Author's notes:

It was a really busy week for me, but I found time to write and somehow, I didn't have the mood to write drama so I have written this headcanon of mine about Hidetou/Touhide! :D I noticed that Hide wears headphones almost all the time, and it was said that he loves music, so this story came to mind. Seriously, their pairing is so underrated, it needs more fan works. Lol

Also, thank you so much to the people liking and leaving reviews on my fanfics! I am so grateful to all of you. :D

This chapter is so long; this is supposed to be a one-shot but I couldn't cram the story all in one chapter, so there's going to be updates! Yay!

Also, if you have seen grammatical mistakes and the like, please do tell me. :D

Please like, reblog, share, or leave a review. Enjoy! :D

PS this fic is dedicated to unravel-ghoul on tumblr because she's one of the most enthusiastic Touhide shippers out there! :D

Never did she see herself liking something like a rock band. And it was an international group at that.

She always liked music. Even when she's studying for exams, she never forgets to put on her headphones and listen to music—though she didn't know if it helps her studying or makes it worse. Either way, she really likes listening to it.

She heard one of that band's songs in school. One of her classmates accidentally left their phone on loudspeaker, and when someone called them, she heard it—the song. It was set as her classmate's ringtone. It has a beautiful melody, and even though she doesn't understand most of the lyrics, she immediately liked it. Ever since then, she had searched for the band's name and songs.

She thought that she was never the type to like a particular band or singer's songs, but her current situation tell otherwise. She's standing inside a record shop. Cradling the funds she saved for the item she's planning to buy, she walks around the aisles. She crouches a little bit, searching thoroughly. When she saw what she was looking for, her heart skips a bit. Her hand reaches for the album, but unexpectedly crashes into someone else's hand.

"Ah, I'm sorry."

She looks to her left, and sees a familiar, strawberry blonde man. She narrows her eyes when she was startled but the guy's enthusiastic voice.

"Oh! Touka-chan!" He didn't expect her to be here.

"Hide-san?"

His eyes glint with delight. He looks at the album they both reached for, and turns to her excitedly.

"Wow! You're a fan as well?" he exclaims. "I can't believe I found another fan like me!"

Touka scrunches her eyebrows, her mouth stretching to one side in awkwardness. "I just really like their songs…" she mutters.

"They're awesome, right?" he says happily, waving his hands. "Man, I never thought I'd find another fan in this place!"

Touka just smiles. They both straighten up.

"I see you're buying their album?" Hide asks her.

"Oh?" she still takes their meeting all in. "Oh, I am. Actually, I just knew of them recently, but I really like them so…"

He waves his hand towards the album. "Well, you can take it, then."

She nods, and pulls the album out of the display. The sound of the plastic covering the album, and its texture is somehow pleasing to her senses. Her heart fills with excitement. It was then she noticed the sticker on the album.

Last copy.

She feels bad for "taking" it from him. She hands the album to him, but he looks at it in wonder.

"Uhm, it's the last copy. Maybe you should—"

"It's okay, Touka-chan," he says, smiling. "I can get it if they re-stock. Don't worry."

"Oh. Well, thank you."

Hide smiles. All of the sudden, he gets excited and lands his fist on his palm. "I know! Maybe I should get the songs from you?"

"W-What?"

"It may seem mean that I would let you pay, but I have already have some of their albums. Is this your first album of them?"

Touka nods. "Yes. Like I said, I just knew of them recently."

"That's nice," he tells her happily. "So, maybe I'll do get the copies of the songs from you."

She has no idea of what he's talking about. At least, she doesn't know how she'll give copies of the songs to him.

"Oh, I need to go now, Touka-chan," he looks at his wristwatch. "See you at the café later!"

He leaves immediately, leaving Touka hanging.

She almost wanted to face-palm herself.

It was her first time buying an album, and embarrassingly, she doesn't know how to get the songs from the CD.

"Maybe this is what he's talking about?" she tells herself, examining the album in her hands. She never bought songs before [and she's ashamed to admit it], but she always asked Yoriko to get her songs, or at least get her to tell her how to get songs online. She knows downloading songs online is not okay, but she can't help it if she's broke.

Buying the album is much expensive than she thought.

"It's worth it though," she mumbles, leaning far back in her chair, her legs rested on her table to support her weight. "I've never heard something like this before.

She thought she should ask for his help with the songs.

"I'm sorry; I didn't get to go here yesterday."

He arrives at the café early in the morning the next day, but Kaneki seems to be missing. His shift doesn't start until mid-day, so she doesn't expect him to be here.

"It's okay, Hide-san."

Hide takes a sip of coffee. "Oh! That's great! Your coffee is really good, Touka-chan!"

"Thank you…"

"The latte art is cute too… Of course, the one who made it is cute as well!"

She blushes furiously, which made Hide smile.

"A-Anyway, Hide-san… I wanted to ask you something."

"Hm? What is it?"

"Well," she looks away, scratching her head. "It's about the songs."

"Oh, I remember. I told you that I'm going to get copies of them from you, right?"

"Yeah, about that…" her voice falters. For some reason, she feels embarrassed telling him she doesn't know how to extract the songs from the CD. "I don't actually know how to get them from the album."

"Oh, you don't know how to rip songs from CD's?"

She nods. "Yeah, whatever you call them. I don't know how."

Hide sips his coffee. "I always thought you know more about technology and stuff."

Touka smiles embarrassingly. "Well, you thought wrong…"

He gives her a kind smile. "It's easy. You just need a computer and some program. And of course, the CD."

Touka's smile turns upside down. "Oh, I don't have a computer."

"Hmmm, maybe we can use mine? I have a computer at home, so maybe we could go there later. Is it okay with you?"

Touka waves her hand. "Hide-san, is it okay if we do it in another time? Well, I have to go study for my exams. Besides, I have a habit of listening to songs while studying, but I often flunk when I do, so maybe it would do me good if I would study in silence later."

He smiles. "Sure. And good luck with your exams!"

The next three days are busy days.

It was irritating for her when it's busy. Especially her exams are coming, and she wants the day to end immediately so she can study. But the day seems like it's not listening to her.

More people come in, and Touka makes a "tch" sound under her breath. She sighs deeply and gets to her feet. Her voice sounds more aggressive and louder as the café gets busy.

It's then Hide comes in. He greets her happily, and for some reason, Touka's mood lightens up. He sits down.

The café gets busier after half an hour. Hide is still at the café, but fortunately, the number of people decreased tremendously. Touka wonders why the busyness is still the same when some of the people already left. Her tangled thoughts snap when she catches the attention of the customers.

Clang.

Broken pieces of porcelain that used to be cups scatter on the floor. She quickly crouches to the floor and picks them up, prompting Irimi to help her out. Irimi asks her if she's okay, and she nods. When they finally finished cleaning up, the commotion died down.

"Don't stress yourself too much," Irimi smiles at her and continues working.

Touka sighs. She calms down, and somehow, she feels a warm staring at her back.

Afternoon came, and the busyness finally cleared up. Touka breathes a sigh of relief as she wipes the tables.

"Are you okay now, Touka-chan?" Irimi asks from the counter, cleaning some utensils.

"Yeah," she replies, sitting down. "Exams are just around the corner, and I feel so full."

"Like I said, don't get stressed over it. If you like, I can cover for you during work."

"It's okay, Irimi-san," Touka says. "I'll be fine."

The bell rings and a certain person comes in. It's Hide.

Irimi greets him and he nods. Touka stands up and begin to work again. "Here again?" she says.

Hide nods and smiles at her. She takes his order, and a few moments she serves it to him.

"You've been coming more often lately," she tells him. "I notice you've been coming every day, every morning and every afternoon. And you stay longer than usual. It's your friend that usually stays longer than usual, and he's always reading, but now it's you."

Hide wraps his hands around his cup. "Well, I've been coming here because of you."

His statement sends blushes to her face. It was noticeable since Hide let out chuckles upon seeing her reaction.

"Still studying, I guess?" he asks.

Immediately, she remembers that he offered to teach her to rip songs. Stupid me… Thinking of other reasons… she thinks.

"Yeah, it's this Friday already," she explains, sitting in front of him She doesn't worry because the café is empty and the only customer is him.

"I just wish the exams are easy. Work is getting in the way, but of course I'm supposed to not stop working. Then there's school…" she looks down at the table, wrapping her fingers with each other.

"Have you listened to music lately?" he asks her. "Maybe it would help you calm down."

"Uhm," Touka starts to lift her head. "What do—"

She was surprised when Hide's face was very close to hers. Suddenly, she feels music come into her ears. It was then she realized that he put his headphones over her head, and since they were separated by the table between them, he reached for her—making his face loom before hers. Her cheeks burn at the sight of his face.

The volume of the music isn't as loud as she expected. The music fills her ears, and she hears beautiful singing from the headphones. She recognizes the voice, the melody, the instruments. It was a song from the band she currently likes.

"Is… is this song from The One?" she asks him. The band's name sounded different from her, considering that it was an English name, and she thinks she sounded funny. However, Hide gives her a kind smile rather than a laugh.

"Hmm mmm," he says. Touka understood why he didn't bring the volume up—so she could still hear him talk. "Have you heard of this song of theirs?"

"No… not yet…" she replies.

"I see. This song is one of their firsts, so maybe you haven't heard of it yet."

Touka nods, taking the music all in. However, she seemingly can't concentrate since Hide remains looming in front of her, making her cheeks blush redder. She feels the cushions of his headphones pressing against her ears.

"Go on, listen to the song," he says as he smiles.

She nods once more, and starts to listen. She lets herself absorb the melody of the song, and attempts to understand the lyrics. However, she can grasp the song only for a little as she understands less English. But with the harmony of the music, it feels as if she can understand what the singer is saying. She feels her hands going up, and up, and she presses the headphone more forcibly against her ears. Touka's heart skips a beat upon feeling the sensation of Hide's hands. It was warm, and unexpectedly a little rough. Hide's expressions changes slightly—maybe because he didn't expect her to touch his hands—but smiles again afterwards. Touka's face burn redder as she Hide closes in much more. He didn't remove his hands too, which makes her feel more embarrassed.

"Is it good?" he asks her.

"H-huh? Ah, y-yes it is," she stammers through the sound in her ears. She stares at him, and notices his facial features. His eyes are kind and calm, and his lips were like curved into the warmest smile she had ever seen. He never strikes her as handsome, but now that she seen him close enough… it seems like that she's going to acknowledge his looks now.

"Hide-san," she starts to speak, their position getting tenser.

"Yeah?"

"I don't k-know, but don't you think… m-maybe… uhmm… you're too c-close?"

"Huh?" Hide's smile melts, and he suddenly realize that he indeed is close—too close—her face. He notices Touka's nervous expression and her rose-tinted cheeks.

She's embarrassed.

"Ah! I'm sorry!" he immediately pulls away and sits back down, but his headphone yanks from Touka's head, making her drop her face almost immediately against the table. In a snap, Hide catches her by her cheeks with his palms.

"Touka-chan, I'm sorry!" he apologizes.

Touka smiles at him, her eyes closed. "It's okay, Hide-san. I'm definitely okay now."

"A-Are you sure?" he gulps.

She gives him a thumbs-up. "Yeah, I am. You could let go of my face now."

"Oh."

Hide does so, and Touka rubs her cheeks, which became redder than before. Hide can't help but laugh. It was soft at first, but slowly turns loud, but wholeheartedly kind. Touka looks at him in confusion, but smiles soon after.

"I think that definitely helped, Hide-san," Touka says. "Thanks a lot."

Hide nods. "I'm sorry for disturbing you during your work, Touka-chan, but I guess you needed this."

"Yeah, I do."

He smiles. She does so as well.

"Well, then," she stands up. "I have to go back to work."

Hide stands up as well, and started to pull his wallet out.

"Oh, Hide-san, it's okay. It's on me."

"Huh? Are you sure?" he asks.

"Yeah, you calmed me down after all. It's okay."

She smiles at him.

"Okay, if you insist," he says, putting his wallet back. "See you some other time, Touka-chan. I still need those songs."

He lets out a soft laugh.

"I know."

He starts to leave and opens the door, but says something before completely leaving. "Oh, and I have something for you, for treating me."

"Huh? That doesn't make sense. You don't have to pay back for my… pay back. Anyway, I think I'll be available on the weekend."

"Okay, just mail me whenever you think it's okay," he says. "Thanks a lot."

She bids him goodbye, and somehow, she feels she can't wait to see him again.