1.2 Friends
Izumi was surprised to say the least. He wasn't expecting Koizumi-chan to be interested in literature like he was. In fact, he thought of the contrary. His mind reeled in the past events that happened two days ago.
Izumi walked past the grand library doors, intent on getting his hands on the first-edition copy of Wilfred Spencer's famous book for the book report that Mr. Kougami assigned to them that day.
He wasn't looking at where he was going since he knew the library by heart, so he didn't expect to bump into Koizumi, at all.
Snapped out of his reverie by the sounds of books crashing the floor- 'Oh no! The precious books!' Izumi thought.
He went to help up the person that fell from the impact of the collision. He blinked. Amongst the books and the messy papers scattered throughout the floor was none other than his one and only female friend.
Immediately, he took her delicate hand and pulled her up from her spot at the floor, steadying her. After he made sure she was okay, he spluttered, "Why are you here?"
Pretending to be offended, she raised an eyebrow. "Am I not allowed to be here?"
"No, not at all Koizumi-chan!" He blurted out hurriedly. The librarian shushed both of them. Blushing in embarrassment, he continued, "I didn't expect you to be here, that's all. Is it for the book report?"
She shook her head. "I came to borrow this for a while. Want to come with me to a café?"
"SURE!"
Not wanting to seem desperate, he corrected himself and tried to be indifferent. "Um," he coughs sheepishly, " I mean...sure."
Koizumi giggles at Izumi's weirdness. "Izumi-senpai, why are you always so jumpy when I'm around?"
He cleared his throat awkwardly. "I-i'm sorry."
"To be honest, I find it cute." She beamed at him.
Izumi's glasses almost slid off his nose in shock.
"Anyways, let's go!" She took his hands in hers and swung them while she walked.
Poor Izumi couldn"t handle it any longer, barely forming any coherent words at all.
In the end, they couldn't go inside the café together because of some urgent things Izumi had to do. And by urgent...
He had to keep Yuu, his roommate, on a health check. Ren wasn't helping at all.
He nearly blushed when he recalled the things they had done together.
He slapped his cheeks with both hands. 'Keep it together!' he inwardly scolded himself.
Those feelings he had were inexplainable. They were only friends, just friends...
...right?
The next day, Izumi decided to check on Koizumi because they haven't been seeing each other for a while. After searching for a couple of minutes, looking for her at her usual hangout spots, he had come across the conclusion that she might be in the café.
Shrugging, he decided to enter the cutesy-looking café.
Smells of baked pastries and sugary sweets mixed with a hint of bitter coffee wafted through the air. Izumi stopped in his tracks.
'That scent...could it be?'
"Welcome!" He broke out of his trance and saw Koizumi just at the corner of his eye, standing behind a simple counter,wearing a cute dark pink apron over a floofy-looking dress.
"Wha...Koizumi-chan?!"
She simply smiled in greeting. "Hello, Izumi-senpai!"
"Ah...hello to you too, Koizumi-chan..." he weakly replied. She went out of her counter and lead hin to one of the tables. Laid on top was a cute tea set with polka-dots.
"Sit." He obeyed, surveying his surroundings in wonder.
"Wow...you work here?"
"Yeah! I work part-time in this café to pay for my tuition. Isn't it nice?"
He slowly returned a smile, relaxing a little bit. "Yes, yes it is."
"What would you like?"
"I would like a hot pot of green tea."
"Coming right up!"
Izumi kept visiting every day, always pausing for a while to take in the ambiance before going inside. A couple of guys he knew started visiting as well, such as Yuu and Ren, his roommates. He even invited Wakatoshi for a drink, since they share the same tastes in drinks.
Koizumi-chan, once in a while, lent him some of her favorite novels to read. She was quite persistent, he may add.
"These are some of the best books I have ever read! You won't regret reading them, I promise!"
In the corner of his eye, he spotted a piece of paper sticking out of his binder. Deciding to write a note to Koizumi on a whim, he wrote...
"This is such a nice place to sip tea and read books," he said thoughtfully, "I'll let you borrow some of my favorite titles when I visit again!"
He made a short poem for her as well. It coincidentally had a border. On top, he scribbled: A Poem. 'How cheesy,' he thinks.
He decided to scribble it down anyway.
"Roses are red,
Violets are bloop.
Sugar is sweet,
So is gloop."
Izumi ran out of time to correct what he said, and left in a rush. Wakatoshi passed by Izumi's table, wondering where the hell his friend went and saw the poem, furrowing his ginger eyebrows. He was so weirded out.
'What the actual hell is gloop?!'
A/N: Hahahahi! I'm on a roll today. Wooh! Two parts already :) I hope you loved this part as much as I did. Izumi-senpai is so kyoht *^*