-o-

Chapter Three: A Glint of Light

-o-

He was back again. The fellow from the cafe. It had been a couple days since the last time he had been in the bookshop, and Touya had convinced himself that he had angered another customer into not coming in when he was working. Not that Touya wanted that to happen, but it wasn't the first time that had happened.

But that was not the case. Maybe. Touya didn't know for certain. Touya was observant and good at reading people. However, he wasn't very good at interpreting what their signals actually meant. So why was the fellow here? Did he put their last two encounters behind him? Touya felt his stomach drop and run for cover. Maybe he hadn't forgotten. Maybe the fellow wanted to chew him out for running away from him twice in front of all these customers. Touya couldn't think of any other reason why he would want to come back after he had been so rude to him.

The fellow smiled and waved at Touya. And then the fellow kept on walking, right out onto the sales floor. Touya blinked twice. The fellow was neither unhappy with him nor wanted to approach him. Touya leaned forward over the counter in the hopes of seeing where the fellow had gone, but he was already too far around the corner. Touya was confused. So very confused.

Touya was a light stepper to begin with, but he avoided the creakier floorboards and hid behind the panel standee that usually advertized a sale or a book signing. With a moment's breath to muster his courage, Touya peeked out from around the stand. The fellow was walking down an aisle, his back toward him. The fellow was browsing the store. Which wasn't what he had expected the fellow to do, but it wasn't unexpected. Touya didn't know what to think. The uncertainty was making him nauseous. To try to get his mind elsewhere, he returned to the register and continued eliminating the dust that had gathered on the shelf of small succulents behind him.

About ten minutes went by, and Touya was wiping down a skull planter containing a healthy-sized zebra plant, when the fellow came by again. Touya froze and watched him as he drew nearer and nearer. He was certain that this was it. His reproach was coming now. But then the fellow smiled and waved at him and left the bookshop. Not a word said, not a direct confrontation, just a quick hello, over and done with.

Touya was very confused. So very, very confused.

-o-

Nearly a full week went past of Jin waving hello and goodbye to the lad at the bookshop, and every time Touya froze mid-task and watched him. He had the reflexes of an alert deer and the stare of one too. Jin was never certain if he was judging whether or not to bound off to the office or trying to blend into his surroundings. Jin had hoped that after a few days that the lad was going to smile when he saw him, but he only noticed Touya peeking out from the far ends of the aisles at him. Some progress was better than no progress, he supposed.

Touya was standing by the new releases display and gathering a mess of books and blank journals left as Jin headed on his way out. Touya turned around and jumped at the sight of him no longer being where he had last seen him. Jin stopped. Clutching a book against his chest with one hand, Touya drew in his bottom lip and bit down on it. Touya looked like he wanted to say something to him but didn't know what to say, or so Jin thought. Or maybe he just hoped that he had wanted to.

Jin smiled and waved goodbye. He expected no response. He expected Touya to keep staring up at him and continue making him question to himself if what he was doing was okay or if he was unintentionally harassing this poor lad.

But then Touya raised his free hand, paused for a second of hesitation, and then waved back. Touya waved back and gave Jin a tiny, nervous smile that sent a jolt of happiness racing throughout his body. Jin felt like he had just power-downed six shots of espresso, but he kept his chill. It was like Kurama had said: Too much too soon was just going to scare him off, and the last thing Jin wanted was to spook the rabbit back into its burrow.

Jin headed back to the cafe. He wished that his walk was longer. He was all pent up with joy and excitement. He was ready to burst open like a time-lapse flower into bloom. He wanted to run and jump and yell like a mad man. The winds take him did he want to celebrate and sing, even if his words were nonsense. If any customer wanted to be a devil to him today, they were welcome because absolutely nothing from heaven or hell was going to put a damper on his spirit this afternoon.

The look on his face must have been mighty wild because customers and Yusuke alike were staring at him when he entered the cafe. Jin headed back to the break room to wait out his last five minutes before he had to clock back in, and Yusuke followed him just a step or two behind. Jin sat down and put his feet up on the chair across from him.

"Where the hell did you go to lunch to? And why didn't you bring me anything back?" Yusuke asked, as he stood in the door of the break room. He stared in disbelief at Jin's unbelievably high spirit.

"I went to the bookshop," Jin said, very chipper. His voice and body were shaking. No wonder Yusuke was giving him such a look. He felt so good his ears were twitching.

"Still?" Yusuke raised an incredulous eyebrow. "You're still trying to get Touya to talk to you?"

Jin nodded. "I am."

"Has he?"

"He hasn't," Jin said, without losing an inch of his grin. "But he waved back at me. Even smiled a little."

"Damn, that's more than anyone's gotten." Yusuke sounded somewhat impressed. "You might actually succeed."

"For sure, I am," Jin asserted. "The wind brought us together."

"Okay," Yusuke said in a "Whatever you say, buddy" tone of voice. "You got two minutes to come back to Earth before the next rush. I ain't doing it all by myself. I'm not puttin' up with you dancing around me either."

"Good air or not, I dance tables around you all day long," Jin said playfully.

Grinning, Yusuke pointed at the break room clock with his middle finger, and Jin laughed it off. Yusuke headed back to his tables.

Jin leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head. He knew that getting Touya to wave at him was such a small thing to get excited for, but it wasn't what he had done that had Jin the most excited. It was what it meant. Touya finally waving back meant that other things were possible. It was possible for them to talk, for them to laugh together and, just maybe, for them to become friends.

-o-

The fellow from the cafe still confused Touya very much. He still wasn't able to talk around the fellow—he couldn't even gather his voice long enough to place an order at the cafe anymore—but the fellow was a nice guy. He always stopped by the bookshop either on his break or after work, and he always waved at him. He was friendly with Touya, which brought him equal parts joy and discomfort. It was the part of his day he both looked forward to the most and dreaded the most. Because things like that didn't happen to Touya. Customers didn't like him. Customers didn't come to the shop specifically to see him. Customers liked Keiko. People dropped by to see her and were regularly disappointed to see him working that afternoon. This kind of attention was unfamiliar and didn't feel right to him. Touya wasn't sure if he was able to handle it.

And he worried over it constantly. He worried over what he was going to wear that day, despite the fact that his apron covered up most of his shirts. He fussed with his hair, even though it was too short to style any other way. He put too much thought into what earrings to put in and in what order, because he could go very basic and be seen as too boring, or have fun and be seen as too childish, or wear something fancy and none of it make sense for work. He put way too much thought and preparation into a blink in his day. And why did he care anyway what impression he made on the fellow from the cafe? He was probably just being polite, waving at him to fulfill the social obligation, and Touya was the cashier present on duty. Happenstance, yes, this was all happenstance. That made far more sense to him. Touya could handle that.

He never should have waved back at him. He didn't even know why he had done it. It was stupid of him.

A good portion of Touya's day was spent collecting and returning books, journals, and Kurama's fox figurines that customers had moved around the store—the fox figurines could be moving on their own though. At this point, after all the strange places the foxes kept showing up, Touya was willing to believe in the possibility. Either that, or Kurama was messing with him on a grand scale. Which was also possible. There were days where he only occasionally found books, and there were days someone took the time to turn every book in a bookcase around. Today so far was somewhere in the middle.

Touya had a book he needed to restock, but the fellow was standing in front of the bookcase where it went. Touya did have other books in his hands, and he certainly could come back later. But avoiding people was not a part of his job. Touya took a deep breath. This was like any other customer interaction he had to face. The fellow might talk to him. He might not. Either way...

What was there to worry about? The fellow had only been nice to him so far. Their last interactions had been awkward, one-sided, and really couldn't go any worse than they already had, and the fellow still showed up every day. Touya was always concerned that he was going to say the wrong thing, but at this point, the fellow was probably going to laugh off any of his accidental rudeness. Touya was hard-pressed to think of a surefire way that this was going to sour, and he thought of twenty ways a scenario could go horribly wrong before ever thought of one good way.

You're braver than this, he told himself as he approached the fellow from behind. His heartbeat quickened. Social anxiety and anticipation, he surmised. The anticipation caught him off-guard. Touya came up on the fellow's right side and slipped the book in its spot. He looked up just as the fellow noticed him. The fellow was pleasantly surprised to see him, but he quickly looked away. His smile was tight-lipped, as if he was trying to keep his reaction small and calm and not flash how happy he was with a big grin. He looked like he had wanted to say something the moment he saw him, but he didn't.

Touya clutched the remaining books in his arms against his chest. He wanted to say hello. He had wanted to say hello several times already. He wasn't as cold as everyone said he was. Not intentionally, at least. He did lean into that first impression quite a bit. But the fellow didn't seem to mind his social flaws.

"Thousands here and a million more elsewhere, a shame you can read them all, right?" the fellow said. He wasn't looking at him, but there was no one else he could be talking to.

Touya slowly nodded yes in time for the fellow to look over and see it.

"Do you like working here?" Again, he didn't look at Touya when he spoke. Instead, he waited a beat and then glanced over to catch his response. Touya wondered if he had caught onto his reluctance to make eye contact with customers. Was this his way keeping things comfortable between them?

Touya quickly nodded again.

"This is a quiet place to work," the fellow said. "Completely different from the hustle and bustle of a coffee shop. I'd think it nice at first but then..." he shook his head no. "Bookshops and cafes, very different those two but they go hand and hand."

Touya agreed, though he wasn't sure what brought that observation to mind.

"Show me what your favorite book is," he asked, tipping his head toward the bookcase. "...If you don't mind to, that is."

That was always a difficult question for Touya to answer, because he liked a lot of different books for different reasons. Some had entertaining plots, and others had entertaining characters with vivid personalities. Some he enjoyed because he found the underlining message comforting. And some he just liked for undefined reasons. There were a lot of books that he could have with him if he was ever stuck on an island and was only able to have one book with him, as the hypothetical question went.

He could just pick one. But he couldn't just pick one at random. Touya was well-aware that people judged other people by their choices in books. He had to pick the right one that said the right thing about him. Customers had given him the stare when he had picked a book from a popular author. Another time he had chosen a classic and then had been asked if he had picked it just to sound smart. One woman had been insulted when he had recommended one of his personal favorites—an age-appropriate fantasy novel—because her children didn't read such nonsense. Picking a favorite was always a minefield. Touya read anything that kept his attention, from historical court dramas to two guys working on a fake paranormal investigation show finding love and real ghosts together.

Perhaps sensing his internal struggle, the fellow laid a hand on his head and tousled his hair. Touya jumped, startled by the friendly touch. Touya's cheeks turned pink. The fellow's shoulders shook from suppressed laughter. "Don't think about what you'd think I'd like. I want to know what in your heart of hearts is your favorite book."

Well, that had been what Touya had been trying to pinpoint until the fellow messed with his hair and broke his train of thought. Touya tipped his head down and pressed his mouth into a tight crease. He was not pouting. He was annoyed. And a little embarrassed. And his cheeks were very hot. Touya glanced over to see the fellow grinning at him. He was far too pleased with himself.

Fine then, he was just gonna choose a book he liked. He didn't care anymore. Touya picked out one from the bookcase in front of them and handed it to him.

"Sure look now, I've never read this one before. But if it's your favorite, I think I should give it a lash. A mighty thanks to ya," he said, holding up the book and giving it a little wave in appreciation.

Not expecting that the fellow was going to read the book he chose, Touya wished that he had put a little more thought into his choice.

Touya followed the fellow to the register and rang up his transaction. He handed him his bag without saying a word.

"I'll understand if you don't want to. This is certainly out-of-the blue," the fellow said. "But will you meet me at the park in front of the mermaid fountain at three?"

Blinking twice and then a third time, Touya didn't know what to say, his mouth hanging open. Why was he asking him to meet him outside of work? The fellow was waiting, his honest blue eyes staring hopefully at him. Waiting for an answer. Touya closed his mouth and sharply nodded yes.

"See ya then!" he said and went merrily on his way out the door and back to the cafe. Touya could have sworn he saw his ears wiggling.

Touya took a moment to sit down, at least just until his legs stopped shaking and his heartbeat went down. He couldn't believe that he had said yes. He wasn't even sure why he had replied yes. But it was done. He felt foolish. And he felt happy. He felt more happy than foolish, which was strange and new for him. As was the case for many things he was experiencing of lately.