Oen Puece belongs to Goda. Author's notes are down below.
The girlish teasing and chattering of a group of young, female crew members of the production died down as soon as Cutty Flam entered the female dressing room – well, he was just leaning on the door frame, really – but it doesn't stop them from being all giggly. Vivi – the gorgeous, but modest, blue haired goddess, the main star of the production – threw a light cushion pillow towards Flam, aiming to hit him on the face, and yes, she was still as skilful as her old high school days when she was the Queen of Dodgeball.
"Don't simply enter the girls' dressing room, you pervert," Vivi said, followed by giggles from the girls. They were supposed to get used to Flam already, but he really had spent more time with the flawlessly beautiful – but for some reason, politely morbid – junior producer rather than the actors and actresses. For this reason, Flam became the 'hottie of the team', regardless of other good looking, talented crewmates floating around them, and he was the one those girls would always swoon over at every musical numbers' practices.
"You girls are looking suuuper today," Flam replied with a compliment instead. "Anyways, I'm going off to buy some coffee for the crew… You guys want anything?"
The girls mentioned their favourite Starbucks beverages each alternately, but all the beverages sounded like something from another universe, that Flam had to settle by 'why don't you girls write them on a piece of paper so I won't forget'. The pink-haired, petite young lady at one corner of the room, with eyes fixed onto her script that she seemed she was almost so immersed in it, was the only one who didn't request for anything.
When Nami – the most tomboyish of them all, and the only one who didn't swoon over Flam, or any other boys because she seemed to only show an apparent love-hate relationship with her childishly handsome co-choreographer Luffy – handed him their requests on a piece of yellow sticky note with an already weak adhesive, Flam raised his sunglasses and pretended to read those orders.
"I wouldn't be able to carry this by myself," he said loudly, as his eyes immediately fell onto the pink-haired young lady. "Oi, Perona, you wanna come with me?"
They all turned to Perona, who was as surprised as the others at the mention of her name. "M-me?" Flam hardly had spent time with Perona compared to the rest of the girls, during the three-month period of practice and rehearsal. The girls were a little curious.
"Yeah, you," Flam said with a smile. "C'mon."
Perona pulled the earpod from her left ear, left her script on the dressing table and brought her curious face as she exited the room behind Flam.
"I don't know half the things in that, but I hope you do!" That was what Flam said to the bartender behind the register counter who attended to him and Perona. This Starbucks outlet was a little more comfortable today – it is usually filled with kids who probably had too much pocket money made evident by their stylish choice of clothing – too stylish for people their age – and their choice of food and beverage – because people like Flam and Robin, would, at that age, rather have lunch at some nice and reasonably priced Japanese cafes or even cheap greasy but tasty funfair burger stalls. Right at that moment, this Starbucks outlet was only accommodating a couple of lonely bookworms, three college kids with their laptops and expensive cameras who looked as if they were working on a film project or something, as well as an aged man who sat alone at a corner writing something in a somewhat journal book. There were a few empty tables around, so Flam turned to Perona and asked her, "you want anything?"
"I'm a tea person," she answered nonchalantly, albeit still questioning herself why would she say yes to Flam's invitation in the first place. I'm just helping him carry these coffee back, right? No hidden agendas.
Oh, how wrong you are, Perona.
"We also have tea in the menu," the bartender said as she smiled, pointing politely towards the list of beverages above his head.
Flam raised his eyebrows, waiting for Perona to respond. She scanned the menu, in hope to find the cheapest one – because Flam offered to pay for her – and settled with Iced Chai Tea Latte.
"One Iced Chai Tea Latte, for..."
"Perona."
"Perona," the bartender scribbled Perona's name with a black marker on the medium sized transparent plastic cup, and turned to Flam. "What would you like, sir?"
"Do you have Cola?"
"No… Sorry, sir."
"Oh, okay. I'll have whatever she ordered."
"Sure," the lovely bartender smiled, "what should I call you, sir?"
"Perona's friend."
So she scribbled 'Perona's friend' onto another cup, giggled a little and proceed with the payment. Flam requested their orders to be prepared first, so the bartender did so. It was a hint to Perona that Flam had another agenda, since they were sitting at a small table, not far from the bar top.
She tugged to her little sling bag which looked like a stuffed teddy bear in bandages and a blue circus hat, and savoured her iced tea, waiting Flam to reveal his motives, but he was too busy having to adjust to tea instead of his favourite carbonated beverage.
So she had to ask. "Is there something you wanted to say to me?"
"Huh?" Flam gave out a surprised expression, whether it's faked or genuine, Perona couldn't tell. "Nah, I just wanted someone to help carry the drinks, and you're not busy, so-"
"I was reading my script," Perona answered.
"Yeah, okay," Flam almost laughed, but maintained his cool demeanour. "I'm s'possed to believe that when today's the last day of the show and you've pretty much pulled off Anastacia super incredibly for the past six nights in a row."
She was a little pissed off, although what Flam said was technically true. She didn't need the script anymore, to be honest. It was mainly a prop for real life – she wasn't exactly in the mood for giggly girl talks and she had a lot on her mind, Zoro, to be honest – and it was just an excuse to be left alone by the giggle squad. "Cutty Flam, you're a senior and I don't wanna be rude, but I really don't want us to get on each other's bad side, cos I wanna waste my time building that kind of relationships-"
"I'm not tryn'a get on your bad side, Pinky," Flam replied casually, with a slight smile this time. "I just wanna know if you're okay. I mean, you did super onstage but when you're not onstage… ngeh, you know? You seem off."
Perona sighed, taking another sip of her iced tea. "That's… I thought… Since you and Robin are technically best friends… Ugh." She was lost of words, but Flam definitely got what she meant.
"It's that Zoro thing, right?"
Wow, Cutty Flam. Such straightforward. Many honesty. Wow.
"If I know that our junior producer is my current boyfriend's ex, I wouldn't even audition for this shit," Perona confessed with a heavy sigh and her gloomy expression, which were very out of her bubbly character. "I should've listened to Zoro. I shouldn't even come here. Shouldn't even run away from home."
"Hey, don't be so angry 'bout yourself. You did great for an eighteen year old."
"Yeah, but have you seen Robin? She's Nico Robin. She's mature and pretty and flawless and talented and she writes my script, and the whole damn script, and she sings, even though she doesn't sing when people are around that much, but you sang with her, right? And I," she said, restlessly, "I'm just an actress with a hipster-coloured hair, and I ran away from home and I put my current semester on hold. Would you really think Zoro would still be interested in me?"
"Oi, oi, my hair's blue," Flam said, although it was an attempt to joke, it failed. He really was clueless of what to say next, apparently. Life was being a little harsh on this little girl, who only went out here to seek an opportunity in realising her dreams in musical theatre. Go on stage, perform musicals, maybe build a stable career and fame and glory out of this one thing that she really loved. She never expected this sort of thing would happen – the love triangle, no, the reunion of old flame between the cool older girl who helped her accomplish that dream, and the guy she dearly loved.
"Flam, you're friends with Robin. Do you know why they broke up?" Perona asked hesitantly.
"You never confronted Zoro about it?"
"I'd be a crazy idiot if I did that."
"Well, you'll only be listenin' to one side of the story though, but I'm not taking any sides, you know. Maybe things just doesn't work out for them and, you know."
She glanced at her watch. "Three fourty five. We have time."
Nico Robin and Roronoa Zoro were the cutest thing you could ever find in Water Seven High School. Despite the two years age gap, there were more extraordinary things you'd find about this pair that you would comment as impossible, but fit so perfectly that you would drown in your own tears of how glad you are wrong about it. Like the fact that Robin is a studious bookworm and Zoro nearly flunked all his tests in one year. Or that Robin likes coffee and Zoro prefers alcohol – which was a secret from everyone else until he smuggled a few bottles of Jack Daniels to their high school prom.
Or the fact that Robin had so much class, grace and whatever dynamic aura that made every boy in school line up to offer carry her books to class, and in contrast, Zoro was sort of a fuck-rules-I'll-do-whatever-I-want kind of boy, the badass of the block with an impeccable sense of justice despite how his character looked like.
They have one thing in common, though – they are both introverts. They barely have steady friendships, because it was high school, and you need to wear awesome clothes even though they cost you half your monthly allowance, look good even though you need that ludicrous amount of hair products in your hair every day, listen to cool music even though you really hated them because they're overplayed, otherwise you're going spend every lunch in the toilet cubicle with your iPod, your sweaty feet and probably a series of 'what-if's questions meddling in your brain. But Robin and Zoro weren't like that, and they couldn't care less about the high school system.
Oh, they had another thing in common too – they were fond of music. It happened when Zoro was on the way to Ace's house, one day, with a strapless guitar in his hand, held on the neck. Long story short, he ran into Robin, who was a little too excited about a new book she had bought from the bookstore at the end of the street, to focus on what was coming. The guitar broke, followed by Robin's endless apologies, but Zoro didn't really mind much about it, anyway. He cancelled his guitar lesson with Ace due to the now damaged instrument – and ugh, now he had to buy a new one, and it would cost him the whole month's allowance if he ever needed a decent one.
Duh, of course he needed a decent one. Something that sounds good for a solo.
But Robin kindly offered to pay for a new one, so they went off to the nearest music store for a new guitar.
"Oi, you don't really have to pay for it, you know. I can afford it myself."
"I would feel guilty if I didn't. Let me pay for the new one."
And without knowing each other's names, they spent nearly two hours in the music store, meddling around with other instruments – Robin was surprisingly good on the piano, but knew little guitar, and Zoro knew so much guitar, but is a little sucky with the piano. They became comfortable with each other very quickly though, and the store manager was being very friendly because he 'haven't seen a musical couple quite this lovely in years', a comment that made them choked and immediately resume looking for the perfect new guitar.
"What about this white one? This looks nice," she commented.
Zoro picked up the six stringed instrument from the rack, and examined it closely. "It's not semi-acoustic, but it's Ibanez, so it's probably good."
That very moment, Robin realized that a boy with an instrument is very much appealing. She was glad that he ended up with something of her choice – the white guitar. They both paid for it, and it was a good deal anyway.
"Thanks." He told her.
"You're welcome." She gave him a warm smile.
"You know, I honestly didn't think you'll come off like this. I mean, I heard you're a lil bit cold to strangers."
"You know me?"
"Yeah. Nico Robin. Everyone in school knows you."
"Well, I felt a little betrayed. Why didn't you tell me that you knew my name?"
"You never introduced yourself, didn't think it was important."
"Ah."
"Don't worry. I only believe what I see. You're nice."
"I'm only a little rude to the boys who are vain. I might have to kill the one who spread false stories about me seducing him at Film Club's movie night last Friday, though. Now that I invested some of my money on your guitar, there is no way I could hire someone to dig a hole in the woods behind the school…"
He gulped.
"I'm just kidding, Zoro."
He laughed nervously, which lasted for a second or two. "I knew that. Wait, you know my name?"
"Apparently, you're quite as famous, too. You stood up for the bullied kid in the cafeteria last week, didn't you?"
"Uh, that's because I couldn't have lunch in peace with noisy fat kids who think they're so strong. I never wanted to be known, anyway. But uh, you know my name. Why didn't you say something?"
"Well, you never introduced yourself, so I didn't think it was important as well."
There, right there, was the beginning of their friendship, which later turned into something much more meaningful, called love.
I promised you a flashback, so here's a flashback! I also promised you that Chapter Nine is going to be a flashback and the second last chapter, but what do you know, this thing turned out longer than I planned it would be. I never planned to have a backstory on how they met, but you know, when ideas flow you just gotta let it flow. I intended to only tell how they broke up, here, but the backstory on how they met just took up so many words so... I guess you'll see them in the next chapter?
I have high chances of being murdered if this wouldn't end up a Zoro/Robin, but I love how you guys want me to end the story the way I planned it. I shall prepare a fort for myself! (But that doesn't mean that I'm gonna make a sad ending. I'm still torn between two, hoho.)
I'm currently writing the 11th chapter (the last chapter) so, how does that sound? Are you excited?
Thanks in advance for the reads and reviews. Bad or good, we writers appreciate reviews, and constructive criticisms are humbly accepted, we learn, we grow, we improve. This is why I love this community.