School Days (6)

Several minutes later, Devin walked back to their table with a tray and handed each of them their orders. As their items were placed down, Aika paid little attention to hers and instead watched Aria as she received hers.

She was glowing in excitement as her hot chocolate and coffee cake were placed in front of her. The moment they were fully set down, she grabbed the hot chocolate and took a sip of it, relaxing visibly in contentment afterwards.

Devin laughed quietly as he walked away from the table. It was extremely fitting that the extremely friendly and shy Aria would prefer sweet food while Aika looked like an ice princess and wanted something more bitter and mature.

After she relieved her craving for the delicious hot chocolate, Aria looked up and noticed Aika staring at her with a weird smile. She felt around on her face for several moments before attempting to wipe at it with a napkin.

Eventually, she gave up on trying to find it herself and decided she would ask the person staring at her.

"Is there something on my face?"

"No... your reaction to your hot chocolate was just really cute."

Aria felt her face heat up and she looked down at her food unable to handle looking at Aika at the moment after embarrassing herself two times in a row within just a minute.

Aika reached over the table and grabbed her chin gently, forcing her to look up at her.

"Don't be so embarrassed, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Unfortunately, while she was trying to calm the other girl down, all that her actions accomplished was making Aria's face even more red.

Determined to escape the embarrassing situation, Aria stood up and rushed to the bathroom after muttering something about needing to freshen up. When she got there, she looked at herself in the mirror and saw her bright red face. She splashed her face with water from the sink repeatedly until her face cooled down and then collected herself.

After leaving the bathroom, she looked at their table and saw Aika sitting there peacefully drinking coffee and paused. All she could think about was how beautiful and mature she looked sitting there drinking her coffee. Watching with her full attention, she saw Aika pick up the awful pastry and dip it in her coffee before taking a bite and seeming to enjoy it.

Several moments later, Aria shook her head and walked back over to the table unaware that Devin had seen her staring at her friend and was smirking. He had never seen Aria pay much attention to anyone before and suddenly here she was staring at her new friend.

When she got back to the table and sat down, she put all of her attention on her food. Each bite of coffee cake melted in her mouth and the hot chocolate seemed much more delicious than usual.

After nearly an hour of sitting at the table in silence, they had finished their food and drinks.

As they were waiting for the bill, both girls took out their money and looked at each other. Aria put her card down on the table and shook her head.

"I'm paying."

"I'm not letting you pay."

Shifting uncomfortably, Aria nearly gave in but decided to stand her ground on this.

"No. I'm the one who was going her first and brought you here. I'm paying!"

She crossed her arms and glared at Aika, copying the serious look she had seen her teachers do before when they were annoyed at students.

Aika bit the inside of her lip to contain her lips from curling upward. Even though she knew Aria was doing her best to act intimidating and probably would of succeeded on anyone else. But for some reason, to her it was more oddly cute like watching a kitten bare it's fangs than something she would actually find intimidating.

After several moments of staring at each other, Aika nodded so that Aria would stop acting cold and angry and couldn't contain her smile as the other girl's face lit up in smugness at having won.

When they were leaving Monocled Rabbit, the same man on a motor cycle happened to be driving down the road once again. As he sped down the street, Aria made a decision she had been considering for months.

Despite never having owned a car or used one practically, she had gotten her license when she moved back to B City and getting a motorcycle permit would be really easy.

She couldn't figure out why, but every time she was someone riding a motorcycle, a desire lit up deep inside her to try it out herself and feel what it was like driving and not just watching from the sidelines.