BEST* Series: Book 1

First Sight : The Start

"If there is anything better than to be loved it is loving", someone once told me. And for a young man like me, who is loved by everyone, that phrase is an insult and slur. But that very same couch made a man like me fall more deep for the girl who told me that words, made me fall in love for the first time.

I never thought that I would and could feel that tingling sensation in my stomach as if a group of butterflies is having a celebration of something. Maybe because she's approaching. I never thought that my heart could thump so hard and fast whenever she's near-especially when she always accidentally sleeps on my shoulder. *grins* I never thought that her refreshing smile which was like a rainbow when I was a kid, it seldom appears, could make my heart also smile. I never thought that a mysterious girl like her could make someone like me looked like a clumsy loser in front of her and everyone. I never thought that she could leave me speechless with her unexplainable fleeting stare at me. It made me curious. Never thought that I'd fall in love with a girl who I rarely talk to. Even though we would always go home late after attending cram school together. But not really together, you know what I mean. And I didn't know why but we would always sit together in one particular part in the bus, that long cozy chair at the back. I never thought that I'd say this but... thanks to that stupid cram school, riding home late on a bus had never been exciting and... Oh, this feeling is so hard to put into a word.

Experiencing all that would be next to impossible for someone like me but I did. I felt all those wonderful and mysterious feelings and it felt so good. Loving her made me complete and satisfied. Loving someone, instead of being loved by everyone, feels good-even better. I'm Takaki Yuya and this is my first and last love story.

***

It started when I sat beside her in the bus going to my new school. I had no choice but to sit beside her because almost of the chairs were occupied. And besides I preferred that long cozy chair at the back because it's snug and quiet, seldom people sat there.

As I sat down, I glanced beside me. My first impression for her was she's lazy and indolent. Well it's obviously because she's sleeping. Her saliva was sliding on her cheek, her head bouncing up and down with the moving bus. It's like that dog on the dashboard of my mother's car. I noticed that she's also in high school and in fact she's a student of my new school.

"I hope she's not my classmate" I prayed as I wore my earphones. I just don't like a lazy person, that's all. I continued staring at her and I couldn't help but noticed, "She's cute" I silently commented. Well, minus the saliva on her mouth, she looked like an angel.

I got curious. It looked like she always did that every morning-sleeping on the bus I mean.

What the heck did she do last night that made her so tired and sleep on a bus? I got more curious. But who cares? I do? Why? It's not like I like her or something. Nah, that's impossible. I don't like a girl who oozes saliva in her sleep. And I don't even know this girl. As I thought that, she suddenly leaned on my shoulder.

"What?" I felt her hair slid down on my shoulder... and it smelled so good like the potted lavenders in my mother's mini garden in her room. But then again, I was still pissed off. I pushed her back on the window side. As I touched her, I felt a sudden shock that crawled from my hand to my whole body. I quickly pulled away from her.

What the heck was that? I thought as I stared at my shuddering hands. This girl... I stared at her. Then I heard something, I drum-like sound. What's that? I listened carefully and to my surprise, it's coming from my... It can't be. I protested. No.