Chapter 19: Back To Awkward
The word hung in the air between us for a second. ’Friends,’ I thought. ’It doesn’t have to be complicated. Maybe it can just be this.’
That feeling of a huge weight on my chest, the one that had been there for days, just seemed to lift. All that overthinking, all the worrying about rumors and what everyone else thought, just faded away.
I looked at her, she was still smiling that small, shy smile. She was just a girl sitting on a park bench, not some popular gyaru I had to be afraid of.
So I decided to just talk. No big plan, no trying to figure out the right thing to say. Just talking.
"So," I started, and she looked up at me, a little surprised. "That day... with the car. You were wearing earbuds."
Her smile faltered a little, and she nodded slowly. "Yeah."
"I was just wondering," I continued, "what were you listening to?"
She just blinked at me, her head tilted. ’She probably thinks that’s a weird question,’ I thought.
"Oh," she said, looking down at her hands again. "It was, uh, just some pop band. Nothing cool or anything."
"I’m just curious," I said with a shrug. "All I ever listen to is game soundtracks and anime openings, so my taste in music is probably weirder than yours."
That got another little laugh out of her, the tension seemed to melt away completely. "Anime openings? Seriously?" she asked, her voice sounded more like the girl I’d talked to in the hospital.