Have You Seen This Girl?
~ Chapter 0 ~
It was an ordinary day, in summer. That's what I thought, anyway.
"Hello? Oh hey, how's it going? ... Ahaha! No way!"
Nakamura Rio, 16 years old. A 2nd year in high school.
I'm the blonde girl talking on the phone. Beside me is my friend Karma Akabane. Together we were looking through a costume shop for cosplays for our little blue-haired friend. We were trying to decide between a Pretty Cure costume and a Shugo Chara costume.
"Mm, sure! Bye bye!" I put my phone away and turned to the redhead. "You're sure Nagisa-kun hasn't grown at all?"
"Positive." he answered with a nod of his head. "I swear Okuda-san is taller than him by now."
"Eh? So you've actually compared the height of your girlfriend with our doll?" I teased him. I knew they weren't dating yet. Poor Karma kept being put into the friendzone by the girl. You might have thought she'd get the clue after two years of constant teasing, but she may have been denser than Karasuma was.
"Hey, knock it off!" Karma glared, a faint blush on his face. Really, he couldn't even hide those feelings for the girl at that point.
I laughed and gently pushed him towards the cash register to pay for the cosplays we chose. "Sorry sorry, I won't keep you here and make Okuda-chan wait for you."
I remember what happened afterwards.
A text from my mom asking me to take a shift at the cafe.
I parted ways with Karma and walked to the cafe. It was only two blocks away.
My aunt was the owner of the cafe, and she hired my mom and I when the place got popular. She was a very picky woman who wouldn't hire just anyone off of the street, that's probably why the place was so popular. Servers were the nicest, professional, friendly and capable. Well, almost all of them.
She hired Terasaka that summer to be a server, and, well, he's Terasaka. I couldn't help but smile to myself, feeling a little bit giddy to get to the cafe. I couldn't properly explain the feeling, but.. I wanted to see the big hothead.
I suppose it was my fault that I didn't pay much attention to my surroundings. But in a crowd that big, I suppose it wouldn't have made a difference.
When I walked around to the back entrance of the cafe, I was caught off guard when the lid off of a trash bin bashed straight into my head. That was enough to have my head swirling, and enough time for someone to grab me from behind. My arms were caught in a strong grip and then there was a dark material placed over my head, and a mouth clamped over my mouth.
A cold chill ran down my spine. I fought to get out of the grip, I thrashed about in hopes of drawing attention to where I was, but it was futile. I was already being carried away.