"Hey wait a second! The library wasn't that much old!? I have always thought it was here from ancient history, the way its interior looked like. Those stingy baldies, can't even spend pennies on a goddamn library." And by the look of the surroundings she was so familiar yet unknown to her, there didn't seem to be any parks nearby.
"Of course, this is a commercial area, there you would find restaurants, but no cheap place to sit over, let alone a park. And I got no money to sit in such a cafe. Let's check if this gross-looking backpack has got any bucks on it."
She rummaged through the backpack to find any money, "Oh, thank heavens it has a few," she counted how much there was. "Oh, well, it is really a few. Would I be able to even manage a cup of the cheapest coffee there?"
She pondered for a while and then decided to go to the coffee shop anyway, "Well here goes nothin'. I can always walk out if I can't manage to choose a coffee right, that is, if I am not kicked out."
———
*cling-clang*
"Welcome to our cat cafe, customer."
Airi entered the coffee shop and was greeted by the overly warm workers, and so much lively atmosphere as a cherry on top. There were so many people, some talking to their companions, some to those cats they were petting, and having warm cups of coffee. Some were alone, some were with a group, and all those chatters and meows and purrs made the place noisy to the point it was comfortable, well, probably to all the people in the world.
But this was not so comfortable to her at all!
If she could, she would wipe out all of'em!
That's how bad she is with cats.
Everyone present there had this weird flowery aura around them, and there she was, wearing a black jacket, and a pair of trousers, with a bizarre pink shade and white little flowers printed on them, totally standing out like a sore thumb.
And for the first time, she noticed her attire. That was so not appropriate.
Overall, she looked like someone ran away straight from a mental asylum.
———
'I should've at least checked once before I came out.'
'Sigh!'
She sighed at her fate right now. "How I wish this jacket had a hood, I so wanna hide my face damn!!"
A waiter tapped lightly on her shoulder as he asked, "Would you like to have a seat? On a cat zone or without it?"
There's no way she would take a seat with those furry devils wandering around…
"Without, please. And could you… find a seat at the farthest corner… if that's not a hassle…?
"Sure, young lady. Let me show you your seat."
After she was seated at a table at the innermost part of the cafe, she clasped her hands together in front of her face to hide the embarrassment shown on it. "Uwahh, that was so embarrassing. And to think it would be somethin' I can't totally tolerate, talk about havin' baddest luck, eh!"
"What are you doing here?"
A deep yet young male voice sounded above her, and following that she looked up to meet eyes with a young boy around her age, well, her current age.
The boy was quite tall, as he totally framed the view in front of her. He was wearing the same uniform as the other workers.
Maybe he is one of the workers here.
He looked like an energetic and sporty kind of guy, with a well-built physique, despite him being young. The uniform he had on made him look quite handsome, as it perfectly shaped his figure.
He wasn't too fair skinned. Rather he had a bit tanned brown skin tone, and of course, a smooth skin without any flaws.
He had a bit wavy, medium-length black hair, mostly parted to the left side of his face, the smaller part perfectly styled with hair gel, making him look like some kind of refined butler on those shoujo mangas.
"Ikemen butler-san," she voiced out in her head, still dazed by the heavenly view she was getting.
But there was only one flaw on that face. His brow was all scrunched up, it kinda made him look angry and displeased to a dangerous extent.
"Hey, I am talking to you! You became deaf or what?"
"Eh?"
"I said, 'What are you doing here?' You were supposed to be tied down at home right?"
Another flaw of his. He is outright rude.
"I… guess I recovered? Hehe…" Airi scratched her hair with a bit embarrassed look on her.
"You seem quite thrilled, who just went ahead dying after causing this much of a trouble."
'Hah? He knows that too?'
He knows Arne, and very well for sure. And somehow, she felt like they were so not in a harmonious relationship.
"Just because you are a customer here, don't go ahead thinking that I am going to treat you nicely." That boy stated with an equally annoyed tone on him.
"Well excuse me. You ain't doin' it now either. So, if you'd just do your job, that would be just great."
Airi got really mad at that tone of him. No matter how bad of a relationship you have with Arne, you just can not go shouting at a customer, boy!
"Wow, surprisingly, you are talking back." He seemed to be taken aback after getting an angry response from her, causing the annoyance in his words to tone down a little bit.
"Oh, shouldn't I have?" Airi continued to talk back to him, but for some unknown reasons, she couldn't seem to stop herself, rather, she found it easy to voice out anything in her mind to him.
"You just… never did."
"Guess I should just shut it up before I let slip-ups anymore." Airi stopped talking totally, thinking that to herself.
'Urusai-yo, baka Airi'
She kept cursing herself in her head, while on the outside she decided to make him go away with a food order. "One chocolate cold coffee, with extra choco chips, thank you." Airi thought he would stretch up their argument a bit more, but surprisingly he went away without saying anything.
"What a waste of that eye-candy. I mean, he could have been popular with the way he looks. But he hadta be this rude."
She cursed that guy some more until her coffee arrived. This time, it was a girl, who might be a little older than her. "Here is your chocolate cold coffee."
"Ah, ariga… thanks I mean." She swore she would have kicked her own ass for eternity if she could. How pathetic was she letting her otaku-ness slip off even in such a foreign time and space! "Totally askin' for death…"
"Um, pardon?" The waiter was startled by her words, and maybe got a bit weirded out too…
Oh, damn, she totally heard ya', didn't she?
Airi hurriedly responded back nodding her head sideways. "No… I'm sorry, it's nothin'. Just talkin' to myself, haha."
I hate cat cafes… there is no way I'll ever step in here, even if I die again...
"Do you need anything else?" Airi broke away from her thoughts by the voice of that waiter.
"No, thanks. Ah, well… I guess I do." Airi signaled the girl to come near her and whispered in her ear, "Who is that boy, who just took my order?"
The girl went into full blush mode as she softly replied, "Oh, my, you noticed him too? That's Shiro. He is our brightest star here. He looks so hot despite being so young. He is just a high school sophomore you know?
Then he is a year junior then Arne is...
"But he seems a bit, grumpy I guess?"
"Grumpy! Impossible! Are you sure you are not mistaken? He is the most social and softest guy here. He is so helpful that people can't help falling for his charm."
'That sounds like it's you who have fallen for him.' She kept that thought to herself though.
"Well, thanks then. I will enjoy my coffee now."
The female waiter bowed and went away.
"Rude despite being an underclassman? What did I do, snatched your lunch or what?" she mumbled under her breath.
"Well, no time wasting on some rude punk. Guess imma check up those pieces I gathered now."