A Boy, a Dream, and an Assortment of Sweets

“I-Inoue-san?”

“Mph.” I let out a large audible groan.

I tried to open up my eyes but found that my left eye was heavy and basically sealed shut.

“Inoue-san, are you okay?”

Turning to look in the direction of the voice, I thought my eyes were deceiving me. A boy? A girl? I blinked a few times, my vision was still groggy.

“Who are you?” My lips moved instinctively. A curt, somewhat impolite tone escaped me.

“Uh- N-Nishimura Tomio. I’m also in class 1-C” I silently studied the young specimen who claimed to be in the same class as me.

Nishimura wore a boys uniform, but had a striking resemblance to a girl. A very cute one in fact.

Medium-length light brown hair swayed from side-to-side as he spoke. Two multi-colored hair clips were used to position his bangs as to not obscure his vision. A splash of rosy-red shadowed his cheeks, slowly becoming more pertinent. Blinking, I found myself outstretched, just a few centimeters from his face. Why is he so close? Wait, did I do this? On closer inspection, the multicolored hair clips resembled sweets.

“U-Um, Inoue-san, you’re a bit close…” He raised his hands over his face, the red glow getting stronger.

He’s blushing! Quickly scooting back, I took a deep breath and replied.

“S-So, Nishimura-san, what are you doing here?”

“I-I watched what happened… I tried speaking up for you but I’m not very loud…” He mumbled, his voice trailing off.

“Ah, I must’ve gotten knocked out then. Did anything happen after?”

“Kobayashi-sensei returned and broke it all up. Some faculty and I helped you to the clinic.” He looked on at me concerned.

“H-How embarrassing…” I whispered to myself.

“A-Anyway, they said you don’t have a concussion or anything, so they asked me to make sure you get home safe.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

I proceeded to get up but was immediately greeted with lightheadedness and stumbled over. Grimacing, I pondered how smooth my day might’ve gone if I hadn’t embraced my inner main character.

“M-Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer…” My pride had forsaken me.

“You’re new to this area, right?” Nishimura asked me.

“Yeah, why do you think so?” I replied.

“I am too, from what I’ve noticed, most students here come from the feeder middle school. So, outsiders aren’t exactly welcome.”

“Y-Yeah, I guess.”

“That means you’re living in the dorms right?” His tone had gradually become more confident. He was talking like a completely different person.

“Yes, I am.” He assisted me as I got out of the bed.

“I’ll be there too, lets be friends Inoue-san!” He smiled up at me.

I could feel my face quickly burning up.. It’s a guy, it’s a guy, it’s a guy, it’s a guy. His qualities resembled a stereotypical trap. Maybe I really was in a manga.

The dorms were located a good distance from the school, roughly a ten minute walk or so. On our way there, we stopped by a small cafe and decided to grab a bite.

“I’ll have a green tea.” The young waitress took my order.

Nishimura had ordered an assortment of pastries, he definitely had a sweet tooth.

We had attracted several curious looks, mostly because of the large bag of ice that I was carrying and continuously applying to my swollen eye.

“What brings you to this school? Nishimura-san.” I sparked a conversation as we waited for our food.

“Mm,” He hesitated shyly, I could tell whatever he was trying to say would be hard coming out of his mouth. “I-I kinda got bullied a lot at my old school… So I wanted to find somewhere new…”

“Ah, Sorry if that was rude to ask.”

“N-No don’t worry about it, it’s nothing really.”

It obviously wasn’t nothing.

“Say, why do you want to be friends with me, I don’t exactly come off as a friendly person. I could be a bully for all you know.”

“But, you’re not.” His response was quick and lacked any hesitation, “I can see it in your eyes, you’re not a mean person, or a bully.”

Deep in thought, my eyes lacked focus, lazily glazing over the picture that hung above Nishimura. It wasn’t until the young waitress came by to drop off our order that I finally snapped out of my daze. Nishimura quickly dove into his assortment of pastries. Yep, definitely has a sweet tooth.

“See it in my eyes?” After my thoughts had amounted to nothing, I decided to ask him directly.

“Yeah, you have kind eyes. You’re definitely a caring person and that’s why I want to be friends with you.” He replied, His focus was completely absorbed by the plates in front of him, making his words more genuine. Did I mention that he definitely has a sweet tooth?

It still didn’t really make sense to me, but I accepted it as to not disturb him from his conquest.

“How about you? Inoue-san.”

Since he had been generous enough to share with me his true reason I decided to do the same.

“I wanted to get away from my family.”

His attention had finally diverged from the desserts. He tilted his head curiously, looking up at me from his chocolate covered croissant. I continued, anticipating his question.

“I lived with my grandfather and he’s just a lousy drunk.”

Still curious, he asked me a difficult question.

“What about your parents?”

Noticing my angst, he quickly took back his question in a casual form. Making it easy to avoid.

“Here, try this.” He raised up a pastry. I’d never seen it before, it didn’t look like a Japanese-type of pastry.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Just open your mouth.” Instinctively opening my mouth, I paid no attention to the situation that had begun to unfold.

Nishimura fed me the pastry. I took a bite and swallowed. A mixture of cold and warm gazes stung the back of my neck. “They’re so cute!” I could swear someone said.

“I-It’s good.” I replied, my face increasingly getting hotter.

“Cannoli. They’re from Italy.” He smiled at me, completely oblivious to the stares.

“You sure know a lot about sweets.”

“Mhmm, I’m thinking of opening up a bakery or sweets shop after high school.”

“Yeah, if you don’t eat it all first.” I let out a chuckle.

He looked up from his food and made a pouty face.

“You think that’s funny, huh. Yeah, I’m not sharing anymore,” his arms folded across his chest.

The sun had begun to set. Since it was still early spring, the sun was still setting slightly earlier. It was like six in the evening though, which was still pretty late for getting back from school. An orange blaze sat over the city-skyline. Cresting upon the high trees, the large orange sun shone over us. I still wasn’t used to seeing such a city like atmosphere. Compared to this, my town would probably be referred to as hick-country. People here probably saw it as normal though. A slight breeze blew through my hair, carrying petals from the Sakura trees.

“It’s really beautiful, right?” Nishimura read my thoughts.

“Yeah.”

“I’m from Tokyo so a calm environment like this is really soothing.”

Point proven.