23 Stage 1 Denial

-Hito-

The cafeteria was filled with all kinds of

food and some of them were appealing to him, although the dishes were a bit overpriced, it wasn't something that he couldn't afford.

To begin with, he had a lot of money to spare. Years after saving his allowance he had a total money of 1.5 million yen, which doesn't even include the money that he received from Christmas and new year.

For a teenager like him, it is a huge amount of money, he could literally buy every food in the cafeteria and still would have money left.

Not that he's planning to do that though, it's a waste.

It took him a few minutes to find the dish that he wanted, everything he bought was a meat-based dish.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that he knew that he was in a school, he would have thought of this place as a restaurant.

He knew that this is a private school and it is bound to be more luxurious than a public one, but even with his standard this is too much, he wondered how the hell did the school afford this kind of thing?

Not to mention, not all of the students here are rich, some of them were poor, and they couldn't just afford most of the dishes on sale.

But then again, it's not his problem, it's the schools. After taking the tray with his food, he went toward the table.

He wasn't alone, he was with Hana and his soon-to-be disciple Miko. "That's a lot of food you got there, Yurikawa-san."

The first thing he noticed was the amount of food that was piling at the top of the table.

"Hah! This isn't enough, it's even less than I usually eat!" After answering his question, Hana immediately started eating the food that she's piling.

Hito was definitely surprised by what he witnessed, not the food mind you, but the fact that she ate so fast but hasn't made a single mess!

It's ridiculous, even physics bends to her will, is this true power he's witnessing?

If so he'd like to learn it himself, then Miko said. "She's right, this is even less than she usually eats."

Damn, if that's the case then, how isn't she fat yet? With that much calories every day, she'd gained a lot of weight easily.

Then his eyes wandered around her chest and realized.

'I see, so that's where all of the calories went.'

Hana's body was so developed to the point that women in their twenties find their curves lacking compared to hers.

Then he looked at Miko's food, it was just yakisoba bread and milk

'Hm, milk…I see so she wanted her womanly curves to grow as well.' He thought he wanted to say that size doesn't matter but that would be a lie.

However, medium is premium.

Because he was staring long enough, she noticed his gaze and started to get defensive. "W-what are you looking at..?"

Aw, shit he needed to answer right now so that he wouldn't notice that he's staring at her modest breast.

"Ah, nothing, I just realized how beautiful you are."

Oops, he didn't mean to say that.

All of a sudden Miko gained a massive blush on her face, she looked like a human tomato at this point.

Hana stopped eating for a moment after hearing him call her friend beautiful, but after a second she continued to eat her food.

'Is food that important to her?' He thought.

"I-i…are you serious..?" Miko muttered while still red from the unexpected praise that came out of nowhere.

He wasn't really lying about her being beautiful, he just didn't expect himself to say it out loud the moment he thought of it.

Seeing that there's no point in denying it, he admitted. "Yeah, I'm serious, you are beautiful."

After his confirmation, she blushed even more, she never had anyone call her beautiful so bluntly as he did.

For Christ's sake, he didn't even blink when he said that!

How could he say something like that without being embarrassed?!

From an outsider's perspective, they would think of him flirting with her, but he really wasn't, because he was being truthful and casual about it.

After all, what's the point of denying the truth, if she's beautiful then she's beautiful.

Simple as that.

However, because he thought of it as nothing but telling the truth, it makes him more dangerous than any flirt or playboy for that matter.

Because, he is being truthful without any ulterior motives of getting on her pants, making his statement more genuine than the fake flattery from most boys with ulterior motives.

"Y-you I…" Miko was speechless, she couldn't look at him directly.

She was braindead, just because of a single truthful compliment, usually, such flattery wouldn't get this much reaction from her, but for some reason, his praise is different from others.

Because it felt more genuine and doesn't feel like he's doing it to get into her pants, just a plain simple truthful statement from him made her blush like she never had before.

As a girl with good looks, she often hears praise, not only from her family but also from boys, however, none of them really have an impact on her.

Until today.

Hito was now starting to worry about her, as she's turning so red that he was worried that her blood vessels would pop out.

Although he would feel her emotions, they were a mix of flattery, happiness, disbelief, and a few more.

In short, it was complicated, as he couldn't read more than 2 emotions at the same time.

"Are you okay, Yotsuya-san?" He asked with concern.

"I-no, please don't look at me." Miko avoided his face because it would make her heart skip a beat.

He wanted to ask her why, but seeing that she's serious about avoiding looking at his face, he decided not to say anything.

'Is my face really looking that bad? I'm not that ugly right..?' He thought.

Hito knew that he wasn't good-looking, but damn it, does she really have to hurt his feelings by not looking at his face?

(A/N: Confidence Issues.)

He decided to distract himself with food, to heal his wounded nonexistent pride, he started eating them and his eyes widened for a bit and thought. 'Wow, these are good…I wonder if I could make them myself.'

Just like that he immediately forgot about his earlier problems and continued eating with a smile on his face.

-Miko-

Went back to her class with a permanent blush on her face, she can't believe she's still affected by those simple words.

'You're beautiful

It kept repeating in her mind, and she couldn't get rid of it, not to mention she thought of his face whenever those words were repeated in her mind.

It didn't fail to make her blush every time, so why exactly does it make her anyway?

She heard it from boys, who are more good looking at him, but why is it any different from them?!

And to make it worse, Hana noticed.

"So, I'm expecting you to get a boyfriend pretty soon right?" Her best friend smiles knowingly.

"Wh-?! No of course not! What nonsense are you saying, I won't have a boyfriend anytime soon!" Miko recoiled at her friend's words.

"Really..? Or you're just in denial?"

"Nope, nope I'm not in denial." Miko shakes her head denying it.

"Miko, for the first time in months I've never seen you this emotional, you're always stoic most of the time," Hana said with a serious expression.

'Well, that's because of me seeing ghosts!' She thought loudly, however she didn't dare to say it out loud, there's no way she'd tell her friend about ghosts, not that she'll believe her anyway…

No wait, she definitely would believe her and that's even worse.

Miko knew how gullible her friend was, she'd believe whatever she says, even things without logic on them.

However, back to Hana's words, she was indeed more emotional today than most days, it's definitely because of him.

Miko suddenly blushed again, why was she blushing?!

She wasn't some hormonal high school teenager with a crush on someone!

But she is, but was in denial.

"Anyway, let's not talk about it, class is about to start." Miko quickly changed the subject, if possible she'd like to stop talking about anything related because her Kokoro isn't quite ready for this kind of thing.

"If you say, so let's go!" Thankfully Hana accepted her words and she sighs in relief.

At least for now, she'd avoid thinking anything related to him, because she's got a lot of things on her mind right now.

Although she couldn't really avoid him tomorrow.

But she'll take her chances, she almost wanted a ghost to arrive just so that she could forget thinking about him making her blush.

Well almost.

Yep, a single compliment could make such an impact, it isn't the word itself but the person who said it, with the right timing and tone, similar effects could be done.

Remember guys, it's timing and the atmosphere of course.

If you liked the story please support me on Pa.treon, even if it's just for a month I'd be really grateful.

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There's 8 advance chapters currently

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I got a terrible cold, I don't know how am I still awake to put this but, just letting you know I hope it won't get worse.

😭

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