Realistic or Modern atomic

[junegloom]

mid-september

the beginning

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[junegloom]

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rina tsukuda

outfit

outfit

location

espresso lane cafe

Thirty minutes.

That’s how long Rina had left in her shift. Looking at the clock was painful. Each glance felt hours apart though, in reality, they were mere minutes. She had done everything she had needed to do, the floors were even swept twice. The torture of a slow shift was brutal. There had only been one customer in the past hour. Rina was leaning over the counter, resting her chin on her palms as she watched the second hand ticking. It was slower than usual, she was sure it was. And she was bored. Five o'clock could not come soon enough.

Rina glanced over at the sole customer sitting at the table in the corner. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. Making her way out from behind the counter, she plopped herself in the seat across from him. Grayson Lavicchi.

“Hey,”

she greeted casually as if she were scheduled to meet him rather than interrupting whatever he was doing.

The pair was a sight to behold. He had not a hair out of place and her hair was hastily tied back into a ponytail, several strands hung loosely around her face. His clothes were pristine and crisp while her apron was stained and crumpled. And his shoes were polished and neat while hers were dirty and scuffed (just the way she liked them).

Rina slouched in her seat.

“How was your summer?”

She asked as if they were two friends catching up, despite the fact that it was mid-September and they have been back to school for a couple of weeks at this point.

Also, Rina and Grayson were not really friends. Their interactions haven’t gone much further than Rina asking to borrow a pen or if he would give her the answers to whatever they were working on, usually unsuccessfully. That didn’t matter to Rina, however. She talked to everyone as if they were already friends.

She tilted her head as she awaited his response, unsure of how Mr. No-Nonsense, Grayson Lavicchi would react.

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[junegloom]

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rina tsukuda

outfit

outfit

location

espresso lane cafe

As she noticed the book in Grayson's hand closing, Rina knew she was not about to be brushed off. Not that she would have made it easy for him; she was looking for entertainment after all. It would be far too easy to play that kind of game with him. For now, however, she resisted. She couldn't do that to him now, considering he was saving her from the brain-melting boredom of standing around and doing but counting seconds.

“Summer was good. Did'ja do anything fun?”

Rina had a sneaking suspicion that they did not have the same definition of fun. The Lavicchi's lived a different life than she did, even ignoring the cultural differences. Grayson also had the misfortune of being born with a stick up his ass, as well. Fun just didn't seem to be something Grayson did. She's never met anyone so young and so uptight.

Part of her wanted to push his buttons like a little kid would do if they were left alone in an elevator, but the other part of her was tempted to try and prove that there was more to life than perfection and academic achievement.

Almost as if he were challenging her thoughts, Grayson brought up her homework (or lack thereof).

A grin spread across her lips and Rina leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table, as if she were about to divulge a secret.

“Oooh, tough question. I guess that depends on whether or not you want to hear the truth.”

Of course, she hadn't done her homework yet. While she'd been stuck here all day, that was not what stopped her from working on her assignments. The truth was that she hadn't even written an assignment down before she had left school on Friday. The school year has not gotten off to a good start; her parents were already on the 'Please, for the love of everything good in this world, just pass your classes' train.

It was fine.

She knew to put just enough effort to pass, especially since passing meant the difference between finally graduating and spending another year being tortured by academics. That was certainly a fate worse than death. School already cut too much into the time wanted to dedicate to her music and she was not about to let that continue longer than it needs to.

"Why? Were you going to generously offer me yours so that I didn't have to do it myself? That's so kind of you, Grayson— Of course, I'd love to copy off of you,"

she teased easily, leaning back casually in the chair and crossing one leg over the other.

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[junegloom]

scroll

rina tsukuda

outfit

outfit

location

espresso lane cafe

Apparently she seemed to have struck a nerve with the whole “fun” concept. Could it be possible that he didn’t even know what real fun was? How tragic.

“God, Grayson. You gotta live a little sometimes. Don’t you have something you enjoy doing? I’m not saying you have to run the streets of Tokyo like I did this summer, but you gotta have something. Or at least let go a little bit.”

Rina snorted as Grayson managed to choke out that No, she cannot copy off his homework. She expected nothing less, but it was so easy to wind him up that she had to ask anyway.

"You know what actually makes you seem like a child? Not having fun, but the fact that you're threatening to tattle on me to my boss."

Rina shrugged, unfazed. She’d worked in customer service long enough that threats like this rolled like water off of a duck’s back. To be fair, she was poking the bear and Rina recognized that. She just couldn’t help herself.

"Considering that I've done more than I needed to do, I think I'll be fine if I want to sit here and talk with you."

Rina had gone above and beyond in her boredom. The cafe was spotless, the shelves have been stocked, and hell, she'd even organized the drawers. She genuinely had absolutely nothing to do. If she were in charge, she’d probably call it a night and close up early. She just didn’t have the authority to make that decision.

The hostile response she had gotten didn’t bother her in the least. No, not at all. In fact, it only encouraged her more. Her grin sharpened into something a bit more mischievous. Stubborn as a mule, Rina decided it was time to double down and keep to bothering Grayson. Electing to ignore him quite literally trying to shoo her away, she remained in her seat only moving to switch which leg that was crossed over the other.

“You know, you should probably try not to scowl so much. You’ll get wrinkles prematurely. That’d be such a shame; you’re too handsome for that.”

She didn’t mean to outright say she found him attractive. Whoops. It’s not like she could take it back now. It was moments like this where she wished that she thought a bit more before she spoke. Rina still stood by what she said, though. Grayson could do with some lightening up. Though she expected her comment to do the opposite of helping with that.

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[junegloom]

scroll

rina tsukuda

outfit

outfit

location

espresso lane cafe

Allegedly, Grayson was capable of relaxing. Rina thought he was full of shit. They’ve lived in the same town for all of their lives and she had never, not once, seen Grayson Lavicchi relax. It was possible that she missed it when she was on her biennial trip to Japan to stay with her family, but she doubted that. She’d only believe him if she was there to see it for herself.

Rina simply just raised an eyebrow in response to his assurance that screamed ‘I don’t believe you.’

She did, however, fail to consider the fact that her presence may be contributing to the idea that she has never personally witnessed Grayson relaxing.

“Hate to break it to you, but I rarely put much stock into what the customers think. Because the customer is not always right. In fact, they are, more often than not, wrong.”

Of course, she was not acknowledging the fact that she probably could get in trouble for bothering him if he actually did complain about her.

She couldn’t help but to involuntarily laugh when he ordered her to stop smiling.

The wicked grin she held on her face remained when what she had said had finally sunk in for Grayson. His reaction was rather unexpected, but better than anything Rina could have hoped for. Red creeped from his neck to his cheeks and settled in the tops of his ears as he stuttered out a retort.

Interesting.

Rina decided to file away this reaction in her mind for later. Sure, bothering Grayson and winding him up was fun, but getting Grayson all flustered? That was better.

Crossing her arms, she did not respond to being scolded like a dog. Rina just sat with a satisfied smirk looking like the cat that ate the canary. She found new ammunition and she certainly was not going to let that go.

When Grayson declared that he was going to return to his book and pretend that she didn’t exist, it was Rina’s turn to pout.

"Aw, come on, Grayson. Don’t be like that,"

she whined.

Rina sat up straighter and slowly leaned forward until she was an arms length away from her target. Lightening fast, nimble fingers snatched the book from his hand and tucked it under her legs. She was all but sitting on the book to keep him from taking it back.

"I’ll stop teasing you if you just talk to me, I promise.”

Rina could not make that promise, it was just in her very nature to push his buttons. What she actually meant was that she could get much more annoying if he decided to continue ignoring her.

Rina was enjoying this far too much to back off. The only way for Grayson to put an end to her nonsense was to leave because Rina was very, very good at not being ignored. She was prepared to go straight for the jugular if she had to. It was far too convenient that he had given up just how easy it was to get him to blush.

♡coded by uxie♡