Movie time

“I found it!” Koshiro shouted while going down the stairs with the movie and his gaming console, the GameStage, on hands. “Huh…?” he looked at the situation in front of him: Sawada, Sumiye, Kuma-chan, and Scar were crying and hugging each other, “What…? Wasn’t it supposed to be just two of them?”

“...” Kuma-chan was the silent one.

“Hey, how did you get there? I’m pretty sure you were upstairs.”

“Sumiye-chan! You came here yesterday but you didn’t give any attention to me!” Scar (somehow) was on top of their heads.

“C’mon Scar, I think that you’re crying for the wrong reason.”

“Okay, I’ll go make the popcorn now.” Sumiye whispered to Sawada, and then she tried to get away from the girl, but Sawada tightened her grip around the teacher. “Oh! Okay, just a little bit more.”

“C’mon, you’re doing this for two chapters now.” Koshiro sighed, “If you keep doing this I’ll have to watch the movie alone...”

“Ugh.” Sumiye clenched her teeth and then rummaged her pockets.

“...well, I better get started on the pop… Ouch!!” something hit his head, making him fall with a big thud. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” he rubbed his head and then looked at the girls in front of him, who were all scowling.

“STOP BEING SO CALLOUS YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” Sumiye screamed at him.

“KOSHIRO IDIOT!” Sawada followed her.

“Koshiro, idiot!” Kuma-chan was the next one.

“You piece of shit.” Scar jumped onto his face.

“Aaaargh!” Koshiro struggled to take the cat out of his face, but he managed to do so, “WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?”

“You deserved it.” Sumiye glared at him, “For being callous.”

“Callous?” Koshiro put Scar on the ground and frowned, “Why is that?”

“It’s obviously because of what was just showed!”

“Well, I know that two chapters passed but I don’t know what happened, isn’t that the reason why you’re here?”

“Hmm… I guess that you’re right.” Sumiye was patting Sawada’s head. “But I’ll talk about it after you guys watch the movie. I don’t want to ruin the mood for you.”

“After we…” Sawada murmured.

“What?” 

“After we…” Sawada stared at Sumiye, “…watch the movie.”

“It’s fine by me.” Koshiro crouched, searching for what had hit his head, “Since you’re making the popcorn, right?”

“That’s right... so I better get started.” Sumiye turned to Sawada, “Okay?”

“Okay…” Sawada let Sumiye go. Her teacher turned around and headed to the kitchen, but stopped midway and looked at Sawada:

“Hey, what do you think of learning how to make popcorn, Umiko-chan?”

“Huh?” Sawada put one finger on her chin and looked at the ceiling, “Making popcorn…?”

“Yes, if you don’t know how to do it, I’ll teach you.”

“Hmm…” Sawada turned to Sumiye, who was smiling at her, “Okay…”

“Great!” Sumiye clapped her hands, “Come with me.” she stretched her right hand to Sawada.

“Oh!” the girl accepted the offer and followed the woman.

“Hey! Can you teach me as well?!” Koshiro uttered while skimming the ground with his eyes.

“Of course not! Go prepare everything!” Sumiye replied.

“Aaah!” Koshiro stared at Sumiye, “Why can’t I learn too?”

“That’s exactly the reason!” Sumiye was showing Sawada the popcorn bag (and she was looking at it with much interest), “You can’t learn.”

“She has a point.” Koshiro sighed and then went to set the GameStage in the living room.

***

Everything was ready in the living room and Koshiro laid on the couch to wait for the other two. “Hey Koshiro, if you’re doing nothing can you look for my phone?” Sumiye asked him.

“You’re phone? Where is it?”

“It’s probably on the ground, right?” Sumiye was standing on the threshold of the living room.

“On the ground…?” Koshiro started to look for it, ”Why would it be on the grou...WAIT.” “DID YOU THROW YOUR PHONE ON MY FACE?!” he yelled at the woman.

“Yeah, what’s the problem?” she tilted her head.

“WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?!” Koshiro located the phone and picked it from the floor, he then went to Sumiye and put the phone in her hand, “THE PROBLEM IS.” he indicated his forehead, where the phone had hit before, “THAT MY FOREHEAD IS VERY HARD! YOU COULD HAVE BROKEN OUR BIRTHDAY PRESENT TO YOU!”

“Oh, that’s right!” Sumiye smacked her head, “When we did the brick smashing contest you won with your forehead!!"

"Yes! You see where I'm coming from?"

"Yes, you three gave this to me last year, I almost forgot. I’m sorry.”

“Humpf!” Koshiro crossed his arms, “I hope you give more value to this year’s birthday present.”

“Oh! You’ve already bought it? But it’s just a month from now!”

“Haam? Have you forgotten when your own birthday is?”

“Hmm…” Sumiye looked away and scratched her head, “Of course not! I was just joking with you! Hahaha…”

“Wait…” Koshiro held his chin.

“What?” Sumiye smiled awkwardly.

“If you are here, who is making the popcorn?”

“Hmm…”

“Aaaaaaaaah! What should I do now?! What should I do now?!” the answer came in the form of a scream from the kitchen.

“Umiko-chan!” Sumiye ran to her aid.

***

“Well, that’s what I call rushed development.” the credits of the movie were rolling when Koshiro looked to his side, where Sumiye and Sawada were hugging each other, “One good moment between the two and they are already best friends… or maybe they’re just on the honeymoon of the first embrace...”

“Why did you have to put The Bear King, Koshiro?” Sumiye was weeping, “It’s such a sad movie!”

“Poor… Nubasa…” Sawada was still shocked.

“I’ll probably write about something sad or touching, so I figured this could be a good movie to inspire me!” Koshiro explained, “Besides, I wanted to watch this movie again, so… huh?”

“Hahahahahahahaha!” Sumiye’s tears were different now, “Oh my god Koshiro, you may have a talent for comedy after all!

“Why are you laughing?!” Koshiro scowled at her.

“Did you really think…” Sumiye started.

“…that you could write…” Sawada continued.

“…something this good?!” Scar concluded.

“Hahahahahahahahahaha.” Kuma-chan just laughed.

“Well…” Koshiro hesitated, “I..”

“YES!” the other three (four?) screamed at the same time.

“Huh?”

“Why are you hesitating?!” Sumiye pointed her finger at him.

“Koshiro idiot!” Sawada cursed him gratuitously.

“You should be more confident in yourself.”

“Even though you’re bad at telling stories!”

“You should strive to do something good.”

“Even if you suck!”

“You should keep fighting!” the two exclaimed at the same time.

“Fight? But my thing is wr…”

“YOU KNOW WHAT WE MEANT.”

“Yes…” Koshiro scratched his head.

“So, promise me two things, Koshiro.” Sumiye put one hand on his shoulder, “That you won’t give up on that contest…”

“Okay…”

“…and that you’ll eat Umiko’s burnt popcorn.” she whispered that last part (making sure Sawada didn’t hear her), and then showed Koshiro the bowl filled to the brim with the black thing.

“I’m not sure abo… aaragwha.” he was interrupted by Sumiye shoving the popcorn in his mouth.

“Thank you so much!” she then turned to Sawada, “Do you want to play with Scar-chan now?!”

“Yes!” Sawada lifted his arms in celebration, “But…”

“But…?”

“Why do Scar-chan have this name?” she looked puzzled at Scar, “Is it because of the bad guy of the movie, or is it because of her scar?”

“Oh, that!” Sumiye picked Scar and started to make her dance, “It’s kind of both of them.”

“Hmm…” Sawada observed the black cat dance and smiled, “She reminds me of a small cat I saw when I was little.”

“Oh, is that right, Umiko-chan?”

“Yes…” Sawada frowned.

“And how was that little cat?” Sumiye stretched Scar’s arms and pressed her paws against Sawada’s palms.

“Hmm…” she stared at the scar in Scar’s eye, “I think that it was bleeding…”

“Bleeding...? Where was this?” Sumiye asked.

“I believe it was when I met Katayama-Sensei…” the girl’s smile disappeared.

“Oh! Talking so much is boring! Let’s go upstairs, sully the paintings, and blame it all on Koshiro!”

“Yes!!” Sawada looked happy again.

“Hmm… that was weird.” Koshiro observed the three go up the stairs, “Wait…” “What are you going to do there??!” he shouted to them. “You are not going to blame it all on me, right?” no one replied, “Right?!”

***

Sumi-nee: Come here.

After receiving that message, the boy left his room and went to the bedroom where Sumiye was, “Why did you call me by message… Oh.” he saw that Sawada was sleeping with her head on the woman’s lap.

“I have important things to tell you.” Sumiye whispered.

“It better be something important, because I was very busy working on my story!” Koshiro crossed his arms.

“C’mon Koshiro, we just time skipped, so it’s obvious that you were doing nothing.”

“Aargh, you got me.” Koshiro sighed, “So, what is this about?”

“What do you think?” she glanced at the girl in her lap.

“Oh, of course. Go on.”

“First things first, you’re going to my house again tomorrow, right?”

“It sounds like I’ll have to go anyway.”

“Well, I bought some clothes for her today, but it would be better if she chose for herself…”

“So you want to go shopping with her tomorrow? Okay.”

“Great.” Sumiye looked at Sawada’s face, “Now I have to talk about the other stuff…”

“The reason why you were absent today? And why you are all lovey-dovey with a girl that’s older than me?”

“Well, kind of…” she turned to Koshiro, “But I don’t know if she’s older than you.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you think that it is weird how she appears out of nowhere?”

“Hmm…” Koshiro pondered, “Now that you mention it, before bringing her here I had only seen her at lunch and our tea parties…”

“Yes…” Sumiye stared at Koshiro, her eyes were serious, and there was a good reason for that.

“Hmm…” the boy gulped, “…and what is it.?” he dreaded the answer to that question.

“Well…” Sumiye hesitated, “It’s because she was a late character to the story, so her background wasn’t fully fleshed out.”

“Huh? I’m sorry?” Koshiro tilted his head and blinked with puzzlement.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? I said that…”

“I heard you the first time, but what I don’t get is why you’re making a big fuss about it.”

“Excuse me?”

“What I want to say is that all of the characters are poorly written and not fleshed out, so maybe it’s a pattern and not a particular problem to Sawada.”

“Oh my god.” Sumiye gazed at the boy, “Did you actually just said something that might indicate you’re becoming a better writer? Congratulations!”

“And you said I was doing nothing during the time skip.”

“But you kind of confirmed it.”

“She has a point!” Koshiro held his head and stared at the ground. “Anyway” he composed himself and turned to Sumiye, “What is the real reason behind Sawada’s attitude?”

“Hmm…” Sumiye looked at the sleeping face of the girl again and then began telling what she had found out that day (without mentioning that she received help from Hayami Takayama to do so).

“So, you think she might not be one year older than me because her age is not accurate?” the boy held his chin and wondered.

“That’s right.” the woman affirmed, “She doesn’t remember how many years she had when she got abandoned, so we can’t be sure of her age, and besides, Obaka High is High school only. The old Katayama-Sensei put her there without getting concerned with her age.”

“Well, but from what you have told me she didn’t have a normal life, so it wouldn’t be hard for her to be older than me and act like a child anyway.” Koshiro stared at the girl, “Going through a life like this… I don’t know if I could have done it…”

“Oh, man! You really are growing up, Koshiro.”

“Huh?”

“You have a nasty expression, but you aren’t crying, it’s truly impressive! Probably your first time.”

“Hum.” Koshiro smiled, “It’s just because I cried everything I had at the movie.”

“Oh... This makes more sense!”