Chapter 2
"P-pardon?"
"You have a date, don't you?" the man with the green eyes behind the counter asked, his voice pleasant but quiet, almost like a cat's purr.
Kiku's eyes flashed towards the bouquet in his arm, and comprehension glossed over his expression. "Oh. Yes." Kiku might as well have been standing out in the sun, because an ever so slight layer of sweat emerged on his neck. He could almost feel the green eyes looking at him.
"What's your name?"
Any simple question asked in that voice seemed to set Kiku a little off balance.
"Kiku," came the response almost too quickly, too curtly. A pause, then a fleeting impulse to include his last name. "Kiku Honda." Now it felt rather formal and stiff instead.
"Heracles," came the man's single-word response. "Heracles Karpusi."
What a regal-sounding name. "Nice to meet you, Heracles." Kiku bowed a little bit out of habit.
Heracles, an amused smile to curling his lips gently, leaned forward onto the counter. "Must be someone really special."
"A-actually, I haven't met her yet," Kiku noticed for a moment how two small, peculiar hair curls stuck out of the back of Heracles' head.
"A bouquet for the first date…" Heracles thought out loud.
Kiku flushed a little bit. Maybe a bouquet was too much. Not that Kiku would know. His only dating experience was from dating simulations. He couldn't say that out loud, of course. Why was this cashier making so much conversation with him again? He turned to put the bouquet back. "Perhaps I should-"
Heracles chuckled, so quietly it must've been to himself, but Kiku heard it nonetheless. "No, it's just… it's cute."
As if those green eyes had turned up a thermostat, Kiku's ears began to roast red. C…cute? He didn't see that coming- this stranger calling him cute. Kiku was suddenly uncomfortably aware of himself. It was hard to read the atmosphere when he felt this self-conscious. Was he supposed to be flattered or creeped out?
Flustered and at a loss for words, Kiku searched his pocket for his wallet, remembering that he had a date, and a gift to pay for.
Yong Soo's pants sure had big pockets.
Pizza.
Kiku could detect it the second he opened the door to the Italian restaurant. Fortunately, it was not a smell that made him think of grease and oil, but food (as it was supposed to). Making a mental note of approval, he walked into the waiting room, but with each step, the weight of nervousness in his stomach intensified, as did the low murmur of chattering customers inside the restaurant.
"Kiku!"
Yong Soo, sitting in one of the waiting chairs, was in the middle of putting his cell phone away.
"Hello, Yong Soo," Kiku greeted rather robotically, his voice almost cracking. The weight in his empty belly seemed to be stealing his voice away. He gripped the bouquet tighter, crinkling the plastic packaging a bit.
"Eyy, loosen up a bit!" Yong Soo reached over and patted Kiku's butt playfully for encouragement. Kiku, quite unusually, barely reacted to this invasion of his physical personal bubble.
Something about being in the actual location of his upcoming date made the reality of the circumstances sink in, and it sunk in powerfully.
"What's this?" Yong Soo stood back and inspected Kiku and the bouquet, rubbing his chin to appear thoughtful. He began to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Kiku tried to ask steadily, but each passing second made him regret arriving more and more.
Yong Soo eventually collected himself and rested a hand on Kiku's shoulder. "Mei's gonna love this. She's gonna be here any second now, by the way."
Kiku swallowed. Was he just going to make a fool of himself? What did Yong Soo find so amusing about Kiku's appearance?
...It was the bouquet, wasn't it?
He didn't have any time to ponder this, however. Yong Soo gripped him by the shoulders to spin him around.
A young woman with long, straight dark-brown hair stood in the doorway. A strange hair curl came from the top of her head, much longer and droopier and more frazzled than the ones Kiku had noticed briefly on Heracles' head. She had large, brown Asian eyes, with just a hint of mascara. Her clothes gave off a chic, but friendly and casual impression. Two neat, Taiwanese eyebrows raised a bit in recognition of her friend standing across the room.
As she approached, Kiku noticed that she was the same height as he was, except that she was wearing high-heeled shoes.
"Meiiii, why did you wear heels? I told you he was short!" Yong Soo whined.
"It's not a big deal, okay?" she responded, the frustration hissing like steam in her voice towards her Korean friend. She then looked over to Kiku, and her eyes widened.
"You must be Kiku! Are these flowers for me?" she exclaimed, her expression softening quickly.
Kiku nodded and stiffly held the bouquet out. "Nice to meet you. You must be Mei. These are for you."
So stiff. Nonetheless, a genuine smile came to Mei's face, making Kiku realize how stressed she looked before in comparison. She took the bouquet into her arms. "Thank you! That is so sweet. Don't worry about the whole height thing, by the way. Yong Soo is really annoying sometimes, am I right?"
"You know I heard that," Yong Soo rebutted sulkily while pouting.
Kiku couldn't help but smile and relax a little.
Yong Soo, still pouting, was already halfway out of the restaurant. But before he exited, he turned around and winked at them both, giving Kiku a thumbs up. Mei facepalmed and muttered something about confiscating his K-dramas.
Kiku couldn't help but notice, as Yong Soo was leaving, a massive hair curl coming from the Korean's head. Was that always there?
They were quickly seated and provided with menus by a very cheerful, brown-haired waiter with an Italian accent. Kiku and Mei happened to sigh with relief at the same time upon seeing the prices on the menu. Upon realizing this, the two glanced at each other before Mei giggled a little.
"Looks like I'm coming out of this meal with my wallet intact," Mei announced triumphantly.
Kiku couldn't help but nod in agreement eagerly. His inner instinct to save money was very satisfied and shared by his dinner companion! How delightful. Then a thought came to him. "Oh, please do not worry. I'll shoulder the bill tonight."
"Oh, no no, I couldn't let you do that," Mei replied. The two discussed this briefly before it was settled that Kiku would pay for dinner tonight. Victory.
Mei rubbed her temples. "Thank you. Usually I wouldn't allow this, but lately money is kinda tight. Plus, some old friends of mine who also go to school here are flying in from China later this week, so I've had to take care of that." She released her grip on her temples suddenly. "Sorry! I didn't come here to vent about myself."
"No, it's fine," Kiku said. "Please continue if you must." He really didn't mind.
And so Mei continued, and Kiku listened, relieved of having to think of things to say. Eventually, the waiter returned with the food, and as this light-brown-haired waiter set down each platter upon the table, Kiku noticed another massive hair curl coming from near the side of the waiter's face. Man, there were so many of these strange hair curls today…
"…and that's why everything's just been so hectic lately," Mei finished.
"Sounds difficult," Kiku said. He wondered if he should say something more comforting or thoughtful, but Mei changed the subject, as if venting her troubles was enough.
"Say, Kiku, what year are you in? I've been talking about myself this whole time," Mei asked while sipping a bit of her water. At least water was free
"I'm a junior."
The straw dropped from her mouth. "Really! I'm in my second year. I guess I'll get to tell all my friends that I went on a date with an upperclassman, hahaha."
Date. Right, this was a date. For a moment, Kiku got comfortable enough to forget that he was on a date.
They exchanged details of their lives for a bit longer. Mei was planning to major in biology, and had worked as a salesperson at a clothing store over the summer to pay her parents back for her college tuition. She liked cute clothes, cute animals, and worrying about things. Her mom worked at an Asian hair salon, but could never seem to tame her hair curl.
And Kiku, too, liked cute animals, and just cute things in general. In his free time, he played video games (he left it at that), and he had an interest in photography. He was majoring in computer programming. Suddenly Kiku felt quite uninteresting and tensed up, though the feeling eased a little as Mei seemed intrigued and probed further.
She asked him questions about himself, and he provided answers. How strange it was for him, to be talking about himself on a date. He wasn't sure he relished the feeling, but it certainly felt more personal than having the girl ask him questions about herself, and him clicking on one of five answer choices.
He memorized everything Mei said about herself out of habit, being that in dating simulation games, any detail the girl provides about herself is a potential quiz question for later. Plus, Mei was real, thus more intriguing than any virtual girl Kiku has had the pleasure to "date".
"You know, we both seemed really nervous at the beginning. But now things seem a lot more comfortable. I think we'll get along well," Mei mused out loud.
"Yes, I agree," Kiku concurred.
The two ate in peace for a while. Kiku was satisfied with the knowledge that he had reached level 2- friendship- with Mei. Level 2 was really the farthest Kiku had ever gotten with anyone in the real world. What was required to reach level 3? It didn't involve earning more "affection points"; that was certain. Kiku wasn't in a dating simulation anymore.
…Did Kiku even want to reach level 3 with Mei? She was friendly and down-to-earth, and just overall a cool person so far. But dating included things like… holding hands and kissing. Kiku just couldn't picture doing that right now, not with anyone.
At that moment, Yong Soo's words earlier that day came to mind- something about "getting laid." Kiku briefly glanced at Mei and then mentally berated himself for remembering that now, of all times. He flushed a little. Forget level 3- what if Mei was planning on reaching level 4 with him? Tonight? Is that what people expect from first dates? This was moving so fast. Kiku fervently tried to distract himself with another mouthful of spaghetti.
Did he want to reach level 4? With Mei? In games it was no big deal- it was the final goal (and usually consisted of just watching a very racy cutscene), but suddenly he was dealing with a 3D woman, which was entirely different. Reaching level 4 meant that Kiku would have to actually… perform certain actions. But he was just so unprepared to deal with all this-
Suddenly, Kiku's eyes wandered into the path of the gaze of two sleepy green eyes, across the restaurant from him.
Heracles was here.
Heracles was here? What was he doing here? Kiku craned his neck a little to get a better view.
Sitting across from Heracles was a well-built man with short, dark-brown hair. This man's back was turned to Kiku, so his face was not visible. Was this some sort of business dinner? No, this wasn't the right type of restaurant for such an occasion, nor were they dressed in any sort of formal attire. They had to be close, like brothers or something.
"Kiku?" Mei chimed in hesitantly. "Is something wrong?" He had been looking at something in the distance for a while now.
"No, it's nothing," Kiku answered steadily, releasing the concentration in his furrowed brow. He should be paying attention to Mei. "I just saw someone I knew."
"Oh, I see. Who?" It had to be someone interesting for Kiku to completely forget about his spaghetti. Noodles are pretty hard to ignore.
Well, Heracles wasn't someone he necessarily knew. It was just… those green eyes would stand out anywhere. "It's someone I met today when I was getting those flowers." Kiku briefly eyed the bouquet on Mei's side of the table.
Mei looked over her shoulder and scanned the restaurant. "Oh, you mean Heracles? The one that works at the grocery?"
"You've met him too?"
"When I went to the store. Although I've never really talked to him. He's pretty well known around campus, though."
Heracles went to their college too? Kiku was starting to realize the extent of how staying inside all the time was affecting him.
"Who's he with?" Kiku found himself asking, despite the voice inside his head that reminded him it wasn't his business.
"Oh, him? The guy across the table from Heracles?"
Kiku nodded.
"That's his boyfriend."
To be continued.
