Kota suddenly remembered hearing the weather girl’s forecast from the night before. She had said, “Tomorrow will be sunny nationwide, so you won’t need your umbrella.”
During class, he absent-mindedly looked out the window and saw the blue sky and various cloud shapes floating freely. The ocean of sky above him seemed to go on forever.
One of those cloud shapes looked like his favorite dish, a rice omelet. It made him feel hungry. There was no way he could continue concentrating on schoolwork now.
To make matters worse, today’s math class was incredibly boring. (Well, actually, it was no different than usual.)
Kota’s grades weren’t bad, but they weren’t so great either. He was in the middle of the pack. He enjoyed physical exertion more than sitting in front of a desk. He was a normal boy. A very normal boy.
Watching the clouds made him hungrier, so he concentrated on bringing his attention back to the chalkboard.
“Ugh, oh no!” he exclaimed in surprise.
While his mind had been somewhere else, it seemed the class had moved on. As he rushed to copy the words and diagrams on the blackboard, the teacher was erasing sections he hadn’t even arrived at yet.
Kota’s teacher would, from time to time, check if the students were properly taking notes. If he was caught not taking notes, his punishment would be to wake up early to come clean the classroom for a week.
Since he had to take care of Blue, he wanted to avoid that at all costs. He could get Mai to show him her notes, but she sat too far away from him. He could just copy them later from her, but if he was caught during class now, it was the end for him.
Just as panic was seizing him, he felt a poke from behind.
“Look here.”
It was Saiki. He gave Kota a good glance at his notebook. It had all of today’s notes already copied down.
The two of them had not spoken a word to each other since the PerFree incident. Even if their eyes met, they would quickly look away. But in the end, Saiki couldn’t get himself to hate Kota. And Kota felt the same. They both actually wanted things to go back to the way they were. They just needed something to trigger the return to normalcy. Anything would do, no matter how small.
“Thanks!” Kota said in a small voice. A bit embarrassed himself, Saiki smiled in return.
“You, what are you doing there?”
The teacher, realizing something was amiss, shouted at Kota.
“Nothing!”
Kota and Saiki answered in unison, as if they had rehearsed it. Although they had been out of sync lately, they were so much in sync now that the entire class burst into commotion. Usually, the two of them were popular and were the center of attention in class. This meant the entire class could now sense that they were back together as a duo.
In reaction, the two of them just scratched their heads coyly and laughed together.
Seeing the two of them, Mai was relieved from the bottom of her heart. She hoped that they could be friends again.
“Kota, I’m so happy for you.”
Afterwards, as if to make up for all the lost time, the two boys talked on and on. Boys are simple creatures. But such simplicity can be convenient at times like this. Just the slightest opportunity can wipe away any and all differences.
They talked about anything and everything— about games, TV shows, soccer, just about every insignificant thing.
They had an exceptionally grand time talking about soccer in particular. The two of them had been members of the soccer club until the fourth grade. Partly because of Mai’s situation and partly because Kota had gotten into a fight protecting a friend from an upperclassman, he and Saiki—who had jumped into the fray as well—had both quit the club. Getting Saiki involved in that incident was yet another reason for the friction between the two.
But they both still loved soccer. In fact, they were at their most intense when it came time to play soccer during P.E.
Now, while conversing about soccer, Saiki said something that resulted in confusion for Kota.
“Oh, that’s right,” Saiki recalled. “After school today, we’re taking on the guys from Classroom 3. But we’re a guy short. You wanna play, Kota?”
While saying this, Saiki shot him a glance that implied, “Of course you’re coming, right?”
But Kota was hesitant. Ever since Blue had come along, playing after school was out of the question. However, he knew that Mai was around, and he started entertaining thoughts of leaving all the responsibility to her. At least, just for today.
Besides, he thought, taking care of Blue was turning into such a chore. He found himself becoming a little annoyed by the responsibility. He had gotten too enthusiastic about being a father, but in the end, it was starting to wear him down.
Mai, Blue, Saiki—perhaps all of them were too heavy a burden for young Kota to deal with.
Just a little bit shouldn’t hurt, Kota thought. Shirking his responsibilities just for one day shouldn’t be a big deal. And with those thoughts, he finally decided.
“All right, I’ll play.”
“For real?” Saiki asked, incredulous. He yelled happily in a loud voice, brimming with hope and a newfound confidence. “Yeah! We’ll definitely win with you on the team, Kota!”
Kota justified that everything was okay. This was time spent with his best friend, after all. His sense of responsibility as a father completely vanished in the space of that thought. He reverted to being a regular fifth grader, a young boy.
✦ ✦ ✦
“…Like I said, I’m sorry! I really have to go… Sorry! Can you take care of Blue by yourself, Mai?”
He bowed his head in shame. But in response, Mai promptly agreed, “Sure. I understand.”
“Really, I feel so bad!” Kota exclaimed.
“It’s all right,” Mai said reassuringly. “After all, I left you yesterday to take care of him by yourself.” She smiled.
“Okay then, I’m counting on ya! I have to go now! See ya.”
As he was about to leave the classroom, Mai called out to Kota.
“…Go get ’em, daddy!”
She very much wanted to send off Kota, now reunited with his best friend, with her best smile. Hearing Mai’s cheer, Kota turned to look back at her. He basked in the warmth of her soft voice and her smile that was as bright as a sunflower.
But her words suddenly reminded him of his responsibilities as a father. And he hesitated a bit.
Saiki, however, was getting impatient. “Kota, let’s go!” he urged.
“…Well, I better go.”
She bid him goodbye and waved, “Okay. See you.”
“Yup.”
Turning his back on her, he quickly dashed out of the classroom to catch up with Saiki. But the image of Mai’s smile seared itself into his mind’s eye.
It was a smile—but it seemed so lonely.
For an instant, he felt as if his chest was being squeezed and he couldn’t breathe. But it was probably just his mind playing tricks on him because as soon as he reached the schoolyard, the feeling completely dissipated. He gave himself over completely to playing soccer with his best friend for the first time in a long while.
✦ ✦ ✦
Blue, who was being cradled in the arms of his mother, was deliriously ecstatic over being released from his dark, cardboard box.
Now out in the light of day, he noticed something fluttering in front of him. It seemed like something he liked, something fun to chase. He struggled free of his mother’s arms and went after the fluttering thing.
“Oh, Blue! Don’t go over there!” Mai shouted.
Mesmerized by the thing, Blue failed to hear his mother’s voice.
Without warning, as it was accustomed to doing, the weather suddenly changed. Dark clouds began to form overhead.