Lei woke up from her planned afternoon nap with her phone ringing excessively.

She thought she could manage to get the whole afternoon to herself in peace, considering the school special holiday gave her no afternoon classes. She had planned to sleep, wake up by dinner, do some updating on her projects, and then head over to work. Unfortunately, that seemed impossible. Her phone continued to ring, a specific ringtone that meant it was Yuuri, knowing how the latter had messed with her phone.

She answered the call eventually, groggily letting out a "what do you want?" as she rolled around the bed, taking note that the other bed in the room was empty.

"Come to work."

"It's 5PM," Lei replied, having checked the room's wall clock. "I don't need to be there with Yuri till 12. Actually, what are you doing there? You don't start till 10."

"I dropped by to bring some pizza back to the dorm for dinner. I'm not kidding, you're gonna really want to come here."

Even if the other couldn't see her, Lei rolled her eyes, "what would possibly make me want to sacrifice sleep for?"

"It's a surprise."

"Answer me or I'm heading back to sleep."

"Fine," Yuuri whined over the phone. "Ruin the surprise then. I have three words for you: I love you."

Lei, in her still half-asleep state, was really confused for about 10 seconds before what Yuuri just said came crashing into her head and distant memories of last night invaded her system, and suddenly, she just didn't feel sleepy anymore. She shot up his bed, sitting up with her hair flying all over the place and tried not to let go of her phone.

"Say that again."

"I'd rather not say those three words to you again."

"You know what I meant!" Lei said, getting up from her bed at the same time and trying to remember where she last saw her uniform. "He's there? Are you sure?"

"100%," Yuuri said confidently, before quietly adding in, "he's friends with that one customer who keeps ignoring me."

"The tall one? Viktor?"

"That one," a loud sigh came from the other line. "I'm hanging up now. Get here as soon as possible."

Lei threw the phone on her bed at that moment, Resurged into her uniform, and took a quick look in the mirror. Her hair was in a complete bed head state, so she took a hairband and quickly pulled it into a loose ponytail. It suddenly occurred to her that she was actually feeling nervous. For what? It's not like she expected anything to happen with whoever that boy was. Maybe she was being a bit too excited over things. It was too late now, though, since she was already dressed. Making friends didn't seem like a bad idea, anyway. If she could make friends with him, that is.

When she exited the room, Lei was met with Yuri sitting in the living room eating noodles. Her roommate raised his eyebrows and looked at Lei from head to toe.

"If you're going to ask me to work more shifts, I'm going back to Russia," he said flatly.

"No time to explain," Lei said quickly as she flashed a quick grin. "Yuuri called. Customer from last night. Bye!"

 

When Lei entered Grand Prix Pizza, she was immediately pulled to the side by Yuuri, who then began dragging her to the kitchen. Lei continued to feel nervous at the idea that her mystery customer was actually in the same area as her, but she tried to shake it off. It really shouldn't matter that much. What happened was an accident, really, it's not like they actually love each other or anything--

"Are you listening?" Yuuri hissed as Lei snapped back to the present. The former rolled his eyes, "right corner table, where Minami is pouring water for. Guess what they ordered? Pork cutlet pizza. It's hilarious, apparently all the other people said it except for your guy. I guess it spread to them too."

Lei felt a bit better at the idea that it wasn't only her suffering from the consequences of last night's happenings. Then again, it was caused by the boy to begin with, she had just played along and suddenly now she's caught in a situation she never would have imagined herself in; trying to get together with the store's customer and all that.

"Which one is he?" She asked, tiptoeing to look over Yuuri's shoulder.

"Why don't you guess?"

There were six people in their table. It could have been any of the five boys that were there, however Lei easily ruled out Viktor, who was a familiar face in Grand Prix Pizza. Also because Yuuri often tried to get Viktor to engage in a conversation with him, but the taller boy always escaped. Two of the boys were talking excitedly; Lei recalled the soft tone of the voice and ruled a bunch of them out as well, since they looked like people with bright energy, and maybe even loud voices. They also looked like they wanted to be there. She wasn't sure of the reasoning she was going with, but still. It was a gut feeling.

She was left with two of them, then. One with messy light brown hair, who was nodding every now and then, and looked like a lost puppy. Then there was the last boy who sat beside him. He had very dark hair-an undercut- and he was a little quieter than the rest. He laughed along with his friends but with his hand covering his mouth, in a shy type of way. Every now and then, his eyes would drift around the store, as if waiting for something to happen, fidgeting in his seat slightly. Nervous.

That, and he was really good looking.

Yuuri nudged her, "got your eyes locked on somebody yet?"

"The guy in the white long sleeved shirt," she mumbled. "He feels... I don't know, right?"

Lei regretted the moment those words slipped out of , and felt her face heat up at the sight of Yuuri with his wide, clearly teasing grin. She groaned and wanted to wipe the grin off the other's face, but settled for lightly pushing at the boy's shoulder instead.

"Quit with the look! Am I right?"

"Way to go, Sherlock!" Yuuri cheered, patting her shoulder. "I got Minami to try and see if he could get your boy's name."

Lei was torn between thanking him and hitting him again. Instead, she focused on the fact that she was right, and the cute, shy looking boy was indeed her 1AM call customer. The voice suited the face, she concluded, and so did the rest of him. He looked like a kind soul. At least, Lei definitely hoped he was.

"Did you tell everybody by now?" She asked, and was met with a nod that made her roll his eyes and mockingly reply back with "thanks, Yuuri."

Minami chose that moment to return. He used to work night shifts with the rest of them, before he changed his schedule. Lei got to work with him for a few weeks nonetheless. He was also good friends with another good friend of Lei named Risu, but no amount of persuasion could get her to work at a pizza place. Anyway, Minami had a smile on his face that almost made his mouth fall off as he approached them. That, and really bright, often messed up, blonde hair.

"Nice to see you, Lover Girl," Minami greeted, making Lei want to face palm into a pizza. "I've got a table I'm sure you would love to serve."

Before Lei could ask, Yuuri did it for her.

"Did you get the name?"

"I've got tiger ears to match my tiger eyes," Minami said excitedly, making Lei smile a bit at his upbeat attitude. "I heard them . His name is Otabek."

Otabek.

Lei caught herself thinking she could get used to that, before quickly pushing it away from her thoughts because things have definitely reached a different sort of level that she wasn't sure what to say or even feel. Yuuri shared a quick fist bump with Minami for a job well done, while Lei caught herself staring in Otabek's direction again. She looked away just as Otabek's eyes began to wander around again.

"When does their order finish?"

"Right now, actually," Minami said just as somebody from the kitchen yelled out a table number. "Go get 'em."

Lei swiftly went over and carried the two plates of pizza. Pork cutlet pizza, without the extra heart this time. She gave herself a small pep talk as she walked over to the table. It's not like Otabek had any idea how she looked like, or her name, so she should be pretty safe heading over. It won't raise any sort of suspicion. She's not sure why she was so anxious about 'meeting' Otabek either, but regardless of reason, her heart was pumping in her chest pretty quickly. Soon, she reached the table.

"Here are your pizzas!" She announced cheerfully, in her usual manner.

The boys, and the girl that was with them, all cheered.

Except for Otabek.

Lei inwardly panicked as she set the plates down, aware that Otabek was staring at her with wide eyes. That was when it hit her that Otabek could probably recognize her voice. She did have a rather higher type of voice than others. And she was the only other girl that worked there besides Nour. Breathe, she reminded herself, don't mess things up. She finished setting the plates down and watched how the others immediately went for a slice. Otabek was still not moving.

"Can I get you anything else?"

Lei directed the question to the table, but her eyes went to look at Otabek. She was surprised to find the boy staring back, almost in a kind of dull shock. When their eyes met, Otabek looked away with what appeared to be a blush on his face. Lei began to muse that that was probably how he looked like last night on the phone, red in the face with embarrassment all over his features, and she couldn't help but find it absolutely adorable.

Otabek must have realized the others were too busy eating the pizza (despite just coming from lunch) to reply.

"T-that would be all," he said softly, his voice just as Lei remembered it.

Lei flashed a teasing grin, "no extras?"

She shouldn't have enjoyed how the blush that appeared on Otabek's face deepened, but she did.

"No, thank you."

Otabek wasn't even looking at her anymore, instead his eyes were directed downwards, and Lei took that as her cue to walk back to the kitchen, a permanent smile plastered on her face. As she was walking off, she heard a vague "Otabek, why is your face all red?" followed by other things she couldn't quite catch. When she glanced over from the counter, Otabek had his face in his hands, as if to shield himself from his friends' teasing, since the boy beside him was shaking his shoulder animatedly.

"Did they know who you are?" Yuuri asked, popping up beside her, eyeing the table as well.

"I think they guessed."

"Am I right about him being your type?"

Lei considered it for a few seconds, before finally saying:

"You know what? I think you are."