Me before you

chapter 10

The Monday after Y/n's episode, Sana decided to take a brief detour on her way to work to grab a coffee and emotionally prepare herself for the day ahead.

She kissed Louis goodbye at the school gates and stood and watched him disappear into the building as usual, before turning around and heading down her usual route through Main Street. Overhead, grey clouds were gathering. The abrasive bite of winter was sharp in the air.

Sana sighed down at the pavement, breath fogging. She was trying to make sense of what had happened – she'd been trying all weekend, if she was being completely honest. They'd been doing so well. To go so quickly from one extreme to another... Heels clicking against the concrete, Sana buried her hands further in the pockets of her coat.

It took a few minutes before she reached that diner everyone talked about, the little vintage-looking place she'd noted when she first arrived. Well, she wasn't about to face Y/n completely unarmed, even if it meant having to make small talk with strangers.

So Sana breathed in, steeled herself and headed past the outside tables to push into the diner. Inside, the air was warm and smelled like coffee. Absently taking in the twee wallpaper and elderly patrons, she flipped her hair behind her shoulder and approached the old woman behind the counter.

"Morning," The woman – Granny, presumably – greeted her gruffly.

"Yes, good morning," Sana replied briskly, with a glance at the chalkboard above her head. "Can I get a coffee to go, please? Black."

"On it." The woman – because Sana may have been softening up to this quaint little town, but she would never refer to a non-relation as Granny. To be honest, she'd never call her own grandmother granny. "Three dollars fifty."

Sana dug in her bag for her purse and handed over the right change. She lingered beside the counter while the employee behind the counter went about brewing her coffee. With the sounds of china clinking and people talking all around, she felt herself slipping back into worrying about Y/n mode.

She just couldn't figure out what she'd done wrong.

Leaning back against the counter, Sana tucked a dark wave of hair behind her ear and stared at her boots. Black. Heeled. She'd bought them in an end-of-season sale in Boston. Mother hated them. She sighed. She hadn't done anything wrong – at least, she didn't think she had. What was unendingly strange to her was how Y/n had snapped back to herself just as quickly as she'd snapped away. One moment smiling, the next shouting, the next saying sorry. God, Sana thought, that woman is so completely opposed to making sense.

"Here you go," A voice from behind jerked her back to reality. Sana turned back to the server – a different woman now – as a steaming cup was set in front of her. "Enjoy your day."

Sana accepted the cup quickly and managed to muster a brief thank you. She was just looking down to pull her dark gloves off when her train of thought was derailed by a nervous, chirpy voice.

"Excuse me?"

Sana glanced up expectantly. The girl hanging around awkwardly in front of her was dressed in a severely altered version of the waitress's uniform (alterations included red streaks in her dark hair) and drumming her fingers anxiously against her thighs.

"You're Sana Minatozaki, aren't you?" She asked, raising a dark eyebrow. "Y/n's carer."

"That would be me," Sana replied, taking a sip of her coffee and placing it back down on the saucer. Though God knows why.

"Right," The waitress nodded. "Well, I'm Jisoo." Jisoo paused, swinging back and forth on her heels like she was about to get to the point. She breathed in, and then shot a look back at Sana again. "I heard she's been getting out a bit more lately. Is she doing okay? Like, mentally, I mean. Do you think she's better?"