<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/ac/Taro03.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Taro Ikeda (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=257738.msg12730054#msg12730054)<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Cafeteria >> School Grounds<br/><strong>Time:</strong>Flashback - a few days before school starts, morning >> early afternoon<br/><strong>With:</strong>Shizuma + Open<br/><hr/>If Taro recognized Shizuma's questioning glance for what it was, he gave no indication of it. To him she was not a completely blank slate, but the girl she had once been did not feature prominently on his mind. She had grown into a pretty young woman, but he did not draw any comparisons to the child he had once known. The Shizuma he was with now was a new person to him in most regards.<br/><br/>He slid his hand from Shizuma's grasp, only to turn fully around, now facing the same direction she had earlier. Again his hands rested on the railing, now his left just touching the pink-haired girl's hand. He chuckled. "My apartment is so small, cleaning it would take less time than going back and forth between it and the school. Besides, I would feel like I was taking advantage of you." He looked at her with a smile and shook his head a little. "I appreciate your offer, but if you ever stop by at my place you will be my guest and treated as one."<br/><br/>It wasn't that he saw it happening all that often, given that classes, clubs, and homework took up a large chunk of most students' time, but he couldn't rule it out. Adding coffee to his mental shopping list would perhaps be a good idea, just in case.<br/><br/>"You are welcome."<br/><br/>He wasn't sure what he saw in Shizuma's enthusiastic expression, what to make of the closeness she obviously felt for him. Yep, Taro thought to himself, rollercoaster. Only that he was no longer certain if that rollercoaster happened with Shizuma, or if he had been caught up in it as well. The best he could do now was to ride the wave and see where it lead him.<br/><br/>"You just tell me when, and we can meet at the bus terminal. That's next to the train station, pretty close to the city center, and if you take a bus here you can ride it all the way to the end of the line and I'll meet you there."