Watching People

I have an odd hobby: watching people. I enjoy watching people move, their expressions, their voices, and their reaction to anything. People are fascinating, and as long as they're not paying attention to me, I can watch them for hours while sitting in one spot. I don't mean the people who were captured on video or their recorded voice: it's the in-person experience of watching them that is relaxing and interesting.

Have you ever noticed that everyone moves differently? The way a person walks defines them and tells a story. Every bend of the knees, the swing of the arms, and the lift of the body when they take another step makes me want to stare at the person for hours. Believe it or not, I can recognize some of my friends from a distance by the way they walk. It's quite memorizing.

Also: body parts. Whenever I see someone with familiar eyes, arms, or a nose and I don't know them, I wonder if they are related to people I know who have similar features. How closely are they genetically related? Do they know each other? How would people who don't know each other but have similar looking body parts react when they realize that they have the same feature? My mind is always left wondering about these things.

Which brings me to a related issue: watching people make me look like a creep. If I were a very beautiful person, people may not have an issue with me staring at them, but I'm not. I have people asking me "what's your problem?" and being the anxious and fearful person I am, I can only reply with a "sorry" in a weak trembling voice. Should I just stick with videos?


_{Image from chapter 1 of Watashi Ni xx Shinasai, by Tooyama Ema. Chapter 1 was scanlated by For The Halibut.}