9 Chapter 8
It took him three seconds when he regained his consciousness after being attacked by Kisaki's smile. Holding the hot cup of Latte with a chibi art of Kisaki on top, Luca squinted his eyes and showed him a slight smile.
"Well, I thought you weren't busy so I just...managed to pass by. Are you free?" Luca asked smilingly as Kisaki shockingly stunned when Luca spoke in a straight sentence without being interrupted by stuttering. He felt a tickle in his heart and grinned foolishly when he suddenly realized that Luca was now already comfortable with him.
"No, I'm not busy at all! We just finished the song we rehearsed and temporarily taking a break." He said 'honestly' and Luca smiled dryly. It was because the members of the band were staring at them suspiciously and snickered silently.
Kisaki saw Luca's nervousness and turned around, he saw his three friends staring at them intensely which was the reason of Luca's uncomfortableness. Kisaki glared at them and immediately withdraw their gazes and stared blankly at the ceiling instead.
"Don't mind them, they all had a problem in the head. Oh, what brings you here?" Kisaki asked. Kisaki said that everything's fine, so he eased his nervousness as he spoke.
"Nothing really, I just thought what would it be like if you practice. And, I like to give you this." He handed Kisaki his newly made coffee and stared at it with his burning eyes. Kisaki somehow felt helpless and grabbed the cup right after Luca handed it to him.
As soon as he opened the lid, he was stunned when he saw the chibi art of himself on the top of the Latte. Kisaki looked at Luca and saw his shy face. No wonder he was nervous, it was because Luca made this coffee himself for him. He heart felt warm and had an urge to hug him if Luca wasn't thin-skinned.
"Should we get coffee too?"
"Look, he's enjoying himself." The twins murmured laughingly as they bent down, covering their mouths. Kisaki's face darkened as he saw the two making fun of him.
"Well, we were just about to have a practice. Want to come over?" The twins on the corner heard the battling thunder inside their heads. They were beaten to death by their rehearsal earlier, they clearly heard Kisaki said that their rehearsal was over.
This person surely had double standards.
"Hey bro, I thought we were done practicing. Have you thought of practicing now? Aren't you afraid of losing your voice?" said Shimizu while trembling to think of practicing again.
"why did you ask that? You're not the one singing." said kisaki as he sneered at shimizu. One could saw that Shimizu had goosebumps when he saw kisaki's grin as if he were calling death. Luca, on the other hand, didn't notice the change in Kisaki's expression so he didn't feel weird.
"Come in Luca, don't you want me to watch you perform?" said kisaki while smiling. But Luca shook his head and smiled back.
"Don't. I'll just watch your show later. I'm supposed to be surprised, right? So I can't watch your rehearsal. I'll see you later." said Luca with mixed excitement and admiration.
"Well, if you say so. Just come later huh?"
"Yes." said Luca as his cheek blushed. Luca thought that they weren't alone in the clubroom and there were three people listening in the back, Luca's cheeks were even redder and he said goodbye to kisaki, then he ran away.
Kisaki wondered why Luca’s cheek was red. And when he looked behind him, he saw three monkeys were like detectives judging by their stares.
"Did you all see that? As if he was taking care of his girl- boyfriend judging by his tone." Kaito said while Shimizu nodded. Kobayashi didn't mind since he was off to his own world ever since Luca ran. So, Kisaki glared at the two and sneered, "You want to rehearse again? Say one more word and I'll end your career right now."
"Yes Sir we'll shut up." Then after that, the twins ran for who knows where after they triggered the humanoid bomb.
Did he really take care of Luca that way? Kisaki thought himself. He then pondered where his actions wrong, but he couldn't figured it out.
Luca wasn't like the twins who liked to joke around, he wasn't like Kobayashi who was open-minded and didn't care other people's opinions. However, Luca was fragile. He was shy and extremely sensitive to other people's feelings. So, he treated him more tenderly than those three rascals.
Luca had few friends and sometimes he was always alone. Kisaki was his first friend which made him ecstatic. Seeing him talking to other people made him feel proud too. So, there's nothing wrong about that.
'Right?'
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After running like a cheetah, Luca ended up resting under the cherry tree where he and Kisaki first met. He just felt his heartbeat rapidly beating and he didn't knew why. He clutched his chest unconsciously as he felt the fast heartbeat through his warm palm.
"Why is it beating so fast?" Luca said as he kept patting his chest. His blush didn't even fade even when he didn't saw Kisaki's face anymore.
"Maybe it's because it's so hot. Why did I drink coffee at noon? I'm so nervous." Luca huffed a mouthful of air to calm himself down.
"Yeah, it's because of that coffee." Luca reassured his feelings and denied the call of his heart. As naive as he was, how could he find out?
After that, he eventually ran towards the café and was greeted by his club members inside. The café will soon going to be open so Luca prepared all he needed as a barista. Takamura helped him in the kitchen as Kenji will be going to be a cashier while the three, Kaede, Hinata, and Haruki will be the waiter.
"This is it guys, remember that we'll only going to open until four o'clock in the afternoon so we should try our best to satisfy the customers!" Takamura cheered loudly and the team screamed "fighting!" as they proceeds. Luca took off his glasses and looked nore innocent and cute. Kenji was always by himself, cold and distant. After they got their roles, they opened the café without any hindrance.
Kaede distributed flyers outside to attract customers, and even though not much, the customers enjoyed their service and praised the barista for his craftsmanship.
Luca was overjoyed by their opinion and did his best for them and for the group, he didn't want to let them down.
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When the clock reached 4 in the afternoon, the café was closed and they packed up all the things that were unnecessary. Kenji went home after he cleaned up the dishes. Kaede, Hinata and Haruki were enjoying themselves and didn't planned to go home. Takamura did her job as a club leader and didn't go home yet, which is why Luca cleaned up the room before he goes home.
Kisaki was preparing for his performance so Luca went home alone. But he didn't feel aggrieved about it and even felt excited. He didn't saw Kisaki on stage before and witnessing him on the stage felt new to him. He was looking forward for Kisaki's performance.
He eventually went home and witnessed that his father weren't there. He only saw a sticky note on the door of the refrigerator and said that he was out working overtime tonight and felt sorry that he couldn't accompany him. Hideo told him to enjoy the festival himself and don't go home too late.
Luca smiled unconsciously at the note his father sent him and washed up. He then put on his oversized black hoodie and jeans, took the money that Hideo left for him and looked at the mirror for a few minutes. At six o'clock in the dusk, he went out after locking the door.
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As he strolled in the pathway while admiring the sakura petals, he caught a cicada flying over the sakura blossom. The wings were attractive as the cicada huddled onto the leaves, he was amused and stared at it for a while. Although there were many people gathering in the place, the cicada remained unbothered and kept getting close to the petal. He didn't flew away.
He didn't even knew that the venue was right behind him.
"And here comes the last performer, the Kobayashi band!" Luca looked back and saw Kisaki's presence, along with the sakura leaves falling over him.
He took off his hoodie and smiled at Kisaki with admiration. He was right, Kisaki shine the brightest when he was on stage.
Kisaki, on the other hand, was looking for Luca the entire time. And when he saw the familiar person under the cherry tree, he smiled foolishly and took over the microphone.
"And the song I wanted to perform is..."
"Spring Breeze."
