Sweetness of The Stars

Chapter Short: The Ice Cream Parlor

( Note: This mini chapter is canon to the storyline but doesn't fit in with the current time of the current chapter. This chapter takes place the weekend before the events of chapter 1 'The New girl' which is before Ayano and Nazuni became a couple, but still are really good friends. Hope you like it!)

"Thank you so much for inviting me, Nazuni!" Ayano happily skipped on the sidewalk as I closely followed behind. "What makes you want to get ice cream all of a sudden? We haven't been there in years." "Uhh, I guess it would be nice to pay the old man a visit, if he's still alive." Ayano turned around like an ice skater and faced me, trying to hold back from giggling. "You know, you shouldn't be saying that stuff. We've haven't been there in like two years, its not like it's been a century."

She immediately turned around and began bouncing around the sidewalk under the shining sun in a fit of joy. Even if the sun was out, it was still pretty cold, barely warm enough for ice cream. But geez, Ayano's such a kid. She continued to skip and scutter along the sidewalk, sometimes even balancing on the edge of the sidewalk. She tried to test out her balance on the edge of the curb, but fell off to the side of the road. A car zoomed past her, nearly grazing her torso. Looks like I'm babysitting today. "Ayano! Get out of the road!" She obliged and stepped back onto the sidewalk. "Haha... oops," She said scratching her head.

Ayano then began to tug on my jacket. "How much longer until we're there?" "Just around the block, you really don't remember where it is do you?" "Ayano bit her thumb, thinking of an answer. Instead she came up with a question. "Do you remember what I usually order at the ice cream parlor?" Heh, that's an easy question, she still talks about how she craves it in cooking class all the time. "You get one scoop for each of the two sherbet flavors..." She interrupted me. "On a waffle cone." "Yeah I was going to say that. But do you remember what I usually order?" Her smile dropped into a disappointing glare. "Vanilla ice cream in a bowl." She got that right, but what's with the glare. "What's wrong, Ayano? You have a problem with vanilla ice cream?" "It's so plain! That's like ordering a cheese pizza at a pizza place when you could add amazing things on it like bacon or sausage." "Vanilla is perfect! It doesn't need toppings!" I argued back at her.

After arguing for a bit, we finally reached the ice cream parlor. Ayano went in front of me, opening the door which produced a ringing sound from the bell attached to it, and walking in cheerfully. An old man with a jolly beard was behind the counter cleaning dishes when he heard us walk in and turned to face us almost instantly. He saw our faces and made a large smile. "It is so nice to see you two again." "Good afternoon!" We both said in sync. Ayano ran up to the glass window that was protecting the ice cream and peered through it. "You fine to get the usually, Nazuni?" I nodded my head and she went up to order. "We'll get the usually," she said slapping twenty dollars I gave her on the counter. He was nearly about to scoop the ice cream but remembered something. "Ayano, we recently added a new sherbet flavor, you want to stack it on top of your cone along with other flavors?" Ayano looked at the man with glittery eyes. "Of course!"

"Uhm..." I spoke up. "I would like my order in a waffle cone instead of a bowl." The old man raised his snow-white eyebrow, then accepted it. "Alright." He grabbed a scooper and slowly picked up the ice cream into a perfect ball. Ayano's ice cream stood tall and sparkled as it soaked up the sun that was flowing through the windows. Her order was a massive three scoops on top of a waffle cone, meanwhile mine was a puny single scoop of white vanilla ice cream on a waffle cone. "Here you guys go." He handed us the ice cream and Ayano immediately began to lick it. "Please come again soon." "Yeah, we will pretty soon." I responded as I looked at Ayano devouring her ice cream.

"Thanks again for taking me," she said in between licks. "No problems. Heh! How about next time we check out the tea store that Matsuo recommended?" Ayano averted her eyes towards the ground. "No thanks." "Ah c'mon!" I elbowed her shoulder in a playful way, but accidentally caused her to drop her ice cream. Ayano's eyes opened wide as she was shocked to see the ice cream fall to the ground. She stood to stare for a second, then squinted her eyes, and tears began to roll down her soft yet troubled cheeks. "Waaah!!"