1 Chapter 1: The Attention Seeker

The morning sun shone rather brightly to the point the people shaded their face in order to avoid direct sun ray. It was not helping much, but at least the eyes did not hurt by it. Ryohei wore a cap and half ran while headed to Niji Bookstore. It was a place he worked at, and he was in the morning shift, hence he was in a great mood. He was living alone since his parents have passed away around five years ago, and he has graduated from high school. Earning his own pay was much more important than studying in a university, therefore he found a good job and focused on gaining money and experience.

The shutter of Niji Bookstore was still closed despite the time. Ryohei looked around to find out if there was any worker arrived before him, yet he found no one.

"Oh, I'm the earliest again!" He said and laughed at himself.

Instead of looking for other shady places, Ryohei opted to just settle down near the shutter. He basically ignored the eyes from those by-passers. He was not bothering people by sitting on the side lane. He checked on his mobile phone and surfed the Net to find any interesting topic to read.

Unconsciously, Ryohei has arrived two hour earlier than the opening hour of Niji Bookstore. He totally forgot the reminder by his manager that they would open the bookstore a little late because the manager had something to settle down, plus they were managing outstanding sales on the day before. It might be one of the reasons why Ryohei was in good mood.

"Sigh. I should have stayed alerted," No one to laugh with, Ryohei chuckled to hide his embarrassment. He kept his mobile phone into his bag and stood up to do some stretching.

His sight landed on someone sitting alone on a bench across Niji Bookstore. The uncanny man was wearing oversize shirt and pants, sitting quietly without doing anything like how Ryohei did earlier. The man was practically staring at the road, abandoning the fast vehicles passing.

"What's with that?" Ryohei mumbled to himself. To him, the mysterious man was strange enough. He disliked how he behaved even though the man did not even look at him.

Nevertheless, Ryohei indirectly watched the man thoroughly. It felt as if there was an aura pulling him to look at the man, whereas they did not even recognise each other. The man believably did not even see Ryohei watching him from across the road.

The vehicles did not seem to slow down. As Ryohei keenly stared at the man, out of the blue the man rose from the bench. With his eyes fixated affront, he paced straight forward. No sign of precautions practised by him, which triggered Ryohei to ogle.

Ryohei shouted his lung out as, with his own eyes, the man crossed the busy road and entirely ignored the loud honks by the cars. The tension peaked as one of the car sped up towards him. Ryohei never realized he could be that brave as he instantly leapt to the rescue. He managed to drag the man back to the pedestrian lane, much safer than in the middle of the road.

A crows began to form there. Whispers and murmurs shrouded Ryohei's pounding heart. He almost commited suicide by jumping to the road and saved that man. Deep inside, he grunted in disbelief because the man bravely, or stupidly, headed to the road.

The real suicidal man was him.

"Hello, are you, by all means, blind?" Ryohei hissed, still pissed off by the dumbness he accidentally witnessed. He was clearly mocking the man due to his recklessness.

The man ducked his head. The crowd gave them space to find a bench to sit down on much smoother surface than the lane. Ryohei assisted the man to stand on his two feet and made their way to the bench.

"I'm sorry for causing trouble to you, Mister," The man finally spoke, still lowering his face. "Do you happen to see my white cane?"

The atmosphere turned awkward to Ryohei. He never guessed the man was really blind. Judging from the physical appearance, there was no sight of blindness on him. He did not wear sunglasses, white can, or different colour of sclera, as how he studied from movies and dramas. The man seemed completely fine, unless the scratches he obtained from Ryohei's rapid action.

"White cane?"

"Yes, my white cane. The foldable one," The man added, enlarging the guilt accumulating in Ryohei.

Ryohei gulped as he could not think of the best answer to cover his awkwardness. "Uh, I'm sorry. I don't see any cane around you," came as a reply.

The man's face became gloomy hearing Ryohei's hesitating answer. He clutched on Ryohei's arm sleeve, as if pleading for some assistance. Ryohei however figured out the meaning behind the deed, thus helped the man to stand up again.

The crowd was fortunately dissolving. Ryohei cuddled the man around the waist. "Could you walk?" he asked, acting as natural and innocent as he could.

The man nodded vigorously, but his legs refused to agree. As they started walking, the man's legs shook and made him to fall miserably onto the floor. Ryohei swiftly caught him from falling and hurting his butt.

"You're still shocked, I guess," Ryohei controlled his tone from sounding too fake, "How if we go to my workplace first?"

"You don't have to, Mister. I may be disturbing your work," the man politely denied.

Ryohei squinted at the man even though the latter could not see it. Instead of waiting for the man to concur, he immediately brought the man in bridal style and headed to Niji Bookstore. The timing was exact because the manager has arrived right when both Ryohei and the blind man reached the compound.

"So, you owe me an explanation, Ryohei," the manager commented while glancing at the blind man.

The blind man surprisingly bowed before the manager. "I'm sorry for bothering the premise. I don't intend to cause ruckus. It was just that I've lost my white can, and this man has saved me from getting hit by a car. This man is worried of me too, hence he brought me here."

The explanation was short but compact - enough to tell the manager that Ryohei felt the responsible to help the blind man.

"White cane?" the manager frowned, "Are you blind?"

The man nodded without doubt. "Yes, I am."

After a few minutes of discussion with the manager, Ryohei could finally get a day off to send the blind man to the hospital for further examination, and direct him home. Ryohei could not reject the instruction since he still sensed guilt from earlier mocking towards the man.

The sun shone dimmer than a few hours ago. In order to ensure safety, they went to the hospital by car.

"So, what's your name?"

Ryohei could not always entitled the man as You.

"Yuki," came as a reply.