Chapter 25.2

She patted me on my head and told me I was adorable, and escorted me to class… Putting it all together like this, it kind of sounds pretty sweet, didn’t it? Although I knew that it was a horror story waiting to happen.

“She told me I was c-cute, too,” when I stuttered out my answer, Noah muttered as if he was responding.

“So the nutcase still has good eyes.”

“The, huh?”

The nutca-, huh?

I was appalled by what Noah had just said.

Who are you and what have you done with Noah? Surely Noah was the definition of gentle who never spoke a single syllable of a swear word in his life.

“It’s nothing.” Noah smiled at me generously as if nothing had happened. “Be careful, she has a weird personality.”

“I see.”

Noah’s next words were a little more understandable.

After slowly nodding my head, I lifted my head in one quick motion.

“Is that all?”

At my question, Noah chewed on his lips a couple of times in an adorable fashion before he continued, “And it’s true that you are cute.”

“…”

According to the insights of Gloria, the nutcase with good eyes, and Noah, I was cute.

What was with these people?

Wrinkling my nose, I scratched my wrist. Noah still made my heart flutter, but at the same time, I was just a little taken aback.

Awkwardly fiddling with my hair, I turned over the thought in my head

Cute… well, I suppose you could say that, yes.

Gloria had told me I was cute before, too, so.

Reaching an understanding by myself, I looked up at Noah’s face. Though I just wanted to stare at him, that was rude, so I appreciated him while breaking eye contact from time to time.

Suddenly, I wondered what it might be like if the book was actually a story of regret and Noah turned out to be a giant unforgivable b*stard.

Then I wouldn’t have liked him from the start and it would’ve been easy for me to stop liking him, too.

But though he was such a quiet guy and you could never know what he was thinking, apart from that, Noah was such a good person that it was rare for him to be an asshole.

And because he was so good at saying things that made your heart flutter, that was why my heart was pounding away like this, wasn’t it?

“I always feel like this, but you’re really good with words, Noah.”

So much so that it makes my heart pound.

Swallowing down those last words, I slid my eyes away as I finished my words in a small voice. “Thank you.”

Though there had been a slight passive aggressiveness to my words, Noah only smiled happily.

The way his golden eyes folded into half-moons was so pure and so pretty, that I decided to say that I’d only meant it as a compliment.

Yes, well, as long as Noah was happy.

“Um, then I’ll be going.”

Smacking my lips together, I did my best to smile, then began walking onwards, rubbing the back of my neck.

“I actually just wanted to talk to you.”

As I turned around, the moment I heard Noah’s voice behind me, I tripped over my own foot and swayed.

I reached out towards the wall just as I was about to fall, but for some reason, I felt like I was floating.

“Uh…”

A large hand was wrapped around me, supporting my back.

W-What do I do? My waist better not have gotten thicker, has it?

Inhaling sharply, I struggled to regain my balance as quickly as possible.

“T-Thank, I mean, no….”

Even after Noah had let go, I couldn’t help but squirm, the touch I’d felt through the fabric still vivid.

Noah must have been just as surprised as I was, seeing how he was hiding the hand he’d held me with behind his back and making a flustered expression.

I guess that was a given, if he’d seen someone just about to trip.

“… Sorry for surprising you.”

And here was my senior, apologizing to me once more. How will you live in this harsh world while being so kind?

“I-I’m going to go now.”

I stepped backward before whirling around and running away at a quick pace. Thanks to my hand on the pillar, this time I didn’t stumble.

I’m embarrassed to death.

Only after I’d walked far enough so that Noah wouldn’t be able to see me did I bury my face in my hands.

Both my cheeks were hot and red.

What was that? No, really, what was that? How could someone be that handsome and that pretty?

… Didn’t my heart flutter just now? ‘Cause I liked the fact that it did, if I was being honest.

Scratching my nose, I thought hard.

All right then, let’s just enjoy that. I think I just won the lottery.

After clenching my fists and frowning for a moment, this was the conclusion I made: It wasn’t like I’d particularly done anything that could be misunderstood, he just did that of his own volition. Though it was a bit disgraceful of him to be doing that after rejecting me, but yeah, it won’t last long, so let’s enjoy it for now….

“Well.”

The chaos that had been thrown into my heart was quickly replaced by composure.

Yep, that was right. That was enough.

Suddenly, it felt like everything had clicked back into place.

It seemed I’d been thinking too hard about things when all I had to do was not overstep my boundaries because of some petty reason like jealousy. I’d already resolved not to do anything, anyways.

Look at me, feeling excited and then calming myself down and making all this fuss all by myself. Was love like this, usually?

At the thought that I was pretty pathetic, I hurried away.