Chapter 23: First Picture

Among all the men in this cafe, it is only Mori Ken who makes Sakura feel uncomfortable. Probably because she barely knows the rest of the guys here, and he is the only guy Sakura has ever known so far.

When Mori Ken eyed Sakura in awe, it didn't take long enough for her to clear her throat to bring back his attention directly into hers.

"In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!" Sakura enacts her character, waving the piece of cardboard that was wrapped in a gold foil in front of Ken known in the anime series as the Moon Boomerang.

Ken makes the blocking hand gesture, imagining that there's really a massive force that is about to go towards him. "I can't be affected by it. I am the Tuxedo Mask. I'm your ally here."

That stunned Sakura for a bit and placed the Moon Boomerang back to her sides.

"Wait, have you watched it as well? How come you know Tuxedo Mask even exists?"

Mori Ken chuckles at Sakura's bewildered reaction. "Please, whatever you're thinking inside your head, take it off immediately. That's not what it looks like."

Sakura got caught off guard and tried to erase whatever she was thinking earlier. She, too, can't even bring herself to imagine Mori Ken sitting in their living room and watching Sailor Moon all afternoon and evening.

As Hayashi Sakura leads Mori Ken to his seat, she asks afterward, "So, how come you knew about Sailor Moon?"

"It's my cousin's favorite. Kia. You could also say it is an all time children's favorite anime." he answers as he chuckled.

'Not sure about that though if you could exactly call it a child-friendly show', Sakura thought to herself, but she didn't say it out loud.

Well, that Kia huh?… Sakura tries to rack off her brain for the place and event where she first heard that name. And after a couple of seconds of trying, a triggered memory suddenly flashes back inside her head.

---

-SHORT FLASHBACK-

It was right after class and Ken and Sakura were in their fourth grade when Ken hung out at their place like he usually did when he wanted to play video games with her.

In the middle of their game, Ken suddenly breaks the news to Sakura, "You know what, my aunt Sara just gave birth to a baby girl, and it was my idea to call her Kia."

Sakura loses her concentration for a moment after hearing the happy news. She hadn't actually met Ken's family members except for his mother, and she hadn't also been to their house even once. Despite that, she is still thrilled to know that there is an additional member of their family that Ken and her could play with when she got old enough to play.

"Congratulations on your new cousin. I hope that someday when she grows up, we'll be there to play with her if she needs some playmates… you know."

Ken shrugs her words casually and responds, "Yeah, sure. I know she'll love that someday."

-SHORT FLASHBACK ENDS-

---

However, that did not happen though. Two years later, Mori Ken stopped hanging out with Sakura in their sixth grade and never approached her ever again…That brought a temporary pain inside her chest before Sakura composes back herself and clears her throat.

"Such a sweet and nice cousin you got there, huh?"

Ken wrinkles up his nose. "Nah, she is anything but sweet and nice."

Later, Sakura gets his usual order of omelet rice and his favorite strawberry parfait, writes it all down in her notepad and quickly dashes towards the kitchen where she gives the list to their cook. As she waits for it to be served, Ms. Cookie suddenly approaches her from behind, startling Sakura a little.

"You know, Ken doesn't usually show up here every day. But because of you, you manage to bring him back here every single day." Ms. Cookie is now smiling at Sakura as she says those words to her.

The latter only gives her boss an astonished look. "Seriously? I thought he is a regular customer here, that's what you said."

"Yes, he is. But he only comes by thrice a week. That's all. Also, I notice that he often smiles a lot everytime he gets the chance to talk to you."

Ms. Cookie then pauses for a moment, a thing that scares Sakura a bit. Because at times like this when the silence is getting heavy between them, she would eventually hear something terrible out of it.

And she is not wrong though, because she is really about to hear something unpleasant about the guy.

"You see, that boy's life has been tough ever since. That's why I'll always be grateful for you entertaining him. Even for such a limited time, he can get to smile adorably like that!"

That caught Sakura's attention all of a sudden. What does her boss exactly mean by that?

However, before she has the chance to ask her, the bell rings, and now it's time for Sakura to get Ken's order and deliver it straight to his table.

"Here's your order, master," Sakura places the tray as carefully as she could and sets the plate on Ken's table with such delicacy and grace.

With a smiling face, Sakura now announces that she is about to draw something to his omelet rice and asks Ken what he wanted her to draw on it. Ken thinks for a while and then makes a request later to draw him his chibi version in the omelet, which Sakura did while cursing mentally in the process. She is still not that good at drawing with ketchup, but she was hoping that it would end up well.

And it did actually. Not only did it end up pretty well, but Mori Ken surely ends up smiling brightly in his seat as he stares at her masterpiece all over again.

Before he begins eating, he requests one more thing from Sakura.

"I wanted to have a picture of this moment where someone made me something personalized once again…" Ken was still smiling when he said that to her. "If that is okay with you?"

"Certainly," Sakura swiftly approves, but deep inside she's starting to get anxious about it.

What if he sees right through it that the maid entertaining him for several days now is none other than his former childhood friend? How would he somehow react to it? Would he report this to the school faculty?

In the end, Sakura can't do anything about her master's request and get over with it as soon as possible. With her co-maid Strawberry, who is now holding an instax camera on her hand, Sakura gets into her smiling position as she bends her body down a little while Ken leans a little bit closer holding out the plate in front so that it could be seen in the picture.

Click!

That's how Sakura's first picture with Ken ended up... with her still wearing her Sailor Moon outfit for the night.