A little later, the waiter, whose name was “Matts” - according to his name tag - and who seemed to be slightly tense, brought two steaming pots of tea and a plate of pastries to the table.

Anders slumped back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. He had turned as white as a sheet. “Waltraud! Why don’t you come to me?” He whimpered softly.

Taro took a cookie and chewed silently. For the first time, he understood a tiny bit how his sauna bench mate ticked. Anders was obsessed. Obsessed with Waltraud. Waltraud, the beautiful blonde from the German rhythm game Schulmelodie. Even though she was, according to Anders’ ten-minute long monologue - which almost surpassed Tauno’s in its rhetoric - with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and always looked a bit sour, she was the gentlest character with the most enchanting alto voice the whole game had to offer.

“Not only did I just spend a fortune on a fashion resistant exchange student, but I also spent all my allowance for this month on an ultra rare card in a mobile game that I didn’t end up getting after all.” He laughed nervously and looked at Taro with a colourless expression. “Are you paying for tea today?”

Taro nodded gravely and saluted. They were brothers in spirit. “I understand how you feel, Sensei! It’s an honor!”

The café was not very crowded at this time of day. The few customers were talking quietly. Elegant piano music was playing in the background.

Anders adjusted his teacup and the plate of cookies and checked his looks once again with a hand mirror. Then he put on some powder and lip gloss before he finally took a selfie for Instabook.

Taro couldn’t shake the feeling that Anders must have planned the whole café visit in advance. His jacket and floral brooch perfectly matched the décor and table settings.

“Unfortunately, I had no luck with the new costume set at Hashtag Schulmelodie. Hashtag Sad, Hashtag Beauty, Hashtag Tea Time, Hashtag Fashion,” Anders muttered to himself, typing it on his smartphone.

As he finished his posting and sent it off, someone at the next table began knocking on the table aggressively. “Waiter? Pay, please!”

Taro left Anders alone in his Instabook world for a moment, watching the tense boy out of the corner of his eye. He appeared to be from their boarding school as well, wearing a dark green jacket with the school’s gold insignia. He looked eighteen, and for someone in the twelfth grade, he already wore a handsome blond beard. He had loosened the tie of his school uniform and undone the top button of his shirt. 

Taro was puzzled to see hair sprouting on his chest as well, seeing as he wore a blue bandana on his head to conceal his sparse hair growth. The boy’s leg bobbed up and down fast under the table as he flipped through the papers he had brought with him once more. “This is crap! Nothing more than crap!” He hissed, sorting out most of the sheets. “Badly cut, crooked, misprinted! And I paid money for it! Fraud!”

When the waiter came to him with the receipt, he didn’t even wait for him to put it down so he could see the amount. Instead he randomly threw two bills on the table. “Take this, it’s more than enough! Have a nice day!” He jumped up in a hurry and threw the failed prints on the bench where he had been sitting until a moment ago.

Before the waiter could thank him for the generous tip, the boy had already broken through the glass door and hurried outside, leaving just the sound of the tinkling doorbells.

Taro picked up one of the flyers. Even though the paint was slightly faded in the lower third, it was still easy to read. “The great Easter fun from Good Friday to Easter Sunday! Find the principal’s two golden eggs!” He shrugged and put the paper in his pocket. “Sounds exciting!”

Meanwhile, Anders’ smartphone was making never ending notification sounds.