Chapter 262: A Smile
“Why are you here?”
The death aura circulating within her body was slowly suppressed, and the young girl naturally crossed her arms in front of her chest. She looked at the dishevelled young man who had just emerged from the bushes and asked with a cold face.
“Ah, Kazumi… can I say I was just passing by?”
Stumbling out of the bushes, Sato Shinichi brushed off the grass on his body while looking at the girl in front of him with an awkward expression. To be honest, being discovered like this was something the young man hadn’t expected. Although he hadn’t deliberately used his abilities to conceal his aura, his stealth skills shouldn’t have been so easily detected by a civilian like Kazumi.
“No.”
Kazumi draped her handbag over her arm and stared intently at Sato Shinichi, who had a smile on his face. The young girl’s mind was racing.
[Testing me? An attack from a psychic? Or…]
“Um… I just finished eating and wanted to go for a walk…”
“The place where your home is located is in completely the opposite direction from the school.”
She coldly shot down the young man’s incredibly clumsy excuse. Kazumi’s furrowed brow relaxed slightly. After all, this familiar and foolish aura looked exactly like their own silly golden retriever.
“Wait!”
However, even so, Kazumi called out to stop the blonde young man who was approaching her. Her dark eyes darted around, and then she asked coldly.
“Where did you first confess to me?”
Sato Shinichi was stunned by the young girl’s sudden question. His slightly embarrassed expression froze on his face. His deep blue eyes stared at the thin, young girl in front of him, who had a hint of defensiveness in her eyes. A trace of pity appeared in the depths of his eyes.
Sighing silently in his heart, Sato Shinichi honestly raised his hands and looked at the girl in front of him with a determined expression.
“In front of the fountain behind the third teaching building. I was the one who gave you the love letter. The content was: Kiyomizu-san, since the first day I met you…”
“I didn’t ask you to tell me the content!!!”
When the young man accurately stated the location from her memory, Kazumi’s furrowed brow finally relaxed completely. After all, Kurokawa Iori had told her that even his [Puppet] could only create false memories within a week of the copied person, and could not perfectly replicate such distant and deep memories.
But in the next moment, the handbag in the young girl’s hand flew like a cannonball, hitting the young man in front of her, who had his hands raised and was muttering aloud.
“Kazumi…”
Reaching out and catching the handbag that fell from his face, Sato Shinichi looked innocent. Holding the bag with both hands, he gazed at the girl approaching him like a puppy begging for petting.
“You hold this for me, this matter isn’t over yet! Why were you following me?”
Pouting, she walked up to Sato Shinichi, who looked dejected. There was no need to guess; the only one who could do such a foolish thing was their own golden retriever. Even a copycat couldn’t be this stupid.
He was reading love letters loudly on the street. Even if he wasn’t ashamed, she was!
“Ah… I wasn’t… it’s because…”
“Hmm?”
Looking at the young man whose face clearly showed “I’m lying,” Kazumi gave him an intense eye-roll.
“It was Soba-ta! Soba-ta said that if Kazumi didn’t tell me, it might be…”
Kazumi rubbed her forehead with a helpless expression. Although she was happy about the young man’s quick betrayal of his teammate, she wondered how much that gossipy guy had taught Sato Shinichi. Why was he everywhere?
Suppressing the urge to turn this guy, who was trying to corrupt her dog, into an undead, Kazumi continued to look at the young man with disdain.
“Then how did you find me?”
“I, I went to find Sanae-senpai at the student council secretary’s office and said that you should be eating around here with the president. Mainly, Kazumi, you never told me about these things, and I was a little worried you might have been deceived, so…”
Sato Shinichi, completely oblivious to being looked down upon, lowered his raised hands and answered the girl with a foolish smile.
“Credits and internship opportunities.”
Although Sato Shinichi’s voice became quieter under Kazumi’s death-like gaze, the concern in his words did not diminish at all.
Looking at the undisguised concern for her in the silly boy’s eyes, Kazumi’s cold expression gradually melted away. After a moment of thought, she gave a more appropriate answer.
“I saw the student council’s benefits regarding this matter before, so I thought I’d try applying. I didn’t expect to get through directly.”
Kazumi unconsciously tidied her slightly wrinkled uniform, which was a result of eating, and casually answered the previous question.
“Oh…”
Sato Shinichi nodded in approval. The next second, he was about to express that the girl didn’t need to worry about her internship after graduation. But then he remembered that his somewhat strong-willed girlfriend had always been resistant to topics concerning work, so he quickly swallowed the words that were about to come out and finally let out an awkward “Oh.”
“Pfft—”
The young man’s strange smile and dishevelled appearance finally broke the young girl’s cold facade. She couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Kazumi knew exactly what her doggy was thinking at this moment. He was probably instinctively wanting to use his family’s background to arrange an internship or even a job for her, but then he remembered what she had said before and was unsure how to respond.
“You…”
Looking at the young man standing in front of her with a helpless expression, perhaps the girl didn’t even realize that her previously impassive eyes were now filled with tenderness.
“Come here.”
She beckoned to the dumbfounded young man. Although Sato Shinichi didn’t understand her intention, his body moved forward to the girl before his mind could catch up.
Her delicate, cold little hand slowly lifted and reached towards the back of the young man’s head. The slender girl’s body leaned forward slightly, but her eyes were exceptionally gentle. A few long strands of hair brushed against the young man’s face as she moved. A faint fragrance slowly entered the young man’s nostrils, and time seemed to stand still at that moment.
The girl’s movements were quick, or rather, it was just a spontaneous little gesture.
When Kazumi pulled her body back, Sato Shinichi appeared in front of her as if frozen.
“Shinichi.” “Yes, I’m here!”
Looking at the young man’s stiff appearance, which prevented him from moving at all due to her action, and recalling the not-so-important information she had received from Kurokawa Iori before, the girl gently held the fallen leaf between her fingers. She looked deeply into Sato Shinichi’s eyes, then turned and walked away without looking back.
All that was left was the leaf slowly drifting down in mid-air and a faint smile on the girl’s lips in the distance.
“Honestly, what a fool…”
