When the dark haired girl looks straight at Oreki Houtarou and stares through his soul with those piercing violet eyes, he can't help but go along with what she says.
No - she's not just a girl. She's practically an angel.
Satoshi said it already - she hardly embodies any of the seven sins, and her name sounds like it belongs to an angel anyway. There's something delicate about her - she's cheerful, but there's a vulnerable side, especially when dealing with her uncle, that makes her look like she could easily break. There's something about the way she looks at him that forces out the energy to say no and instead makes him say okay.
Of course, this wastes much more energy in the long run. But somehow, Houtarou's okay with it.
This girl, who struck him as fascinating at the very first time he laid eyes on her, is the girl that he slowly fell in love with.
This girl is Chitanda Eru.
She goes up to him one day after school, and in her typical airy, daughter-of-a-rich-family voice, she asks him.
"Oreki-kun, will you join me for some tea?"
Those words are all too familiar. Not too long ago, the beautiful Irisu Fuyumi, the empress with eyes of ice, had said the same words. They leave different lasting impressions, however.
Irisu tells Houtarou that he's special. She wasn't kidding when she said that they were going to get tea. She stares through his soul and leaves him in awe - those words lift his spirits and send his brain spinning with theories. Admittedly, though, Irisu leaves him slightly frightened and Houtarou doesn't dare look her in the eye anymore.
Chitanda, on the other hand, would most likely think of tea as getting green tea ice-cream in the park, or perhaps going to her large, easy-to-get-lost-in mansion and brewing tea there. She hypnotizes Houtarou with her large, violet eyes - they're indescribable, but absolutely gorgeous. Her words - I can't stop thinking about it! - they leave Houtarou's brain in a rut, and force him to tug at his hair and give a half-hearted response to satisfy her; it always works. But he always takes random glances at her during meetings of the classics club and she's never absolutely out of his thoughts. He wonders what she'll say to him today.
"Oreki-kun?" Chitanda's voice brings him back into the real world. Houtarou gives her a tired, energy-void glance and she tilts her head.
"Please, Oreki-kun?" She widens her gaze.
Those eyes.
Before he knows it, "Fine, I'll meet you tomorrow after classics club," spills out of Houtarou's mouth.
Chitanda smiles at him and nods her head in that characteristic way of hers - with a "sure!" and a turn on her heel, the dark haired angel skips away and latches onto a certain Ibara Mayaka instead. The latter girl's eyes darken when she sees Houtarou and she scoffs - that's the last memory he has of the two girls before he himself turns the other way and bikes home.
The quiet doesn't stay for long, and Houtarou manages to get more energy drained out of him when Satoshi bikes up to him.
"I heard from Mayaka-chan," he begins, "that you've got a date with the lovely Chitanda Eru!" He sighs, throws the scarf he's wearing over his shoulder, and continues on, "I'm sure you've been waiting for it, Houtarou."
"Hm," comes the reply. Houtarou keeps his mouth shut for the rest of the trip home until Satoshi turns at the intersection, in which a clipped "see you" was uttered and so the boy continues on his way home.
- the next day
It was a pity that he couldn't change into regular clothes, Houtarou thinks, because this uniform was certainly not the right thing to wear for what Satoshi would call a date.
He waits for Chitanda like he promised, at the school entrance with his bicycle in hand. She arrives soon enough, not long after the bell rings, her hair bouncing in ripples with each step she takes.
"Oreki-kun," then came the head-tilt, "what's the matter?" A superficial glance came from the other party. "You seem a bit fazed, Oreki-kun." Surely, 'fazed' was an understatement - Chitanda might be taking guessing what her companion was thinking, but the boy's mind was stuck. The only feeling that Houtarou could describe while being with Chitanda Eru was stuck.
It came to the resolution that Chitanda had no idea where to go, and her proposition was just out of the blue. She asks Houtarou where to go, and the two wind up in a very familiar cafe, sitting in a very familiar corner. While Houtarou quickly downs his cup of coffee, Chitanda spends her time staring into it, stirring up sweet, white foam and leaves it to cool. Perhaps those were the differences that brought them together - like pieces of an unsolvable puzzle.
This was the cafe that Chitanda made her confession in - her story about her lost uncle, her plea for Houtarou to help her. That day, Houtarou was slightly on edge and worried about what sort of confession the girl would actually make, but now, back in the cafe, he was wondering when she would say the words that he's been secretly hoping she'd say.
No - that can't be. He did not have the energy to be involved in a romance. He did not have the energy to deal with the drama and irrevocable joys of young love. He certainly did not have enough energy to deal with Chitanda Eru. But even so, he can't help but admire the curious girl with the superhuman senses.
"Oreki-kun," once again, his own name snapped Houtarou out of his daydreams, "I have a confession to make."
"Is it about your uncle? Another mystery? Something you can't stop thinking about?" Houtarou was setting himself up for disappointment - yes, that had to be it. It wasn't like he wanted to be involved in another one of those luck-induced problems Chitanda came up with on a daily basis.
"Not really," was the girl's reply, "but I can't stop thinking about it anyway."
"Well, if you brought me all the way here, why don't you just tell me?"
"Oreki-kun," Chitanda suddenly locked Houtarou in her gaze, "I can't stop thinking about you."