Chapter 1: The Right Place at the Wrong Time

I sat at a table alone that night. The diner was empty of many people, but I was a regular so I was used to that. The entire place reminded me of her. To grief, I decided to waste my Friday night sitting in an old diner. It was her favorite, so that didn't bother me too much. I was a lonely college student who chose to spend their night at a diner. I should've been partying or drinking so much to make myself sick. I should've been at that party that night, but instead I made the worst decision of my life.

"Can I get you anything, sir?" A familiar voice asked behind me.

She smiled sweetly, but I knew she was shocked to see me in that diner without her. I was shocked enough myself. Her smile showed kindness, but her brown eyes showed confusion.

"A coffee is fine," I mumbled. I was feeling empty that night.

"Kaneki, right? Yeah, you come here often enough I'm proud to know your name! It'll be right out!"

I nodded and glanced at the table. I heard stories about the diner being a coffee shop in the past, but I never had any interest in it. I never came the diner for friendship, I came to get information from her.

"Here you go!" She cheerfully sat down the mug of coffee before continuing. "Isn't it a bit to late to be drinking coffee, even if it's a Friday night? I'm Hinami, by the way."

"It will be a long night for me...I have business to attend to."

I had no intentions of telling a simple girl who was probably in high school that I had ghoul things to do. She wouldn't understand, and I would hate to scare her.

"Is that all you want from here?"

I nodded my head.

"Then, I'll pay for your coffee! Have a nice night!" She smiled and walked off to another table.

After Hinami left, I felt even more empty. A couple months ago, she served me and...no I won't say her name just yet. She served us, and that was the last time I was happy. Then I tried to kiss her and-nevermind.

I sat alone in the diner and finished my coffee. If I didn't go to that diner that night, we would've never seen each other again. If I was any slower or faster at drinking, I would've never ever thought about him. How long had it been?

It all happened so quickly. I stood up and I- SMACK.

I finally learned what was one of the most painful body parts to be hit by on a human: the shoulder. I, a trained ghoul and had been for a year, was even hurt by it. It's hard to believr, but it fucking hurt okay.

"Oh, fuck! Sorry, I didn't see you there!" He spoke quickly, all the words sluring into one odd one.

As usual, I tried to stay calm. "I'm fine." I didn't look at him, instead I stared at the poor waitress who was totally suprised by it.

"Is there anything I can do to make it better?"

For a millisecond, I considered asking him to kill me, but I threw that idea away.

"Really," I reasurred him, "I'm fine."

, here's the traior some reason, he kept arguing with me about it. Five minutes later, we agreed that he could walk me to the bus staion.

"What's your name I'm Hide!" He asked as we made our way down the sidewalk,

"Kaneki," I answered him.

For the first time, I noticed his oddly colored hair. I didn't queestion.

"Are you in college?"

I sighed. "Yeah. I want to be a writer, so I am going to major in English."

He nodded. "I'm not! I work for the CCG."

Really? This guy who is probably no older than me works for the CGG and probably wants to be friends. This is great. Great job, Kaneki. Eto is really gonna kill you for this one.

"Well, here's the train station. It was nice meeting you, Hide. Maybe we will see each other later!"

"Yeah, bye!" He ran off as it began to rain.

As of right now, I didn't see any huge problem about going to the diner. Sure, Eto and Tatara weren't going to be impressed that I ditched the Aogiri Tree meeting for the thir time that month, butthey weren't gonna murder me, I saw no problems, and part of me even wanted to see him again.

'"Welcome home, Kaneki," Ayato growled.

I sighed. Of course, I knew I missed a meeting, but Ayato never was mad at me before because of it. I saw no problems. There were.

"Ayato, what's the matter?" I tried my best to smile into those mysterious eyes of his.

Before I met her, I had a weird phase where I liked Ayato. Honestly, it didn't go well for anyone, especially for me. After getting beat up and then beating him him, we were finally through with that weird phase.

"You missed it again. Kaneki, I don't care why, but who were you with?"

"I was alone, I promise. Other than I met some dude who works for the CCG, I didn't meet anyone else. What happened?" After seeing the rage in his eyes, I knew something was seriously wrong.

"There's a new ghoul. He pretends to be other ghouls and morphs into what they look like. He can blow our cover any moment. They call him the Copycat Ghoul. Worst of all, he pretended to be my sister."

No.

***Author's Note:***

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