It was afternoon break, after lunch. The classroom was normally filled with the boisterous voices of those idiot boys, but today, the adults’ voices sounded like the tittering of little birds.
I already knew that it was class observation day, a special event, but when I actually arrived the atmosphere was far more unpleasant than I imagined. With no idea what to do with myself, I simply put my head down on my desk. Perhaps assuming that I was not feeling well, Kiriyuu-kun called out to me.
“K-Koyanagi-san…are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking…”
“Is your mother coming? Or your father?”
Honestly, the one time he opens his mouth, I thought, but I held my tongue.
“Neither one could come. They had work.”
“O-oh, I see.”
“Did your father come today?”
“No, he had to work, so my mom came. It was his day off when we ran into you at the river that time.”
Perhaps it was the joy of having his mother around that had Kiriyuu-kun so talkative? Frankly, I thought that was wonderful. I didn’t wish to keep talking about painful things, so I decided not to ask him whether his father’s job had anything to do with the park.
Finally, class began and Hitomi-sensei had us do our greetings. The chorus was louder than usual, and it was obvious that everyone else was showing off for their parents.
“You all have a lot of energy today,” Hitomi-sensei said, so she must have thought it was out of the ordinary as well.
For today’s lesson, we were to present our thoughts about happiness. One by one, starting from the front of the classroom, we stood and spoke about our thoughts.
Kiriyuu-kun and I sat in the last row, so we came last. Because we sat in the back, I could hear many of the parents chattering to one another, and I wondered why Hitomi-sensei did not admonish them for it.
I listened silently to the other presentations, wondering if one of them might give me some hint as to my own happiness. However, they were of no help. All they had to offer were things like sweets and playing, all the ideas that I had already thought of and summarily discarded. I was not surprised to hear that Ogiwara-kun was the only to mention books.
As it grew closer to my turn, finally it came to Kiriyuu-kun.
I was an idiot to think he might mention drawing, to have even a sliver of hope about it. He stood timidly, his written composition in hand, and gave the same boring answer as the kid three places before him.
“Coward,” I muttered.
I have no idea if my voice reached him as he sat back down. However, as usual, he said nothing. Now, it was my turn.
I stood slowly. I looked at the sheet Hitomi-sensei had handed out for us to write our answers. I looked squarely at the sheet, so that I would not misread it. The very first sentence of my composition was:
I still don’t know what happiness is.
It was not that I had skipped out on my homework simply because my parents were not coming. I had thought long and hard about it. When I considered the answer Minami-san had given me, I just remembered her crying. Even so, I lacked the words to describe the shape of the feeling that had planted itself deep in my heart. I could not tell a lie, either. So I thought and I thought, and I settled on this.
I looked at Hitomi-sensei’s smiling face, and at Kiriyuu-kun with his head hung, and Ogiwara-kun looking at me. I raised my composition in my hands and began to read. Or rather, I tried to.
Just then, there was the sound of someone running down the hallway. Clack clack clack. It was not the sound of the indoor slippers that any of us wore. Honestly, did adults forget that they weren’t supposed to run in the hallways? I decided to ignore the aberrant sound and read my presentation.
However, I could not do that. The noise stopped just before our classroom, and the back door opened rudely.
Goodness, who is this interrupting my presentation? I thought, but instead of issuing a warning to this dreadful adult, a brilliant smile leapt to Hitomi-sensei’s face.
“You’re just in time!”
Just in time for what? I thought, tilting my head.
For some reason, Hitomi-sensei’s beaming smile, which had been directed at the back of the class, turned on me.
On instinct, I turned to look. And then, I turned back around. Then, with the same expression on my face as on Hitomi-sensei’s, I gave my presentation.
“My happiness is right here and now, with my mother and father here!”
Ah, I had broken my promise to Skank-san. And here I had told her that I was going to show my parents just how clever I was. I was unable to give anything but the answer I had come up with right on the spot, just like those other idiot children.
However, there was not a single lie. Because I had not prepared it beforehand, my presentation was shorter than everyone else’s. Even so, Hitomi-sensei was beaming and applauding.
“I talked with your father about how much I wanted to go, and we ended up getting the afternoon off,” my mother told me that evening, as the three of us ate dinner together for the first time in a while. They had offered to take me to a restaurant, but I told them that I wanted to eat my mother’s cooking. She forgave my selfishness with a smile.
I will have to thank Minami-san, I thought as I ate a big, tasty croquette, determined to head to the rooftop with my tiny friend as soon as school was over tomorrow.