Chapter 11- Ninomiya’s POV

Light poured into the room through the windows and I yawned as I sat up in my bed. It wasn’t just my imagination that my body felt heavier than yesterday. I made Ma-kun cry again. I saw a flashback of Ma-kun’s tears in my mind and I winced. I have to tell him how thankful I am; I am always saved by his presence and encouragements. I’ll tell him as soon as I see him today.

Ohno-san… What if he doesn’t come to the store anymore? What if I never see him again? Questions swirled around in my head and each one upset me one after the other.

“Kazu.”

“…What’s wrong, Jun-kun?” At the ‘Rainbow’, we have all of our break times when there is a relatively small number of customers, so I was resting at the counter with Jun-kun.

“Why are you so gloomy today? What happened? Tell me.”  See, here too. Another nice person who notices the changes in me immediately.

“I accidentally made Ma-kun cry, so I have to apologize to him today.”

“…Why?”

“…Sorry Jun-kun, I can’t really explain properly.” I laughed awkwardly. If I said the same thing to him as I said to Ma-kun, he would probably feel hurt.

“…Okay, then. You don’t have to tell me.” He smiled as usual and continued sipping his coffee. “Thank you,” I thought in my head.

Bzzzz, bzzzz

My phone was vibrating in my pocket,  and when I opened it, showed that I received a message from an unknown number. Who can it be?

“…Ohno-san…”

My voice slipped out of my mouth involuntarily as I opened the message. There was a photo attached to the email, and it displayed a picture of a beautiful landscape of a park, where the petals of cherry blossoms were fluttering gracefully in the air. Immediately, I figured that it was the park that Ohno-san was talking about the last time he came to the ‘Piano’. The message was very short, and it said: “Send me pictures of your favorite things.” The simple sentence made my vision blurry and I fought back the tears that were forming in my eyes. He probably wanted to ask me more about my reaction to his words from when we last met, but he sensed my feelings and didn’t expect an answer. The warm email comforted me and I realized that I had nothing to worry about from the start. Ohno-san is a nice guy. I smiled happily as images of all of my favorite things appeared in my head. What should I send him first…? I gripped on to my phone and looked up at Shingo-san.

“Master, can I take a photo of the café?”

“Why so sudden? But hey, make sure I look handsome.”

“Haha, you want to be in the picture? :D”

I laughed and I took a photo of the counter with the master behind it.

Ohno’s POV

It was lunch time, and I was sitting at my usual place on a bench in the park, eating my rice ball. This is the park where I was reunited with Sho-kun… and then I met you, Nino.

Yesterday, after I asked you to tell me more about yourself, you suddenly had this sad expression on your face, and refused softly with a “good night”. But yesterday, whilst you were playing the piano, I noticed that you were living a solitary life and that you were carrying something hard from the past. Does he think that I gave up on him just because of what happened last night? If I did, I would never have fell in love with him in the first place. Now what can I do to reassure him…

A cherry blossom petal fell from the trees above and landed on my nose. Right, I’ll send him a picture. I got my phone from my pocket and captured the beautiful scenery of the park and the cherry blossom tree, and sent it to Nino. I’ll get him to tell me what he likes. I don’t mind if it takes time for me to know you, but if the distance between us gets smaller little by little, that’s enough to make me happy for now.

As I began to eat my rice ball again, my phone vibrated on my lap and I looked to see that the message was sent by Nino. Yes! I quickly opened the attachment and saw a man with gray hair pose behind an old-fashioned café counter. He looked a bit old but he was quite handsome looking and he seemed very kind and funny, with both of his hands making peace signs at his eyes. There was text next to the photo, shortly written: ‘The “Rainbow”, a small café where I work’.

So this is where he works… Right, the “Piano” is only open at night… I never knew what he did during the day and I never thought about it before. Getting to know you better even by a little bit made the corners of my mouth lift naturally.  

“I want to see you…” I muttered out loud as I imagined Nino working cheerfully at the small cozy café. Now what should I send him next…