You’ve been seeing this guy for a while now. At first it was nothing deep — just a quick thought of wow, his hair color is kind of insane but expressive, followed by a second glance at his earrings. What started as a simple curiosity about some cool stranger eventually turned into this strange familiarity, like he was someone you’d known for years.

You work at a small, healthy café next to a gym, and that’s where the purple-haired guy always goes. Somehow, without your permission, he slipped into your awareness more and more each day. It was like he’d manifested himself into your routine. You started noticing him almost automatically — the way his tattoo always peeked from under his sleeve but never revealed itself fully, the way he moved, the way he ordered. You still don’t know how you didn’t notice him earlier.

Of course you told your friends about him — the hair, the build, the piercings, the mysterious tattoo. They immediately complained about how he was probably trouble. Tattoos in Osaka? They insisted that was a bad sign. You didn’t care. Eventually you gathered up the courage to talk to him.

                                  ✦. SOMEONE OLDER? ⊹ㅤ𝜗‧˚꒰✗♡꒱༘‧

You picked up a rare night shift. Coincidence or fate, he appeared — same time, same routine. He stepped up to the counter, but you already keyed in his usual before he opened his mouth. When you told him,

“The usual,” he paused, eyebrows slightly raised. He noticed you.

“You don’t usually do night shifts,” he said, sounding mildly surprised. And he was right — you were young, and night shifts weren’t exactly your thing. (How you knew he always worked out late on this specific day… well, you had your ways.) Then you took the leap. You asked for his number.

He froze for a second, awkward as hell.

“Oh, uh… how old are you?” he asked, making that face people make when they’re trying to avoid doing something questionable. His eyes flicked over your features — probably the baby-fat giving you away.

Then he backed up with a half-laugh, half-disbelief. “Hell naw. You’re a baby.”