OUTCAST ── .✦ satosugu

05 A GLEAM OF SCARLET DREAMS

3RD PERSON POV:

Aside from the secret warfare of words on paper behind everyone's backs, life was passing very plainly: regardless of circumstance that lived under clockwork, with surprisingly little of that chaos which had always seemed so inherent of a part in high school life.

After the last letter written on the 12th of February, another two days creeped by and Satoru found himself after school wandering around in the thick layer of snow in town, which only continued to grow thicker as winter was near to end.

If the weather goes on like this we'll celebrate Christmas again this March, he thought. As he was about to cross the street he noticed a vague, familiar silhouette with black hair absorbing all the light around it and the wispy bangs spread across the person's face blown by the wind.

As the trace of the passerby's features grew closer, a sharp wise face, as alert and poised as a black cat's, deft lines of nose and jaw, their sights met and tightened until they passed right by another, and Satoru grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket.

"What?" Suguru asked, startled.

Satoru walked along with him to back to the sidewalk. "Whaddoyamean' what? You didn't respond to my letter!"

"Shhh!" Suguru calmed him down, grabbing his shoulder softly. "It's been two days, let me breathe." his breath ran hazy white in the cold.

"And? I don't know how seriously you take these letters but it's all I'm thinkin' about."

"Satoru, I care, but I have other things on my mind right now." seeing his friend's puzzled expression, he carried on "Let's take this somewhere else, should we?" he pointed his head towards the park by the street.

They flicked the snow off a bench and sat down. "It sure is freezing." Suguru reproached, pausing to find his words. A cold current raft hovered by their faces. "I don't think it's a good idea to ... meet each other."

"Says who?" Satoru cut him off.

Suguru glanced at his face and felt on his shoulder a friendly pat deepening in his jacket, but Satoru's hands lingered onto him. 

Chilly locks of wind pleasantly ruffled his hair and his white eyelashes spiked crisply under the snow starting to lay upon them.

It was this unreality of character, this cartoonishness if you will, which was the secret of his appeal and what now made the look in his eyes and the touch of his palm so sad.

 He was so unfamiliar with this world. He used to be colored by a pure, naive glee, but there he stood then on the bench drained and dull by just a few months. 

He was so genuine of nostalgia, so refreshing to be brought so suddenly into the world.

"You know what? I'm in."

Satoru cheeked and boldly straightened his back, trying to smug off his excitement. "We can go for a walk, and, and maybe I can show you this new infinity trick I've been working on, and maybe, hm..., maybe we'll grab some hot tea afterwards?"

"You're pushing it." their laughs crinkled. "How does it happen that today's Valentines Day?"

"Does that mean anything to you?" Satoru asked, a puffed up grin creasing to his cheeks.

"I dunno', should it?"

Satoru looked at his slender trembling fingers, ashy and crimson from the cold, trying to act as if ignorant. "If this is your way of asking me..." A fist hardly dug in his jacket from Suguru. "Hey!"

"Don't get too proud," he giggled.

The two walked and chattered shyly. They got unused of facing each other and touching further than the pen for the past couple of months. In letters they shed pieces, flowers that could've bloomed in conversations, spoke in fragments, reached for the most to offer, but now they seemed like strangers or afresh, vast acquaintances.