Kiss Me, Dimwit. [MatchaBlossom]

We need to talk, gorilla

JOE POV

"It means that you wanna kiss me so bad that it makes you look stupid."

"And what if I do?!" I blushed bright red when that slipped out of my mouth. I've had a crush on Kaoru since I can remember, but I never wanted to admit that, especially not to him.

Cherry stared at me which made me panic, but he suddenly leaned in and kissed me. I was immensely confused, but I wouldn't let that chance go to waste. I pressed my lips against his and then shortly parted our lips to pull down his mask. I wanted to kiss Kaoru without anything between us, but before i could do that, he covered my mouth and pushed me away. I groaned in disappointment, but as soon as I saw Reki coming to check up on us, I understood why he stopped me. It would've been very awkward to explain something to Reki that i didnt even understand. Thankfully, Cherry managed to make Reki believe nothing happened. The redhead went back to the others, and Kaoru attempted to follow him, but I quickly grabbed his hand to stop him.

"Kaoru-"

"Shut up." He sighed annoyed, but he turned to me with a soft look in his eyes. "Let's talk later, okay?"

"Okay.." I bit my lip, knowing that Kaoru is probably going to break my heart later, telling me that it was all a mistake and that I should forget about the kiss.. but I could never do that. I quickly shook my head to snap out of my thoughts and quickly followed him.

[A few hours later]

After training with the others, I had to work at the restaurant as usual, but normally, I wasn't this tense. 'Let's talk later.' Cherry's words kept repeating in my mind, and i was stuck, wondering when 'later' was. The bell at the door announced someone coming in shortly before I would close the kitchen for this day.
"Good Eve-" As soon as I saw the pink hair, golden eyes and slender frame walk into the room, my heart skipped a beat and I whispered his name under my breath "Kaoru..". He sat down at the bar like always, sharing a moment of eye contact with me as I gulped.

"Good Evening, Sakurayashiki-San." I smiled politely.

"G-Good Evening." Kaoru stuttered slightly. It seemed like I caught him off guard by calling him by his last name, so I had to chuckle a bit. "Can I get some Carbonara, please?"

"Of course~" I smiled and then leaned closer to growl teasingly. " I was just about to close the kitchen, you got lucky, cinnamon stick boy."

Kaoru smiled softly, lifted his fan under my chin, and whispered back. "I was hoping I could stay until everyone was gone, so we can talk about you wanting to kiss me so badly~" Seeing his smirk afterwards made my cheeks heat up.

"And you kissing me~?" I smirked back and Cherry blushed slightly as well. Before the guests could start speculating about us though, I left Kaoru's side and went to the kitchen to prepare the best carbonara I have ever made for him. I served it, as well as a glas of my finest wine and then started to checkout customers, clean the kitchen and tables. Meanwhile trying not to show how nervous I was about my talk with Kaoru when everyone was gone. More and more people went home and as Kaoru was finishing his meal, the last two people finally left my restaurant. After turning the sign to 'closed' and locking the main entrance, I dimmed the lights a bit and joined my childhood friend with a glass of wine.

"So.. why did you agree that you wanted to kiss me? Was that all a dumb joke?" Cherry started immediately, glancing at me. I just noticed, that he had his hair tied up into the ponytail he always wore at S and he wasn't wearing his glasses. I couldn't complain though, I loved the way he looked like that.

"Nope. Not a dumb joke." I shook my head, a bit overwhelmed by the immediate question and by Kaoru looking like that.

"But you always flirt with all of these women?" Kaoru furrowed his brows.