Welcome to Cafe 39!

When Ichika opened her eyes, the memories of what happened on Saturday night suddenly came rushing back into her mind, her sense of shame finally catching up to her as she actually thought about everything she did.

‘AHHHH!!!’ She internally screamed as she plunged her quickly-reddening face into her pillow. ‘Did I actually just do all that?!’

Did she regret what she said to Miku? No.

She thought back to how scared Miku looked back then and how downcast she looked after.

She much preferred the Miku that she had met and gotten used to working with, the one that was there to give her advice and banter with.

Was she embarrassed at how boldly she declared them friends, though? Definitely.

Honestly, she had no idea what had possessed her into being so bold.

‘Still… I’m glad that cheered her up.’ Ichika thought, her lips unconsciously curving up. ‘It didn’t feel right to see her like that.’

Sure, they only knew each other for a week, but Ichika quickly grew to feel at ease with the older girl around. She had this comforting presence that allowed Ichika to let her guard down around her. Despite being her boss, she was just so nice and approachable as a person that the title of boss felt more like a formality for formality’s sake.

Dare she say, being with Miku felt more like being around an old friend, and Ichika hadn’t felt that in a long time.

Ever since she’d separated from her childhood friends, she didn’t have many chances to just enjoy someone else’s company and just joke around.

Ichika sighed into her pillow, her smile dropping. “I wonder where they are…?”

She tried to keep contact with Saki at the very least, but by the time she hit college, her workload reached a level she never thought possible. Before she knew it, she found herself messaging her less and less. At some point she must have just stopped messaging her altogether. She hesitantly took a peek at her phone, the guilt of ignoring Saki for so long slowly resurfacing in her mind.

Then suddenly it pinged from a notification.

Ichika screamed at the sudden sound, the pillow in her grasp thrown aside as she fell back onto her bed.

After taking a few seconds to recover from that sudden scare, Ichika grabbed her phone to check who messaged her.

“Oh, it’s just the class group chat.”

Apparently she needed to get another reference book. Great, just great.

Ichika was starting to get tired of all the reference books she needed to get for this class. She’d already spent a lot for the books she did have and she wasn’t a fan of having to buy another, probably more expensive, one.

Of course, she could always just go to the library on campus. It would be open even on a Sunday, and if she took notes with the meticulous fervor of an ancient scribe, she wouldn’t really need to buy that reference book.

Decision made, the girl rummaged around her dorm for a spare notebook, got dressed, grabbed her things, and left for the library.

Unfortunately, when Ichika arrived at the library, she was met with disappointment. The last copy of the book she needed had just been checked out by someone else, and the librarian expected the earliest borrowed one to be brought back by tomorrow.

Great. Just great.

No, Ichika wasn’t frustrated. She took it in stride. Other people needed it, so of course they’d check it out. It’s not like she ran all the way here just for one book. Nope, not at all.

With a quick thanks to the librarian, Ichika left the library and now was standing in the campus, completely unsure of what she should do now.

She could try checking a public library, upon a quick internet search, the closest one was in a different city, which would mean spending more for travel.

Ichika sighed, defeated by this predicament. It seemed she was left with no other option. Her wallet would definitely feel much lighter, but it was better than just standing around lamenting her day.

As she went to leave the campus, a flash of white hair from the corner of her eye made her pause.

‘Is that…?’

Ichika turned around to see where they had gone, and saw the same girl from last Monday surrounded by three loud people.

Ichika didn’t know why, but something about the sight was triggering an alarm bell in her mind; a disquieting unease taking root in her gut.

‘Something’s off…’ She thought.

Before she could process, her feet began to move, trailing behind the group.

‘This is… weird.’ Ichika thought as she followed their path while staying out of their view. ‘Why are they taking such a confusing route?’

They’d passed through hallway after hallway, turning every-which-way possible until they reached what Ichika assumed to be a dead-end.

She was surprised to see the group turn a corner, and Ichika decided to carefully peek around instead of follow, allowing her to watch the events that would unfold.

The sight of the group of people surrounding the white-haired girl was extremely concerning, to say the least.

‘W-What are they…?’

The feeling in Ichika’s gut got worse, but she stood still, not sure about what to do.

Then one of the people in the group, a girl, spoke up.

“Emi~ We’ve got another thing we need help with, so…” She said to the white-haired girl as she leaned forward, the other two behind her moving to cover her sides.

“Can you help out a friend?” She asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Emi, the white-haired girl, responded. “Didn’t I just fini–” A glare was shot her way, “–Help you with a couple last week?”

“Oh, well, we were suddenly swamped with all these last-second requirements and we haven’t been able to attend to them since we’ve been soooo busy.”

The growing feeling of discomfort in Ichika’s gut quickly morphed into disgust. It didn’t take a genius to know what this was.

“...” Emi’s blue and purple eyes turned their focus away from the girl in front of her, unwilling to meet her gaze. “How many?”

“Oh, just another 100 questions!” She responded a bit too cheerfully.

Ichika saw Emi’s hand grab her arm and tighten its grip.

“Oh, and we kind of need them to be done by tomorrow, so…”

At that moment, Ichika saw it. That same look from yesterday.

It could have been for a fraction of a second, but she swore she saw the girl’s face shift into that same look of fear and discomfort before the girl reined in her feelings.

Ichika knew she needed to get her out of there.

Before she could think about what to do, her body had already moved.

“Hey! There you are!” She spoke first without thinking.

The girl who was leading this whole thing turned to Ichika’s direction when she heard footsteps approaching. “Huh? Hey, what are you–”

Ichika interrupted the girl by talking over her, ignoring her existence. “I’ve been looking all over for you! Don’t tell me you forgot?”

“Um?” Emi looked at Ichika, confused.

“Seriously? We planned to do some studying together, didn’t we?” Ichika tried to signal with her eyes to just play along.

Heterochromatic eyes widened in surprise before the girl spoke. “Oh, right. Sorry about that…”

“Hey, since when did–”

“Sorry, I know you probably need to talk but we really need to go now! We don’t exactly have all day.” Ichika scratched her cheek. “Come on, let’s go!”

She then took Emi by the hand and led her away as quickly as possible without trying to raise any suspicion.

The other girl’s voice echoed at her as she left. “HEY! I WAS TALKING TO HER!”

Once Ichika had turned the corner, and the sound of multiple footsteps approaching reached her ears, she turned to Emi and told the girl to run as she broke out into a full-on sprint.

Emi, at first surprised by the sudden burst of speed, soon managed to keep pace and the two girls made their way out of the campus, looking back every so often to make sure the group from earlier weren’t on their heels.

Ichika just kept running. She didn’t know how long she was running with the girl, but she didn’t stop until she was one-hundred percent sure that they had shaken off that group.

One final look behind her confirmed that no one was following them, and only then did Ichika finally stop, the adrenaline-fueled haze beginning to fade away as her ears caught the sound of her own heavy breathing. Her eyes also showed her the sight of her usual take-out spot not too far away.

Guess she must have booked it for her dorm on instinct.

But her body wasn’t done yet, as she then felt how tense her calves were from that sprint, followed by the long-ignored exhaustion from such sudden exertion hitting her like a sack of bricks, forcing her to dramatically fall to one knee to try and give her overworked limbs some rest.

She just forgot one thing.

“Ah.”

The weight of another person fell on her back, forcing Ichika to almost faceplant onto the sidewalk.

‘Right.’ She thought. ‘I also dragged her along with me…’

Well, it seemed that Ichika just couldn’t help herself, what with her choosing to act before thinking for two days in a row. For two different people.

Granted, one was her boss and friend, but this time it was with an almost complete stranger!

Before this, her best conversation with them had been a rushed out response just to answer a question…

Wait, now that she thought about it, didn’t all her conversations with this girl end up being rushed out due to circumstance?

Ichika wanted to slap herself, though that wasn’t feasible considering she was lying face-down on concrete.

“My apologies. Um…” The girl stared at Ichika, who was laying prone on the floor. “Aren’t you going to get up?”

The girl’s question reeled Ichika back out of her thoughts.

And now that she tried to process her surroundings, the weight from earlier was gone.

So, she was just planking on concrete like a fool.

Someone, end her suffering. How is it that she managed to make a complete fool out of herself in front of this girl, every single time?!

“Y-Yeah, I will…” Ichika replied as she slowly got back on her feet, and flinched at how sore she felt from her run. “Um, but are you okay?” She asked in return.

The girl in front of her nodded slowly. “I’m fine…”

She didn’t say anything else, her face taking on a pensive look.

Ichika was worried by her silence. “Um–”

The girl then bowed towards Ichika and offered an apology. “I’m terribly sorry for troubling you earlier.”

“Um, there’s no need to apologize!” Ichika replied, slightly panicked at how formally the girl was acting. “I was just doing what anyone else would have done in that situation!”

“But…”

“It’s fine, I swear!” Ichika gently patted the girl on the shoulder. “You looked uncomfortable with them, so I thought it best to get you out as soon as possible.”

“Ah.” The girl then straightened her posture and nodded slowly. “Thank you.”

Ichika nodded back. “I hope you’ll try to stay away from them, miss.”

“You can just call me Emi.” The girl said. “You probably heard it earlier.”

“O-Oh, okay.” Ichika agreed. “W-Well, the reminder still stands.”

A nod.

“I can try, but…” The girl averted her gaze. “…They’ll probably still try to find me, especially since we’re in the same course.”

“Oh…”

Well, that wasn’t good news.

“Will you be okay?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” The girl weakly shrugged. “It’s only a matter of time.”

The slight tone of defeat in the girl’s voice pulled on Ichika’s heartstrings, but she didn’t know what to say.

“Regardless, thank you again for that escape earlier.” Emi said as she turned around to leave. “I’d probably have been forced to do their coursework for them again.”

“Ah…” Ichika reached her hand out to try and stop the girl, but her mind was drawing a blank on what to say. She had acted on impulse earlier, but now she wasn’t sure if what she did was the right thing to do.

Emi paused after a few steps. “See you around, Miss Astronomy.”

Once the words left her mouth, the girl began walking again, until Ichika could no longer see her figure in the crowd of people passing by.

Then something about the girl’s parting words caught her attention.

‘Wait… did she call me Miss Astronomy?’ Ichika wondered. ‘…Wasn’t I reading a book about Astronomy when we first met?’

Ichika didn’t think she’d remember her after their first encounter in the library, but she was oddly touched that the girl remembered the topic of the book she had been reading then.

Ichika shook her head. Now wasn’t the time for those thoughts.

She needed to think of something to do to help the girl!

If she didn’t do something, those people from earlier would definitely bother her again!

‘What should I do?’ She mused to herself. ‘Maybe I can see her again if I go to the library early tomorrow?’

That had a shot at working since it was how they first met. Plus, she didn’t really know what program Emi was in, so this was her best shot.

‘In the meantime, I should start brainstorming…’ Ichika lamented.