“Anyway, my point is, everyone’s like that to some degree. Me and Mickey, we know who we wanna be, but we suck at it. We can’t keep up the charade. We slip up at the most critical times—especially me lately—but I think that’s why it never gets tiring.”
“……”
“You, on the other hand, are way too good at it. You know you’re allowed to relax, right? If you keep forcing it, you’re gonna pass out again. And in your case, based on what you just told me, I think you’d have more fun if you chilled out a little.”
As I struggled to choose my words, he rose to his feet.
“Anyway…”
I saw the travel guide in his hands and realized he was apparently done talking.
“I’ll see you at dinner, then.”
“Is that why you came here?”
Surely, he understood what I was asking. And yet, he simply laughed. “Well, that, and I wanted to see what it’d be like to sneak into a girl’s room.”
“I beg your pardon?”
I laughed at his stupid joke before I could stop myself. Who am I, Miki-chan? As he went to leave, I was going to simply let him go, but then I remembered a question I had and decided to ask it.
“So what’s with the bell, then?”
He came to a stop, his hand on the doorknob.
“Mmmm…” He murmured hesitantly for a moment and then looked back over his shoulder at me. “For now, let’s just say it’s nothing.”
And with that, he walked out of the room without waiting for my response.
Normally I would have examined his pointed remarks more deeply, but today, since he’d gone to all the trouble of cheering me up, I decided not to pursue it any further.
Sometimes composure is a kindness.
The fact that I had this thought at all—and worse, that he inspired it—was perhaps proof that I was still sick.
On the final day of the field trip, most of our time would be spent traveling freely downtown, and then we were scheduled to return home in the afternoon. Our collective excitement had slowly morphed into sadness. Everyone’s hearts were beating to a different sort of rhythm compared to when we first departed.
As for me, I had given up on clinging to my prince. Instead, I decided to indulge my desire to spend my final day having fun with Miki-chan. Besides, I found out that he had received a rather harsh lecture about sneaking into a sick girl’s room without permission from a teacher, and I didn’t want to get him in even more trouble.
Downtown, we were instructed to travel with our assigned groups for the most part, so we ate some sugary junk food and explored the souvenir shops.
I hadn’t changed my stance on my Looney persona, but to be clear, I wasn’t intentionally defying my prince’s warning. That being said, I wasn’t going to take it as gospel, either. But now I understood: this was who I was, and I didn’t need to change it. “Looney” was the nickname Miki-chan gave me, and I was genuinely, unironically proud of it from the bottom of my heart. As for Miyazato-chan and the other girl I angered, I decided I would make it up to them bit by bit. From now on, we would be real friends.
At one point we stopped for lunch. Then we went back to the souvenir shop that had the best gifts and decided to split up to do some shopping. As the girls were browsing the accessories and the guys were looking at weird knickknacks, I caught Miki-chan making painfully obvious eye contact with Kyou. Curious, I watched as he walked over to us, asked to borrow Miyazato-chan, and then the two of them went off somewhere together. I’d thought maybe Miki-chan was trying to play Cupid for them again, but evidently not.
Once the two of us were alone, Miki-chan quietly took me by the hand and led me out of the store. Then she turned to face me. What’s going on?
“Here. This is for you.”
Before I could take it, I realized what it was based purely on the sound it made. Sitting in her palm was a little bell decorated with a tiny seashell.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a bell, dummy! They say if you give one as a gift, you’ll be together forever, right? And you have to be in private when you give it to the other person. But thanks to stupid Zuka, I couldn’t find the right timing to give it to you… See, this is a special bell I bought yesterday.”
Silently, I accepted it. I just couldn’t find the words.
“What’s wrong?”
“…Thank you.”
“Barf! Why are you getting all mushy on me? I was so sure you’d squeal about how I’m ‘in love with you’ or some other nonsense. I had a comeback ready and everything!”
“I’ll treasure it. I promise.”
It was the honest truth. Although, to be even more honest, I had more to say…but instead I clutched the bell to my chest and gently suppressed it.
“Oh yeah, so what did you think of my little hint, hmm? Remember when I said you might get a bell from someone? I got you good, didn’t I?”
“That was supposed to be a hint? Oh, good lord. You’re so bad at this.”
“Hey, c’mon! For the record, I gave bells to everybody else too, but yours is special!”
“I’m not the only one who got one? Now I’m devastated.”
Honestly, I had figured it was some sort of friendship gesture, but I wanted to tease her about it just a little. After all, a certain someone had given me permission to chill out.
Wait, but…if she gave one to everyone…
“Oh yeah, and don’t worry about repaying me or anything. One-way gifts are A-OK in my book. Oh, but I did end up getting a gift in return. This one was from Kyou-kun.”
She pulled a tiny bell from her pocket, and I saw her heart flutter ever so slightly.
“He said he wanted to reciprocate my gift, so he gave it to me. I know he didn’t mean it in that way, but still, I was so nervous!”
“Wow. I’m surprised.” Well done, my pupil.
Right as I was planning to bully him later for not reporting back to me, Miki-chan looked up at the sky and stretched her arms wide. “Man, I’m so glad I managed to give everybody their gifts! See, I gave Zuka his first, and like, we’re technically friends and all, but it felt so weird, knowing he was the only person who got a bell from me…”
Indeed, I could understand where she was coming from. Anyone would have felt restless in her shoes.
Wait… He was the first?
“When exactly did you give the bell to my prince?”
“Ugh, please stop calling him that. Anyway, it was the first day. Super early, I know.”
This brought to mind the memories of what happened at the airport…
“Are you kidding me?!”
It wasn’t like me to shout—but then again, maybe it was. The words left my lips before I could stop them. You’re telling me THAT’S the answer to the mystery I spent the whole trip agonizing over?!
Looking back, he was the one person she didn’t say “good morning” to—probably because she’d already said it to him earlier that same day. And he had probably refused to explain the bell to me specifically because she had asked him not to spoil her surprise. This was also probably the reason why he changed the subject when Miyazato-chan returned from the restroom at the aquarium. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made, but damn it!
“About what?”
“It’s nothing. Sorry, but I can’t stand your precious Zuka.”
“Ha ha! But you were hanging all over him like a day ago! You’re so weird.”
Now that it all made sense, I was starting to feel really stupid for overthinking it so much. If I had to choose the moral of the story, it would be “don’t miss the forest for the trees,” or, in other words, “it’s okay to relax.”
Whatever. At least that’s settled.
Or so I thought, but then Miki-chan took me even deeper down the rabbit hole.
“I gotta say, though, he can be such a jerk. When I tossed the bell to him at Okinawa Peace Memorial Park, he smacked it to the ground on instinct! Got a fat scratch on it and everything! I’m starting to think he and I might not be ‘together forever’ after all. Ha ha!”
“Wait, so…you didn’t give it to him first thing in the morning?”
“Nope! We both got dropped off at the airport at the exact same time, and naturally our folks know each other, so I couldn’t bear to give it to him then. Plus, a bunch of other students were already there, too. Why do you ask?”
“…No reason.”
That can’t be right. If Miki-chan was telling the truth, then that would mean he did in fact bring a bell with the intent of giving it to someone…but who?
When we stepped back into the store, we found Kyou, Miyazato-chan, and my prince happily eating homemade doughnuts.
Just then, I had an epiphany. A eureka moment, if you will.
“Remind me, Miki-chan: how does my prince refer to Miyazato-chan?”
“Huh? He calls her Elle, doesn’t he?”
Now I get it.
That morning, when I asked him why he had a bell, I thought he had simply stumbled over his words, but in fact, he had let something slip.
One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. In that moment, as he grinned at her, his heart seemed to beat just a tiny bit faster.