Chapter 043: The Question

"Why did you use your 'good' personality when we first met?"

"…..Huh?"

Higura was looking at Kanna while trying to think how to answer or avoid the question. He couldn't think of anything even though he was going through hundreds of ideas in his head.

"U-Um…Y-Yeah I wonder…"

She pouted and hit him in the arm.

"I want to know why."

She was looking up at him and he didn't know what to say. He knew the reason himself but didn't want to say it out loud.

"I-I just thought you were cute!" 'Why did I say that of all things?! I mean it's not wrong but…Wait! Wait! What's going to happen now?!'

She continued to look up at him while she slowly turned red. She looked down after realizing that she was looking like that.

"…Um Kanna?"

Higura bent down so he could see her face. She was extremely red and smiling.

"Could it be that you-"

"-No! No! Don't say it!"

"…Haha, I don't know what to say…"

"Just forget you saw anything!"

She started hitting Higura while trying to hide her face.

"I promise to forget what I just saw so could perhaps stop hitting me? Even if it doesn't hurt."

She started hitting harder before stopping and turning away to regain her composure. She turned her head so she could see behind her.

"You still haven't answered the question the way I wanted. I won't let you get away with that answer."

"Haha…"

He began to think of how to answer and thought what would happen if he said this:

"Is there a specific reason you want this question answered?"

She jumped a bit as she was not expecting him to and that. She turned around and held up one of her books. It was the one Higura gave to her around the time he first met her.

"I noticed that your hand writing is identical to how this signature is. So I started thinking. My favorite author has the same family name as a person who just happened to have a signed copy that he could have never gotten signed as there was never signed copies handed out, just as Makoto never does book signing to keep his identity a secret. I was originally thinking that maybe you just happened to be one of the lucky few who happened to have a copy but then I noticed you in the city one day with Yui and a little girl. You walked into the same publishing studio as the one Makoto uses and when you left you no longer had the girl with you. This must have meant that you had some connection to someone at the publishing studio and knew that she was one of their daughters. The thing is that they don't normally let any normal person inside unless they are an author that collaborates with them. Using all of this I thought on why you would be nice to me when we first met, given that you normally use your "bad" persona when taking to people you are not close with. Then I thought about how you might have only been nice to me since I was one of your fans. That's why I decided to ask, so I could see if you would say another reason…And I was not expecting you to answer by saying I'm cute!"

"…" 'I guess she's done quite a bit of work on this…I don't really know how I can dodge this…I guess it shouldn't be too bad if she knows that I'm Makoto Sato…' "I can't dodge this anymore, you have me cornered. The original reason on why I was nice to you was that you were a fan of mine and I don't like making fans unhappy…But, another reason was that I just felt like being nice to you. I don't really know why but I just felt like you'd be a good friend. I don't know if that's really the reason but I can't think of an actual reason as of right now but maybe one day I'll be able to answer that question. Will that suffice as an answer?"

She smiled and nodded.

"It's good enough for me, Makoto."

"Please don't call me that in public!"

"I just wanted to say it…But now that I think about doesn't this mean that I'm one of the only people to know you're Makoto?"

"Yeah, I suppose so…And don't call me that in public."

"Sorry! I don't really know how'd I reword that."

"You could have said "that author" instead."

She pouted and he continued to look towards her. They started laughing before realizing the time and said their goodbyes before sunset was over. On the way back home Higura was thinking to himself.

'The way she was acting after I said my original answer…Maybe she has a crush on me…Although I don't really get what's to like.'

He stretched and put his thoughts behind him as he opened his front door and went inside with his secret officially revealed.