“Ngh…”
As if destiny were repeating itself once more, there came the familiar faint sting of impact, the familiar scent of orange hairspray, and the familiar blue-haired boy.
Shido Itsuka slammed hard into the person on the other side of the corner.
The shopping bags in both of his hands looked as though they were about to slip out of his grip, yet Shiratori—who had been struck by him—released the books in her hands with incredible speed.
Leaning her body forward, her right hand caught the two shopping bags mid-air while her left hand caught Shido’s tumbling frame.
Shido’s balance rested entirely between his heels and Shiratori’s arm, placing their faces unexpectedly close—Shiratori’s face came just shy of pressing right against Shido’s.
For a split second, Shido could even feel the girl’s warm breath brushing against his skin, though his brain was still stuck on the realization that he was about to fall.
Still, no matter how one looked at this scenario, the roles clearly should have been reversed.
A teenage boy being caught by the waist by a girl could hardly keep people from letting their imaginations run wild.
“Are you alright?”
Having been bumped into a second time, Shiratori didn’t retreat several steps back like before.
After all, having already experienced that previous “misunderstanding” with Shido, she had unconsciously put her guard up whenever passing by corners recently.
“Ah…
um, thank you!”
“You’re welcome.
Try to pay a little more attention around corners next time, even though telling you that doesn’t seem to do much good.”
Because Shiratori had tossed her books aside just now to rescue Shido’s shopping bags, her books were currently scattered all over the pavement like autumn leaves stuck in mud.
Though there was no actual mud, the dust had still dirtied her books.
At that moment, Shido suddenly let out an “Ah”.
“Did you figure it out?
I’m the same girl you bumped into earlier.
If you’re worrying about whether you’ll be misunderstood for hitting on me again, please rest assured.
I have zero interest in that area, and from an objective angle, this looks more like me hitting on you instead.
Though it’s all a massive coincidence, these things do have a probability of occurring.”
Flawlessly predicting every single word Shido wanted to say next, Shiratori left him staring at her face in utter dumbfounded shock.
Yet, not a single emotion flickered across Shiratori’s face.
Acting as if none of this pertained to her, she pulled Shido upright, handed him his shopping bags, then turned around to bend down and pick up the books scattered across the ground.
Shido felt his mind spinning in utter chaos, though in truth, he had recognized her the moment he caught a clear look at her face.
During those brief few seconds, Shido’s brain had undergone a train of thought comparable to the Big Bang, with the single most critical point still centered around avoiding weird rumors being spread about him.
Going off this situation, however, Shido indeed didn’t need to worry just as Shiratori had pointed out.
But because his brain was completely unable to process her predictive answers, his entire body remained frozen on the spot.
“Um…” Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
“What is it?
If it’s an apology, you don’t need to bother.
It’d only make me feel inexplicably uncomfortable.”
Shiratori suddenly shifted her gaze back to him, looking at him with a deadpan, serious expression.
“…Eh?”
Shot down before he could even speak, Shido froze once more.
He really had been about to apologize.
The girl in front of him was acting as if she could read minds, accurately predicting his inner thoughts every single time as though she had known him all along.
Yet Shido didn’t even know her name to begin with.
Just as he reached out a hand wanting to help her pick up the books, Shiratori had already wiped the last one clean and tucked it into her arms.
“I’m really so sorry…
Someone at home was rushing me, so I was walking a bit too fast…”
Muttering stammered sounds from his throat, Shido scratched his head in sheer embarrassment.
Running into a gorgeous girl twice in a row was awkward enough, but having her pre-emptively speak every single thought in his head left him with nothing to say—all he could do was repeat the reason for this “coincidence”.
Aside from that, however, he couldn’t come up with anything else to talk about.
After all, everything that needed to be said had already been said, yet he felt like he absolutely had to say something.
“I know what you’re thinking.
It’s basically along the lines of needing to say something to break this awkward tension, but worrying that saying too little will make it feel like forced small talk.”
“!?!
N-No, it’s not!”
“Then you search your mind only to realize how severely lacking your vocabulary is.
But making a plain apology feels far too selfish, while doing nothing feels completely unnatural.”
“Ngh…!”
“So you sink right back into searching your vocabulary bank, and the longer you stay silent, the more the embarrassment inside leaks out onto the surface.
Panicking over reasons like ‘if I don’t say something soon, I’ll die of embarrassment,’ it escalates into your whole body trembling uncomfortably.”
“AAAAAHHHHH…!”
Shido felt a new dark history taking shape in real time.
Clutching his throbbing head, he let out a painful wail. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“And after that…”
Shiratori crossed her index fingers together, tapping them as if counting off a list.
“STOP TALKING ALREADY!
AAAAAHHH!”
“As you wish.”
Shido used what little dignity he had left to unleash one final cry of anguish.
Shiratori obliged and shut her mouth, but Shido’s entire being lost all color at that very moment, a white soul-like substance spurting from the corner of his mouth as he slumped powerlessly against the wall.
Shido was petrified.
“Uh…
why did your color palette suddenly change?”
Shiratori poked Shido’s stiffened cheek with her finger.
It was hard as a rock—or rather, no different from an actual stone.
“Does speaking the truth really make a person this embarrassed?
Looks like I have another emotional topic to research.”
Looking down at the stone-statue Shido she had poked onto the ground, Shiratori let out a helpless sigh.
It seemed research topics were only going to keep piling up along her journey.
Still, this was Shiratori’s first time encountering a “petrification” phenomenon.
She had always been quite curious: if she took a marker and painted colors back onto them while the petrification lasted, what would happen?
Of course, that was completely unrealistic—mostly because the phenomenon itself was unrealistic to begin with.
“Well, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be taking my leave.”
Looking at the sun gradually dipping beneath the horizon, Shiratori realized she had wasted far too much time today.
Furthermore, it was best to find an inn to stay at before nightfall; while she wasn’t afraid of sleeping outside, it would be troublesome if the police caught her for questioning.
Word had it they would forcibly send her home or something similar, and Shiratori didn’t want to put on an act or lie at a time like that.
“I’m heading off.”
Taking another look at the stone-statue Shido, Shiratori squatted down and poked him with her finger once more.
He should be fine, right?
Generally speaking, the time needed for embarrassment to fade should be about up by now, though he seemed to have recalled some dark history, so he might need a bit longer to recover.
With the mindset that “Shido needs some quiet time alone,” Shiratori left the area.
She had to find an inn before darkness completely blanketed the sky.
Hopefully, no more accidents would happen along the way.