It began with a question

by TheRedGhillie

A question began it all between them. A series of connected one-shots between Hikigaya and the girl who rejected him all those years ago, Orimoto. Chapter 5: It began with a first impression: His relationship with the past has changed him; Realizing it, understanding it, accepting it, all while meeting her parents for the first time. Theme: Past and Present. Topic: Being happy.

4. It began with something sweet

It began with a question.

Chapter 4: It began with the taste of something sweet.

A follow up to "It began with a study session"

~Start~

A person's personality can be matched with the way they take their coffee, the saying goes. Those that take their coffee black are said to be mature, professional and strong like the taste it delivers, while those that take milk, cream and sugar are said to be young, positive and have the tendency to smile more often, laugh more, be more sweet, the works. Whether or not the bottom half of the latter is due to the amount of sugar and caffeine they have in them is still debated.

That saying can go to hell, I proclaim mentally as I raise my frappé to my lips, its overly sweet contents sending a pleased shiver down my spine. While I may certainly be young, I don't exactly look the positive type and my tendency to smile, laugh or being sweet is as rare as finding an animal with a different color scheme in the tallgrass.[1]

Then again, I have found myself smiling a lot more often recently. Laughing, too. Being sweet, however, well, I can't say for certain, seeing as I can't really judge myself in that regard, but perhaps a certain brown eyed girl can give the final verdict in the matter, and if her words are anything to go by, well, we have an answer:

"Super sweet~."

…so maybe the saying got it right in this one instance, bite me. It should be known that if I were to have heard the saying just a few weeks earlier, it would have been nothing but inaccuracies tied together. I've always liked sweet coffees, the reason behind the more common smiles, laughs and being "super sweet~" is fairly new, I'll have you know. That alone should be reason enough to call the saying a bunch of bull, right?

Well, yes actually, but there's another piece of evidence that disproves the saying immediately:

She likes her coffee black.

Her lips leave the cup after she takes a soft, careful sip, her eyes closed in delighted concentration on the taste. She places the cup on the table, hands around it, warmed.

When her brown eyes open and meet mine from across the table, she lets out a smile.

Orimoto Kaori, the girl before me, the girl who loves to laugh and smile and perhaps be the sweetest thing with a human form –second only to Totsuka– likes her coffee black.

How someone like her can handle such a strong, bitter drink is beyond me, I tell her often.

It's so… so perfectly contradictory to her character that it somehow fits well. For someone as sweet and bubbly as her to prefer the exact opposite of what she is in the form of a drink is a refreshing surprise.

How someone like me can tolerate such a sweet, sugary drink is beyond her, she tells me whenever we venture out into the city for a drink.

She says that I look the type to drink my coffee black, but the fact that I preferred my beverages as sweet as possible surprised her in a nice way, apparently. It made her laugh; the thought that someone like me thoroughly enjoys sweeter coffees over the other kinds pushed her into a giggle fit.

It's not that I hate bitter coffee, I'll drink it –begrudgingly – if there's nothing else, but my tastes just so happened to enjoy sweeter caffeinated drinks much more.

Orimoto, conversely, would rather go thirsty than to drink any kind of sweetened coffee she dislikes them so much. Luckily for her, every single café we have visited here in Chiba have all had coffee to her liking, which shouldn't be surprising considering black coffee – for some reason – is as basic and popular as it can get.

Orimoto doesn't have a reason behind why she likes her coffee black. Not that she needs a reason, mind you, it's just that I find it strange and even when I asked her why, her answer was rather cryptic.

"I like what I like, Hikigaya. You should know that…"

So her answer wasn't cryptic, whatever. It's still a little strange, in my opinion.

Life is too bitter, so coffee, at least, should be sweet. That's my excuse, my justification for my preferred coffee type. When everything in life is bitter, the sweeter things, no matter how minimal, turn out to be misleading. An overinflated sensation that is too good to be true; a lie. Not coffee, no. It works as advertised, bitter or sweet, black or not. So why anyone would purposely choose to add more bitterness in their life when they have a choice is beyond me.

A little sweetness in a bitter life every now and then isn't too bad, is it?

My lips leave my beverage, but even without the taste still lingering, I know.

No, no it isn't.

The café we're in, an overly modern place that contrasts with how the rest of Chiba looks like, is close to empty with us two, the barista behind the counter and an older man sitting in the opposite corner of us, being the only occupants in the main lobby, the waitresses were out of sight at the moment, perhaps taking a break. The sun was somewhat visible through the large ornamental windows this place had, and by the looks of it beginning to set, dusk was upon us. It's almost time to start heading out, but I push that thought aside.

Her smile faltered only slightly when my eyes returned to her, seemingly aware as to what I was looking at.

I know, I know, Orimoto. Our time together is always short during the weekdays, when we can only see each other after my club, but don't let it bother you too much. I demonstrate this by beginning with a question.

"Ah, what were we talking about?" I ask, pushing the sudden downcast feel away.

She seemingly knows what I'm doing because her smile returns full force a second later. "What's the matter Hikigaya, you tired? You should pay more attention!"

I follow up with mock defeat. "Yeah, yeah, I know." I motion her to continue with my free hand.

She takes the hint. "I was thinking about taking the part-time job they're offering here…?" She offers and I graciously accept with a nod of my head.

I remember now.

"Oh, yeah, you did say something like that."

Orimoto is blessed with the greatest asset of all time: free time. Unlike me, who was forced to join a service club by a lonely, sad, old, single, aging, not-quite-yet-middle-aged teacher, Orimoto can simply go home as soon as the bell rings and do whatever it is she wants. There's envy in my thoughts as I think about it.

Whatever.

"I did, I did!" She responds oddly, but by this point I don't even question it. Her reply is out of sync with the conversation, something I notice she has a habit of doing – abruptly placing stops in the conversation, forcing someone to start it again – and so I expertly fix the situation.

"Why?"

Eh, what's with that look, Orimoto?

"Well, the money, for one." Her retort is quick. "Can't have you treating me all the time, you know?" I raise an eyebrow at her words, but I can't help but agree.

Our little outings are never truly expensive, but any sort of relief for my wallet would be greatly appreciated.

"Sore aru!"[2] I give her a thumbs-up before taking my drink to my lips. I earn a laugh from this and I can't help but feel proud at that.

"Oh my god!" Her own reaction seems to spark her on even further on her laughing ride. "Hikigaya!"

I smirk for a moment, but I let it go. "Just for the money, then?" That doesn't sound completely right, so I push ahead.

She wipes her tears and shakes her head, a negative. "Hm, I guess I also want to make friends with the folks from around here, you know, from other schools?" That's more like it. This sounds more like her, Orimoto Kaori. "A lot of people come by here and some may even work here."

There's a need for her to make friends, new ones, fresh ones whenever possible. There always has been that need for her, to befriend those not only close to her, but even those that she doesn't know anything about, those from different schools. People that don't know anything about her.

And while that may sound all good and well, the truth is hardly that at all.

There was a time when I thought of her, of Orimoto Kaori, two-dimensionally, where I took everything about her as face-value, 'what you see is what you get' kind of thing. But, the more I got to know her, the more time I spent with her, the more I began to realize it had been wrong to do that, that I had been wrong in my initial assessment of her.

Well, no, not exactly that either, I need to correct myself. My initial assessment of Orimoto Kaori was right on the money, spot on. She's a nice girl, friendly to all, and popular despite her only flaw being her easygoing, blunt attitude that borders rude and insensitive.

In all accounts, I was right about her.

What I didn't account for in my initial and final assessment of her were the people she was friends with.

"I think I could make friends here." There's a pained tone to her words.

People can be finicky creatures. I know this all too well from observing them from the shadows. They can be picky, they can be judgmental, and they can be sensitive.

Orimoto is an amiable person, friendly to everyone she sees, her carefree attitude makes it easy to befriend her. But what are friends other than strangers that get to know you?

I can see it now, how a friendship with Orimoto starts before it quickly begins to rot.

Orimoto is a nice girl, a lie. Whether a person realizes that before they get to know her or not suddenly becomes apparent during the first moments of a budding relationship with her. Her words are harsh, blunt and often insensitive, but she doesn't hold malice in them – not a single shred of it. But to those who are just getting to know her, her friends, they might not know that and might take her words personally, a jarring reflection of what they thought she was like.

People dislike what they don't know. People hate it when they get something they weren't fully expecting or when it doesn't hold up to their views.

There's a sad gleam in her eyes. "I mean, if I can get them to like me, that is…"

This creates the need for more friends, new ones, fresh ones whenever possible. What I used to think was that Orimoto strived to make so many people her friends as a status symbol she could wear to uphold her popularity, to brag about, "check out how popular I am!" but now that I know the truth, I stopped thinking of her in that way.

I once believed that Orimoto was truly popular, that her friends were loyal to her – I didn't think of them as people, but as an amalgamate of simple characters – and that her need to make new friends everywhere she went simply stemmed from her trying to brag and prove her popularity, but I was wrong. Her need to make new, fresh friends everywhere she went stemmed from the fact that her "friends" quickly got fed up with her innocent-yet-insensitive attitude and would begin to leave her, or worse, begin to resent her, one by one.

She did not look at her friends as something as simple as a status symbol, no. They meant a lot more to her than that. Her befriending someone is the equivalent of dousing a forest fire with a single bucket of water at a time; momentary relief, but not at all effective.

Orimoto Kaori doesn't want to be alone.

Can't say I blame her.

"Friends are overrated." I say going against her, speaking my mind. "You shouldn't let that bother you."

She seemed to have been expecting that kind of response by the incredulous look she gives me.

"…but then again, not everyone is like me." I add a second too late, but she seems to relax with a small laugh.

"Not everyone can be like you, Hikigaya." She corrects me. "I don't know how you do it." She sighs and leans forward onto the table, a small, nervous smile on her lips.

"You get used to it." My reply was so instantaneous it actually caught the both of us off-guard. "Er, I… I got used to it." My correction did nothing for her, some heavy guilt evident in her eyes.

I'm her worst nightmare come to life in front of her: a perpetual loner, an outcast with no friends to speak of or any to speak with. She never did tell me when she began to think that way, but if I had to guess, it would have to have been my confession back in middle school that started it all.

It was only then that she saw what happens when someone is truly alone, I guess. The changes one goes through. It might have terrified her.

"Ah, but Hikigaya you don't have it so bad, you know?" Her tone is hard to decipher. "I mean there's those two from your club… and your underclassman."

Oh? You're bringing up Yukinoshita and Yuigahama, Orimoto? Isshiki as well? That's rare. I have a feeling as to what she's referring to, but I'm not completely certain so I ask.

"Hm? What about them?"

"Well, aren't they, like, your friends?" There's that tone again that I can't decipher.

I shake my head. "No. We're just clubmates, acquaintances at most. And as for Isshiki, I'm just her senpai that she likes to order around." I've mentioned this to her before, a while back, actually. I can count the number of times she's mentioned Yuigahama and Yukinoshita on one hand, but for her to bring them up now means something is on her mind.

"Ah, okay, but…" She nods slightly, a confident smile on her lips "…do they know that?"

Shouldn't that be obvious? Shouldn't it…? I find it difficult to respond with my voice so I simply nod my head. She smiles at my answer, almost as if confirming something only she knows.

"And here I thought you were the smart one, Hikigaya. Hilarious..." She laughs at my confused look before adding "Heh, but no, I guess it's better this way too." There's relief in her words.

"I don't follow." She takes a sip of her – probably lukewarm – coffee and shakes her head, her bangs following shortly after with a short bounce.

"It's fine if you don't, Hikigaya." Her confidence back, Orimoto locks eyes with me as she places her cup down on the table. "I wouldn't expect you to either way."

Oh? If I were anyone else right now, I'd consider what you just said as you teasing me, Orimoto. She seems to notice it too with the way her eyes widen at the realization.

"Just a matter of habit." I stop her from correcting herself, waving my hand to make her drop it.

"You think so?" She sighs, her hands playing with one another.

"Eh, probably." I can't find the right words for this kind of thing. I've been getting better at holding my own in casual conversations, milestones ahead based on how I used to be, but there are still moments when I can't help but land short on what I wanted to say.

"True that." Her response is as abrupt as my previous one, but it somehow seemed to work as she looked slightly more upbeat than before. "I just can't help it, you know?"

I do know.

"It's who you are." I follow up her statement as a matter of fact.

"What a horrible thing to say, Hikigaya! Hilarious!" Her laugh is righteous. "But I guess you're not wrong."

Orimoto knows where her problem stems from, why there's a need for her to make so many new friends whenever she has the chance. She's aware of this, so solving the problem shouldn't be hard, right?

All she needs to do is simply change who she is to avoid upsetting others, right?

It's that simple, really.

Fuck that.

I can feel myself feeling bitter just thinking about it, but the fact that she hasn't tried doing that gives me hope. But I need to know.

"Is it really horrible?" I ask her. I test her.

She takes a look at my raised brow, and shrugs. "I don't know. Probably not, right?"

I let out an amused breath. "Sure."

She sees this and frowns. "What kind of answer is that?"

"I could, like, say the same thing about yours, you know?"

"I'm being copied?! How funny!" Orimoto laughs.

"Only you would find it funny." I let her know.

"Only because it's coming from you, you know?" She lets me know.

We share a smile as a comfortable silence surrounds us. Somewhere in the midst of our conversation, the café had actually done a good job and began to fill up with people of all different sorts. I can't believe I failed to notice the inane chatter going around the café.

Just how much time had gone and passed since we began talking, anyway?

I take a glance of the sky behind her and dully note that we should get going now.

My eyes shift from the windows across from me to her and I see her right arm laid out on the table, hand waiting patiently. She blinks twice, smile on her lips.

A blush begins to manifest on my face as my left hand takes hers, united for the moment. So bold, Orimoto! So very bold! I have nothing against doing this kind of thing – not anymore, at least – with her, I should let that be known now, but to do this in public…with so many people present… I-I'm still not used to it, is all!

"Ready to go?" She asks me, brown eyes on me.

"Y-Yeah, let's go." I reply as I get up from the booth we were sharing. Her hand tugs mine, not wanting to separate as we walked to the register to pay for what we ordered. It doesn't matter if I'm not used to it, I realize, cheeks flushed. The smile on her face as we walk hand in hand across the café tells me I don't have a say in the matter.

Not that I mind, or anything. Not that anyone in this café minds either, I suppose.

We pay for our drinks and exit the café, hands still together.

It's that magical time of the day right now; the time frame between afternoon and dusk, not necessarily day but not night either.

Twilight, I believe it's called.

"Hikigaya." I hear her call my name. My eyes shift from the melding sky to her. "Wouldn't it be, like, better if we ride your bike?"

Even if I ignored the obvious laws against doing such a thing Chiba has, I would say no, simply because I don't really feel like it at the moment.

"Nah, it's too much work to pedal for two."

She scoffs. "C'mon, Hikigaya! Please?"

I can't spoil her. I need to stand my ground and tell her "No."

"Please?"

…

There's something about the twilight hours between night and day that always seem to make me feel melancholic in a good way. And while today shouldn't be any different, it really is. If for whatever reason I'm outside during these hours of the day/night I would make it my number one effort to make it home as soon as possible, pedaling until my legs went sore. Today/Tonight, though, I find myself taking in the scenery of central Chiba in a smooth ride on my bike towards my neighborhood.

It was actually a nice experience to see the streets change from day to night, where smaller stores and stands began to close up for the night while neon signs of different colors began to coat the scenery, prepared for the long night ahead until daytime.

I'm not the only one experiencing this change in common scenery, either. Orimoto is riding with me, seated behind me on the baggage rack, both legs to her left hand side, hands holding onto her seat for extra balance. I turn around to take a look at her and I see the bright lights coming from the convenience stores, restaurants, clubs and shops being reflected against her eyes as we pass them.

She notices me looking at her; I know this because she gives me a warm smile before she wraps her arms around my waist as soon as I turn around to face the direction we're going.

Oi, oi oi, oi! W-What are you doing back there?! I nearly lose my balance at the change in weight distribution, but manage to correct myself before anything bad happens.

"W-what are you doing?" I manage to mutter out in plain shock, and before I can worry whether or not she heard me, she responds.

"I don't want to fall off, Hikigaya." Her words are said as if they were fact. "Is this wrong?" She tightens her grip around my waist and presses her body against my back.

Nice to meet you again, Orimoto's Orimotos.

I steel my resolve and focus on not crashing into anything.

"…No."

I hear her sigh happily.

We travel like this for a good part of our way to her house, with conversation little in between the scenery.

It wasn't until we were more than several minutes away from her neighborhood when she spoke up from behind me. Her tone was curious.

"Hikigaya?" I glance at her as my response. The streetlights we passed illuminated her visage in intervals, but with a single glance I can instantly tell something is bothering her.

"What did you mean back at the café? When you said 'it's who you are'?" Her voice was quiet.

If I remember correctly, the context of the question was her character –who she was- and it was she herself who said it was horrible of me to say that before laughing it off. I know that that alone didn't bother her at all; it might just have given her ideas.

Her words can hurt, whether they are blunt or sharp, but there's no real hostility behind them, and as such, it makes it hard for her friends to stay with her once they get fed up with the innocently-insensitive dialogue Orimoto makes.

"Hm." I nod, letting her know I know what she's referring to. "Well, what else could I mean? You're you."

There's a pause.

"Isn't that bad?" I feel her hands adjust themselves on my waist. She's uneasy.

For someone like her, someone who is by default friendly, it must be very painful to know that her personality is the reason she gains friends easily and loses them even easier.

I can't help but frown.

Her question is a heavy one, not because it is difficult, but because it is too easy to answer for someone like me. For her, the question is jarring.

I sigh and she tenses up, probably predicting my answer before I give it.

"It's who you are." I begin, turning a right into the appropriate street. "Good or bad."

"…but that doesn't answer my question, Hikigaya." She sighs. "I'm losing friends because of who I am." I, myself, am very familiar with that self-deprecating tone she is using right now.

I don't like it coming from her.

"So you already know whether it's good or bad?" I ask her.

"I… I don't know." Her reply is weak. "That's why I asked you."

"Why ask me?" My question sounds harsh, because it needed to sound like it.

"…" She's silent for a while. "Because you're the smart one."

My heartbeat can't help but glitch at that.

"Being who I am didn't get me any friends." There's a breeze. "Not having friends made me who I am."

"What are you talking about, Hikigaya?"

We're getting closer to her house.

"Maybe if I had changed who I was, I would have gotten along with others better. Maybe make friends that way too." This road is far too long with the amount of streetlights little too short. "But it wouldn't have been me, would it?"

It's dangerous, you know?

"Hikigaya…"

"It's who I am." We reached the interval between streetlights. It's dark. "I don't mind being alone so long as I stay who I am." She tightens the embrace, reminding me that she's there.

We reach a long stretch of streetlights closer together. It's bright.

"…You're not alone, Hikigaya."

"I know. I have my clubmates, a bossy underclassman and…"

"…and…?"

"…my younger sister, Komachi, too."

"What! Hikigaya, not fair, not fair! What about me?!" She let's go of my waist and begins to hit my back with the strength of a small cat.

I smile and try not to laugh. "…and a cute girlfriend I get to see every day to remind me that I ultimately won against a world so cruel."

I hear her make a slight gasp before she stops hitting my back. Her arms slowly return to my waist in the same type of embrace from before.

"Oh, no… You actually said something super cool, Hikigaya…"

Pride swells up inside of me, but I'm not done yet.

"You're you. If for some reason it is friends you want, then keep trying until you find the right ones that understand." I take a break for air. "If someone like me can get so far without changing who I am, I don't think you have anything to be afraid of."

I can feel her nod her head behind me. "You're right, Hikigaya." She sighs. "I feel so much better now..."

Despite everything I had just said, it made me think.

Have I truly not changed at all since then?

"Good to know."

…

When we finally reached her house several minutes later, she gets off from my bike before I do a second later. We're in front of her house, the light from the porch giving us some light to see each other better.

We're stuck in a comfortable silence that isn't that rare between the both of us. The twilight hour was coming to an end, night approaching, but it still stood; the time when day and night came together.

Two opposites coming together… isn't that something?

I stop looking at the sky and focus my attention on the girl in front of me, one Orimoto Kaori, my girlfriend.

She's working on what to say, hesitating only slightly when she speaks up a second later.

"Ah, Hikigaya…" She begins, but waits for my reply.

"Hm?" I nod my head for her to continue.

"If I do take the part-time job at that café, would you visit me?"

My eyes widen at the unexpected question. So she's still planning on actually taking the job, after all? I can respect that.

"Their coffee was good." She smiles at my words. "If I happen to have the time, I'm sure the staff would be seeing me there quite often."

"Maybe you can take your coffee black next time." Orimoto winks before embracing me.

"There's nothing wrong with something sweet once in a while, you know?" Life is supposed to be bitter, but with moments like these happening more regularly, I feel doubt.

Time isn't an issue at this point, we both know this. I can see the skyline behind her, where the last few moments of twilight could still be seen before it officially turns into night in just a few moments.

"I may like my coffee bitter, but…" Orimoto starts, her head nuzzled into my chest before she looks up at me, her warm brown eyes shine with the light. Her hand shoots up and tenderly cradles my cheek, a smile on her lips as she pulls my face towards hers.

That day, it began with a question.

"…even I know that, Hachiman." Her eyes close and she puckered her lips.

My heart begins to race before I meet Kaori halfway, taking her lips with my own in a very sweet kiss during the final remnants of twilight.

But today, it began with the taste of something sweet.

~End~

[1] Animal with a different color scheme in the tallgrass: refers to "shiny" Pokémon, in which a Pokémon randomly appears with a different color scheme than normal. Super rare.

[2] Sore Aru! Orimoto's signature catchphrase which was translated into "Preach it!" in the anime, but can also mean "That's the ticket!"

Hello, everyone! Sorry about the long wait, but lo and behold, I had some more exams to study for because I'm a good college student! ;~;

This chapter was going to be previously something else entirely, but I just wasn't able to make the scenario work so I changed it up, and quite frankly, I like this version a lot better. This chapter gives some insight into Orimoto's character and their now established relationship.

Alright quick question here:

I started this chapter as a follow up to the previous one (It began with a study session.) because I saw that many of you had liked it a lot, so I was just wondering: Do you guys, my readers, followers and reviewers, want me to keep going this way from now on? With Orimoto and Hikigaya dating after the events of the previous chapter? I do plan on deepening their relationship with one another with every chapter, going into character development and analysis, but the question stands: Do I continue this way, or keep it the way it was before the events of chapter three? I wouldn't mind continuing from here on with them going out with one another. Let me know with a review or PM, or BOTH!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! The ever wonderful author weewah had told me where I could read some recently translated chapters of the latest (I think) volume of the light novel, and get this: there's hints at Orimoto x Hikigaya becoming canon! It was glorious! If you guys want to read them just go to pastebin and search up the user: "SomeChineseGuy" and you can find the translated chapters there!

Alright, so what did you guys think of this chapter? If you liked it, let me know why! If you disliked it, let me know why too! Let me know with a review! Reading all of your reviews always brings a smile to my face and motivates me to type another chapter as soon as possible!

Thank you all so much for reading, and as always, have a good day!

-TheRedGhillie