This post has the following content warnings:
It's a peaceful day at Leblanc. Sojiro has a couple customers in his shop, both sipping coffee, one eating a curry. Mellow music is playing, the lighting is cozy, and the coffee is as good as ever.
He nods a greeting as Akira enters the shop on her way home from school.
Akira nods. "... here's hoping it goes well," she says. "I mean, I trust Ryuji but I've never done this before, so..."
"Break a leg," Ann says. "You take things so seriously, you know? So if you just apply that to having fun, you'll get somewhere."
Shiho grins at her. "Ryuji's easy to have fun with, and seeing you like this is gonna empty out his cute blond head."
Akira looks away and runs two fingers through a strand of her black hair.
"I... yeah, I hope so. I should probably get going, then..."
She takes out her phone and checks the time.
It's 09:29 now. Allowing for a half hour of travel to Shibuya, she's still got half an hour to spare.
"Well, I've got fifteen minutes or so. We could hang a little, but I really want to be early for my date. Maybe grab something small from the shops for a gift..."
Ann looks Akira in the eye. "Akira, you're totally overthinking this."
"Ryuji's going to be blown away as it is." Shiho looks away for a moment, blushing, then adds. "I would be blown away if you showed up looking like this, and I helped you do it. You don't need to be a whole fifteen minutes early, and you don't need a gift. You just need to enjoy his company."
Listen to your girlfriends, moitié, Julie adds mentally. Your nerves are getting the better of your sense.
Akira exhales. "I guess so, yeah. It's just... hard to feel like I'm worth anyone's time, even now."
Akira takes a breath and deliberately unslings her pack and sits again. "Just — yeah. Nerves. It's silly; I can fight for my life just fine but I can't keep my cool when someone says I matter to them..."
"Akira. You made that bastard confess to everything in front of the whole school. It was your strength and your leadership that got us through all that. I know your family never treated you well, but..." Ann brushes a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I'd kiss you right now if it wouldn't ruin your makeup."
Akira ducks her head and looks away. "I... thank you. I don't know how to really react to that but — it's good to be cared about."
"You don't need to react to it in any particular way. I just hope that eventually it'll actually get through to you."
Shiho looks down for a moment. "It takes time. Self-worth issues are hard." Then she looks Akira in the eye. "But I know what it's like, and I try to listen when you and Ann and Ryuji tell me I matter, so you need to try to listen when we do the same, okay?"
"Yeah." Akira nods.
"... thank you two for putting so much effort in. I can't describe how much it means to me to see myself in the mirror like this."
Akira settles her hands in her lap. "Um... anything else you two would like to talk about? It would help with my nerves to be distracted a bit."
Shiho flushes, looks down, then looks up at Akira with a shy grin. "I've got a headphone splitter. Wanna get together sometime soon and share music recs over dinner or something?"
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
