The long awaited day had arrived. Shinji had waited at the meeting place for 15 minutes before the promised time. He was full suited in simple oversize Uniqlo t-shirt combined with cream-coloured jeans. His appearance attracted a lot of people's attention. Some even thought he was a model for a magazine.
It was 10:50 a.m. and Toshiko was nowhere to be seen. It was to be expected since they promised to meet at 11:00, and Shinji happened to arrive earlier out of excitement.
"Yamamura-kun."
Someone called him from behind. He turned around to see who was the one behind the voice. Familiar soothing voice which only hers could melt his heart.
A beautiful noble girl in a long white dress made her appearance in front of Shinji. An elegant style for elegant woman. Her hair was even combed properly and seemed smoother and shinier than ever. Shinji had lost the ability to form a speech.
"Um.. Yamamura-kun, how long are you going to stare at me..?"
She bowed her head a bit, trying to cover her face with her hand but the embarassing face she had was still could be seen.
"Ah, sorry, you're just too pretty."
"T-thanks.." She blushed even harder.
"How can you say that with a smile... that's unfair..." She mumbled to herself.
"Did you say something?"
"No."
Maintaining her cool expression, she walked past him rather quickly.
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up!" She ordered.
"As you wish, my princess."
Shinji didn't let go of his chance to tease his childhood friend.
****
Toshiko took the first step into a building, a friendly employee kindly welcomed both of them inside. The franchise look simple on the outside but had a very well organized interior which made an OCD person like Toshiko felt at ease.
Many adorable cats from different breeds were wandering around the cafe, some were playing around while some were just relaxing on a sofa. The perfect cure for depression was by taking some dose of fluffiness.
"So cute!" Toshiko couldn't restrained herself from letting out these urge to pet but due to the strict rule of the cat cafe, she could only see from afar. Fortunately, some cats took a liking to her and began to approach her. A joyous smile carved out of her face.
*CLICK
*CLICK
"This will be in my collections."
Toshiko was too immersed on the cats she didn't realize Shinji had taken photos of her.
"Yamamura-kun, look!"
A cat was lingering around Shinji for quite a while. A cute ginger coloured little furball was trying to get Shinji's attention by scratching Shinji's t-shirt with its dull claw.
He slightly turned his body facing the cutie, and slowly, the cat was climbing onto his lap. There is a rule in a cat cafe where you can't grab a cat unless you got the permission from the caretaker, therefore all he could do was kindly opening up to the cat and hoping it would be interested to play with him.
"It's a munchkin! So cute!!"
"I'm glad you're enjoying this, Toshiko-chan." He let out a genuine smile, feeling happy for her.
Realizing she had been smiling all this time, she suddenly became aware of her expression and turned off the happy-go-lucky mode.
"J-just so you know I'm happy to see these cats, not because I'm enjoying this date with you or anything."
She might be a tsundere but this time, her feeling was purely directed to the cats instead of Shinji. This was what she had been looking up for ever since the day they agreed on the date. Meeting kittens and chill.
After spending quite a while at the cafe, they moved on to the next destination. The land of where the bookworms consider as heaven.
The library.
As a preparation for the meeting with Hikari the next day, Toshiko thought she would borrow a cooking manual book just in case. Even in this digital era, she still prefer paper over screen. For her, having a physical copy was more satisfying than watching people cook online.
"Umm.. can you go to other section?" She tried to drive him away nicely. Definitely didn't want her childhood friend to know about what kind of book she had been looking for. It would be embarassing.
"If you say so, alright then." He proceeded to the next section as asked.
Shinji had no complaints on wherever she wanted to go. Going to the library was such a 'Yamakawa Toshiko' thing to do. The fact that she was up to something didn't bother him because this was not the first time she was being rather secretful. There were times in the past where Toshiko wanted to do her own things but the outcome was turned out to be wholesome. He had remembered her behavior's pattern.
As Shinji was looking at the books, he heard someone was calling for him.
"Mister."
"Pardon?"
A woman was standing behind him. She was a quite a looker. Petite figure with a baby face. She fixed her glasses to see the person in front of her more clearly. The height difference was crazy. Shinji was 175 cm and the woman was about 155 cm.
"May I help you ma'am?"
Despite her look, she gave off mature aura around her. Plus her uniform was like someone who work in a customer service. That was why he showed some manner and attempt to talk to her politely.
"Can you take that book for me?" She said while pointing out a book that was sticking out of the stacks on top of the shelf.
Bless him for being tall, he reached it so easily.
"Thank you, mister."
"My pleasure. Also, I'm a highschooler and it feels really wrong to be called "mister"."
"Ehh? You seems so mature I thought you're older than me."
Toshiko happened to bump onto them out of nowhere. It seemed she had found her book and was looking for Shinji but coincidentally meeting them when they were having a conversation. Talk about bad timing.
"A friend?" Toshiko asked.
"Not really, I just helped her of something." Shinji clarified.
"I see.." Toshiko was not convinced. She looked at the woman from top to bottom and the first thing that came to mind was:
'A middle schooler?'
'No no no, she's just small. I'm pretty sure she is older.. or is she??'
'Is Shinji into this type of girl?? She's pretty cute.'
Toshiko was quarrelling with her own thought.
"Are you his girlfriend? I'm sorry I just asked him to help me get this book. It's not like what you think, hehe." The woman cleared the conflict inside Toshiko's head with that statement.
"Anyway Imma take my leave. Buh bye girlfriend-san."
"Eh- uhh-- okay. But I'm not.." Toshiko fumbled her speech. She was caught off guard when the woman called her 'girlfriend-san'.
.
.
.
.
"You jealous?"
"I-I'm not!"
As usual, Shinji didn't let the opportunity to tease his crush slide.
*Somewhere at the parking area**
A woman was inside a car, waiting for someone. Soon after, the front car door was opened and a woman with glasses entered in. Seemingly a friend of hers.
"What took you so long?" The woman asked.
"Sorry to make you wait~" The glasses woman replied while posing an apologizing hand gesture.
"Jeez.. what book are you borrowing anyway?"
"A legendary romance novel! 365½ Days!"
"Again with the romance novel? You should've looked for a real man."
"I'm trying okay! It's easy for a married woman like you to say while I'm here struggling!" The glasses woman pouted.
"Hehe, just kidding. You're just like me when before I was married."
"Eeeeehh~ I didn't know that Ayane-senpai was into romance novel too."
"Well, I used to write my own novel in a notebook, and my younger sister was the victim to read my half-baked works."
"Eeehhh~~ that's pretty cool!"
The conversation went on as she drove.