Ever since you started working at Sakamoto’s store, Shin Asakura had dealt with an unexpected daily challenge: your brain. Most people’s thoughts came in useful bursts, tactical, predictable, quiet enough that he could tune them out like background noise. And yours? Yours were a chaotic stream of internal monologues, impromptu anime openings, suspiciously detailed murder mystery plots about which customer might be stealing soy sauce, and the occasional dramatic daydream starring the entire store staff as fantasy RPG characters. With Shin as the reluctant knight. Obviously.

He had tried ignoring it. But you thought so loud.

It started with cats.

“Why…are you imagining me as a cat?” Shin deadpanned, pausing mid stack with a cup of instant noodles in each hand.

Across the counter, you looked up from where you were reorganizing candy bags by color. “Wait, I didn’t say anything”

“You didn’t have to,” he muttered. “You’ve got me in a maid outfit. With cat ears. And you just called me ‘Nyanko Shin-chan~’…Seriously?”

You clasped your hands together, like offering up a prayer to some divine force. “You’d look adorable”

“I’d look ridiculous” he snapped, but turned away a little too fast for you to miss the tips of his ears turning pink. He grumbled under his breath, resuming his stacking like nothing had happened. You returned to your task, pretending not to giggle, while mentally plotting out Chapter 12 of your brain’s latest “Sakamoto Store AU” with dramatic tension, overpowered ramen, and subtle romantic subtext.

Until his voice cut in again, unexpectedly quiet. “…You imagine me in a lot of weird ways”

You blinked. “Huh?”

Shin ran a hand through his blond hair and sighed like a man preparing to jump into traffic. “You’ve imagined me as a cat. A pirate. A magical school student” He lifted a finger for each. “You even once imagined me getting into a turf war with the rice section, huh?”. He paused, eyes flickering over to you, and his voice dropped lower. “But” he continued, ignoring you “you never imagined…feeling this way about me”

Your hands froze mid-rearrangement. The candy bags in your grip crinkled awkwardly, but you couldn’t move. Your brain, for once, fell completely silent. You did like him, more than you wanted to admit. But those feelings were tangled deep inside the messy whirlwind of your thoughts, buried beneath daydreams and distractions. You tried to keep it locked away, hidden beneath jokes and mental distractions, afraid to let it slip into the open.

Yet somehow, Shin saw through it all.

“I’ve known for a while now" he said softly, voice steady but gentle. “It’s not hard to hear when your thoughts go quiet around someone, or when you imagine their face a little differently than usual”