The boy was filled with disbelief...
And absurdity.
The boy stared blankly at the gray-haired girl.
He had never thought that one day...
He would meet a girl who claimed she wasn't human.
Even though, during this time, he had encountered many things he never would have imagined in the past.
But this situation, right now...
Was definitely one of the most unbelievable things of all.
"You..."
The boy's mouth opened and closed. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
"You..."
"How can you not be human?"
In the end, the boy asked a rhetorical question that seemed perfectly reasonable, yet somehow felt rather feeble in that moment.
Apart from her hair and eye color being somewhat unusual...
The gray-haired girl looked human in every way.
She had the appearance of a human.
She spoke the human language, too.
How could she not be human?
"Are you joking?"
The boy managed to come up with an explanation for the gray-haired girl's words.
"Heh."
The boy gave a dry laugh.
Though he didn't find the joke funny at all.
But aside from laughing, he didn't know what else to do.
How strange.
The girl was the one who had said something strange.
So why was he the one who felt awkward and at a loss?
"I'm not joking."
The gray-haired girl looked at the boy in confusion.
"I never joke."
"I don't like joking."
Boy: ...
"Um..."
Wasn't he the one who should be confused?
He didn't understand. He'd already given the gray-haired girl a way to back down...
So why wasn't she going along with what he'd said?
Some jokes... stopped being funny when they went too far.
The boy was a little angry.
The gray-haired girl making a joke like that...