No matter what she tried, it just wouldn't come off.
Sakuno glared at the object on the table with distaste. Scrubbing it with soapy water didn't work, the frequently advertised "a simple wipe will leave everything squeaky-clean" kitchen spray didn't work, and now she was sitting in the middle of a closed cafe jabbing at this unknown object with a teaspoon. So far she has only managed to chip off a small flake of brown powder from its reasonably large solid form. One more hour? Two more hours? Surely it wouldn't take that long to get rid of a piece of...deformed toffee or melted chewing gum off a table. But the longer she sat there attacking 'the thing', the more unsure she became.
How long have I been sitting here? She looked warily at the clock on the wall. Hmm... half an hour wasted on this vomit look-alike...if I ever find out who left this bloody thing here... Her fingers tightened around the silver spoon as she brought it down with a frustrated bang. The loud noise made several waitresses jump, and a few looked around with an amused light in their eyes. Sakuno gritted her teeth, what's so funny?
"Hey Ryuzaki...need some help?" Sakuno looked around and spotted Madoka walking towards her accompanied by another black-headed girl, although the other girl's hair appeared much younger than both of them, and her hair was neatly trimmed short with a cute wave curling the ends of her hair inwards under her chin. Madoka made her way around the stacked chairs and sat down opposite Sakuno, her uniform still smelled faintly of cigarettes, in spite of her efforts to hide it using three different types of spray-on deodorants. Sakuno gave the object one last blow and, when it still refused to budge, sighed in surrender and dropped the spoon on top of the table with a clatter.
"This is stupid, Madoka-san... I've tried everything and it just won't budge!" She cried and slouched back in her chair. Madoka laughed and wrinkled her nose at the object.
"Arrgh, what the hell is that? I didn't even notice it until halfway through this morning... sorry, Ryuzaki. I shouldn't have told you to stay behind after lunch hours. It's just that I was on the till today and had to check the transactions... aww… I hate money." The older girl concluded with a cool sigh and flicked her long dark hair over her shoulder.
"It's all right, really. I mean... I can never manage anything to do with money, so this is about all I can do for the cafe," She said weakly and pulled out a chair on from another table, then gestured with a smile for the other younger waitress to sit. The girl blushed and bowed, but obediently sat down beside the pair. "Besides, I have to thank you for helping me last time."
Madoka's beautiful black eyes hesitated, but soon brightened as she remembered the incident a few days ago. "...So how did it go? You managed to talk to him?"
Sakuno sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess...but he just kept putting the responsibility on himself. Yet when I e-mailed the Owner the next day he never replied..." She made a strangling sound and buried her face in her hands.
"Hmm, that's interesting. I thought the Owner made a decision that next day." Madoka's voice sliced through the silence like a vibrating arrow, yet it seemed... more for herself than to them
"...Yes, that's what I heard as well." Oblivious of the unusual note in Madoka's voice, the young waitress whispered in shy agreement. "All the other waitresses were talking about it in the kitchen..."
Sakuno lifted her head from her hands. "Why wasn't I told anything?"
It would make more sense for the one who actually caused all these chaos to be informed of the developments first. But it seemed like everyone else was told before her.
"Uh...R-Ryuzaki-san is always in the drinks section... so..." The girl stuttered nervously and lowered her eyes in guilt.
It's like looking at the me from four years ago... Sakuno smiled and patted the girl's shoulder understandingly. "It's not your fault... I just really want to know what will happen... do you know if Akito-kun is coming back?"
"...I-I'm not sure, but the rumour says that the Owner has told him his decision..."
Sakuno swallowed nervously. What exactly has the Owner said? But her thoughts were broken by a series of loud striking sounds as she saw Madoka take over her previous job and was scrapping the solid shape on the table with her spoon, her thin brows locked together in concentration. Sakuno opened her mouth to stop her but was overtook by a low chuckle which rang out behind her.
"Hehe...it's time for the Magic Solution, I think."
Sakuno's heart gave a painful thump against her ribs as she spun around and saw a boy. The boy.
"...Speak of the Devil." Madoka smiled lightly at Akito and her eyes twinkled with amusement. Akito grinned and held up a small plastic bottle in his hands. The bottle labelled literally as "Magic Solution".
"At the rate you're going, the cafe will give away before that thing does-" He unscrewed the top of the bottle and tipped the bottle over the brown object, but was hastily stopped by a hand which shot out to hold back the bottle. He looked around in surprise and found the pair of fuming brown eyes which were so intense they could've burnt holes in his head.
"...Why didn't you tell me you came back?" Sakuno asked with frustration. She felt stupid being the only person who was totally unaware of the situation and yet being the one who really should have been told.
"It doesn't matter now, does it? I'm back anyway." Akito smiled, but her mood could not be lifted by just one simple sentence.
"You still should've told me! ...I was worried." Her voice grew quiet, and she lowered her eyes to hide the tears that were welling up inside the sockets.
"...I'm sorry, Ryuzaki. I didn't know you'd be so worried." She felt a hand patting her head and looked up to see his warm face looking down at her own, his tone apologetic. Magically, she felt her tears dissipate she smiled a little at herself. Before that moment, she's never really known how much she missed that warmth - his warmth. After taking a deep breath to rearrange her thoughts, she clapped her hands together and turned the focus to the mysterious Magic Solution.
"So, what exactly is this?" She held up the bottle by its handle and peered through the opening. But before she could even see the liquid, a sour, pungent smell rushed up her nose and sped down her windpipe, throwing her into a violent coughing fit. Akito took the bottle from her hands quickly and patted her back with a guilty expression
"Err...sorry again, Ryuzaki...I should've warned you about the smell. But don't ever underestimate its strength! This homemade recipe has never failed - in terms of cleaning - since its day of invention! Look closely now..." He tipped the bottle with one hand steadying its opening and another supporting the base. Slowly, like thick blobs of mustard, a liquid (which looked more like thick glue), coloured a brilliant fluorescent orange, poured over the edge and onto the object. Yet its highlighted colour was not the first thing they noticed, but its horribly suffocating smell. Sakuno frowned and hurriedly covered her nose with a towel she grabbed off the counter, but still felt a slight nausea gradually corroding her brain.
Both Madoka and the young waitress were also frowning and waving their hands in the air to dilute its odour, their nose and mouth buried under layers of napkins. Only Akito seemed completely unaffected and totally at ease, with the same old grin on his face as he screwed back the lid on the bottle and stood back after taking note of the time. Then, after an extremely, agonizingly long five minutes (Sakuno was on the verge of spewing by that time... any considerations for her image had long been cast to the back of her mind), Akito went away to the kitchen and came back with an old rag. With a merry tune humming between his lips, he scooped up the gooey orangey jelly with a wipe of the rag, and dropped the whole thing into the waste bin. Easy-peasy.
Sakuno's eyes widened at the sight of the sparkling tabletop, where the remaining orange smears had magically evaporated within a few seconds, and cautiously slid her finger along the wood. Slippery… and rather soft. Madoka and the girl followed suit, and both let out a muffled exclamation as they examined the patch of shining wood. Sakuno was the first to remove her "nose mask", although a faint trace of the sharp odor was still detectable.
"That was unbelievable!" She cried in excitement. "You must teach me how to make it... oh, you have no idea how many hours of work that saved me!" Her face, which had been screwed up due to the terrible smell, softened into a relieved smile. Akito beamed and playfully flicked her forehead.
"Sorry, this is a family secret..." Then he leaned in to her ear to whisper: "Meet me by your locker before you go... I have something to ask you."
She blushed and looked around in surprise, but he had already turned to the other two waitresses to answer their bursts of questions and praises. Despite her curiosity, she headed over to the coffee machines to hurriedly finish the delayed chores that were supposed to be done an hour ago... then she would hopefully know what Akito was up to.
''Ah, sorry to keep you waiting!" Akito waved cheerily at the figure leaning on the row of wooden lockers. The girl looked around and folded her arms in a gesture of annoyance, even though her anger did not seem completely genuine. She puffed up her cheeks like a child as he was approaching and plunged immediately into a flood of complaints.
"Really, you were the one who told me to wait! What happened to all those rubbish about being punctual and keeping customers waiting, and how some people may be in a hurry-"
"Sorry, sorry!" He pressed his hand together and apologized sincerely. Fortunately Sakuno wasn't one who could stay angry for long, as she, too, waved her hands to deny his apology.
"You don't need to apologize... since I was the stupid one who accepted your invitation." She smiled. He gazed down at her and ran his fingers through his hair; she noted this as a sign of his nervousness... but what about? Normally Akito was never unsure about anything... absolute confidence was the only similarity between him and Ryoma, she had always thought. Although this unusually fidgety version of the Head Waiter was rather cute, too...
"Umm..." His deep brown eyes found hers and she caught a rare flicker of unease and hesitation, not that she needed to see that to know he was uneasy. His hand had moved from his hair down to his side now, and she watched curiously as he fumbled with a corner of his uniform. Patiently, she waited for him to reveal the question that he said he was going to propose... and appeared to be extremely difficult to do so.
"I was just wondering...uh... have you ever been to Joypark?"
Her eyes widened. Heavens, was this what she thought it was? "...N-No, I've never been to amusement parks before."
She saw his eyes light up slightly, as he leaned his body forward eagerly. "Then do you want to try it out sometime? ...With me?"
Sakuno felt her heart clench with a feeling that she would never have expected to experience when Akito asked her out on a date. It was a feeling that she couldn't quite identify... yet she could be sure it wasn't terribly positive. Especially since this feeling surfaced with a familiar phrase, spoken by an equally familiar voice. It was merely a distant echo... but a split second was all it took for her to register the voice's owner.
You still have lots more to work on.
The words were already on the tip of her tongue before she fully realized the situation. Shaking her head, she exercised what's left of her self-control to push the phrase back into the deep folds of her mind. Gone was the phrase, gone was tennis, gone was the Prince, and gone was Echizen Ryoma. Yes... this is how it should be. How many times have I hesitated about this? How many times have I pondered over this problem? And how many times have I come up with the same solution?
...I know perfectly well that I've been avoiding this, avoiding to set my mind on a decision... yet that decision has already been made long ago.
His invitation was a dagger, slicing through her hesitation, destroying the last lingering feelings for Echizen Ryoma, threatening her to chain down her fluttering mind to either side of the cliff, where a wrong step towards the emptiness in between would make her fall straight into the depth of turmoil. It was, indeed, time to face her choice, the one that she would no longer doubt.
"…Of course." She smiled and looked directly into Akito's tender eyes. "Let's go in our free weekend three weeks from now."
Akito beamed and seemed slightly surprised that his invitation was accepted so easily. Breathing out a small sigh of relief, he nodded. "How does Saturday sound?"
"Great." She lifted her wrist to take note of the time on her silver watch. "A-Ah, excuse me, Akito-kun... I have to go."
"Of course! Don't forget our date though!" He said cheerfully, with a cheery wave before he pushed open the kitchen's swinging doors.
Perhaps it was both fortunate and unfortunate that he didn't notice Sakuno's tightly clenched fist, white and trembling by her side, since such a sign, which is small and insignificant on the surface, can often contain a deeper layer of meaning within.
A/N: Hello to my dearest readers! Thank you so much again for reading the latest chapter~ Hope it was an enjoyable read :) It seems like I've had a few concerns about Sakuno's final decision between Ryoma and Akito in the last few chapters so all I can say is…. don't worry. Believe in Sakuno's wisdom and it should all be well ;) But for the details I'm afraid you will have to read on~ for you can anticipate a little more adventure before the grand finale! x