[b]Sato Hashimoto[/b] // [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNIw7idqVr0]Warakuma Shopping Complex[/url]

	“So,” Ryouta said through a few slurps of noodles, “what’s the plan? Why are we meeting here?” Seeing the small cup of noodles reminded Sato of how he hadn’t eaten literally anything the entire day. He [i]was[/i] gonna get something at the fair, but once everything started happening he had totally forgotten to do so.

	Sato looked around a bit for little reason; he had been to the mall in Warakuma plenty of times before. Before he got to know anyone. “Do you know Akiko personally or does she know you at all?” It sounded better in his head, but it was exactly what he meant to say. 

	Ryouta hesitated a bit before responding, looking upwards as if the answer was on the roof. “I don’t. We’re in different classes so she probably only knows my face.” Sato covered his mouth with his hand so he could bite his lip without showing it. All he wanted to believe was that this girl was super shy and crazy about him, but it didn’t make sense to him. No normal person or shy person or whatever would ever act the way Akiko had been acting for the past several days. In class she had been her usual self (as far as Sato could tell) but anytime anyone had ever seen her around time she always seemed to act in a way that was a mixture of fear and confusion. Sato finally realized he needed to elaborate when he looked up to see the face Ryouta was making at him through the cup of noodles he was consuming. “I need you to follow her after she leaves.”

	Ryouta almost spat out the mouthful of noodles he had, but forced himself to swallow before talking. “[i]Wait,[/i]” he chuckled to himself in a nervous way, “so you want me to stalk this girl that I don’t even know? Do you get how stupid that sounds?” Sato’s face sunk in. He did [i]not[/i] want to bother with explaining what was going on and the weird thoughts he had about it, especially to the guy who’d probably die from laughing on noodles if he heard it. Then again, Sato was hardly any closer with anyone else, and he’d at least be able to trust that Ryouta would tell everyone. While he was one to love rumors, he wasn’t one who loved [i]spreading[/i] rumors.

	“Look, you really don’t get it.” There a pause of weakness where Sato had to quickly figure out how to word what he was going to say without sounding like a total freak. “She’s not herself around people--- or maybe just me--- but either way I have this thought in the back of my mind that maybe she’s just acting like this around people at school. I want you to tail her and see if I’m right. Please?” Ryouta cocked his head to the side and shot his eyes at Sato with a you-know-what-I want kind of look. And he was right. He knew exactly what kind of incentive he’d need.

	A two-thousand yen gift card usable in any of the food stores in the food court. While it pained him to part with it, Sato knew it was going towards a greater cause, and as soon as he pulled it out of his pocket, Ryouta snatched it out of his hand.

	“You can read me like a book, Sato,” Ryouta slapped Sato on the back as he walked past, “and you can rest assured I’ll be creeping behind this girl the whole way home!” Sato watched as his friend made his way over to an unoccupied table in the middle of the food court, positioned in a way so that he could keep a good eye on the area Sato was going to meet the girl. Though, with over twenty minutes left before the meeting time agreed upon, Sato quickly made his way over to the noodle shop beside him to grab something to eat.