Lovebirds
He liked her and she liked him but they were probably too shy to say so - an old story.
Throughout January 2011 I regularly saw two high school students - a boy and a girl - sitting on the pavement outside the gate of their school directly across the street from my apartment after dark talking ... talking ... talking. It was frightfully cold and I didn’t think they were dressed for prolonged exposure. (Most Japanese high schoolers seem never to like the school uniform winter coats that their parents pay a lot of money for. They are good-looking and warm, I think, but the kids just don’t like them. My daughter, who is graduating high school this spring, never wore her winter coat. Instead, students go to-and-from school in just their uniform blazers with a scarf wrapped around their necks. Elementary school boys at private schools must wear short pants even in February. It seems like child abuse to see these little boys on the streets in the winter with cherry-red thighs. Anyway, I digress.) I kind of felt sorry for them and just seeing them out in the cold like that made me feel bad. He liked her and she liked him but they were probably too shy to say so - an old story. So they ended up squatting on the ground at night in the cold unsure what to do but just basking in each other’s company. I wanted to tell them,
“Hey, he likes you, and she likes you. Now go someplace warm, like Mosburger or Jonathan’s Coffee Shop, and get to know each other better there.”
But a person can’t really do that, can one? I’m neither their parent nor their teacher.
I think it’s interesting that I can spot young love just by sight. Conversely, I can spot a couple having a row - the body language and the tone of voice - and one time I was even a little upset when I passed a couple on the street that I could tell were in the process of breaking up as I walked by on the way to the video shop. Been there, done that. Ouch!