Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria - Volume 1 by Eiji Mikage

Author:Eiji Mikage [Mikage, Eiji]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Baka-Tsuki
Published: 2014-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

And yet, why?

"...Excuse me, but are you alright?"

Although there should have been no one there, for some reason I could clearly hear those words. I had just passed the school gates when I was brought back in a flash, and everything became visible once more.

When I turned around, I saw a boy from my class standing there, all out of breath. Apparently, he'd been chasing after me.

His name was definitely Kazuki Hoshino. We weren't intimate, nor was he special in any way – all I knew about him was his name.

"What do you mean?"

As I asked that question, I realized that a strange expectation had enveloped me.

After all, he wouldn't ask whether I'm 'alright' unless he noticed something was wrong. It meant that he might have been able to sense my transformation–something impossible even for the people who were near me and interacting with me at the time.

"Err... how should I put it? You looked very 'distant'... or, I'm not sure, but it seemed like you weren't part of everyday life..."

He spoke with great difficulty and couldn't get to the point at all.

"Err... never mind if I was just reading too much into things. Sorry for saying such strange things."

He seemed to feel awkward and was about to leave.

"...wait a moment."

I kept him from leaving. He inclined his head slightly and looked at me.

"E-err..."

I might have stopped him, but what should I say now?

But hey—he was able to describe me as 'distant', even though I was smiling in that lonesome classroom.

"...do I always look cheerful?"

If he responded like everyone else, then he'd be just like everyone else.

Ah, I had great expectations of him. I had enormous expectations that he would deny my statement and truly understand me.

"Yeah. Well...you do look that way," he hesitantly responded.

Upon hearing those words, I became utterly disenchanted with him, lost all my interest and immediately started to hate him. I was surprised by the strength of the pendulum-like reversal of my feelings, but I had probably set my expectations far too high.

But that boy who I now hated added the following words:

"You're really trying hard, aren't you?"

My feelings swung like a pendulum once more and my hatred was inverted once again. My face couldn't keep up with the sudden shifts–but my heart felt strangely warm.

Trying hard. Trying hard to look cheerful.

That's correct. Even more correct than denying that I looked cheerful.

And so I–fell in love.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.