Chapter Text
Oh..? I never noticed there was a CD store here.
She’d paid no mind to it before, but today was a day that Oosawa Aya had decided to actually take in her surroundings on the walk home from school. The afternoon sun warmed her skin perfectly, a gentle breeze flowing her hair as she listened to her music. What snapped her out of it was the sight of a hooded figure hunched over the counter of the shop, sorting out what looked to be a box of new CDs. Peering through the window, Aya noticed a variety of posters of Western rock bands that none of her friends would even fathom. Finally, she’d found a place where she wouldn’t have to worry about feeling left out because of her interests. She smiled in awe as she gripped the door handle and pushed the door open into this new world of music…
…only to have the smile immediately fall into an expression of shock at the sight of the blue-grey eyes meeting her own, the song playing through the shop’s speakers slowly coming to a close.
The boy’s piercing gaze struck a chord in Aya’s heart as she stood in the entryway, shocked at just how breathtaking he looked. There was a mysterious air to him, almost as if he had something to hide beneath the mask on his face. Aya noticed a plethora of earrings on the one ear that was just barely visible to her as a ring-clad, black-nailed hand slowly moved to fix something behind his hood.
“Ah, welcome in,” he said, breaking the silence between the pair as his hand finally came back down to the pile of CDs on the counter. “Please, have a look around.”
His voice was a little bit muffled through his mask, but even the next song that started in the speakers wasn’t enough to snap Aya out of her internal trance. Put simply, it was the most soothing, positively chill-inducing sound she’d heard.
“T-Thank you,” she said in a small voice, swallowing nervously as she rushed over to one of the shelves. The boy kept a soft gaze on her, a soft chuckle emanating from behind his mask. He didn’t dare let her hear it, though, opting to simply watch her as she excitedly looked through all the CDs and found one to listen to.
Throughout the next few weeks, Aya would periodically visit the store in the hopes that she would run into the mysterious boy some more. Some days she did, but on the days that she didn’t see him, she opted to not enter. Seeing him was always the highlight of her day, getting to hear his soft voice welcoming her back in as she smiled at him and went to find another CD she hadn’t listened to yet. He was always dressed the same; a black sweater with the hood up, mask covering the lower half of his face. His eyes were just barely covered by his shaggy bangs, and his fingers were always decorated with a variety of rings and a shiny black nail polish. He wasn’t a guy of many words, but the few words Aya would hear practically made her swoon her way to the stereos and CD players to listen to whatever picks the shop had to offer each day. Without fail, each day she visited the shop, Aya would leave it with a skip in her step, regardless of anything that happened in school.
One day, Aya happened to be listening to Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ CD, totally not because the guy at the counter was wearing a sweater of theirs. As she was bobbing her head along to the beat, she hadn’t noticed that her hair was getting tangled in the headphones. She also hadn’t noticed that the guy had been observing her, a fond look on his face. This was also a common occurrence whenever Aya visited the shop, and it was something she failed to pick up on every single time… until she started taking off her headphones this time.
“Ouch–!” she gasped, feeling a rough tug on her head. Through the corner of her eye, Aya noticed her hair entangled in her headphones. Crap, she thought, tugging at the headset again for fear of making herself look like a fool in front of the guy at the desk. What she didn’t pick up on, however, were the soft footsteps approaching her; her thoughts were quickly cut short by a pinky brushing her shoulder, sending a jolt down her spine. Her head slowly turned to the figure standing next to her, and her heart nearly flew out of her chest as she realized that the person next to her was none other than the one who had just been behind the counter. In a few swift motions, the panicked girl’s hair was untangled from the headphones, the worker’s hands lingering near her as he let the soft pink strands intertwine with his slender fingers.
“...Looks like it’s come loose?”
Hearing his voice so up close gave her goosebumps. She could practically see all the tiny details in his rings as her entire world fell into slow motion, and all she could really do was watch in shock as he let the strand flow out of his fingers and fall into place with the rest of her hair. Even though she couldn’t see beneath his mask, she knew from the look in his eyes and the cheery tone in his voice that he was smiling at her.
She wondered what that smile would look like in full.
Lips moved, but the awestruck girl couldn’t form a single word, let alone any sound past a panicked stutter. Once his hand was free, he quickly balled it up in a fist and moved it to his chest.
“Ah, sorry for touching it without asking.”
“Isn’t that CRAZY? Helping me out like that was SO cool!”
“Sounds like a total playboy, if you ask me. I’ll bet you anything. He got a name?”
“He didn’t have a nametag, so I dunno, but… Oh, gosh—what should I do? I’m in love for real…!”
The conversation between the two gyarus sitting at the desks next to Koga Mitsuki were overpowering the volume of the music playing through her earbuds, but this was a conversation on which she needed to eavesdrop. Hearing Aya’s declaration of love for this mysterious guy at the CD shop nearly made Mitsuki jump out of her seat. All of a sudden, the ravenette’s jaw clenched as she crossed her arms and tilted her head slightly down until her eyes met the edge of her desk. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was playing on her phone, and she practically felt each note and beat circling around her head, almost as if the mixture of Aya’s words and the song in her ears were taunting her. After all…
What should I do…?
Mitsuki could never bring herself to shoot down Aya’s hopes… for the boy she’d been swooning over with her friend?
I got myself mixed up in something crazy, haven’t I?
Well, that “boy” just so happened to be sitting right next to Aya, overhearing their entire conversation… and “he” just so happened to be a raven-haired “boy” who was now wearing glasses, a short sleeved button-down with a khaki vest, and a skirt. No, instead of whoever Aya could’ve thought him to be, she was sitting right next to the very girl who had just recently been the one to help the dazed gyaru untangle her hair from her headphones.
Of course, Aya would never be able to tell Mitsuki’s true identity, especially not from looks alone, seeing as how differently she presented herself at school and at work. Mitsuki never wore any of her earrings at school, her hair wasn’t ever tied up into a bun she could keep tucked behind a hood, she wore a band on her left wrist to cover up the sound wave tattoo she’d gotten done as a sixteenth birthday present, and opted to wear glasses instead of contacts, since she didn’t wear a face mask at school either.
Truly, Mitsuki was at a loss for ideas. She hadn’t the slightest clue how to fix the situation she’d fallen into. Granted, she hadn’t ever expected to be the subject of conversation in such a lovestruck sense, much less be the subject of any conversation at all. She’d lived her life to the beat of her own drum for years, embracing the fact that maybe she was better off alone, and yet here was Aya, acting like she couldn’t live without the guy for whom she’d mistaken a mere classmate. Mitsuki had to put a stop to it before things could get out of hand. And so, she decided to go about it in what she had decided would be most effective: simply not making her presence known in the CD shop whenever she knew or expected Aya would be there.
…which ended up being successful for only about a week or so.
“So, get this—I haven’t been able to see him at all lately!” Aya ranted to her best friends, Mao and Chizuru, exasperatedly resting her chin on her hands while Mao wrapped an arm around her from behind, her other hand typing things on her phone. Chizuru was doing her makeup in her seat. “Ugh… maybe he switched shifts or something? This suuucks..!!”
“Ah, are you talking about that dude from the record shop?” Mao asked. Near the group of friends, as usual, was Mitsuki parked right in her seat with her earbuds in. Unbeknownst to the three, she could still perfectly hear their entire conversation, and even noticed the pink dusting Aya’s cheeks out of the corner of her eye. This isn’t good.
“Heh, I bet he’s totally forgotten what you even look like by now,” Chizuru teased through the application of her lip gloss.
I’m so sorry… Mitsuki thought to herself, nearly drowning out Aya’s “Shut uuuup!” whine in response to Chizuru. The remnants of the conversation rang in Mitsuki’s mind throughout the rest of the school day, all the way up to the moment she stood before her locker at the shop changing into her work clothes. Aya’s complaints about not being able to see “him” rang in her head, as did the mental image of her sullenly resting her chin on her palms.
I’m so sorry, she thought again, pulling off her glasses. Her hair was already tied up in a bun, a hand running through her fringe to ruffle it up a bit. But, how am I supposed to even tell her? I need to clear it up as soon as possible, though. What am I even supposed to do in a situation like this? “Hey, sorry, but the guy you seem to have taken a liking to is actually this girl who sits next to you and goes by unnoticed…” ?? She shook her head as she pulled on her sweater. And in the middle of class too… Earrings fastened into place, contacts in her eyes, and mask looped over her ears, Mitsuki pulled up her hood and sighed to herself before putting on her apron. She could only imagine the looks of pure disdain and disgust emanating from Aya and her friends if she told them the truth. Their hypothetical words rang deep in her ears, condescendingly asking her who the hell she even was. Of course not, that’d be ridiculous, Mitsuki conceded, closing her locker and starting to make her way to the main floor of the shop. Right, guess I’ll just tell her the next time I see her here. It might make the shift awkward, but, oh well. Nodding to herself, Mitsuki pushed open the curtains, headed right to the counter.
Chizuru and Mao’s teasing was fuel for Aya. She hadn’t seen the guy at the shop in over a week, and she was getting desperate, so she’d decided she’d visit regardless of whether he’d be there. Regardless, some shadow of doubt loomed in her brain, as she wasn’t particularly expecting him to magically show up. Sure enough, upon walking into the shop, she was greeted with a barren space, the music softly playing through the speakers being the only thing keeping the shop from being dead silent. With a sigh, Aya hung her head and decided to look around since she was already there. Guess it was foolish for me to think that he’d be— huh?
The rustling of curtains from behind the checkout counter shook Aya out of her thoughts, and once more she was caught in slow motion. A hand poked out of them, and Aya immediately recognized the black nails and various rings. The image of her hair strand flowing in between those very fingers flashed in her mind as she watched the worker step out from behind the curtains, and almost immediately, her mind registered that this was real life. She was really seeing him again after more than a whole week. Unfortunately, Aya didn’t realize just what that meant for her until she saw his masked face pop out.
A loud “KYAHH—?!” escaped the panicked gyaru, visibly startling the worker and earning a soft “Huh?” in return. Seeing him walking towards her sent a shock through her body, and she instinctively started to back up, feeling her heart drumming in her chest. Face heating up, Aya bumped her back into the end of a display bookshelf that was directly behind her, and her knees could’ve practically given out from the shock.
“S-Sorry, I—” she stuttered, holding out a hand in defense, “wait, I didn’t mean to…! N-No, wait, I— I just– I didn’t NOT mean it, but I…” Oh, God… I can’t concentrate on what to say with you giving me that look!! Aya steadied herself as best as she could, though it ended up simply being her awkwardly pushing herself upwards, trying her best not to stumble and fall over. “I just didn’t expect to see you here! You surprised me, is all…!”
In between Aya’s words, she heard soft chuckling coming from beneath the mask. Looking up, she saw that the guy had a hand to his face, palm facing out. Aya took note of a tattoo resembling a sound wave on his outer wrist. The look in his eyes had a level of slyness to them, and Aya’s world slowed back down as she basked in his alluring presence. His laugh was like honey to her, flowing out and filling the shop with a beautiful, deep melody. Aya was frozen, lips twitching as she racked her brain for words. Fortunately, he spoke up before she could.
“Have you been looking forward to it that much?”