"I don't need to see you to know that I like you"

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"Cherry blossoms are beautiful when they bloom, don't you think?" Yukina was expressing with happiness in the return, when they passed through the cherry garden.

"I suppose" Assumed Onodera, who was advancing quietly, almost impassive in his walk. He drank the last of his coffee.

"They determine repeating cycles" Yukina said. "Cycles that define stages of our life and as you should know, Onodera, don't stop repeating themselves"

"What do you mean by that?" He raised an eyebrow, interested.

"Relationships come and go" He said thoughtfully. "And it depends on the way in which we live them, they can end or they can start again"

This left Onodera taken by surprise, without anticipating he saw himself looking at his companion out of the corner of his eye, appreciating his features, his caramel eyes, his sweet smell, his smile that enraptured him every time he glimpsed her and his internal windows were clarified in oscillatory frequency.

"Changing the subject" Yukina said, frowning. "Do you want to go by subway or by bus?"

"What?" He snapped awkwardly.

Did Yukina want to end their date? But, it was too soon to separate, no, Onodera lowered his head, decayed for that reason.

Yukina seemed not to let it escape, and put a hand on Onodera's shoulder, startling him instantly.

"Sounds like better" He stopped, savoring a bit, before saying, "If we go to a music store? I know one that is very calm and they give us space to listen to the Lps without interruption" He assured, a slight visible blush adorned his youthful face.

"Em" Onodera stuttered, lifting his shoulders, pursing his lips.

"I also want to extend our time together," Yukina admitted seriously.

"Okay" He agreed.

Yukina smiled happily at him, shrugging her shoulders in excitement.

"Come." He invited Lo to come closer to reach the bus stop. "It's not far from here"

"You know many places, Yukina," he said, keeping up with his

"I have a lot of time to do it" He said, looking sideways so he could walk down the street. "As I live alone, I get bored a lot and that's why I go out for a walk alone looking for places to hang out." They went down the street to where their respective stop was and got to get on the bus, sitting in the front seats.

"Do you live alone?" Asked Onodera, a little amazed; he always had the impression that Yukina lived with his parents, and not alone.

He nodded.

"Did you think I lived with my parents?" He asked mischievously.

"Well," Onodera ground his teeth, embarrassed.

"Don't worry" He elbowed him in confidence, laughing softly. "I give the impression that I live with my parents or a friend, but no, I chose to live alone to know what it felt like to live in solitude"

"Really?" Onodera replied, elbowing him back.

"Yes" He nodded, directing his gaze forward. "But I'm used to it, although there are times when I do feel lonely and I want to have company" He confessed in a downcast tone. "However, I am happy to talk to you, because you are very interesting to me, Onodera"

"Me?" He exclaimed, puzzled, backing away.

"Sure" He insisted obviously. "You are more interesting than you think, Onodera"

Onodera just chuckled, snubbed. How is it that he was interesting if he thought he was a boring man?

He didn't understand, it didn't get into his head how it was that Yukina appreciated his company so much since there must have been much more interesting people than him, and Yukina preferred to hang out with him.

"It's time to get off," Yukina snapped, standing up immediately; He readjusted himself, chasing after the boy, feeling pleased that they had prolonged the time together, meaning that it was the time when they could get to know each other even more.

Having gotten off the bus, his companion took him to the music store that was hidden somewhere in the same district where they went to the park.

They entered a dark establishment, where some vinyl shelves were located, approximately four shelves ten meters long each, covering six rows of vinyl arranged in alphabetical order.

Yukina blew with excitement, lighting her features in unison with her footsteps that ran to the classic rock section, and began to inspect some specimens.

Suddenly he looked up with a translucent glow in his eyes.

"Come, Onodera." He invited him to come closer.

He froze and forced himself to move, crackling at how cute Yukina looked when she smiled and was excited by things as simple as going to a music store.

"Look" He showed him an Lp that said "Ballads of the 80s". Onodera looked at him contemptuously, since it was not his style.

"Hm," he replied incessantly.

"I'll show you a better one." He returned it to the shelf, looking for other copies.

"As you like" He said to comfort him, if he had offended him, because that was not his intention.

Yukina released a gray Lp that came with a single theme, not a set of songs, but only one. Onodera found it odd that there was only one topic, barely familiar with the matter of dealing with Yukina, when another complex matter was presented to her for understanding.

"I love this ballad" Sighed Yukina raptly. "It immerses me in a Christmas village, where the sounds are old-fashioned, but the melody is beautiful"

"Hm," he agreed, he didn't quite understand.

"Let's hear it" Yukina suggested, taking him by the wrist and pulling him to the listening room.

"Wait," Onodera claimed, exalted.

Yukina placed the Lp on the stereo, setting the needle to work.

The Moody Blues song "Nights in White Satin" rang out on the stereo, causing Onodera to frown, struggling to adjust to the rhythm of the ballad and sound.

"You feel like you're in a Christmas town," Yukina said, in a peaceful tone. "Snowflakes fall from the cloudy sky, and your eyelids are filled with thick whiteness and warm at the same time; the gazes of others do not affect you because you are in your own world, defending your thoughts and your feelings that are unique, because they prolong "He paused briefly. "The love you feel grows and you express it openly" He smiled inspired. "You become one with your feelings and that love you feel is yours, you share it, and you say 'I love you because it is you'" He said that phrase with sweetness, softening all its appearance. "'I need you because I love you'"

"What are you trying to say?" Onodera snapped, breathing hard, as a result of the intense blush that appeared on her face, and what to say? In the rest of his body.

"I invite you to listen to the song" Yukina said, smiling softly at him. "To imagine a place where the song reaches you." He put a hand on his chest. "It went straight to your heart"

"That is nonsense" He reproached harshly.

"Is it really nonsense?" He said in a slightly more forceful tone, of course, without exerting pressure.

"You can't do that"

"Can't you really?" Yukina inquired, knitting his eyebrows. "You don't make it because you don't try, and you don't believe in it either." He looked at him softly, causing a chill in Onodera.

He was losing his temper in front of his gaze.

"Rocking someone's spirit" He expressed grandiose, how poetic he would be. "Provoke unexplained sensations inside someone, touch their heart with your hand, make their interior flutter with vibrant emotion because you are the one who provokes those sensations in me." He put a hand on his chest, extending it towards his heart. "I don't think it's nonsense, because although I can't see it, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist"

Onodera made a scared face, not for having him face to face, but for his words so real, his words that shook him fickle and spat at the end of the erupting volcano that were his wild emotions. He was expelled into the world in nakedness, stripped of his bonds and chains, expelled from pain, expelled from false illusions, scattered into the atmosphere.

It was an incessant accumulation of emotions, pouring out like a breeding ground in constant reaction, in explosions and in gushing bubbles that sparkled, blinking and moving when his eyes met, when he touched him with his words, when everything began to make sense.

"It doesn't happen overnight" Yukina explained, approaching his side, taking a seat in the chair where he was located. "But you don't have to give up or force yourself to live something you're not ready for, besides." He stretched out his flexed legs. "We are getting to know each other, it is too early to tell you"

That made him curious.

"Tell me what?" He wanted to know, hastily.

"My feelings" He replied delicately.

"Which ones?" Onodera pressed, becoming demanding for some reason.

"It is very soon, Onodera" Yukina denied.

"Soon for what?"

"To tell you my feelings" He clarified, blushing a little. "It's too early to do it because that would mean that" He got stuck, it seems he was looking for the right word to finish the sentence.

"It would mean what?" Onodera repeated, upset. He knew he was eager to know it, eager to hear it from his mouth, and that his mouth came close to his and reaffirmed it.

"It would mean that I would get yourself into a conflict that doesn't correspond to you" He stated in conflict. "And I don't want to put you under stress for any reason, you don't deserve it"

"Me?" Onodera said with a blank face.

"I don't know how much time is missing" Yukina confessed with a sigh. 'I don't know the exact moment when things happened, or how they happened, but I don't care to know the origin, because, what else can I do? Bury my feelings underground until they rot?" He supposed sad. "Of course not, I accept my feelings and I will not hesitate to express them, but what stops me in this case, is that I want to keep up with you, I don't know if you understand me"

"Are you treating me like an idiot?" He claimed offended, alarming Yukina, who started to deny it with his hands.

"Of course not!" He said exalted. "I would never treat you like an idiot, I have never thought of you as an idiot"

"Then why don't you tell me your feelings?" He demanded, having stopped.

"I told you I can't" Yukina admitted, crestfallen.

Onodera breathed indignantly, feeling a bitter heaviness in his stomach and his chest contracting in sudden sharp pain. It hurt, it really hurt not knowing.

Why didn't Yukina tell him the truth?

"I'm leaving." He wrinkled his nose, holding back the tears that threatened to appear on his face.

"No, Onodera" Yukina asked, crestfallen.

"No!" He ran off, wounded inside.

He saw empty, and that invited him to continue running to the station with the intention of going to lock up his apartment and never leave there.

He didn't need to see Yukina to know that he liked him.

He liked Yukina.

He no longer questioned it, because it was an undeniable truth. Absolute.

He loved him since he met him ...