good morning, sweetheart || terukane

raspberry

Just as Teru had hoped the day prior, the bell to the diner's door rang at around five am.

There was no sign of arguing, though.

There was just Akane- no phone in his hands, no frantic movement- he seemed calm. It was Saturday, so he wasn't wearing a uniform; he was instead wearing casual clothing accompanied by a scarf. It was cold out, so that made sense.

"Good morning, dear~" Teru stepped away from behind the counter and in front of Akane, "Same seat as before?"

"Mhm."

"You don't have any classes today, right? Do you have any plans?" he took hold of the boy's hand, leading him to the same table he had sat at for the past two days. "Wouldn't want you tiring yourself out on a weekend~"

"Nope, no classes today. And no plans, either." if Akane noticed that their hands were intertwined, he made no sign of it and continued to walk. "I don't tire myself out, I don't know what you mean by that."

"Ah, so a free day for you? Sounds nice." Teru hummed, "Well, I don't want to be the one to tell you this.. but from what I've heard, you're quite the studious person. You don't ever stop working, do you?"

"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" Akane raised an eyebrow, putting his free hand in his pocket. "I'm not a fan of procrastinating. I try to get everything done as soon as possible.. Is that what makes me studious to you?"

"Hm. I'm not so sure," the blonde let go of his other hand to let him sit down. "I'll think about that. Do you want your usual?" After receiving a nod, he took that as his signal to leave.

"Morning, Mei-chan."

"You're here? I didn't even hear you come in!" Mei peeked through the serving hatch, her hair was messy. She clearly didn't expect anyone to check in on her. "You don't really work here on Saturdays.. doesn't Hyuuga-kun usually take your shift today? Oh, let me guess! Aoi-kun came along, didn't he?"

"He did, yes. I got here about ten minutes ago. Had to make sure I was here before five, ahaha~"

"Knew it! I'll go make some hot chocolate right now, then." she gave a bright smile, "Soooo.. How's it going between you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you two hanging out like, outside of the diner yet? Talking in school?" she tapped her foot along to some pop song on the radio that was playing in the kitchen. "Do you know his preference? Have you guys kiiiised?"

"Okay, calm down there." Teru chucked, having to think before properly answering. "Not exactly. I haven't asked him to go out anywhere since I'm not really flirting with him, just trying to gain his interest. We haven't kissed, I'd say we're barely friends."

"Barely friends?" Mei gasped, looking through the serving hatch with an upset expression. "Listen here, Minamoto-kun! I told you, I've had enough of you playing with people's hearts! Don't keep this up, or I'm telling Aoi-kun myself!"

"Ah, wow.. I didn't know you knew Aoi-kun so well that you plan to tell him about my antics." he glanced in Akane's direction, he seemed clueless as to what they were talking about. "I promise I'm not going to play with his heart. I just want to be a little closer to him.. I'll have to admit, he has caught my attention."

"So you do like him!"

"Shh, Mei-chan!" he quickly hushed her, "I suppose I do, but I'm not going to actually act on it. It's not quite often that someone catches my interest, especially not someone who comes here. He's just oddly familiar," he then looked at her. "I'm not so sure why."

"Hmm.." Mei surprisingly went quiet. It was almost as if she had something to say, but didn't dare to voice it. It wouldn't be the first time she had done that- it seemed to happen often when it came to conversations about Akane. "You'll have to find that out on your own."