Noiz felt exhilarated and free, perhaps for the first time in his life. He was walking down unknown streets, checking the street map on his coil for directions when he started to feel disoriented, but all in all he also enjoyed the sensation of feeling a bit lost in that new town. He had arrived to Midorijima, a small island in Japan, just a week ago, and those last days had been spent basically in doing all the paperwork for the new apartment and the new school with his mother and his younger brother, Theo. Their father had started to work the next day of their arrival, eager to impress his new Japanese partners. He had a contract for a joint venture with Toue Inc., so the whole family had moved from Germany to Japan and would stay there for a year.

Besides, the change in scenery had supposed a second chance for Noiz. He was allowed to attend school again, as every other normal fourteen year old boy. His days of private tuition were over. He could talk to other people, he could walk the streets alone, he could even go to the beach and let the waves tickle his bare ankles. He was free, as he had never been before.

And the only think he had to do in exchange was passing all his subjects at the new school and behave. No more fights. No more hurting himself. Noiz smirked. Well, he could try. Now that he knew what he had been missing, he would definitely try. He had been studying Japanese with a tutor for six months before coming, and he was surprisingly good at it. The tutor said he was a natural for languages, marvelled. And, in fact, he felt a little proud of himself when the previous week he had acted as a translator for his mother and brother in all their transactions. Yes, life is great, he thought, smiling at his coil.

He was taking a stroll around the neighbourhood. Theo had come back right home from school, but he wanted to explore on his own. He was fourteen, after all. And he had his own pocket money; he could buy a new game for his coil, or have a coke at a café if he wanted. Almost an adult!

The idea of having a drink settled on his mind when he saw a nice coffee shop in the next corner. Right, adults had coffee, so he could, too. He pushed the wooden door of the shop, feeling grown up and self-confident.

The coffee shop was nice also in the inside, with all the decoration in pastel colours, with a cheerful ambient music and quite crowded, mostly with teens a bit older than Noiz. This place is perfect, he thought, and approached the ordering queue. There were only two people ahead of him, so he studied the coffee menu while he waited for his turn. The first customer moved away with his drink, and Noiz stepped forward; only one person more to go, and he still hadn't decided on his coffee… But then his eyes got caught by the pretty golden ones of the barista, and suddenly breathing was a difficult task for Noiz. The rest of the girl's face was lovely as well, soft, pale and perfect skin, with her hair dyed in a bright blue and pulled back in a long braid, with bangs falling over her eyes and cheeks. Noiz stared at her with his mouth slightly open. She must have been sixteen or seventeen, and she was definitely the prettiest girl Noiz had ever seen. When she finished with the customer, her eyes pierced Noiz with a slight scowl. He tried to shake his reverie and approached the counter, feeling his cheeks warm. But he didn't stop staring at her. He wanted to imprint all her features into his memory.

The girl stared back, obviously annoyed, but instead of saying something, she just grabbed her braid and started playing with it, as a nervous quirk. Noiz watched her hands then, and felt something was out of place.

"Well?" she said at last, with a voice way, way deeper than Noiz expected. "Have you made a choice already? I don't have all day, you know."

Noiz was too shocked to speak. A guy. She is a guy. No way. He would need time to process that, in all honesty. The… boy started to look really annoyed then, and clarified:

"Yes, cutie, I'm a guy, sorry to disappoint you." And he looked Noiz over and a slow mischievous smirk appeared on his face. "Well, perhaps you are not so disappointed, after all, are you, kid?"

"Oi!" A potbellied man stuck his head out the kitchen's door. "Aoba, stop flirting with the customers! It's the last warning, boy! Be kind, smile, and act like a professional barista!"

The blue haired teenager grunted, showing his teeth, but then faked a smile that didn't reach his eyes and turned to Noiz again.

"Has my dear customer made a pick, or do you want me to suggest one of our specialties?" he said.

"…A small latte", Noiz mumbled.

The barista opened his eyes wide, surprised. Noiz decided his eyes were too beautiful for a guy, especially for such a rude guy like him.

"…So the cute kid is foreign? I could tell, by those green eyes. Where are you from?"

"Germany."

"Aoba!" the shop manager growled again.

"Yes, yes…" Aoba hurried to make his coffee and came back quickly to charge Noiz for his drink. Noiz paid, took his cardboard mug and, when he was about to turn to leave the counter, the barista waved and winked at him. "See you, Fritz."

"My name is not Fritz, is…"

But Aoba was listening to the next customer and ignored him.


The next day Noiz came back to the coffee shop right after school. He told himself he really liked the place, and that he wanted to taste all the different kinds of coffee they offered. He didn't want to think that, in fact, he was curious about the rude barista who looked like a pretty girl and that, perhaps, most definitely, he just wanted to see him again.

The place was emptier at that hour, and Aoba smiled brightly at him.

"Ah, look who's back! It's the Fritz kid!"

"My name is not Fritz", Noiz said, frowning. "That's rather rude, you know."

"As if I had the time to remember the names of all our customers…" the bartender shrugged. "What would you have today?"

"Ah… A cappuccino."

"OK!"

And in a minute there was a really creamy cappuccino in front of Noiz. He sat with his coffee and took out one of his classroom books to read meanwhile. He glanced sideways at Aoba, who was cleaning the counter and changing a bin. Male or not, Noiz couldn't deny the bartender was cute. He tasted his hot cappuccino at last, and the first sip almost made him spit. The taste of the cream inside his mouth was awful. He stood up and walked towards the counter again with his cardboard mug in hand. Aoba frowned at seeing him.

"What's wrong with your cappuccino?"

"I don't like it."

"Is the milk sour? It can't be that."

"No. It's the texture what I don't like. The cream is disgusting."

Aoba raised an eyebrow.

"It's the first time ever I hear such nonsense… Is this your first cappuccino? Because I assure you this is how it's done." He leaned forward across the counter and hissed in Noiz' direction. "Are you going to complain to the manager? Don't get me into trouble, Fritz kid, or I swear you will pay for it."

"No. I just want another drink. A small latte, same as yesterday. That was good."

Aoba grunted and retired to the coffee machine to brew a latte. When Noiz was taking out his wallet, the barista placed the new cardboard mug in front of him but raised a hand to stop him.

"No, this one is on the house. Just don't complain. The manager is already rather pissy at me."

Noiz didn't answer. As there wasn't any queue, he added sugar to his coffee and started to drink it right there, standing at the counter. Aoba didn't have anything else to do, either, so he watched the German boy with amusement.

"What's with you, and that serious air you always have? You seem so bored."

Noiz shrugged. His tutor at the school had commented also on his seemingly expressionless face. It was a bit annoying; they said it as if it was his fault.

"It's just my face. Any problem with it?"

"Nah, just commenting. It's just that you look so young, with your school uniform, but you come here on your own, and look all solemn…"

Noiz didn't want to comment on that. Instead, he asked:

"What school do you go to?"

The barista automatically started to wipe again an already clean surface near the coffee machine, turning his back on Noiz.

"None. I work here."

"I thought you only worked here part-time… So you dropped out?"

"That's none of your business, Fritz kid."

Noiz stared at the blue braid on the boy's back, feeling impressed. His father had insisted so much all of his life about how important the studies were, that he didn't thought anybody abandoned their studies before university. But it seemed that it did happen.

"My parents would kill me if I drop out of school", he commented. "What do your parents say?"

Aoba kept getting his back to him, and when he talked, his voice was sour.

"Why don't you take your coffee to the table and leave me the fuck alone? I have work to do."

Noiz blinked, and did what he was told. Aoba turned at last and muttered, with downcast eyes:

"You could apologise, Fritz kid."

"What for?" Noiz muttered back, annoyed.

And he heard a loud grunt as only answer.


But he kept going to the coffee shop every day. He soon learned that if he came there right after school the place was almost empty, but just half an hour later the high schoolers started to arrive and crowded the place, and Noiz would be surrounded by sixteen to eighteen year old teenagers, cheerful and noisy. He somehow preferred to have the place to himself. He could order his small latte without having to queue, he could talk a bit with Aoba, and then he was able to sit on his favourite table without finding it already taken. So he started the habit of doing exactly that, and every day he enjoyed his hot coffee while checking some of the day's school work and stealing glances at Aoba. When the loud customers started to arrive, he would go home. It was his peaceful time, a time for himself that helped him to cope with the social stress he endured at school, and the awkwardness he still had to face at home. Only his brother alleviated the stern faces and silence that greeted him when he arrived home, but Theo had club activities every day and, besides, Japanese one-to-one lessons every evening. He looked fine, though, the few occasions Noiz met him (basically during breakfast and dinner), and their mother had started to nudge Noiz to join some club activities too, or at least to do something with his spare time. At that, Noiz usually apologised and took his leave, closing his bedroom door behind him and not leaving until the next lunch time or the next morning.

He had started to think that, in fact, Aoba's choice wasn't that bad. He commented on it one day, and the barista didn't turn moody that time.

"Of course!" he said instead with a wide grin. "Earning your own money is great. I bet you still have to ask your mum for pocket money…"

Noiz indeed had to. He thought he could find other ways to earn money that didn't imply having to cope with a boring manager on a daily basis, though, but he didn't say it aloud. It had taken him time, but at last he had noticed that Aoba got offended easily, although being so rude himself. And he liked the older boy better when he was in a good mood.

Although he wasn't in high spirits when his manager was around. From what Noiz had observed, Aoba worked fast and quite efficiently, but he was also rather clumsy and broke or drop things almost daily. And then there was his big mouth with the customers. The manager also scolded him about punctuality and the state in which he came to work; he accused Aoba of coming with a hangover or without having slept the previous night more than once. It wasn't that the manager shouted at him, but Noiz had good ear and he couldn't help to eavesdrop.

"The milk is about to tumble", he warned, instead, trying to be helpful.

"Fuck!" Aoba ran to fix the milk cartons. "Thanks, Fritz kid."

Noiz sighed.

"Are you ever going to stop calling me that?"

The older boy chuckled. Noiz thought the whole room lighted up when Aoba laughed other than his usual smirk. He should do that more often. Sadly, the boy usual state was the one his boss complained about (eye bags, tired look, moody and all that jazz), so it didn't happen much.

"It depends. What's your name, Fritz kid?"

Noiz frowned. If he told him his real name, Wilhelm, Aoba surely would have a laugh at his expense. So he opted by telling him the name only Theo called him. 'Noiz' was their secret name, and it was because the only person he loved called him that way that Noiz had started to think of himself with that name, instead of the 'Wilhelm' or 'Wim' he was usually called.

"Noiz."

"Noiz?" Aoba asked, confused, and the way he pronounced it, adding an 'u' at the end, was wrong but surely the most adorable thing Noiz had ever heard. "Is that your name?"

Noiz nodded, chuckling. Aoba looked suspicious.

"Why are you laughing? Are you taking the piss out of me?"

"No, of course no. Why would I?"

It was Aoba's turn to laugh, a clear and genuine laugh that sounded as a wind chime to Noiz' ears.

"Always the bored and stern face!" Aoba exclaimed, still smiling. "How can you do that? You look so cute with your uniform and those green eyes, but then you ruin it with that serious look. I can't get you, honestly!"

Noiz was surprised. He couldn't do anything about his expression, and didn't know what to answer. But then the usual string of customers started to appear, and Aoba left him to attend the forming queue.


The next day, when he stepped in the coffee shop, it was the sour faced manager who attended him.

"Where is Aoba?" he asked after ordering his usual latte.

"That's what I would like to know", the manager grunted. "He hasn't showed up today, and hasn't had the decency to at least phone. So if you see him, you can tell him that he's fired!"

Noiz stayed there, standing with his cardboard mug and his schoolbag for a while, unable to move, watching as the manager went out to the front door to hang a 'help wanted' poster.

He wasn't going to see Aoba any more. He tried to let the concept sink in, but he didn't succeed. At last, he drank his coffee right there, without sitting at a table, and left as soon as he could.

He came back the next day, and the next, and all the next week, but Aoba didn't come back. When he mustered enough courage to ask the manager again about him, the man told him Aoba had called later that day, and that he had been obviously too drunk to come to work, so he was definitely fired. A new barista was soon hired, and Noiz stopped going to the coffee shop.

Midorijima wasn't that big, he considered at last. He would meet Aoba again, he was sure. Perhaps he would meet him in a week, roaming about the mall or the arcades.

In fact, he wouldn't meet him again until six months later, and it happened in the last place he would ever think of finding him: a Rhyme playground.