"One of life's most simple pleasures is spending time with those we love"- Ash Sweeney
My name is Smith Kaito, Kaito Smith. I was in an accident. I lost my left hand and lower left leg. My parents are Johnathan Smith and Harumi Yamamoto. I live at Yamaku Academy. My friends are Hanako, Hisao and Lilly. I am attracted to Hanako. I have...feelings for Hanako. My feelings are weird, but they are real.
We were all up early to see Lilly off. She had gotten a taxi to take her to the airport. We were all outside the school gates, waiting for it to arrive.
"How long's it going to take?" I asked. I didn't mean to whine, but I was wasting valuable time I could better spend on studying, or far more likely painting, or even more likely sleeping.
"It should be here in a few minutes" Hisao answered, looking at his watch. He looked to Lilly "Should we try and call them again?" he asked her.
"Maybe after ten minutes" she shrugged in response "They've never let me down before. There's probably just a little traffic"
"So how long does it take to get to Scotland?" I asked out of the blue, not really enjoying the silence that had settled. I had tried passing the time by picking away the dried bits of paint off he gate, but that had proved to dull, even for me.
"About sixteen hours, if I remember correctly" was Lilly's answer "It's a bit hard to tell with the changing time zones"
"So long..." Hanako noted. She was being really quiet this morning. I chalked it up to it being so early.
"Yeah" I shared her disbelief. I personally couldn't imagine being stuck on any kind of transport for that long. I think I'd lose my mind.
"It's not too bad" Lilly assured us "I'll spend most of it either asleep or catching up on my English. I hardly use that here so I need to re-familiarise myself with it a little"
"I could have helped you with that" I said in English. I was fluent, and I always looked for an excuse to show it off.
Lilly smiled with a raised eyebrow, and the looks on Hisao's and Hanako's faces (incomprehension and amazement) gave me a little boost "H-How well d-do you speak English?" Hanako asked me
"Dad's British" I explained "I grew up speaking it as well as Japanese"
"That's pretty impressive" Hisao noted, which made me smile.
"W-will your accent...be a problem, Lilly?" Hanako asked
"I wouldn't worry about that too much" Lilly smiled "It may be an issue initially, but I should be fine once I get used to it"
So we all sat on that bench. Well they did anyway, I got restless legs and got up to pace. Despite Lilly leaving, I couldn't bring myself to say anything other than goodbye.
I kept looking at Hanako, she was chewing her fingernails. She looked nervous. I moved to say something to try and calm her when I heard the sound of a rumbling engine.
Hisao must have heard it too "I think the taxi's on its way" he announced to the group.
"Well spotted Hisao" Lilly smiled "I only just heard it as well" Personally I thought that was cool. That meant I must have heard it at the same time as Lilly as well. My hearing skills were on par with a blind person's. I thought that was pretty cool.
The taxi pulled up right beside us. The driver emerged and took Lilly's luggage, storing it in the trunk while Lilly climbed into the back seat.
"Have a safe trip, Lilly" Hanako said through the open window
"Take care of yourself" Hisao told her.
"Bye" I said.
Hanako looked sad. She sounded sad as well. "I'll be back before long, Hanako. Don't worry" Lilly said to Hanako "Besides, you'll still have people here for you. Won't there be, boys?"
"Yeah" I smiled at Hanako, putting a hand on her shoulder. Hanako went red in the face and dropped her gaze again.
"We'll look after her" Hisao promised "See you, Lilly"
"Goodbye!" Hanako and I said in unison.
With that, the driver left. We stayed there until taxi was just a little dark dot in the distance.
"Well," Hisao spoke, breaking the silence "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to hit the books, seeing as I'm awake and alert now" with that, he strolled back inside without so much as a backward glance.
I looked to Hanako "I don't really want to do any studying at the moment. You?"
Hanako shook her head "What...do you want to do?" she asked me.
"I...uh..." I scratched the back of my head "Do you just want to, I don't know, spend some time together"
She gave a little nod "Okay"
I smiled at that. I looked away from her for moment when my vision landed on a bus that was just pulling up to the nearest stop. Before I could stop or think I blurted out "City?"
"Huh?"
"You want to um, go into the city?" I asked her "We could, I don't know, look for a bookshop or something" I wasn't quite sure what I was saying. I didn't like the city, and I hated buses. "I mean, we don't have to if you don't want to-"
"Okay" she said
"Huh?"
"Okay" she said again with a nod.
"Really?" I was surprised I'll admit. I didn't think she was any more fond of the city than I was.
"R-really" she smiled "Let's go"
Chalking this moment up as a moment as a miraculous effect of an early rise improving our psyche, the pair of us sped off the catch the bus before we left.
I knew it would be busy. It was a Saturday afternoon, how could it not be? But even then I was not prepared for the crowd. People were everywhere. Hanako clung on to my arm as we made our way through the crowd, although it was a little awkward as she was holding on to my intact arm, so I was pushing my way through with only half an arm, which kind of made me a little self-conscious.
We had made our way to a small clearing when I voiced the awkward question "Can you...um...maybe hold on to my other arm?"
"Sorry?" Hanako looked up at me
"I know it's a bit weird," I admitted "But it's kind of the only hand I have at the moment. I um, kind of uh...need it. Sorry"
"Oh" she looked to my other arm "Okay". Hesitantly, she moved to my other side and wrapped her hands around my stumpy arm. I couldn't imagine it felt right under her grip.
"I'm sorry" I apologised "I know it's weird, but I really feel better if I have my hand free"
"It's..." I could feel Hanako's fingers gently stroking parts of the scar tissue on my stump "It's okay..."
It just occurred to me she was the first person outside my family or nursing staff that had ever touched my scars. It was weird, but nice "So um...where are we going? We looking for a bookshop?" I didn't have tons of money, but I should've had enough for a few books.
I looked at her, she nodded ever so slightly "O-Okay. D-Do you know of one?"
"Um..." I racked my brain for memories "I think there was one the last time I was here, with Hisao and Lilly. When we were looking for your...for your uh..." I trailed off as I realised the uncomfortable subject. Hanako seemed to figure it out anyway, her face turning sad again. "I'm sorry" I mumbled.
"You...spent a lot of time?" she asked
"What?"
"Looking?" she clarified "For...presents?"
I nodded "For the better part of a day. We wanted to get good stuff"
Hanako went a little red as she smiled "You said you were m-making something?"
I nodded "A painting" I couldn't help but smile at the thought "I'm almost done"
"I-Is it nearby?" Hanako asked "The bookstore?"
"I...think so" I said "Wanna' check it out?"
"S-Sure" she nodded.
The crowds started to build up as we made our way towards the shop. Hanako was holding tightly on to my arm, which made us a little slower as I was practically pulling her along. At least I had my hand to sort of nudge people out of the way. There was the rumble of traffic, which made me feel jealous.
"I wish I could drive" I said aloud.
"D-Drive?" Hanako said, my statement ever so slightly distracting her from the crowds.
"Yeah. I wish I could drive, then I wouldn't have to deal with all these people" I looked down at her "What about you? You ever tried learning?" Silence was my answer, so we just pressed on.
Eventually we came to the bookshop I had been talking. Sadly, it was closed.
"That sucks" I noted "You'd think they'd be open on weekends"
"Bookshops...don't make money anymore, because of the internet" Hanako explained. Maybe they just had to close over weekends?"
I was confused by that a little. If a shop wanted business, then would it not make sense to stay open on weekends. Lots of people did their shopping on weekends after all, right?
"I'm not sure what to do now" I admitted "Anywhere else you'd like to go?"
"I-If it's not...not a bother..." Hanako started to slowly say "Could you show me where you all bought my presents?"
"Uh...Sure" I said "I mean I don't know where Lilly got the bear, but I know where Hisao's came from. You want to go there?"
She nodded, and we were off. I had to concentrate to make sure I was actually right about where it was. If memory served correctly, Hisao and I did find it by accident. Luckily, I was right in my judgement, and we came across it in no time.
"Othello's Antiques" I read the shops name aloud.
"I-It's small" Hanako noted
I shrugged "It is. Took us a while before we found it"
"Can we go in?" she asked
"Alright" I shrugged.
Hanako went in first, with me following close behind. As it was before, the owner was the only person inside. The owner looked up from his book and raised his eyebrows at me.
"I know you from somewhere" he muttered aloud, before getting out of his seat "Wait. You were here last week, weren't you? You're not here for a return are you? No, wait. You didn't buy anything did you? Your friend did?"
I was initially stunned. The man had barely said two words to me the last time, now here he was speaking to me a mile a minute. The only reason he stopped talking was because he noticed that I was missing an arm this time. "I uh...We uh, just came for another look, sir. We're not returning anything"
"Oh" the owner look surprised. Guess he wasn't used to people, let alone high school kids, coming back to the shop. He gave me, or rather my arm, another look over before his eyes landed on Hanako. The girl froze like a deer in the headlights. The old man was about to speak to her, when I think he caught notice of her scars. His reaction was about as standard as you'd expect. Initial shock, then curiosity followed by awkward silence. I would have angrier if my own reaction hadn't been so similar.
"Feel free to look around then" the man mumbled.
Hanako went about the shop, closely followed by myself. She stopped when she came across the doll section, studying the features of each and every one of them. She looked a little relaxed now that she was distracted and the store owner was out of sight. I personally was still a little put off. I had always gotten funny looks from others, but never the kind of reaction that Hanako received.
"This is a nice shop" Hanako smiled. She had a very nice smile.
"It is" I found myself smiling back at her "You want to buy something?"
"I-I didn't bring any money"
"Oh, okay" I had to think of something quick to try and cheer her up "We can always come back some time"
"W-We can?"
"Yeah. As often as we'd like" Especially now that I know where it is.
"Th-Thank you" her smile was back "C-Can we go back to the school now?"
I nodded "Sure" While I enjoyed my time with Hanako, I didn't want to stay in the city any longer than I had to.
So we left. The shop owner watched us go, looking through the curtain of the shop window, which I thought was a bit weird. I stopped thinking about though once the bus arrived. I didn't think Hanako had noticed anyway.
Neither of us really said a word on the way back, from the bus to the school dorms.
"Well then," Hanako spoke up as we approached the dorms "Goodbye"
"Do you want to do something else?" I asked her "Tea? Game of chess or something?" I wasn't really picky. I just wanted to spend some time with her.
She shook "I...I'm tired. Maybe later? I've got homework..."
"Okay then" I had homework to do myself "I'll see you later"
"See you, Kaito" and like that, she was gone. Inside the girls dorm and out of sight.
I yawned as I went back to my room. Today had been tiring.
As I entered a looked at the stack of homework that awaited, my eyes fell upon the painting on the easel. I hadn't lied to Hanako, it was nearly done. I looked to the clock. It was only seven in the evening. Homework could wait.