Gangster Cinderella

Chapter Three: Fairy God Bestie

Sano and I texted and agreed to meet at the Blue Bottle Coffee Cafe at one today. Early in the morning Senju has already set to work with giving me a makeover.

"So what're you gonna do when you see him?" Senju asks as she's applying eyeliner to my eyes.

"I will probably treat him like I always do and help him with his homework. Nothing more, nothing less."

"What if he brings up the mystery girl he has a crush on?"

"I'll just pretend I don't know anything. I don't know how I feel towards him and it'd probably be super awkward for him to hear, 'hey so you kind of confessed to me last night but you probably didn't recognize me with the helmet on. Anyways, wanna get started on your paper about Kokoro?'. He only knows me as his tutor, he probably wouldn't even want to talk to me about stuff like that." I say to try to convince myself.

"Then why're you letting me do your makeup and pick out your clothes?" She asks smugly.

I blush and quickly regain myself within the same moment, "Because you would've kept bugging me about it until I gave in."

"Aw, you're no fun." Senju pouts cutely at me. "Ok we're almost done. So what're you going to wear?"

"I don't know...what I normally wear." I reply.

"No. You're going to wear something super cute. Let's see..." she says as she searches through my closet, "this black crop top with this plaid skirt and ooo those shoes. Yes this is going to look perfect."

🧋🧋🧋🏍🧋🧋🧋

"I see my sister dressed you up." Takeomi says as we stop at a red light.

"Yeah I let her have her fun." I say.

"Just be careful, I think of you as another little sister and I don't wanna see you get hurt. Ok?"

"Don't worry, nothing weird is going to happen. It's just another tutoring session." I tell him as he turns to pull over near the cafe.

"Ok. Just text me when you're done, or maybe get that boy to drive you back." He smirks while teasing me.

"Shut up. I'll see ya later." I say as I climb off his motorcycle.

"Hori?" I turn to find Sano staring at me in mild disbelief. "You look different."

"Oh...uh yeah. I just wanted to try something new."

"It looks nice. Let's head inside." He says as he walks inside and I follow behind him. "So what do you want to get? I'm paying."

"You don't have to do that, I can pay for my own stuff." I begin to protest.

"No let me pay. Besides I'm asking you for help outside of business hours so think of it as me paying you back for the extra help."

I sigh and give up, "Fine, then I want an iced coffee, a Nola Float and two chocolate chip cookies. I'll go find a table big enough for us to work." 

I wander around and search desperately for any available table. I finally find an empty table large enough for the both of us to do our work. As I begin to set up everything, I take a moment to truly appreciate how ridiculous this entire situation truly is. I'm tutoring the guy who I beat in a street race a couple days ago, who's also the leader of a giant and powerful gang in Tokyo, and to top it all off, he's the first guy to ever confess his feelings to me; even though he doesn't know it was me whom he confessed to. God...when did my life turn into a Korean drama?

"Hori, you there? Earth to Hori." I snap out of my thoughts and see Sano standing next to our table with our orders.

"Oh sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Did you say something."

"No, it's just you seemed really spaced out there." He sits down next to me and pulls out his books. "Anyways...I was wondering about that phrase we talked about yesterday...is it a widely known thing or just something smartypants like you know?"

"I'd say it's well known. Natsume Sōseki is worldwide known author and...personally I think anyone can understand your meaning if you say it with enough passion and heart behind it. Why are you asking?" I feign ignorance.

"Well...I said it to a girl I like but she didn't say anything back. I'm kinda worried she didn't get it."

"I think she understood." I say without thinking; I quickly try to correct myself, "That is, the moon has always been a cultural symbol for romance and has been found in a lot of stories all over the world. So if she had more than two brain cells she probably put two and two together."

"Hori, you're a smart girl...why is it that people have always been so romantic about the moon? It doesn't light up the sky like the sun...so why do we all feel so in love with the moon?" He looks at me with dark onyx eyes; searching mine for the answer.

"The moon is mysterious and sometimes I think it feels more intimate than the sun to people. The sun is beautiful and is needed in order to live but it doesn't share that unique ethereal beauty of the moon. Also the moon is ever changing in how it looks to us, so in a way we can relate to that since we as humans are always changing."

"It highlights the beauty of the night..." he says softly.

"Yes, exactly. It doesn't dominate the sky with its beauty but shares it amongst the stars."

"I think I get it. You always shock me with how damn smart you are. A lot of people don't talk like you do...it's nice."

"There's plenty of smart people, I guess people don't normally sit down and discuss stuff like this anymore. They use to though, back in history. I suppose since people didn't have all the answers back then, all they had was room for their imagination and ideas. Isn't that lovely though? Trying to understand something so new to you, I think it's wonderful. To see something with new eyes and say something that no one else has before." 

"Thanks for saying all that...but please don't tell Draken or Takemitchy I said any of that crap. They'd make fun of me for being so damn sentimental."

"Well, I think it's nice that you can be sentimental about stuff." I tell him.

"Is that so? Well thanks." He says with a boyish smile on his face.

Something within me has been moved by a simple facial expression. Is this because I know he likes me or did he just stir something within me?