Chapter Text
Nothing had worked out the way Subaru wanted that Saturday morning. She overslept her alarm (something that almost never happened) after hitting the snooze button in a half conscious state. The first coffee she had tried to prepare that morning had overflowed her cup and she had to spend some extra time cleaning the countertop. She discovered she had left her favorite notebook in the classroom, so she was missing a good amount of notes. She arrived breathless to the station, just to see at the distance, how the train she wanted to take closed its doors right in front of her, and went away, forcing her to wait for another 10 minutes. And, as if the day couldn't be worse, the universe had thrown at her yet another affront: her favorite spot at the cafe was already taken.
It was her favorite for multiple reasons: It was a corner, so less people nearby, it was cozy and comfortable, and also had the window view. Saturday mornings were not busy in that trendy cafe, so getting that spot was almost guaranteed. But today, someone had taken it already.
The spot next to it was available, so she approached cautiously. She could see better the person sitting in her spot now, and he seemed tall and intimidating. He had long dark hair, seemed about her age, and was reading manga with headphones on. She stopped in her tracks, and gulped nervously.
‘Maybe I can still go back home, this doesn't seem like a good idea’ She could already feel her pulse accelerating and the nervousness creeping in, her flight response kicking in with force. She breathed slowly, and looked around, the waitress that had waved her hello at the entrance was looking at her, waiting for her to sit, oblivious to Subaru’s inner conflict. She gulped again, tensing her jaw, and forced herself to take the last few steps to her new spot.
Subaru could feel him staring when she sat and put her stuff on the table. She ignored him the best she could. ‘ Why am I like this?’ she lamented while trying to regulate her own pulse, still wanting to run home, but the boy’s stare didn't seem to linger and he went back to his reading.
Quite different to how it started, the rest of the morning went by peacefully, she ordered some nice specialty coffee, managed to tackle some difficult exercises from her homework, and managed to overcome her own fear by not running away, so her mood improved drastically. Her neighbor had also been surprisingly chill. Apart from a couple of stealth glances, he had not tried to start a conversation nor to get any closer, he just remained still most of the time, reading, and focused on his drink, music and manga. A proper introvert, as she could recognize a similar soul. Still, she couldn't avoid flinching violently on the couple of occasions he moved to fetch or order something.
By noon, he had picked up his stuff and gone for the day. She stretched, feeling how tense she had been the whole time. ‘Oh well, that was good practice I guess. I hope he didn't get too weirded out by my reactions’ she thought of her flinching. Well, it's not like I will see him again. And then she went on to finish the last bit of homework left, this time enjoying her favorite spot at last.