52. Hope
270 Words
All in all, the whole encounter left Satsuki thoroughly confused. He had been so nice and polite to her the whole time. Furthermore, he had kept his distance; he had not tried to corner her like the few times before. The times he had looked at her with those predatory eyes.
No, this time had been different, this time… This time had been nice.
He had been respectful, so much that it had been a little weird. After all, it wasn't like he actually cared about her, right?
It couldn't be.
Yet, it had somehow felt so easy to talk with him. Incredibly, they had even found something they had in common, and that was Nishida. Who would have known that Narita Ken liked his books as well? Satsuki would have never taken him for someone who read books on his spare time – somehow he seemed to be too cool for such ordinary past times. The charismatic, popular Narita Ken, so often surrounded by flocking females, sitting somewhere in solitude, reading a book? A book that was one of her favourites as well!
Somehow, Satsuki had a very hard time trying to picture that – and yet, somewhere deep down, she desperately wanted to see that imagery, wanted it to be true.
It would be nice if he actually preferred solitude to always being surrounded by the numerous women. It would be nice if he really loved the same book series Satsuki did.
It would be so nice, because, if the man she had briefly seen today was real…
Then, just maybe, he actually could … for real.
Maybe he could.