It was bugging him indeed.

Not only was she wearing huge eye glasses and her hair loosely hung at her waist as if it had never been styled. She was quiet and seemed to hide away from everything like a mouse. Unlike the other girls in his class, she didn’t gaze at him from afar; she didn’t swoon at the mere glance at one of his smiles. She leans over her school work, and drawings and books. When he first noticed her she didn’t spare him a glance, her disregarding presence nagged at the back of his mind.

Yes, it was indeed bothering him.

--------------------------------------------------

“Uta?” Daishiro repeated as he snuck a glance to the side to look at the girl he had noticed two weeks ago.

“Yeah, we went to the same middle school together.” Matsu informed him, “She’s not really someone who talks a lot. She always got the best grades; and she draws and writes all the time she isn’t doing school work. A few guys thought she would be a cool girlfriend because of her brains, but she rejected them all,” Daishiro tilted his head, watching the girl even closer. She didn’t even turn to look over at him as she turned the page in her text book.

“So she’s been in our class this whole time?” He asked curiously, Matsu nodded as he raised his eyebrow.

“Not to be poke my nose into your business, but why the sudden interest?” he asked, Daishiro shrugged as he leaned back in his chair. He cradled his arms behind his head as he turned his eyes to look up at the ceiling.

“No particular reason,” he answered nonchalantly, he looked over at the girl again just as she reached up to adjust her glasses. The movement struck something inside Daishiro as the first thing he’d seen her done regarding her appearance.

When he had started high school, life as he knew it, was perfect. His classmates were begging for someone to be their model and his reputation from middle school (And his to die for good looks) gave everyone the perfect candidate. He was immediately surrounded by people who looked up to him, and girls who loved him. Two months of high school went by and everyone loved him, everyone… but the girl in the back.

It had been two weeks ago that he first noticed her. At first he believed that she would be the type of nerd that would long for him from afar, would gaze into space with a smile of hopeless love on her face. To see if he was correct, he would flash smile’s in her general direction to get the look of heart throbbing wishes from her eyes. But she never even noticed because she was never looking. After the first week of her ignoring him, he decided the anonymous girl was jealous. After all, she was the best in school as far as grades went. Maybe she wished she had the attention he was getting for his sports ability and good looks.

But then, as the second week went by he noticed that if anyone paid her any mind, she would answer a question as quickly as possible or seem to shrink slightly if she was asked to hang out with anyone. No, this girl didn’t want attention. She wasn’t shy so much as she just seemed to want to be left alone.

It wasn’t until now that Daishiro wondered what her name was, and for some reason, the moment he learned about a little about her background, the more he wanted her to long for him. If anyone could make a girl fall in love for the first time, it was definitely him.

“Daishiro-kun?” a small timid voice spoke up in front of him. He immediately looked down at the girl who had slid in-between him and his thoughts. He leaned forward and smiled at the shorter girl in front of him.

“Yes? What can I do for you?” He asked in his easy going tone, the girl turned redder and smiled a cute shy smile.

“My… My friend wanted to give you this letter!” she said hastily pulling out a lavender envelope from her book bag and handing it to him.

“Well thank you.” He said with his grin the girl bowed then turned and fled giggling the whole way.

“You always get the cute ones don’t you,” Matsu groaned as Daishiro reflexively stole a glance at Uta. She had finished her homework and was packing her stuff away for the day. She looked over in his direction as she headed for the door, but before he could make eye contact she looked down at the floor and walked out of the room.

----------------------------------------

The envelope had a simple message, asking Daishiro to meet the mysterious sender at a train station not a block away from the school. He walked there with wide confident strides. He stopped to sit on a bench and awaited his mysterious companion.

“Daishiro-kun!!” A high pitched squeal erupted across the platform. He glanced down to see a girl that he recognized as someone in his science group running towards him her hand outstretched in the air waving vigorously.

“Kimiko-san?” He asked making sure he got her name right while she was still at a distance, thankfully he got it right this time.

“So Reiko got my letter to you?” She asked breathlessly when she made it to him. Daishiro nodded as he stood up, he smiled one of his prize smiles at her.

“What can I do for you Kimiko-san?” She seemed to swoon in front of him; her eyes grew large with anticipation.

“Would… would you like to go out for ice cream?!” She asked in a rush, “My treat of course!” Daishiro continued to smile as he led her down the street.

-------------------------------------------

“What would you like Kimiko-san?” Daishiro asked she looked around her mouth open wide in a smile.

“I don’t know! The Brownie Batter looks so good! But so does the Chocolate chunk chocolate fudge!”

“You like Chocolate don’t you?” Daishiro chuckled, Kimiko nodded, then her big golden-brown eyes widened.

“What about you Daishiro-kun?” she asked trying not to be rude. He looked thoughtful before smiling broadly.

“I don’t really like ice cream at all, but when I do eat it I go for a softer flavor like vanilla,” He said, the girl’s eyes widened even more.

“Oh I’m sorry!” She immediately apologized, “Would you like to go somewhere else?”

“No, I’m kind of in an ice cream mood now anyway,” He looked up and the flavors and chose a banana-nut. Kimiko ordered for them while he sat back at a table surrounded by empty ones. He sighed loudly; Kimiko was obviously buttering up some kind of confession. He grinned as she bounced over to him, her long blonde hair bobbed cutely.

“So, how’s your sports team going?” She asked as she sat down, she pulled a curl from her hair out of her eyes.

“Oh you know basketball and soccer are so-so, like usual. My personal favorite is kendo but that’s every other day…” As he spoke his eyes caught sight of a waiter bringing a plate of food to a table next to them. He blinked curiously; he didn’t remember seeing anyone sitting there before. The boy grinned down at the person before he walked away. Casually Daishiro tried to look behind Kimiko to see the mysterious customer, but Kimiko moved in his way again beginning to talk quickly. He caught sight of long wispy strands of hair before Kimiko blocked him entirely. Probably the waiter’s girlfriend, but when did she come in? Kimiko had gone quiet and was watching Daishiro expectantly, a waitress brought their ice cream to them as he shook his head and grinned at her.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” he asked, Kimiko turned red,

“You…weren’t… listening?” she asked, Daishiro’s smile faltered.

“I’m sorry I zoned for a few minuets,” Kimiko looked crestfallen.

“Well… I said… That I had a secret to tell you…” She took a few large bites of her ice cream. She was visibly trembling and her eyes darted around nervously. Daishiro smiled at her encouragingly as he took smaller bites of his own ice cream. She swallowed a large scoop of her chocolate frozen yogurt, before setting her spoon down next to her waffle bowl.

“Well… Daishiro-kun…” She cleared her throat, “I’ve realized that, the more I get to know you, the more I want to know you… And I… really… really…” She paused to close her eyes, “I really like you Daishiro-kun!” she finally said.

A small silence settled over them, Daishiro blinked before smiling. “I really like you too Kimiko-san,” She looked up at him with a bright, hopeful smile. “You’re really smart; I don’t think we would have pulled through that huge science project if it weren’t for you. You’re a really good friend,” Her expression plastered itself on her face as she let it sink in.

“Friend?” She said softly, her hand clenched itself into a fist as her bangs covered her eyes. “Yes… Ok…” she said slowly. She looked up at him with a teary smile.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t treat you to some thing you actually liked.” She stood up picking up her bowl, “I’ll see you at school then,” She turned and left quickly, Daishiro watched her leave with a slight pang of guilt. She really was cute… Daishiro shrugged before eating the rest of his ice cream.

He had just swallowed the last bite when the waiter came back without his apron. “You ready to go little sister?” He asked the girl got up with a small nod. Daishiro blinked in surprise.

“Uta?” He said softly, she picked up her bag and took her older brother’s arm. Uta said something that Daishiro couldn’t hear, but the waiter shrugged then grinned down at her. So, she seems to act normal around her brother…so… He grinned slyly, an idea coming to his head. If he could get her to start paying even the slightest bit of attention to him, then he could get her to start trusting him. If she trusted him, but thought he still didn’t notice her, then she could have the starry eye gaze that he wanted on all of the girl’s faces that he weren’t in his league. He leaned back, the solution was perfect, now all he needed was a plan.