Volume 1 - Prologue

It was in the corner of the school library.

There was a window with sunlight coming in, a small round table, and several chairs.

Despite such furnishing, it was in the shadow of a row of bookshelves. It was almost like a blind spot caused by a design error.

As he was sitting in a chair in such a place, Kuya stole a glance at the person sitting across the small round table 

At the other end of his gaze was a classmate with her chin resting on one hand.

Long, clipped-up silver hair that made the sunlight drift like mist or something and didn’t repel it.

The eyes turned towards the book spread out on the table were a rich, soft shade of amber.

Her face looked intelligent, and was so pretty that it even sent chills.

Her name was Fatima Kurei, a transfer student who had come this spring.

By this spring, it was in fact not that long ago.

After all, there were still cherry trees with their petals falling like light snow on the other side of the window through which the sunlight was pouring in on her.

That spectacle of her reading a book with cherry trees over the window as the background was so fantastically beautiful that one would be captivated by it.

That was probably why he ended up gazing at her even though he had wanted to only take a glance.

Fatima suddenly raised her face up, and Kuya ended up meeting eyes with her.

She blinked several times with a puzzled face and tilted her head. After relaxing her own expression, she calmly opened her mouth. “? What’s the matter? Karasu-kun.”

There was not a hint of her being upset. It didn’t seem to dawn on her that Kuya—Karasu Kuya had been stealing a glance.

She seemed to have thought it was just a coincidence that their eyes met.

“Nah… I just thought you’re… so… pretty,” Kuya answered her question honestly with not even the slightest thought of lying.

“………………!⸻”

Fatima’s face turned red.

Not suddenly and quickly turning red, but slowly, taking its time…

Her cheeks grew increasingly flushed, as if it was the embodiment of her gradually understanding Kuya’s words.

“…Thank you… for the flattery,” Fatima said curtly. She then turned her face away, which was after an awfully long time had passed.

No, since this was according to Kuya’s sense of time, it might have actually only felt that way because he had been watching her change in detail.

Yeah… there’s also something deeply wrong with me…

Karasu Kuya was infatuated with Fatima Kurei.

Kuya quietly affirmed that in his mind.

Her every move was attracting his eyes, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of her expression.

It wasn’t that long since they had first met, yet it was like this.

There truly was something wrong with him.

In the first place she’s just unfair, Kuya thought as he smiled back at Fatima, who was sending glances at him even though she was still turning her face away like usual. Basically the beautiful type, yet every single of her reactions is cute. Of course I’m gonna fall for her.

Even more unfair since she was unsociable and wouldn’t show much expression, and would show such a reaction only to a very small percentage of people.

And it made him want to feel conceited that he was special, and also made him want to treat her as if she was special.

Yeah… I’ll say it… I’m gonna say it…

As Fatima’s face grew redder and redder as she was facing the other way, perhaps mistakenly thinking that she was being teased, Kuya resolved himself.

“Hey, Kurei—”

He had an idea of what to say.

Since long-winded words would only result in him stuttering midway anyway, he had decided on a simple, short one.

After revising it over and over again and giving it a great deal of thought, he had set his heart on it.

The time needed was just an instant.

All that was needed was to not think of anything and say it in one breath.

Kuya tried to say those words and—

“…Oh?”

—he looked up at Fatima’s upside down face.

He had not a clue what or how this happened.

“You look like you’ve been bewitched by a fox, but… do you want an explanation?” Fatima said as she was looking down at him. Her expression was truly hard to describe.

She seemed angry. She also seemed relieved. And She seemed bashful, and smiling as well.

In any case… the fact that she didn’t seem to be in a bad mood was a great thing.

“Please. The situation is beyond my comprehension.”

“Yes, I very much thought so.” Despite her looking with reproachful eyes, Fatima was gently playing around with Kuya’s bangs with her fingers and continued. “First of all, you passed out. Abruptly, without logic, without a single change in your complexion, all of sudden you collapsed. It’s a huge success if it was a prank, congrats.”

Kuya looked apologetic at her whisper of stinging sarcasm while still being gentle in her attitude.

“…In my defense, it’s not like I wanted to surprise you. It’s an unexpected accident.”

“I know. If not, I wouldn’t have given you a lap pillow,” she said in a forced grumpy manner with a slightly sulky voice.

At this stage, Kuya finally realized he was being given a lap pillow by her.

It was an unexpected piece of good luck, however…

“…It’s pathetic, if I do say so myself…” Kuya sighed dispiritedly.

Surprisingly—

“Good grief, to pass out from the nervousness of confessing, just how green you are?”

Kuya opened his eyes wide in surprise as what was on his mind was voiced outright.

“I’m surprised. I can’t believe it… I never would’ve thought that you were a mind reader…”

“What’s with that funny man quip?” Fatima murmured dumbfoundedly and lightly hit Kuya’s forehead. “You blurted it out while you passed out. You don’t remember?”

“What a stupid question, asking whether or not someone remember anything while they passed—ah, I see. That question is a funny man quip, is it?”

“Yes, it’s a funny man quip. I paid it back.” Fatima’s tone roughened up just slightly after being pointed by Kuya.

It seemed he had failed to realize that someone asking a person who had passed out whether they remembered what they had blurted out was stupid.

“Well, putting that aside.” And then she cleared her throat to change the mood and continued. “Okay, Karasu-kun—please let me go out with you.”

“…………………”

Although Kuya probably should’ve responded with something… he was at loss for words.

Silver hair that made light drift like a mysterious atmosphere.

Amber eyes that were filled with a soft radiance.

Cheeks that were flushed in embarrassment.

Cherry blossom lips that housed bashfulness.

Yeah, I’m looking at the most adorable thing right now.

After all, he was trapped in that thought based on baseless conviction.