Stars | Ishigami Senku (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter Five

The café was nestled between a book store and a computer shop.

You gazed outside the large glass window of the establishment, eyes transfixed on the skies that bled pink and blue. Several people treaded on the sidewalk, their passing conversations muffled just like the roaring engines of the cars.

The ca​fé was much livelier than you had expected. They were playing upbeat tunes fit for the afternoon on repeat inside, and you see several individuals clad in their business attires and a few high school students occupying many tables.

You and Senku were bundled in a booth beside the window of the shopfront, and every once in a while you would glance at the young boy across the table in hopes of making eye contact. For the past few minutes spent sitting in the booth, the boy was seemingly bent on ignoring you for as long as possible.

He was peering at everything inside the ca​fé, displaying a surprising amount of interest on a portrait in the corner instead of acknowledging your presence. You began to assume that he didn't like the way you looked. Was he repelled by your face? Disgusted even? Maybe he was just shy?

Actually, Senku being bashful was the least helpful opinion you had thought of as to why he wouldn't even avert his wandering gaze to your form.

You weren't good with memorizing the concept of time, but you could assume that three months have already passed since you've known the boy.

And even with how many days had gone by, Senku still wasn't warming up to you. Not even the slightest. His ruby red eyes were just as cold and sharp whenever you would coincidentally meet in the school corridors during recess and lunch. His reasons for negating your existence were unfathomable that you could bet that even the smartest of scientists wouldn't have a single clue.

To you, Senku was the vast sky itself. Depending on his mood, he would either bask you in his unforgivable rays of sarcasm or rain on your parade until you were absolutely drenched with guilt and melancholy.

But apart from his sardonic personality and his ways of guilt-tripping you like it was his second nature, you can never seem to read him. Other emotions such as happiness or fear were foreign. Heavyhearted expressions and cheerful smiles were rare. You especially tried to trigger his gleeful side and failed miserably when all he did was scoff and walk away.

You've been wondering this whole time. To what sort of extreme measures did you have to resort to just to witness another side of him beside his grumpiness and brassbound honesty?

You have a feeling you might never have an answer to that question, and that instills a dejected feeling in your stomach. Not being able to understand Senku decreases your chances of being friends with him. Having absolutely nothing in common with someone and trying in vain to socialize with them was worth nothing. You and Senku were as good as strangers, and your dreams of befriending the boy was a lost cause.

You weren't selfish and genuinely liked Senku, but one of the main reasons why you wanted to be friends with the boy in the first place was because you were lonely. Not to mention that he was literally just a door away from where you lived.

Although they tried to manage their time for you, your parents were constantly working nowadays, leaving you on your own. Friendships with your classmates were made, severed, and mended. And even with all that chaos going on for weeks you still find it hard to find even a single, sincere friend out of it. Being left out, ignored and alone was the last thing you wanted. So you reached out to your next door neighbor Senku in hopes of coping with loneliness.

"Hey, were you even listening?"

You swiftly placed all of your attention on Senku's being, his words effectively snapping you out of your thoughts. Meeting his red gaze, you burst into a stream of apologies before saying, "I-I didn't hear you the first time. Can you repeat that?"