“Come to think of it, it’s about time for Cheick to pull up with his car. Where did he go?”
I looked toward the parking lot searching for Cheick and was able to spot him trying to slip away over there.
“Cheick!”
Where are you trying to go alone? I quickly ran to Cheick’s side and asked why he was running away.
“……I’m uncomfortable with the people you’re with.”
“Because of Leda? She doesn’t even care about that stuff.”
By now Leda would have even forgotten the fact that Cheick asked her out on a date.
“Probably. But……”
Cheick stopped mid-sentence and looked at me with clear eyes. I gladly responded to that gaze with a smile, and as soon as he looked at me, he lowered his head halfway.
“I can’t make eye contact. Maybe because of what happened earlier.”
Cheick muttered in a much quieter voice. Hearing that made me want to laugh loudly, but I barely held back thinking it would be better not to do anything that might be misunderstood—he might think I’m laughing at him.
“Honestly, aren’t you uncomfortable with me rather than them?”
Trying to make eye contact with Cheick who had his head lowered, I asked him.
“It’s more like feeling awkward rather than uncomfortable.”
Anyway I’ll go in, Cheick said and raised one hand up. I reflexively grabbed his hand and—like I do with teammates—high-fived him, then finished by bumping shoulders with him. Cheick stood looking at me, then looked around once before lightly touching my cheek with an extremely stiff movement. Then he immediately withdrew his hand and entered the school building.
“……Ah.”
When I couldn’t get my wits about me because of what just happened, a big and extremely energetic guy suddenly charged and blocked me. Though it happened in an instant, I could tell who the culprit was just from a glance. It was obviously Nathan’s doing, so I told him this was a rule violation doing this without protective gear.
“It’s not even during a game, so whatever. Anyway, aren’t you curious? About what happened to me over the weekend.”
Whether I said anything or not, Nathan, as always, only said what he wanted to say. When I asked what happened, he revealed in detail the story of how he coincidentally met Juliet from the track and field team and even went on a date.
“That girl, I’m telling you, she’s completely fallen for me! She said she’d arrive soon……”
Shortly after, when Juliet appeared in the schoolyard, indeed, Nathan ran to her side like a loyal dog meeting its master. Seeing this, Juliet just smiled with an ambiguous expression, and while I was blankly watching that scene, Charlotte approached and shook her head.
“That’s really a nuisance. Juliet is kind but indecisive, so she can’t say she doesn’t like it.”
“Right. Anyway, did you have a good weekend?”
“I can’t believe it’s already Monday.”
After lightly chatting with Charlotte, I exchanged light greetings with friends nearby and entered the school building. In front of the lockers lined up long in the hallway was Virgil, and I brought up the graphic novel that was at Cheick’s house.
“That was interesting. I’m thinking of reading the sequel.”
“Ah, really? I have the entire series, so I’ll lend it to you. If you got interested in the world itself, there’s something else I want to recommend……”
While Virgil talked in an excited state, I saw Hazel and Blair swaggering over. They approached near Virgil with mischievous smiles, and I watched them closely.
“Hey, assholes, if you want to join in, say something instead of just hanging around!”
I needlessly raised my voice and kicked Hazel and Blair’s shins once each. With strength a bit too strong to consider it a playful kick. The guys who received the first attack spewed curses and turned their attention to me, and in the meantime Virgil ran to homeroom with his books.
“Have you gotten into hanging out with losers these days? Even if Cheick Rowan is one thing, isn’t Virgil Praxis a top-tier loser?”
Rubbing her shin that had turned red from being hit, Hazel looked at me with a face full of complaints and asked. I took the most arrogant posture possible and dealt with her and Blair.
“Man, I’m tired to death. You guys and Aiden too. Are you so jealous you can’t stand it when I get along with other people?”
“What?”
“I understand what’s in your hearts. But to completely capture my interest, don’t you guys lack a bit of charm?”
You guys are not enough to be my friends, let alone teammates. I headed to homeroom with my books, leaving behind the guys who looked dumbfounded. My seat was diagonally across from Leda’s, and she, who had arrived and sat down first, barely moved her lips and carefully spoke to me as soon as she saw me.
“I saw everything.”
When I asked what she saw, she immediately pointed to my cheek. Catching on to something from that gesture, I asked if Alice and Sophia also saw the same thing, and Leda quietly shook her head. I let out a sigh of relief, then dealt with Leda asking this and that while just waiting for lunchtime to come.
When we met again at lunchtime, Cheick took out an apple from his lunch box and showed off the skill of splitting it cleanly in half without any special tools. Nathan and Charlotte, who watched the scene together, gave him applause.
“That’s impressive. There are many guys who crush that with their bare hands, but doing it this cleanly is difficult unless you’re a technician.”
At Nathan’s words, I nodded in agreement, and Charlotte was also amazed, saying she’d seen Nathan or me smash perfectly good apples to pieces while playing stupid macho games, but this was her first time seeing something like this.
“There’s a trick to it.”
Cheick responded calmly and gave me half the apple. Then he ate the other half without making a sound.
“Did you sell your meal ticket to get concert tickets this time?”
Charlotte asked me while eating her beautifully golden rice. I responded yes and munched on carrot sticks from Nathan’s lunch box. Nathan doesn’t touch anything but meat, yet his lunch box always has well-trimmed vegetables and fruits and such. Of course there’s much more meat. Just from this you can tell how loved Nathan is by his parents.
Charlotte’s lunch box is also always full of food she enjoys eating. Cheick’s lunch box is usually like that too, but today two bagels with unidentified vegetable soup between bread were rolling around.
“……Wouldn’t it have been better to pack the soup and bagels separately?”
Looking at the bagel that had gone soggy from the soup’s moisture, I asked Cheick. He made an expression like he’d realized something amazing, then with a quickly calmed appearance handed over one ‘Rowan Bagel.’
“I’ll keep that in mind next time. I don’t have a sense for these things. Bear with it just this once.”
At Cheick’s words, Charlotte felt relieved that she no longer needed to bring lunch for two, and Nathan somehow felt sorry for me. That’s strange. Why does he think I’m pitiful? I’m really happy though.
“This seems like it would be rich in fiber.”
When I expressed my impressions after eating half the bagel, Cheick answered that I didn’t need to try to say nice things even about food that was obviously a mess.
“It does seem really good for you though. The flaw is that it looks extremely unappetizing.”
At Nathan’s evaluation, I insisted that Rowan bagels were tastier than they looked, and Charlotte began to get curious about the bagel’s taste.
“This paste is made with callaloo, right? I’ve been curious about what callaloo tastes like. Hey, Liam. Tear off a little and give it to me.”
“What, you might as well pluck a flea’s liver.”
“You can just share yours. Then you won’t complain, right?”
“No.”
As soon as I finished answering, I stuffed the remaining half of the bagel entirely into my mouth. Seeing this, Charlotte frowned at me.
“Ugh, never mind. Cheick, will you share yours?”
Cheick readily gave Charlotte part of the bagel he was eating, and I immediately snatched it and ate it all up. And I was able to receive the title of ‘more annoying than Nathan’ from Charlotte.
During Spanish and Culture class that followed lunch with friends, I sat across from Cheick and kept talking to him. Until now, even when I wanted to talk to him, I’d restrained myself considering various circumstances, but now there was no need for that anymore.
I don’t have to hold back expressing my feelings anymore. I don’t have to consciously restrict making eye contact during these small conversations, or adding other body movements… things like that.
“The bagel at lunch, you made it, right?”
When I jokingly asked Cheick if he wanted to serve homemade food since today was a special day for us, he immediately answered no.
“I didn’t eat dinner yesterday so my portion was left intact. So I had no choice but to make it. If I’d wanted to ‘serve’ you something, I would’ve made something at least a bit better.”
“I see. Why did you skip dinner?”
“I had something to worry about.”
“…Worry?”
Cheick quietly nodded his head, then said the worry was resolved now so it was okay, and took out his printed essay. I also followed him and took out my essay printout, then expressed my gratitude to him for helping me write it.
“I’m good at presenting though, so tell me if you need help. I’ll help you with all my might.”
In this class, it doesn’t end just by writing an essay—you must have time to present in front of everyone. From what I’ve observed of Cheick in this class so far, he writes essays better than anyone, but when it comes to presenting, that excellence doesn’t show well, which often frustrates me.
“Not having talent for presenting… isn’t that literally a talent issue that’s hard to fix?”
Cheick asked skeptically.
“You just need to practice a lot. But what were you worrying about so much that you skipped a meal yesterday?”
I’m not without some idea of what Cheick was worrying about enough to skip dinner. I just want to hear it. I want to hear those words—that he skipped a meal because he was thinking about me.
“Well, there’s someone I’m conscious of, and I was wondering if I was conscious of them because my attention was going to them, or if it was because they were really doing something that made me conscious of them.”
The answer was very vague, really exactly the kind of thing Cheick would say. That fact was enough to trigger my playfulness.
“Aha, so did you find an answer?”
“…The answer I got was that if I wasn’t interested, I wouldn’t be conscious of whatever they did.”
“I see. But if it’s okay, could I know who this person you’re conscious of is?”
At my request, Cheick hesitated for a moment then tore off a small piece of his notebook. Then he wrote the number 12 with a pen on the notebook scrap and gave it to me.
“It’s a bit much to tell you everything.”
Cheick muttered while looking in the complete opposite direction from where I was. Number 12 is my jersey number.
My number written in such tiny letters on such a small piece of paper. The moment I saw it, a smile spread across my face without me realizing it, and I began to look forward to the future.
What kind of side will you show me from now on, and what will happen?
Life immediately sends warnings not to be too happy even when good things happen, but Cheick’s careful tenderness like this keeps making me relax.
