Grocery shopping

Kurosaki notices that Tsurara doesn’t go shopping alone anymore. That man follows her around now, like a lost puppy, asking every five minutes if he could get this or get that. Of course, with a cluck of her tongue and a scowl emerging on her face, she refuses to spend money on unnecessary things.

“But Rara-chan, I really, really, really want it. Please, pretty please?”

His puppy pout doesn’t work. Akira fails to cute his way in to getting the new super-sized soymilk drink a tad more expensive than the usual brand. 

The essential things were more important, something she once told Kurosaki many times before, as opposed to eating just cup noodles and junk food.

Even if Akira was rich and had five gold credit cards to waste away, Tsurara had him whipped real good, “No.” 

“Rara-chan’s so unfair.”

“I said no. We’re buying these.” She repeats, pointing at the cheaper brand in the basket.

Akira pouts even more at that, “B-but…”

Tsurara grins at Akira’s adorable expression and kisses his frown away, stepping at the tip of her toes to reach his lips. Akira in turn reels her in, placing the super-sized soymilk bottle aside and lets his large hands slide against her back to get a better taste of her, “Akira-happy.”

Kurosaki twitches, feeling a bit nauseated at the sappy scene.

“Public display of affection, how disgusting.”

The same thing happened every time they went grocery shopping now. Shop, desire, rejection, a pout and then a long agonizing kiss.

He wants to be anywhere but where they were. He hurls at the fact that Tsurara was lip-locking with a man, a real man that actually liked her stubbornness, her crazy lectures on morality and justice and her annoying, nagging voice.

It was decided that Kurosaki wouldn’t shop in this very grocery store anymore. Well…Just for a little while.

+++

A month passes and the next time he sees her shopping for groceries, she’s alone, for the first time.

He was just passing through by coincidence and couldn’t help but notice that soymilk lover isn’t anywhere near her.

She was in the pet aisle, looking through [wrong] brands of catfood. With a sigh, he marches over and snatches a can away from her. He just walked through their line of boundaries and gotten himself involved with a game of cat and mouse, or in his terms, hell.

“I told you not to feed her so casually!” He puts the can aside and gives her the right brand.

Tsurara disregards Kurosaki’s offer and brushes off his presence, grabbing hold onto the usual brand she buys for Neko-chan, “Go away.”

She continues to ignore him and slides down one aisle, now in the canned section, looking for ingredients to make Clam chowder, Akira’s favorite. She takes a glance at Akira’s list, and squints at his horrible illegible handwriting, trying to make out the words he written. 

On the side of the list, there were random doodles of a pig named Nobuta saying “Nobuta power, enter”and “A.K. + T.Y.” surrounded by hearts. Tsurara finds that cute. But first things first, she had to get some shopping done.

Kurosaki couldn’t help but notice Akira’s clustered list. Since he was already here, he might as well taunt her like in the old days. He missed teasing her and watching her flail at his words. This was the only chance for him to see her clumsily trip over her own two feet, “By the way, where’s your idiot boyfriend, soymilk lover?”

Hoping Kurosaki would go away, Tsurara answers without taking one glance at him, “He’s sick.”

“Oh? You think so too? One could wonder what he does with those soymilk bottles…” Kurosaki mocks, shuddering at that thought.

Hearing his comment makes Tsurara turn a full three-sixty with a scorn displayed on her face, “What did you just say about Akira-kun?” Her voice was shrill and filled with anger, “Why do you always pick on him?! He hasn’t done anything to you! Can’t you please just leave him alone?”

So now, she’s defending him, that Akasagi soy-milk loving bastard (or so Kurosaki likes to believe).

She takes a step forward, stomping practically over to him, her hand tentatively making its way up for a slap.

In all honesty, Kurosaki didn’t mean saying those things, or in particular, of the bantering phrases about her. It was his only way of venting actually, his way of showing how much Akira didn’t belong to her, how he didn’t deserve Tsurara’s love, how much he hated the fact that she didn’t wait for him as promised.

He liked to believe it wasn’t jealousy or possessiveness, but rather, believing that Akira wasn’t so innocent and naïve as Tsurara. No, Kurosaki strongly agreed on the fact that this boyfriend of hers, this soy-milk lover was a secret Akasagi, slowly making his way up for the grand finale to make his move, and take everything away from the beautiful Yoshikawa Tsurara, “checkmate.”

Kurosaki’s going to play along with Akira’s game (if there is one) for now....
Looking at the whole perspective now, it was funny how he and Tsurara ended up whenever they went grocery shopping together yet at the same time [separately], as opposed to her and Akira.

They argued to the ends of the earth, loudly like an old bickering married couple where the other customers as well as the new cashier employees would be looking over their shoulders, tip-toeing over the stand to see what all the commotion’s about.

Kurosaki and Tsurara always ended with a glare-down, back turning and then marching away, leaving the store at separate times only to end back together on the way home again. There was never a day when Tsurara wouldn’t be seen with Kurosaki at least once, bickering or staring [tenderly] at each other.

Her hand stops midway and he notices that she’s lost in his sad eyes. The store was almost empty now, and the sounds of grocery bags and chimes echoed in the background for five minutes.

He was the first to break the ice, “What is it Yoshida? What’s stopping you this time?”
She avoids his intense gaze and looks to the side, at the candy section, “It wouldn’t matter if I slap you. You’d just turn around and tease us again.”
“On the contrary Yoshida, I—”

“Yoshikawa. If you can’t say my name, then I’m done talking to you. Now leave me be, Akira-kun’s patiently waiting for me back home.”

She turns her back to him, giving him one last glare-down before taking her leave. 
Kurosaki wasn’t done with her yet and immediately springs his hand out, “Don’t you dare walk away from me.” He forces her back, causing her to trip over her own two feet and crash against a table nearby, where cans of tomatoes were stacked in a pyramid structure.

“Let go of me!”

Tsurara pulls away abruptly, hitting the table once more without notice, but Kurosaki takes on a strong grip of her wrists, squeezing them, “I don’t like it when people walk away from me when I’m not done talking to them.” He adds, grinding his teeth and glaring down at her.

“Is everything alright here…?” One of the store employees asks sheepishly as they approached the two.

Just when Tsurara was about to call for help, Kurosaki butts in and gives them a fake smile, “Perfectly fine.”

The employee smile back brightly and makes his way back to the front of the store. Tsurara tries to struggle out of Kurosaki’s grip, yelping, “No, wait, come back! It’s not fine at all! This man is actually a crim—”

Kurosaki practically flew at her, bringing her down to the floor in one swift movement, a ‘fly-glomp’ as it can be described as at first glance.

Tsurara squeals and Kurosaki grunts as their bodies collided, his hips bouncing on hers twice by accident. She’s out of breath, the back of her head throbbing from the hard impact of the tiled floor of the grocery stores.
Kurosaki was out of control. His lips were pressed to her chin, almost as if he was the bottom of her lip.

He wouldn’t budge an inch when she slapped him, hissing at him to get off. 
Something rolls beside her. One of the canned tomatoes.

She realizes now. The poor swindler lost to the head-butting of canned tomatoes.
It was his fault for trapping her like that, gripping onto her and flinging her around the area.

She palm-faces him and forces him off, disgusted at their position, somewhat feeling a little bit guilty of betraying Akira. Tsurara glares at the unconscious Kurosaki beside her, and rearranges everything into place, “Baka.”

She pokes at his cheek. He doesn’t wake up. She blows at his face; he fidgets but doesn’t open his eyes. She tickles him. Another fidget.
Tsurara doesn’t like it when he bothers her, but his silence is troubling. It scares her. She did miss the way he , it had been so boring for the past few weeks (but that she didn’t mean she didn’t enjoy her days with Akira).

“Foolish, foolish man.”

With one last attempt to wake him up and without thinking, she dips her head and brings to his.

Her face makes contact with his large palm, “Neh, what the hell do you think you’re doing, taking advantage of me like that? I feel so harassed right now.”

Another sardonic, sharp remark. That bastard was awake the whole time.
Tsurara grunts and clenches her fists, “You were one that fell on me first! I should be the one that feels harassed.”

Kurosaki scoots far away from her, shuddering playfully, “I feel so traumatized by this event.”

She flushes beat red.

They do their last glare-down, turn their backs on each other as usual and march away, leaving the store separately.

Kurosaki leaves the store first, grinning as he trudges along the path to his apartment, flinging his keys up and down and whistling a victory song he heard from a game once, “Mission accomplished.”

~owari~