Chapter 27: What Are You Looking For?

Chapter 27: What Are You Looking For?

Running away was thrilling.

A flight that seemed like eloping under everyone’s eyes was even more interesting.

Kazama Sakura supported Yatsuno Gen’s arm all the way out of the private room and into the still-brilliant sunlight.

She felt a secret delight.

Everyone should have seen the scene of her helping Yatsuno Gen walk out, right? Now, surely no other blind girls would approach him, right?

And he had not said anything either. When she helped him out, he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit... Did that itself represent some kind of meaning?

She secretly looked at him, and Yatsuno Gen happened to look over too.

“Still not letting go? I’m not an old man. Why keep supporting me?”

Only then did the girl release her hand with a flushed face. The sunlight shone on both of them, yet it seemed unable to compare with the scent she had smelled when she had been close to him just now.

Sunlight originally had no scent, but when it fell on him, it gained a concrete image.

“Didn’t you drink too much...”

Her voice even carried a faintly wronged tone.

Yatsuno Gen could not help laughing.

“Do I look like someone who drank too much? It was just an excuse to leave. I don’t believe you didn’t notice.”

Of course Kazama Sakura had noticed. She simply had her own little thoughts and had not exposed him.

“You really are fine after drinking that much just now?”

“What could happen from beer? I’m not you, going crazy after drinking just a little.”

“I did not go crazy from drinking!”

Kazama Sakura snapped at him, her cheeks flushed.

Mainly, she remembered her exaggerated behavior that night. It seemed that after drinking just a little alcohol, she had begun pretending to be drunk and saying things she had never dared to say before, even like a pitiful stray dog begging him to take her in.

Even thinking about it now made her want to find a pillow, bury her face in it, and roll around wildly.

“Fine, fine, if you say you didn’t, then you didn’t.”

The boy stood by the roadside, letting the unrestrained summer wind wildly toss his short hair.

Kazama Sakura looked at the distance between them, then lightly shifted her steps closer to him, a little, then a little more.

Then she pretended nothing was happening and asked, “Are you going home now?”

The boy glanced at her.

“Do you really want me to go home? Then I might as well go back.”

“...I didn’t say that!”

“Then what do you mean?”

The smiling boy looked at her. The mischievous look in his brows and eyes made his bad intentions obvious.

He clearly knew she did not want him to go home, and clearly knew she wanted to stay with him a little longer.

Yet he deliberately asked.

And yet she still fell for it.

She clearly had the shyness and reserve of a girl, but she could not help being tricked, challenging her own limits again and again.

There was a slightly hazy mist in her eyes, not from crying, only from being dazed.

Her pink lips gently opened and closed, as though sunlight could shine onto the crystalline threads within.

“I want to walk around a bit more. With you.”

“Mm. Then let’s go.”

The boy answered very easily, as though he had already expected that answer. That was true. Her answers were always very obvious... So how did he always manage to pretend not to see them and act dense?

Thinking of that, she felt she ought to be even angrier.

This bustling commercial street was filled with dazzling things.

Arcades, figures, cafes, bars, everything was there. Although unlike Aoiike, it was not so steeped in sensual luxury.

There were still many people on the road. In this passionate weather, countless men and women crossed streets and alleys, walking together in pairs.

And Kazama Sakura and Yatsuno Gen seemed to have become one pair among them.

“Do you want milk tea?”

There were quite a few people in front of the milk tea shop too. Kazama Sakura looked over there. In front of Yatsuno Gen, she always could not help feeling like standing on tiptoe and bouncing around, as though she had turned into an elementary schooler.

“If you want to drink it, then buy it. But in weather this hot, you really want milk tea?”

“Of course with ice. Why are you so old-fashioned?”

The girl said with a smile.

Yatsuno Gen shrugged helplessly.

“Then I’m truly sorry. I really am not a fashionable person. Are you starting to dislike me already?”

“Yes, yes. Boys are very easily disliked by girls, especially a pretty girl like me.”

She even lifted her face proudly. With her bright features and her sparkling eyes, she looked so tempting that one wanted to take a bite.

“You’re always saying I’m narcissistic, but I see you’re not inferior at all.”

“I learned it all from you. Hehe~”

“All right, go buy the milk tea.”

The girl bought two cups of milk tea. The weather outside was quite hot, and there seemed to be no suitable place to sit and rest.

So when she saw a cinema, Kazama Sakura suddenly had an idea.

“Do you want to watch a movie?”

“Now?”

“Mm, mm, mm.”

The girl holding matcha milk tea nodded repeatedly.

“Although we didn’t buy tickets in advance, and I don’t know what movies are playing. But it should be fine to sit for a while, right? Or are you very busy and have something to do later?”

As she spoke, her eyes began to turn suspicious, as though she were scrutinizing the boy’s expression.

A cute probe.

Yatsuno Gen took a sip of the grape-flavored milk tea in his hand and said, “All right, stop testing me. I have nothing to do all day today. Even if you don’t go home and want me to stay with you overnight, that’s fine.”

“Who wants to stay overnight!”

Kazama Sakura argued quietly with a red face.

“Oh. Then that’s boring.”

“What vulgar thing are you thinking about! Are we going or not?”

The girl blinked, her pink face gazing at Yatsuno Gen.

Yatsuno Gen nodded.

“We’re going, we’re going. Everything will be according to what you say.”

“Good~”

Satisfied, Kazama Sakura brought Yatsuno Gen to the cinema. There seemed to be even more people there, countless men and women, all in intimate relationships.

The scene made the girl standing beside the boy feel as though she and he had also become that kind of relationship.

Don’t ask why it felt so secretly thrilling. Sometimes, when you went out, your identity relied entirely on your own imagination.

In the end, they chose a modern urban romance film that had just been released this year. Yatsuno Gen actually had only average interest in this type of film.

But little girls just loved watching this sort of thing.

She even specially bought popcorn and cola.

It counted as the standard set.

Their seats were fairly good, in the middle. The two sat side by side. The entire screening room was almost full, after all, both the male and female leads of this film were currently the hottest movie stars.

“Do you know this female lead?”

Kazama Sakura beside him asked quietly.

Yatsuno Gen shook his head.

“I don’t. Why?”

“You don’t even know Mochizuki Miki? I love her so much!”

Kazama Sakura beside him was a little excited.

Yatsuno Gen said strangely, “Am I supposed to know her?”

“Of course! Very few people don’t know her, right? Her advertisements are all over the streets, and she’s the spokesperson for countless high-end luxury brands. She’s only twenty-six this year, and she’s already showing signs of becoming famous throughout all of Asia. She’s super amazing.”

As she spoke, the movie opened, and the first shot that appeared on the screen was a long close-up straight to the face.

In the cinematic image, amid carefully adjusted filters and color tones,

This woman, with the charm of a slightly mature older-sister type, seemed born with a world-weary face.

Through the camera, she seemed to be looking at you, peering into your heart.

Especially the tear mole beneath her left eye, which seemed to make people remember her appearance at first glance.

She did indeed possess naturally blessed advantages.

“She’s very beautiful, right? And she has such presence. I heard that she’s also very famous in the yuri fandom. She’s practically top-tier dream material.”

“Yuri fandom? You have that kind of interest too?”

With just one glance, Yatsuno Gen seemed to focus on the wrong point.

The girl blushed faintly.

“What interest? I just happened to know.”

“Always knowing useless things like this. No wonder your grades are so bad.”

“Why talk about that when we’re out having fun? You’re so annoying.”

“Does that mean you don’t need me to tutor you anymore?”

This was something he had promised the girl long ago, but it seemed they had not had time to start yet.

To Kazama Sakura, improving her grades really did not seem that important, but this matter was a perfectly legitimate opportunity to increase the chances of spending time alone with him.

So she immediately pouted.

“No~ You promised me.”

“You really want everything.”

“Of course. I’m very greedy too.”

She nodded in tiny motions, secretly delighted. She really was very greedy.

For example, right now, she very much wanted to turn her head sideways and lean against the boy’s shoulder.

She wanted to be like the men and women around them, letting him put an arm around her shoulders.

If they watched the movie like that, would she feel even more immersed?

But Yatsuno Gen, who was usually always so improper, was now as well-behaved as an upright gentleman, leaning against the chair, drinking milk tea, and watching the movie.

As though only that would be worthy of the movie ticket she had bought.

The movie ticket really is not important, idiot!

With complicated feelings, and even feeling a little itchy, Kazama Sakura barely watched the content of the movie.

She felt her heartbeat becoming faster and faster. It seemed harder and harder to suppress that restless impulse.

Until she finally caught the instant when Yatsuno Gen reached out to take some popcorn. So she directly held her breath, looked at the screen without moving her eyes, and relied purely on feeling.

Reach out!

When her hand entered it,

What she was looking for was not popcorn, but...

Eh?

Strange?

Why was there no familiar warm touch?

This popcorn bucket was not that big!

Where was his hand?

Where was such a big hand?!

Until,

“What are you looking for in the popcorn?”

The boy’s mischievous laughter appeared beside her ear. Kazama Sakura subconsciously turned her head and saw him looking at her playfully.

And the hand she had been bitterly searching for was now at the edge of the popcorn bucket, as though quietly waiting, like a trap set by a skilled hunter.

In an instant, the girl became red-faced and could not help withdrawing her hand to scratch her neck, as though every part of her body had suddenly become itchy.

“I-I’m not looking for anything. Just eating popcorn.”

“Anyone who didn’t know better would think you were washing your hands with popcorn. How am I supposed to eat it now?”

Hearing Yatsuno Gen deliberately say that, the girl held in a bellyful of anger and could not help snapping,

“All you know is eating! I’ll just go out and buy you another one.”

“Why are you getting anxious as you talk?”

As he spoke, Yatsuno Gen reached out.

Kazama Sakura thought he wanted the popcorn, so she handed the bucket over.

Unexpectedly, Yatsuno Gen took the popcorn bucket and set it down.

Then he held the girl’s soft, tender, exceptionally delicate little hand.

“Eh, eh?!”

Kazama Sakura’s eyes widened, caught completely off guard.

She stared blankly at Yatsuno Gen, then looked at her hand being held.

Her gaze moved back and forth between the two places.

The boy showed her a gentle, peaceful smile.

“For the sake of you treating me to a movie, I’ll let you touch it for a while. Don’t thank me too much.”

“As if anyone cares...”

The girl turned her head away with disdain on her face.

Yatsuno Gen smiled.

“Then let go.”

The girl directly clasped Yatsuno Gen’s five fingers with her own in return, no longer caring whether her palm was sweating.

Whether it had become sticky.

She could not miss this.

Just as she could not miss the cicadas of summer, the heavy snow of winter, or his palm, that temperature that made her crave it.

What was the movie about?

It no longer mattered.

They would be a very good movie too, right?