✍🏻 Little Matchmaker

4 - Levi

For the next two weeks, they ended up chatting together on daily basis.
Usually just when Sophie was watching Akira at the barrier to take a break from her writing, Yuzuru would skate over and made her company for those several minutes.

And sometimes it did happen that the conversation might have been forced, but she couldn't shake the feeling that it was voluntarily forced from both sides.
Both of them trying to find a way how to talk with each other without sharing anything personal.
So they talked mostly about Akira's skating, the current skaters on the competitive scene, and what they think of them, as well as about politics and news from the region.
Sophie was especially glad about the news because that would give them conversational material every single day. And she caught herself several times hurrying home to catch the evening news, so she would be up to date the next day for a chat with Yuzuru.
Though the only thing she wished he would actually open up about were books. That would have given her endless hours of subject matter. But when she brought that topic up, he did dodge it, not even willing to share what his favorite books were.

Nevertheless, she still found it as a small price to pay for actually having a friend. She always avoided talking about anything private with anyone and since that was the main criteria of how one makes friends, her life has become pretty lonely over the years.
Unfortunately, people and technologies were getting smarter and there were already several people who figured out who she was and had to be paid off to keep quiet.
So becoming a friend with somebody who was not only okay with, but actually prefer just a shallow chit-chat was surprisingly refreshing for her.
And she was hoping that it is equally enjoyable for him. But considering it was usually him who skated over to her every single day to talk, she assumed he did enjoy it too.

Now it was yet another Monday and while Akira was getting ready, she was having her breakfast and decided to switch the channel from her usual Netflix TV show to a world-news channel, wondering if maybe she could widen the topics with Yuzuru from local news to the world ones.
She was usually trying to stay up to date with everything, but considering her busy schedule it wasn't that easy.
Oh! A vote for the independence of North of Ireland!
Sophie turned up the volume and got more excited about the topic than she expected.
Because she did do quite a detailed research on the relationship between UK and Ireland to draw inspiration for some of the political conflicts in her book.
Therefore if Yuzuru would be interested in it too, that would give them something to talk about for hours on end.

She finished her breakfast and as always, perfectly on time, Akira ran down the stairs, grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, somebody slept well today!" She said with a smile and his grin even widened as he produced a wrapped, soft package from behind his back. "What is that?"

"Well.....you gave me the book last night for Yuki. So I thought I would give you a present."
He said proudly and handed her the package with both of his hands as if it would be something sacred.

Sophie ruffled his hair and took it over, unwrapping the bow, ripping the wrapping paper, and revealing.....

"Jeans?" She said confused and extended her hands to see the pair of jeans fully. "You got me....jeans?"

"Yeah!" Akira said with obvious pride in his voice. "It's for the pants you ruined with the chewing gum last year".

"Oh.....thanks?" Sophie wasn't sure what to say. She was used to getting hand-drawn pictures, or scarfs or vases. Those were Akira's usual go-to gifts, but jeans? Where did he even get her size?

"Please try them on! Could you maybe were them already today?"

He began to jump up and down and Sophie was still too perplexed to produce any coherent questions so she just nodded and went to her bedroom, putting the jeans on.

Well, he must have checked the size of her other jeans, because they did fit absolutely perfectly.
She turned around, now noticing in the mirror the LEVI brand on the back.
That must have cost him most of his savings from his allowance! Why on earth would he give her jeans of all things?
And then her eyes dropped even lower, noticing how her bottom looked in it.