He saw her and he couldn't help to think: Who is the boy she likes?
Who will have won Kotoko's heart?
Surely, it wasn't him, although everything indicated that perhaps she had him in the spotlight as an ideal candidate, however, he would not let the man who Kotoko liked take away his desires to conquer her, also he will remain firm in his goal.
Nothing and no one would take away Kotoko's heart. Never.
"Onee-chan," Yuuki spoke to Kotoko in a sign of complicity.
"What's wrong, Yuuki-kun?" Kotoko crouched down to listen.
Naoki saw them whisper, then laugh heartily, putting their hands behind their mouths. They looked very animated, detail that bothered him furtively, until he said it was a frugal sensation.
A squeeze emerged in the pit of the stomach, curling up like a vine.
"Do you think if we watch the next movie?" Kotoko asked Yuuki with some emotion present in his voice.
Yuuki nodded.
"Which of the two?" She took both films from her backpack, and showed them at shoulder height for the two brothers to see.
The films were: "The nightmare before Christmas" and "The Hunchback of Notredame". A somewhat strange contrast, since they were two films of different genres, but despite that, Kotoko seemed to care.
"I say let's see the first one, Kotoko suggested, laughing nervously. "Because the second is strong for Yuuki, even for children"
"So what did you bring it for?" Naoki inquired.
"Because Yuuki-kun asked me for it" Kotoko replied obviously.
"Eh…" Yuuki blushed from the cheeks, hiding behind Kotoko's shoulder, where Naoki could see him from the corner of his eye, giving him a spraying look. How does his brother dare to touch Kotoko that way?
"Oh right" Kotoko snapped hurriedly. "Let's continue with the movie afternoon." A nervous giggle escaped and she stood up to put on the movie "The nightmare before Christmas."
"Is something between your hands?" Naoki straightened to whisper that phrase to Yuuki.
"What?" Yuuki paled in a matter of seconds, in which he babbled under his breath. "No, not at all." He forced a light smile. This left Naoki zero convinced by what was going on between his brother and Kotoko, and causing him pleasure was far from being a good feeling.
"Is everything alright?" Kotoko asked, glancing at them smilingly. Both nodded detached from all conversation. "By the way, I almost lost my bicycle" Che commented.
"What about that?" Yuuki asked, surprised.
"I don't know" She replied, putting a finger under her chin, nodding. "It was very strange, because the brake didn't work when I tried to stop at the top of the street, and I went straight ahead." She made a sign to move forward with her right hand. "The cars brushed by me." She moved her body in an air to dodge. "Until I was about to crash into a tree, I threw myself into the cement with everything and the bicycle, thus crushing it in my abdomen; It was amazing!" She exclaimed effusively.
"How can you say it's amazing?" Yuuki asked presumptuously.
"Because something of that magnitude had never happened to me." She replied with bulging eyes. "At first I thought my bike was in perfect condition, but I saw that it wasn't like that, because of what happened with it."
Naoki didn't know whether to feel good because nothing happened to her, or worried about her well-being. Anyway, everything that was related to Kotoko caused him extreme concern, without a doubt.
"Do you think it's just for that?" Yuuki questioned, still interested in the subject. "I mean that if you think they manipulated the bicycle so you wouldn't participate in the contest"
"It's the assumption I came to" Kotoko snorted, opening her arms. "I think it's that way, because they've been tagging me for having first place in the beauty pageant vote."
Naoki felt discomfort at the thought of that, as if an oppression in his chest would subject her to an object of torture.
He hated knowing that they hurt Kotoko, while he was close to her.
"First place, you?" Yuuki inquired, embarrassed.
"Don't underestimate me, Yuuki-kun." Kotoko stuck out her tongue. "I have my methods of making things work" She presumed, crossing her arms.
"Won't you tell me?" He insisted, pouting. Kotoko shook his head, pretending indignation. "Don't be mean!" He grumbled, offended.
"It's a secret." She scoffed, shaking her head.
Yuuki snorted and groaned in anger, crossing his arms like a scolded child.
Naoki's rage was short-lived, since the movie began and the three remained silent, listening in the distance to the sounds of his mother cooking something in the kitchen.
When the movie was over, Kotoko jumped up, stretching her arms alluding to wanting to touch the ceiling. Naoki, on the other hand, did not pay attention to anything about the movie because he was watching Kotoko as a stalker out of the corner of his eye, delighting in her facial expressions and gestures with each scene, and watching her sing the songs the movie had.
There was no end to his feelings because they kept growing, they kept moving and flowing to an inaccurate point.
"I should have brought Rocky" Kotoko commented, frowning.
"We saw that one," Yuuki grumbled.
"We haven't seen the others" Kotoko replied, making a stubborn gesture. "We only saw the first one"
"There is more?" Yuuki asked with wide eyes.
Kotoko nodded securely.
"What are those movies?" Naoki intervened, confused.
Their eyes fell on him in disbelief.
"Huh?" Kotoko issued disoriented.
"Haven't you seen them, Onii-chan?" His mother appeared with a tray of cookies, in the same gesture as Yuuki.
So wonderful was that movie? He was baffled by such an assumption.
He only shook his head slightly.
"Don't talk to me, Naoki-kun," Kotoko said, bowing her head in disappointment.
"What?" He exteriorized, suppressing his fear.
Had he made Kotoko angry at his stupidity?
"You should see it at least once in your life," Yuuki scolded him, outraged, ignoring him. "How could you not have seen it!" He refuted, clenching his lips.
"Excuse me?" He said offended.
"Onii-chan, it's the first time I want to ask you to leave the house" Said his mother in grave disdain.
"Mother!" Naoki sighed, taken by surprise.
"Enough!" Kotoko burst in, arms outstretched. "Don't treat Naoki-kun badly, I'll show him the movie later and that's how we can save our disappointment."
Save our disappointment? Then, he had disappointed Kotoko…he felt an uncomfortable pain in his chest, like sharp pangs on the surface of his heart.
He had never heard Kotoko said that she was disappointed in him.
"I think it's a good option," Yuuki retorted, changing his annoying expression to a serious one. "Onee-chan, can we do something else? I don't want to watch more movies on TV anymore." He looked at Kotoko expectorant.
Naoki hated to see that scene in front of him, and in passing with the constant presence of his mother directing her sharp eyes before them, as if she were a hawk.
That woman was an impertinent fantasy.
"Hm." Kotoko put a hand behind her neck, frowning and moving her eyes to the floor. She was thinking.
Suddenly, Naoki was invaded by a sense of insecurity running down the spine in a tumult of thoughts full of uncertainty and fear, but above all anguish.
He didn't know that dismal feeling in his body, it was as if he had a crack in his heart, and with it came the feeling of disappointment.
"What do you think if we watch music videos?" She suggested expressively.
"Yes" Yuuki nodded, pleased.
In that, Kotoko put music videos of Guns N Roses, where she expressed with joy the wonder that those videos were and the way they were recorded with so much professionalism. She kept telling them how great her taste was when she saw good music videos in front of them; Naoki, he listened to her as stupid because of the great feeling he felt for her, recording every thousandth of what came out of Kotoko's mouth as if it were a mantra.
"I like that one" She said, kicking with emotion.
"You like all of them!" Yuuki claimed, making a face.
"Yes." She replied laughing.
How beautiful she was when she didn't realize she was, when Naoki looked at her with admiration and affection, with the purest intention of loving her.
He felt so pathetic having her so close to him, but he couldn't do anything about it. Absolutely nothing, more than looking at it with some distance and settle for that.
How pathetic he could be feeling insecure to show his feelings.
The words failed to describe how pathetic his state was at that time.