[To his credit, his expression only falters for a moment.]
[But it's a moment that says far more than he could with words. Try as he might to hide it, it stings. He knew it was a possibility -- a rather high one, actually. Perhaps even some part of him knew from the start that this would be the outcome. But there was still a tiny part of him that held onto the hope that maybe Zed liked him, too.]
[That was probably the case, of course. But Ranpo couldn't always see everything. Even the things that were right in front of him.]
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[But it's a moment that says far more than he could with words. Try as he might to hide it, it stings. He knew it was a possibility -- a rather high one, actually. Perhaps even some part of him knew from the start that this would be the outcome. But there was still a tiny part of him that held onto the hope that maybe Zed liked him, too.]
[That was probably the case, of course. But Ranpo couldn't always see everything. Even the things that were right in front of him.]