84 Glasses
Thumping the newspaper back onto the table, Mamoru sat back in his chair, pulled his reading glasses off his face and rubbed his eyes. Letting out a heavy sigh, he thought about all of the chaos going on in Tokyo and the world. Who ever said no news was good news was right.
"Why do you even read those stupid things when all it does is get you sad and mopey?" a voice interrupted his thoughts. Usagi stood in front of his table, inspecting his glasses before putting them on. She picked up the paper and pretended to read it, pulling her most serious of faces
"I think it's socially responsible to stay informed about your surroundings and being aware of what is going on" Mamoru ignored her mocking and replied. Usagi lowered the newspaper slightly and looked at him from above his glasses.
"Buuut why?" turning around to the counter she pushed the glasses down her nose "Hey Motoki, who am I? The world is a terrible place, grumble grumble"
Motoki laughed "that one is too easy!"
Mamoru rolled his eyes "I dunno, so we can be wary of all the bad people out to get us –" before Usagi interrupted
"…aaand we can spend our lives worrying about bad people we will probably never meet and feeling sad about how other unlucky people must feel sad…?"
"Hmm, something like that…" Mamoru said, his forehead creased as he took in the logic of her words.
Usagi continued her rant, spinning back to him "I mean, it's not like you feeling bad about it will help them anyway. If anything, you just become one more unhappy person the rest of us rays of sunshine have to help feel happy again. I would rather smile now, and help who I can where I can and save the worrying for later"
She pulled the glasses back off her face and placed them on the table again before heading back over to her friends.
Mamoru stared after her, shocked by her insight - a little naive and optimistic yes- but nonetheless resolved to limit his news intake to reading the paper twice a week.