Volume Three, Chapter Forty-Four: Two Voyeurs

What I had been waiting for was actually just these words from him.

Now that he had finally said them, I felt as if a heavy hammer had fiercely smashed into my chest. My heart was flattened, and my blood was forced to my extremities, but it didn't reach my brain, which left me feeling hot all over while my mind turned into a cold, blank slate, not knowing how to react.

But his grip was too strong and the air too cold. There was also an inexplicable emotion running wild within me, so, for some reason, I found myself crying. It seemed both sad and happy at the same time, a bittersweet and utterly confounding mixture of sorrow and a tiny joy welling up from deep inside—all the while, I accidentally discovered a weakness of his.

He was afraid of my tears. The moment I started crying, he would become completely flustered.

"No, I'm not scolding you," he tried to caress my half-dry hair gently, "You're not stupid, sorry. That's not what I meant."