“There’s someone I like who likes the sundaes they sell here, so I wanted to try it. I thought if I ate it, took a good picture, and posted it on social media, maybe that person would see it. I felt good because it seemed like that person saw it as I’d hoped.”
“……Oh, really?”
For a moment I detected something different from usual in Liam’s statement or his gaze, but I pretended not to notice for now.
“I’ve always wondered. Whether that person doesn’t know even though I’m so openly showing it, or is just pretending not to.”
“……”
“I wanted to stay friends with them. One day my emotions got too excessive, so I just pretended to joke around and asked that person and someone else in the same club to put a crude confession note in that person’s locker.”
“Liam.”
“So now, um, what do I do? I picked a really weird time to say this. You said you were hungry, but I talked about something that kills your appetite before you even ate anything.”
I told Liam that I was surprised but my appetite hadn’t dropped, then took another bite of the hot dog. Then I was about to eat the cherry that was sitting on top of the whipped cream mountain on the ice cream sundae, but placed it on top of Liam’s pile of french fries. A red cherry on top of yellow french fries. Liam looked at it and laughed softly.
“About the concert we decided to go to together. I’ll understand even if you say you won’t go. You don’t have to help with the essay you agreed to help with either. Same with giving me rides to school. I can ask other people. Honestly, I’m really sorry. You must already be complicated, but I ended up saying it.”
Tormenting the innocent cherry with his fork, Liam said in a gradually quieter voice.
The person Liam Blake likes was me. This is definitely a difficult truth to handle. I even think, why me?
“First of all, you don’t need to be sorry to me. And……”
How should I say this? This is my first time in this situation, so I’m just being cautious.
“If you’re not uncomfortable, it’s fine. Going to the concert with you, helping with your essay work, commuting to school together.”
“……Being your boyfriend would probably be difficult though. Right?”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“No.”
Liam said that, then popped the cherry he’d been tormenting with his fork into his mouth in one bite. Then he took a big bite of the hamburger with beef patty and cheese.
“Since I’m being honest anyway, can I confess one more thing?”
When Liam asked, I said he could do so as much as he wanted. He smiled brightly, then leaned his arms on the old table and looked at me from a little closer.
“When you asked me to eat dinner together earlier, I thought I was going to collapse from happiness.”
“Ah.”
“You don’t know how many times I’ve been like this because of you. Feeling like I’ll collapse from happiness, then feeling depressed. Back and forth.”
Listening to Liam’s words, I scooped up a lot of ice cream sundae and ate several spoonfuls in a row. Liam watched me while eating french fries, then eating his hamburger…… Then suddenly Liam said I was cute, and I almost spit out the ice cream I was eating.
“It’s a bit strange. I’m not the type to stand out that much.”
When I muttered after barely regaining my composure, Liam objected, saying that wasn’t true.
“You’re my perfect ideal type.”
“Huh?”
What kind of guy is Liam’s ideal type? This is truly a moment when I’m curious.
“I like how you react calmly like now because it’s so like you. I was scared that if I told you my feelings honestly, your attitude might change.”
“Nothing will change. As long as you’re not uncomfortable.”
“I’m fine as long as you don’t distance yourself from me. Really.”
“I want to keep being friends with you too. Because you’re a good guy.”
Thank you for thinking that way, Liam said, then sang along to the song flowing from the jukebox. Thinking the voice spreading softly was quite sweet, I diligently ate the half-melted ice cream.
My house. Or Liam’s house. The place decided after discussing where to write the essay was my house.
“It’s kind of funny. Going to the house of the person who rejected me on the day I was rejected to do homework together.”
Getting into the passenger seat after finishing dinner, Liam said. He added that he didn’t mean it sarcastically. I answered that I understood and deliberately only talked about homework while driving the car.
“Do you really know you’ve been coming home too late these days?”
As soon as I got home, my very angry mom looked at me and asked. I even contacted her in advance saying I’d be a little late, so what’s so upsetting?
“Even if you have someone you like…… Oops, did nothing happen with her today?”
Since finding out I have a girl I like, Mom and Dad ask me this question every single day without fail when they see me. Did anything happen with her today, did you make any progress at all?
“I was rejected. So I brought him along to be consoled. So for the time being, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about her at all.”
I naturally introduced Liam to Mom and asked her to stop talking about Leda. When Liam greeted Mom and Dad, Dad, who’s very interested in football, recognized him right away and even asked for his autograph.
“This is amazing. I didn’t know my son was friends with a football star.”
Dad, who had added Liam’s autograph to his autograph book—Dad’s treasure—said with a pleased smile.
“I think so too.”
At my words, Liam said something embarrassing, saying he still couldn’t believe he was friends with a high jump champion.
“Friends who think each other are amazing, that’s very nice. Anyway, stay here as long as you want.”
“Thank you.”
Liam expressed his thanks to Dad and followed me up to the second floor. Then he looked around my room with a face full of curiosity.
“Your room is really neat. You must be good at organizing?”
“I think I’m better than average guys.”
Though it’s only because I get scolded by Mom if my room isn’t neat.
“Seeing your room makes me regret something from before. I should have cleaned up my trailer before you came.”
Since I spent most of that day outside anyway, I told Liam I couldn’t really remember what the inside of the trailer was like, then yielded my PC to him. After that, I took off my bag and pulled out my laptop.
“Cheick, there’s a password on the PC.”
As I sat on the edge of the bed booting up my laptop and entering the password, Liam, who was sitting in front of the PC, said.
“The password is 1234.”
“Ah… Is it okay to have security that lax?”
Liam asked, looking a bit troubled.
“There’s nothing special on the computer.”
“Don’t tell me your laptop password is also 1234?”
“Yeah.”
“Hahaha, you’re really funny.”
This is funny? Finding it strange that Liam was laughing at such a trivial fact, I opened a word processing program. Then, while writing the rest of my essay, I helped Liam whenever he called for me. At some point, I had to feel somewhat dazed watching Liam finish his work before me and look relieved.
“Is this the kind of deprivation you feel when you help a genius?”
“Hmm?”
“It took me a quarter of the day just to write this much. But you finished it all in one sitting.”
“No. I just sped up a bit because it would’ve been a shame to come all the way to your room and only do homework. Though I might’ve produced a complete mess of a paper paced over… Anyway, I uploaded it to the cloud and I’ll check it later. Right now I’m too bored to review it.”
Saying this, Liam uploaded his completed essay file to the cloud. Then he sat next to me and watched me write my essay with his gaze fixed on the laptop. Whether it was because of his presence I could feel closely beside me, or because of his gaze on the laptop screen, I had to struggle even more with work that wasn’t going well to begin with.
“Liam.”
“Yeah?”
“If it’s okay, could you do something other than watch my essay? You can feel free to touch anything here.”
“Ah, really?”
Liam, who had brightened up, looked around for a moment, then lay down on my bed and started using his smartphone. I finished writing my essay beside him.
“Your parents, I only saw them briefly but they seem like very affectionate people.”
When I was doing the final touches on my essay, Liam said in a slightly languid voice. I answered that my parents seemed similar to our coach.
“They meddle a bit too much but they’re good people.”
“…It’s about time for my dad to come home.”
“Then shouldn’t you go back?”
When I suddenly felt rushed and got up from my seat, Liam, still lying on the bed, stopped me saying I didn’t need to do that.
“If Ted makes too much noise in front of the house, someone will pick him up and let him sleep over. Our neighbors… they’re that close to each other.”
“Your father’s name is Ted?”
“Yeah. Ted Williams.”
Liam said he didn’t take that surname because Ted’s surname was ‘Williams.’
“In the first place, the name ‘Liam’ comes from ‘William,’ so then I’d become a guy with the same name and surname. What kind of name is ‘Liam Williams’?”
“Then the surname you use now is…”
“My mom’s surname.”
I nodded at Liam’s words and widened my eyes to look for typos in the completed essay. While doing so, Liam said.
“Ted doesn’t come home many days.”
“He must be very busy.”
“Busy… you could say that.”
Somehow it seemed like the more we talked, the more Liam’s voice sank, so I stopped what I was doing for a moment and wondered if there was anything in my room or our house that Liam might like.
“Uh… Do you like graphic novels?”
“Virgil said he likes them so I was thinking of reading some. Why?”
“There are a few here that Virgil left behind. Want to read them?”
“Sure.”
When I handed him a few graphic novels, Liam received them with an interested look and read them. When I was reviewing the final version of my essay and planning what to do on presentation day, Liam, who had been lying down reading the graphic novels, had at some point sat up and was staring intently at me.
“Ah…?”
“Because I finished reading.”
“You read fast. Wasn’t it very interesting?”
“No. It was really interesting though.”
