“Alright everyone. Let’s work harder for today! Good luck!” I say to all of them after we are all done with breakfast. Everyone, except Mr. Sneg, Quinne, and Görder, cheers each other on. With that, the kitchen group goes to the front yard where all of the kitchen set is already prepared. The cooking place is very close to the terrace, only two steps away from it. For the drink group, they go to the kitchen where it’s the closest to the refrigerator and freezer. Lastly, the music group, we try and practice the music on our terrace. During our practice, I always ask for some feedback from Colombain and Léger. But our practice place is close by with the kitchen group, the twins and Brugière give some feedback as well to us. Sometimes we have a small chit chat, comment and compliment each other, and give suggestions too. Up until now, Mari still tries to get closer with Görder. With that, I think Görder starts getting comfortable around them too. Even though sometimes she still sneaks up to get away from them then talks to Quinne, at least there’s a slight difference from her. Before she always stayed silent of everything they said but now sometimes she is the one who starts or answers first. If the kitchen group is done with one of the menus they want to try, they let us eat and give any comment about it. Before lunch one of the dishes is done then they give us some of it. They made a California pasta salad. “How is it?” Brugière says because she’s the one who brings the food to us. “Mhm. It’s good.” Léger says. “Hmm.. I think adding a little bit more flavor to it will be good?” I comment to them. “Agree with Valter. Just a little bit more will be perfect.” Colombain continues. “Alright. Let me put some more then you guys taste it again, okay?” Brugière replies. The group music nods as a response to Brugière. While waiting for Brugière to come back, we try to practice one of the songs again. Everyone tries all of the music instruments that we’ve already ordered before. There are only two musical instruments that we requested before, which are keyboard and guitar. Because we thought that the only suitable music instruments with beach scenery are those two things. This time, I’m the one who is trying to play the keyboard. Not for a song cover but just playing some rhythm that I already know. With that finish, two of them clap for my performance. “You’re the best, Vil!” Mari shouts from the kitchen set. “Yeah! That rhythm is really calming and must be suitable for us.” Léger commends. No words coming out from Colombain, he just claps with a wide smile on his face. “I’m back guys~” Brugière comes back to us then lets us give feedback again. Take one bite of it and the taste now is perfect. “Mhm. Perfect.” I say to her.”
“Good job, Célia!” Léger says while patting her head. Brugière looks so happy with our compliments. “Oho.. Just wait for our dessert guys! Görder already gives her best for the next dessert!” Mari shouts once again. “Can’t wait for it!” Colombain replies her. “Alright, let’s get back to practice. Your turn, Colombain.” I say to him then walk away from the instruments. “After that should we try to cover some music now?” Léger says. “Sure. Who’s going first?” replying to him “Well.. I was thinking maybe we’ll cover duo songs and solo ones. What do you guys think about it?” Léger suggests. “Sounds good. I can play both instruments while singing.” Replying to Léger. “Wow.. you’re really full of talent, Valter.” Colombain compliments. “Thank you but remember that practice makes perfect, Colombain.” I say to him “Yeah.” He chuckles, “I need to practice more.” When he responds like that, I give Colombain a pat on his back to encourage him. “Then could you guys do the duo songs, please? I’m not really confident with my voice hahaha” Léger laughs at himself. “Why? I never heard you singing before. How could you say that?” I try to cheer him up. Colombain seems like reading my mind and he tries as well. “Yeah! Just do at least one song for us!.” He cheers him up. “Mmmm..” Léger shakes his head lightly “I think.. I’m more comfortable just playing the instrument.” he continues. With that, there’s no reason for me to force him. “It’s okay, Léger.” I say to him then look at Colombain “Shall we then?” Colombain response with a nod. “Alright then let’s try this song.” Léger says while pointing at the songs list. Both of us agree to practice that song. For this practice, I’m the one who uses the guitar and Léger plays the keyboard. Three of us blend almost perfectly together. At the end of it, I accidentally play the wrong chords and Léger notices that immediately. Because of that, he warns and gives me another chance to try it in that part. The first song ends and we receive claps from the cooking group. Seems like there’s no mistake coming from neither Colombain nor Léger. “You guys are awesome!” Brugière cheers. “It’s okay, Valter. That’s just a small mistake. I believe after this you can get all the chords right.” Léger whispers and supports me. “Yeah, you only missed that part. The others are already perfect.” Colombain says, tries to cheer me up. “Hahaha thank you guys.” replying to them. From the way they cheered me up before, it feels like they don’t want me to feel bad or anything to them. Seriously, they need to relax more around me. Before we continue, Léger says that he wants to practice with Colombain. With that I try to take a look at the cooking group. “What are you guys up to now?” I show up beside Görder, who is in the corner. “Oh! Hi, Vil!” Mari greets and walks playfully towards me. “Try this, Vil! Since lunch will come in thirty minutes, we are all preparing for it now.” Mari says while giving me a spoon to try their soup. Just take a sip from it, my eyes open wider as a surprise sign of how tasteful this soup is. “What is this?! This is so good!” I tell them and take one more sip from it. “Heheh! Secret recipe from the Einhard family!” Mari replies. On my way to take another sip from it, Mana stops me right away. “Don’t eat it now, Vil. The others need to eat too.” Mana teases me. From that, I’m whining a bit to them. That makes Brugière laugh because of how the twins treat me. Even though at first Görder looks surprised of how I act before, finally she just giggles from it. With that, I give my spoon back to Mari and get back to the music group. Before I sit down, I take a peek at the kitchen where Quinne and Mr. Sneg are. They seem like they're still making some drinks over there and discuss it with just the two of them. From what I said to him this morning, today’s breakfast is the first time he’s joining us to eat together. Even though he just sits there and no words come out from him, he looks a bit different. A little bit quieter if I could say, not as noisy as before. Am I crossing the line again? Is he mad at what I said to him before? Shaking my head lightly and focusing again on my group practice. Colombain finishes his practice and Léger gives him some comments. Seems like he just made a mistake in this practice. Wow.. Léger really pays a lot of attention to our practices. Léger looks at the song list then calls out my name. “Valter. Do you want to try this song?” He points out another song for me. “Ohh.. Sure. I’m pretty familiar with this song.” replying to him. “Nice. Gofar, please help me with playing the guitar, okay?” Léger says and gives the guitar to Colombain. After we all get into our position, Léger once again leads the song. This time, we did it perfectly in sync together. That’s for me but not for Léger, he’s really a perfectionist about this. Is this what he is passionate about? He looks like he’s in deep thought every time we are done with the practices. “Hmm.. let’s practice more later on, okay? I feel like something is still a bit off..” He comments. After saying that, he goes back to play his keyboard with the same chords as the first song we practiced this morning. Seeing what Léger’s doing right now that makes Colombain wants to practice more on his playing instrument skill. “I guess I’ll practice on my guitar skill too. Is that alright if I ask about your opinion later, Valter?” Colombain says. “Mhm. Sure, go ahead.” replying to his request. While listening to Colombain jamming, something that I never expected, especially for today, happens. “Do you want to try this?” a males voice. A familiar male voice but something different from it. This voice catches Colombain attention too and makes him stop jamming with his guitar. It’s Mr. sneg. He gives me a glass of his making drinks with Quinne for the customer. “Umm.. Sure.” I take that glass from him and drink it. Same response when I tried the twins dishes before. It’s so tasty and leaves me speechless just from a sip from it. “How is it?” Mr. Sneg asks. Almost forgot about this conversation between me and Mr. Sneg. Because of that, I still need to keep up my figure in front of him. For sure, he’s going to mock me if he notices about it. “It is so good but it doesn’t contain any alcohol?” I ask him back while giving the glass back to him.. “I’m worried that you might have a low tolerance for alcohol.” He replies then takes back the glass. That surprised me again. His voice sounds full of concern just now. Am I really hearing this right now? This time, I really need to tell him that I have a low tolerance for alcohol. If I lied here, he would probably let me try the drinks with alcohol and I would get drunk from it. “Yes. That's true. I’m sorry I can’t try the alcohol one, Mr. Sneg.” replying to him. “Would you like to try the other drinks?” He asks. Once again the way he talks to me is so different than before. Seems like he’s using his comfort voice towards me. “Umm.. sure if you guys don’t mind too.. I would like to help you guys.” answering his question. He nods then walks to the kitchen. When he arrives at the kitchen, he talks with Quinne but she doesn't seem to enjoy it. Quinne really doesn’t want us to be friends huh..? “Valter. Valter!” Colombain calls me twice to make me snap out from my stare. The second time he raises his voice a little bit to catch my attention. Without realizing it, my eyes are already looking at them. Because of that, I didn’t even hear that he’s calling my name. “Oh. Sorry, Colombain. I’m just wondering about what just happened here.” replying to him nervously. “Same here. I’m afraid that he might have planned something or anything for you?” Colombain replies with a worried voice. “Agree.” Léger replies from his keyboard place while his eyes are still looking into the chord papers. They might be right because all of this is a bit too sudden. But if I think that he did this and had planned to do something bad for me, what about if he just wants to be better. “I know..” replying to them half-heartedly while looking down at my feet. “But, we might be wrong too, Valter.” Léger continues and that makes me look at him again. “Hate to say it but we all don’t even know the slightest bit about him. That’s why we can’t judge him too early.” Colombain replies too. “Yeah but I guess better if-” suddenly stop what I’m just going to say because I hear footsteps coming to our place from the kitchen. “Here. This one is mixed from two fruits.” Mr. Sneg shows up and gives the glass to me. “Thank you, Mr. Sneg.” taking the glass then taking a sip from it. Same response again from before and seems like he gets it too. “It’s good?” Mr. Sneg asks. “Mhm.” nods as to how satisfied I’m with the drink that is so fresh and tasty “I guess this will be our main drink in our cafe.” Giving him a commendation. Surprisingly again, he chuckles from my commendation. He never did that before.. I mean in this kind of conversation with me.. “Alright then. Thank you for your comments.” he takes my glass. Suddenly, Colombain wants to take action too here. “Can I try it too?” Colombain says out of nowhere. Mr. Sneg looks at him and it’s so different from the way he looks at me before. It seems almost the same as the first time I met him. “I have no business with you.” He replies codly to Colombain and that makes the situation become uncomfortable. After saying that, he looks back at me. That slight moment he makes, taking away his eyes from Colombain to me, is the moment he changes his face and eyes drastically. “Let me know if you’re thirsty from these hard practices, okay?” He says with a very comforting voice towards me. Why is he suddenly showing this towards me? And why does he act so differently with the others? With that, he walks back to the kitchen. “Thank you, Mr. Sneg.” I say to him and that makes him stop his step to the kitchen. “Can I ask you to not use the formalities?” he asks me without looking back at me. This is the third time he caught me off guard by how he responded to me. Only for a moment I think that I shouldn’t really judge or think anything bad towards him. “Sure, Sneg.” replying to him. After that reply, he continues to walk away towards the kitchen. “That’s really something..” Léger comments. “Something hit him or something?” Colombain replies frustratedly. No responses coming from me. It must be something frustrating for Colombain and Léger but for me it’s something else. For now, I can’t really tell what he is up to but I get a feeling that I should judge badly about him. Not long after that, the twins tell all of us that the lunch is ready.
With that all of the students gather again at the big table and enjoy our lunch together, including Sneg and Quinne. It should be a good sign, right? That’s the only thought I got in my head.
**Tomorrow before opening the cafe**
After what happened with Sneg yesterday, until now he keeps asking me if I need some water to drink.
He also oftenly comes to the music place just to ask for some feedback about the drinks and gives me some fresh fruits from the kitchen. But he only treats something like this towards me, not the others. For example, he brings me only a slice of watermelon so I can’t share it with the others. Somehow he still puts that cold figure even to Quinne who is always beside him. This kind of behavior towards me, sometimes makes others who watch it feel weird or angry to him. Whenever he treats me like this, I can feel that Quinne’s eyes are looking at me upsetly. Same goes with Colombain, he looks so uncomfortable about it. For Quinne, I have no idea why she acts like that towards me but for my friends I totally understand that. It’s two hours before our first opening. “Alright everyone, should we check our cafe now?” I say to the music and food group. “Oh yeah! Time sure flies by. Let’s go, let’s go!” Mari replies as always full of spirit. “Mari, don't forget your belongings. Everyone, don't forget what they should bring to our cafe, okay?” Mari says. Everyone starts to pack up their item and brings it to the cafe. “Thankfully, our cafe is close by unlike the others! We don’t need to bring it with a car or anything.” Brugière says. “Görder!” Mari calls her name like she’s so far away from her “Come on! Be excited” she says then grabs Görder shoulder. “I’m excited right now, Einhard.” Görder replies shyly to Mari. “You could say that but you still ask me to bring some of yours?” Léger replies beside her. “Célia really likes to get spoiled by us, huh?” Colombain continues. “A little help won’t kill you Henry~” Brugière replies to him teasingly. This lively view is one of the best moments I can have in this summer camp. Looking at them talking, playing with each other like that is already enough for me. “What can I help you with, Valter?” Sneg suddenly shows up again behind me. But this, still a bit too awkward to face. I’m sure I will get used to it if it keeps happening like this.. “I think I’m good. I just need to bring my guitar there and help some stuff from the others.” replying to him with a normal voice, not the cold one that I always used before towards him. “May I help you bring your guitar?” He offers. “Ah. No, it’s okay, Sneg.” refusing him gently. “What if I insist on it?” He asks me back gently. Looking at how Sneg treats me right is so opposite from the beginning we have met. Specifically, the difference from before is his colour. This is my first time seeing someone that has a black colour become this bright green in just a moment. That moment can’t be wrong starting from yesterday morning. Without me noticing it, it’s already become this. Also when he wants to help me, he always insists and that makes it hard to refuse him twice. “Alright then. Can you help me bring my guitar to the cafe?” replying to him while putting down my stuff. “I would gladly help it.” He replies then takes my guitar off from my back. Then suddenly someone is calling him from the kitchen. “Snegg! Can you help me here too, please?” It's Quinne. She’s shouting from the kitchen looking for help. Surprisingly again, Sneg doesn’t give any response to Quinne. “Should we go to the cafe together?” He asks me. Does he not hear that Quinne called him before?
“Umm.. Sneg. Sorry, but I guess Quinne just called you to help her with the drinks.” I say to him while giving a sign with my eyes to the kitchen. “I will help her later. Come on, let’s go to the cafe.” he replies then walks away. Why did he treat her like that? Isn’t that rude? A lot of things about him happened today, actually starting yesterday he started acting like this. When all of the group members are already gathering at the cafe, we all start cheering each other before opening the bar. “Let’s go, everyone! Fighting!!” This time Mari is the one who leads the cheering. With that, our cafe officially opens for the first time together. Maybe I can talk to him after this. Now we are opening this cafe with our best!
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