Myself

Now Kosaki had a dilemma to face when it came to life here. That being the realization on who exactly knew who she was as a person. It seemed that she had done plenty of digging around for Anadama, and Chiffon enjoyed talking about herself and where she came from.

But it hadn't been even when it came to the exchange of information during these conversations. Sure, she was always more on the quiet side than most. So it made sense she would end up being dominated when it came to someone more outgoing, or at least with someone who was used to being surrounded by attention.

These thoughts clouded her mind as she was doing a little bit of baking practice. So much so that they were interfering with her abilities.

"Kosaki, what's that smell?" A worried Anadama rushed into the kitchen. "Kosaki? Kosaki!"

"Huh?" She snapped out of the trance she found herself in. It was then the smell of smoke entered her nose, reminding her of the cookies she had placed in the oven. "Oh no." Quickly, she took them out to reveal blackened charred bit that could hardly resemble what she had put in.

"You need to pay a lot more attention." He scolded her, shaking his head from the sight. "I doubt you'll bake like that during an examination, but I should remind you that it's an automatic fail if you mess up like that."

"I'm sorry." She bowed her head as he turned around to leave. Then she knew she had to speak up and seize the opportunity. "What were you doing, earlier?" Kosaki asked him, stopping the boy in his tracks.

"I was…" He turned to face her. Anadama's eyes shifted back and forth to see if anyone else could hear their conversation. "Reading." His answer was no surprise to her. "No problem with entertainment through the use of text, right?"

"I never said there was." She gave him a nervous smile, reiterating her lack of judgment about his tastes. If anything, she was only more curious about the man behind that cold mask. There was more to him than met the eye and certainly was far from how his reputation treated him. "Um, could I see what you read?" Kosaki had no plans on how to approach him. With all the aid she got from Ruri, doing it all on her own was tougher than she was led to believe from her best friend.

"You should clean up your mess first." He pointed over at the pitiful state of her cookies. "Or rather, you should clean up your mess and do something else when you're done." With that, Anadama prepared to leave once more. She knew he had won their silent argument, knowing full well what she hoped to do.

She had nearly resigned herself to doing as he asked and moving on with her day. Yet Kosaki couldn't be satisfied with ending it here. If only she had the confidence in knowing what to say next.

"You know, I like reading too." She blurted out without thinking. Even if she didn't have smart confidence, at least she could try and bumble herself through things.

"Is this your way of trying to ask me to help you clean up?" This was enough to grab his attention, walking back to her. "Because I will if it means you'll leave me alone."

"Yes." She answered without thinking of any deeper meaning. At least she could use his misunderstanding to gain an advantage. "I'm sorry if it's a bother, but there's a lot to clean up."

"I'm used to cleaning up. Seeing as that's half the job of baking anyway." He rolled up his sleeves and got to work. "But when we're done, I'm going back to what I was doing." He was interrupted from his reading when his nose detected the scent of burning.

"That's fine." She accepted his stipulations. After all, she was not in a position to make any demands, nor did she want to control his actions in any way. "You know, maybe 90% of baking is just cleaning up after yourself." Kosaki giggled. Due to her rather poor baking skills when she was younger. She normally was relegated to cleaning up after her family when her job of decorating was finished.

"That wasn't a very good joke." He did not find any humor in her statement. "Now come on, faster we do this, the faster I can leave." Anadama was not in the mood to be making idle chatter with her. He had been in the middle of a good book when his imagination had to be interrupted due to her blunder.

She sighed as he quickly got to work scrubbing the parts of batter which fell atop the kitchen counter. He continued to put up walls to squash any semblance of conversation between them. Kosaki hoped she'd be able to tell him things about herself, but it turned out even she had her own walls to contend with. It was as if they were in two separate houses with the way their barriers were set.

Kosaki knew she had made this same mistake with Raku. Like talking about how the weather was nice only to proceed to not follow it up with any relevant or personal topics. There was no way she could repeat the same mistakes with Anadama. Though it wasn't as if she was romantically interested in him.

"You know… I like reading." She quietly spoke, barely grabbing his attention.

"Okay?" He responded, confused on what was trying to do. This girl acted different from the one he had gotten used to. Normally she'd be asking him questions where he'd be resistant to answering. "So what, like manga or something?" He could make a good guess that a Japanese girl wouldn't have read any of the novels he had read. Anadama didn't even know if those romance novels popular with American women were even translated and sold over there.

"Kind of." She replied, unsure of how to describe it to him. "They're usually just sweet stories too. A lot like those romance books you read."

"Okay." He quickly closed the gap between them, giving her a side eye. "How about we not speak so loudly about that?"

"I'm not trying to make fun of you." She didn't know if she should take a step back to regain space, or continue to stay close. Either way, Kosaki felt the overwhelming anxiety of being intimately close to him again. "Isn't it a good thing when people can share hobbies with each other?"

"There's a difference between sharing hobbies when it comes to people if we aren't even friends in the first place." He responded, gathering all her utensils and tossing them into the sink. "I care little on making a little book club and discussing tiny aspects of some book." Anadama took out some gloves and turned on the sink. "Besides, it's not like we read the same exact things."

"But there are plenty of things that are the same, right? Even though they were made in completely different places." She argued her case by using her own experiences. "After all, it's love between a good couple, right? A lot of the boys, they're cold and distant even though they're popular."

"Yeah." He replied, not turning to look at her. "But I bet the boys you read about aren't CEOs. Seriously though, those books make CEOs out like they're a dime a dozen."

"Maybe the boys I read about aren't super rich, but they are usually special." Somehow once they got into the flow of the conversation. She had forgotten about her reservations. Kosaki now spoke to him as if he were an old friend. "And the girls, well they aren't normally anything that stands out."

"A lot of plain Janes indeed." At this point, even Anadama had forgotten about his own walls. "So unlikely, isn't it? Some normal girl thinking she can woo some hotshot."

"You don't think that love could come from it?" She asked.

"I said unlikely, not impossible." He answered. "But it doesn't matter, all those love stories are unrealistic anyway. They don't happen because love in real life doesn't come true at all."

"…" She was silent upon hearing his lament. It wasn't just that she felt it sounded depressing coming from him. Only that she could understand the position without needing to hear his reason. "I wish I could disagree." If she had the evidence, then she would've fought against his dire view. Yet how could she argue against something when she had gone through painful heartbreak?

"For once you're not arguing against me over something." He commented, but one look at her showed him there was more to the story. Anadama paused for a bit, considering his next action carefully. "Kosaki… Was there a guy that you really liked?" The second those words left his lips, he couldn't stop thinking on why he said them.

Why should he care? She was just some dumb girl he didn't even like as a friend. Yet this part of her he had sense for a long while now. Ever since that time he tutored her baking. His mind, his heart just had to know the answer to the lingering question left by this girl.

"I did." She answered truthfully. "He was someone I cared deeply for." Kosaki thought about her long history with Raku. All that time they spent together throughout the years, from those days they had forgotten, to reuniting in junior high, all the way through high school. "I had even confessed my feelings, but he was already in love with someone else."

"That's unfortunate." He responded, seeing a subtle tear fall from her beautiful eyes. "I'm so sorry."

"You don't need to apologize." She wiped away the tear from out his view. "You didn't do anything wrong. And besides you don't have to worry about it. I've moved on." Kosaki had accepted his feelings. Raku had truly and deeply fell in love with Chitoge and vice versa. "Even though I didn't get my fairy tale ending. I still see the beauty of their strong love."

"You really are something else." He said, shocked to see someone bounce back so strongly.

As they had talked, it had turned out they had finished cleaning much quicker than either expected. He no longer needed to be around, which meant there was no reason for either to continue to be together. "Kosaki." However, Anadama would change their original outcome. "Would you like to join me in the library?"

"You want to…" She couldn't believe her ears. He actually was the one inviting her instead of her having to make awkward attempts. There was no way she'd give up the opportunity. "Yes, I would love to."