cafe au with our own underrated
cutie, kenjirou!
意味 ー imi ; meaning
➳meaning cafe
hope you enjoy!
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You had known Kenjirou Shirabu for almost 7 years. You two had met in high school at Shiratorizawa; he was their setter and you were hoping to become a student advisor for the team. You were immediately drawn to him and his adorable hair and talent on the court. Outside of practice, you and him studied together and became best friends. He was sweet, funny, driven, and full of love for you. Soon, that friendship switched to something more. He became your boyfriend.
When it came time for graduation, you both knew it may not last. You wanted to go to college in Kyoto, him in Tokyo. And although it wasn't a very long train ride, there was little time to get together with your individual workloads. Eventually, after a few weeks apart, you both decided it would be better to break-up and stay friends. You still loved him, desperately, but work came first and he felt the same way.
You two stayed in touch for the entirety of your college careers, video chatting occasionally, but mostly through text. He graduated a few days before you did, sending you a picture of him with his diploma with a giant smile across his face. That was the moment you realized you couldn't just be friends with Kenjirou Shirabu. You loved him too much for him to be the one that got away.
At 3am the night after your graduation, a little tipsy, you texted him in all caps: "JIROU LETS OPEN A CAFE TOGETHER! WE CAN NAME IT AND MAKE SPECIAL TEA AND COOK PASTERIES!!" He was rightfully confused and very skeptical but you knew that if you didn't shake something up now, you both would become mindless drones, working in the same bland office building as everyone else did.
You never ever did anything crazy or concerning, you had always been the studious, relaxed type who calmed everyone else down. But it was time for both of you to branch out and do something reckless. For years you and him had gone to school, gotten A's and a few B's, worked your assess off to make it into good colleges and make your parents proud. But you were adults now and God knows you both needed some fun.
And that's how you both got here. You, standing behind a pristine counter, handing a customer their change and motioning for them to take a seat, Kenjirou squeezing behind you with a hot pan of freshly baked bread in one hand and a small plate of mochi in the other. He slid the plate over to a waiting customer, giving a small bow and a quiet "have a nice day!" before giving you a small kiss on the head as he walked back towards the register. You grinned and gave him a wink before heading to the tea rack to make a pot of their famous oolong tea.
After Kenjirou had agreed to your crazy plan, you two started to plan out what it would look like. With his business degree and your culinary and accounting classes plus your obsession with tea, the idea came together pretty quickly. Where you two then found the perfect store front, a smallish place in Kyoto near the Kamo River. From there the place grew and grew and grew. it became a relatively famous spot for tourists and locals to come get a pot of tea or wagashi in summer.
When the cafe closed at night, the two of you retired to your small apartment above the store, exhausted but full of joy. You had never seen Kenjirou smile as much as he did when he was working in the cafe. He was calm and bright and utterly gorgeous. You knew, whenever he gave you a small kiss on your head in passing, that you had made a good decision. Now, you two were closer than ever.
On Sundays, when the cafe was closed, he would take you to the Kamo River and you would have a picnic together, enjoying the sun; or if it was raining, he would make you walk through the city, drenched but still somehow warm. He made you happier than you had ever been and you wouldn't trade it for any office job.
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hope you all enjoyed!
I think this is just the beginning
of this and I may make it into a
series because this kinda feels
like just an intro but im not sure
also I love shirabu so :)
(i decided i can't be bothered to
rewrite this so imma just publish
now :/)
