Dreamer's Hideaway (Chapter 1)

Let the Games Begin!

Rhyme wasn't sure when she had first started visiting the WildKat café regularly. She had always felt at home amongst the light brown walls and orange, but not too orange, tables. It helped that Mr. H, the barista of the café, always welcomed her. There was something comforting about his presence, but Rhyme never dwelled on it. Instead, she filled her thoughts with ones that were focused on re-attaining a dream.

A slight smile spread across her face as she entered the café, going to sit in her usual seat by the window. Thankfully, the window was tinted from the outside, making it pretty much impossible to look inside and wonder why that young girl wasn't in school.

Mr. H, who had given up asking about her lack of attendance, looked up from a magazine from behind the counter.

"Hey, Skulls Jr., what can I get for you today, the usual?" Mr. H asked.

"Sorry, Mr. H, I'm not getting anything today." Rhyme answered. In truth, she had probably already spent too much of her family's dwindling finances on this place, an act that she had decided she would stop immediately, especially since she usually bought the five hundred and twenty yen coffee every other day. After all, a penny saved is a penny earned.

"All right, but if you aren't going to buy anything, wouldn't your time be better spent in school, Rhyme?" Mr. H leaned forward, propping himself up on his elbow.

Well, it seems as if he hadn't given up after all.

"There's nothing to do in school." Rhyme replied, "I don't care about it at all, there's nothing for me to do there. I mean, I don't even remember what it is I liked about it!"

"Hey, Rhyme. No whining. Come on, why don't you just try going back? I'm sure you'll find something that you like to do." Mr. H said.

"I told you, I can't… I've tried, I really have." Rhyme said, looking down.

There was a short pause before Rhyme decided to ask.

"Was I really whining?" Was her question.

"Yeah, kid, you were." Was his answer.

Rhyme frowned to herself.  She wasn't usually a whiner, this wasn't right. Then again, a lot of things had changed after those three weeks she had spent in the UG. Or maybe it was more like, two weeks as she hadn't been around much during the third. Rhyme shivered, remembering the feeling of Konishi grabbing her and squeezing.

Rhyme shook her head to try and clear away the memories, instead remembering coming home after staying out a little later than normal with some friends. She had been surprised to see Beat at the dinner table, doing his homework. It made her happy to see her brother so motivated to improve himself. Their parents had also looked proud, which made her even happier.

So happy, that she hadn't minded so much when they proceeded to chew her out about her own falling grades. They had been doing that a lot recently. In fact, Rhyme knew for certain that it was going to happen as soon as she got back from the WildKat. She knew that she was worrying everyone, but was just so hard to care lately.

Before Rhyme could continue thinking about how much her life sucked these days, the dinging sound of a bell alerted her to the presence of another person entering the facility. She didn't look up; instead, she continued to stare idly out the window.

"Why, Mr. H, are you cheating on me..? Letting another civilian in to loiter around?" remarked the mystery customer. Rhyme briefly considered the likely hood of the other customer being female, from voice's pitch and question.

"Hey, Joshua, how's my favorite man doing?" Mr. H said, obviously ignoring the previous comments.

Oh, so it was a boy. All right. Rhyme decided to tune out the two and not listen into their conversation. She returned to her previous task of staring out the window and watching the other pedestrians walk by the coffee shop.

Rhyme thought it was a little strange that nobody ever seemed to enter the coffee shop or, at least, not while she was around. She continued to ponder this until she heard the chair across from her being pulled out.

Rhyme looked up sharply to see a boy sit down across from her. He had dull brown colored hair that was rather wavy, with a ton of cowlicks sticking up in places. This only seemed to give it more volume though, and it was rather obvious that his hair was well taken care of. But the most striking thing to Rhyme was his eyes, which were a dull purple. A regal color, Rhyme decided.

'He must be lonely,' Rhyme thought to herself, 'to want to sit next to me. I wonder what he wants to talk about. I hope he's nice.'

"So, why are you in this coffee shop instead of school…?" the boy – hadn't Mr. H called him Joshua? – smirked.

Rhyme blinked and then frowned slightly. She wondered if that was supposed to be some sort of failed pick up line. It certainly sounded it from his tone.

"I like it here." She answered, then, after thinking for a second, she decided to ask, "Are you a regular here too?"

"You are a regular..? I never knew that Sanae had more than just me as a customer." Joshua, or what she would call him until she had his name, giggled.

'Wait, did he just…giggle?' Rhyme raised both of her eyebrows in confusion. "Well, yes, I am. I've been coming here for a month by now. How long have you been coming in…?"

"Eight years, dear." He replied.

"Woah, that's a long time! No wonder you're on a first name basis with Mr. H." Rhyme remarked. Then she realized that he had just addressed her with a pet name. "Hey, what's with that 'dear' thing? My name's Rhyme. Please call me by that."

"Oh, very well, be a spoil sport." Joshua's tone sounded wounded, but his expression only seemed to be more amused. Rhyme almost felt as if he thought he was playing with her. He still had that smirk too, only it was beginning to occur to her that it was a smirk of superiority.

Well then. Rhyme decided that she would play this guy's game, as long as he didn't ask—

"In any case, what are you doing out of school, my dear. You may like it here, but I find that Mr. H's rather unappetizing coffee is hardly an excuse to play the role of a ditching delinquent."

—that question.

'That 'my dear' thing again… Okay, he wants a dirty fight, huh…?'

"I'm sorry, Joshua, but why do you care?" Rhyme asked carefully.

"Oh, a fan who knows my name, I'm so flattered." Joshua replied coyly, "I'm just a simple boy out for friendly conversation and coffee."

"Friendly conversation…? You're being awfully rude for this to be a friendly conversation." Rhyme said, crossing her arms slightly in front of her chest.

"You think I'm being rude? That's rotten. I'm hardly being rude at all." Joshua said back, "I think that you're jealous of those around you. All those people with places to go, things to do, yet poor little Raimu, stuck here all alone. Not a good attitude to have at all, hmm?"

Rhyme stared. How could he have known that she felt that way, and to say it so arrogantly! She opened her mouth to say something back, only to be interrupted by a loud cough.

Both Rhyme and Joshua looked up to see Mr. H holding a cup of his House Blend. He was looking at Joshua disapprovingly. "Now, J," Mr. H started, "don't you go chasing off all my customers. You don't own this café."

"Oh? How many other customers do you have? I practically keep this place running." Joshua replied, taking the House Blend from Mr. H and sipping daintily at it.

"Yeah, but I'm the one paying for everything else. Leave Rhyme alone, Josh." Mr. H replied sternly. "I like her around and before you say anything about you having been here longer then she has, I've been here longer then both of you."

Joshua stared at Mr. H before huffing and quickly consuming his coffee.

Rhyme looked between the two, not saying anything.

'So he just wanted me out…? Why in the world would he want me to leave? Well, if he's going to be so rude about it, maybe I won't leave. He won't bother me into not coming back. In fact, if he's trying to annoy me, I'll just ignore him. Then, he'll just get bored and go to do something else.'