A chance encounter

Chapter 1

Everyone in this world is boring. Always predictable, always the same. This can't seriously be it for the humanity that I admire so much. There must be someone out there who can surprise me. I'm beginning to lose all hope that that person exists.

It was a Thursday afternoon and I was mind-numbingly bored, so like I always do when I have no work that interests me, I set out to find someone to follow. I've done it many times before, so of course I thought this time would be no different.

Ahaha, how wrong I could be.

It was a split second passing, a tiny and seemingly irrelevant moment. I didn't know what was different. There were no immediate signs or actions on her part that would have caused me to stop dead in my tracks, and yet I did. I barely saw her face, just a tiny glimpse of an expression that looked... peaceful. It was odd. Nothing she wore screamed 'look at me', nor did it hint that she wanted to be hidden. Everything about her seemed so average, so typical, so ordinary. Why did I stop? What did I see in that brief instant that excited me? Who was that girl?

All of those questions and many more were buzzing around in my head, begging me to find the answers. So naturally, I followed her - keeping my distance of course, making sure she didn't notice me. As she walked her head was tilted slightly downwards, indicating that she was inside of her own head and not paying attention to her surroundings. Usually people who carry themselves this way tend to have more of a grim or depressed expression - so why was she different?

We walked for only a few minutes before she looked up, stopped, and sat herself down on a bench that was out of the way. To not draw attention to myself, I went to a nearby building. One I frequently visited when I wished to observe someone from a distance. I learnt a while back to always carry binoculars with me, so I was able to see her in some detail. Her overall appearance would be considered 'pretty', the things that stood out most to me was her slight figure, her height and the apparent lack of make-up. I suppose the fact that she doesn't wear make-up could partially explain why she was different, but that wasn't all there was. There was more. I just couldn't possibly know what else that could be without further observation.

She just sat there quietly. Her eyes weren't darting around looking for someone, so she can't have gone there to wait for anyone. She also couldn't be like me - an avid hobbyist of people watching - as she wasn't watching anyone. In fact, she wasn't even looking at those who walked by. It was actually the sky that had caught her attention. Her neck wasn't strained from looking straight up, but was just slightly raised (a complete contrast from its position when she was walking) in order to see above the heads of people in her way. The same content expression was plastered on her face as she admired the scenery, and it remained there for as long as I watched.

Twenty minutes went by before she stood up and started walking back the same way she came from. So once again, I followed her. She went straight to a house, which I presumed was her own, and that's when I realised. Naturally, I like to know who lives in this city so I keep up to date on all the houses that get put up for rent or sale. But alas! This house has a new inhabitant. That explained why she seemed quietly confident and why I'd not seen her before - she must have been living there for about 4 to 7 months. My my, it really had been a while since I'd visited the lively city of Ikebukuro.