New Customers Are A Pain

12

As always, Akechi arrived sooner than Saiki did. Akechi started analyzing him the second he walked through the door.

'Hmm, Kusuo-kun seems gloomy. I wonder why. Is he going to order? I better call to him before he does. He'd feel silly then.'

"Kusuo-kun! Come sit down with me!" Akechi said, waving at Saiki. He didn't wave back and Akechi wondered why.

'But I need to order my-'

"Just come sit!" Akechi yelled cheerfully.

Saiki sat down and looked at the table. On the table was two coffee mugs, a slice of strawberry cake, a cup of coffee jelly, and two small cookies.

"I got here before you, so I decided to surprise you! Ta-da! I considered getting you some sort of cake, but I decided it'd be best to get what you usually order, since it's your favorite. Oh! And Suzuki-san told me about these butterscotch cookies that they had, and I couldn't resist purchasing them. I got one for you and one for me, see? I'm not sure if you like butterscotch, or if you'd even tried it, but I wanted to get you one, just in case."

Saiki began to stand up when Akechi grabbed his hand and tugged gently. Saiki wasn't sure if he was pulling his arm, or the knot.

"Kusuo-kun? Where are you going? Is there something else you wanted? Perhaps you need to use the bathroom?"

'I'm going to pay for my food.'

Akechi blinked in surprise.

"Silly Kusuo-kun, weren't you paying attention? I already did. That was the surprise. I think it'd be awfully rude of me to offer you sweets and then make you pay for them. You can sit back down."

Why was he making this harder than it had to be?

'I can pay you back.'

"Kusuo-kun, I'm not going to let you pay me back. This is a gift from me to you. A gift is unconditional. That means I bought sweets for you without expecting you to pay me back," he said, tilting his head to the side.

'I know what a gift is.'

Saiki couldn't help but be upset about it. Akechi explaining a gift to him, like he was stupid. Him being so nice and carefree; it irritated Saiki in a way he couldn't quite describe.

"I'm sorry Kusuo-kun, I didn't mean to demean you in any way," he said with a worried expression.

And of course, immediately after doing anything remotely wrong or rude, he'd apologize so sincerely and fix everything. It was hard for Saiki to stay angry and that made him angry all over again.

That being said, he wasn't going to be rude either.

'Thank you.'

Akechi's face lit up.

"You're very welcome!" He said, smiling sweetly. "Try the cookie! I was waiting for you to arrive to try mine. Now we can try them together."

Saiki picked up the cookie. It nearly crumbled in his hand. As he took a bite, the cookie melted in his mouth, and he could taste the hint of cinnamon that had been added, likely to enhance the flavor. He popped the rest of it his mouth, as Akechi closely watched his facial expressions.

'Oh wow, those cookies must be delicious.'

"Is it good? You look like you're enjoying it."

Ah, he ruined it by reminding him that it was Akechi that gave him the cookie in the first place.

Saiki nodded, slightly embarrassed at how apparent it was that he was very much enjoying the cookie.

'Are you going to... Oh.'

Before Saiki could finish, Akechi answered his question by looking back at him, mouth full and cookie crumbs spilling out the side.

"What was that, Kusuo-kun?" he said, although with the cookie in his mouth, it was too muffled for Saiki to understand.

'Don't talk with you mouth full. You'll choke," Saiki scolded, angry with himself for caring whether or not Akechi choked.

Akechi nodded, and Saiki just drank his coffee and looked at him as he ate his cake. He was staring at Saiki, but Saiki tried to ignore it by rereading a chapter of the book Akechi had lent him.

"Did you not finish the book? It is a long book, so I wouldn't blame you if-"

'I'm almost done.'

Akechi nodded timidly. He was taken aback at how Saiki interrupted him, when he never had before.

'Something must be wrong with Kusuo-kun. He's never been this distant before. I wonder what it could be. Perhaps he's upset about something? Maybe if it gets worse, I'll ask him about it...'

Good grief, not he was overanalyzing Saiki.

Not that he was wrong.

Saiki was upset, but he was also deep in thought.

Saiki gauged beauty differently than other people. He had once been asked who he thought was cuter, or more attractive; Teruhashi or Rifuta. He answered Rifuta, because she wasn't as nasty as Teruhashi.

She wasn't as manipulative and twisted as Teruhashi was, so he liked her more in general. That meant that he based beauty off the overall kindness and compassion of the person.

Everyone fawned over Teruhashi and her supposed "beauty" nonstop; it was sickening. Saiki wanted no part in it. He knew the truth; the truth Teruhashi hid so well with her kind words and pretty looks.

Maybe if somebody could look past her face, see the glint of malice in her eyes when she got what she wanted...

Maybe then they would agree with him.

He found it nearly impossible to see things differently. He understood true beauty; the kind others had learned to overlook. He hoped one day they'd realize how wrong they were.

And because of this, Akechi was the most beautiful person he'd ever met.

And he hated it.

The more he thought about it, the more he didn't think about it, the more frustrated it made him. It was Akechi's fault for being beautiful, he decided. But he knew he couldn't blame it on him, because he couldn't help it.

But he wanted so badly to blame it on him, to blame on someone other than himself, because his heart felt tangled.

It felt like two different strings, polar opposites, were tangled together, and Akechi kept pulling the knot tighter and tighter.

And of course, Akechi could see it on his face, and Saiki wasn't sure if it was because he was bad at hiding it, or because Akechi was too smart not to notice.

"Kusuo-kun? Is something wrong? You look upse-"

'I'm fine.'

Akechi's face fell, and he continued to prod.

"No, you're not fine. You've been acting weird lately, and I really think somethings wrong. Please tell me, Kusuo-kun. Are you angry? Is it something I did? Did I hurt you somehow? Please, Kusuo-kun, I want to know."

He placed his hand on Saiki's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. Saiki glared at him coldly and pushed his hand off, turning slightly to the side. Akechi looked like he was about to cry, and Saiki knew it was his fault.

"Kusuo-kun? Are you mad at me?"

'Yes. I am mad at you.'

Akechi tried his hardest to speak clearly.

"W-Why? What did I do, Kusuo-kun? Please tell me."

Saiki sighed deeply.

'I'm mad at you, because no matter how hard I try to hate you, it's becoming harder and harder not to love you.'

Akechi's eyes went wide as Saiki started to process what he said.