The Snow Cottage only opened during the season of carols and sleighs, yet this did not hinder its popularity.
A blazing fire roared in the hearth of an enormous brick fireplace, lighting up the cozy wooden house and radiating warm rays into every corner of the room. On each separate table stood translucent ocean-blue vases, their identical curvy bodies seemed to elegantly envelop the buttery yellow roses blooming from within. Wooden-framed paintings of fertile grassland and tulip fields were lined along all four sides of the cafe walls, an encouraging reminder of the upcoming season of tranquility and growth.
Every customer's face glowed with contentment as they wrapped their stiff fingers around cups of steaming coffee and savored the rich yet bitter liquid as it slid down their throats. Even the waiters and waitresses here always seemed cheerful as they gracefully yet efficiently presented trays of sweet cupcakes and berry muffins to the appropriate seats.
The air was filled with a strong aroma of coffee and baking. Yet the faint fragrance of jasmine wafted through, a perfume pleasant and easing to the senses.
It was on a day as normal as this one... that everything began.
Among the busy waitresses taking orders at the front counter, was a girl with gentle glowing eyes and soft milky skin.
Her long auburn hair, as smooth and fine as wisps of silk, was braided into a single plait down her back for convenience; with a shimmering pink hairclip pinned neatly above her right ear.
Ryuzaki Sakuno's smile never faltered when she served anyone.
Her smart clean appearance had won her the job at this cafe two weeks ago, although the consequence of having to significantly reduce her time for tennis had been foreseen.
Perhaps it's for the best.
Her smile faded when there was, at last, a gap in the flow of customers and she was finally able to catch her breath.
The harder I try, the further I seemed to be from the person whom I really wanted to impress...so why bother?
She pasted a cheery smile onto her face to disguise her bitterness as an elderly man limped up to the counter and made his orders, her voice rang mechanically in response, asking him the well-learnt questions..."Are there any special preferences we should note down?", "Is that all?", "Is that to have here or takeaway?"
She typed the orders into the cash register and her fingers curled around the forty-seventh one thousand yen note she had touched that day. Sighing softly, her eyes followed the man's hunched back around the room until he stopped at a vacant seat next to a window on the east side of the cottage.
White crystallized snow glimmered on the windowsill outside, there was a snow storm not long ago - just a couple of hours - and it had completely covered the world with a blinding whiteness as if someone had dumped a huge bucketful of silver paint onto Tokyo within minutes.
The atmosphere was peaceful.
Almost too peaceful.
Like the calm before a storm...
The tiny golden doorbell above the entrance door twinkled again – like it had been all day...almost like a nightingale singing... but, rather, all on the same note...or is it more like a sparrow chirping?
Sakuno bit back a laugh at the absurdity for considering things such as 'what bird the doorbell most resemble'. She must have worked too long, or smiled too much...one or the other. Quickly, the girl looked around to see if Akito had noticed her spacing out in the middle of work, but luckily he was occupied with the new customers.
Is it possible for time to drain out hope? ...For she has almost completely forgotten the tickling sense of excitement when Echizen Ryoma had first entered her life. Could she remember the last time his eyes met hers? Or when he spoke to her on his own free will? ...
Hardly.
I'm tired of it... tired of hoping, of waiting-
Waiting.
What's the point?
I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel, or a prize in exchange for my patience.
It was pathetic for waiting so long, for hoping so hard, for searching so deep.
To believe in an impossible response was an absolute waste of time.
The more she thought about it, the more aware she became of the fact.
The cruel fact that she should have given up on him years ago.
The fact that she could no longer deny.
And indeed, she did not plan to, for Sakuno had found herself rather convinced on her attraction to the cafe's Head Waiter, Akito, which blossomed during the earlier weeks of work. His caring and considerate attitude not only contrasted Ryoma's personality, but also answered her longing for warmth, instead of the icy coldness she had been receiving for four years.
This time, she was sure she could cut away her affection for the tennis prodigy.
Completely, utterly, once and for all.
Suddenly, she blushed. Drats. If she had known that she would be staring into Akito's questioning eyes merely twenty centimeters in front of her, she wouldn't have put on that stupefied "thinking" face.
"Are you all right, Ryuzaki?" Akito's quiet but stern voice sounded in a whisper. "Why are you spacing out like that?"
"S-Sorry...I won't do it again." Sakuno lowered her eyes in guilt. Oh no...I was supposed to impress him with my skills, not annoy him...!
"Right... never mind. There's a bunch of guys at table 9, could you take their orders for me? I need to attend to table 4..." Akito half asked and half demanded, yet his tone managed to remain gentle.
"Y-Yeah, sure! No problem..." Sakuno gulped nervously when she saw the dazzling smile of gratefulness spreading over his face.
"Cheers, Ryuzaki." Akito threw his thanks back over his shoulder as he quickly picked up a wooden tray boldly labelled "4" from the coffee bar.
Anytime. Sakuno beamed and took out a notepad from her apron pocket as she almost skipped towards table 9, the largest table in the centre of the café, usually reserved for bookings on special occasions.
"Good evening, may I please take your orders?" Sakuno put on her warmest smile, which wasn't hard due to her little incident just seconds ago. She was definitely sure she could get over Echizen Ryoma now-
"Ooh! I want two pieces of chocolate mud cake with extra cream, three pieces of cheese cake, and-" An extremely eager voice sounded from the middle of the table, but was soon cut off by another impatient and whiney voice next to it.
"Hey Momo! I was supposed to order first!"
To say that Sakuno was frozen with dread would be quite an understatement.
She was horrified, mortified, … petrified.
Her ordering pad clattered to the ground as she felt the blood drain from her face and... located the owners of the voices who were fighting over the menu.
"M-Momo-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai...?"
The two upperclassmen stopped. With one of Kikumaru's hand still pinching and distorting Momshiro's face and one of Momoshiro's arms frozen in the motion of whacking Kikumaru's chest, they both looked up at the sound of their names, surprised.
Silence fell upon the table.
"...Errr...y-you are..." The boy frowned; Sakuno could almost see a miniature of Momoshiro frantically ripping open files of memories within his brain, searching for a name to match up with her face.
She blushed as the air above the table sizzled with awkwardness, as the whole table stared at her in perplexity. Cold sweat broke out over her palms as she prayed desperately for someone – anyone – to break the silence-
"You dropped your pad, Ryuzaki."
Uh, almost anyone.
The voice which came to her rescue was a voice all too familiar to her. Her heart wrenched at the sound of it. And, well, it would have been a rescue had it not been spoken by Echizen Ryoma, or been worded that way.
The whole table erupted into laughter.
Sakuno's heart sank. She could feel her cheeks heating up like a 100-watt light bulb.
"Hahahaha…pad…pad… you're a genius, Ochibi…" Kikumaru Eiji thumped the younger boy on the back and wiped the tears from his eyes with an exaggerated rub with his arm.
"Ryuzaki!!! That's the one!" Momoshiro Takeshi slapped his thigh in remembrance. "You're that old hag's granddaughter, right?? What are you doing here?"
"If she's wearing a waitress's uniform it's obvious why she's here, you dumbass!" Kaidou Kaoru muttered as he played with a silver spoon sitting on the table.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, MAMUSHI??"
"I SAID-"
"Hey, calm down you two!" Oishi Syuichiro frowned sternly. "You're troubling the other customers!"
"Che. I'll get back to you on this, you creepy dirty reptile!! …Anyway-" Momoshiro turned back to Sakuno, who has simply been standing awkwardly at the end of the table, unsure of how to take their orders – to capture their attention, for a start. "Since when have you been working here?"
"Umm… I-I've been here for two months, Momo-senpai."
"Ah, I see… Gee, you've grown from the little girl who liked Echi-"
"I haven't grown much at all, Momo-senpai!" Sakuno smiled nervously as she bent down to scoop up the notepad she had dropped earlier, due to her shock at seeing the old Seigaku Regulars at her workplace so unexpectedly.
"Oh yes you have… thinner, taller, prettier (at this she blushed)… but I knew I've seen you somewhere before… Thanks for the clue, Echizen! As a token of my thanks, I can give you a bite of my cheese cake - Hey, stop it Eiji-senpai-" Momoshiro Takeshi's offer was left unconfirmed as he shifted his focus back to the 'menu war' which has resumed between himself and Kikumaru Eiji.
"Momo, the pretty waitress is Ryuzaki-sensei's granddaughter, did you say?? Then, if I remembered correctly-" The face of the red-headed boy cracked into an evil grin, ignoring the furious shouts of Momoshiro as they played tug-of-war with a piece of folded laminated paper.
He raised his voice but dared not move his eyes from the precious menu.
"OCHIBI! You wanna swap seats? Don't sit on the end by yourself… I'm sure you'd like a better view of a certain waitress – HA!! Momo you lost!" Kikumaru gleefully waved the menu which he had wrestled out of Momoshiro's hand as if it was the US Open trophy, then leaned his whole body towards the far end of the table to... grab hold of an arm.
Sakuno's heart gave another great painful pang against her chest when Ryoma's irritated face appeared from behind Oishi's body, past which Kikumaru's arm had extended and fastened around his.
"...Let go." Ryoma's cool voice showed a tinge of annoyance.
"Aww, why not? You know you want to–"
"Let go."
Kikumaru chuckled and dropped his arm, but he and Momoshiro exchanged a knowing grin.
"...Anyway, I would like a cup of mochaccino with extra chocolate!" Kikumaru announced his order and made a face at Momoshiro, who was looking hungrily at the booklet in the nineteen-year-old's hands.
"...Uh...s-sure..." Sakuno was still trying desperately to recover from the shock of the unexpected appearance of Ryoma, but her feelings were like gigantic waves tumbling and rolling inside her heart, completely out of control.
"Err...so...why is everyone here?" Sakuno asked the first question which popped into her mind, wanting to buy some more time for her mood to recover.
"Ah, because for each of our two-year tennis club reunions we thought it would be better if we took turns to decide where we should go , and this time it was Tezuka's turn..." Oishi kindly explained to her with a smile and gestured towards Tezuka Kunimitsu, who was sitting between Momoshiro and Inui, looking as cold as ever. However, he nodded towards Sakuno solemnly.
Sakuno blushed and immediately bowed back, unable to think of him as anyone else other than the God-like captain of Seigaku Tennis Club like he once was.
"What would you recommend, Tezuka?" Fuji's smile has not changed at all, and his gentle voice has surely attracted many more girls' attention even after high school.
"Jasmine tea, although I've never tried the coffee." Tezuka's reply was brief.
"Jasmine tea, is it? Hmmm... Then I'll have one pot of that plus a Creamy Caramello Delight Sundae."
"Tea and sundae? What are you thinking, Fuji-senpai?" Momoshiro put on a disgusted face but couldn't resist sneaking a few looks at the sundae section of the menu.
"Well, it's not exactly the first time we've witnessed Fuji's weird taste for food, is it?" Kawamura Takashi laughed on the other side of Fuji. "...by the way, my wasabi sushi does taste better now…"
Kikumaru's face turned to a shade of green as he laughed bitterly at the memory of Oishi forcing everyone to eat Kawamura's wasabi sushi pretending they were Rikkaidai. "Can wasabi sushi taste better?"
"Shhhh----" Kaidou did his trademark hiss as he also vividly recalled the taste of that particular mushy green sushi, burning his swollen tongue as if it was a piece of heated metal stuffed into his mouth.
"Ah, yes...the chance of Fuji ordering tea and sundae is 97 percent after all..." Inui Sadaharu chuckled evilly to himself and scribbled a few more notes into his seaweed-green notebook.
Sakuno smiled when she saw that her senpais have not changed at all over the four years, but her smile soon stiffened when a quiet voice sounded from the far end of the table.
"Are there any other good drinks here?" Ryoma inquired out loud, his cool voice slicing through the heated arguments as he lifted his lazy golden eyes to Sakuno's.
The girl stared back for at least ten seconds, not exactly sure who he was posing the question to. But when she saw the whole table looking expectantly in her direction she gave a start and hurriedly raked her brain for any drink she thought would suit Ryoma's taste, excluding Ponta, of course.
"U-um...our hot chocolate is quite good." Sakuno was finally able to squeeze out one sentence, although, to her dismay, it came out as a rather high-pitched squeak.
"Hmm...? I'll try that, then." Ryoma closed his eyes, yawned, and closed his menu.
Although a little surprised at how...uh, "obedient" he was, Sakuno jotted down the order without another word.
The copper can containing cocoa powder glinted under the shaded light bulb as Sakuno carefully scooped out two spoonfuls of chocolate.
Why do I feel so...disturbed seeing Ryoma-kun here?
I mean, I see him everyday at school anyway.
But somehow... today is...especially awkward.
Maybe it's because all the Senpais are here...which reminds me of four years ago.
The pathetic naivety of four years ago.
When the thrills of seeing Ryoma-kun and his breathtaking skills were enough to blind me from all logic.
...Oh what is wrong with everything today?.
She scowled at the couple of white drops swooshing in the milk bottles as she took it from the coffee bar fridge, and sighed.
Only one choice remains when ingredients run out... walk right around to the back of the Cottage where a smaller fridge contained emergency supplies.
But the weather would undoubtedly be a challenge.
The howling wind nearly toppled her over the instant she opened the door. Yet she held tightly onto the doorframe and steadied herself just in time. The freezing wind stung her eyes and seemed to whip her face mercilessly, making her eyes water with pain. The cold was so intense that her fingers were numb even before she opened the fridge and took out three bottles of milk, one in each hand and the last pressed against her stomach.
Stumbling against the wind's resistance to the door, she was just stepping through the frame when a huge gust suddenly punched her from behind.
She was knocked off balance.
Knees wobbled.
All the air squeezed from her lungs.
Yet she could not steady herself as her arms were full with milk bottles and if she drops them--God knows what Akito will think of her.
Then she heard a crash in front of her, and felt herself falling into the softness of someone's arms.
She was almost afraid to look up, for she had smelled the scent of coffee as her face was flattened into the materials of his uniform.
"A-Akito-kun..." Sakuno stammered as her eyes met the two warm inky eyes of the head waiter.
"Whoa, Ryuzaki! Are you all right?" Akito smiled with a hint of amusement but worry showed through every syllable of the phrase.
"...I-I'm fine...thanks..." Sakuno quickly regained her balance and withdrew from the awkward position. Then her eyes were caught by a tray on the floor behind where Akito was kneeling, with shattered china and glass scattering in a wide area around it. She looked down and saw that all three milk bottles were still safe in her arms.
"Oh my gosh...I'm so sorry...!" Sakuno gasped and immediately bent down to help clear up the mess, only to be stopped by Akito's firm voice.
"No... it was my fault, really. I'll clean these up...you go out and help the customers, they are waiting."
"But..." Sakuno hesitated as she thought of how Akito dropped all theses breakable glassware only to prevent her from being hurt.
"Go," Akito repeated with a reassuring smile and nodded in the direction behind her.
Sakuno apologized once more and turned around...
...only to come face to face with Echizen Ryoma.
Silence fell.
She gaped at him for what felt like an eternity.
How long has he been standing there? Did he see... Akito-kun catching me?
Hundreds of questions flashed through her mind, but her lips would not move as if they had been sewed together.
Meanwhile Ryoma remained expressionless, but his eyes shifted slowly from her to the figure behind.
However, this endlessly awkward situation, in fact, only remained so for 30 seconds.
And surprisingly, Ryoma was the first to break it.
"...Where's the toilet?"
Sakuno let out what sounded like half a laugh and half a sigh of relief, then pointed to a door on the left. "O-Over there."
"...huh." Ryoma lowered his white cap and strolled past her to push open the door.
After the wooden door swung shut behind him she let out a real sigh of relief. Seems like he didn't see it
Hang on.
Why do I still care?
I'm over him.
I'm supposed to be over him.
And so it was only hours later, after she had quickly revised the why-I-should-give-up-Ryoma-kun list in her head, that she realized there was an obvious sign on the toilet door indicating its location.
Ryoma could have easily spotted it himself and walked in anytime.
But he didn't.
A/N : Well, here's the end of the first chapter... Hope you liked it! The plot will be further developed in the following chapters so a change in Ryoma and Sakuno's relationship is assured... but whether it's in a good way or a bad way...it is for you to find out. ;)
Thanks for reading and any reviews, critisisms, compliments, praises, encouragements, advices or any other unknown comments will be very gratefully accepted...