Mew Amai

Episode 4 Part 1

Amai, Ichigo, Moe, and Miwa watched as Aoyama was surrounded by girls after classes, all wishing him luck on his next kendo match. Moe and Miwa addressed Ichigo. "Aoyama-kun's as popular as ever, huh?" Moe said. "Must be hard to watch, huh, Ichigo?" Miwa asked the redhead.

Ichigo, however, was far from bothered. In fact, she was beaming with a blush. "Huh? Watch what? He's busy, so I'll skip saying hi today." Amai, Moe, and Miwa stared at her curiously. Since this morning, Ichigo seemed to be very cheery. Amai wondered if Aoyama said something to her the previous day that gave her such happiness.

"She's suspiciously chill." "And sounds really happy." Amai placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "Maybe something good happened between her and Aoyama recently." Ichigo giggled. "You think so, meow?"

"Meow?" Moe and Miwa said together, their eyebrows raised in question. Ichigo just stood there smiling. It was definitely related to Aoyama, that much Amai was certain. Then, Ichigo caught Aoyama's gaze, and after a second, she smiled again, her hand reaching up to the bell tied around her neck, which Amai noticed was new earlier that day.

"Oh, he must've given her that bell. That explains it."

Ichigo's giddiness continued as the two walked to the café. Amai couldn't help chuckling at her friend, it was so cute how happy she was. When they walked through the café doors. The first thing they were met with was Pudding on a unicycle with two trays of cakes in her hands. Speeding past the two, the sudden motion caused them to fall to the ground.

Retasu came up to them. "Are you two alright?" Amai rubbed her back. "What's going on?" "Well, Pudding said she wanted to help out at the café, so..."

The three of them turned over to Pudding, the girl waving her arms around and shouting so many things joyfully. Man, the child was full of energy. It went on like this for a while, running around the café, taking orders to tables, and making sure that Pudding didn't break anything in her bubbly state.

By the end of the day, both Amai and Ichigo were tired. Ichigo, mostly. Her head titled back against her chair, pure exhaustion all over her face. "Ugh, we're finally closed! I didn't even get to have a single dessert today!"

Retasu calmly was cleaning the floors, Pudding spinning on her ball, Mint reading a magazine, and Amai drinking a glass of juice. Ichigo's head then snapped up. "Hold on! This is all HIS fault! He turned me into a bioweapon and now he's making me work!"

Amai knew immediately who she was referring to and stopped her from getting up. "Ichigo, please. Don't go off to murder Ryou. I'll talk to him for you if you'd like." Ichigo sighed heavily. "Sure, Amai-chan."

She headed to the kitchen, the first place where she thought she'd find the blonde boy. He wasn't there, but Keiichiro was. "Keiichiro, where's Ryou?" He smiled at her. "Upstairs in his room." She thanked him and walked up the stairs to the door that was at the top in the hallway. She knocked three times.

"Yes?" Ryou's voice said from the other side. "Ryou, it's me. Can I come in?" "Sure." Opening the door, she stepped in just as he finished slipping on a shirt, her eyes just barely catching a glimpse of his well-fit body. He sat down on his bed, wrapping a small towel around his neck. "Did you need something?" "Oh, um..."

She trailed off, eyes scanning his room. It wasn't much, really. Just a bed and a desk. It made her curious about him. "I don't really know much about him. Why does he live here by himself? Why does he own this café? How'd he learn about my father's people in the first place? There's so much I wanna know."

Ryou looked at her, and she stared back. A few seconds passed, then a grumble erupted from Ryou's stomach. He deadpanned. "I'm hungry." Laughing nervously, Amai left and came back with a tray of coffee and mini muffins.