His name was Roronoa Zoro. He was from Tokyo; it was no wonder that he could dress that well. He had the best fashion sense among all boy students at class. It was not only his shirt, pants, and shoes: he even matched his bag and pen sometimes. His hair always looked clean, so was his face. He drove his Piaggio to school and he definitely had the cutest, round black helmet. He smelled pretty fine. His voice sounded tender and he always spoke softly.
Sanji remembered his first time with him. It was when he asked a book Sanji was reading before an English class.
"Sanji, what is that?" he asked politely.
"Uh? It was a Paulo Coelho book," Sanji answered without even looking at him. Zoro was only one chair behind him and Sanji just kept focusing on reading.
And that was it. It had been almost a year and Sanji remembered that it was the only time Sanji had spent with him. For this long, he had only two-sentence conversation with the one he was thinking as the most stunning guy he had ever seen.
Sanji then noticed how awful his manner was. Why couldn't he try being warmer? He was disappointed of himself that he failed in making a chance of having more conversation with him. Sanji realized how silly he was. He missed such a very good opportunity back then that at this very moment he was sitting beside him and it was felt like Sanji had met that someone he had been looking for.
He thought it would be too late to invite him to a new, fresh conversation. Realizing it might be his bravest moment in life, he then took the chance.
"Do you remember me? We talked once before an English class."
Fail.
Zoro turned his head facing Sanji. After making sure that the lecturer didn't pay enough attention to what was going on at class with the tip of his eyes, he leaned on the chair.
"Yes, of course! You are Sanji, right? I'm Zoro, just in case you don't know me."
Double fail.
Though Zoro answered gently with that charming, calming smile on his face, Sanji felt there was a huge awkwardness in that conversation. Was there? Wasn't there? Gah, Sanji didn't want to think about it. He smiled back while trying so hard to not looking clumsy.
At least, Zoro remembers my name.
Triple fail.
It was dark already so Sanji hurried to home. He quickly jumped to his dark blue Yamaha parked in front of the law class. Sanji was in a total rush after he put his grey helmet on, before he realized Zoro was standing not far from where he was being.
Zoro was chatting with his mates; he didn't seem to go home that soon. He talked a lot, smiled wide and laughed hard. He was enjoying his time being with his buddies, like really.
Sanji didn't even think of having the same, exact good time to spend with Zoro. Hiding his face behind his helmet cover and looking at the person he was now treasuring being so happy was more than enough.
Not paying attention much to his surrounding, Zoro stared back at Sanji. That was a very short of eye-contact Sanji had with Zoro. Anticipating clumsier gestures he might show after realizing that Zoro was looking at him too, Sanji rode his motor to come home in full speed.
He found Zoro on Facebook already and he continued his journey. Zoro was pretty virtually active, Sanji said to himself. So far, he got also his Twitter, Path, and Instagram accounts with him. It was totally not violating someone's privacy, Sanji once again made sure of what he was doing. He was just observing, and that was enough for him.
He was beyond pleased knowing what thing Zoro was interested in, what activity Zoro was right doing, and what type of emotion Zoro was currently feeling even from miles distance. He didn't need to be noticed that he was following each account of him. Reading his updates was all he needed. Sanji thought it was nice and he felt okay enough. That night, two hours after their law class at school, Sanji knew that Zoro felt Tired, need some tight sleep as soon as possible.
Days turned weeks. Weeks turned months. Observing what life Zoro was having had turned into a new and interesting habit of Sanji. Everytime he signed in to his accounts, he would open Zoro's, too. He was frequently reading what updates Zoro was sharing to this whole world. That was how Sanji slowly understood what kind of person Zoro was like.
And that was it. Sanji had felt an absolute comfort by just doing his observation. It was his way to show that he actually cared, though, yes, it was no one to show off his caring to. It was his way to quietly adore, keep this his nice and bloomy feeling just for himself. It was no need to be noticed. Sanji was not in the need to be responded back of how he felt toward someone, at least, until this moment. Until now; the situation where Sanji didn't know yet how perfect his life would then be when someone he liked could finally liked him back.
"Is it just me feeling you are getting more enthusiastic, or, you are getting more enthusiastic?" Greg asked Sanji on a bright Sunday afternoon on the city café.
Sanji answered his best mate's question with a single ambiguous smile.
"I think he is getting more enthusiastic, like for real. You know what; we've been looking at you as a whole new person these days? Your mood goes extremely brighter and each day, you gain more spirit in attending classes. Is there something special we don't know yet?" Emma expressed her curiosity, too.
"Did you just mysteriously receive a 1,000,000 dollar on your bank account?" Greg jokingly started becoming more curious.
"Are you attending a cooking demo soon?" Emma was not giving up in finding the truth.
Sanji couldn't hide his clumsy smile at the end. He moved closer to the table so his two best friends could hear his voice clearer.
"You guys can say this way: I'm having a crush on someone."
Greg and Emma didn't show any contour of satisfaction on their faces. Greg was even throwing his sight to somewhere else outside the building he didn't even tend to have. He just didn't expect to hear such a cheesy answer.
"We know you're blabbering," Emma showed her disbelief. She shaped her eyes and lips to look as annoying as she could to make her this good-looking and kind-hearted pal to speak.
"It's up to you, guys. At least, I'm saying the truth," Sanji leaned back on the soft brown chair. He widened his arm as if he literally gave the option to his buddies.
"Say it then: who's that person?" Greg turned into a serious, pushing detective-like.
"It's our friend at class. I like Zoro."
Greg instantly created a wide, bright smile on his face. His face looked peculiar at the end, though. He sipped some more black coffee from his cup. He kept nodding his head as if he understood already what the whole thing was going on with Sanji.
Emma, however, brought up an extremely different respond. She didn't seem to be okay.
"You gotta be kidding me."
"Why does it matter, actually?"
Emma hesitated for a while. She moved forward to get closer to Sanji's seat.
"Zoro is currently dating someone else, don't you know that?"