天ぷらぷらぷら

How about I try talking to her?

If we become friends, we may even think of the past few minutes as a joke, maybe?

Having boarded the same train, then by a random mishap stayed at the same hotel, even this level of coincidence is like a connection from a past life.

After all, the other side started the exchange just now, so I'm sure it'll be fine. A girl's gotta be courteous, and back it up with guts!

To begin...... Umm......

Wha-wha! What the hell am I saying, using such a simple-minded, two-word question to someone I just met!?

Am I unable, at the very least, to ask politely "are you traveling alone?" or even chain together a paragraph to talk like a respectable Japanese person? (TN: It's common sense in Japanese to speak in polite language, or Keigo, using "-desu" and similar structures, to people you don't know very well.)

I haven't shown her a single good point since we even met! She probably thinks I'm REALLY wierd!

The more I fret, the more my tongue freezes. The insides of my head fade to white and harden. Somehow I move beyond the capacity for salvation.

Good grief, what manner of word should I follow this up with?

Look, I'm sure she's completely disgus-

I'm admonished by her calm politeness.

I fall limp and cower in shame, as if splashed with cold water.

However, after spinning out and nearly overheating, my speech center seems to have revived.

And just like that, her tone changes.

Much like her straightforward attitude, I feel envy at her lack of the hesitation I have to deal with.

......Even so...

I didn't notice it when she was using Keigo, but...

*Ahem* (TN: She used Keigo again by accident.)

Calm down, Kei. There, take a deep breath.

She's a person with a strange turn of phrase.

It's not very feminine, or at least in my usual company, I've never heard a girl talk like that.

Still, it's strange, but very cool.

It makes it harder to grasp an impression of her, yet here she is keeping me company, so there's a clear level of courtesy.

I'll bet she's popular at her school.

Well, no, it's a little different from "normal," but... ah, best not to make this conversation loop again.

Then, her expression very faintly softens.

I think that girl's facial expression now, just a little (really, just a little bit), resembles my mother's.

Actually, my mother was also a very pretty person.

Now that I think of it, we haven't introduced ourselves.

The reason I would have said something so presumptuously familiar is, probably, because I started wanting someone I'd grown fond of to call me Kei.

Starting with Youko-chan, all my friends from school call me "Hato-chan" or "Hatou-san."

The reason being that the surname Hatou was rare, or that the sound of Kei "is boyish and doesn't match your image" or something like that.

So, normally, the person who would call me Kei was...

That ever-present bad habit of mine came out.

When I'm thinking about something, I become unable to see the world around me, and my ear has a tendency to miss things.

If I were to speak of it in detail, I can concentrate just fine, but I'm also often told "you're careless, with no sense of alertness." Honestly, I don't know whether I have a problem or not.

No, this is no good. I'd better concentrate on the conversation.

Thus she gave me her introduction. A thousand feathers... a pretty name, although it doesn't really fit her dark features.