I don't even know myself... xD
Part 2
While sitting down by the Kitchen’s counter, Oya couldn’t help but stare at her friend in worry. She’s been peeling the cabbage’s leaves for a long while now, and Oya was sure that she already peeled enough leaves needed for whatever she was planning to cook. Two plates were already filled with it, for crying out loud! And she wasn’t even done yet!
Finally unable to observe in silence any longer, Oya decided to break the silence within the kitchen, “KitaRie, you know… If you’re planning to make some vegetable salad, aside from Yui, no one’s going to eat that many cabbages…”
It seemed like talking was a success as Rie responded with a small jump and her hands halting half-way from peeling yet another poor leaf. She shifted her head to the cabbage-filled plates soon after. “Ah. Sorry, I spaced out, didn’t I?” She spoke after a short pause as she decided to spare the cabbage in her hand and tossed it back inside the fridge. She turned to the plates again, this time, her eyes widened. “I’ve peeled this much already?!”
“You just noticed?!” Oya was close so to slapping her own forehead, she really was, “You know if you’re still bothered about that other-Hara girl on your contact list, then why don’t you give it a try? Send her a mail or something. It’s better than just spacing out and thinking about it the whole day.”
Rie simply grunted as a reply.
She couldn’t really say ‘I’m not thinking about it!’ to Oya. She knew that the girl understood her best out of the other girls inside the house, which also meant that lying to her was useless. Sometimes, Rie hated how sharp Oya was.
“Kitahara-san should go and ask her out for lunch today.” Yui, who had just entered the Kitchen after a few minutes of eavesdropping, jumped in the conversation, her usual goofy yet lax smile visible on her face. “She did promise to treat you in that café she suggested, didn’t she? Why not use that as an excuse?”
Rie was starting to regret telling her friends what happened while she was away and why her phone was new. But they were just too nosy for her to resist! They wouldn’t stop asking her ‘Will you tell us now?’ ever since they saw the small gadget in her hand, so she eventually gave in and told them. And now they wouldn’t stop bugging her about it.
“Are you expecting me to just randomly send her a mail saying ‘Let’s eat lunch together!’ just like that? I’m not even that interested in eating in that café she suggested to begin with. It’s just a café with cheap foods.” Fully ignoring the cabbages she was preparing, Rie pulled out her phone and checked the new contact in the list. “I might as well delete this to make you all sto-”
Oya hurriedly grabbed the phone from Rie’s hand and began typing down on its keypad, cutting the girl from what she was about to say and leaving her there in shock. “And done!” she exclaimed as she pressed one last button on the phone, showing the screen to Rie soon after.
Mail sent
It took her awhile to finally take in what the message on the screen meant, but when it finally hit her, it was already too late. “Shiicha- Wha- Why would you do that?! What did you say?! You’re not making me look like a total idiot now, are you!?” she literally snapped, her hand reaching for the phone which was teasingly held up in the air away from her.
“Relax, relax! I only asked if she was free and if it was fine if you two would hang out in the afternoon.” Oya grinned playfully before placing her free hand on Rie’s forehead, pushing her away while the other girl continued on flailing her arms around. “It would be a waste if we don’t use Yui’s suggestion, ne~?” She shifted her head to Yui, slightly tilting her head in an innocent manner while Yui responded with a nod and a “Ne~?”
“Seriously you guys… Please stop shoving things on me.” Rie sighed in defeat. She dropped her hands back to her side soon after, now convinced that it was no use trying to steal her phone back from her tall friend
“Oh you’re just saying that now. I’m sure that soon, you’ll thank us for this.” Oya still had her grin on while the other two girls inside the kitchen were now staring at her in puzzlement. She shook her head disappointingly afterward with a sigh leaving her lips. “Come on you two, it’s weird, isn’t it?” It only made the two even more puzzled that they already were, “Alright, here’s the thing… This other-hara girl bumped and stepped on KitaRie’s phone by ‘accident’, right? So she normally bought her a new phone as an apology. We understand that. But what about the strap? And then she invites her to a café!? SHE LIKES YOU RI- Ah, the phone’s vibrating.”
Both Rie and Yui facepalmed in unison. Honestly, their friend’s short attention span never failed to amuse them. They both soon moved on each sides of Oya after noticing her gesture to them to come closer, immediately locking their eyes on the phone’s screen as soon as she showed it to them.
From: Sashihara Rino
Subject: RE: Are you free?
Eh? Today?
Sure! I’m free for the whole day! ＼（＾ ＾）／
I was in the middle of dying from boredom as well, you’re a life saver! (＾∇＾) /
This afternoon, right? Let’s meet in the place where we bumped into each other!
--end—
“Well, it seems like you have no other choice but to go there now KitaRie. I mean, you’re not going to leave her there in Akihabara waiting for nothing, right?” Oya shut the phone close and handed it to the shorter girl with her usual mischievous smile on, “You can go ahead and change, leave the cooking and cleaning to Yui and I.” she flashed a thumbs up before pushing the poor girl out of the kitchen, ordering her not to go back until she was done with her ‘date’.
Though somewhat annoyed for being pushed around and most of all, forced into meeting someone whom she just met, Rie gave in without saying any more complaints. She was thankful that the girl bought her a new phone, after all- even though it was her fault to begin with.
“I’ll get going then…?” Rie peeked into the Kitchen as soon as she had finished changing into something much suitable for outdoors. Seeing her three friends helping together just to make an edible food, Rie couldn’t help but smile, though it immediately faded away as soon as she noticed Komorin’s messy hair.
“Alright, take care, Kitahara-san.” It was Yui who responded first before the other two gave a nod and a lazy goodbye wave.
Nodding her head, Rie finally excused herself towards the front door, “I’ll buy something for dinner, so you don’t have to cook, alright?” she yelled to the trio before slipping in her boots and walking out of the house.
--
Rie couldn’t help but slap her hand on her forehead for the nth time of the day as she leaned her back on a lamppost not far from where her ‘meeting spot’ with the Sashihara girl was, her arms crossed across her chest while her feet continuously tapped itself on the ground impatiently.
Apparently, she came there earlier that the expected time they would meet up. Just for thirty minutes.
Or at least it was supposed to be.
“Could it be… She stood me up?” Rie sighed bitterly at the thought as she looked at the time in her phone. An hour has passed already ever since their assigned meeting time, and still, there were no hints of the girl anywhere. “I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to this… Meeting up with a stranger, really…” she sighed once again, with her head dropping down in disappointment at the same time.
Truth be told, Rie’s negativeness was starting to rise up as the seconds passes by. This was actually the reason why she would usually refuse meet-ups and hang-outs with other people (other than her friends, that is)- she was afraid of being stood up- she was afraid of looking like an idiot there, standing and waiting for nothing.
Even though she has been avoiding it for a long time now, the moment still came to her it seems.
“HEEEEEEEEEEEY!”
Hearing the familiar voice, Rie immediately turned her head up again, turning it to the side in search for the girl. A girl with a red beret waved her hand up from the other side of the road, immediately catching Rie’s attention. Rie responded by raising her hand up In the air as well- though unlike the other girl’s, she only lifted it up half-way, feeling somewhat embarrassed about waving in the public.
The girl’s already big grin grew even wider as soon as she noticed Rie respond on her wave, hurriedly crossing the street without even looking around to see if there were cars around. Thankfully, vehicles were rare in Akihabara. “Sorry, did I make you wait?” She half-yelled as she made her way to Rie, only stopping when she had reached a few feet away from the girl.
“Don’t mind it.” Rie shook her hand dismissively. Even though she was kind of irritated about it awhile ago, she decided to brush it off. It was her own fault for going there early after all. “So, what should we do first?” finally moving her back away from the lamppost, Rie smiled a little as she watched the girl pant from all of her running.
“Eh… Um… Well…” The girl took a deep breath in, finally halting herself from panting even more. She suddenly held her hand out to Rie soon after. “Before anything else, introductions… We never introduced ourselves to each other properly, did we?” for some reason, the girl looked troubled to Rie with her brows furrowed to the middle, “My name is Sashihara Rino, my last name is long, so feel free to call me by my nickname if you want, it’s Sasshi. Or if you prefer calling me by my first name, that’s fine too.”
Rie stared at her hand for awhile before reluctantly taking it, giving it a light shake when their hands locked together, “It’s fine, my name is somewhat long too. I’m Kitahara Rie by the way, though my friends call me Kitarie.”
“I see… So it’s Kitahara-san.”
“Mm, it’s a pleasure to finally know your name, Sashihara-san.”
“Like…wise…”
They both laughed awkwardly at the same time, their eyes shifting to the side at the same time as awkwardness began to fill in between them. There they were, introducing each other with their nicknames included, and yet, still ended up calling each other by their last names. Once again, Rie facepalmed inwardly… Little did she know that Sashihara actually did the same thing at, once again, the same time.
After what seemed to be forever, Rie finally decided to break the ice, “B-By the way, why were you late…?”
Silence…
Great, what a way to make things worst. If only they weren’t in the public, Rie swore that she would have literally high-fived her face by now. “You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.” She hurriedly added before the awkward atmosphere would get even heavier that it already was.
“Ah, no, it’s fine.” Sashihara sheepishly smiled while scratching the back of her had. She slowly shifted her eyes to the side afterward, “It’s just that… It took me forever to find my wallet from the piles of junk in my apartment.”
Kitahara Rie’s ears slightly twitched at what she just heard, “Could you repeat that?”
“No- Well- I live alone, so the apartment I live in is normally messy. It took me some time to find my wallet because of that”
It seems like they didn’t have to think of what to do now.
Looking up at Rie, Sashihara couldn’t help but wonder what the girl was up to. She was currently standing there in silence, fingers cupping her chin and eyes locked down on the ground. “Um… Kitahara-sa—”
“-If you don’t mind, can I go to your apartment and clean it?”
Though slightly taken aback from the sudden question, Sashihara tried to keep herself calm, her brows falling down in a puzzled manner as her jaw slightly dropped down. Her lips were forming a small ‘o’ at that, “Right… now..?”
“Right now.” For some odd reason, Rie had one of those determined look in her eyes, somehow scaring Sashihara a little.
Why would a stranger want to clean someone else’s house anyway? Well, maybe they’re not that much of strangers to each other anymore, but why clean the house of a person you just met? “I don’t get it.” Sashihara voiced out with her brows still deeply furrowed down. “Wait, wait, so you want to come to my house… Just to clean my mess?”
Rie lifted a brow up and simply nodded her head as though it was the most common thing in the world.
“I really don’t get it… Why would you want to clean it? I mean… Going all the way to my apartment just to clean… Eh?” As expected nothing seemed to make sense to her anymore. Sashihara took her red beret off of her head, scratching the top of her head as she tried to process whatever situation she currently is in right now.
“Eh? Isn’t that normal though? Wanting to clean a messy place, I mean…”
“If it’s your own mess, then maybe, but someone else’s…? Most of all, someone who you just met…? How can I be sure that you won’t do anything funny when you go to my apartment? You’re not planning to kill me, are you?” Sashihara narrowed her eyes at Rie suspiciously, only to have her head chopped lightly by the said girl. “Ow! Eh?!”
“We’re both girls, so there’s no way I’d do anything ‘funny’ on you! And most of all, why would I want to kill you?” Rie felt slightly offended at being accused strongly. She was offering to clean the girl’s apartment, and yet, this is what she gets?
“Well I guess you’re right…”
“Of course I’m right.”
A sigh of defeat left Sashihara’s lips. Even though she’d never taken anyone, not even her own parents, in her own apartment yet … “Alright. Let’s go there, then…? I guess it’s better than just standing here and arguing.”
Rie gave off a victorious smile in response. “Exactly.”
Sashihara sighed again,
How did this end up like this…? she thought as she turned around and reluctantly walked off towards her apartment’s direction.
I feel like turning this into one of those long-assed stories... xD But then again, I already have lots of fics on-going.
Should I?
or Should I not?
xDD
btw, I didn't re-read again, so if there are grammatical errors, please forgive me. >_<
I'm just a poor 'loli' with slow english!
Topic: Short Shots Collection: (NanashiNantene) 9/02 (Read 22204 times)