True, Sato was nothing like I expected. But I had agreed to this meeting so I at least had to make an effort to accept her-him for who he was.
“So, um, S-ss-ssa-” I tried again at conversation, but immediately found myself tongue-tied once more. Never before had two syllables given me so much trouble.
Sato the Expectation Breaker appeared disappointed by my efforts, rolling his eyes at my stuttering self as if he had expected more.
“Shut up before you make a bigger fool out of yourself, okay?” he asked, and I couldn’t help but agree with the request. I was lucky there weren’t more people around in this desolate piece of real estate or else I’d be drawing much unwanted attention to myself.
“Let’s not complicate things,” he continued, still looking irritated at my botched first impression. “You can call me Skull.”
Tapping the skull on his shirt twice to convey his thinking, he looked at me as if waiting for confirmation of my understanding. Except I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around his reasoning for the sudden name change. Perhaps he finally realized how misleading and feminine Sato sounded? Or perhaps he couldn’t stand watching me trip and stumble over the pronunciation anymore?
I shouldn’t let my own problems force him to act differently. Even if I never could bring myself to say Sato while looking at him and not stuttering, I shouldn’t let my inability bother him.
“But shouldn’t I call you-” I began, trying to rectify my folly, but he quickly held up a hand to stop me.
“Let me clear up a misunderstanding you seem to have about me. I’m not Sato.”
I blinked. Once, then twice. But my eyes weren’t what was fooling me; my ears were.
“What did you say?” I asked in a daze; suddenly doubting every assumption I had ever made. As it turned out, it was already too late to stop myself from being a fool. I had never in my entire life acted like such a big idiot; at least not until today.
“I’m not Sato. Like I said, you can call me Skull. Should I spell it out for you?” Shaking his head at my stupidity, he did me the favor of not spelling anything out. Though with the state my mind was currently in, it might have been necessary.
“I really wanted to expect more from you, but I guess I should have known better than to expect anything from a gamer. Do you even know how obvious your thoughts and emotions are? Do you ever leave your basement and interact with others? I swear I’ve never meet such a shallow dolt in my life.”
I couldn’t help but blink again, taking a step back as if his insults had physically hit me. Once more I was taken aback; but this time it was because of the obvious disdain he felt towards me despite this being our first meeting.
Once again I was at a lack of words.
Lucky enough for me, he still had plenty left.
“I do know Sato, however, and I’m here on her behalf. Otherwise I wouldn’t have wasted my time coming out here to see some idiot who assumes the first person to approach him is his friend from some silly online game. From the way Sato talked about you I thought you’d at least be able to distinguish her from me.”
I took another step away from him; his words hitting home. I couldn’t help but feel guilty; most of what he was saying was true. I had thought something was off, but I had ignored my own instincts.
I really didn’t deserve to meet Sato, or for her to accept my feelings. As much as I admired Sato and the way she was always there for me, whether it was to make me laugh or just talk, I knew even less than I thought about her if I could so easily mistake her for someone else.
Even so, I couldn’t accept that my feelings for Sato were so trivial.
“I’ve never…I’ve never met up with someone like this before. But I am at fault, I’ll agree to that,” Although I was proud of myself for finally finding it in me to speak up, I couldn’t help but wither beneath Skull’s vicious glare, my voice softer than I intended. “I came here to meet Sato, and I still plan on doing that.”
Although I had spoken for no more than thirty seconds, I felt as if I had just given a speech in front of an entire stadium of irritated fans; I could practically hear the booing in the back of my head.
“Figures you would say that,” he replied, giving me another particularly vicious glare. I wondered if he ever smiled; he didn’t seem like the type.
“How…how do you know Sato?” I asked, forcing myself to ask before I lost my nerve. He could hate me as much as he wanted as long as he helped me finally meet Sato. And among all the insults he had directed at me, he had also made it clear that he knew her somehow.
Yes, he could hate me as long as he wanted if in the end he got me to Sato. Sato who was always there for me. Sato who I didn’t know as well as I wanted to. But also the Sato who had wanted to meet me.
“I’m her brother.”
Before I had even met the real Sato I had already made enemies out of her family.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
