Snippet #1867752

"Eep!" Nodoka squeaked, darting back behind the tree as Edmund looked up. However, judging by the fact that he started speaking to her a moment later, it seemed that this effort to conceal herself had been made entirely in vain. Slowly, she peeked out from behind the tree again, her large blue eyes locked in an expression somewhat akin to that of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. She didn't want to bother him, so sitting down next to the strange young man seemed out of the question initially, but he had just asked her to! He had even moved to give her a place to sit down. If she just ran away, she would probably hurt his feelings, or annoy him, or make a thousand other kinds of bad impression. She didn't want to sit next to him, she would only be a nuisance! But she didn't have any other options. Slowly, she nodded, her dark hair fluttering slightly in the breeze that carried a thousand pink petals soaring through the sky, like a shower of tiny gemstones formed into a picturesque quilt across the clear blue sky. Creeping out from her hiding spot, she moved slowly, step by step, as though being forced to by some invisible assailant. Clutching her bag more tightly than ever, her head dropped behind its corner, concealing the lower half of her face just as her long, dark bangs descended to blot out her ocean blue eyes from view. She stumbled slightly over a root, her clumsiness showing just how nervous she really was better than any words could tell, but she caught herself on the tree's trunk, and slowly, painstakingly seated herself, as though afraid that the ground would sink right out from under her and she would sink into the very Earth.

It was pretty clear that Nodoka was a new student here. Her uniform was different from that of the school, probably the seifuku worn at whatever school she had transferred from. Transfer students wearing their old uniforms wasn't all that uncommon, after all. How nervous she was acting only further pointed toward that conclusion. Behind the folds of her school bag, she was biting her lip so hard that it was a wonder that it wasn't bleeding from the strain. She would fidget now and again, as though she was shivering from the cold. But it was still quite warm out, so obviously this cold was not one brought on by the weather. No, it seemed much more obvious why she shivered and quaked: she was afraid. Of what? Of speaking. She didn't think her own words mattered much, but it might offend him if she just sat there quietly. She should have thanked him for putting up with her, or maybe apologized for watching him like that, or... or... she didn't know what to do! What if she said the wrong thing and only made him mad? But surely saying something was better than nothing at all...

The twitching and fidgeting was getting worse. She would open her mouth, and then close it again, and then bite her lip, and then occupy herself with how interesting her fingers suddenly were, and with all the different patterns she could make by pushing them together in different orders, and then she would realize that she needed to say something, and repeat the whole sequence over and over again. It was getting awkward. If she didn't say something soon, he would probably just leave and think she had some sort of mental issue, or something. Her acting all scared would only hurt his feelings, but even if she was going to say something, what should she say?! She gave a furtive glance over to see what the raven-haired one was doing, and if he had left or moved away. Just then, however, something caught her gaze: a small music box, sitting in his lap. That was it! The music!

"S-sorry..." She apologized in a murmur, almost inaudible over the quiet breeze that tossed the cherry blossoms to and fro. "I j-just... liked that music... I-if I'm bothering you... I c-could leave. I don't want to.... to impose."

She did not look up as she spoke, staring with frightened eyes down at the ground, not daring to so much as glance at the one beside her for fear of the expression he might be wearing. She started at every sound, fearing it might be the sound of the raven-haired one moving away so as not to be anywhere near the cripplingly inferior Nodoka, a sound that would simultaneously be Nodoka's salvation and damnation. That would be the sound of the one who she did not feel worthy to speak to departing, leaving her alone with herself, like she deserved. It would mean that she was no longer being a burden upon someone else, but, at the same time, it would only serve to drive home how different she was, and how unworthy she was to even sit under the same tree as someone who she had foolishly hoped might be someone like her. She had felt a connection to him before, but now that she was speaking to him, she wasn't so sure that had been the correct conclusion to come to. How irrational and impulsive of her. Someone as stupid as her had no chance of making a connection with someone else. Why had she thought something so impossible could have come to be? Arrogance.