“I see... All that for your mother’s sake,” Koyuki murmured as she held a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. Then, in a hesitant and careful voice, she asked, “Um, so... Your mom... What, uh, how is she doing now?”
“She’s gone somewhere far away...”
Koyuki paled and flinched at his words.
Naoya continued, nonplussed, “She’s probably in the Caribbean or somewhere like that right now.”
“Wha?” Koyuki gawked.
“Yeah, she accompanies my dad on his business trips and stuff.”
Although she had once been at death’s door, she had managed to recover through some sort of miracle. Now, Naoya’s mother and father spent their wonderful married life touring the world together. They figured it was fine to leave Naoya to his own devices, considering he was already a high-school student. It wasn’t unusual for Naoya to receive a letter from them at the end of each month, where they would recount their adventures and attach some lovey-dovey couple photos. He had long since given up trying to figure out how he was supposed to feel about those.
Koyuki chewed on her donut absentmindedly before shouting, “You’ve gotta choose your wording better!”
“Ahaha. I get that a lot as well, actually,” he said with a laugh. Naoya did this sort of thing to people all the time.
Koyuki looked on and said, “Hmph. I guess that does explain why you’re such a weirdo, though.”
“And why I’m such a good son, right?”
“Still a weirdo regardless,” she rebutted. She sipped her coffee, seemingly annoyed, before putting on a strange smile. “Unfortunately for you, that little skill of yours won’t work on me.”
“Seriously?”
“Of course. I mean, why do I even have to be here with you in the first place? I could list about 100 things that would be more worth my time right now: drink water, listen to the radio.” She made a show of sighing and shrugging her shoulders. “But, just out of curiosity, what other stuff can you tell I’m thinking?”
“Uh, well, you know...” Naoya trailed off with a nod.
He could tell from how she acted she was the oldest child in her household. She was right-handed, but could probably write with her left hand if she had to. She was the type to work hard in the shadows, and she was very bad at showing any form of weakness. Take their “date,” for example—she was forcing herself to drink black coffee when she was clearly much more of a cream and cocoa person. As Naoya stared her down, listing all her traits in his head, Koyuki began to recoil slightly.
Looks like it’s time to whip out the big guns. Naoya thought to himself, ready to deliver the finishing blow. “I can tell you’ve fallen for me,” he declared.
“Pfftt!” Koyuki spat her coffee everywhere. She curled over and began coughing violently.
Naoya was unable to do anything but watch. He knew that if he reached out to her, then he was very likely to receive her ire.
“Cough, cough! Th-That’s a good one! Me? Like you?!” she sputtered out between coughs.
“What? Am I wrong?”
“Uh, duh! Yeah, you’re wrong!” Koyuki shouted in a wavering voice. She was pure crimson from the top of her face to her fingertips. Her exotic blue eyes were wet with tears of embarrassment. Still, in spite of everything, she continued to act defiant. “I wouldn’t fall for you even if you’d managed to save me from a freaking tiger, let alone some random loser off the street! Don’t get so full of yourself!”
“Oh. That’s a major relief, to be honest.”
“Wha?” Koyuki’s eyes grew wide.
Naoya sighed and said, “Listen. There’s a reason I came here with you.”
“A reason...?”
“Yep. It’s nothing complicated or anything.” Naoya faced Koyuki, took a deep breath, then spoke in an exceedingly neutral tone. “I’ll just come out and say it. I’m sorry, but... I can’t go out with you.”
Koyuki’s face dropped at that moment, like her soul had left her body. “Do you have... someone else you like?” she asked.
“No, nothing like that. I’ve never had anyone like that, and I don’t now,” he responded with a wave of his hand.
“So do you just not like strong-willed girls like me?”
“That’s not it either,” Naoya assured her while he shook his head lightly. Even if he did have a girlfriend, he wouldn’t hate Koyuki. He thought she was funny and straight-forward—two traits he rather admired. It was just that he had some... difficult circumstances at play.
“You’re not the problem. It’s just that I don’t feel like going out with anyone right now,” he informed her.
“Why not?”
“If there were someone I liked, and I was supposed to be with them all the time, well, my mind would constantly be going 100 miles an hour trying to figure them out. It’d really wear me out.”
Because of his strong intuition and people-reading skills, Naoya was always in tune with others. What were they thinking? What did they want? These were questions he never really had to ask—he couldn’t help but know how the other person was feeling. Naturally, the constant access to others’ emotions—be they positive or negative—would wear anyone out, and Naoya was no exception. There had been instances bad enough to cause him to faint at times. He had also made use of his intuition in the past to try to help girls in need. Unfortunately for him, it had always resulted in a major headache for him.
That was why, since he had started middle school, he had declined any girl who seemed even remotely interested in him upfront. Their reactions had all varied—some had blown up at him, some had silently seethed, while others had simply sobbed. In the end, though, they had all quietly distanced themselves and left things at that. Despite that, Naoya could tell that many of them were still hurt.
Letting them down easy at the start saves a lot of pain in the end...
He had never meant to upset any of those girls; he simply knew that it was better for both parties if they didn’t get involved with him. They would eventually move on and meet others. That way, Naoya wouldn’t end up letting them down.
Naoya’s dejected face was reflected in his coffee. He resumed reciting the script he had created and repeated multiple times by now. “So I just wanted to let you know that, even if you do like me, I can’t return those feelings. If you do have feelings for me, I’ll have to ask you to give up on me now. If you don’t, please keep it that way.”
Koyuki answered with silence. Perhaps it was more accurate to say she had no answer at all.
Naoya sipped his coffee and noted that it tasted notably more bitter than before. He was reaching for the sugar when she spoke.
“That’s... so stupid...”
“Excuse me?” Naoya’s head rose at her irate voice. When he saw her face, all he could do was blink and stare in amazement. He had expected her to react in anger, but he didn’t glean any of the fury he had been expecting in her eyes.
Uh, I feel like if someone said what I just did to you, you’d start hating them, right? So why don’t you hate me?
Koyuki ignored Naoya’s confusion and began to rant. “Hmph! I don’t like you, okay? Seriously, this whole thing is nothing to me. But what gives you the right to tell me how to feel?”
“W-Well, I didn’t really mean to do that. What I meant was, you wouldn’t want to date a guy who’s always guessing what you’re thinking and feeling, right?” Naoya backtracked, trying to inject some good humor into his voice. “And it’s not just what you’re thinking, either—I can tell how much you weigh, your three sizes, and stuff like that just by looking.”
“Uh, and? A tape measure and a weighing scale can do that. Why are you trying to compete with a tape measure? Is that supposed to impress me?”
“Eh, uh, I mean, yeah, but...” Naoya stumbled over his words. He had figured that Koyuki had just fallen for her idea of him, and once he’d shown her what he was really like, she’d quickly lose interest. Things, however, were not going according to plan.
Why didn’t that work? Why can I tell she still likes me?
Koyuki snorted haughtily to herself and said, “Hmph. So it looks like you want me to give up. If that’s what you want... Okay, Sasahara.”
“Wh-What?”
“You’d better listen closely to what I’m about to say,” she demanded. She took a deep breath, then suddenly thrust her finger toward Naoya and declared, “I will make you fall for me!”