I'm excited to have this chapter finished and uploaded. I'm currently working through my first semester of graduate school and I think that I am finally finding some time where I can work on my WIPs. I've been planning out this story some more and I think that it will most likely end up being around 8 chapters long. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter. Feel free to leave a comment, kudos, or subscribe if you want to keep up with this fic. Happy weekend!
It took you twenty years to figure it out, but you finally have come to understand your feelings for the long, hot summers in Japan. You had a love-hate relationship with summers here. On the one hand, you loved summer because it meant that you had a break from classes and during this season star-gazing was at its best, since nights were never cold. All of that being said, you didn't like stifling heat one bit. Sometimes the endless days of heat never seemed to end and it could easily feel as though summer would never end. It was only two weeks into summer and you had wished that you had temporarily migrated to a place with a more pleasant climate.
The one thing that made summers bearable was the fact that every summer, with your parents' permission, you worked at your best friend's family's convenience store in Sendai. On top of that, your two best friends worked with you at the convenience store. It was your way of staying close, despite studying very different subjects at university. Making really good friends was a very difficult and rare occurrence, and you were determined to keep your tight-knit friendship with Akaashi and Yachi.
Just like every Thursday at the convenience store, you worked with Yachi at the front of the store dealing with customers, while Akaashi was in the back taking inventory. At the moment, you were on a brief break in the back room since things were going slowly. The room was painted in dull gray, with matching chairs and a table to go along with it. One of the walls was lined with cupboards and drawers to store whatever the three of you want to store. Although the back room was dreary, the worst part was the lack of a fan to help beat the summer heat. The sweat on the back of your neck was an unpleasant reminder of that fact. As much as you disliked the lack of air conditioning in the store, you were thankful for the summer job. Yachi's aunt was also more than grateful to have you three to work in the store for the summer.
Thoughts of the unpleasant summer heat evaporated as Akaashi entered the back room, muttering to himself as his gaze was fixed on the clipboard that he held in his long, delicate hands. You took a moment to study Akaashi and admire his features. A nanosecond of jealousy had found its way in your thoughts as you admired his eyelashes. You wished your eyelashes were that pretty, but they were certainly not wasted on Akaashi. Paired with his long lashes, Akaashi had stunning eyes and you never got tired of looking at them. You'd never admit it out-loud, but his eyes were the reason why the first time someone had asked you what your favorite color was, you had blurted out blue. It came to your attention that his dark hair was starting to get long and without asking him when, you knew that Akaashi would have it cut over the weekend. He was never one for keeping his hair long.
"Is something wrong?" Akaashi asked. You blinked and focused your gaze on him. You hadn't realized that you were lost in your thoughts.
"I'm alright. It's just hot and work is slow," you replied. Akaashi hummed and nodded his head. He sat across from you at the table and you could see sweat around his forehead. There was some comfort in knowing that you weren't alone as you suffered through the heat of Japan.
"On my run this morning, I saw a flier for a new café that is opening up soon," Akaashi began to say. "The theme for the café is outer-space."
Akaashi smiled as he saw your eyes light up with a big smile on your face.
"Is it space themed?" You asked with wonder in your voice.
Akaashi nodded his head and hummed as he focused on your reaction.
"We need to go, Akaashi," you said as you bounced in your seat. In your excitement, you placed your hand on Akaashi's hand, mistaking the blush appearing on his cheek as a result of the heat and not from your touch. "When does it open?"
"It opens a week before school starts back up," Akaashi replied. "I was thinking that we should go there on opening day."
"Yes! Let's do it," you beamed. Akaashi couldn't help but smile at your enthusiasm for a space themed cafe. Your joy was contagious.
A loud beeping broke you away from the happiness that you were sharing with Akaashi. You removed your hand from Akaashi's hand and pulled out your phone to turn off the alarm indicating that your short-lived break had come to an end.
"It's time to get back out there," you said as you stood up from your seat. "I don't want to leave Yachi alone out there for too long. High school kids will be coming around pretty soon."
Akaashi nodded his head and also stood up. "I'm almost finished with inventory, so I'll be joining you two soon."
It came to no surprise when you walked out of the backroom and saw Yachi leaning over the counter at the cashier's station looking over a flier that she was designing.
"How's it going?" You asked as you picked up a fallen bag of chips.
Yachi looked up and sighed. "It could be better. Something is off about the design and I have this vision in my head of what I want, but I'm having a hard time making it come to life."
"Have you tried talking to your mom about it?"
"Not yet. I'll ask her tonight when I get home. She's been out of the house a lot when I get back from work, so I haven't had the opportunity to ask her about it," Yachi replied. It was barely there, but there was a hint of disappointment in her voice.
"If you ever get lonely at home, let me know. I'll come over and we can have a sleepover," you said.
From a young age Yachi would often find herself home alone since her mother spent a lot of time working and as a result, Yachi would spend a lot of time at your house so that she wouldn't be alone for too long. As the years passed by Yachi became more comfortable with being home alone, but you still made sure to check up on her. Even introverts could feel loneliness.
Yachi smiled at your proposition and you saw her shoulders relax.
The rest of the shift continued without too many problems. Hungry high schoolers came in looking for a snack to feel a sense of rejuvenation and as the sun began to set, Akaashi joined Yachi and you at the front of the store. His presence brought about giggly high school girls that were desperate to get a peek at Akaashi. It was a very well-known fact that Akaashi was handsome, even if he was wearing the work uniform that did nothing to highlight his handsomeness, but he was never smug or cocky about his looks.
The last hour of working at the convenience store also seemed to be painfully slow and to beat the nightly blues, Yachi pulled out her tablet so that you could both watch highlights from volleyball matches.
"He is so good looking," you sighed as you watched Oikawa Tooru serve during one of his latest matches.
"He really is," Yachi replied with a dreamy sigh.
"I could watch him smack that ball all day long," you continued to say as the highlight reel continued to play.
"It gives me goosebumps whenever he hits the ball. I wonder how fast he's hitting it," Yachi commented.
Neither you or Yachi saw it, but Akaashi was less than impressed by the comments made about Oikawa. He didn't understand the appeal that Oikawa Tooru held over the both of you. In Akaashi's eyes, Oikawa was just another volleyball who just happened to be "good looking."
"Isn't Oikawa great, Akaashi?"
Akaashi looked back from the aisle that he was in to pick up stray bags of chips and candy. He blinked and gave a not-so surprising reply. "He's alright." He focused his gaze back on to the aisle to make sure that nothing was out of place.
"Hey, Y/N, did you hear about the contest?" Yachi asked, after turning to you.
"What contest?" You replied.
"Oh my gosh!" Yachi immediately straightened from her slouched position. "You didn't hear about it? Oikawa's agency is hosting a contest where one lucky winner gets to go on a date with Oikawa."
"Really?" The whole thing sounded like it came out of a rom-com.
"Yeah! The last day to send in an application is tomorrow night," Yachi said as she looked up the application for the contest on her phone. "I wonder what they have on the application."
"Even if we were to apply, it's not like we would win. There's so many other girls, and guys, that want to go on a date with him," you replied as you peered over Yachi's shoulder to see her scrolling past a picture of Oikawa. "Not that I can blame them."
"Are you going to apply?" Akaashi calmly asked as he walked up to the check counter that you and Yachi were behind.
Looking to Yachi you saw her eyes brimming with excitement. "We should try it. It'll be fun!" Yachi said. The idea of going on a date with Oikawa Tooru made your heart flutter and it's not like you had anything to lose.
"Let's apply after work," you said, looking to see Yachi jumping up and down in excitement.
The application process was not what you had expected it to be. You had expected to spend an hour answering many tedious questions, but the application had not forced you to painfully answer questions about yourself. Instead the application had opted to briefly ask for personal information and all social media accounts that you used. The whole process had taken less than fifteen minutes and with that, you tossed your phone to the side to watch a movie within the comfort of your home with Akaashi and Yachi.
The following days and weeks passed by in a blur. Work was constant and steady, which you liked. University was full of unwelcome surprises, and the consistency of working a summer job was very welcome. Yachi and your application to win a date with Oikawa was quickly forgotten and replaced with worrying over having to eventually pay for expensive textbooks and class fees. Although one of the recent remedies to one of the situations came about when you had made friends with a few people in your major and had gotten into the habit of "sharing" textbooks to save money. You felt bad for Akaashi, it looked like it was harder for him to come across cheap or free options for his textbooks, but you supposed that that was to be expected since he was majoring in Literature.
"Are you excited for classes this Fall?" Yachi had asked during one of the slower shifts at work. It had now been three weeks since the both of you had applied to win a date with Oikawa Tooru.
"Yeah! I'm finally taking classes that relate more to what I want to do. Don't get me wrong, some of the classes I've taken have been all right, but I'm really excited to finally take Life in the Universe and Astrophysics," you said.
"Didn't you also sign up to take a couple of math classes," Akaashi called out as he stocked the fridges with more drinks.
"Yeah," you said, looking over the counter to speak towards him. "But I don't mind taking a few math classes." Akaashi smiled at your response. If you hadn't been so enamored with space, he knew that you would have majored in Math.
"It feels like we are all going to be busy this school year. It's going to be hard to hang out with each other, especially since none of us have any classes that are close to each other," Yachi lamented.
"Well it's not supposed to get any easier as we get closer to finishing our degrees," Akaashi said. He had finished stocking up the fridge and was walking towards the cashier counter. You nodded your head in agreement with Akaashi, but he could see that the idea of having less time with them brought you down. "But no matter what, we can always make time for each other, right?"
"Of course!" Yachi exclaimed. "Nothing can tear us apart!"
The conversation quickly came to an end with the chime of the bell at the front of the store. Workers on their lunch break were starting to come in to grab an easy lunch and a drink that would sustain them for the rest of the work day.
Akaashi went behind the counter to help as Yachi was called over by a customer to help find a particular drink. Despite Akaashi being the most attractive between the three of you, at least to you, Yachi was the easiest for customers to approach.
"No matter how busy any of us get, that won't stop us from spending time together and being friends," Akaashi said to you. A customer had walked up to the counter to pay for their things before you could respond to Akaashi, but you still felt comfort from his words. He was always quick to comfort and reassure you, no matter the things that caused you to stumble.
The nice thing about working was how easy it could be to forget your worries. There were occasional strings of time where things were slow, but overall the convenience story was good, which made it easy for you to forget the things that brought about feelings of anxiety.
Within a blink of an eye, you found yourself closing shop with Akaashi. Yachi had left, albeit remorsefully, not long after closing to have a late dinner with her mom. She had promised to meet you both at your apartment later that night for a movie night. With the chime of the bell indicating Yachi's departure, both Akaashi and you fell into a comfortable conversation as you cleaned the store together and made sure that it would be prepared for the next day.
"The space café is opening soon. The owners have been teasing pictures of some of the pastries and drinks that are on their menu," Akaashi said as you were wiping down the counters.
"They have?" You exclaimed. "What's their Insta?" Akaashi walked over to you to show the Instagram page on his phone. Your fingers brushed against his as you looked at the few posts on the social media page. From your focused gaze, Akaashi could tell that you were already enamored with what you saw. "It looks good. I can't wait for us to go."
Akaashi softly smiled and tilted his head to this side. "Me too."
"Let's make sure to go together when they open!" You exclaimed with a bounce in your step after looking through the feed of pictures teasing the decor and delicious treats.
Akaashi nodded his head and replied. "Sounds good to me."
You spent the rest of the time at the convenience store discussing the pastries and drinks from the space café and started to plan what you would order. It came to no surprise to Akaashi when you told him that it would take several visits to the café for you to try everything that had captured your interest. Akaashi couldn't help but give you his undivided attention as you explained what you would order with each upcoming visit that you would take to the space café. If anyone was watching the two of you, they would see you, animatedly talking about food, and Akaashi, gazing at you as if you were the moon shining brightly in the night sky.
This pattern continued as you and Akaashi took the subway and the bus to reach your apartment. Although the day had been long, it did not stop your friend group from meeting up every Friday night to watch a movie. Yachi, who had a key to your apartment, was the one in charge of choosing the movie for tonight. There wasn't much space in your small abode, but no one minded squishing onto your small sofa as the opening scene of the movie began to play.
Resting your head against the sofa, your thoughts drifted away from the movie and you began to fantasize about the space themed café that you would visit with Akaashi. Initially your thoughts wondered about the possible pastries that could be sold at the café, but soon your thoughts drifted to Akaashi and getting to spend some one-on-one time with him. It wasn't often that you got to spend time with him outside of work and school and without Yachi involved. It wasn't that you didn't like it when the three of you hung out, but when it was just you and Akaashi it was different. Akaashi never failed to make you feel special whenever you spent time with him. He always listened to what you had to say and he knew the best things to do no matter the emotions you were feeling. These thoughts had made you begin to wonder what it would be like to go on a date with him. Would it be different? Would your heart flutter as he gently held your hand in his? Although you had never held Akaashi's hand outside of pulling him by the hand to check something out when you were grocery shopping or checking out a museum exhibit, you were sure that you would feel safe and secure if he held your hand in his hand, with his thumb tracing gentle patterns on the top of your hand. Maybe it was about time that you admit the very thing that you had been suppressing all these years.
The loud buzzing of your phone pulled you away from your thoughts and you looked down to see an email notification lighting up your phone. The email came from a person you didn't recognize, but you clicked on the email anyway with curiosity getting the better of you.
"Oh my gosh," you exclaimed with incredulity after reading the email. Akaashi and Yachi looked over at your shocked expression.
"Is everything okay?" Akaashi asked. He gently placed his hand on your back and started to rub soothing circles on your back. You blinked and re-read the email to make sure that you had read it correctly.
"I'm-I-" you managed to stutter. Akaashi pressed pause on the remote and he looked back at you in concern.
"What happened?" Yachi asked. She desperately peered over your shoulder to see what had caused your sudden exclamation.
Nothing could prepare the three of you from the reality that began as you announced the unthinkable.
"I won a date with Oikawa Tooru."