouth to say something, but he beat him to it, “Shut it! I don’t care if you hate me, but you owe me a nice cup of coffee for putting me through all of that emotional turmoil.”
The boy’s face went blank. He nodded and turned around to unlock the door again. He walked in. Megumi followed suit.
Megumi took a seat at the small table where Yuji kept the keys and went to put his apron back on. Megumi took a minute to take the coffee shop in. It wasn’t a large or grand place by any means, but it was warm, and it smelled amazing. The interior was relatively modest, mostly a combination of different browns and white. Nothing too different from an average cafe.
The barista made his way to the workstation, tufts of pink hair standing out amidst the simple design of the place. “Flat white?” he asked from behind the counter. Megumi’s face twisted just the slightest in disgust because, yes, that was exactly what he was about to order.
“Yeah, whatever,” he huffed, attempting to sound as nonchalant as humanly possible.
He thought he saw a small smile appear on the barista’s face, but it must’ve been his imagination. He didn’t know why the cute boy hated him as much as he did, but he now felt he had an excellent reason to do so. He had stormed in and caused a commotion. It was a pleasant surprise that Megumi hadn’t been chased away at his mere sight.
“I don't hate you,” the boy said out of nowhere as if he was reading Megumi’s thoughts.
When Megumi didn’t say anything, he continued, “I was trying to do something, but you took it in an entirely different manner, and I think I’ve lost the nerve to do it again, but um, I thought I should clear this up. I don’t hate you. I don’t know how anyone could.”
____
Yuji’s POV -
Yuji wanted to hit himself. This was a perfectly good opportunity. Why was he being such a coward?
“Just ask him out,” he told himself, but he couldn’t do it; it didn’t seem as simple anymore. There had to be a way to save this; he could fix it; he just needed to think fast.
He had an idea, and he wanted nothing more than for it to work. He grabbed a marker and a cup, quickly scribbling something on it. He went over to where Megumi was sitting and placed the cup on the table,
“Careful, it’s hot,” he said before walking back to clean the station, sending a prayer to every God he knew.
____
Megumi’s POV -
Megumi picked up the cup from the table and took a small sip from it. “It tastes delicious,” he immediately thought to himself. The barista might be the villain of Megumi’s life, but he sure knew how to make a good cup of coffee.
Before he could go for another sip, he noticed something was written on the cup, something much longer than his name. He knew the boy was incapable of spelling his name right, but this was a bit of a stretch, even by his standards.
He turned the cup around to read it; the handwriting was small and cute; it read — “sorry 4 messing up ur name (i get nervous around cute boys), can i apologise in the form of my number? u can continue your exasperated monologue on a date :D — Yuji Itadori”
A smile subconsciously crept up on Megumi's face.
“Yuji Itadori, you slick piece of shit,” he mumbled and laughed to himself.
Maybe clumsy yet adorable guys were his type, after all.