"Taishi! Taishi! Taishi!" Satsuki ran to Taishi and tugged on his sleeve. "What is it?" he asked as he watched her jumping gleefully on her spot. "Isuzu said a sweets cafe opened a few blocks away from here! Can we please go there later?" she clapped and held her hands together. "Oh, sure" he said and Satsuki jumped one more time. "YES!"
After school...
Taishi and Satsuki did go to the sweets cafe. The exterior looked like a classy cabin. It was painted chestnut brown and instead of walls, it was made of tinted windows. There was a chalkboard outside with the cafe's bestselling dishes listed on it. Taishi paused to read it. As if Satsuki cares about what's recommended, she pulled him by the hand and pushed open the sweet cafe's door, her mouth fell wide open. There were a lot of customers - most were students -. The seats were all white leather couches and the tables and the floors were wooden. "This is one badass cafe" she mumbled softly. "What did you say?" Taishi asked confused. "THIS IS ONE BADASS CAFE!" she grinned and Taishi smiled back at her.
Satsuki pulled him again as she oogled the pastries on the shelves. Below those shelves are chest fridges with different flavored ice cream. Taishi needn't look at them for Satsuki recited them out loud. "Chocolate nougat, nutty caramel, blueberry cheesecake, oh! Look, strawberry cheesecake!" Taishi got excited at the sound of his favorite fruit and he too looked into the fridge with sparkly eyes. "You know you want it Taishi~" Satsuki tempted him in a sing-sang voice. "Um, waiter?!" Taishi called out and Satsuki laughed at him. A waiter attended to them and they ordered.
Because the first floor was full, they were put at the cafe's rooftop. Only a few people were there with them. They stood at the veranda just behind their seats and watched the sun setting in the horizon.
"This place is nice~ but it could've been better if it was higher." said Satsuki. "That's right. Isn't your roof higher?" Taishi chortled and Satsuki agreed laughingly.
As always, they stared at the distant view, saying nothing. It's not that they have nothing to talk about, it's that they've probably already said what they needed to say... Satsuki looked at Taishi. Or did she?
Their order came and they sat on their chairs. They ordered 2 large servings of strawberry cheesecake sundaes and red velvet cookies.
Taishi ate an enormous spoonful of ice cream then spoke. "Ah. Thish ish wun badash cahey" he said, his mouth stuffed. "Excuse me?" Satsuki asked, confused. "This is one badass cafe!" Taishi repeated, showering Satsuki with ice cream. "Can you please not pass the ice cream like that."
Taishi laughed and apologized.
After eating, Taishi brought Satsuki to her house and he headed home himself. As she closed the door, she banged her head on it. You see, that cafe has been there for over 2 months. Not so new, is it?
"I was supposed to confess today." She told herself whiningly.
The next day came.
Taishi and Satsuki ate lunch together like everyday.
"What's for lunch?" Satsuki asked vibrantly. "I'll open it and feed it to you, them you'll guess what is" Taishi answered. "Oh okay" Satsuki smiled looking at him. "You need to close your eyes, of course! How are you supposed to guess it!"
"Oh right!" Satsuki closed her eyes. Taishi opened the bento, took the chopsticks and picked up shrimp. "Say ah~" he said.
"Ah~" Satsuki opened her mouth.
Taishi opened his own mouth and ate the shrimp. He chewed it looking at Satsuki.
She finally closed her mouth and opened her eyes to see Taishi laughing at her. Annoyed, Satsuki charged at him and strangled him - he's still laughing by the way - with all her might. Taishi fell on his back. "S-- stop it, please" he choked and dropped his head on the floor with eyes closed, pretending to faint. Satsuki stuck her tongue out at him and giggled. "I'm dead now Satsuki. You killed me" Taishi said. Satsuki didn't respond.
He opened his one eye to look at her, she was eating with her back facing him. He sat up and crawled on his knees towards her. "Hey, I was just kidding"
She ignored him.
"Satsuki, sorry"
Still didn't respond. Taishi crawled closer and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Shorry~" he babytalked. She paused eating.
"I don't like that joke" Satsuki said coldly. "S- sorry. I can just replace that shrimp, I kn--"
"I meant, what you said. That you were dead" Satsuki cut off. Taishi held his head up off from her shoulder. "I don't think that was funny. You can joke around but not like that"
There was a long pause. Taishi smiled and held her elbow then pressed his cheek on hers. "You're cheesy~"
Satsuki smiled as she felt her heart beat faster.
"Taishi?"
"Hm?" He answered, his face still stuck on hers. This is it. Say it...
"I... I think we should eat now. We might get late"
Nice... excuse you said there.
When they ate at the sweets cafe the next day, they were sitting beside each other and Taishi noticed something. He stared at her eyes. "You blink a lot" he told Satsuki. She only smiled a bit without looking at him and kept eating. He continued to stare at her.
"Look" Taishi pointed out again when she started blinking. Satsuki got concious so she checked if he was still looking, she glanced at him through the corner of her eye.
"I saw that" Taishi smirked and Satsuki sighed. "Don't look at me!" She laughed. "Hey, you were looking at me just then. Oh hey, look, you're blinking a lot again!"
Satsuki laughed timidly. She looked him in the eyes. "Taishi... I..."
Pause. Her heart was panting. It's now...
Say it...
"I... should go home. It's almost 6PM"
She couldn't... Again.
He drove her on his bike to their house. She opened the door and was going in but she turned around. He was still there. He smiled... like he was encouraging her to say it. She bit her lip and lowered her head... Say it...
Now...
"See you"
Taishi's smile disappeared for a second or two but he managed to smile again. He nodded at her and she went in.
Satsuki... just say it.
