Author's note: I made a mistake in guessing Ai's age when she entered the Lalalie Theather.
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Extra in the Student Council
27. My Line ID:
Today was the appointed day.
Shuu waited at their promised meeting place with Chizuru's junior. (According to Chizuru, she's shy.) Shuu thought and looked at the watch. It was the appointed time, but she still hadn't shown up yet. Then Shuu realized a girl was hiding behind a pillar. For some reason, Shuu felt like she was the one.
"Sakurasawa Sumi-san?" Shuu asked, to which she quickly came out from her hiding spot and approached Shuu.
Shuu waited for a moment, but she didn't say anything. She also didn't move and stayed there. "Sakurasawa Sumi-san," he called again as he matched his height with hers. and this time she nodded.
"Katsuragi Shuu, nice to meet you." Shuu introduced himself, but Sumi became flustered again. (I see, so she's this kind of person) Shuu thought before he reached out his hand for her to take.
Shuu waited for her. However, she didn't take it for a while. Then, as if preparing herself, she took a deep breath and tried to take Shuu's hand, only to pull it back. Still, Shuu won't let her do that. Now that he knew she was trying to reach out but became scared halfway, Shuu quickly took her hand, which made her unconsciously turn and look at him.
Shuu reassured her with a warm smile. "Then, let's begin our date"
***
"Do you have any plans about where we're going today?" Shuu turned to Sumi as they slowly walked hand in hand. Although she seemed to be still flustered by the fact that Shuu grabbed her hand,
"Sakurasawa-san?" Shuu called again, waking her up from her daze. *pikon As if an exclamation mark appeared beside her head, she was startled, and realizing Shuu was staring at her, she panicked.
Sumi somehow felt Shuu was talking to her, but her mind was so occupied earlier that she didn't catch a single thing.
"Have you decided where we're going today?" Shuu repeated his question, understanding her circumstances.
This time, Sumi heard clearly and shook her head immediately. Actually, she had a plan, but she's unable to say it out loud.
"Then…" Shuu thought for a moment, "As this is a practice date, let's do a default date a couple would do." Shuu suggested, "Do you want to eat something light?" Shuu asked yes-or-no questions again.
And this time, Sumi nodded, and her face was decisive, albeit still shy.
Shuu led the way after he got her confirmation once they arrived at their destination. Sumi was quite surprised by the place Shuu brought her to.
'Cafe Stella' the place introduced by Chizuru.
Watching her dazed state, Shuu gently smiles "Are you surprised?" He asked, "I thought because you seemed close to Ichi–" Shuu quickly corrected his words. He didn't know whether Sumi knew her real name or not, but as their relationship came from their part-time job, Shuu didn't want to risk it and just used her name instead because it was bothersome to consciously correct it each time.
"You seemed close to Chizuru. I thought maybe you came here with Chizuru before. It's more relaxing to enter a place you are familiar with, right?"
Sumi nodded at his explanation, then a bit later she finally realized (He's calling Senpai by her name), and when he turned to Shuu to make sure she didn't hear it wrong, he'd already entered the cafe. "!?" Sumi quickly followed.
After giving his order to the maid, Shuu watched Sumi tell her order to the maid by pointing the picture on the menu. After she's done, Shuu calls the maid again. It was the same Yamato Nadeshiko-like pretty maid as before.
"Can I borrow a pen and a small note?" Shuu requested.
The maid was confused by the unusual request, but she quickly recovered: "You can. Please wait a minute." She agreed with his request and left, then came back with a pen and note.
"Thank you," Shuu said, and he no longer cared about the maid, On the other hand, the maid also went back to her work.
Shuu watched Sumi, still anxious, not knowing what to do in this situation. She had many times like this with her client, but each time she was unable to speak, even when the other side talked to her. While she's still struggling to speak, suddenly a note comes into her view.
[ 1+1 = ] written on the note. Sumi was puzzled and turned to Shuu.
Shuu didn't say anything and just gestured to her to answer the question by giving her a pen.
After Sumi answered it, Shuu took it back and gave her another [ 2+2 = ]
Sumi looked at Shuu again, but he still asked her to answer.
And then the next came. [ Can you write? ]
[ Yes ] she wrote and didn't bother to check Shuu's intentions anymore.
[ What did you order? ]
[ A slice of strawberry shortcake and black tea ]
Sumi waited for the next note, but when it came, it surprised her. [ My Line ID: 7XXXXXXX99 ] Sumi turned to Shuu again and saw him gently smiling at her with a smartphone in his hand.
Then Sumi also took out her smartphone and added that number.
Shuu waited till she was done and accepted her friend request.
[ Hi ] Shuu sent a message.
Sumi read the message. Explanation marks floated around her head, and she became puzzled again. She turned to Shuu for a moment before re-reading the message again. [ Hello? ] she replied.
[ Giving your contact information to a stranger you just met for not even an hour, are you alright in the head? :yare yare: emoticon ]
(?!) Sumi was shocked by that message. She looked at Shuu again, and Shuu was still smiling like before, but this time he pointed to his smartphone screen as if telling her to read the message.
Sumi thought she read it wrong and read it again. (It's still the same!) She thought. and send back [ :angry: emoticon ] But as if Shuu had calculated this, their order came at the perfect moment. Shuu put away his smartphone and didn't read her message.
Watching that, Sumi spammed her emoticon, and Shuu's smartphone kept vibrating and rang in a small sound of notifications. but Shuu ignored all that and blissfully enjoyed his sweets.
Eventually, Sumi gave up and also ate her shortcakes vexedly.
***
"Hahaha!" Shuu laughed when he checked the emoticon spam on his message after he'd finished enjoying his sweets.
Sumi looked at Shuu when he laughed, but when Shuu turned to her, Sumi instantly turned away, refusing to meet his gaze.
"Are you sulking by any chance?" Shuu asked, but Sumi still refused to see him. "Haha, you're so cute." Shuu let out a small laugh because of her cute antics.
Thinking he was teasing her again, Sumi unconsciously pouted even more. Until she heard...
"But you can have a conversation with that, right?" Shuu pointed to her smartphone.
Sumi was dumbstruck and quickly remembered what they just did (We're having a conversation…) She thought.
"Well, giving your contact information to a stranger is a no-go, though." Shuu added, which made Sumi pout again [ :angry: ] She sent another emoticon.
"Haha," Shuu chuckled. "If you're done, let's go to our next schedule." Shuu called the maid from before and said, "Thank you for the pen and note." He returned the items and went to the cashier to pay.
And as he was about to pay, he felt a tuck in his shirt. Shuu turned and found Sumi. "You want to pay for it yourselves?" Shuu asked, to which Sumi quickly nodded. "Alright," Shuu replied, turning to the cashier again.
"How much for everything…? Alright, here it is." Shuu paid for them all, leaving Sumi flabbergasted. "Let's go." Shuu took her hand before she could react and led her out of the cafe.
When Sumi was about to complain to Shuu…
Shuu let go of her hand and opened his palm toward Sumi. "Your share would be XXXX yen," he smirked at her.
(....!?) Sumi realized he did that just to tease her like this. She gave him the money, but she sent him a few more emoticons before that, which caused Shuu to chuckle again.