He led her to the hallway on the east wing.
She followed quietly behind him, not saying a thing.
Once they were away from people,
he stopped and turned around to face her.
She stopped as well.
Their eyes met. Neither looked away.
A heavy silence settled.
Then, finally, he held out the umbrella.
"... I'm giving this back."
She blinked, looking at it.
"... I told you it was alright not to," she said softly.
He narrowed his eyes.
"I don't like to be in someone's debt,"
"—Liar."
He continued on.
"—To pay it off, I'll grant you a request.
Money. Reputation. Connections. Anything."
She seemed taken aback.
"... Anything?" Her voice was wary.
"Yes," he answered. "Anything."
She looked at him with an unreadable expression.
There was a hint of sadness in her eyes, however.
Perhaps he was seeing things.
Then, she opened her mouth.
Instead of a request however,
she asked him a question he never expected to hear.
In a very quiet voice, she said her next words.
"Ao-kun... You're deaf in one ear, aren't you?"
*note: '-kun' is an honorific used to show familiarity to another person in Japanese
YOU ARE READING
re:Happiness | Cell Phone Novel
General Fiction「 Can you teach me how to be happy? 」 Fujiwara Ao has been living the past nineteen years of his life in ease. Born with the ideal background and blessed with enough talent, that's what most of the people presume. In their eyes, he was sim...
