Chapter Text
Chie waited by the bus stop in the shopping district, trying to not look as excited to see her girlfriend as she felt. She kept herself from appearing suspicious to passing students by texting on her phone. Yosuke was stressed out about the group date cafe; Chie wasn't sure what to tell him other than that his brain child was kind of destined to be a flop.
As she was about to send that message, she heard the squeal of the bus’ brakes. She slipped her phone into her skirt pocket and looked up.
The bus was old, with a paint job to match. It had 'City of Inaba’ written on the side in chipped black paint over a bright yellow stripe that ran the length of the bus. As it came to a halt, Chie pushed herself off from the wall. The first two people to spill out of the bus were clearly tourists from the city, talking amongst each other about 'how peaceful it was out here in the boonies.' The third, however, was exactly who she'd been waiting for.
Yukiko was dressed in her usual red sweater, but the look she gave Chie was enough to make her stomach do flips. The dog keychain Chie’d won for her at the festival dangled from the strap of her brown bookbag. "Morning, Chie!" Yukiko greeted with a bright smile.
"Hey, Yukiko!" Chie restrained herself from hugging her or taking her hand as they started to make their way towards the school. They'd only been dating a week, but Chie felt lovesick every time she saw her.
The students around them were abuzz with excitement for the cultural festival. Some were excited to help with their clubs or class exhibits while others were just excited to have the day off from studying.
Chie, on the other hand, was not looking forward to running a group date cafe. "I wonder if anyone is going to come at all," Chie said, frustrated with Yosuke. Between coming up with the idea for the cafe and signing her up for the beauty pageant the next day, he had pretty much killed her enthusiasm for the festival that year.
"Well, we only have to mind it for one hour, then we'll have the rest of the day to ourselves." Yukiko said positively.
"Oh yeah?" Chie tilted her head curiously. "Anything in particular you were hoping to see?"
"Well, actually…" Yukiko glanced around at the other students walking along the road up towards the school. She then leaned down and whispered, "I was thinking that we could go around and see stuff - you know, just the two of us."
Chie couldn’t help breaking into a wide grin - it would be a date, their first one since getting together. Maybe the festival would be fun after all!
If there was any advantage to being roped into Yosuke's plan for a group date cafe, it was that they were able to call dibs on the first period. The rest of their class would have to come back throughout the day to take up the mantle, but they would be free after their morning stint.
That was where the perks ended, though. The group date cafe was an utter ghost town, devoid of customers. They tried to call out to passersby, but it was hard to wrangle half a dozen people all at once to opt in to something so embarrassing. The mood inside the cafe was dire. They'd set up a bunch of tables and put in all the effort of decorating only for the whole thing to be a flop. Chie was frustrated that they weren’t getting any visitors, and she was annoyed that she even let herself be. She'd known this was going to be a disaster from the start, but she still had enough pride to wish it had gone better.
Souji strolled back into the room. They'd sent him out to drum up interest, but he’d evidently had no luck. Yosuke looked up expectantly, but Souji just shook his head with an apologetic smile.
Yosuke sighed heavily from his perch on the teacher’s desk. "We might have to resort to acting as fake customers to draw people in," he declared.
"Yeah, we just might," the class president said, pushing up his glasses.
"I’m… not so sure about that," Chie said hesitantly. "I mean, even with the five of us, we don't have enough people.”
"Hey Senpai, how's it going?" Kanji walked in, glancing around at the decorations. "So this is a group date cafe, huh? Kinda feels like a library." Yukiko came in behind him, abandoning her greeting post in the process.
"Hey, Kanji! That makes six!" Yosuke said, trying to sound enthusiastic. "So… Kanji-kun, we're gonna try to do a fake group date to draw in others. Can you help us out?"
Chie stared at Kanji and willed him to refuse. He made eye contact with Chie and subtly nodded. Then he turned to everyone else and shrugged. "Yeah sure, I don't mind."
"Great! Let's get this going then. Time's a wasting!" Yosuke said.
As everyone turned their attention towards the table in the center of the room, Yukiko gave an awkward, apologetic smile.
Chie stepped over to Kanji, stopping him from getting too close to the table. “Why didn’t you decline?” she whisper-accused.
Kanji looked at her, genuinely confused. “Whaddaya mean?” he whispered back. “I thought you wanted me to accept so you could be in one a’ these group date things with Yukiko-senpai.”
“That’s not how-”
“What’s the hold up!?” Yosuke’s voice cut in.
Chie let out a defeated sigh before going to join everyone else. Yosuke had somehow managed to navigate her into the surreal nightmare of faking a date with three guys alongside her own girlfriend and Souji. It was like he had laid an entire line of shitty dominos to craft the most awkward experience of Chie's life. As she sat down, Yukiko gave her knee a reassuring squeeze under the table.
The group date itself was, as predicted, a trainwreck. Both sides of the table sat in awkward silence, and the atmosphere became more uncomfortable by the moment as everyone waited for someone else to start speaking.
Yosuke eventually managed to break the stalemate. "So uh, what are all of your hobbies?”
Chie sighed. It was something, at least. “I really like watching movies," she volunteered. The entire table turned the full weight of their attention to her and she suddenly felt the urge to curl up in a ball. Awful.
Yukiko thankfully came to her rescue. "I like... fighting shadows?"
The class rep looked confused but Yosuke just complained. "That's not even a hobby!" Chie glared at him.
Souji coughed and pitched his voice up as he asked, "So what kind of person are you guys into?" His face remained utterly stoic as he delivered the line. Chie was too stunned to laugh, though Yukiko wasn't, snickering into the back of her hand. It also didn’t escape Chie's notice that Souji had said 'person' rather than 'girl.'
"Man... you’re really into this," Yosuke said with a grimace. “Even if this is practice for tomorrow, you’re way too in-character…”
“Answer the question, Yosuke,” Souji insisted.
Yosuke seemed to be caught off guard by this, and looked away from Souji awkwardly. “I guess I’d want a girl I could, you know, protect and work with. Someone who needed me by their side.”
The class rep, who seemed almost as relieved to be out of that silence as Chie decided to talk first. "Wow, uh, I think I'd like a cute girl, hehe."
Yosuke nodded and then looked over at Kanji. "How about you, Kanji?"
Kanji seemed surprised and pointed to himself. “Me?! Uh…” He rubbed the back of his head self-consciously. "Well, uh… I guess I'd like someone mysterious? Like, someone who acts tougher than they are?"
Chie shared a knowing look with Yukiko. She held up a hand and stage whispered across the table. "Little transparent, Kanji-kun..."
Kanji frowned at her briefly, but then smirked instead. "Well then what about you, Chie-senpai?" He crossed his arms in challenge.
Chie flinched back at the betrayal. "Huh? That's- uh..." She felt flustered. “-kinda… well-” Chie glanced at Yukiko and then past her at Souji to silently plead for aid.
He seemed to take pity on her and looked to Yukiko. "Maybe Yukiko would want to answer first?"
"W-well!" Yukiko stuttered, embarrassed. "That seems rather private, you know? Who I want to date."
Chie internally cheered; nice idea Souji!
"But-" Yukiko added with a twist of mischief that Chie recognized, "I suppose if it's group date etiquette, I should answer in kind," she said. She placed a finger on her chin as she hummed in thought. "I would want to date someone who is cool, kind, cute, and sporty."
Chie felt her face burn as she tried to slump down into the collar of her jacket.
"Huh, I always thought you'd go for more of a clean-cut sort of guy, Yukiko-san," the class rep mused idly.
Yosuke shrugged. "Alright, Chie, how about you?"
Chie gave one more pleading look to Souji, who shrugged helplessly. She tried Yukiko instead, but Yukiko just blinked doeishly at her, looking for all the world like she was just innocently curious about Chie’s answer.
Chie groaned as she sat up straighter in her chair, leaning on her elbows and fidgeting with her fingers. "I guess I would want someone who's, you know, smart, calm, and um…” her voice gave out on her as she mumbled “p-pretty…" Her cheeks burned and she buried her face in her hands. Yukiko patted her back apologetically.
Yosuke hummed to himself. "Huh, I would've thought you two would have more similar tastes being best friends, but you’re nearly opposites."
"Hey everyone! We brought treats~!" Rise's voice rescued them from the oppressive awkwardness. Chie glanced up to see Rise prance her way into the room, dressed in a maid uniform and carrying a tray full of snacks. "Samples courtesy of the Class 1-2 Maid Cafe!" she announced. Chie was deeply grateful for the distraction as she leaned back in her chair and blew out a breath. Before she knew it, a tray of cookies was being offered to her. "Cookie, Chie-Senpai?"
"Oh... thanks, sure." Chie picked up a cookie. "Did you make these, Rise-chan?" She looked up to Rise, but was immediately unnerved at what she saw.
Rise was smiling, but there were entirely too many teeth involved for it to come across as anything but threatening. It only lasted a moment before she shook her head and the look was gone.
"No, these were made by Naoto-kun!" She turned towards the door and called out. "Come on in."
Naoto walked in, wearing a pair of crisp black slacks with matching tailcoat and carrying a platter similar to Rise's. She looked a little flustered, but seemed mostly alright. "Hello, everyone."
Rise heaved an artfully put-upon sigh. "I still think you would have looked really cute in the maid outfit, Naoto-kun."
"I did most of the baking, I think this is a reasonable compromise," she countered calmly.
Chie glanced at Kanji and found him utterly captivated by the young detective's attire. She leaned over and whispered to him, "Go on, talk to her," before giving him a little shove.
Kanji stumbled forward and glared over his shoulder at Chie. Chie just smiled at him and raised an eyebrow. He huffed with irritation, but pushed himself away from the table to go talk to Naoto.
From there, the group date mercifully fell apart as people got up to mingle with the other two first years. Chie and Yukiko sat to the side, and when it came time for their classmates to come and replace them to look after the still mostly empty cafe, they slipped out as subtly as they were able.