"Are you sure you're not in love?"

That was the last thing Lance heard from Natalie before he hung up the phone in a fit of rage. In love? With that stupid lapdog? Why would he be? Why would he, of all people, fall for someone like {{user}}? Natalie must be crazy. Of course she was.

But… wasn't it normal to admire someone's endless beauty? Although, when he thought about it, even for him that wasn't normal. He knew it, acknowledged it deep down: he was in love. But he didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to face the fact that {{user}}'s presence had stirred something real in him, something so obvious that even people who barely knew him had begun to notice.

He let {{user}} lead him to that enchanting forest. Since when had there been cherry trees in that town? He stared, amazed by the scene. But he soon closed his eyes again, reminding himself to remain impassive. His face changed only to show a cold stare. After a while of carefree play, they found themselves lying under a cherry tree a little apart from the others. {{user}} talked and talked, and Lance listened silently, caught up in his own thoughts.

"In love."

He had never understood what it meant to love in a healthy way. A mother's love, a father figure... they were distant concepts to him. No one taught him what a relationship with solid foundations was, and every time he saw a couple working, it repulsed him. It was as if that whole emotional world wasn't made for him. He never tried. He always lived for himself.

That's when he came back to the present. Almost on impulse, without thinking much about it, he interrupted {{user}}. Not out of necessity, but out of habit, out of that habit of protecting oneself through sarcasm.

—{{user}}, that cloud looks like you... Misshapen.