Chapter 4

Several weeks had passed since the semester had begun and Bella had managed to settle in quite comfortably. The students were friendly but mature enough not to fawn over "the new girl" and the teachers were understanding and helpful when it came to her studies. They had even organised a couple of field trips to some of the more well-known local attractions like the Shinjuku National Gardens for her and several other exchange students. Her favourite by far had been Senso-ji Temple despite the huge crowds, where she had spent quite a bit more time and money than she had planned picking up souvenirs for everyone back home at the local market.

In the mornings she would meet with Haruko and they would walk to campus, attend their morning classes and have lunch at one of the schools refectories, occasionally accompanied by Hide. It was much easier for her to find her way around now that she had been here a while and gotten used to the large number of people. Actually the more she thought about it the more it occurred to her just how accustomed she had become to the hustle and bustle of Tokyo.

Unfortunately today she'd somehow managed to sleep through her alarm and hadn't woken until Haruko had started banging on her door. A few frantic minutes later the two of them were out the door and running to the bus.

She'd spent the morning attending a lecture being held in the department of medicine by a guest speaker from one of the local hospitals who had agreed to discuss potential career options in medicine and research. If she was being honest a lot of what was covered went over her head, she was majoring in Psychology after all not pharmacology. But the lecture had been open to anyone and since she was considering going into medicine as a graduate student she figured it was a good opportunity learn more about possible career options.


Right now though Bella was moving through the streets of the 20th ward ducking and weaving through the crowd of pedestrians as she went, her destination a small coffee shop a few blocks away where she was meeting hide. He'd been off sick for a few days and she'd agreed to give him a copy of her notes. Sparing only a glance at the curtain of grey clouds gathering above she quickened her pace, not wanting to be caught in the impending downpour as the first few drops of rain began to fall. Getting drenched to the bone wasn't very appealing, it was bad enough that she had been late for class.

A few minutes later she was standing in front of a small two story building with large open looking windows that spread along the length of the store and a small balcony wreathed in thick vines of ivy on the second, the sign above the door labelled the place as Anteiku.

I guess this must be the place.

Pushing open the door she made her way inside, the chime of a bell announcing her presence. The cafe itself was rather impressive for its size with hardwood floors, cream coloured walls and a counter top and tables made of a dark mahogany that reminded her of chocolate. With a quiet atmosphere and the aroma of coffee permeating the air the little café felt warm and welcoming.

No sign of Hide anywhere…

Seating herself at an empty table by the window she Pulled out her phone and sent off a text to Hide letting him know she had arrived.

"Welcome to Anteiku! Can I get you anything?"

Looking up from her phone, a man with brown pompadour styled hair and a bowtie wearing the same white shirt and vest as the rest of the staff waited patiently to take her order.

"Is there anything you would recommend? Something sweet maybe?"

"Hmm… well we do a mean caramel latte".

"Then I'll have a caramel latte and ham sandwich please".

"Coming right up".

The waiter took down her order and passed it along to the woman manning the counter then went about his business. A light chirping sound drew Bella's attention back to her phone.

Running late be there soon! Ill introduce you to my friend :-) – Hide.

A friend? Oh must that guy he normally hangs out with, Must be feeling better then.

Five minutes and two levels of angry birds later the waiter returned and sat her drink and a small plate of sandwiches down in front of her before rushing off to serve someone else. Taking a second to appreciate the sweet aroma she took a sip from her latte as she alternated between watching the staff mill about the place staring out the window at the rain.

Damn he was right about the coffee, this is good!

Another Twenty minutes later and Bella's attention was drawn to the front of the store by the ringing of the bell. Standing there with his usual goofy grin was Hide, beads of water dripping from his hair. Removing his headphones as he spotted Bella he waved and wandered over to her table.

"Hey Bella!" He beamed. "Sorry I'm late, got held up".

"It's ok I haven't been here that long".

"Long enough to finish your lunch", he observed. "Haruko not with you today?"

"Nope not today, she's at work I think, how are you feeling? you've been off a few days now", she asked. "I've got those notes for you by the way", digging around in her bag she pulled out a small stapled pile of notes she's photo copied at the library earlier and handed them to him.

"Man you're a life saver, I was worried I'd fall behind". He stuffed the notes into his bag taking the seat across from Bella.

"I was at the library when you texted me anyways so it's no big deal, if you need help with any of it let me know".

"Cool, hey your fluent in English right?" pulling a small note book out of his bag, "how do you pronounce this?"

"Oh, that's Fluorescent".

A couple of minutes later their impromptu study session was cut short when one of the waiters, a young girl around their age with short dark hair and a Band-Aid just under her eye wandered over to take Hide's order.

"Ah Touka! I was hoping to run into you" He beamed. "You really saved my skin the other day, the manager said you even helped help nurse me back to health!"

"Ah… Yes."

You could almost see the gears turning over inside Hide's mind, "I've got it! As thanks let me treat you to lunch!" it seemed that even when Hide was being serious he was something of a joker.

"Oh… that's ok it was no trouble really!" Touka replied with a thin smile hiding her embarrassment.

"Okay, some other time-"he paused.

Hide's attention was drawn to another of the staff who had appeared through the door behind the counter.

"Ohhh Kaneki!" waving at the new arrival.

"H-Hide! What are you doing here?"

"You nitwit! You said you started working here so I wanted to take a look!" ah! This guy must be the friend Hide mentioned. He looked much like the other staff in his uniform, in fact the only striking feature about him was the white eyepatch that covered his left eye. In contrast to his jet black hair it really stood out. "Plus I wanted to thank Touka for looking after us after the accident".

That caught Bella's attention. "Accident? I thought you were sick?" she inquired.

"Nope! A car swerved off the road and knocked us flat, one of our seniors is still in hospital, we got away with just some minor scrapes".

"Wow it sounds like you should be thankful you weren't flattened" Bella couldn't help but be reminded of the close call she had had in high school with Tyler's van. Thinking about the turn of events that mess had started still made were wince.

"Oh right! Bella this is Kaneki Ken my dear childhood friend and this foreign beauty," he gestured toward her "Is Bella! She's a new foreign exchange student who shares some of our classes!"

"Hi, it's nice to finally meet you, Hide's mentioned you quite a bit".

"Ah, it's nice to meet you" He bowed rather stiffly.

"Now that you're finally attending classes again we can all hang out! And look at you, all professional in your little waiter uniform" he teased.

"… So can I get anything for either of you?" Kaneki asked

"I wouldn't mind another of those caramel lattes" Bella replied.

"A cappuccino for me please! And I want Touka to make it!" Hide said enthusiastically.

"Coming right up then". As Touka and Kaneki went off to fill their order Hide and Bella went back to reading over their class notes interrupted only when over at the counter Kaneki somehow managed to spill coffee all over the front of his clothes, and again when their orders arrived. After that Hide spent more time admiring the rabbit Touka had painted into his cappuccino using the chocolate powder then he did actually studying.

"Well I need to get to class thanks again for the notes Bella" Hide threw the hood of his jacket over his head as he gathered his things.

"No problem, I'm done for the day so I think I'll stay here for a bit and wait out the rain, I'll see you tomorrow".

As Hide made his way out the door and Bella went back to sipping on her Latte and observing the people in the coffee shop. She found it rather funny how drastically Touka's personality changed when she wasn't dealing with customers. More than once now she'd seen her dig into Kaneki when he made a mistake, only to do a total one eighty when a customer called her over to order.

Looking out the window the rain showed no sign of stopping. Resigning herself to walking to the bus stop in the rain Bella made her way to the counter to pay. As she did the chime of the bell alerted her to a rather sombre looking woman and her daughter who had just entered the store.

"Kaneki, Towel!" Barked Touka when she saw the two of them standing there. A moment later she was leading them toward the back of the store. As Bella walked past them to leave her eyes met the young girls. The poor girl looked like someone had ran over her cat, Bella gave her the warmest smile she could muster but the girl just stared blankly for a moment before burying her head in her mother's waist. The two were led by Touka to the back of the store leaving her standing with Kaneki.

Well that was kinda awkward

"Well I should get going" Bella put the money for her meal on the counter and opened the front door to leave. "I'll see you around".

"Yeah, I'll see you in class".

Bella left the café and ran to the bus stop hoping she wouldn't have to wait for too long in the rain.

She really hated the rain…