Not a Ghoul [Kaneki Ken x Reader]

Chapter 1: Kaneki Ken

A regular day, a regular night. You were walking near a construction site that was on your way back home. That day, your teacher had you do extra work and had you stay until late. It couldn't be helped since you were the class representative. Everyone depended on you and later you found that the job was really stressful. You were also working part-time at a bakery to support your finances.

You sighed and heard a loud noise. A loud laughter of a woman's and the shrieking of a man. You peered through the construction site and wondered what was going on. Through the unfinished wooden planks, you saw a long haired woman with tentacles that crawled through her back and were moving around in the air. Your mouth gaped open as soon as you realized that the monster attacked the young man. You hurriedly reached out for your cellphone to call the police.

BANG!

Pipes fell from the sky and perfectly aimed at the woman, successfully crushing her. You heard the sirens of the police cars coming and hurriedly ran back home.

When you slammed the front door, your hands were trembling with fear. You have never seen a creature like that in your entire life. After you calmed down, you turned on the television and saw some dude talking about ghouls.

"Ghouls are not human. They have tentacle-like things that strum from their backs and attack humans for nutritions." He answered it calmly with a confident expression on his face. The interviewer asked him why and he answered, "To satisfy their hunger, they eat human flesh. Human food is not digestive for them after all."

"A ghoul?" you wondered. It was a high possibility that you had encountered a ghoul. You suddenly thought of the guy who was attacked and hoped for his survival.

----

The next day, it was all over the news. The man's face appeared as Kaneki Ken and he has indeed survived. You sighed in relief that the police made it in time to save the man. However, the woman named Kamishiro Rize was proclaimed dead and they took her organs to transplant into the man to save him.

A few days later you saw him again outside on the crosswalk. He wore a hoodie and he was...strange. He was covering his face with his hands and a huge amount of drool covered his mouth. He licked his lips as he wide-eyed at the nearby people. He suddenly realized what he was doing and ran away.

Before you knew it, your eyes were following him everywhere. You knew where he worked, go to school, and where his house was. And yet, he never took notice of you. So, you finally decided to walk in to the cafe he worked called Anteiku.

The bell chimed as you opened the door and was greeted with a welcome. And there, you saw him dressed in a waiter's outfit and wiping off the countertop. You couldn't take your eyes off him until a waitress walked right in front of your view.

"Here's the menu," she kindly smiled at you, but you could clearly tell that she was bothered. She had short hair and had bangs long enough covering her right side. You heard Kaneki call her "Touka-chan" which somehow hit a nerve.

When you finished your coffee, you ordered one after another, not caring about the amount of money you had to pay. The employees in the cafe were clearly bothered by your long stay, but they didn't bother to ask you to leave either. You were just there observing Kaneki's every move and you were fascinated by his every movement.

It was close to their closing hour and you were about to get up and leave. This whole day, you enjoyed it as much as possible. Still, he didn't get to notice you. When you finally leave the cafe, you heard the same waitress from earlier say with a tired tone, "She finally left."

What is this feeling? you wondered to yourself. It was clearly new to you for someone who stressed yourself out by doing everything. You thought that it felt really refreshing. Today, you even skipped school and your part-time job to be here.

You breathed the night air and it was so damn cold. You were only wearing a t-shirt and some shorts since this morning.

Suddenly, you felt something brush against your shoulders. You turned around and saw Kaneki wrapping his light blue jacket around you.

"You must've had a rough day, huh," he said. "Hurry and get home. You'll catch a cold out here." He smiled at you and you felt your heartbeats jump right out of your chest. You only nodded at him and ran away back home with a smile across your face.