The School Idol's Roommate [BL]

Hanging out with the boss

When Mia told Aki she needed someone to accompany her, he thought that they would be buying materials for the cafe. It never crossed his mind that her kind of shopping involved buying cakes and pastries from different shops.

"Your boyfriend must love you a lot if he's buying you all these cakes," the cashier noted as they pay for another batch of sweets.

"Ain't he the sweetest?" Mia held onto Aki's arm, looked up at him and smiled.

Aki returned a small smile and blushed which earned him a giggle from both the cashier and Mia.

"But don't tease him so much. Look, he's all red now," Mia poked Aki's cheek.

When they were out of the shop, Mia finally let out the laughter she had been holding in. She used Aki's arm as a support as she laughed away. Aki felt wronged and could not help but sulk.

"Aww don't sulk. Though that makes you cuter. Ah! I should take a picture and show it to Liam."

Aki widened his eyes in alarm. "Don't show him!" His tone surprised both of them so he repeated his words in a more normal tone. He inwardly kicked himself for reacting like that and now he could feel himself blushing again.

Mia smiled kindly but the mischievous glint never left her eyes. "Alright, I won't take a picture. We'll just keep it as our little secret. How about that?"

Aki nodded. There was no harm to that. Besides, he did not want Liam to see any more embarrassing sides of him. He had his cool sides too.

"So why are we buying all these?" Aki lifted the bags and boxes in his hands.

"We'll have our meeting later, just an informal one. Buying these is like killing two birds with one stone. I get new ideas for the new things to offer in our cafe and also to gauge our competitors. Why, did you think I'm going to eat all of these?" Mia narrowed her eyes at Aki.

"Yes?" Aki scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.

"What? No!" Mia looked as if she was horrified but she was smiling. "Just ideas. For example, this cupcake we just bought, I'll list what I like and what I didn't like about it. Then I'll come up with a list of ingredients on how I would like it to be. Something like that. Think of it as putting my own spin. It's kinda hard to put in words though."

Aki nodded. He was not a creative person but he guessed that explaining your creative process could be a challenge because it would be hard to follow for the other person. "You said meetings later?"

"Yup. I also want to hear your thoughts about this. Also, I'd like to hear any suggestions or issues you'd like to discuss so we can make the cafe better. Especially from you. I'd love to hear a fresh comment, not the usual whines from Jay or Liam. "

Aki knew that Mia was an amazing person based on what Liam said about her. But hearing her talk about the lengths she goes through to improve her skills and the cafe made him respect her even more. He wondered if Mia even had the time to rest when she was the only one who did not have a rest day among all of them. Now, he fully understood how Liam came to look up to Mia because right now that was what Aki felt too.

"You're smiling," Mia noted beside him.

"Oh," he did not realize what he was doing but he widened his smile anyway, "I just thought that you and Liam are both overachievers." So much that Aki could not help but feel awed and support them and cheer them. "If you ever need more help to gather data, count me in."

"Thank you. I appreciate that, really. Today too. Though usually, I drag Liam for these. You see, I love showing him off. But you're not bad as a stand-in boyfriend yourself."

Aki blushed when he remembered all those comments they received from the staff and that made Mia teased him again. But something clicked with what she said. When Liam asked why Aki thought that he was dating Mia, Liam said something along the lines of having seen together. At the time, Aki did not understand it but now, Liam probably meant being seen acting like a couple while shopping for cakes.

After shopping some more, they decided to head back to the cafe. The heat was relentless and he missed the airconditioning of the mall the moment they stepped outside. One of the people who was walking towards the entrance held an ice cream and Aki stared idly, thinking how it would be nice to eat one too when suddenly he heard his name being called. It took him a moment to realize that it came from the owner of the ice cream.