•‡‡‹‰–Š‡Ž‘‘•‘ˆ†‹•ƒ’’‘‹–‡–—’‘‹†‹‘–•ǯˆƒ…‡•™Š‡–Š‡‹”‘™ foolish words were rebutted. Thus, while I would not call the look that I saw on her face when I glanced over disappointing, it was at least unexpected. She looked hurt. She was staring forward, as if in shock. It was seeing people who behaved just as she did back in junior high that had led me to decipher a pattern to their way of thinking. They were the sort of people, I was sure, who believed only in their own logic, thinking everyone else around them who could not understand them stupid. And so, I was surprised to not see her express the sort of displeasure that such types of people typically did when they were denied. I had no interest in getting involved in this, but her face certainly piqued my interest. However, this interest was nothing more than what one might feel at hearing a strange melody when walking down the street, and by the time the bell rang, I had already forgotten all about it. I handed in my copy of the brief feedback survey we had been provided with in order to confirm attendance and stood up from my seat. I did not have any classes scheduled for fourth period on Mondays, so I decided to head to the cafeteria to take a late lunch. At a university, there were always people in the cafeteria no matter how odd the hour. With nowhere to really situate myself in this ‡˜‹”‘‡–™ƒ•‘–›‡–—•‡†–‘ǡŽ‘ƒ†‡†‘‡‘ˆ–Š‡†ƒ›ǯ•‡ƒŽ•‡–•‘–‘ my tray and then settled myself at a four-person table by the window, clapping my hands together and bringing my miso soup to my mouth. DzŠ‹••‡ƒ––ƒ‡ǫdz A voice from a conversation that had nothing to do with me emerged from the sea of sounds around me. I obviously was certain that the voice could not be speaking to me of all people, so I just chomped down on my fried fish. A sudden poke to my shoulder shocked me into dropping the half- eaten fish to my plate with a satisfying crunch. I looked up, chopsticks still in hand, and was doubly surprised. The girl who had been sitting beside me in the lecture hall was standing there with a tray full of katsu curry. For some reason, I kept looking back and forth between her and the curry. DzŠ‹••‡ƒ––ƒ‡ǫdz•Š‡ƒ•‡†ƒ‰ƒ‹ǡ™Š‹…Š‹• when I realized that the voice I had heard before had been most certainly directed towards me. DzŠǡ‘ǡ‹–ǯ•‘–Ǥdz