"Come on, come on! Hurry up so that we can eat!" Kiana pulls Hachiman and Mei into a restaurant with a fancy yet cozy western theme.
"Oi! Don't pull me or else I'll drop your things!" He staggers and almost falls due to a small bump at the doorway that he accidentally hits. He adjusts the bags containing Kiana's clothes and other miscellaneous stuff that she bought, "Seriously, why am I carrying everything when you have gorilla strength huh?" Kiana doesn't react to his words, too engrossed in talking to a waiter.
"Hachiman, what did I say about treating a lady?" Mei tries to slap him but fails due to him being far from her reach.
He notices the attempt and rolls his eyes at her, "Would you stop slapping me? It doesn't hurt but it sure is annoying," He grumbles as they go deeper into the restaurant.
"Treat lady's properly and I will stop."
"Oi. It's not like you come with a manual on how to interact. Not to mention that a certain someone here is manhandling me like I am feather." He gestures to Kiana with his eyes.
Mei slightly falters at his words but resolutely says, "I know Kiana deserves to be hit for her actions but that doesn't excuse you of not properly treating her."
"Meeeeeiiii~ why are you so mean to me…" Kiana glances back to look at her with a sad look.
"You pulled me into the dressing room and almost kissed me!"
"I told you I'm sorry for that! I saw some guys doing that to girls and the girl got into it so I thought you would too!"
Hachiman blankly stares at them as they devolve into another argument. In the middle of the room. With everybody staring at them.
He lets out a long sigh before dragging them to a table at a secluded corner, "Would you idiots stop causing a scene? You're disturbing everyone else with your annoying loud voices," He hisses out the words.
Both of them blink then look around, only noticing that they have become the center of attention. Mei blushes hard as she ducks her head while Kiana shrugs.
"Let them look. I don't care about strangers."
Mei whips her head to Kiana while Hachiman narrows his eyes at the white haired girl, "Kiana, that's not a good attitude to have!" Mei glares at her.
They arrive at the small rectangle table, big enough to fit 6 people, 4 to the sides and 2 at the ends. Hachiman takes the left side, Mei also chooses the left side, then Kiana tries to sit next to her.
"Kiana, please sit opposite of us."
"Urghgh, fine." Kiana dejectedly heads over to the right side then sits down with a pout, making Mei sigh at her behavior.
"Welcome to R.I I.R, here are the menus and please raise your hand when you are ready to order." A waitress swiftly comes to their table, greets them, hands over 3 menus to them, explains, then leaves, making all 3 of them blink at the waitress.
"…That was fast."
Kiana's idly comment snaps Mei out of her stupor, "Kiana, it's not good of you to disregard strangers." The latter wiggles her finger while saying in a lecturing tone while her free hand opens her menu.
Kiana flinches while her hands open hers, "But Mei, most of them are people who would wear masks to protect themselves instead of learning to be able to protect themselves, just like Hachiman here!"
"…I would very much like it if you don't bring me into this." Hachiman is already looking though his own menu before slightly narrowing his eyes at Kiana, "Let's just order first, ok?"
Both of them reluctantly nod, then a few minutes later, Kiana raises her hand to signal a waiter nearby.
"Hello, are you ready to order?" The waiter smiles at them, though his eyes linger a bit longer on Kiana and Mei.
"Don't you dare look at Mei like that." Kiana glares at the waiter when she notices his staring, prompting him to flinch and sweat.
"Y-yes ma'am."
"Good. Now…"
The waiter quickly writes down each of their orders and turns to leave, not noticing Hachiman, who sighs then loudly says, "Oi. You forgot someone."
The waiter turns back and widens his eyes at him, "Oh, apologies sir." He smiles at him, though it doesn't reach his eyes.
Hachiman sighs again and just says his order to him instead of causing a scene. The waiter writes it down and quickly leaves.
"Damn guy. Give few beauties and he forgets the world." Hachiman grumbles as he glares at the waiter, not noticing he said it a bit louder than intended.
"Oh~ am I the beauty you mentioned, Hachiman?" Kiana playfully says as she props her elbows on the table to support her head.
"Now now, Kiana, Hachiman didn't say it about us, right?" Even though Mei says that, she is looking away from him.
Hachiman roll his eyes, "Of course I meant both of you." He quickly covers his mouth while his eyes widen since the words that came out of his mouth are different than what he wanted and his cheeks begin to redden.
Kiana slips, almost falling onto the table with her head but stabilizes herself, and stutters out with her cheeks blushing, "O-of course I knew that."
Mei looks down to the ground with her cheeks and ears red, though can't see it, "A-ah… That is a proper way to treat a lady…" She mumbles out, barely hearable.
An awkward silence descends on them, neither of them knowing what to say for a long time until they overhear a loud voice coming from the nearby table.
"What is the daughter of the devil doing here?" The voice scathingly says, making all 3 of them look at the owner of the voice; a middle-aged man while a middle-aged woman near him nods.
Hearing those words causes Mei to look down at the floor, "Excuse you?" Kiana gets up to glare at them, though both of them don't react to her.
"Oh my, kids today have no respect for the elderly. Just look at her with her white hair glaring at us. Why if I ever had a child like her, I would have just disowned them!" The woman mockingly says as she points at Kiana.
"Why you!" Kiana tries to go to them, but Hachiman stops her, "Hachiman?"
"Don't. We are attracting a crowd." He stealthily gestures at the other patrons looking at them.
"So you just want us to sit on the sideline?!" Kiana angrily whispers at him.
"No, we'll just go sit somewhere else." He pokes at Mei's arm, prompting her to look at him, "Come on, we'll just go sit somewhere else."
Mei nods and both of them join Kiana standing, "Oh? The little devil is running away. Just wait, your father will be thrown in jail for all the shits he did!" The man throws out one last insult as he sees them walking away.
The trio sits down at the opposite corner of where they used to be, though the moment they do, they see a new waiter coming to that table with their food.
The waiter confusingly looks around, so Kiana raises her hand to catch his attention, which works.
"Here's your order. Please enjoy your time here." The waiter bows and quickly leaves after placing the food and drink down.
The trio dig into their food, albeit with a sour mood now. Mei glances at Kiana then to Hachiman and silently mutters, "Thank you… Kiana, Hachiman."
Hachiman awkwardly shrugs, "No problem… You're a friend. Friends do this kind of thing, right?"
Kiana rapidly nods in agreement, "I will always stick by your side Mei! But um… Why did they call you a devil…?" She awkwardly says, not knowing just how to ask.
"Oi, now's not the time to ask you –"
"Hachiman, it's fine, this has been happening ever since my father came under fire, luckily only the adults harass me… Actually… Some men… Came to my house today and took my father away… He told me that everything was fine, and I believed him… When I got back, I saw my maid outside."
Mei takes a deep breath in and out, "She told me that some people came into the house, ransacked it even my clothes then left. She tried to stop them but they said they had clearance to do it and will… Shoot her if she or anybody else interferes."
"That was when my father messaged me, telling me to go hang out with somebody for a while… That is the reason why I'm wearing our school uniform… Sorry for lying to you Hachiman."
Hachiman slowly nods then whispers, "It's… Fine. You had good reasons to… Thank you for telling us."
Kiana, who had been silent, whips out her phone then freezes, "Um… Guys? You need to see the news…" She hesitantly says, prompting him and Mei to take out their own phones.
"…What?"
All of them stare at their phones, seeing red words that combine into a damning sentence.
"CEO of ME Corp arrested for economic fraud!"
*A...N*
...I honestly got nothing to say except for this what my brain told me to do. Anyways on to the comments!
calderoneric758 - a very very different person is the least I can say
Renashi-RE012 - lol and no spoilers from me
