Work Text:
osamu saw yosano approaching as he was on his ‘smoke break’— a guy needs his nic, okay? doesn’t matter if its triple mango flavoured.
“really?” she deadpanned, staring at the almost comically large orange vape.
“what? we all need a hit once in a while.” he shrugged, taking a puff. real nonchalant, he’s sure.
there’s nothing wrong with vaping. yeah, it’s kinda lame and stuff. yeah, he kinda has a spending problem. yeah, it kinda gives you cancer.
but lets be real, everything gives you cancer these days. at least this one is mango flavoured and gives you a high for fifteen minutes or so.
look, its no secret osamu thinks yosano is cool. she is. its a fact, type shit. like, even her name just radiates coolness. akiko. chic as fuck, dude! she wears cool clothes and she drinks and stuff, not to mention her hair. ugh, it’s so pretty. osamu isnt even one to dote on appearance— okay, he’s lying. whatever. point being, as much as he loves a pretty face, how could he not fall for someones whos all that and more?! its, like, jigsaw falling into place or however the song goes.
her voice is real cool, even when she’s lowkey spouting bullshit and hating on him, its still like music to his fucking ears, seriously!
but then he stops to think, and if shes dissing his vice or whatever, shes gonna have be demoted in his mental heirachy.
hey, he doesn’t make the rules! it’s just how it works.
“just smoke. ten times less pathetic.”
yosano’s elegant voice cuts through his train of thought as she gives him a lopsided smile, lighting the cigarette that was perched treacherously between her lips.
he rolled his eyes in response, spreading a ‘sweet’ smile across his face— she was right and shit, unfortunately. smoking is just totally cool, no matter whatever fucking propaganda thats trying to say ‘popcorn lungs’ and all that, smoking will forever be cool. like, mafia boss behaviour.
and vaping will forever be absolute loser behaviour, no matter how much it’s posed as a ‘healthy’ alternative, the true smokers will always prefer a cigarette.
whatever, fact is, the flavour doesn’t match the high. tastes like burnt wires or some bullshit, for what? not to mention the fucking price. he’d go broke buying cigs! it’s insane. cost of living type shit. it’s a crisis, you know!
he exhaled lightly before replying. gotta keep the peace or whatever, “no, yeah. smoking is cooler or whatever but it tastes like dogshit. can’t be worth it.”
he shrugged, smiling back at her as she took a drag. he didn’t wanna seem like those american teenagers who just vape because, like, it looks cool in tiktoks and stuff. even though that is low-key him.
the days of filming half-assed lip-sync videos are over, okay?
his head was pressed against the wall, he could feel the cold brick on his scalp. ew.
“so, uh,” he began. look, he’s just trying to make a little conversation! is it such a crime? apparently for yosano, it is, because she’s spoken about ten words total in the last 5 minutes, and he’s been acting banger questions, real shit.
but, he persists. the girl’s cool and he’s so, so bored.
“why do you smoke?”
thats interesting, right? like, totally introspective and shit, but still small talk. ooh, he’s got this shit on lock!
this year, he swore he’d talk more and make more friends, to make up for his shyness throughout school and stuff. it makes logical sense, you know? talk more at work, and you get, like, promoted and stuff? whatever, it’s more personal than anything. but literally nothing ever goes to plan because the universe hates him and he’s ended up having to use a smoke break as his only real socialisation for the day. he talks to customers all day and this is the first time he’s asked about anything except for coffee.
and to fucking top it off, this bitch starts laughing? sure, its that weird breathy shit chicks do when they wanna act all, like, above you or whatever. but still! he didn’t think it was that bad.
she shook her head lightly before answering.
“just a habit. picked it up from a friend.”
cool. where the hell does he go from here? talk about close-ended answer. it’s really starting to seem like she just doesn’t want to talk to him..
okay, he was finally getting somewhere. too late to give up now, while he was actually having a deep conversation with this chick for once. “you still friends with them?” he tilted his head slightly in curiosity. “am i, like, talking too much or whatever—“
“break’s over.”
she cuts him off, stubbing out her cigarette and walking back inside. talk about moody. no wonder kunikida has such high standards, this shit is hard to deal with!
“right.” osamu says, more to himself than anyone else.
he follows her back inside, shoving his vape into his pocket as he reties his stupid fucking apron. anybody who’s anybody knows green is not his colour.
it’s not like he needs to look his best or whatever the fuck, but a little colour analysis never hurt anyone, okay? he’s still asian, after all. specialty snd shit.
his colour is blue, for the record.
and obviously he’s not really got anyone to impress, but yosano exists, and she’s cool and low-key older than him, so he does need to put up his best front, at least for first impressions. hopefully she’ll be taking this shift forever or whatever, but he’ll still only get a chance, like, three times a week. take it or leave it and all that!
osamu comes to a realisation: what if she has a boyfriend? who’s actually her age? oh, it’s so over. what if she goes blabbing to her cool, older, nonchalant boyfriend about this college loser trying to make the moves on her at his part-time barista job?! life would be over as he knew it. he’d have to take up drug dealing or something just to avoid her.