Dragging her feet as she left the school building, a deep sigh escaping from her lips, the young girl wondered what she could do now. She didn’t want to head straight home – home meant homework, and she couldn’t really bothered with that quite yet. She was preparing to stretch her arms above her head, when one of her friends, a giant of a girl and one of the few girls she knew who could challenge her own height, came from what seemed like nowhere and slapped a hand on her shoulder.

'Hey, do you know about it? If you turn that corner there, there's a café that everyone in class has been talking about', the friend announced, as if she had read the girls mind.

‘Everyone?’ asked the girl, suspiciously, despite the realisation that the café could be the perfectly solution to her newfound problem.

The friend nodded and said, stretching the syllables in a sing-songy voice, ‘Everyone~’

Taking a moment to consider the suggestion, the girl looked down at her feet. There was no denying it, she had caught wind of there being a café right near the school and that said café was pretty amazing.  What was there to lose? The girl beamed up at her friend.

‘Sure, let’s do it!’

And, so, the girl and her friend ran, hand-in-hand, down the street and round the corner until they saw it. Standing there in all its bright pink glory was Café Buono! Its exterior walls were painted in thick coats of pink, akin to the colour often associated with candy floss, with windows decorated with glitter and paper flowers and little drawings (that, as the girl noticed, weren’t exactly very good or anything). Behind these very windows was a mouth-watering display of cakes and pastries. The whole thing was, quite honestly, enough to make anyone without a sweet-tooth run for cover.

The girl and the friend stopped and stared at the adorable building, eyes wide and sparkling as they took it all in, desperately trying to hold in the excited ‘Kyaaa’s attempting to slip out of their mouths. They turned to look at each other and nodded, agreeing that coming here had been a fantastic idea.  The duo looked through the window in awe before peeking their heads in through the café’s front door. Nervously, they stepped in, looking all about themselves, at a loss as to what they could possibly order from the wide range of cakes the café had to offer.

‘Hello?’ came a voice from behind them, ‘Can I help you?’

Shocked by the sudden question from nowhere, the two jerked round to find standing before them a young girl with long-reddish brown hair that caressed her long, thin face. Her thin lips were curled into a welcoming grin, showing her perfectly straight teeth and she was stood with her elbow resting against the door frame with her other arm wrapped around her torso, inches away from obscuring her nametag which was emblazoned with the name ‘Natsuyaki Miyabi’, written in decorative letters. After a moment of confusion and wonder, the girl and her friend quickly realised that this girl was one of the waitresses at the cafe and immediately found themselves and stammering their apologies. The waitress insisted that they had no need to be sorry and, instead, ended up asking them to forgive her for scaring them like she had. Eventually, the friend mustered to courage to ask the waitress about ordering a cake.

‘Of course, of course!’ she replied, that warm grin not once leaving her face, ‘Just come with me and I’ll show you our most popular cakes!’

The waitress beckoned to the two girls to follow her as she moved swiftly across the room. They tagged along behind, eventually finding themselves standing in front of a display, all kept inside a glass counter, filled with various selections of delicious-looking cakes. Upon the counter sat a hand-made sign of card with the words ‘Our Recommendations’ scrawled across it in bright-pink marker. Each of the cakes on display had little name tags by them with the name of each one written on its respective tag in writing far more illegible than the sign’s. After some deep consideration, the girl and her friend chose the cakes they wanted and as they exchanged their money for them, the waitress bent forward with a bright smile on her face.

‘Hey, listen’, she said, softly, ‘If you wanna enjoy those cakes as much as possible, then, you’re gonna have to shout ‘Buono!’ and do this before you eat’ – ‘this’ referring to the hand action she now appeared to be doing, which involved her poking her finger into her cheek and rotating it a little.

The girl and her friend found a table by the window and promptly sat down there, placing the plates they were given on which to hold their cakes down on the surface of the table. They lifted the cakes up with their hands and glanced at each other, nervously, getting ready to imitate the waitress and her little catchphrase. The two girls both, quickly, muttered the obligatory ‘idatakimasu’ and took large bites into their cakes, swallowed quickly, did the shown pose and called out in high tension ‘Buono~!!’ before  bursting into a fit of laughs and giggles.

Now, neither the girl nor her friend were sure that the catchphrase had actually made a difference regarding the quality in taste of their cakes, but it had made it all just that little bit more fun. However, what the two did know was that Café Buono! definitely had a new pair of regulars.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

I didn't have time to properly beta this (I self-beta, kay?), but, yeah. Just so you know, this wont be exactly how I write the rest of the story, in terms of writing style. I'll try to avoid my normal sarcastic tone, but the tone wont be like what's here. This is just me setting the tone. Also, the girl and the friend come into it later - any ideas as to who they could be? ;D

And, don't worry, Momo and Airi will be in the next chapter (Miya, as much as I love her, is actually my least fav in Buono!).