A Little Gift

As usual, it was nearly ten in the evening when Hayashi Sakura arrived at her apartment from work. She had already typed her apartment code when the front door opened and a tall and slender figure of Yamaguchi Alan emerged, appearing exhausted after the get-together with the rest of the male members of the book club.

The moment Alan saw Hayashi Sakura already standing at her door, his distasteful look lit up instantly.

Sakura was just about to open her door wide for her to enter when she suddenly felt someone else's existence behind her, causing her senses to be alert on the spot. Good thing she is not wearing her maid's uniform this time!

However, when she saw that it was only Yamaguchi Alan standing behind with a sheepish smile across his face, Sakura's senses instantly relaxed and went back to normal.

"Good evening, Hayashi-san!" came the usual energetic voice of Alan from behind that made Sakura turn around to face him.

Sakura managed to plaster a smile despite how tired she felt from all the work she exerted today. Speaking of work, Mori Ken was surprisingly not in their cafe. Seems like Tanaka Ryo really got a good hold of the male members of the club huh…

"Good eve. Seems like you have a great time with the other boys," Sakura said with a gleeful tone to match Alan's pace.

Man, I just really wanted to retire on my bed as early as now…

Alan beamed and said, "Well, surprisingly, we enjoyed being in the manga store earlier where Ryo brought us all. Can you believe how cunning that guy can be? He even managed to blackmail the vice president right on the spot!"

Sakura had only known a few guys who are very much expressive and talkative like this just by merely observing her classmates for the past few years, and Alan was one of those rare creatures who are like this.

Normally, with her introverted nature, Sakura would be somewhat annoyed with this kind of attitude that a person possesses around her, especially since she is really not that much of a talker herself.

Sakura soon learned to accept this kind of attitude through interacting with Nakano Yuna every day at school. It really didn't bother her at all, but gave a warm feeling in her heart just knowing that someone wants to describe everything that took place in his or her day.

Apart from that, how can she be angry with someone as cute as Alan?

After Alan has almost shared everything that happened to his day with the boys, he was somehow taken aback to see Sakura smiling to herself and made him confused.

Did I say something weird for her to smile at me like that?

But her smile is really cute though! I want to pinch her pink cheeks right now!

While these thoughts were still lingering in Alan's mind, his right hand spontaneously moved up towards Sakura's right cheek. Before he knew it he had already started giving it a light pinch, surprising both Sakura and himself!

Sakura was almost dumbfounded with Alan's simple touch on her cheek like this.

Instantly, Alan pulled his hand away and returned it to his side as he looked at Sakura with utmost concern.

"I'm so sorry! I just find your smile so cute that my hands started moving up on their own!" Alan blurted out at a fast pace without much thinking. But only after realizing what he said just now made him smack his hand on his forehead.

Nice one Alan! You have just embarrassed yourself in front of her with that creepy remark of yours! Hopefully, she wouldn't take me as a pervert!

And she didn't though. Instead of acting indifferently because of his rash actions earlier, Sakura finds herself chuckling at Alan's words, making the latter somehow relieved in his place.

After that embarrassing incident for Alan only then he realized that Sakura also got home at the same time as him, thus he also can't help but ask how did their girl get-together go.

In that instance, Sakura had now stopped chuckling upon hearing Alan's words and was immediately rooted on the ground.

Gosh! How do I answer that?

"Did you went to a bookstore or something?" Alan continued to probe. Obviously, he wasn't told where the girls really went to hang out on their own.

Avoiding his gaze, Sakura only omitted one word at him, "Swimwear."

Alan looked at the girl whose face is being red at the moment.

Huh? Did I just hear her say swimwear?

He happened to look at the paper bag that the girl is now holding and figured out right there and then that the girl did not go to a bookstore but went shopping instead.

To get out of this embarrassing mess, Sakura had immediately excused herself and said that she needs to hurry inside to study for the short quizzes tomorrow.

Speaking of which, there was this particular professor of hers in General Psychology that's fond of surprise quizzes every after class. To think that it's only her minor subject and yet their teacher is being a heavy burden to them!

"Ah, before I forget!"

Hayashi Sakura was already getting ready to dash all the way inside her room when she sees Alan pulling out something from the small pocket of his backpack before facing her once more.

Once he did, Alan opened his right palm and in it revealed a cute-looking neko keychain which Sakura immediately recognized to be the black cat with a crescent moon shape on its forehead from Sailor Moon!

"I saw the manga store selling this on the counter and immediately thought of you. You liked Sailor Moon, right?"

Sakura was speechless for a while.

Right… this guy had definitely seen her watching a childish anime like Sailor Moon the other day!

She wanted to deny Alan's assumptions of her liking that anime series but couldn't bring herself to do it.

After all, what will she say? That she only watched it for the sake of their maid cafe' theme?

There's no way I could say that out loud in front of this guy!

In the end, the only thing Sakura did was to eventually accept the small gift from Alan, making the latter smile in delight. He was glad that his small effort and his 1,000 yen wasn't put to waste!

"Thanks for the gift, Alan. Now, I must really head back inside and sleep."

Sakura pretended to yawn using her other hand that immediately convinced the guy. As soon as she did that, they started bidding their goodbyes and parted ways to each of their rooms.