It’s better if they don’t

Ryo found her looking at him with eyes as squinted as possible. 

"Now ya gonna resort to sarcasm just to make me realize that Airi is a good-for-nothin' being? Cheh! Ryo! How much more, eh?" Airi slumped against the bench.

"Lord, can you feel confident about yourself even a bit? I mean, I already said I am going to say something honest."

"And that's your honesty? C'mon, dude, everyone knows how weird I talk. I ain't got a decent speech on myself." Airi argued with him.

"And I know that, girl! Look closely, that advertisement is for working as a voice actor for animations and stuff. See, you like those to death, right? And those would need just the thing you have, a good taste and desire for them, and a perfect voice. The way you can move from a funny tone to a decent normal tone, don't tell me now that you don't know how to do that," he once again went into broker mode, listing out the pros and cons of the job and her potentials for it.

"I mean, yeah, I've watched way too animes of different countries, to get well enough what kinda voice and tones and speech a character would need. But that's it, I know that I can't talk decently and calmly for a second. And my voice? Dude, you sure? I ain't someone with prim and proper talk, or a soft voice. I sound more like a broken bamboo, with the heavy pitch and all."

"You think your anime characters do? In the formal speech? Almost all of them got some accents and interesting ways of talking, as the actors have those. Doesn't that make those characters interesting and enjoyable? Although I admit some do need formal speeches, but that's the character demand, and the creators' headache. And you might talk weird, but that sounds fun. And the word choice you do, or slurs you use, make that even funny." Ryo tried his best to place out all the facts so that she gets his meaning. "So what's wrong in trying? At least, that job won't need your face in public, or your current appearance to give an interview. And you wouldn't need to forcibly do something you can't or you don't have the knack for. It's something you definitely can do," he tried to reason with her, and she seemed to consider it seriously.

"But how are you that confident that I can do it?" Airi questioned him back, seeing him totally pressing her to go for it. 

"That's not your concern for now, I just have a good eye for good things. And this job would be perfect for you if you get it." Ryo looked away, while saying those.

"And voice actors do get paid good. And working times would be flexible. It is sure a job of flexibility…" she started mumbling to herself, jotting down the good points of the job in her mental notes. And Ryo nodded his head beside her, feeling equally pumped up seeing her consdering this seriously. 

"And on top of it, if I get to act as my favorite characters…" her eyes had a strange glimmer on it, and Ryo didn't miss that. "I'm convinced, lesgo!" she threw the tin can of cola in her hand to a trash can and dragged Ryo to the address that advertisement mentioned. 

------

"Ah! What a hectic day! To think they'd interview me right there and then," Airi sunk in the chair, having peaceful gulps of her chocolate cold coffee, basking in the cool atmosphere of a cafe, where everyone present in the cafe was giving curious glances at her way. Well, to be precise, it was Ryo who was getting all the attention, thanks to the way he was looking with a grey shirt on him, sipping on a cup of black coffee. Having a refined handsome man calmly drinking coffee was dragging way too much attention from not only the girls or ladies, but even from men. 

"Gash, you fuggin' shiny piece of stone. Everyone's gonna make a hole through y'er skull," she sneered at him. 

"Well, people do have eyes, unlike someone who just straight out compares me with a horrendous anime character, " Ryo gave a throaty chuckle in response to her. "Just think how much good deed I am doing here, soothing human eyes."

"Yep, of course, I am the ugly-ducklin' here, sue me now." Airi threw a disgusted look at him. 

"They had this surprising look on them. I am sure they thought you were some kind of shady drug-addicted high schooler," Ryo snorted at her as he took another sip on his coffee. 

"Yeah yeah, at least I look way better now, than the previous me," Airi tried to kick his legs violently, but Ryo dodged it successfully. "Sure, at least for this neat face, they allowed you to talk."

"Whatev! I got the job oh-so-well, no matter what the reason was," Airi happily stated, continuing to drink her coffee. "It was surely demonic heat out, now that I notice. Good that we came here."

"That credit goes to me. I helped you, otherwise, you would still be out there in your 'demonic heat', crying your 'balls' out," Ryo mimicked her words to tease her.

"And I reckon you got your payment for that. I can't fu*kin' believe you dragged me into this expensive lookin' cafe, and bothered to make yourself appear to all, just so you could chug up a pathetic lookin' black coffee. Cheh! How poor *ss you can be, huh?" Airi scorned at him. 

"Well, this much was the cheapest you could do. You should be grateful that I didn't choose to keep you under my debt, right? And don't you think I did a great thing, by bringing us here to cool down?" Airi couldn't help agreeing to his words. "Yeah, that sure is good." And they both continued to enjoy their coffee.

"Although, to be honest, it was your own personal experience of doing those blogs about voice alterations, that helped you today. You had it in you, so you did it. I just happen to push you a little…"

"Wait, how did ya know that!" Airi cut him off with a surprised tone, and her words were loud enough to drag everyone's attention to their table. 

"Tone down, will you? Why do you have to always get this pumped up?" Ryo slowly whispered to her. 

"So tell me why the heck you know that!" Airi toned down her voice, but her uproar didn't cease a bit.

"I told you, I know everything related to you that makes me understand you more," Ryo calmly continued to sip his coffee, gazing outside from the window beside their table.

"Ugh! I don't even know how much of embarrassin' things ya know, this is drainin'," Airi sighed in defeat. But then all of a sudden, she started hitting him in annoyance, moving her hands frantically. And Ryo tried his best to protect himself. 

Yet, he had a peaceful-looking smile on his face, seeing her cheerful all day. And he felt a lot better, seeing her doing good, and slowly moving on. If Airi looked at him instead of flapping her hands like a bullied little kid, then she would've noticed how the guy who has always teased her from day one, has such an affectionate smile on him, thanks to her cherry and childish behavior. 

While Airi was still busy grumbling with Ryo, his eyes fell outside of the window, and he noticed a person entering the cafe. 

To be precise, that person was a guy.

A guy of the same age as Airi.

But the fact was, Ryo's got all serious seeing that guy. And he didn't want Airi to notice him either. 

"Airi, pick up your coffee, and let's get going from here." Ryo took his cup and finished the content in a single gulp. 

"Huh? But why… what…"

"Have you noticed how much time we spend outside? Don't you think your family is going to get worried sick about you by now?" Just then, it clicked with her. "Oh sh*t, I totally forgot. Yeah, we spent hella lotta time. I should head back." 

"Then get up," Ryo grabbed her by her hands and dragged her out through the back door of the cafe, successfully avoiding making her notice that guy. 

"It's better if they don't meet at all," Ryo kept wondering to himself, while bringing Airi out of the cafe and taking her as far as possible.

------

Meanwhile, that guy entered the cafe and ordered drinks, when he suddenly heard a voice calling out to him. 

"Shiro, order americano for me," it was another boy of the same age as him.

"Yeah, I know that. Americano with zero cubes of sugar. Since how long do you think we have been friends, huh?" Shiro placed the order, and took a seat with the boy with him.

"Since the first year of middle school. I know that. We are best buddies."

"That we are, Alex," Shiro took out a book from his backpack, and handed it to the guy named Alex. "Your book."

"Oh, you brought it back? So fast! I mean, you could hold onto it more, you know? Not that anyone is in need of it in my home," Alex kept that book inside his bag. 

"I was done with this one so. But isn't it strange that no one in your house has any interest in history…"

"Despite Dad being a history teacher in school? I know, man. But not necessarily I would like history just because my Dad loves it so much." Alex scoffed, thinking about the huge load of books related to history in his house, piling up day by day. 

"I feel bad for Derek Sir, that I do," he chuckled lightly.

"Trust me, even Alex Trevino feels sad for Derek Trevino." Saying that, both of the boys laughed out loud. "But honestly, I never knew you were interested in history, and this one you took, is like, way past to even study. 'Riverlorn Empire', isn't it like, too much ancient? I would never know that kind of empire did exist, if you never asked me. So, what interesting things you found to search for this?"

Shiro's eyes became distant by the question of Alex. he replied with a blank gaze in his eyes. "I don't know. To be honest, I just woke up one day, and this name came to my mind, and I felt like I have to know about it, that I do..."