Prologue
Something light fell onto the top of my hat with a soft tok. It wasn’t big, because it didn’t hurt.
“It was an acorn.”
“An acorn?”
I lifted my hand to check and felt around my hat. My fingertips touched nothing except the corsage pinned there. He watched me fumble with his usual composed expression, then raised his arm.
It seemed he was going to take it off for me.
So I leaned slightly toward him, making it easier for him to see. I sensed the faint pressure of his hand on my hat. I even felt him move it slightly.
But when he lowered his hand, there was no acorn in it.
“Where’s the acorn?”
“It’s still on your hat.”
What he was holding instead was the corsage—thin layers of fabric, rounded and gathered into a small flower. At a glance, it really did resemble a piece of fruit.
The corsage had been secured to my hat with a pin. The pin was still stuck in the corsage.
When I reached out my hand, he must have passed the corsage to me. Or perhaps I leaned toward him again. It was my hand that ended up touching the front of his chest, my hand that pinned the corsage to the pocket of his jacket.
Our eyes met. Since I was leaning a little, he looked down at me slightly more than usual.
Without realizing it—truly without realizing—I had pinned it onto him.
Did he hear my breath?
I lowered my head a little. The small yellow round corsage filled my sight. When I lifted my gaze again, our eyes met once more.
“Are you going to scold me for poking a hole in your clothes?”
“How could I ever do such a thing.”
I brought my hand to my mouth, tilted my head a little to the side, and tried not to make too loud a sound as I laughed.
As I laughed, I wondered what would happen if he recognized my eyes. I hoped he wouldn’t, so I closed my eyes and turned my head away—and yet, in the end, I looked back at him again because I wanted to see him.
He had beautiful eyes.
Yes… I just wanted to see those eyes.
