"Nothing much. You were just CLINGY," Sakura answered as casually as she could. From her observations, Haru easily gets flustered, and talking about the other things he did last night would just make things awkward.
"And?" Haru narrowed his eyes.
Sakura started babbling, "And you really wanted to flex your body and even asked me if I wanted to see it. You even told me you sleep naked, then you removed your shirt and fell asleep on my bed and-"
"Chotto matte," he said, blinking slowly, and his head began to throb again. "I said... what? I sleep…?"
"Naked."
Haru chuckled nervously. He still gets surprised whenever hearing this. He couldn't believe it at first, but Kiyoshi and Kyoko had already witnessed this during their college days. Even if he had already accepted the fact that he has low alcohol tolerance and has this habit when getting drunk, he still refrained himself from drinking liquor.
"Just a quick piece of advice. You should stop showing off if you can't handle your liquor, mister," she let out a soft laugh.
Haru's ears turned red, and he rested his free arm on top of his eyes. There was a sigh of relief, and he was just really thankful that he really didn't fall asleep beside her without any clothes on.
"You're actually so cute when you get embarrassed," a sunny smile escaped from her lips, but her expression became serious when she remembered him crying in his sleep last night. "By the way, are you okay?"
He removed his arm and nodded at her. "I'm feeling better knowing that I didn't do something stupid."
"I mean…" Sakura pressed her lips together.
Ever since he had taken care of her, she knew Haru could be trusted, and his sudden intimacy last night didn't bother her that much even if he was intoxicated. What she wanted to know more was if he had troubles at the moment and perhaps console him, but she didn't know where to start. At the same time, Haru might be dreaming of monsters, criminals, or whatnot, so she thought that she might be overthinking and might just sound intrusive if she asked him about it.
"Hmm?" he mumbled.
She shook her head and smiled at him, "You should get some sleep and don't forget to treat yourself with hangover food later."
"Speaking of hangover food… Not sure what you prefer to eat, but I bought you a sandwich set. It's on your dining table."
"Oh, you did?" her eyes widened in surprise. She quickly grabbed her wooden phone stand on the bedside table and dashed to the dining area. "So what do we have here mm?"
Despite being sleepy, Haru watched her with fondness while she set up her phone on the wooden stand. After taking her seat, she made sure that she was also on the screen as she happily took out the food included in the set.
As if she was vlogging a morning routine, Sakura named it one by one, starting with the ham and egg sandwich, spinach and egg soup, and a side dish of boiled hijiki seaweed mixed with edamame beans, carrots, pickled lotus, tofu, and fried tofu's skin. Lastly, she took out the dessert and the beverage, which were aloe yogurt and vegetable juice respectively.
"This is really so kind of you, Haru! Thank you so much!" she beamed. "How about you? What did you get?" she looked at him, her eyes shining bright early in the morning.
"Onigiri," he turned on his side as he scrambled for the food inside the paper bag. "I got salted cod roe onigiri, boiled egg, a side dish of spinach and carrots with sesame seeds, clam miso soup, and a sports drink."
"No dessert?"
He shook his head side to side in response.
"Eh??"
"It's the simplest set, so no dessert. Don't worry, I'll snatch something sweet at the café during my shift," he brushed the tear created on the corner of his eye from repressing his yawn.
"I'm not so sure if you were fooling around or…" she noticed his sleepy face, so she grabbed her phone from the stand and gazed at him. "You should really get more rest and eat those later, Haru. I'll eat these now and prepare for work."
Haru nodded and as he smiled softly at her, his dimple became evident on his cheek, "I will, and I hope you feel better from eating the sandwich set, Sakura. Oyasumi? "
Sakura chuckled upon hearing his joke, "Oyasumi~ Sweet dreams," and waved her hand before turning off the video call. Haru finally shut his eyes and instantly fell asleep with his hand resting on his chest and phone in his grasp.
---
Later that afternoon, Cafe Ai was filled with the smell of freshly brewed beans while the sunset glow streamed through the windows. As Haru changed the Wednesday K-pop playlist to DPR Live's 'Kiss Me (Kiss Me)', an online order came in.
"Nana, what does it mean when you ki… hug someone in your dream?" Haru inquired as he assembled the drink carrier. He might sound naive, but he's generally curious about it since he hadn't had dreams of kissing and hugging someone.
After Nana preheated the waffle maker, she placed three croffles onto it and pressed the waffle iron, "Do you believe that dreams tend to be realistic?"
Haru glanced at her before preparing the cold brew by putting some ice cubes first into the plastic cup, "Maybe…. maybe not. I'm not really sure that's why I was asking since I don't know myself."
"Right," she sighed. She slapped her forehead and concentrated again on what she was doing. "I believe it's something that will not happen in reality."
His brows creased in confusion as he diluted half of the brewed coffee with water, "How do you say so?"
Nana removed the newly baked croffles from the waffle iron and placed it inside a disposable, yet pretty waffle box, "If someone stole your phone in your dream, do you think it would happen in reality?"
"Hmm… It might happen-"
"What's the probability of it happening then?" she cocked her brow as she sprinkled the cinnamon and powdered sugar on the croffles.
"Nana," he darted a glance at her, "I'm just simply asking. Let's not talk about statistics here." Haru then prepared two more cups of cold brew before pressing the wrap firmly on the cups to prevent leakage during delivery. Afterwards, he covered these with plastic lids.
"Right, sorry about that," she sighed once more before doing another batch of croffles. "Let's say… you met someone unfamiliar in your dream, and you became friends with that person. Would that mean you'd meet in reality and be friends with that person? No, right?"
"So ki… I mean hugging someone in my dream doesn't mean anything, and there's a possibility that it might not also happen in the future?" Haru looked at her, anticipating for her answer.
"Exactly," she snapped her fingers. She then placed Cafe Ai's sticker on the covers and tied the boxes with a brown paper cord, "So whoever you're hugging in your dream and whatever the situation was, it's all meaningless."
Author's Notes:
1. 'Chotto matte' means 'wait a minute'.
2. Croffle is the combination of croissant and waffle.
3. 'Oyasumi' means 'goodnight'.