Baseball and the Azure Blue Sky

Chapter 25: The Baseball Idiot and the fake girlfriend

Kuramochi Youichi was getting ready for his very first date in his life. Given, it was a fake date and there would be two more couples present as well, but he was still nervous. And not the nice kind of nervous. Rather anxious, actually.

He should've been anticipating and looking forward to going out with a girl for the first time. Sora had gone to the trouble to arrange it for him after all and the unknown girl had been nice enough to act as his fake girlfriend only to save his sorry little ass, but instead of being happy and excited, he seriously wished it would be over already.

Before knowing his blue haired teammate, the shortstop sure as hell would've hoped for the best. That he'd be able to get along well enough with the mysterious girl that they might have had the chance to develop true feelings for each other. He would've seen it as his unique chance to get himself a girlfriend, to start an honest romantic relationship, to fall in love... But now... Now there was Sora.

It was Saturday and the pitcher had been running through his mind all morning already. After morning practice, the blue head had left for work in the café where Kuramochi would be meeting his savior from humiliation later that day as well. He just couldn't get into the right mindset after all.

Plus, Miyuki that bloody bastard seriously had to have the nerve to inform the whole team about his dilemma and also about the fact that Sora would have to fix it for him with arranging a fake date for him only to protect his stupid pride. Even the third years had heard of it by now! No need to mention how much teasing he had received already.

The green haired teen questioned if the mortification in front of the team had been worth it...

No seriously, looking back now, wouldn't it have been just way easier to either just admit that he had exaggerated a little bit in front of those two guys he just had met in the arcades instead or to cancel the date and find an excuse? Even if it would've been a shitty excuse...?

Now he definitely wouldn't hear the end of it with all the mocking from his damn team members. What a pain in the ass! Well, no turning back now!

When he finally had gotten dressed into dark blue sneakers, a black pair of jeans, a white shirt and a warm black jacket, he left his dorm room with both hands dug into his pockets. Sawamura waved him goodbye and wished him good luck, which he only grumbled at.

The green head dragged his feet until he arrived at the café Sora was working in. Heaving a heavy sigh and preparing himself mentally, he entered and was greeted by a whole bunch of cute girls in cat cosplays. Most of them didn't seem much older than him except for a still young and beautiful blonde who was the only one not wearing a costume and looking more adult. Kuramochi blushed, although he knew from Sora that half of the staff here were guys cosplaying as girls just like the blue head, he really couldn't see any differences between the present waitresses. They were all so beautiful, it should've been illegal!

While fidgeting on his spot at the entrance, the young shortstop prayed that he wouldn't be dating one of Sora's colleagues. He hadn't been lying when he had told his teammates that he was usually awkward around girls and it was even worse when they were cute and he felt actually attracted to them in some way.

The blonde young woman with chin-length hair who was wearing a casual waitress uniform in beige and white threw him a friendly, but professional smile and bowed.

"Welcome to our café, my name is Tomo-chan and I'm the manager", she introduced herself. "How may we be of service for you today, dear customer? Would you be wanting to take a seat?"

Kuramochi panicked for a second, but regained his composure quickly.

"U-Uhm, Hi I'm Kuramochi Youichi and I'm supposed to meet someone here today...?"