“—Did something good happen?”
A few days after he met that man, a female employee had suddenly questioned him while he pressed his seal on a form he received from her just before his lunch break.
“Huh&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;um?”
“You seem happier lately, Konnou-san. Ah, stamp here next please.”
“Huh, a-all right. But, n-no? R-Really&h.e.l.lip;..?”
His female coworker let out a quiet laugh all of a sudden at Tatsumi who was clearly caught off guard. He didn’t know what sort of face he was making, but since he didn’t mean to give out that impression, he panicked. Ever since he was unable to see the faces of other, he became less conscious of his own face. His cla.s.smates with weak eyesight at his school for the blind were the ones who told him his face was expressive. However, since his coworkers rarely ever spoke to him about these sort of things, he panicked unnecessarily. He hadn’t heard her voice much before now, so he didn’t recognize it. At the very least they probably weren’t hired at the same time. The owner of the young, clear alto voice giggled as if she were teasing him.
“Could it be&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;you have a girlfriend?”
“Huh!? No, that’s not it at all&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;um, that’s all of the forms, right? I’ll be going on my lunch break.”
He said as he grabbed his white cane, standing up fl.u.s.tered.
“He’s running away~. How suspicious~”
He heard her voice behind him, but pretended not to notice as he left. Even if it was no more than small talk, being talked to about something like that shook him more than he thought it would. She was teasing him, but not maliciously. Tatsumi headed to the park as usual, realizing he failed to catch her name.