The whole time,
he looked directly at me
with his mysterious, gray eyes.

Calling me by my first name...
even though we've just met.

Somehow,
it's a little embarrassing.

Feeling shy,
I averted my gaze.

"W-would you like a tour of the school, Ichihara-kun?"

The words flowed out of my mouth so naturally.

Ichihara Kazuo reply came just as smoothly afterwards.

"I'd like that."

And for a short instance,

I thought I saw

the corners of his lips curl up ever so slightly.

                       A small, gentle smile.

But it disappeared just as quickly as it came,

leaving me to wonder if it was all a part of my imagination.

Even so,
I knew I had seen something special.

And unbeknownst to me at that time,
there were many, many more special moments still to come for the both of us.

                                        --Because this was only the start. 

                             The beginning of a new and bittersweet friendship.

A/N: I'm really sorry for being away for so long! o(>< )o Updates will be posted soon...

 thank you so much for being patient this entire time! 人(_ _*)