Chapter 1 - Café Dream
"Hey, Z!" a friend calls out to his friend.
The two live together as roommates in Z's house and have been best friends since they were toddlers. J, standing at 186 cm in height, with tanned skin, black hair, and bluish-gray eyes, smiled brightly. Standing at 183 cm, she is just a few centimeters shorter than him. She has short, wavy, raven hair; soft, pale but supple skin; and hazel eyes that are slightly squinted.
"Have we ever hung out in a coffee shop before?" Her friend J asks her as they walk past a newly opened café near their workplace, which just opened a month ago.
She deadpanned at her friend and said, "Bruh, have you ever done anything not concerning software?"
"We go out clubbing though!" J claimed.
"That's occasional." She spoke calmly.
"—When you're looking to get laid." He teased her.
"Are you speaking for yourself?" She raised an eyebrow.
He put his arms around his friend. "Forget it. How about we buy some? We still have a lot of time to spare."
Z ponders for a second but then agrees with her friend. "Sure, why not." She agreed and followed up with, "I've been having trouble with how I should spend all the money I've got in my account."
J laughs heartily at the comment and replies, "No sh*t, let's f*cking go."
"Wait, aren't cafés different from coffee shops?" Z stopped J and asked.
"Who the hell cares?" The latter answered.
"Pfft. Fair enough. Let's go." Z chuckled as they both turned around and went inside the shop. They quickly head inside and go straight to the counter to order their drinks.
"It's quite troublesome having too much, yes?" He pursed his lips as if thinking and continued, "How about we separate, and I get half of your assets?" He said this while holding up his chin and looking at the menu located above the counter.
"I want a divorce." With a straight face, he joked, then looked her in the eyes.
Little did he notice that the girl is currently lost in a dream world because she has seen the most beautiful girl she has ever laid eyes on.
He tried to wait for a rebuttal, but after her friend did not speak for a while, he then looked again at the menu with sweat forming in his head. Disregarding his friend's reaction, he thought to himself, 'ah sh*t, we're holding up the line. Do we just order like any other restaurant?"
'Ugh, fuck it, I'll just go with the drink that those movies and TV show always order.'
J then says to the cashier girl without looking at her, "We'll have two Iced Americanos."
The girl in front asked, "Which size?"
J looked down at the girl thinking 'Oh, she's cute' then to Z then back to the girl forming a smile, 'Woah, bruh, you freaking dumbass help me with this and stop it with the staring, you!'
"Hey, what size, she asked." J nudged her and she accidentally slipped with a high pitch, "Large!"
The pretty girl smiled a little and proceeded to point out the sizes they had displayed at the sides of the counter. With that, Z went offline and passed the whole thing to her friend, which J wholeheartedly understood.
"She meant tall, I'm sorry; she's kind of shocked," he said, shaking his head, adding, "Traumatized, even."
"That's totally fine. Your names please?" While looking at Z, who was holding a Sharpie and a cup, the pretty girl said.
"Huh, I- I'm, uh, I'm..." Z stutters while never looking away, held captive by a set of green eyes. A shade of green and a burst of gold radiating outward from around the pupil complete the set of her perfect smile.
"I'm J, and this is Z. And we'd like it to go please." J saved Z from her misery, and couldn't take the secondhand embarrassment anymore.
"Catchy names or letters?" She giggled, "Thanks! Please stay to the side to wait for your drinks. Thank you for coming, and I hope your marriage works out!" She paused for a moment and whispered to J while wrinkling her nose, "She seems to be in too much shock."
Z and J made a confused look, but soon J remembered that he had said something like a divorce earlier, and he just wished that he didn't blow this up for his friend.
Before he can say anything, a random stranger coughs intentionally, indicating for them to move out of the line if they are done giving their order.
J scoots his friend over to the side to wait for their order while laughing discreetly. "Oh man, you totally bombed that for you, eh? Sorry, bro, I- ksksksks! I-"
"Stop it, you motherf*cker!" Z elbowed him in the stomach. He still can't stop laughing while holding his tummy.
"Dude, I get it. She's pretty and all, but c'mon, you gotta stop staring at that girl. You look like a creep." J spoke animatedly.
"Shut up! I ain't staring, you dumbass." Z said while side glaring at her friend.
"Whatever you say, creep." Putting both his hands up in the air, J shrugged. They head to the nearest table and wait for their drinks. Both of them kept on looking at the pretty girl, and then J said, "You know what? I think I know that girl."
Z looked at him curiously as he continued, "I think we were neighbors—no wait—I think we were classmates in grade school. We lived together in harmony.
...then everything changed when the fire nation attacked."
They blankly looked at each other for quite a while before they heard the bell ring, grabbing their attention as a guy called out with a hyped tone, "Two iced Americanos for Jay-Z!"
They both stood up from their seats as Z lightly punched J's arms, shaking her head, and said, "F*ck you!" as they both moved on to pick up their order.
They both exit the shop laughing and bickering at each other.