Chapter 1: His Name

Every day, this customer arrives at the exact time.

At 10:10 AM, ten minutes after Café Perry opens, the door chimes, warning them of the appearance of their first customer of the day, which is the same guy every single day.

"Welcome!" Midoriya Izuku greets with a smile.

The man had the weirdest hairstyle Midoriya has ever seen. He sports a bi-colored bowl cut, white on the right, and a bright shade of crimson on the other. A scar marred the left side of his face, at first Midoriya thought it was part of his cosplay costume but it looked too real to be prosthetics and he doesn't think no one in the right mind would waste hours just to apply prosthetics on his face every single day. Even though Midoriya has been living in Tokyo for almost 3 years now, he still gets surprised at the flashy Harajuku fashion going around in this part of Tokyo. But well, who was he to judge someone else's hairstyle when he himself was constantly bullied for his naturally messy green hair, often being dubbed as 'kelp boy' back when he was in elementary?

The bichromatic-haired man nods, proceeding to sit in his usual spot in the café. Midoriya silently laughs to himself, 'Nonchalant as always,'

Once he gets comfortable with his spot, the man brings out his silver laptop from its case and gently places it on the smooth round table. When the system finally settles, he proceeds to aggressively type on his keyboard, the smashing of his fingers against the keys is so loud it can be heard from the cafe's kitchen.

After 15 minutes of typing, he slumps against the sofa with a rather irritated look on his face. This was Midoriya's cue to get his order because it's the only chance he can get it from him. If you try to disturb him during his concentration nirvana moments, you should be glad if the least he does to you is a scowl.

"Sir, would you like to order?" Midoriya doesn't need to offer him the menu because Midoriya knows he already knows his order as soon as he sits on the sofa.

One black espresso and one caramel Frappuccino, Midoriya mentally recited.

"One black espresso and one caramel Frappuccino,"

The waiter grins and bows, heading towards the kitchen.

"Iida-san," he calls through the small divider, handing out the order paper to the barista.

"The usual?" Iida raises an eyebrow.

When you think of the stereotypical 'prim and proper rich boy', Iida Tenya is basically the embodiment of it. He's a rather uptight guy, being labeled as a person who can't 'read the air' and being a little too strict, sometimes. His regularly trimmed midnight blue hair that's perfectly gelled into place and his trusty glasses are two of his signature looks that you cannot not see him sporting. Honestly, when Midoriya and Iida met back in college they never really thought that they'd be friends. But during his times of hardships, Iida was one of the few people who was surprisingly there for him. He was also the person who suggested Midoriya to work here, just to give him a change of pace.

Midoriya nods. "The usual."

"Oh, Customer-san has finished his chocolate streak it seems," Uraraka, the other waiter in this establishment, forces herself on the kitchen divider, nearly toppling both of them over.

'Too close!' Midoriya feels the heat rushing to his face.

Uraraka Ochako (or Ochaco, as she wants it to be stylized), is one of Midoriya's first friends in Café Perry, other than Iida (but he doesn't really count since they met prior to his Café Perry endeavor). An overgrown brown Bob cut accompanied by thin fringes is her go-to hairstyle. A permanent blush was painted on her face, unintentionally making her look like she was always blooming. She's a bubbly girl that seems to exude good vibes wherever she goes. It was Uraraka who helped Midoriya with the ropes of working as a waiter and to put it simply, helped him adapt to the changes in his environment. Midoriya admits he used to have a huge crush on her, but now he considers her as one of her irreplaceable best friends (the other one being Iida).

"This is actually his 3rd caramel order," Iida notes. "At this rate, he'll taste every frappe flavor in Café Perry."

This customer has this tendency to go on a flavor streak. It literally means what you think it means. He'll order the same thing consecutively (10 times to be exact), before changing it to another. However, if he doesn't like a specific flavor, he'll skip it from his streak and never order it again. So far, he has three flavors he has completely given up on: black forest, cinnamon, and red velvet.

However, his espresso order is never changing. He never drinks it, though. He'll just let it cool down while he sips the frappe dry.

At this point, Midoriya has given up understanding this rather mysterious customer.

Midoriya wonders, when did he start observing and noticing every quirky detail about him?

"Midoriya," Sato, the resident patisserie, a burly guy with a Mohawk who is unexpectedly good with his hands, peeps behind the kitchen door, motioning him to go there. Midoriya walks towards him since Sato rarely talks to him unless it was something important. "hey, listen. Mister Half-and-half—"

"Please don't call him that," Midoriya frowns disapprovingly.

The burly man laughs wholeheartedly, noticing the affection in his co-worker's tone. "Sadly, I don't know his name, and no one does, including you. Would you prefer it if I call him Midoriya's favorite customer?"

Midoriya flushes like a red traffic light. "Mou, Sato-san! Please just give him the respect that he deserves; he's our most faithful customer after all."

"Yes, yes," Sato waves his hand dismissively. "We're getting out of topic. Anyway, I created this new cake recipe and if you don't mind, can you offer it to him and ask for his opinion?"

Café Perry has this tradition where they offer 'test recipes' to random customers and they ask for their opinion so that they can improve or completely abandon the new foodvention. Usual customers would either say, "it's good" or "it's bad". But such answers aren't enough to satisfy Sato-san, he wants them to tell him what's good, what's overflowing, what's too much, the texture, is it real or is it just fantasy? All those answers that only an artist like himself can give.

And that's what Customer-san provides.

The first time they offered him something, he only took a nibble with a poker face on. After that, he was more silent than usual, which says a lot since he's always as silent as the dead of the night. He left Café Perry, leaving Sato devastated. The next day, he literally shoves a 5-page review of the cake on Midoriya's face. His review paper was so thorough and descriptive, they assumed that he is secretly a food critic (that's why he's always busy with his laptop). His report included a very detailed description of the cake (aesthetics, texture, taste, the ingredients that he assumed the cake had, et cetera), likes and dislikes with the cake, suggested restaurants that offer similar flavors (where they could try in order to create their better Café Perry version), and so on. Clearly, Sato was more than overjoyed to get such a detailed review. Mr. Customer has then been his go-to guinea pig--- He means, tester, for his creations ever since.

"Don't you think he looks too busy and annoyed today to use him as your test subject?" Midoriya peeks outside the kitchen door, checking up on the number of customers increasing by the minute. "Also Sato-san, I have to get back to work."

The moment he turns around, he is greeted by Sato's puppy eyes. Intimidating eyes that often get him mistaken as a Yakuza is shining brightly, warning Midoriya of impending tears. His thick lips are pouting, on normal occasions, it would've looked endearing, but on Sato... Not so much. It was more disturbing than pitiful, Midoriya feels a shiver running down his spine.

Accepting defeat, he gives his hand out. Sato grins and passes him a small plate with a dainty-looking chocolate cake decorated with white chocolate shavings. How moe gap, it seems like he's in a different genre altogether.

Midoriya exits the kitchen and heads to the Customer's table. "Sir,"

The Customer raises his eyes away from his laptop's screen. His eyes dilate softly as he sees the cute little cake Midoriya is holding. If it isn't for Midoriya's highly efficient observing skills, he wouldn't have noticed the small glint in his heterochromatic eyes. He almost mistakes it for a sparkle.

Isn't it?

"Hn." He nods.

Midoriya's sweat drops, how intimidating. "I'm sorry for constantly bothering you about this, Sir—"

"Todoroki."

"Yes, we're thankful. … Wait, what?"

"Todoroki," He repeats. "My name."

"Oh…" Midoriya says dumbly. He can talk.

"I heard you guys call me as 'the Customer' and 'Mister Half-and-half'." He can talk more. "I would prefer if you call me by my given name instead of monikers that make me sound like a villain or something."

"I don't think the name, 'Todoroki', sounds like a villain's name."

Todoroki deadpans. "… I meant 'the Customer'."

There was a long pause.

"Oh," Midoriya says once more unable to create a coherent reply.

There was another long pause.

"So…" Todoroki coughs awkwardly. "Midoriya."

"Todoroki-kun---Oh NO, I meant Todoroki-sa--Wait, you know my name?"

"That's a lot of pauses." Todoroki's lips form a slight curve, Midoriya isn't so sure if it was his own version of a smile. "I don't mind if you call me '-kun'. You can drop the formalities altogether. Also, You have a name tag."

Midoriya's mouth forms a small 'o'.

"No time for chit-chat, Midoriya-kun!" A stern voice calls out on the opposite side of the room, he assumes it to be Iida's.

"A little help would be appreciated!" Uraraka chimes, balancing a couple of plates and teacups on her body as she walks from one table to another.

"I'm coming!" Midoriya faces Todoroki with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Sir. Just call me when you need me, okay?"

Todoroki turns away, his cheeks were slightly tinted pink. He nods and returns to his laptop.

Midoriya tilts his head to the side, wondering what's up with the change of demeanor but decides to worry about it later. He only realizes his choice of words when he arrives at his apartment almost half a day later.

Surprisingly, Todoroki-kun was easily flustered. Maybe he's not so stoic after all.