Eizan and Mio cooked dinner together. He was showing her how to make different dishes. He could tell she was looking at him impatiently every once in a while. He couldn’t help but smile trying to hide his discomfort. They finished dinner and ate at the table like normal. After dinner she was glaring at him. Finally, he sighed and looked at her. “You’re glaring at me quite a lot.”

“You said after dinner we would finish our talk from earlier.”

“Damn, I thought you might forget.”

In a cold icy tone she said. “Not going to happen so spill it. Who is this girl you so badly don’t want to talk about.”

“It’s not for the reason you think. We never dated or anything like that.”

“Then why don’t you want to talk?”

“It’s complicated and I don’t know where to even start.” She was glaring at him again. “Fine. Her name is Ogata Minami and we grew up together. We were close up until a little over a year ago. We were neighbors and played together often. She even stayed at my house many times. We were inseparable until she got a boyfriend. That’s when the trouble started.”

“He didn’t like the fact that you two were close?”

“No not exactly. He was actually a close friend of mine. Someone I played soccer with and someone I thought I knew well. He was the captain of the soccer team and I had known him since we were friends. I was happy for them.”

“I see.” She could tell the look on his face wasn’t good. But she still wanted him to continue.

He had paused and seemed to be looking a thousand kilometers away. “You remember how I told you about the incident at my last school.” She nodded. “I told you it involved someone else and I didn’t really elaborate. The other person was my Minami. Her boyfriend had somehow gotten naked pictures of her and was sending them to other boys on the soccer team. I hadn’t seen the pictures but I had heard about it from one of the other players. I got mad and confronted them about it. The next thing I knew we were fighting and I was being dragged down to the police station. I had threatened to turn them in to the school. They got pissed off and attacked me. Needless to say, that was a miscalculation on my part. Since they were my friends, I thought I could convince them to delete the pictures. Afterwards, before I had a chance to talk to Minami, he had blamed everything on me. He told her that I had gotten ahold of her phone and sent the pictures to myself and others. She believed him and we haven’t talked since. He even told the school the same thing and I was expelled. Later I heard, she found out it was him sending the pictures, but our relationship was ruined. He was eventually expelled and my name was cleared thanks to my grandfather. I don’t know how he got them to confess, but it probably wasn’t pretty.”

Mio looked angry “That’s just horrible. How could they do such a thing.”

Eizan smiled and rubbed the top of her head to calm her down. “It’s ok. I’m happy now. It’s all in the past.”

She looked up at him with still slightly angry look on her face “How can you be so calm about it?”

He burst out laughing “I hospitalized half the soccer team. I think I’ve pretty much vented my anger. For a long time afterwards, I just felt empty. If it hadn’t been for Ome and his honest and annoying behavior I might have never come out of it. I owe that guy more than he realizes.” Her anger had subsided for the most part. “I also owe you a lot.”

“Me?”

“I was incredibly wary of girls until I met you. Honestly, if I hadn’t kept bumping into you, I probably never would have talked to you again. I don’t know why, but for some reason I never felt I had to be wary of you. At least not in that sense.”

She tilted her head “And in what sense do I make you wary?”

“I don’t know if that’s the right choice of words. But you do seem to drag me into a lot of compromising situations.”

“When have I ever done something like that?”

He laughed “Let me see.” He put his hand on his chin jokingly like he was thinking hard. “For starters, you got yourself stuck in a bad rain storm and then had to stay at my house. Your obsessive childhood friend kicked the crap out of me with his buddies. You showed up at the hospital and my dad yelled at me after you told him you slept in my bed. You showed up at my apartment as a runaway. And just recently you made the deputy mayor think we were engaged. Yeah, that about sums it up.”

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She was staring at him with a surprised look on her face. “I-I don’t know what to say.”

He flicked her on the forehead. “Don’t worry about it. Besides, since you entered my life, everything has been exciting. You know before you came along, I never really hung out with anyone outside of school. I would just sit in this apartment and read. Yeah, I still played soccer and went to work, but my life had a grey feeling to it. You’ve brought a lot of color into my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He reached up and flicked her on the forehead again. “Just try to stay out of trouble.”

She was currently puffing out her cheeks and rubbing her forehead. “I didn’t mean to do any of that. You big meanie.” He burst out laughing and she started to hit him on his leg. She called him an idiot over and over again as she hit him. She put no strength into her punches, so he could do nothing but smile.

She eventually settled down and they both took showers and were laying around the apartment reading. Eizan was currently laying on the bed reading a text book and she was sitting at the table reading a novel. She looked over at the chemistry text book he was reading. “Um, I have a question for you.” He looked over at her. “Do you really dumb down your conversations with people?”

He stared at her for a few seconds. “In what way do you mean?”

“I-I don’t really know. It’s just something your mother told me.”

He sighed and put the text book down. “I wish she wouldn't tell people that. Yes and no. It’s more like I just don’t bring up complicated subjects that other people wouldn’t be able to talk about. I don’t really do anything besides that.”

“Do you feel like you can have an engaging conversation with me about complicated subjects.”

He frowned “Why would that matter?”

“Won’t you get bored of someone, who you can’t have an engaging conversation with.”

“No, not really. Are you worried that I will get bored with you?”

She blushed and looked down at the floor. “I-I don’t know.”

He laughed “That’s not really something you have to worry about. I have a lot of knowledge, but I’m not really passionate about any of it. Luckily, I have never become obsessed with a single subject. If anything, I would prefer to have conversations about normal things. My uncle likes to have long conversations about the medical field and get my opinions on subjects from time to time. I find it to be annoying, more than anything. My parents raised me pretty normally, so I guess I just prefer regular conversations.”

“I see.” She still had a worried look on her face.

He stood up from the bed, walked over to her and sat down. She was surprised by his actions. “Have I ever seemed bored when you were around?”

“N-no, I don’t think so.”

“I have never thought of you as boring.”

“But, what if in the future.” He put a finger on her lips to stop her from talking.

“So what if were bored around each other. Do you think we will always be entertained when were together?” She shook her head. “I’m sure there will be times when we are bored with each other. It’s not like every day is some kind of event riddled spectacle. Sometimes there’s just nothing interesting going on. That’s just life.”

She nodded. “So, what you’re saying is that I’m worried about nothing?”

“Not exactly, I have a question for you. Are your parents always in the same room, when their home?”

“Well, no. Now that you mention it.”

“Neither are mine. They both have fulfilling lives that are completely different from one another. They still love each other and spend time together. It’s just not every second of every day. My parents are a good example of this. Do you think my father can talk to my mother about particle physics?” She shook her head. “Of course, he can’t. He’s a handyman/businessman and my mother, is an incredible mathematician and computer programing expert. Yet, I have never seen them struggle to have a conversation. Do you know why that is?”

“Is it because they love each other?”

“Exactly. There’s no reason to be worried. I’ll always be interested in what you have to say. I don’t think I will ever get bored of having a conversation with you.”

She blushed and he started to rub the top of her head. She couldn’t help but think “Did he, in a roundabout way, just imply that he loves me?” She stopped him from petting her head and told him she needed to use the restroom. She was staring at herself in the mirror. Her face was completely red. Her thoughts were running wild. “Is he really in love with me? I know he’s made a few remarks, but I never took them too seriously.” She thought back to what he said in the car last night. An image of Eizan appeared in her head and his words stuck in her mind. “I got mad at him for robbing me of the chance to woo you myself.” Her thoughts went wild again “I thought he was just playing with me. But now that I think back to everything, he’s implied it many times. I can’t be wrong. He’s definitely in love with me, right?” She stared at herself in the mirror for a while. “Am I in love with him? I know I have strong feelings for him. But is it love? How can I know for sure?”

He had relocated to the bed. He was laying there staring at the text book he had been reading a few minutes prior. “Did I do something wrong? She’s been in there a long time.” Eventually, she came out of the bathroom and acted like nothing had happened. They read books like they had before. A while later they went to bed like normal and Eizan thought nothing more of it.

Mio on the other hand was wide-awake lying-in bed lost in thought. She started staring at his sleeping face as he lay on the floor lightly snoring. Her heart was racing as she watched him sleep. “Am I in love with him? How can I confirm it? Am I sure he's actually in love with me? I’ll talk to Ren tomorrow, maybe she can help.”