[center][color=hotpink][h1]~ Imamura, Seika ~[/h1][/color][/center]

Hearing the manager's voice, Seika stood up, trying to look as dignified as she could while dripping lemonade. She hoped her inward squirm didn't show - not just from the blunder, or the boss' arrival, but from the pure venom in Hitomi's tone a moment ago. Shame she'd thought she'd left behind burned like a reopened wound.

Whatever the comment had been about to be, Hitomi didn't stick around to finish it. With a flustered apology, the other girl ran to grab her belongings. [color=hotpink]"Oh for pity's sake, Ogasawara, there's no need to..."[/color] Seika began, but Hitomi rushed out into the rain. With a long sigh, Seika stared after her former friend through the window, hands clenching by her sides.

Gritting her teeth, trying to keep her face as neutral as possible, she turned back to the manager. She considered his question in silence. Yes, Hitomi had gone and made bumbling idiots of both of them... but was she truly to blame for that? If not for the tension in the air, the tension Seika herself was responsible for, would things have gone more smoothly?

[color=hotpink]"I say..."[/color] She paused, hiding a cringe. There was no easy answer. [color=hotpink]"I say she deserves another chance."[/color]

Her words brought another wave of nostalgia, an unexpected one. She hadn't intended the double meaning, but there it was. [i]No,[/i] she thought, fighting the urge to shake her head as if it would dispel the memories. Things could never go back to how they were before. Both she and Hitomi knew that.

[color=hotpink]"As long as that's what she wants, of course,"[/color] she added.

Wrenching her focus from the past to the present, she spotted something lying on the floor by the cafe's exit. A book. Trust Hitomi to retrieve her things in such a hurry she dropped something. [color=hotpink]"Well, I'd better give this back to her,"[/color] Seika muttered, heading over and picking it up. She bowed to the manager before gathering her own belongings from the staff room and running out.

Hitomi wasn't the only one who'd forgotten to bring an umbrella. Cold droplets lashed at Seika's face and hands. Not that it made much difference, considering her already drenched state, but water marks started to speckle the book. Holding the hem of her jacket - her driest item of clothing - over it, she sped up her steps, catching up with Hitomi.

As she held out the book, she uttered only one word. [color=hotpink]"Here."[/color]