A Rabbit wearing an Black Eyepatch.
The day was like any other day in Anteiku. The sun was bright and sunny, the place was full of customers as usual, the employees were scrambling around the place getting their jobs done, and everyone was in good moods. Everything was fine, until something happened...
"Hey! watch where your going!'' the sudden bump made the dishes Kaneki was carrying fall and crack into small translucent pieces.
"B-But Touka, I was here first.'' he spoke with a scratchy voice, like something was caught in it.
"Well pay more attention next time!'' Touka stormed off so quickly it was like she was being chased. Everyone in the shop turned to catch an eye of their little scene. Kaneki never enjoyed when he was the center of attention, it was like a never ending spotlight. That's the reason he played the leading role in the school play, to reduce this problem; but to his surprise to didn't work.
"What's up Kaneki!?'' he looked and saw a very familiar face, Hide. He always wore that same smile the never faded.
"Hey Hide.." as he spoke Hide must've picked up the sadness of the recent event.
"Kaneki, do you have a minute?"
"Y-Yeah." he followed his friend to very back of the shop away from all the customers.
Hide spoke with confidence "Kaneki, I was outside when I heard Touka yelling at you in front of everyone."
Kaneki almost froze when he heard those words. Growing up he was always embarrassed, but one thing we hated even more was letting Hide know he was embarrassed.
"You did!?'' Hide nodded.
"You can't keep living like this, you need to start standing up for yourself.
Hide was right, deep down he always wanted to tell the bullies off, but it was the act of pulling up courage he just didn't have. It was easy for Hide, making friends, laughing and telling every joke, while he always had his nose in some book.
"But I just can't.''
"Yes, you can!"
"Just pretend your one of those big buff characters from your books, just like Goku!."
"Hide, Dragon Ball Z is just a t.v show."
"But it still has many valuable life lessons."
Kaneki couldn't help but laugh at his friend's corny joke. Hide could always make him laugh when he was feeling down.
"Ok, I'll try." It was true, Kaneki was going to try to gather up the small amount of courage he had to finally claim his spot in the world. He was so sick of being treated like a sponge absorbing all the insults and threats that other people threw at him. Hide quickly left his seat, checked his phone, then bolted out the door.
"Wait, your not going to stay and order something? Kaneki called out desperately.
"Can't, I got a date with a super cute girl!" He waved then continued running until his body was no longer in Kaneki's field of view. Kaneki stepped back in the shop to finish the rest of his work, this time, with a new found confidence.
Later the night Touka caught herself on the bed staring at the transparent raindrops collecting on her window. She bent down and checked her clock, it read "1:30 am"
"Dammit..." Her habit of staying up late was getting worse each day. Normally she would stay up late because of her trouble sleeping, but this time she found herself recalling all the times she embarrassed Kaneki. She really didn't mean to treat him so bad, it was just ever since childhood she had trouble expressing her feelings. In fact, over the last few days she actually took a liking to him, but sometimes she wondered if he liked her the way she liked him.
"It's too late for this.." Touka checked her clocked one more time, before crying herself to sleep, something she hadn't done since her father died.