They took the bus leaving the university, leaving Kotoko's bicycle in the parking lot so he wouldn't have to use it.
In that, he remained quite composed in comparison to his previous behavior on campus where there were in both different reactions in relation to the physical contact that originated because of Kotoko's clumsiness (if it can be considered as clumsiness).
"You're very quiet," Kotoko commented as they walked through the Shibuya district at sunset time. They could see the reddish rays of the sun hiding behind the horizon, leaving a branch of reddish and orange colors to fade, giving way to the dark colors they reflected at dusk.
"You too" He stressed tricky, arching an eyebrow. "I don't mind if you don't talk" He added, somehow trying to provoke a reaction in her. She had been very quiet since they left the bicycle in the parking lot, something she did not see coming and she was surprised to see her that way knowing that she was characterized as being very talkative.
"Do you insinuate something?" She saw him sidelong, raising her left eyebrow, sketching a mischievous smile on her side.
"I don't know." He pretended not to understand her, shaking his head sideways. "What about you?" He raised his eyebrows, grinning sideways. "Besides what are we doing here?" He inquired about it.
"I came to film," She replied curtly, tilting her head in mania. "To capture the apparent movement through the camera lens." She pulled her camcorder out of the backpack as a trophy, raising it in the air, giving the impression that she was praising her.
"The apparent movement?" He repeated interested.
"Yes" She said, approvingly. "To film the night lights," she specified, ignoring what was said. "And it's already obscuring and that means." She turned on the camcorder, excited. "Time to work!" She lit up her face, pointing to the illuminated signs with the camera lens, looking for a fixed point at which she could capture the movement she wanted to find so much.
"Is that for a final project?" He asked in a moderate tone, trying to keep his voice from being heard by the camera, in case one of his friends knew that the two went to film the work.
She nodded.
"I must catch the constant movement of the lights." She notified him with one eye open and the other glued to the lens. "And we can talk, I'll take the sound off the video" She warned quietly, seeming selfless in the matter of Naoki's concerns. "Tell me, Naoki-kun, do you like to walk at night in the city?" She questioned without looking at his face, a detail that bothered him when he felt he was not taken into account, although perhaps the thing was not so.
"Yes" he said statically.
"Accompanied or alone?"
"Is it relevant to know that?" He inquired raising his left eyebrow suspiciously, holding his gaze to her that she didn't turn to see him.
"You don't need to answer me." She kept talking like nothing. "I just want to talk to you, to get to know you more." She emphasized the last sentence, stopping dry. Naoki was taken aback by her sudden action.
"Know me more?" He repeated again, but this time he didn't want to hide his emotion. On the contrary, it sounded hopeful.
"Yes, what else may interest me more than part of my final project?" She pulled another lens from her backpack and changed it. It seemed safe with his words, however, Naoki couldn't get carried away by the emotions he was just feeling and if he acted impulsively he would step on a point of no return. He was afraid of being discovered before he personally confessed to her, despite witnessing a time when he could do it. "We're friends ..." She let the phrase float in a voice that he interpreted as a threat, not with her, but with her person.
"Kotoko" he spoke clearly, getting the girl's attention.
"Tell me," she said once installing the new lens to the camera.
"Do… Do… do you like me?" He asked, hiding his shyness, but that didn't stop that his cheeks had blushed to the point of feeling them burning.
"If I like you?" She said with an expression of wanting to understand the question.
He nodded, suppressing his face not to look excited.
"I imagine in the romantic sense" She supposed, seeing him in the face.
What else can I be talking about?
He rolled his eyes impatiently.
"Naoki-kun, if I'm honest" She said, wrinkling her eyebrows, calm more than anything. "I am not in a position to fall in love, but I cannot be closed to every man who comes across me"
What the hell did that mean?
He raised his eyebrows completely disoriented with the conversation, however Kotoko didn't seem to care much about the matter because she immediately continued to film the continuous movement of the lights lit at night.
His day was not going in the right direction, and what else could he do about it if it was enough to accompany her? He didn't understand what his urgency was in forcing Kotoko's feelings into existing, in being one with his own.
He admitted that he did care to know Kotoko's feelings, but he could not enter unknown territory without having prepared for the impact he could receive once he entered, because if he did, there would be no escape.
But, she just told him that she wasn't closed to any man who crossed in front of her, and if that meant that she had not closed her heart completely? That meant he had a chance to make her fall in love with him. What else could it mean?
He smiled enthusiastically to himself, taking the course that Kotoko was running at full speed with the camcorder in hand and the backpack hanging on her back.
"Naoki-kun, hurry up" She said, turning her head in his direction.
"I'm coming," he snapped angrily, lowering his hand to his pants pocket, consumed by his internal conflicts.
Life could not be more cruel to him, thus being that, in broad strokes, fate itself hated him greatly.
He was noted that there was no worse thing than fate, because if he had been good to him, he would live a very comfortable life beside Kotoko with zero damage and zero conflicts to keep the relationship afloat. He rubbed on his face that he had repeated it several times until he reached a point of no return in his life, which, in turn, became complicated because he was still on the same line without drawing his goal.
A line that separated him from Kotoko.
.
.
.
.
P.S. Kotoko, in effect, is falling in love with Naoki and tries to push him away, but will they believe it will be possible? Naoki should not miss the opportunity presented to him.