inumaki is pretty much the only one in the queue. lucky him, he can take as much time as he wants—but it only puts more pressure on him. the air is awkward and he's desperately trying to fill the silence up but he can't find anything to say.

he signs something to her, but she shakes her head. she doesn't understand, but it's too long a sentence to trace out onto the counter. "ikura..." he looks down, and suddenly he's handed a book.

it's the notebook that the girl took out that day to write down his vocabulary. he smiles at the fond memory, and takes the book and a pen from her hands.

she's smiling at him, head rested in her palms, looking genuinely interested, and he can feel the heat creep up his neck. stop staring at me, he writes down and hands the book to her. she laughs, saying, "but you're cute."

how dare she. now his hands are on the back of his neck, his face as red as a tomato. he mutters something which y/n realises is gibberish, and she smiles at him again.

"by the way, how come your collar covers your face?" she asks him, gesturing to his uniform. "are you not comfortable showing it or something?"

he blinks at her, then looks around like he's checking if anyone's looking. then, he hesitantly unzips his collar, eyeing her while doing so—but as soon as the zip comes loose, his hands fly to his face, covering the area around his mouth.

in a gentle, caring movement, she takes his hands in hers, holding them so lightly he can pull away if he wants to. slowly, she removes his hands from his face, and then she sees them.

snake-like markings, on his tongue and both cheeks. he looks down, embarrassed and red in the face, picking up the pen to scribble something down.

they're not very good-looking

she blinks at the message, eyebrows furrowed together. "this is what you've been hiding?" she says softly, "they're the prettiest things i've ever seen!"

and he's more surprised than flustered. his eyes slightly water as he looks at y/n, y/n, the girl he has all these feelings for staring at him like he's hung the moon and stars. "they're beautiful," y/n says to emphasise her point, and his heart melts, his eyebrows flying, head leaning slightly forward as if to say really?

she nods, like she understands his small movements, and it makes his heart skip a beat. "seriously, they're really pretty! you don't have to cover them, not around me, at least."

he smiles, small and secret, eyes crinkling at the corners. still, he zips the collar back up, leaving y/n with a slightly disappointed expression and a pout.

another customer interrupts their session, and y/n hurriedly goes to prepare his drink. inumaki glances at her: she's too busy to notice anything, so he picks up the pen and the notebook, flipping the page to where his set of vocabulary was listed. he adds a message, small and cute at the ending, and smiles to himself before placing the book back.

boba — ???

i adore you! :D

when she comes back out and the customer leaves, he flips to a new page and scribbles something down. he tears off the paper, presses it to her hand, gives her a small smile and rushes out the cafe. she blinks, everything happening too fast for her to register, and glances at the paper stuffed in her hands.

she unfolds it.

inumaki's number

xxx-xxxx-xxxx

telling me you like my seals on my cheeks makes me think of you all the time now

call me >///