A/N: For this one, imagine the appearing characters in whatever kind of casual clothes you want.
-x-X-x-
Cliché
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"Waiter!"
The waiter turned around at the call. After he did so however, he wasn't sure who to respond to, as two people had called for him at once.
The two people in question turned to look at each other from their respective tables, and saw familiar faces,
"Chiba!"
"Hayami!"
-x-X-x-
The two middle school students were now seated at the same table, facing each other. This was fortunate for the waiter, as he now had to take orders from just one table instead of two.
"What would you like to order?" The waiter asked.
"One espresso please,"
"An espresso,"
Chiba and Hayami looked at each other. The waiter smiled.
"Same thing huh? Alright, two espressos it is. Please wait a moment; they'll be ready in a bit." He said before leaving the two alone. Chiba and Hayami turned to each other when he was gone,
"So," They spoke at the same time, prompting both to smile. "You first," Again, the same time…
This time Chiba raised a hand, motioning Hayami to wait, who nodded.
"So, what are you doing here?" The boy asked. "I mean, there's nothing odd with just coming here for a coffee, but…"
"I'm heading to Megu's place, actually." Hayami said. "I just stopped by here because there was still time until the time she asked me to come at."
Chiba seemed surprised by this, "Really? It's exactly the same with me! Did she ask you to help out with the class organizing work, too?"
"Yeah…" Hayami trailed off. "She asked you too?" Chiba nodded. "Wow… so we were going to the same place, stopped by the same café, ordered the same thing and spoke at the same time… talk about coincidences!"
Chiba chuckled, "Yeah,"
Just then, their coffee arrived. The waiter placed the cups on the table and told them to enjoy before leaving again.
"Then I guess we should quickly finish off here and hurry to Kataoka-san's house." Chiba spoke again.
Hayami nodded at this. She then reached for the sugar packets on the table to pour into her coffee. However, at the same time, Chiba had also started moving his hand towards the sugar. This lead to the inevitable touching of their hands over the packets, and as they looked up at each other, green and red-brown-covered-by-black-hair eyes made contact but not really.
They stared at each other for a moment, light hints of pink now on their cheeks, before somewhat shyly retracting their hands.
'What's with these occurrences?! Just the prior ones would've been fine, but if this keeps up…' Hayami thought, looking down to hide her face from the boy sitting across her.
'This is extremely odd. For simple coincidences, this is starting to happen too often.' Chiba thought, before looking up at his classmate. "Um, you go first," He said, motioning to the sugar.
Hayami gave a petite nod before going ahead. Following that initiation, the two went about having their coffee without any more of the incidents. Though, it was still a bit awkward. They were finished soon and decided to head straight to their destination.
-x-X-x-
Chiba and Hayami were now at the door step of Kataoka's home. Being a familiar of the house, Hayami went ahead and rang the doorbell. It took a while for the door to open, but when it did so, the two were taken by surprise. Because standing in the doorway was another one of their classmates, Isogai Yuuma.
"Ah, it's you guys! We've been waiting for you." The male class rep said, stepping to the side. "Come on in,"
"Isogai-kun, I didn't know you would be here too. How many people did Megu exactly ask to come?" Hayami asked as she and Chiba took the invitation and stepped inside. "And is Megu's mother not home? She would usually answer the door."
"Just us three," Isogai said as they started heading upstairs to Kataoka's bedroom. "Being one of the class representatives, it was a given I had to help her out. And for some extra helping hands, we both agreed you two would be reliable. As for Kataoka's mother, she went out to buy some things."
Arriving at the desired room, Isogai opened the door to see Kataoka hunched over on the floor, working on an apparent poster. "Kataoka, they're here,"
The female class rep looked up, "Oh, Rinka and Chiba-kun! So glad you could make it!" She got up and lightly hugged Hayami before leaning back. "I'm sorry but, can you guys immediately get started? We need to finish these by tomorrow and we still have quite a bit to do."
"Sure, what do you need us to do?" Hayami asked.
"Great!" Kataoka stepped back to show them the poster. "I need you two to work on these posters. The outline and essential parts have already been drawn roughly on small papers. You just have to follow them and its fine if you add some quirks of your own. In the meantime, I and Isogai-kun will complete some lists and tables for the class."
Chiba and Hayami nodded in understanding and the four students soon went to carry out their tasks.
About an hour after they started, and as they had just begun working on the second poster, Chiba noticed some of the colors they needed were finished.
"Kataoka-san, do you have any more of these?" The boy asked.
Kataoka looked back from her desk, "Ah, no… not up here at least. But I think there's a pack down in the closet. I'll go get it,"
She was about to stand up but was stopped by Hayami. "No, I will go."
"Alright…" Kataoka reluctantly agreed as Hayami stood up and opened the door. "Ah, but you may need to move some heavy stuff to find it!"
"I will go with her then," Chiba immediately offered.
The two went out of the room and downstairs together. Knowing the house, Hayami found the closet easily enough.
"Here we are," Hayami said, stopping in front of a thin door on a wall. She opened it to find the closet stacked full with several things, from cleaning appliances to boxes. "Megu wasn't kidding when she said we have to move stuff."
"Let's get to it then." Chiba said and stepped inside. Though the space was tiny as with any closet, and he could only place one leg inside before he was stopped by the things there. "We need to take some things out first. I can't find anything that is distinctly a color pack."
"Alright, then hand me the things you need out of the way and I will place them on the side for the time being." Hayami offered.
Chiba nodded and started taking things one by one and handing them to Hayami, who in turn placed them out of the way near the wall. While doing this however, Chiba found a box to be particularly heavy, and as he turned around to take it out himself instead of passing it to Hayami, he misplaced a foot, causing him to trip on a broom stick.
Losing his balance, Chiba found himself heading straight at Hayami. Through quick thinking, he was able to throw the box to the side. But he wasn't able to stop his body and ended up taking Hayami to the floor with him.
When Chiba opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was a pool of green. For a moment, Chiba thought two polished orbs of emerald was placed before his face. But then he realized that those were the eyes of his sniping partner… the sniping partner who was currently pinned under him.
His cheeks heated up when he fully comprehended their position. He was on his elbows and knees, legs on either side of her hips and arms on either side of her head. Their faces were extremely close, he could see a blush on her face as well, with their noses slightly brushing against each other and his hair splayed over her forehead. This also meant that his eyes were now completely visible to the girl below.
Hayami's breath hitched as she stared up at the sharp eyes of the boy over her. Those intimidating reddish-brown orbs, which Hayami had always found somehow appealing, gazing down at her from the position they were in… it was too much for her to take. Her breathing became ragged as the redness on her face started to spread. If they stayed like this any longer…
"Are you guys alright?!" The two snapped out of their daze at Kataoka's voice. She was coming down the stairs with Isogai. "We heard a loud noise! What happened?"
Chiba and Hayami quickly scrambled to their feet as the two class representative reached the floor.
"I just came across a heavy box and lost my balance. Both of us are alright though," Chiba quickly explained.
"Okay…" Kataoka mumbled. "Well in that case, we might as well help out now that we're here, right Isogai-kun?"
"Right," Isogai nodded in agreement and the two went to help. Chiba and Hayami avoided looking at each other while they accepted the help and continued to search for the colors.
Afterwards, having found the color pack, the group of four finished their work without further incident.
-x-X-x-
Chiba and Hayami were now walking home together, admittedly under a bit of an awkward air. They hadn't spoken to one another, save for the necessary bits during their work, since the accident at the closet. They weren't sure how to behave after an event like that.
Now passing through an empty park, Chiba noticed a public bathroom. Figuring a little cooling off could help him talk normally to Hayami again, he turned to the girl,
"Hayami, can you wait till I go to the bathroom for a bit. Or you can also go ahead if you want."
Hayami glanced at the small building he was pointing at before nodding. "Alright, I will wait here."
Chiba nodded as well and hurried over. Hayami in the meantime walked to the side of the path they had been threading and leaned against a tree to wait for him. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the cool soft breeze blowing through the park, relaxing her heart which had been racing since that accident.
About a minute into her waiting, Hayami heard footsteps coming towards her. She opened her eyes and turned around, "That was quicker than I…"
Hayami trailed off part way when she saw that it was not Chiba before her, but two rather nasty looking older boys.
"Hey girl, watcha' doing here all alone?" One of them asked, leaning in close to her.
Hayami grimaced and took a step back, "I'm waiting for someone."
"Waiting eh?" The second one stepped closer. "Whoever makes a cute girl like you wait must be a real jerk. Why don't you play with us for a change?"
"No, thank you. Please leave." Hayami politely requested with an undertone of warning.
"Now come on, don't be like that," The first one said and placed a hand on her shoulder. That was when the polite behavior of Hayami disappeared.
From some distance away, Chiba came out of the bathroom just in time to witness Hayami sweep one guy's feet, dropping him on his back, while twisting another guy's arm behind his back and pushing him to the ground. He saw Hayami rather angrily say some things to the two, who nodded frantically. She then let go of the one she was holding down, and the two scrammed immediately after she did so.
For a moment, Chiba thought about the usual scenario of a girl getting harassed by some guys and the boy who was originally with her coming to save her. But he soon shook off the though and went to Hayami.
"Who were they?" Chiba rather casually asked.
"No one we should concern ourselves with." Hayami said and started walking. Chiba paused a moment before starting as well, going quickly at first to catch up before slowing down to walk beside her.
"Are you alright?" Chiba asked, and Hayami knew it was more concerning her current emotional state than anything the two guys tried with her.
She took a deep breath before releasing it. "I was just a bit angry. Those kinds of people always test me. I'm fine now, though," She said, looking up and giving Chiba a small smile.
The boy returned the smile before they both turned forward again.
"You know, normally it would be the boy protecting the girl in situations like that. I guess they picked the wrong girl to mess with this time." Chiba joked, trying to lighten things up a bit.
Hayami sighed. "Yeah, it felt like one of those overly played out romance scenarios… actually," She looked up again, "Is it just me, or did today feel like a bunch of romance clichés?"
"It did, didn't it?" Chiba agreed. "It felt like some superior force was trying too hard to get us together."
Hayami stared at him for a moment. "Then, did it work?"
"Huh?"
"Did you start liking me?"
Hearing the question, Chiba felt something from earlier return. A fine sheet of red spread across his face in a blush, and Hayami found this to be quite cute. Though, he immediately forced down his fluster and composed himself. And instead of replying to the girl with an answer, he posed the same question to her,
"Did you?"
Hayami's lips formed a knowing smile. Still, she played along and looked up in apparent thought. "Hmm… no, I didn't start liking you,"
Chiba stopped dead in his tracks while Hayami kept walking. He wasn't sure what to think. It was the plausible thing. Why would she just up and start liking him after a silly day of coincidental occurrences? It was only logical that her feelings hadn't changed. Yet, what was this huge weight of disappointment he felt in his chest?
Hayami glanced back as Chiba stayed rooted in place. Seeing the frozen boy, the girl let out a light giggle. Now a light dusting of pink covering her own face, she continued from her last statement,
"Because I already liked you,"
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A/N: NHJGSJDSDYSYFYFEHGDFPFBD JUST MARRY ALREADY!
About the café scene, I have no idea about fancy coffee. I only drink plain packet coffee at home.
I almost went beyond the K+ rating with this one. And I've been having the urge to write a more mature story about them. So it's possible you may see a multi-chaptered T to M rated RyuRin fic in the near future by me.
And yes, I ship Isogai x Megu too -Plus Ultra Bye!
…..
*Psshh*Manga Freak! Manga Freak! Give me a status report! Over!
*Psshh* Manga Freak reporting! Latest news is that Ansatsu Kyoshitsu will end in two chapters! Over!
*Psshh*Roger that. I will go cry in the corner then, over! *Psshh*