Love, Lies and Lattes

Accidentally Your

The city was already alive by 7:45 a.m., but Aira Takamine was not.

She bolted down the sidewalk, uniform half-wrinkled, shoelaces loose, a slice of toast clenched in her mouth like it owed her money. The morning breeze slapped her cheeks as she mentally cursed everything that had led to this moment.

Being seventeen, a high school senior, and secretly the youngest tech CEO in Japan was bad enough. But being late to school because she stayed up till 3 a.m. fixing a server glitch? That was just cruel.

"One day—just one day—I want a normal morning!" she muttered through the toast, hopping over a puddle. "No code crashes. No powers. No chaos. Just boring, peaceful teenage misery—"

WHAM!

Her shoulder slammed into someone far taller and sturdier than she expected. Her entire world tilted as she stumbled backward, bag flying, toast launching, and heart dropping.

There was a sickening splash.

The first thing she saw was the paper cup spinning on the ground.

The second thing she saw was the coffee—rich, dark, and now soaking the front of an expensive charcoal-gray suit.

The third thing she saw was the man wearing it.

And he looked furious.

“…I… uh…” Aira stared up at him, frozen like a deer in designer headlights.

The man towered over her, dark hair perfectly slicked back, steel-colored eyes narrowing as he stared down at the latte damage on his chest. He looked like the kind of person who hadn’t been caught off-guard in a decade. The kind of person who never had to deal with clumsy schoolgirls and airborne toast.

“…Oops?” Aira offered, flashing a sheepish, innocent grin.

He didn’t answer. Just ran a hand down his ruined blazer with the calmness of someone who wanted to murder her… politely.

“You,” he finally said, voice low and dangerous, “just threw a drink on a stranger before 8 a.m.”

“I didn’t throw it!” she protested. “Physics did! Gravity! Centripetal latte force!”

His brow twitched.

“I’ll pay for the suit! I mean, the cleaning. I mean, whatever part of this disaster is financially recoverable…”

He didn’t move. Just stared.

And that’s when it hit her. The faint, buzzing static in her brain. The words that weren’t spoken—but still heard.

> She looks like a child. With the attitude of a caffeine tornado.

...Fascinating.

Aira blinked. “Wait. What?”

His eyes sharpened. “What did you say?”

“You think I’m fascinating.”

He stiffened. “I said nothing of the sort.”

“You thought it.”

ACHOO!

She covered her nose with a groan. Great. Of all days for her mind-reading to activate randomly, it had to be today. And as always, when she lied? She sneezed like a truth alarm.

He stared, arms crossed.

“Did you just sneeze… because you lied?”

“NO.”

ACHOO!

He looked… confused now. And a little amused.

“Well,” he said slowly, brushing invisible dust from his sleeve, “that was the most interesting coffee spill I’ve had all week.”

Aira’s cheeks turned red. “I really have to go. Like, really really.”

She turned on her heel and sprinted away without another word.

Behind her, the man adjusted his ruined jacket, watching her vanish into the crowd.

“Strange girl,” he muttered. “But somehow…”

He glanced at the crumpled business card in his hand—DreamByte Corp.

“…Oddly familiar.”