Our World

by Ash Mio

  The dogs looked like they were well taken care of. Their coats were shiny, and they looked relaxed. A poodle turned up his belly wanting to be pet. A girl next to him squealed. “So cuuuute.” She took a photo. Ah. I really want to take one too. The girl walked away without petting the dog. He whined a little.

  “Come here little guy.” The poodle hopped up and came over to my lap. I scratched under his chin and rubbed his warm belly. He thumped his tail happily.

  The girl from earlier had moved on to a little brown shiba, who was napping in the corner. She held out a treat. “Come on shiba-san.“ The dog perked his head up, looked at the girl’s face, and then put his head back down. “Is he not hungry?”

  A worker came over to help. “Try putting your hand out and just letting him smell you. “ She put her hand near his nose, but the dog got up and strutted off. I swore I could see him turning up his nose at her.

  “….It takes some dogs longer to warm up to people.” The worker tried to reassure her. The woman looked annoyed. Clearly, she’d been snubbed by a dog is what she seemed to be thinking. “Chibi is a bit difficult. Why don’t you try one of our other dogs?” She didn’t look like she liked that suggestion. “I just wanted a cute photo.” She got up and walked away annoyed.

  The poodle had run away to be pet by more people, so I sat quietly next to Chibi. He’s still adorable even if he won’t let you pet him. He stretched his short legs and yawned. Our eyes met for a second and he stared at me curiously. “Don’t tell me you have a thing against foreigners?” He tilted his head to one side as if he was thinking about it. My heart squeezed a little. Gah. He’s so freakin’ cute.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Do you understand me?” He gave a small “ruff,” and I think I fell in love a little.

  “Were you bothered by that lady? You don’t need to be. She just thought you were cute. Although, I agree she was a little too insistent with the photo thing.” He turned his head to the side. A small beagle walked by followed by a kid. Chibi watched intently as the boy petted the beagle.

  “Want me to pet you?” Chibi’s tail picked up ever so slightly. Is that a yes or a no? I put my palm out towards him and waited. He stepped forward and nudged it. His fur was incredibly soft. I heard someone talking behind me.

  “Hikari, you come here too often. Don’t you need to study?”

  Hikari? From my class?

  “I study plenty. I have the top scores in my grade.” The male worker didn’t look impressed.

  “That’s because you don’t have any friends.” Hikari ignored him and was nuzzling a black shiba with his cheeks. “I missed you Choco.” He played with Choco’s cheeks, which made him wag his tail like crazy. Hikari squealed a little. It was the type of thing I’d never expect to hear from a guy who looked that gloomy in class. He was a completely different person here.

  “Choco, shake.” Choco stretches his paw onto Hikari’s hand. His eyes became all sparkly.

  Chibi squirms for attention in my lap. I rub his belly. He licks my hand. The male worker notices.

  “That’s rare. Chibi never lets anyone pet him.” The male worker commented. He had shoulder length hair that was tied in a ponytail. He looked about mid to late 20’s. I stared at him. I couldn’t believe Hikari has a friend.

  “I’m Oda Keichi.” He introduces himself. He’s talking to me normally I noticed.

  “I’m Will Thompson.”

  Oda-san looks at my uniform. “ Oh, you’re from the same school as Hikari.”

  “Same class actually…”

  Hikari was hiding behind Choco. His face is super red. It’s my first time seeing his face like this. So this is what Shun meant. It didn’t look like a normal blush. It was much deeper. Even his hands are red. And the color does stand out against his pale skin, but I don’t think it anything he has to be embarrassed about particularly. He’s shaking a bit. I pick up Chibi’s paw and we give Hikari a little encouraging wave.

  “Hello Hi-ka-ri.”

  Hikari hides further behind Choco. I laugh.

  Oda-san looks closely at me with a hand on his chin. “Will-kun, how would you feel about working here?” He says suddenly.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Well, you’re clearly good with dogs and you’ve got a good looking face that’ll attract more female customers.”

  Hikari begins glaring at me with his face still red. It has quite the effect.

  “Oda-san, you just met this guy, you money grubbing bastard.” Hikari pouts.

  Oda-san nodded. “But I’m sure Shimura-san would agree with me.”

  “It’s quite sudden, but I do love dogs…”

  I thought about it for a moment. Actually, I really want to work here. There’s no need to think for too long. “I need to get permission, but I’d love to work here. I probably can’t work too many hours because of school though.”

  “That’s great!”

  “Can I work here too Oda –san?” Hikari begs.

  “No way. Your condition is troublesome and you’ve got too straightforward of a personality.” Hikari frowned. He looked just like a cute little puppy.

  Chibi had fallen asleep in my lap. I lifted him carefully back to his dog bed. My hours’ time was up, and so was Hikari’s. We walked toward the same street and got on the same train. We didn’t talk, but we got off at the same stop. We stopped outside of the station.

  “Guess we live pretty close to each other.” My host family’s house was about three blocks down the road. He didn’t respond.

  “You’re a strange guy,” he suddenly burst out.

  “How so?”

  “Most people would be curious about my condition. They’d pester me non-stop trying to make it happen again.”

  That makes me strange? “Well, honestly, I am curious. But asking about someone’s insecurity is kind of a jerk move. Like what Shun did to you. Ah. Does jerk translate correctly? ”

  “I see, thanks for your honesty. And jerk did translate correctly, but he’s just a plain old dumbass….and an asshole.”

  I burst out laughing. “Is that the proper term? I haven’t heard anyone curse as much as you do since I got here. You’re like a frosted muffin with the dogs and like a block of ice during school.”

  He smiled. “I really like dogs that’s why. And you should learn some bad words. It’ll make you feel better when you feel bad. I can teach you.”

  “Your personality is really different than I expected.”

  “Isn’t everyone like that?”

  “I guess that’s true.”

  Ch. 3 Hikari

  “You’re too close Will…”

  He kept staring. “Hmm? I know…It’s just too different, your personality and your looks.”

  If you keep staring, so will everyone else, dummy. People were avoiding Will today since he was talking to me. Shows what kind of loyalty you guys have.

  “You shouldn’t really be talking to me Will.”

  He seemed surprised. “Is talking to me uncomfortable for you?” He looked a little hurt

  “No…it’s actually nice.” He smiled in relief. “But, it’d probably be bad for you if we were friends.” He looked like he wanted an explanation. “People avoid me, and I’m okay with that, but I’d hate to ruin your experience here just because of that.” There’s one more reason as well….

  “I’m okay with being avoided. “ he lowered his head so he could look at me directly in the eyes. “I can decide who I want to talk to and be friends with. As long as I don’t you make you uncomfortable, I want to talk to you. It’s my choice how I spend my time here, so…. let’s be friends.” He reached out his hand for a handshake. Stupid, we don’t shake hands here. Shit. My palms are getting sweaty.

  “Oh, right we don’t shake hands.”

  He’s psychic. I reach out my hand and shake his fingers anyways. “We’ll work on the handshake,” he says.

  At break time, he was super energetic.

  “Hikari you read comics for girl
s?” He asks. The translation was a little rough, but I don’t think he was asking sarcastically. “Shoujo manga.” I corrected “Instead of comics for girls. And yes, I read it. I really like it.” Our conversation flowed smoothly, naturally, surprisingly. He’s really ruining my “don’t’ interact with people plan.” I’m not sure how he’s doing it exactly.

  “Ah. Sorry. That must have sounded rude.” It’s not like I was offended. “But, Hikari likes cute things huh? Like dogs.” His eyes brighten.

  My inner dog lover responded. “Why wouldn’t I like dogs? They’re so fluffy. I’d die in fluff if I could. And when you see a cute one, you just go gwahhh and kyaaah and your heart does summersaults.”

  Will laughed. It’s a very gentle laugh he has. Tranquil? I guess. “You said that with such a deadpan face. It’s hilarious.” Looking at him is like looking directly at the sun, a little too bright. He has the anime ambiance around him going “sparkle sparkle.”

  “Hikari, you’re actually talking to someone.” Emi was looking at us from two desks over. “I haven’t seen you interact with other human beings.”

  Will chimed in. “Actually, Hikari talks more than you think like with Oda-san at the dog café.”

  “Don’t mention that stupid money grubbing adult. Oda-san has access to the dogs. That’s all it is.” “That’s so harsh Hikari,” Emi commented. “Although, I’m also used to Hikari’s harsh treatment.”

  She took a look at the manga in my hands. “Is that the new volume of Girl Meets Prince?”

  “Yeah.” Me and Emi exchange mangas all the time. It allows me to spend more money on the dog café.

  “Maybe I should start reading shoujo manga too,” Will thought out loud. “Didn’t you say you were bad at reading characters?” His face fell. “Oh yeah.”

  Emi was silently staring at us. She smirked. “You better watch out Hikari. Women are scary when there’s a good looking foreigner involved.” I stared at her dead in the face. “All he has is looks.”

  “Hikari…my feeling kind of hurt.” Will shrivels up on my desk. His hair is fluffy I notice.

  Emi laughs and talks with us a little more before returning to her friends. Will bends over me and opens the window because it’s hot in the classroom. His hair is tousled by the wind. I look at it secretly over the panels of “Girl Meets Prince.” He looks intently outside.

  “The cherry blossoms are beginning to fall. I want to stand under them.” Say that line to any girl and they’d stand under them with you I thought to myself.

  “Poetic.”

  “Want to eat lunch with me outside today?” Me? Didn’t he have hordes of people wanting to eat with him? If he were a dog, his tail would be wagging expectantly. It’s difficult to turn him down.

  “S-Sure.” His imaginary dog ears perked up. He pointed to the cherry trees below. “Let’s eat over there.” I nodded. “Okay.” He looks too excited about lunch.

  In math, he was creepily grinning to himself. “Will-kun, can you come up to the board to work this problem?” Will got up and eyes followed his every move. He wrote out the problem in fine, fluid strokes. Even Terada sensei seemed to be impressed.

  “Looks good. Next is Shun-kun.” Yamaguchi nervously got up. He stared at the problem for a long time. Will was making his way back to his desk. He looked at me with a proud expression. “Did you see? Did you see?” I could hear his voice in my head. I lifted my book to cover my smile.

  Yamaguchi got the problem wrong, so everyone was giggling. “Hikari-kun? Could you help him out?” Damn. That killed my good mood. As I got up, people were whispering.

  “It’s that one weird guy.”

  “He reads shoujo manga.”

  “Last year, he got up and turned all red.”

  “Hikari, good luck.” I heard his voice in the low whispers. Dumbass. Who do you think has the top score in the grade? Yamaguchi glared at me as he returned to his seat. I finished the problem with ease and returned to my seat.

  “Excellent Hikari-kun.”

  Will greeted me with a smile. “Good work.” I think this was the first time I felt happy to be praised.

  At lunch, people gathered around Will. “You’re really good at trigonometry.”

  “Thanks.”

  “It’s just because you suck Shun.”

  “Want to eat with us Will?”

  “Sorry, I already have plans.” There was a collective sigh. I sneak away before it gets too noisy. “Promise to eat with us sometime! Promise.”

  “I can’t really…maybe.” Such a pushover. If you don’t like it, turn them down dummy.

  It’s been noisy since the start of the year. Little green leaves were already beginning to sprout, and the walkway was lined with petals. A pink road…It’s the perfect setting for a story.

  “Hikari.” Will waved and came running. “You’re not eating with the class?” I asked. He stopped to catch his breath. “Why would I? I promised you already didn’t I?” He sat down and opened his lunch.

  “Besides, it’s a little overwhelming. I’m not used to all this attention.”

  “They probably just like your face.”

  He laughed brightly. “There’s that too. Although, my face is pretty typical.”

  Stupid. It’s not typical at all. I eat the rice ball I made this morning.

  “That reminds me,” he says “I haven’t ever really seen your face.”

  “It’s a normal human face.”

  “But I’m curious since it’s always covered with bangs and glasses.” With a finger, he gently lifted the bangs away from my eyes. “Hmm? You actually have a cute face.” His hand lightly brushed my forehead. “ Guys don’t take that as a compliment.” I could feel my face grow hotter. The redness must have spread because he looked extremely apologetic. “I’m so sorry Hikari.” I frowned. Having a guy with a pretty face telling me I’ve got a cute face. I’m no happy at all dumbass. Shit, it’s embarrassing.

  “Coming from you, it sounds sarcastic.”

  “Is that so?”

  We sat in comfortable silence for the rest of the time. Somehow, I fell asleep on the grass. I could feel the breeze on my face.

  “Hikari,” Will’s voice echoed. “Hikari, lunch is almost over.” A small breeze lifted the scattered petals. My blazer and pants were covered with a blanket of them. “Wow. It’s like in anime,” Will commented. The flowers tumbled as I got up.

  “There’s a lot in your hair. Is it alright if I take them out?”

  “Yeah.” He meticulously took out the petals with his long fingers. “Maybe I can press these flowers. They are very lovely.”

  “Why? They bloom every year…” His face became a little sad. “But if I preserve them, it’d be like having spring forever.”

  “You say embarrassing with such a straight face.”

  On the way back, I watched Will gather petals. It occurred to me that he probably wouldn’t be here next spring. It made me want to preserve the flowers too.

  Ch.4 Will

  It was surprising to see Hikari’s face. He’s got light brown eyes and surprising long lashes. Am I strange for wanting to stare at his face some more? Though, he did get embarrassed. Guess it is weird having a guy you barely know call you cute.

  Yamamoto sensei, our language teacher, was writing sentences on the board. The Japanese have three writing systems: kanji (based on Chinese characters), hiragana (phonetic writing), and katakana (used for foreign words). Kanji is especially expressive and beautiful but they’re difficult to memorize because of the number of strokes it takes to write one word.

  “Let’s look at the differences between these Kanji.” I looked at the board, and it looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics to me. “Will-Kun, do you want to try and read?” Oh god, please no.

  “My reading skills aren’t that great.” The other students started encouraging me. “Come on Will.” “It’s okay if you get it wrong.”

  “Don’t be shy.”

  I’m not shy guys. I really can’t
read.

  “I really can’t…” But they’re all eagerly anticipating. I give in and stand up. I recognize the character for female, but what’s the last character?

  “The girl is….spicy?” Behind me, Hikari is shaking behind his book. The other kids in class and Yamamoto sensei try to keep a straight face.

  “That was a good try Will. This is actually the character for happiness. The character has one slightly different stroke.” Someone slaps me on the back. “Cheer up man. Even I have trouble reading it.”

  “It was a hard one” someone else said. I could feel my ears burning. It’s hard to keep up in classes with heavy reading. I was more exhausted at break time than I usually am.

  “Will….If you’d like-“ Hikari is interrupted by someone.

  “Will-kun” a girl at the door called. “There’s someone here to see you.” The guys looked eagerly at me and patted my shoulder.

  “Someone here to see me?” Don’t tell me…

  There were actually three girls outside. Each girl looked really shy and quiet. I don’t recall ever meeting them in the last two weeks. I might have exchanged a greeting in passing. After we got into the hallway( right outside of the classroom where everyone could still see and hear), the girl in the middle pulls out a letter and hands it to me. She bows down and says “Will-san, please accept this.” It was like I was living the live action version of an anime. Before I could answer, the other two also pull out letters. “Please accept these as well.” All three?

  “Woah, seriously?” I heard someone from the classroom say.

  “I’m gonna dye my hair blonde.”

  “Don’t. You’d just look stupid. “

  The girls were eagerly waiting. It felt a bit awkward. “Thank you. I’m not sure I can return your feelings though.” If I did, would I have to date three people at once?

  “We understand . We just want you to know our feelings. We’re not looking for a reply.” That’s a really sweet and painful thing to do.

  “In that case, I’ll happily take the letters. Thank you.” They brighten up excitedly and wave goodbye to me. The entire classroom went crazy. To the boys, I was a legend. They clapped for me.