good morning, sweetheart || terukane

sweets

The next morning, Teru heard the bell above the entrance door to the cafe ring. It was far too early for most people to be up.

After all, it was around five in the morning, he wasn't expecting anyone to come at that hour again.

"That's.. a stupid argument, you're- god. Will you listen? That's not even.. no, no, that's it- I'm not doing this with you again, I'll talk to you in person after school. Yeah, whatever. Bye."

His head perked up at the voice, immediately recognizing it as the boy who had visited yesterday. Despite him once again very rudely arguing with someone on the phone, a subtle smile appeared on Teru's face.

Akane somehow made his eyebags worse within the span of just one day. Did he sleep at all? That was a bit concerning. Alarming, even. But Teru focused on something else.

He wore a wrinkled uniform with his ripped up shoelaces untied. His hair was a mess (and it always had been, that hadn't changed. Maybe Teru was thankful for that.) and he seemed to be moving his hands around as he spoke.

"Good morning, love~" Teru said in a sing-song voice, clasping his hands together as he welcomed the other. "Would you like the same seat from last time?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not," Akane muttered as a response, shoving his phone into his pocket. He didn't say good morning back, and Teru caught onto that. But of course, he said nothing about it.

"Has today been any easier for you so far?"

"I guess?" he pushed up his glasses with one hand, letting out a sigh afterwards. "It's more like kind of. My work is still piling up, but everything else is okay."

"Mmh, that's unfortunate." Teru led him to the same seat as before, shaking his head to express some sort of pity. "Good luck with that." he then placed a menu down onto the table. "Ah, and this time- please don't fall asleep before ordering. It leaves a bad impression when our customers start snoring on our tables."

"That was a one time thing! I don't snore, either!" it earned him a flustered reaction, which he instantly deemed as cute. It was almost as if it wasn't his first time seeing it before; his own thoughts were pretty quick, after all. "And I don't need a menu. I'll get the same thing as yesterday, if you remember it."

"Hm?" he blinked, "Don't you want to try something new? Tea, perhaps? Some sort of fruit bowl?"

"Not really. I'll just stick to the hot chocolate,"

"Well, alright. Give me a moment, then," he excused himself.

"Good morning, Minamoto-kun!"

"Good morning, Mei-chan," Teru gave the girl a smile as he made his way towards the serving hatch, "we need hot chocolate."

"One cup of hot chocolate coming right up!" Mei gave a thumbs up, "Say, is it for Aoi-kun again?"

"Mhm. He's the only one here, after all.. I don't think anyone else has come to the diner this early in the morning. It's a bit strange."

"Ooh! Well, that's Aoi-kun for you. He's kinda hard to understand, a little confusing in the social department, too. No one really knows what's going on with him," she hummed, "rumor has it that he and his partner broke up yesterday afterschool, too. If you still wanna flirt with him, then maybe you have a chance?"

"Ah, I'm not sure if I'd want to do that so soon."

"Really? Because-"

"Before you say anything," he cleared his throat, "the names I've been calling him have no real meaning behind them. I do this with most customers, they find it amusing. He simply doesn't care for them," he clarified, though it wasn't a lie- it wasn't completely true, either. Akane had sparked his interest, but he was only teasing for the fun of it (or at least that's what he told himself). "He hasn't asked me to stop, either."