[center]
[h3]Café de Clieu - School Garden, District 7[/h3]
[sub]Collaboration with [@Crimmy][/sub]
[/center] 

Hana’s thoughts drifted again to Kanacon, and the diorama based on one of the series’ most iconic scenes that she had donated to be given away as a prize for the charity lottery. The whole piece had been by far the most time-consuming thing she had made before, usually sticking mostly to simple statues. She had begun the project mostly to kill time during summer break, since there wasn’t much else to do—sure, she had had a lot of homework, but that had all been done within a few days.

The girl tapped through her phone, navigating to her Pixif.net page. Seeing her follower count made her jump out of her desk chair, the combination of restlessness and excitement forcing her quickly out the door of her room and into the halls of the dormitory. She had reached four-thousand followers, up from barely a hundred at the start of summer break. Documenting her progress on the Kanamin diorama had brought her a nice amount of attention due to the general Kanamin hype stirred up by the convention. She had tons of people commenting on her images now, and she loved replying to them as much as she could, often having full conversations. Though she didn’t know the commenters—neither their names or their real faces, it almost felt like having friends… or at least, how she imagined having friends felt like.

Stopping by the vending machine at the entrance of the dormitory, she fired off another reply and bought a bottle of water. Taking a sip, she scrolled down to the next comment—a screen name she didn’t recognize, so potentially a new friend. The comment opened with some praise, and then went into a suggestion asking her to make a diorama of his favourite h-scene—

Hana choked on her drink, coughing herself quickly to tears. There were a few girls in the dorm, and they began to give her strange looks, only one caring enough to say anything.

“Are you alright, Kanno-san?” she said after a moment of hesitation.

Hana nodded quickly and gave an unconvincing thumbs up. [color=ff607b]“I-I’m fine, I’m fine,”[/color] she managed between coughs, quickly leaving the building before the scene she had caused made her turn even redder.

After taking a moment to breathe, she glanced back at her phone incredulously. She… could see the appeal in the suggestion, but it seemed like such a strange thing to directly ask of someone like that. Well, it’s not like she knew who it was that was asking. Along with the extra followers, she had started to notice weirder comments cropping up more frequently, but that was to be expected. The girl chose to ignore this particular comment and slid her phone into her pocket.

Now the issue was finding something to do to burn her energy. Once again, she found herself regretting choosing not to attend Kanacon herself. Normally she would have—conventions were definitely entertaining, even if she pretty much always went alone. Along with all the sights to see, they also always gave her some hope that she’d bump into some nice people to talk to, even if that rarely happened due to her own timidness.

This time though, she chose not to go because of the diorama she had made. She had, of course, made it public to her followers that the purpose of the project was for it to be given away at Kanacon, but she hadn’t expected a side effect of that; dozens of people had messaged her, wondering if they’d be able to meet her at the convention. While that should have been a dream come true for the girl, it really gave her cold feet. Going to a con with the hope that she might meet people, but with no expectations to do so was one thing—but to go with the full intention of meeting up with strangers was a scary prospect to her. They probably wouldn’t like her very much in person, anyways. She was a lot more talkative behind her screen name.

So she had told the people who had asked if she was going that she was going to be too busy with school work. If she really wanted to, she was probably still fine to go to Kanacon; she had never revealed her real name or face on her Pixif page. Paranoia at the potential of somehow being recognized was keeping her back, even if she [i]wanted[/i] to be recognized. Maybe. She sure thought she did when it wasn’t a likely possibility.

Hana was brought out of her thoughts, tossing a look over her shoulder. She clicked her tongue. Sat at a bench a few dozen feet away was a disheveled-looking girl, recognizable by her short black hair that still managed to be a wild mane.

Maybe the paranoia of being recognized wasn’t completely unfounded. Hana picked up her walking pace as subtlety as she could, turning the very next street corner.

This girl seemed to be showing up strangely often the past few days. Brushed off as a weird coincidence at first by Hana, she simply couldn’t ignore it anymore—every single time she had stepped outside, she noticed the black-haired girl at least once. While the girl wasn’t particularly intimidating-looking, it still made Hana’s heart race uncomfortably.

A few dozen seconds after walking down the street she had turned into, she glanced back over her shoulder. Sure enough, among other young girls going about their lives in the School Garden, she spotted the black-haired one with her nose in her phone, following in Hana’s steps.

Frustration growing, Hana tilted her head back with a sigh, trying to convince herself there was nothing to it… a sentiment that was immediately shattered upon seeing that same girl up on the rooftop of a tall building, a hundred feet away. Her blood ran cold as she saw sunlight reflect off something held in the figure’s hands. Hana wheeled around, seeing the very same girl still far behind her.

Well, she was officially spooked.

Once again, Hana wasted no time turning the nearest corner, making sure to cut off vision from both of the seemingly identical girls, and immediately broke out into a jog. Spotting a small cafe she was coming up on, Hana tossed one last look over her shoulder, confirming the black-haired girl was not in sight yet. Quickly, she made up her mind and slowed herself to a brisk walk, pushing her way past the doors and into the building.

The girl paused, trying to keep her breathing under control to not make an even bigger scene than she had by somewhat bursting through the doors. Face slowly turning red as she felt judging eyes on her, she tried to calm herself down from the stress that was causing her to breathe more heavily than she otherwise would have from such light exercise. She slid into the short line at the counter, figuring that appearing like she was here to buy something would help make her look less weird.

Her attempt to appear as inconspicuous as possible did bear fruit, for by the time the aging wooden doors behind her chimed once more to allow another customer into the cafe, the gazes of the other clientele were no longer upon her. However, that did not mean she was no longer an object of attention: the newest arrival to [i]Café de Clieu[/i] had taken a spot in the line behind Hana, and in fact was somebody familiar to her.

“[color=FDB813]Kanno-han, good to see you,[/color]” greeted her classmate in her signature, lilting Kyoto accent. “[color=FDB813]I haven’t seen you come here before.[/color]”

The smiling, bespectacled girl standing there was Youko Wakahisa, a daughter of the Wakahisa Conglomerate that was prominent in not only the business world of the Keihanshin metropolitan region, but also the entirety of Japan as a whole. She was also a Level 3 Esper, one who sat two seats to the right of Hana in Shidarezakura Academy’s Class 1-A. And while they were not exactly “friends” in the truest sense of the term, the slightly older girl was always willing to greet her fellow students with friendly cheer, particularly if they were fellow Kansai natives.

It was a not-at-all disguised fact that Youko tended to gravitate towards other westerners.

“[color=FDB813]But now that you’re here, you should definitely try their iced coffee,[/color]” she continued. “[color=FDB813]It’s especially excellent, and you do look like you’re in need of one.[/color]”

Her observation of Hana’s physical state was punctuated with by a slight quirk to her lips.

Hana started slightly upon hearing her name. She turned a little more quickly than would be normal, taking a half second to realize that she was being addressed not by the black-haired girl, but by a classmate.

The girl blinked, before finally saying [color=ff607b]“Wakahisa-san,”[/color] with a small nod as way of greeting, her own accent less pronounced due to having moved around Japan so much. Hana glanced towards the menu above the counter. [color=ff607b]“… I don’t really drink anything other than water and sports drinks.”[/color] She frowned to herself—that wasn’t a particularly great thing to say if she wanted the chance meeting to at least be pleasant. Youko was one of the few girls in her class that Hana was able to imagine being friends with someday. Though that was mostly because Youko was friendly and polite to everyone, so it’s not like she was interested in Hana in particular, but… it was just one of those things to Hana, that made it easier to hope.

[color=ff607b]“B-But iced coffee sounds like a good place to start trying new things,”[/color] she said, managing to put a bit of cheer in her voice.

She paused again, unsure what to say—not helped by the fact that the apparent stalker was still on her mind. The girl gazed past Youko for a moment, scanning for the stalker through the windows of the store. No sign of her… though another distraction keeping Hana from focusing fully on trying not to mess up this conversation cropped up, in the form of her phone beginning to vibrate incessantly in her pocket from notifications.

[color=ff607b]“I guess that means you come here often?”[/color] she settled on asking her classmate. That seemed like an alright thing to say—maybe not the best, but definitely not the worst. She had personally done much worse far too many times.

The girl who had been in front of them in line moved aside, the employee behind the counter looking to Hana expectantly. This simple situation caused her heart rate to rise uncomfortably. She had [i]just[/i] asked Youko a question! What was she supposed to do here? Make her order and force Youko to wait before answering the question she herself had asked? Or listen to Youko and make the employee wait instead? Either way, she’d be getting judged for being rude to somebody, right? Hana’s face began to redden as she froze, glancing between only two options she believed she had—all while her phone was still buzzing away, somehow just adding to the panic of the situation to the socially inept girl.

“[color=FDB813]I like to think I’m a regular,[/color]” was Youko’s smiling reply as she casually stepped past Hana and up to the counter. “[color=FDB813]That’s why Aki-chan here’s aware that I want two of my usual today, right?[/color]”

The aforementioned employee stared blandly at her. “You always buy one iced coffee.”

Youko waved her off. “[color=FDB813]I want to try something different and new, just like Kanno-han,[/color]” she declared. “[color=FDB813]And it would be very remiss of me - an injustice even! - if I recommended a drink and didn’t treat her to it.[/color]”

“Fair enough. Then it’ll be 800 yen today.”

She whipped out her debit card, tapping it against the reader to complete her order. It was an action she had repeated many, many times in her visits to the cafe, but for the first time in a number of months (her last visit with her friend was … probably around the Lunar New Year), Youko was paying for someone else as well.

“[color=FDB813]Why not find us a seat?[/color]” she said, moving away from the counter to address Hana again. “[color=FDB813]I’ll wait for the coffees, so you can answer that call while you’re sitting.[/color]”

Hana found herself blinking, calming down as Youko seemed to easily take care of what had seemed like a rising, insurmountable problem. To be expected really, from what Hana had seen of the girl already. Though she still steamed in light embarrassment, the panic was quickly gone.

She made the slightest move to protest having her drink paid for, but it all happened so fast, leaving her to only be able to nod at Youko’s suggestion.

Hana’s phone was [i]still[/i] going off, though now there were some breaks between vibrations. As she slid into one of the tall seats at a small table for two, she finally took out her phone to see she had received messages to her Pixif account from over a dozen people.

She really wasn’t able to find any relief from stress today.

The girl quickly tapped to one message, her heart stopping when she read the contents. After a second of shock, she tapped to a message from another user, and then another, and another. All mentioning the same thing—a photo that had been posted on her profile’s message section by another user. She navigated to find the post itself, freezing up again.

It was a photo of her—her face in full view, stepping out of her dormitory’s main entrance, wearing the exact same clothes she had on right now. It was taken not even an hour ago. The user that posted it also left a comment, saying that it was her, and even revealing her real name. 

She glanced around the cafe again, paranoia making her certain the black-haired girl would be around. She wasn’t. Hana turned her attention back the screen, reporting the user (whose name was a random string of digits) and removing the comment from her profile. The second she deleted, she paused, realizing that was basically her confirming the information was true, right? And it had obviously been seen by quite a few of her followers, if her glut of private messages were any indication.

No, that wasn’t necessarily true, she began to try and convince herself. Anyone making some sort of attempt to reveal her personal information was fully liable to be removed whether or not they were actually correct. 

Either way, she was certainly more flustered and stressed than she had been in a long while.

And that was something that others could notice.

“[color=FDB813]Is everything alright, Kanno-han?[/color]” asked Youko with a note of worry as she returned from the counter with iced coffees in hand. “[color=FDB813]Um, sorry if I’m prying into anything, but you don’t look particularly well today.[/color]”

She gently placed Hana’s drink in front of her, before slipping into the opposite seat with her own coffee nursed between small, pale hands. In the face of the taller girl’s palpable anxiety, there was a genuine air of concern to her words.

Hana finally looked away from her phone, up towards her classmate. At the question, she hesitated before giving an unconvincing nod. It wasn’t something she wanted to bother Youko with, but… would it be weird to tell her? Now that she had asked, it might be rude to play it off as though nothing was the matter, when clearly something was off—Hana had never been the worst at hiding her emotions, but the photo shook her enough that she knew she appeared worried.

[color=ff607b]“I, um… I think I’ve got a stalker…”[/color] she finally said, with a forced smile as though to say it wasn’t a big deal. She looked away quickly though, unable to keep up that facade for any amount of time. After another second in thought, deciding if it was fair to bother Youko with this, she spoke again. [color=ff607b]“I think I have an idea of who it is though—I’ve been noticing one girl in particular often whenever I’m out lately… well, uh, it might be two girls who look really similar? Or someone with an ability that lets them appear in two places or something. It seemed like I was being followed by them today, which is kind of how I ended up here…”[/color]

It seemed that once she finally started talking, it got a lot easier for the red-haired girl. She glanced between Youko and her phone for a moment, before navigating to her Pixif page and moving the phone along the table towards Youko. [color=ff607b]“I have this art page… it’s gotten a lot of followers lately, and somebody posted a photo of me here, just now.”[/color] Hana navigated to an archive of all comments on her profile, accessible by herself and whatever moderators the site had, finding the photo and comment with her real name that she had just deleted and showed the screen again to her classmate.

It was only then that Hana realized her hand was shaking lightly. She quickly pulled her arm back, turning her phone off, realizing she had been talking a lot more than was usual. [color=ff607b]“It… it should be fine, though. Next time I see her, I can confront her.”[/color]

But maybe it wouldn’t be that easy. While Hana wasn’t particularly afraid of any sort of physical altercation with damn near anyone, it’s not like she could go out swinging punches at this potential stalker. Even with proof that it was this girl, she still technically wasn’t allowed to deal with her herself—she’d need the proof, and then let proper authorities deal with it. The thought of it all, on top of her thousands of followers now pretty much knowing who she really was, was really not helping the anxious pit in her stomach.

Youko reached over and gently pushed the glass of iced coffee closer to Hana.

“[color=FDB813]Take a sip, Kanno-han,[/color]” she said softly. “[color=FDB813]There has to be a way to work this thing out.[/color]”

The girl directed an assuaging smile at her classmate, hoping to soothe the stressed-out state Hana was in. Even though they weren’t friends, the very nature of the problem wasn’t something Youko could (or wanted to) ignore.

“[color=FDB813]I don’t know how these things are resolved,[/color]” she admitted, placing a comforting hand on Hana’s shaking one. “[color=FDB813]But I’ll be here if you need anything.[/color]”

She paused for a moment, taking in a short breath as she brushed back strands of auburn hair.

“[color=FDB813]And, if it wouldn’t be a burden,[/color]” the bespectacled girl continued, “[color=FDB813]do you want any help?[/color]”

Hana followed the instruction, taking her first sip of iced coffee. She paused for a second, her mind taken off her stress for the briefest moment. [color=ff607b]“It’s good,”[/color] she said quietly, glancing towards Youko to see her smile.

Hana blinked quickly and looked away again as she felt the girl’s hand on hers, having to fight off an urge to jerk back—not that she didn’t appreciate or like the touch, but because she realized she was being comforted. She was supposed to be strong. If she wanted to stand out and be special, she needed to be strong on her own.

The girl bit the inside of her cheek as Youko spoke, willing the faint redness in her cheeks to disappear. It [i]did[/i] feel nice to hear her classmate’s concern… but she couldn’t accept it. That was all backwards. Hana was the one who was supposed to help everyone else.

She opened her mouth, trying to find the words she wanted. [color=ff607b]“I… I’m sorry, Wakahisa-san,”[/color] she finally managed. [color=ff607b]“It’s rude of me to push this on you suddenly… I’ll be fine.”[/color]

Hana felt like making a quick exit, but she couldn’t quite find the courage to do that. Neither did she really have the courage to stay. She settled on rather timidly taking the straw of her drink between her lips and sipping slowly while her eyes looked off to the side, lamenting her complete lack of social skills among plenty of other things.

“[color=FDB813]I see.[/color]”

Youko hesitantly sucked in a breath of air, as if she wanted to say more, but the pall of anxiety over their table was too much for even her to cut through. Instead, she followed in her classmate’s footsteps, imbibing her own glass of iced coffee in silence. Besides the sound of the two sipping away at their drinks, it seemed that neither of them were willing to speak.

But the stillness wasn’t something the other Shidarezakura student could tolerate.

The clinking of ice against glass as Youko placed her drink down cut through the atmosphere of stillness like a knife.

“[color=FDB813]I don’t think it’s rude of you,[/color]” she said. Her youthful face was resolute. “[color=FDB813]Quite the opposite, I think. Even if I don’t know how to help you, even if I’ve never encountered this particular situation before, I don’t think it’s rude of you to want to ask me for help.[/color]”

She couldn’t just “un-involve” herself now.

“[color=FDB813]But it’ll be the height of injustice if [i][b]I[/b][/i] let you work this out alone.[/color]”

Her words were certain and precise. She spoke with absolute certainty in her belief.

And her smile was as radiant as the Sun.

“[color=FDB813]Sorry,[/color] I’m pushy,” she admitted, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. “[color=FDB813]But, you don’t need to face this alone, okay? You can talk to me and anyone else about it.[/color]”

The girl had been all but literally collapsing in on herself throughout the silence, jumping slightly at the sound of Youko’s glass hitting the table’s wood. Though her nose was still pointed to the floor, Hana’s eyes stared up at her classmate from across the small table—the troubled girl found herself believing Youko’s words without question. Mm, maybe not… Hana still thought it had been rude of her to suddenly lay out this issue of hers to someone she hardly knew, but—at least—she fully believed Youko wasn’t upset about having to know about it.

The first thing Hana thought to do was suck down the rest of her ice tea in one breath, almost as a strange way of thanking Youko. She gasped lightly for air as she finished, setting it down on the table and sitting straighter. 

Hana looked to Youko for a moment. [color=ff607b]“I’m… not great with people, if that wasn’t already painfully obvious. Things like this—social things, like talking to someone new, or [i]less[/i] commonly having a stalker; they make me feel weak and helpless. Like I’m learning how to ride a bike again, except something… something doesn’t click. It never does, and I end up flat on my face.[/color]

[color=ff607b]“I hate that.”[/color] Hana paused for a breath, realizing she had gotten up out of her seat and was leaning over the table a bit. She felt her face redden a shade as she sat back down. [color=ff607b]“I want to get better at dealing with people. I guess… I think what I mean is I’ll… accept your help if it wouldn’t be too much of a burden. But no one else’s.”[/color] The girl looked down towards her empty cup.

[color=ff607b]“It’s hard enough for me to be so weak in front of [i]one[/i] person.”[/color] 

Youko gently shook her head.

“[color=FDB813]You’re not being weak, Kanno-han,[/color]” she said simply. “[color=FDB813]Not at all, I think.[/color]”

She held out a hand. There was no judgement in the action, no condescension - nothing but a heartfelt desire to give help to somebody that the heiress believed to need it.

“[color=FDB813]I think you’re strong,[/color]” continued Youko, taking a short breath through her teeth. “[color=FDB813]I think it’s fine to be worried. To hate that feeling of just … not person-ing good. That’s normal. But … even if it seems so frightening, you’re still going to trust me.[/color]”

“[color=FDB813]That’s not weak at all. Kanno-han, that’s real strong.[/color]”

“[color=FDB813]So -[/color]”

Her laugh seemed to bubble right out of her throat.

“[color=FDB813]- I, Youko Wakahisa, have to answer that trust of yours in kind.[/color]”