"I see that went well," Miko chuckled as soon as I arrived at my desk in front of hers. "Did he give you something today?"
"Canelé." Clamping the container lid back on and stuffing it into my bag, I slammed my palms onto her desktop. "It was so good, Miko. How can it be that good? He only started baking this year!"
"Geniuses really are something else."
The blissful aftertaste lingering in my mouth only weighed on my shoulders.
Flailing in my seat, I dropped my ear onto the cool wood of her desk. "Miko," I whined.
"Gouda and you have known each other your entire lives, right?" she said, gently patting my arm. "I'm sure there's a reason besides talent making him adamant on not letting you into the club."
"Personal feelings?" I jeered, momentarily raising my head. "There's no way. That guy is colder than ice."
"But think about it," she said. "You two were inseparable until the end of our first year of high school when you decided to become a pastry chef. You started around the same time and he's gotten way ahead of you, sure, but there's no way you could have a fallout so easily."
"I wanted to believe that too but at this point, I don't care anymore. If he wants to be rude and undermine all my efforts, I'll make him regret angering me. Even if it means I have to start up my own club..."
My words trailed off. My torso jerked upright. It was as if I'd gotten smacked in the face with a pan.
"No," Miko snapped as soon as she saw my expression. "Stop and rewind, Kotori."
I bolted to my feet, a wide beam taking over my lips. "Miko!"
Her countenance washed blank. "Oh no."
"That's it!" I exclaimed, pushing my face close to hers, twinkling. "I'll start up a club! My own club!"
"Knew it..."
"You have to join it!" Being as easily excitable and touchy-feely as I was, I slipped my hands through hers. "We'll take that jerk down together!"
"No thanks."
Not quite expecting her refusal, it stunned me. My hold on her hand loosened as my heart sank in my chest. I pushed out my lower lip. "You really don't like desserts, Miko?"
Unable to beat my extremely effective puppy dog eyes, she peered elsewhere. "Well..."
Brightening at her lenience, I gripped her palm tighter. "Come on! There has to be something you like! Cakes, pies, waffles—anything we can make together, so long as our goal is to take down Okito!"
"Waffles... are all right I guess?" Seeing the level of exuberance filling my grin, Miko eventually gandered my way again. Though, it was her frown that sucked away all hope welling up inside of me. "I'm really sorry, Kotori. Even if you start up a baking club there's no way I could ever help nor enjoy it alongside you. I want to, so badly, but—"
"Sakurauchi!"
The sudden shout of Miko's surname drew our focus left. Bounding down the row was a fairly tall boy. With a head of blond hair and a soft smile that illuminated his amber-coloured eyes, he came to a halt right beside her. Instinctively, I slid my hand from Miko's and crouched behind her desk, keeping my head poking out slightly to survey the situation. Regardless of my off-putting stance, the boy in no way or form acknowledged me at all.
"Do you think you can stop by the Film Club today?"
Bashfully, Miko shook her head. "Not today, Tamura. I have work."
He sucked in a breath then went to muss his hair. "That's right. You work part-time."
His shoulders slumped as he sighed as conspicuously as possible. All hopeful desire once radiating from his features vanished only to replace itself with disappointment.
"Is... something wrong?" Miko asked.
"Well," he said, "we're a character short in the film we're trying to create. I was hoping since you were apart of the Drama Club last year we could get you to fill in, but..."
A film...
I followed the scene back and forth between them.
It didn't take long for Miko to respond, "Sorry. If I had the time..."
"No, it's fine." He flashed her a heart-stopping smile as he turned to go. "Don't worry about it. Thanks anyway."
He went ambling back to the front of the room. More precisely, the second row, before collapsing into his seat with another sigh. He was our classmate?
I slowly got up from squatting behind Miko's desk and prodded her arm. "Who was he?"
"How do you not know?" she asked, evidently startled. "He's been in our class all year. Koyuki Tamura."
I bobbed my head, fixated on him in the distance. "He's really handsome."
She shooed me off. "Of course that's what you notice."
"But handsome guys aside, I need to find members to join my club!"
"A club you haven't even appealed to the Student Council yet," she reminded me.
I waved it off. "I can deal with those details later. To start up a club, first you need five members, right? And if you can't join I need to find four more people who are really talented at baking so I could rub our desserts in Okito's and the rest of the Cooking Club's obnoxious faces."
Miko primmed her mouth, but her disbelief was the least of my concerns at the moment.
Seriously, how could I not have come up with such a brilliant idea before? For the longest time, the Cooking Club was all I saw. Mainly because it was the only baking-related club in the entire school. But with Okito belittling me every single day whenever I asked to join—the rest of his uppity clubmates being no different—I had grown sick of such a repetitive cycle. And it was only now that I realized that it didn't have to be this way?
Who cared about my 'baking aptitude' or whatever that was. If I could start up my own club with my own standards, it was the perfect way to rub my effort in that jerk's snarky face!
"Kotori," Miko exhaled, transferring me from my reverie. "Let's say this does work."
"Which it will," I giddily replied.
"Or will not," she corrected. "There are only three months left until the school year ends. Then we'll be third years. How are you going to get everything together in time, let alone persuade the school into letting you start another baking club when we'll be faced with college applications around the corner?"
Humming, I tilted my head with my finger at my chin. "Hard work?"
She sighed, again. "Kotori, you really are..."
Just as her words trailed off, her eyebrows knitted together.
I immediately perked. "What?"
She shook her head. "Forget it."
"No way!" I drew my face to hers. "That's so your I've-got-an-idea face! Hey, what is it? Tell me! Tell me! Tell—"
"It's a rumour I've heard!"
I stopped just centimetres from her nose. Miko reeled away, signalling I'd gotten too close. Again.
Pursing her lips, she beckoned to give her space, and once able to breathe again, murmured, "Apparently Tamura used to be a member of the Cooking Club."
"NO WAY!"
"Shh!"
I clasped my hands over my mouth. Thankfully, nobody paid any care to my outburst this time around. Flopping into my chair, I vigorously bobbed my head. "And? What happened?"
She looked over my shoulder, at the boy casually scrolling through his phone, then back to me before continuing, "I'm not really sure. I think something happened during our first year that made him leave. Of course, his leaving didn't really impact the club too much, but since then Tamura joined the Film Club and has been a member since."
Lowering my hands to my sides, I couldn't help but gape. "He gave up cooking to pursue filming? That's boring!"
"There must've been a reason for that," Miko insisted. "I've only gotten to know him since we were in the same class last year, but Tamura is really good at directing. I wouldn't have ever thought this were true if I hadn't heard the upperclassmen of his club talking about it last year."
"A past member of the Cooking Club..."
"That's only if this rumour is true," she replied. "But, as I said, Tamura is really, really good at directing. I highly doubt baking would be apart of his past—"
"I've decided."
Miko halted her rambling and blinked. "Decided... what?"
"Koyuki Tamura," I practically cried, grinning as I yet again burst her personal bubble. "He'll be the first member of my club!"
Miko's reaction was absolutely priceless. Appalled, shocked—she couldn't even scramble for her voice for a fair amount of time.
"Kotori," she hissed the moment she could, "have you been listening to a thing I've been saying?"
"Not after you told me he was in the Cooking Club."
"So blunt... Listen to me! You can't go recruiting members for a club that doesn't exist!"
I bloated my cheeks with air. "But if he was in the Cooking Club, then I need him! I need all the help I can get if I want Okito begging on his knees for my desserts."
Miko recoiled, knowing I'd struck a good point. Nonetheless, her expression represented her untimely unease. "But trusting a rumour so wholeheartedly is..."
"He's leaving the class!" I bumbled to my feet, watching as he casually strolled toward the doors. I barely paid Miko any mind and nearly tripped over my chair and desk on the way over. "I-I'll be back!"
"Wait— Kotori!"
"Tamura!"
I'd screamed his surname loud enough to jolt the entire class and those standing outside. Koyuki in particular nearly jumped from his skin, swerving around. I skidded out of the class, doing my best to not lose my balance. Then, I dashed straight for him.
His limbs trembled, complexion blanching drastically. "Why are you suddenly charging at me? W-wait— a-agh!?"
I tackled him to the ground.
He crashed back-first, letting out an audible gasp of pain, and I tumbled on top of him. Eyes wider than saucers and hair ruffled, he immediately grappled for freedom.
I clearly weighed too much to let that happen.
"Wh-who the— Wh-what the— Teruhashi?" he yelled.
"You know who I am?" Palms positioned by either side of his head, legs straddling his torso, I lowered my head to his. My lips stretched back to my ears from delight. "Then that makes things quick."
Pure terror crossed Koyuki's countenance, along with an insane blush that enveloped the entirety of his charming face and ears. Onlookers were gawking with as much shock and awe as Koyuki beneath me, but I was way too gleeful to pay it any mind.
Descending my face closer to his, I burned every nook and cranny of his melting amber-coloured irises into my mind.
His first instinct was to squirm—escape. "C-can you get off of me—"
"Tamura!"
He flinched, the redness soaring across his cheeks darkening further. "Y-yes?"
"I need you to join my club!"
Inwardly, I couldn't believe I'd said it—sealed the deal for this entire thing. I was on such an elated high I could care less about the loudness of my voice or the fact that I was pinning Koyuki to the ground, mouth centimetres from his. Even watching him resist a full-on panic attack amidst his scorching blush and swirling vision couldn't dismiss me from this thrilling moment.
"You need me to what?"
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