Chapter Text
Yuu expected a lot of things to happen in her life; moving to a new city with her girlfriend after just finishing university wasn’t exactly in the plans, but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t having fun.
It was Touko’s idea to move. It was also Touko’s idea to open a brand new bookstore as well. With the help of her dear girlfriend, and of course, her own family; the peach-haired girl successfully opened a small bookstore in a nice secluded part of the city. It wasn’t the most popular bookstore by any means. But they did manage to get a few customers to come by, which was always fun.
What wasn’t fun was the current state of the goddamn weather.
Rain, rain, thunder, and more rain. The peach-haired girl was starting to get very annoyed by the constant rain. Thankfully for her, she lived close to the bookstore. But god, the weather really prevented people from stopping by. Most days, Yuu spent re-organizing the books on shelves while waiting for someone to appear.
Touko wasn’t always at the bookstore. Mostly because she had her own stuff to do. Today was one of those days.
“ughhhh…” the short peach-haired girl groaned, as she placed one more book next to the other. “How boring… ” she mumbled.
She could hear the sound of the rain pouring from outside, but not just rain— there was lighting and thunder . Oh lord…
As she grabbed another book, she could hear the door open and quickly slam shut. The girl flinched in surprise, quickly turning towards the direction of the door. A black-haired individual stood there, absolutely soaked. And it also seemed like he was holding a broken umbrella… he kept huffing, before taking a good look at the umbrella in his hand.
“Stupid thing had to break right now…” grumbled the person, furrowing his brow as he shook his head. “How am I supposed to go home now…?”
“Uhm—“ Yuu finally spoke up. She could see the guy freeze for a moment, before he turned to look at her. He had an absolutely terrified expression on his face. “Welcome to Nana-Koito bookstore…” she trailed off, her lips forming a small yet awkward smile.
“I’m so sorry for barging in like this!” The other quickly apologized. “It’s just—“
“The rain, right?” She could see the other’s eyes stare right at her. “Yeah, things have been rough around here.” She shrugged.
“I know… who knew the weather was going to get this bad…” the slightly taller male sighed exhaustedly. “I really have to go home, but I don’t own a car and all I had was…” he held up the torn up umbrella. “This.”
“How did that even happen?” She wondered.
“I don’t know actually.” He responded.
Oh shit, that wasn’t supposed to come out. She thought, staring at the other blankly.
The two kept staring each other down for a good few seconds, before the male finally opened his mouth: “so- hm… is this place new? I’ve Uh- I’ve never seen it before…!!” He sputtered, he sounded very uncomfortable. I mean, who wouldn’t after that weird staring contest.
“It’s been open for a few months, so it is fairly new.” She replied, looking over at the books that she still has yet to put on the shelves.
“Ah, that makes sense.” He replied, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “I usually go to the bigger bookstore to look for things… what kind of stuff do you usually have here?” It seems like he was trying his best to start a conversation.
“Books.” However, Yuu merely replied with a blank expression on her face.
The stranger instantly fell quiet. The peach-haired girl instantly cursed herself for making the situation much more awkward than it had to be.
“Books, novels, mangas…” she continued, this time not sounding as flat as she did the first time.
“I-I see…” the other chuckled awkwardly.
Then, silence once again. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of the raindrops aggressively hitting the window.
“So uh, do you like reading?” This time Yuu was the one to break the ice.
The other nodded. “Ah, I do.”
“What kind of stuff do you like reading…? Perhaps you could grab one of the books or mangas and sit down on one of the desks and read while you wait for the rain to stop.”
“Hm…” he hummed, seemingly thinking. “I’ll go check out the mangas then.”
Yuu nodded, pointing towards the direction of the shelves filled with manga. The stranger approached it quickly, and started looking through some of the titles. The peach-haired girl stared at him, watching as he picked out…
A… bl manga…?
Upon closer inspection, she could see his eyes light up as he looked at the cover. She could see his lips move, but since she wasn’t so close, she could barely hear what he was mumbling. So this guy likes bl? What a surprise.
Her eyes continued to follow the black-haired guy as he sat down and flipped through the pages. He looked so concentrated, it was kind of funny. But then again, a lot of people look the exact same whenever they are so immersed in reading, so she couldn’t really make fun of him for it.
After a few moments, she could see a small grin forming on the guy’s lips. Yeah, he was definitely immersed in whatever was happening in that manga. And honestly? Yuu was becoming slightly curious too. She snuck up behind him, taking a small peek to see what was going on.
A love confession between the main dude and some other dude. That’s the only way she could describe it because she has absolutely zero context for the scene itself, and has no idea what led up to it.
“Is that manga any good?” She asked, immediately causing the other to flinch.
“How long have you been standing there?!”
“Not long enough to understand the context.”
The guy had an absolutely unreadable expression on his face, but then the moment he opened his mouth… he started talking about the manga he was reading in a very enthusiastic way. It was set during a normal school setting; the two characters played tennis apparently, which was funny to Yuu because she has never heard of a tennis focused manga before. But either way, they met while trying for a tennis competition or something of the sorts and they were rivals and now on the 6th volume they are confession their love for one another and—
Wait. 6th volume?
“You’re reading the sixth volume?” She asked, raising a brow.
“Yeah! I read the rest at home. I was intending on buying the sixth one but I couldn’t find it.” He explained.
Ah. Right. Of course he wouldn’t just grab a random volume and read it without context.
“You must really be invested in them then.” She smiled. “Do you like bl?” A small question, yet the other still seemingly froze in place with an unreadable expression once more.
She watched as a sigh escaped his lips, nodding calmly. “There’s no reason in hiding it, now is there?” He gave her a small smile back, turning to the peach-haired girl.
Yuu giggled. “Yeah, it was pretty obvious by how passionate you were talking about that manga in specific.” She grabbed a chair next to the stranger, sitting down next to him. “I don’t read bl, but this story seems nice.”
The black-haired male nodded. “I see, it’s hard to find some good bls sometimes. But I’d like to consider myself good at finding them.” He chuckled. “I have a whole collection.”
“A collection? You must read a lot then.” She was a little surprised by the mere mention of a bl collection, but the guy seemed pretty proud of it.
“Yeah, I’ve had plenty of time to collect.” He chuckled once again.
“Ah, I see. That makes sense.” She put her arm on her table, resting her head on her hand. At that moment, the guy seemingly noticed something in her hand.
“Are you engaged?” He asked, catching the peach-haired girl off guard. She looked at her hand and…
“Ah, this is a promise ring.. I’m not engaged…” she brought her hand closer, staring at the ring. It was something that both her and Touko had. “Yet.”
“You’re grinning.” The other commented.
She looked at the stranger beside her, but the grin on her face simply grew bigger. “What can I do? It’s not my fault.”
“What’s he like?” He… right, she didn’t mention that she was in a relationship with a woman.
“ She’s incredible.” It was short, yet straight to the point. The look on the other’s face was funny to Yuu, his eyes widening.
“Oh, it's- I’m sorry.” He buried his face in his hands. The peach-haired girl simply let out a laugh.
“It’s alright. It’s not the first time this has happened.” She turned to look at her ring once again with a softer smile. “How about you? Are you in a relationship?”
“Ah, yeah.” She could see his cheeks flush to a soft red color as he messed with his hair a bit. “I have a boyfriend.” He smiled back at Yuu. That took her a bit aback as well. To find out that he had a boyfriend.
“A boyfriend, huh? What's he like?” She asked, raising a brow.
“He’s… he’s incredible.” His voice was soft, yet she could tell how genuine he was being.
“Hey.” Yuu leaned back on her chair, crossing her arms. “I said that.”
The other stared at her blankly for a moment, before both of them started laughing. When they stopped, they turned to look at each other, smiles on their faces.
“I didn’t even ask, but what’s your name?” Yuu asked.
“Yoshikazu Miyano.” The other replied. “But you can just call me Miyano. How about you?”
“Yuu Koito.” She answered.
“I’m assuming the Nana in Nana-Koito is your girlfriend’s name?” Miyano asked. Yuu nodded.
Right at that moment, they both heard the door open. Turning to look at who came inside, it was…
“Ah, Touko!” The peach-haired girl beamed, standing up and approaching her partner. She wrapped her arms around the taller girl, smiling widely.
“Hello Yuu!” She greeted, planting a small kiss on her shorter girlfriend’s forehead. “Sorry I took so long, I was waiting for the rain to stop. But it finally stopped now and-“
“The rain stopped?” Miyano stood up, asking. The two girls looked at him, blinking. “A-Ah, sorry- I didn’t mean to interrupt-“
“Yeah, the rain did stop.” Touko simply smiled at Miyano. “Who’s that?”
“Oh, that’s Miyano-kun. We kinda just met.” Yuu explained, with the other male nodding.
“I should probably get going, Shuumei-san is probably worried about me.” He grabbed his broken umbrella, and took one last look at the manga.
“You can borrow it if you want.” Yuu said, that quickly perked Miyano’s interest. “As long as you return it, I’ll gladly lend it to you.”
“Thank you, Yuu-san!” He smiled, grabbing the manga. “I promise I’ll return it!”
“Alright.” Yuu nodded. “Now go home to your boyfriend, stay safe Miyano-kun. I hope to see you again soon.”
“Thank you, you too!” He said, before quickly making his way out the door. Touko looked at the other leaving, then back at Yuu with a curious expression on her face.
“Boyfriend?” the raven-haired girl asked.
“Yeah.” Yuu nodded. “Want some tea? I can make some right now.”
“Of course!”