Origami Girl

Chapter 22: Lest the Blossoms Conceal the Bodies (TEASER)

Hello~ I'm sorry I haven't been able to update the past month, I was quite busy with my examinations before my long break, but now that it's over and done with, I'll be sure to be able to find more time to write :D

So here, have a teaser of the upcoming chapter while I finish it up~

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"Can I ask you something Ayano-chan?" Yukino-kun asked, his lips parting ever so slightly.

"Go on," I replied. "What is it?"

Yukino-kun looked at the ground, before finally managing to re-establish eye contact with me again.

"What is it about me that you like? Of all people, why me?" he finally said, gazing at me with his hazel eyes through the gaps in his fringe.

His question took me rather off guard.

"It's hard to say," I finally managed to mutter. "You're a nice person, I guess."

"Isn't Kashiwagi-san a 'nice person' too?" the boy replied. "Why aren't you with him instead?"

Nervously, I took a glance at my boyfriend, but he didn't seem angry at all, as I had feared. Perhaps it was just an honest question, an honest question which I had difficulty searching for an honest answer.

"Let's see. . ." I managed to finally pull off. "For one, you're really caring, and you're really sweet."

"What else?" he questioned further.

"You're really loyal, and I can trust you," I added. "And you're kind."

I had never really given much thought to how I came to love Yukino-kun. As a whole, I liked him for who he was, but when the boy stood in front of me and asked me to list down all the attributes about him that I liked, I found that I couldn't say the words from my heart. I was like a parrot, muttering words to please.

It was a bit hard to explain it to myself, and even harder to explain to Yukino-kun. I didn't mean to say that I didn't like him because of those reasons that I had listed -I did-, but it was difficult for me to pinpoint it to him that it wasn't really because of those little attributes that made me like him. I liked Yukino-kun because he was Yukino-kun. The sweet, melancholic, gruff, lonely young man who belonged to no one else but me.

My answer seemed to satisfy Yukino-kun, or so it seemed at first. We exited the main torii gate leading to the roadside, and once again I could see the lights of the city in the far distance. I followed Yukino-kun, still pondering over his previous question, when my boyfriend headed over to the road shoulder. I was slightly confused, but I went up to join him.

Yukino-kun leaned back, his two palms resting on the metal. In front of us were the golden and silver lights of downtown Sapporo up north. The glow of the city sent a pale radiance to pierce the sky's indigo veil. The feeling was familiar, the two of us alone with a spreadsheet of the glowing and flickering of lights beholding self to us. It reminded me of the time during the summer break of our first year when we admired the lights of Hokkaido behind the observatory building. Yukino-kun had brought his guitar along back then, and I could still clearly remember seeing him pluck his guitar and softly singing the lyrics of that sweet, melancholic song as the city lights spread itself in front of us like a carpet.

"It's much prettier here than from my grandfather's house," Yukino-kuns chuckled, beaming me a smile as I stared in awe at the beautiful sight.

"It's beautiful," I said.

"Sure is," the boy replied. "It's the things like these that make me miss my time back in Sapporo. Haven't gotten the chance to come back here in months."