By the time we finally arrive at our destination, Hisao is looking exhausted again, but I put on a giant smile and gesture to the store in front of us. “Behold: ‘Cloud Nine Ice Cream Palace’!”
Hisao seems rather unimpressed with both my gestures and the grandiose nature of the store’s name. “I’m pretty sure we passed an ice cream stall on the way here.”
“Well, yeah, we passed a few, but none of them are anything like this place. Come on, I’ll show you.” I practically float into the store, Hisao trudging along behind me.
It’s cold inside, but given the heat we've just walked through, the chilly air is a blessing rather than a curse. Hisao, looking better for the drop in temperature, immediately turns to the wall of the store which is covered, floor-to-ceiling, in an open refrigerator, the source of the permeating cold. “Woah… How many flavors
are there?”
“Don’t know, I’ve never bothered to count. I personally only come here for one flavor in particular. Come on, let’s go order.”
The store is quite busy due to the hot weather outside, so Hisao and I have some waiting to do. To pass the time, I decide to ask “So what are you going to get?”
“Eh, probably chocolate.”
I stare at him angrily. “Seriously? All this variety and you’re just having plain old
chocolate?”
“I like chocolate! Besides, I have no idea what any of the other flavors are like.”
I sigh. “Look, with a place like this, you have to step out of your comfort zone a little.” After some slow deliberation on his part, I decide for him. “Look, I’ll just get you one of what I’m getting. It’s really good, I promise.” He’s not quite convinced, but decides to give in, and follows silently behind me as we approach the cashier.
“Welcome to Cloud Nine, how may I help you?”
“Two large bowls of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, please.”
The cashier hurries off to fill our order, and comes back holding two plastic bowls of ice cream, each with its own plastic spoon, which I get Hisao to hold as I pull out my wallet and pay. We then make our way to what looks to be the only empty table, and sit down on opposite sides.
Hisao slides one bowl of ice cream across the table and takes out his wallet. “Nope,” I say defiantly, shoving the first spoonful of ice cream into my mouth.
“Nope what?”
“Nope, you don’t need to pay me back.” Before he can protest, I add “Consider this payment for helping me with the quiz.”
He thinks for a second, but puts his wallet back in his pocket. “Doesn’t that make this bribery?”
“It’s only a crime if you get caught.” That doesn’t seem to ease him up any, but his first taste of the dessert in front of him changes his spirits significantly. His eyes widen, and he looks down at the bowl in front of him, then back up to me.
“What did you say this was?”
“It’s called ‘Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough’. They put pieces of raw cookie dough in.”
“Well, if this
is a bribe, it’s the best bribe I’ve ever gotten.”
Some thoughts from last night come back to mind, and I quickly finish a spoonful of ice cream to free up my mouth for talking. “So if you weren’t expecting me to pay you back for your help, why
did you help me?”
He looks at me strangely. “Isn’t there that saying about ‘a good deed is its own reward’?”
“Well, yeah, but why me specifically? If you want to help people out because you think it’s the right thing to do, then sure, whatever, but you helped me over anyone else. That quiz was damn hard, and I’m pretty sure most of the class could’ve done with at least a bit of help.”
He spends some time thinking about this, resting his chin on his left hand. I was kind of hoping that he would be able to answer off of the top of his head, but I suppose that I’m okay with him taking his time. Luckily for me, it’s not long before he takes a breath and looks up at me, preparing to speak as I shovel another spoonful of ice cream into my mouth.
“Do you remember the day of the festival?”
I nod, my mouth too full to speak, and he takes it as enough of an affirmative to continue.
“Well, that morning, I woke up and realized that I had been at Yamaku for a whole week, and nothing had changed. A lot had happened, but really, what did I have to show for it? I was the same. My heart was the same. I hadn’t really made any new friends, I hadn’t bothered to join any clubs, and as I looked at everyone enjoying the fair, I felt like I didn’t belong. This was a place for people who were disabled, but who had come to terms with their conditions and were content to live with them, and I… I just wasn’t one of those. I wasn’t ready to face the reality of my condition, and as such, I didn’t deserve a place like this.” His melancholy statement leaves me stunned, and I stop eating, shocked at the level to which he had sunk. “I told myself that I really hadn’t gained anything from the move to Yamaku, and that as soon as my parents finished work in the evening, I would call them to say that I wanted to go back, no matter where that happened to be, because I wasn’t worth this school.”
He… He was really just going to leave? And not because he didn’t
like Yamaku, but because he thought he wasn’t
good enough for it?
“And then, waiting in line to get something to eat, I heard a familiar voice call my name.” He smiles, a little. “You know how the rest of the day went.”
So that… Huh. I’m still not quite sure I’ve taken in all of what he’s said, but I suppose that that just makes the point clearer. “So you helped me because-“
“Because without you, I wouldn’t still be at Yamaku. And something tells me that I wouldn’t have enjoyed today nearly as much if that were the case.” He returns to eating his ice cream, as do I, albeit slowly. I knew that his first week at Yamaku was tough, but it seems that I misunderstood the extent to which that was the case.
After a long silence, occasionally interrupted by the scraping of plastic on plastic as we reach the end of our desserts, I feel that I have to say
something. “Well I, for one, am glad that you’re still here.”
He smiles and gazes out of the window at the front of the store. “I… I think I am too.”
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