A Done Deal

“Oh- you-” Shocked, I point at the customer, who was sitting at her table sipping on her boba. She tilts her head, puzzled at my reaction to her.

The one thing about her that immediately caught my eyes:

Her bright red headphones.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Don’t point at me. Who are you??” A slight expression of discomfort shows on her face, but I’m so shocked that I keep my finger pointing. The girl I’ve been thinking about all day is in front of me!

Then again, I’ve never actually gotten a clear look at what Ms. Red Headphones really looks like, so I may be jumping to conclusions thinking this customer is her.

I yell over to Tsukasa, still working the cashier, and say with a stutter, “H- h- hey, Tsukasa-kun, Tsukasa-kun, I- is this her?? A- Aki Shirasawa??”

Tsukasa just glances over and answers with a simple nod, “Yeah.”

My eyes light up like a bonfire.

“Excuse me? I asked who you are. Do you go to Kokogo High School too?” Her look of discomfort only grew and she put her boba on the table. I finally realize my wild and somewhat rude reaction and I embarrassingly put my hands behind my back. I avert my eyes, making them look and dash everywhere but her.

“Oh- oh my, I’m sorry- I didn’t mean to-“ I bow repeatedly, ashamed of my own behavior. After a few bows, I clear my throat and stand straight.

“Y- yes, I do go to Kokogo too. You’re the new student, right?” I ask, still not able to look at her.

“Yeah I’m her. And you’re just one of the usual, annoying kids who chase me around school 24/7 right?” Aki rolls her eyes and sighs. “So you’ve followed me all the way here, huh?”

I shake my head no. “No, please don’t misunderstand- I work here, so…” I need to find a way to ask her if she’s the person on the roof. How do I do this…

“Are you the person who gave me her lollipop??” No, that would just embarrass her.

“You were on the roof that night!!” No way, it seems like I’m a stalker.

“Say, what were you doing last night at around 9:30 PM?” Hard no. That's creepy.

Plus if she’s not the one, that would just humiliate me as the one asking.

My low social skills are being put to the test here…

“I’m off work. Are you leaving soon or could I stay for a bit?” I try to smile all friendly-like, but I’m super nervous. Plus, I still can’t look at her. Aki eyes me suspiciously and crosses her arms.

“I swear I’m not one of those ‘usual annoying kids’ you were talking about!” I try to convince her.

She sighs and starts drinking her boba again. “Ok then, why not.” I nervously take my seat in the chair across from her. The table is scattered with a few notebooks and pens. She must have been studying. Other than that, she had trash from her boba, and her phone.

Like I said, I haven’t looked at her since my embarrasing behavior earlier. But once in a while, I would glance at her headphones, the main thing I remembered about last night.

It’s really awkward. We’re not saying anything. Maybe this was a mistake, and Aki isn’t the person from the roof… Maybe I should just go… Suddenly, she breaks the silence with a slight giggle.

Aki smirks a bit and says, “You’re weird. Aren’t you gonna say something?”

The tone of her voice when she said that, the vibe it gave me, it felt so familiar.

“You’re weird. Aren’t you gonna ask for my name or something?”

This is what Rooftop Girl said, and Aki said it just like that. Slowly, I start to think that Aki really is from last night.

“Oh yeah… So, Shirasawa-san, how’s school so far?” I clumsily scratch my head and look around, still avoiding eye contact.

“Tiring as hell.. mainly just because of the big fandom of mine…” She sighs.

I can’t help but sneer slightly and chuckle. “Pftttt, imagine being popular.”

“Oh shut up..” Aki jokingly throws her boba straw trash at me, pouts, and sticks out her tongue. Her personality is kinda cute, and it helps me get more comfortable with her. I laugh. But not too much laugh, because too much will make people think you’re weird. Learned from experience.

“Whatcha listening to?” I nod towards her red headphones. Aki smiles. It seems like she liked that I was interested in her music.

"Love Countdown by Nayeon.“ I doubt you know it though heh.”

In my mind, I do an air fist pump. I scored! My little sister listens to that kind of music, so I know a thing or 2 about this genre.

“No, I do know Love Countdown!! It was released recently, right? My little sister always blasts it in her room!” Her face lights up. She scooches closer to the edge of her seat.

Aki sighs in relief, her eyes sparkling. She must really love this topic. “I’m always listening to music. At night, I go up to Kokogo’s roof by myself just to listen on these headphones.” She places a gentle hand on her headphones and caresses it. It seems it’s special to her.

So she is Rooftop Girl!!

I immediately scooch closer to the edge of my own seat. “So it was you!” I exclaim, with a big, genuine eye-smile across my face.

It’s weird. I’ve met this girl twice including now, but I can’t stop thinking about her. She gives me a mysterious but addictive feeling, and it makes me want to stay with her.

Aki sips on her boba and tilts her head in confusion again. I point at myself and enunciate my next words carefully but excitedly.

“From last night! I’m A-o-i Ka-tsu-ki-!” I smile again. Her eyes widen in realization and she almost choked on her boba. She stands up from her seat and points at me the same way I did earlier. I laugh at her actions, since that's how I reacted too.

“You! T- the one with the sparkly eyes last night!” She yelled. She really let her voice be heard throughout the boba place. Everyone in the shop turns their heads to look at Aki. Her face turned red in embarrassment and she put her hands behind her back. She stutters when she apologizes and sits back down. Once all the people stop looking at us, I can’t help but snicker.

“K- Katsuki-san- er, senpai! What are you laughing at??” She whispers and tries to hide her red face behind her empty boba cup. I smile innocently and try to ease her flustered feelings.

"Don't call me senpai, it makes me feel old..." I clumsily scratch my head.

Aki and I continued talking, and talking, and talking. I haven’t had such a comfortable conversation in a long time. We laughed and joked about music and school. I didn’t even realize how much time was passing by. We would have kept chatting the whole night if it wasn’t for Tsukasa chiming in on us and telling us that the shop was closing.

On his way out of the shop, he snuck behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. “Hey you guys, it’s late and we’re closing up. We also have school tomorrow. Get home quickly ok?” Tsukasa leans over my shoulder and whispers in my ear, “You scored big time~”

I end up blushing a bit at what he said and I nod my head no. “It’s not like that!!” I loud-whisper back.

“Yeah yeah, ok, I’ll see you tomorrow. G’night, Aoi-kun, Shirasawa-san.” Tsukasa takes his leave, and Aki gathers her things to leave soon too. We stand up from our chairs, but before she goes, she tells me one last thing. “Katsuki-san, let's make a deal.”

I tilt my head in confusion.

Aki starts talking in a polite business tone, which was really sudden and made me chuckle lightly. “You’re like, invisible at school, so let me stay with you during breaks and stuff. I’m sure people won’t want to chase me around if I’m hanging out with you.

I furrow my eyebrows and wince at her comment. “Ow, that kinda hurts.”

“It’s true though isn’t it??” She says, perfectly serious and with a straight face. Goodness, it seems she can be really straightforward sometimes.

“Yeah…” I mutter, shameful about what she said. I get back to my senses and bargain with her. “Well, what do I get out of helping you?”

“How are your grades doing?” Aki asks.

“Ehhh…” I scratch my head awkwardly and look away. She knows the answer based on my reaction, and grins. She pulls out a packet of paper and holds it up proudly for me to see.

“100% on our most recent homework packet~” She brags with a satisfied smirk on her face. I scoff.

“You’re a year younger than me, I could ace that thing too. What you can’t ace though, is my homework packet.” I grab my unfinished homework packet from stuffed in my pocket and hold it for her to see. “Bet you can’t do this one.” I point at one of the problems. I chose an easy one, just to be nice.

She stares at it for a bit. Clearly, she’s stuck. Of course she couldn’t solve it. I mean, I would need to write it down to solve it. In my mind, I do one of those evil anime villain laughs. But only a few seconds later, she looks at me and blankly answers, “It’s obviously x = 4.”

“H- huh??” I look at the problem myself, and search the page to see if the answer was there for her to cheat off of. But it wasn’t. “How-”

“See? I’m smart~ So if you’re smart, you would agree to staying with me during school, and I’ll come to Boba Fans every other day to help you study after your shift. Sounds good?” She has a bratty grin on her face and extends her hand for a handshake to seal the deal.

I roll my eyes and stuff my homework back in my pocket. “Fine… I’ll help you out at school…” I shake her hand.

Aki claps in tiny, celebrating her victory. “Well then, I’ll see you during break tomorrow, Katsuki-san~” She smiles a mischievous but friendly smile. I can’t help but smile back.

“Yeah, see you, Shirasawa-san.” I wave an awkward wave as I watch her and her red headphones exit the shop. I just stand there, frozen, thinking about what just happened.

I found the rooftop girl, and I got to talk to her, and I’ve never talked to another student (much less a girl) other than Tsukasa, and she was so easy to talk to… I feel like my whole life just got brighter from this night.

“Oooiii, we’re closing now, Katsuki-san! Head home now!” I hear the boss scold me. I bow, apologize, and bid him my farewells before stepping out into the cold night.

It was a night just like this where I first met Aki on the roof, hehe…

Tomorrow’s a school night. I better get some rest, so that I’m prepared for tomorrow and everything that might happen.

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[ from author: i’m still getting used to remembering to post the chapter every week so please bear with me if i forget on wednesdays :) ]