"Welcome to Sound Cafe, what can I get you?" You call out to your first customer as you look up from the cash register, hoping that your day would be a success. Your first job is at a coffee shop. Although you have had some experience making drinks, your customer service lacks a bit in comparison to the other workers, but you try not to let this get in the way of your job.
"Iced coffee." A suave voice hits you. You look up and lock eyes with a girl who looks around your age. You blink, then look down at the counter, then look back up at her again, just to make sure you weren't dreaming. And luckily, you weren't. You're amazed by her presence. Every aspect of her was something to be taken aback by. Although you are taller than her, her body has more curves than your thin, lanky figure. Silky black hair rested neatly upon her uniform, even the way her hand carried a suitcase that looked like it was for an instrument made her look interesting. The way her violet eyes looked at your boring brown eyes was even dazzling. You've seen many people with the same colour of eyes, but you're sure that it looked the best on her. It was as if you could stare at her forever and never get tired of watching her.
You don't how long you've been admiring her until your mouth is open and she asks you, "The price?"
You quickly shut your mouth tightly, too fast that you chomp on your gums. "$3.75." You squeak, thankful that there is no croak in your voice.
The dark-haired girl swiftly gives you the bill before making her way off to receive her coffee. Even her voice appeals to you. You're not sure whether you're in heaven or hell for meeting such a girl.
Your manager and senpai, Asuka, catches this and shakes her head while smirking. Once the coast was clear, she teases you, "How cute Kumiko, do I smell a c-r-u-s-h?" You silently curse at yourself for making such a fool out of yourself.
"What? I don't even know her, don't go assuming weird stuff Asuka-senpai..." You retort, while sneaking a quick look at the violet eyed girl.
"Asuka, please don't harass our coworkers." Haruka, another manager of yours steps in, pulling Asuka by the ear, and dragging her away from you.
It's true though. You didn't even know the girl. If anything, you're just another regular barista to her.
After a few days of working, you realize she's a regular. Always coming in at 11AM sharp. Sometimes she sits down and enjoys her coffee, other days, she's in a rush and leaves immediately. And almost everytime you see her, somehow you can't get your eyes off of her.
Thankfully, your customer service seems to have improved. You don't stutter as much and aren't as nervous as the first day. Only except when you have to talk to the dark haired beauty. If only you weren't such a mess around her.
When you start your third week of the job, you're greeted by your childhood friend, Shuuichi. Unexpectedly he arrives with the girl you've been admiring ever since your first shift.
"Sup." Shuuichi nods at you.
"What." You glower at him.
"10 coffees." He motions the purple eyed girl to sit down.
"Hey Shuuichi. That girl..."
"Heh? Oh her? She's in my band group. We're getting drinks for people."
"I see..." Your eyes wander towards her. She's seated near the back, her eyes gaze out the window enjoying the scenery. The sunlight compliments her facial features. "Really is beautiful." You mutter under your breath.
"What?" Shuuichi interjects.
"What." You turn your attention back towards him.
"You know, this is the first time I've seen you so engrossed in someone. Are you interested or something?"
"W-What?" You glare at Shuuichi.
"Come watch a performance for our concert band. You might be interested to see what we're capable of. Besides, you played the euphonium in middle school right?"
"Mm."
"Kousaka Reina." He says, almost too nicely.
"What?"
"That's her name." He grins cheekily, grabbing the pack of coffee and waving you off.
You silently curse Shuuichi in your head, noting to always keep a poker face within him. He gossips way too much for your own good. Then again, at least you know her name now.
The next time you see her, she's alone. You try to initiate a conversation with her. After all, it's important to create customer relationships with your customers.
"Mocha." She states, reaching into her purse.
"No iced coffee today?" You reply back.
"What?" She stops rummaging through her wallet for a second and looks at you.
"Uh." You scratch your head.
"Trying different drinks makes me feel special." She diverts her eyes away from you. You can't help but notice a bit of a blush on her cheeks.
"I see." You nod your head. Once you she receives the mocha from you, she makes her way to head out. You realize that you might regret it if you don't say anything. "Oumae Kumiko." You shout at her before she leaves.
She pauses. Turning towards you, she replies, "Kousaka Reina." She lets out a genuine smile before saying, "You're a weird person, Kumiko." The way she says your name gives you a funny feeling in your stomach. It was stern but at the same time, it felt light. You don't notice how long you've been gawking at the direction she'd left at, looking as if you saw an angel, until a hand pinches your cheeks.
"Ooooohhh?! Is little Kumiko in love?" Asuka brings her face close to yours.
"S-Stop it, I'm not."
"Your words are telling me one thing, yet your expression is telling me the opposite." She's enjoying this too much, you sigh.
Each day that passes, Reina and you begin to make more out of the little conversations that occur.
A month after you've first talked to her, she asks you if you've played any instruments before.
You hesitate a bit, before saying that you played the euphonium when you were younger.
She nods a bit before saying, "I'd like to hear you play it some day." Before you could ask why, she continues on, "I'm sure it's beautiful as well," looking deeply into your eyes.
Reina's piercing eyes causes your heart to rapidly beat, as the way she looks at you is enchanting. It was as if you could lose your life, being drawn to a beautiful things, despite your fears.
"Kousaka-san..." You mumble, your fingers grip the countertop, as if they were looking for something to hold on to.
"Reina." She corrects you, leaning towards you, placing her hand on top of yours.
"You're... kind of hot, you know." You reveal, feeling your face beginning to redden from the sudden intensity and your feelings.
You're about to praise her even more until Haruka nudges you a bit, bringing you back to reality. "Kumiko... we have a crowd here... please don't get distracted."
She's right, there is a crowd. And half of them seem to be watching you and Reina intently, as if something were going to happen. A group of teenagers watch this sight with anticipation, holding up their phones, ready to snap a picture. As well, there are children with their parents, whom the latter are shielding their children's eyes as if the two of you were going to commit something indececnt. As if. You mutter some curses under your breath.
Reina removes her hands from yours and steps to the side, giving you a shy smile once she receives her drink.
After the last occurence with Reina, Asuka has been teasing you nonstop. She says that her teasing is medicine for you to get in touch with your inner feelings. You look at her funnily, jokingly asking her if she's ever had those feelings for somebody. What throws you off, is that she simply winks at you, in response to your question.
It also doesn't help when you encounter Shuuichi on some days too. Sometimes he's with Reina, but what's worse is that when he isn't, he pesters you about your relationship with her.
Shuuichi's never been good at humour, you recall. And you confirm that when he tries cracking a joke the next time he sees you. You're not sure if he was trying to be funny when he greeted you by saying, "Sorry I couldn't bring the bae today, maybe next time!"
You don't even process his order, you simply take the next customer in line to be served.
Although you hate to admit it, your feelings for Reina have grown stronger overtime. You're not sure whether these were feelings of friendship or more. The more you see her, the more you're fascinated by her.
You come to this conclusion that maybe, just maybe you have a crush on her. And that's when you notice your feelings for her were out of attraction.
For a while, everything goes normal. Reina purchases her coffee, you serve her. All is well.
After a few weeks of you recognizing your feelings for her, she doesn't show up as often. She doesn't say anything about it either those days that she does come in. You want to ask her why she hasn't shown up as often but a part of you tells yourself not to pry into other people's business.
She begins to come less and less now. You don't want to care. You know you shouldn't care. After all, she should only be a customer to you.
Your coworkers take notice of your mood. "Sour aren't ya?" Asuka comments, seeing you serve another customer with a forced smile. You shrug, looking at her half-irritated by the lack of Reina's presence. "Cute." Asuka blows a kiss in your direction before walking away.
"Oi Kumiko, sup." Shuuichi appears out of nowhere, with a girl clinging onto his arm. You note that she has short brown hair and glistening golden eyes. She doesn't look half bad, you think to yourself. I guess they could have short-haired children together. You laugh at the snide thought before realizing that Shuuichi has more game than you do, causing your smile to falter again. You rub your temples with one hand. "What. Hurry up with the order."
"Heeey don't treat your customers like that!" Shuuichi half scolds you. "Anyways, wanna come to our concert performance? Thought you'd like to come since you're into that stuff... and someone." He coughs nonchalantly, rolling her eyes.
Your eyes widen at his side remark about Reina. "Stop assuming stuff."
"But it's true isn't it." He pulls out a ticket from his bag and waves it in front of your face. "Look do you wanna come or what. It's on Saturday."
"I'll come." You snatch the ticket out of his hand. "Thanks. And are you going to introduce me to your girlfriend?" You snicker at him, watching his face become half-flustered.
"I'm Katou Hazuki. Nice to meet you! So you're the Kumiko that I've been hearing about." Hazuki sticks out her hand and grins almost too friendly, like she has dirt on you.
"Yeah... I'm surprised you chose an airhead like him to date." You shake her hand.
"Shut up!" Shuuichi sticks his hand out, swatting your hand away from Hazuki's, holding her away from you.
The three of you decide to sit at a nearby table and catch up since the shop was empty and Asuka was pretty lenient when it came to meeting up with friends outside of work. Even though your conversation with the two was light and fun, you wanted to press on the subject of Reina and ask them where she's been. And why she hasn't come to get her usual coffee and see you.
Trying to act uninterested, you ask Hazuki, hoping that Reina's name would spark up somewhere. "So who'd you hear about me from?" You inspect Shuuichi first, whose face is full of disinterest.
He notices you and begins to argue, "Hey why would I talk about you when I have her?" Shuuichi interjects before Hazuki could spill the beans.
"I never said it was you. I was hoping it wasn't you." You sneakily reply, looking at him full of boredom. "Anyways, so who...?"
"You'll find out Oumae-san~ That's all i can say." Hazuki cheerfully smiles at you.
It's Saturday morning. You're supposed to be at the concert by noon, but you somehow wake up at 8:00AM. Nice, Kumiko. You take this opportunity to fix yourself up and look at least presentable. Somehow, you end up at your work, not as a barista, but a customer.
"Kumiko?" Haruka asks you when she sees you enter in. "What are you doing here?"
"I... I don't know either. One iced coffee."
"Alright..."
You quickly scan around the room, hoping you would see Reina, but she is nowhere to be found. Letting out a huge sigh as your drink is handed to you, Haruka flicks your forehead.
"Wake up Kumiko, you've been acting like this ever since that girl hasn't shown up."
"I know, I don't know why I feel like this, or well I do know why but I don't know what to do."
"You're lovesick, even I can tell. It's draining you physically and mentally. You don't think I've noticed?"
You nod your head, taking a sip of your drink.
"... And you're a coward." Haruka adds on, with a stoic tone.
"What?" Your head snaps up at your usually calm and collected senpai.
"You're just like Asuka. You're difficult. You won't strive to fight for someone because you want to stay distant from everyone. Kumiko, if you really like this girl, you should put in some effort to retain your relationship with her. Don't you think she's been putting in most of the effort since now? There's so many other coffee shops nearby, some that have even better tasting drinks than we do with cheaper prices, she could've chosen those to drink at, but she's always been to ours. Why do you think that?"
You look at Haruka, half shocked, yet you understand the sincerity of her words. Your mouth begins to open, about to say something before she interrupts you.
"No, don't answer me. I want you to think about that yourself and answer her." Haruka pats you on the head, giving a cheery expression that you depict as 'Good luck.'
11:30AM. Your watch ticks, you know you're not late. In fact, you're early, really early. You stand by the entrance of the concert hall, briskly circling around the area.
"Oumae-san!" You hear someone call out your name. Crossing your fingers and hoping it was Reina, you turn around, only to make eye contact with Hazuki and another girl with light brown hair in a ponytail.
"Oh..." You wave at them. It wasn't like you hated Hazuki, it's more like you were waiting for Reina, which sounded terribly awful but you couldn't help it. "Kumiko is just fine."
"Looks like you really did come." Hazuki gave you another overly happy smile. It wasn't as if she were evil, it was more like she knew something you didn't, and that part irked you. "Ah, this is Nakagawa Natsuki. Natsuki-senpai, this is Oumae Kumiko."
"Oh. So you're Kumiko." Natsuki's mouth curls up into a smile, you could see her try to hold in a chuckle. "How cute."
"Uh...?" You look at your watch again. 11:45. You wonder what the hell happened and why everyone you've met at Shuuichi's school seems to be amazed by you.
"Well it looks like they're finally letting people inside, let's go in~" Hazuki takes your and Natsuki's arms and drags you inside.
"Wow we got pretty close to the stage." You look around, bedazzled by the large auditorium, noticing a large number of people around you, sitting down, chatting away happily.
"Yep, that's the perks of dating someone in the band." Hazuki glees with joy, sitting in between you and Natsuki. You could almost see the hearts coming out of her eyes as if she were in a manga.
"You don't say." Natsuki comments with boredom, looking up at the ceiling.
"Natsuki-senpai, don't pull that face on me. Aren't you glad you can see your beloved Yuko-chan so close?" Hazuki brings her face close to Natsuki's, hoping to get a reaction out of her.
"Sh-Shut up!" Natsuki pushes Hazuki away with her hand, her face facing away from her. You could see her face reddening and an embarrassed look that she's trying to hide.
"Who's that?" You interject, asking curiously.
"Someone who acts like a tsundere, only to Natsuki." Hazuki says, putting her arm over Natsuki.
"What?"
Natsuki was about to say something, until you see the concert band enter in. Everyone enters in an orderly manner, their faces were serious and full of confidence. You watch each person enter in, scanning their faces to see if you knew of them. After 20 people pass by, you see Shuuichi, looking composed and making his way to the back. You look at Hazuki, who seems to be silently squealing in her seat. Natsuki puts a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.
Another 20 or so people pass by. You wonder if Reina is even in this band. A short blonde haired girl with a ribbon on her head pops out. You feel someone tense up near you. Natsuki was trying to hold it together, as she tried to contain an overly bright smile on her face. Hazuki smirks at the sight of Natsuki.
About 5 more people pass by. You're starting to wonder if Reina was part of your imagination. Finally the last person comes out, your eyes have already grown tired of identifying almost 50 faces, you don't even fully look at the last person anymore, just a quick glance would be fine. Your eyes wander around, lazily looking at the last person. You recognize this person as Reina. Your eyes flash open and you sit up straight, taking every glimpse of her into your mind. Her dark hair looks groomed, you see that she has a bit of makeup put on her. The way the band uniform looks on her looks too good to be true. Although she's shorter than you, her body is way more developed than yours, you've noticed this from before but you didn't realize it was that good. She keeps walking forward, making her way to the center of the stage with the other trumpet players.
You don't notice how intensely you've been looking at Reina until Hazuki elbows you in the rib. "You're being too obvious!" Hazuki scolds you.
"You were being obvious too!"
"But that's okay for me since I'm dating Shuuichi-kun." A trap. She's got you right where she's wanted. You puff your cheeks and divert your attention to the band.
You don't remember much of what had happened. As rude as it may have been, your mind had blocked out everything but Reina. All you know is that her solo was incredible. She exceeded in her parts, making your mouth drop open once again as the music being played was like heaven to your ears.
Once the performance had ended, it was as if your legs moved on its own, but you stood up, clapping loudly, looking directly at Reina. Everyone stares at you. It takes Reina a few seconds to notice you. She's shocked at first, but then gives you a satisfied and content look on her face.
"Kumiko!" Hazuki whispered, trying to pull you down. "We're not supposed to stand up!" She hides her face in her hands, hoping all attention would be diverted away from you.
"Shuuichi! That was so good!" Hazuki runs up to Shuuichi once the performance is over.
"I can't believe she got us backstage." You whisper to Natsuki whose eyes scan the room for someone.
"Well, that's Hazuki for ya." She whispers back. Once her eyes have become fixated on someone, she stammers a bit before saying, "Ah, I'm gonna go talk to someone, you should probably come with me since Reina is near that area as well."
"M-Me?"
"Yes you." Natsuki drags you along with her.
Natsuki pops up behind the blonde haired girl, blowing into her ear. "Not bad, not bad!"
"Eeeeeeeeek! What the hell?! You're not supposed to be in here." The girl, you assume who is Yuko, begins to hit Natsuki on the shoulder.
"Some idiot got us in."
"You mean you?"
"Just as tsundere as ever, I'm leaving."
"I was kidding, come back~"
"Make me." Natsuki brings her face close to Yuko's. You look away disgustedly, only to see Reina putting away her trumpet.
"Err I'm gonna go... you know." You interrupt them.
"Aight, have fun~" Natsuki blows a raspberry at you.
You walk over towards Reina, balling your fists up, hoping to take away this overly nervous sensation from your heart. Once she's done putting away her items, you take this opportunity to call out her name.
"Reina..."
"Kumiko?" Reina stares at you bewildered. "How did you get in here?"
"I'm friends with someone who got me in. But that's not what I wanted to talk about. Reina... I- no your music... was angelic to my ears." You blurt out, already cursing yourself for saying something so cheesy.
She doesn't say anything, yet keeps looking into your perplexed eyes.
Deciding to continue on, you tell her, "Before the concert started, I wanted to ask you why you haven't been coming often to the coffee shop. But now I realize why, you must have been practicing hard for that solo part of yours huh?"
"That's not entirely true... Kumiko." Reina answers you. "You're so puzzling to figure out. It's like you put on a kind, good-girl face, but inside, you're actually really distant. It makes me want to peel off that good-girl skin off you. But I've always been drawn to that side of you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" You take a step towards Reina. Most people have left already. It's just you and Reina backstage, making things even more intense.
"Don't you understand my love?"
"I.. I do. I've noticed you ever since the first day I've seen you." You say confidently, hoping she'd understand you.
"... You're a terrible person." Reina brings a hand to cusp your cheeks, closing her eyes, bringing her forehead to yours. "Focusing on me while you should have been tending to other customer's requests on the job."
"We can be terrible people together." You say half jokingly, bringing your hands over hers.
"Really?" She looks up at you, eyes unwavering.
"This is a confession of love, after all." Closing your eyes, you take in the scent of her, after being separated from it for a long while.
"Kumiko..." Reina envelops you in a tight hug.
You're surprised by her sudden action, but you smile brightly. She was different than most others, but that's what made her so easy to fall in love with. Your arms return the favor, embracing her fully.
After holding Reina for a few minutes, the two of you head outside, your hand connected with hers. You can't help but grin widely, after all, this was Reina. The first person you've had feelings for. And someone you're willing to spend the rest of your life with.