Chapter Text
“So what kind of coffee do you think Kaoru-senpai drinks? I need to know, this is important.”
Tomoe snorted. “Seta-senpai doesn’t drink coffee. She drinks a cup of milk and sugar with a little coffee mixed in.”
Himari’s jaw dropped. “What? But Kaoru-senpai is so cool, that...that doesn’t seem right at all!”
“Why does it matter how Seta-san takes her coffee?” Ran said cooly before taking another bite of her lunch.
“Writing another fanfic, are we?” Moca said, her trademark lazy smirk adorning her face as she leaned back against the rooftop fence. “Is this one a coffee shop AU?”
Himari sputtered, nearly dropping her lunch as her face went bright red. “Th-that’s not...I’m not even…” It was all she could squeak out before devolving into incoherent babbles.
“Aha, caught ya,” Moca said, sounding extraordinarily pleased with herself. “I can see riiiiiight through you, Hii-chan.”
“Moca-chan, please.” Tsugumi figured that this was as good a time as any to step in. This sort of thing was ingrained in her at this point. “Leave Himari-chan’s hobbies alone.” It was no secret to the rest of Afterglow that Himari wrote “fan fiction” not just of the various romance manga she enjoyed, but also about the Prince of Haneoka herself, Seta Kaoru. It was just a matter of getting the other members (namely Moca) to stop teasing her about it. It wasn’t even that bad, really. Sure, a lot of what she wrote was cheesy, but that served to make it even more satisfying. Not that Tsugumi was biased or anything.
“Wait, hold on, go back.” Tomoe raised her arms slightly in confusion. “What the hell is a coffee shop AU?”
It was almost unsettling how quickly Himari’s expression shifted from embarrassment and visible distress to barely-contained excitement. Ran could be heard letting out a long breath through her nose right before Himari launched into an enthusiastic explanation. “So sometimes romance is thrilling when it’s about star-crossed lovers in life-or-death situations defying everything to be together, right? But sometimes it’s more beautiful when it’s more everyday and ordinary!” She clutched at her chest. “Sometimes you take characters who lead exciting lives and put them in an everyday situation, one that you might find yourself in sometimes! Like a chance meeting in a coffee shop!” Himari was swooning by now, and the hearts in her eyes were almost visible. “To make a destined connection, in a place as simple as the line at a cafe and with someone as ordinary and hardworking as the barista...that is true romance!”
There was a somewhat too long moment of silence as Himari finished her...well, it was sort of an explanation, in a really impassioned way. Surprisingly, it was Ran who spoke up first. “What’s so romantic about a coffee shop?”
Another uncomfortably long silence. Followed by all eyes shifting towards Tsugumi. “Um...why are you all looking at me?”
Tomoe reached up to scratch the back of her head. “Well, you’re a barista, right?” She said. “So you’d probably know all about coffee shops and romance, right?”
“Of course she would!” Himari still seemed to be swept up in the apparent genuine interest in one of her hobbies. “Tsugu knows her way around a coffee shop better than anyone else we know! Surely you’re familiar with seeing a customer come in, and then you take their order, and then there’s this spark, right?”
“Yeah Tsugu,” Moca teased, “I bet you know all about getting crushes on your patrons, hm? Care to tell us who the really cute ones are?”
Now it was Tsugumi who was blushing. “O-oh, it’s not like that at all!” She said, waving her hands defensively. “We’re friendly with all the customers, obviously, especially the regulars, b-but that kind of thing doesn’t really happen, sorry.” She smiled sheepishly. What else was she supposed to do when being put on the spot like this?
“Yeah, I know,” Himari sighed, now having again dramatically shifted her emotions, this time toward disappointment. “But it’s fun to imagine, y’know?” A slight dreamy look started to return to her eyes.
“I suppose it is for you,” Tsugumi said with a small laugh. “But I’m just a normal barista. It’s nothing special.”
The conversation soon steered away from coffee shops, somehow toward some kind of debate about whether some anime character could beat a different character from a different anime in a fight, but even as she listened in something was sticking in Tsugumi’s mind. What if she somehow made that kind of connection with a cafe patron? A “spark,” as Himari had called it? It was a little silly to think about. She was a plain, ordinary girl who worked at a plain, ordinary coffee shop. She was hardly very interesting or appealing outside her job, and probably not much changed about that while she was working. What kind of person would even feel a spark with her? Sparks were for cool and interesting people. Like Eve. If anyone was going to meet their soulmate while working at a cafe, it would definitely be Eve. Eve was a model, an idol, and a modern-day samurai, all on top of already being a gorgeous foreign beauty, and Tsugumi was...well…
An espresso probably had more appeal and character than her, didn’t it?
Hazawa Cafe was usually quiet in the late afternoons. Most of the customers came in during the few hours following lunch, and by 4 PM almost everyone would have cleared out. Today wasn’t any different. The first rays of the setting sun crept through the window as Tsugumi kept herself busy cleaning up behind the counter. They would close in an hour or two, but for now she was here, keeping watch for any latecomers.
The familiar tinkling of bells as the door opened caught her attention. The person who stepped through held it.
“Ah!” She perked up, the sight of one of her favorite regulars bringing a genuine smile to her face. “Good afternoon, Sayo-san.”
With the same breathtaking grace she carried herself with everywhere else, Sayo approached the counter, her face its usual mask of bored disdain save for the almost imperceptible upward turn of the corners of her mouth. It was something that at this point Tsugumi was sure only she was able to notice. “Good afternoon, Hazawa-san.”
“Plain black dark roast like always, right?” Ever since they had gotten to know each other when the cafe had held a baking class, Sayo seemed to come here almost every day at this late hour, often to do homework or study. At this point Tsugumi had a pretty good grasp on her tastes. She was simple and unpretentious, and reluctant to overindulge. “Oh, and that cake over there was just made this afternoon.”
Sayo eyed the remaining half of the cake in its display case. “Cinnamon crumb…” She said, her eyebrows knitting together thoughtfully. Her gaze seemed to soften just a little, the smallest of lights shimmering in her eyes at the prospect of house-baked goods. Once again she turned that gaze toward Tsugumi, and she really couldn’t help but wonder just what was in the depths of those beautiful jade eyes. “That sounds wonderful. I’ll have a small piece.”
Even as she rang up Sayo’s order and gave her the total, she couldn’t even remember what it was. All she could focus on was Sayo’s slow blink and gentle nod of acknowledgement, the feel of their fingers lightly brushing as she handed her change back, the way her hair moved as she turned to take a seat at a table, like the branches of a willow in a gentle wind. It took her a small extra second to get started on Sayo’s order, just an extra second so Tsugumi could take her in.
It would never happen, of course. It never could happen. But it would really be something if Sayo had a crush on her, wouldn’t it?
Himari was right about one thing, Tsugumi mused. It was fun to imagine.