Hotline {Soukoku}

{7}

Chuuya blinked, not understanding the scene unfolding before him. By now he was looking up once more at the man that just invited himself to a seat.

"Don't be stupid.. how is this a dream?" The ginger questioned aloud, eyes still on the brunette, who smiled, and tilted his head in response. The taller man still leant onto the table, now folding his arms onto each other. His smile appeared friendly, as if he wasn't the same annoying man that Chuuya had once considered murdering over the phone. Could this really be the same man? The shorter man pondered on it, clearly his eyes were telling him otherwise.

Until he opened his mouth, because then, his smile fading, Dazai scowled, "You're right. If I were dreaming, you wouldn't be here.. Oh! Maybe this is a nightmare?"

The redhead rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. Every time he thinks about the possibility of Dazai being a decent human being, he is quickly shut down. It seemed this man had no capacity to be kind for longer than a minute, not without being mean in some way, or without having ill intentions, which usually meant him annoying the other. "Whatever Dazai, just don't forget that you chose to sit here.." He looked to the side as he said that, crossing his left leg over his right, "Speaking of which.. what are you even doing sitting here?"

The barista finally leant back into his seat, pushing himself off of the table. He grabbed the cup he had just placed down, and brought it up, taking a sip. He put the cup back down before simply shrugging. This baffled the blue eyed man, who felt like his question had hardly been answered.

"What's with the shrug?" He asked, getting even more ticked off than previously, "How do you not know why you are here? Leave then!"

Dazai chuckled a bit, which was quite a different reaction from the one that Chuuya had given. This continued to confuse the shorter man. Why was this lunatic so unbothered? But why is Chuuya even bothering with this man? He very well could move seats, could walk out, he could leave and never come back. Did he want to do that? No, he did not, he really liked the cafe itself, but it's barista seems to be dragging it down.

Actually, could he even believe that? Chuuya knows the cafe was doing just okay before. It was for sure doing enough business to stay open, but it never seemed to be really packed with people, and the tip jar never seemed to be so full. But since Dazai began working there, it seemed like it had been more busy than before, although that could just be a coincidence, as Chuuya had only been there twice since he began working. He couldn't explain the tip jar, however, usually people didn't tip nearly as much as they were currently. There's even an option to tip via card, so the redhead could only imagine the true number of tips that the establishment was receiving.

The seconds drew on, and they felt as though they'd go on forever and ever. The brunette only sat in his chair, his arms still folded, and his brown eyes still on the short man sitting across from him. He had a faint smile still on his face, which told the other man that he was probably still in the mood to annoy. Chuuya inwardly rolled his eyes, letting them land on the marbled brown table in front of him. He doesn't know why he refuses to easily lay his eyes on the barista, but he avoids it anyway. He'd rather not admit that the annoying man was anything but annoying, he'd rather die than admit to himself that he was actually kind of intriguing.

The silence was broken once Dazai cleared his throat, and opened his mouth.

"It's my break time, and I wanted to stop by and sit for a bit with you. I know we got off on the wrong foot," he spoke, his words sounding genuine, which sounded very odd to the redhead, he didn't think the barista was capable of being genuine without some sort of malice, but he continued, "And I know my presence only annoys you, you look so angry every time I come around, it's so funny." He began laughing, causing the short man to scoff.