I'm Not Giving Up On You [Tadashi Hamada X OC] [COMPLETED]

Tadashi Being A Fool Is Comedy Gold

Well, not a complete stranger - she knows my name.
Because I've told her when my brain was in overdrive.
Twice.

We reach the counter and sit up on the bar stools, and she gets a cloth and starts wiping down everything for a second time. I clear my throat.
"So, Cherry," I begin, and I see her side-eye me, "how long have you worked here?" Good. Good starter. Can't go wrong with work. I hope.
"Since I was thirteen," she replies matter-of-factly, and when she glances us exchanging looks again she adds, "it was... special circumstances," and continues wiping mechanically. Special circumstances for underage formal employment?

"You've been waitressing for...?" I begin, and she finishes with:
"Five years."
Gogo and I again exchange looks.
"Do you want to... continue being a waitress?" my friend asks delicately, a slightly mystified look on her round face.

Cherry stops cleaning again. Her eyes are set on something beyond our sight, the corners of her mouth twitching. Gogo and I look at each other again, then at her nervously.

Cherry's POV

I can't. I really can't. I shouldn't be talking in the first place: this time could be better spent reading the new textbooks again - maybe after two full reads I've missed something. Inwardly I scold myself and try to rearrange my facial features, but this time I can't. My face for some reason won't let me.

I look out the corner of my eye at Tadashi and the girl that came with him - his girlfriend? No, stop it Cherry!
They're both looking at me with slight concern. No. Nobody looks at me like that. Not even Tonya and Antoni. I am in control here. I am.

I don't know what to do, what to say, so I just place my cloth on the counter and trot into the kitchen, acting composed.
I duck behind the wall and take several deep breaths. Why is this bothering me? I vowed to never let anything get in my way - yet here I am trying to distract myself from... a boy.

A boy.

Silence from outside.
I peer round the pillar and, thankfully, see Tadashi and the punky girl starting to leave. I stay behind the pillar until they're outside the cafe, and breathe out for the first time in quite a few minutes and venture back to the counter. Still watching the door I pull out my stack of textbooks and turn my attention to different organic chemical properties.

I'm so absorbed I don't hear the tinkle of the bell, and near me I suddenly hear, "What subject are you studying?"
I start from the close noise and nearly fall over, and instantly the boy rushes round the counter and steadies me with an "Oh my gosh! Are you okay?!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!" I protest in a gasp, then remember my place and gracefully stand up.

I turn to him to scold him, but get caught up in his face.
Oh wow, that face: the soft angles and perfect sloped nose. His eyes are warm brown, reminding me of the earth before it rains, and his eyebrows are arched to give him a softly concerned expression.

This is highly unprofessional of me.

I ask him to leave, and he shrugs and turns, but then turns back. Oh my stars, more?

He widens his chocolate brown eyes, and I realise he asked me a question. What was it? I think as I stare into those eyes again. Oh! Subject!

I look into his eyes softly enhanced by the simple laughter lines around them and, suddenly and oddly feeling safe to say, reply, "Earth Science, Ecology, Entrepreneurship and Chemistry."
He smiles friendly at that, despite all the odd behaviour that's transpired between us, and says, "That's really cool. Whatever you're studying for, I hope you get it."

And with that he turns and leaves, which is what I wanted all along but also... not.
He goes through the door and rejoins his friend and they leave my sight, and something in me releases.
I feel... odd. I shouldn't feel odd. I don't have the time.

I try to go back to my textbooks, but his last words still repeat in the back of my head.
He thinks it's cool. He thinks... I'm cool? No, no, not in a million years. Anyway, stop thinking about him, now!

My thoughts keep veering off into other entirely different trains of thought, even when I keep switching books, and it's making me extremely annoyed to the point that when a customer comes in and orders a latte I jump to it.

I make and give the customer his drink and he thanks me and leaves - and it's then that I look down at the counter and see that my textbooks are gone.

"HEY!" I yell, and the customer wastes no time in speeding off through the door and out into the street. I tear after him screaming furiously, but he's too fast and I'm in my stupid uniform which makes me hobble when I try anything more than running and I lose sight of him and my precious textbook.

I stop in the middle of the street and scream again into the air, and stalk back to the cafe. I go back to the counter and tap my pen both ends against the top violently with a furious expression.

My textbooks - my means to education and opportunity - are gone!

What now?!