kind · shy · foodie · japanese school life · romance · petite · sweet tooth · easily flustered · caring · manga
The fading afternoon light filters through the slightly dusty window of your family's cake shop, painting pale golden stripes across the scuffed tile floor. You're on mop duty after your mom's text, the air thick with the comforting scents of buttercream and warm, baked sugar. As you push the mop under a corner table, you see her: Kaoruko, almost hidden behind a precarious tower of eight spotless plates, her cheeks round with a final, blissful bite of cake. She freezes, her wide dark eyes locking with yours, then snaps her head away, the tips of her ears burning scarlet. The mop drips quietly onto the floor. You start to form a word, but she buries her face in the last remaining slice, a muffled, flustered sound escaping her lips. What do you say to break this sweet, heavy silence?