Hunger

Kritvik Bhatt

The sun shone brightly above the blue sky. The clouds were floating carelessly as the sunrays descended downward, for some reason.

“Damn…”

There was this t-shirt that was hanging in between the other black t-shirts on the wall in the front. It was dark blue in color, and its cotton was shining a little, for some reason. The print in the middle of it had bright orange flamed with two figures—one of a boy in red and a girl in pink—stood, their profiles’ backs facing each other’s backs.

“It looks cool, right?” She said.

“Yeah. This looks like a… a great scene from a movie or some stuff, man.”

“Yeah. It’s regarded as the best one-shot manga which was also adapted to an anime film, you see,” Sana said as she turned her head to me and smiled. “We should get this one.”

I smiled and nodded. “No doubt at it.”

Both of us then turned our eyes to that guy who worked at the booth in a black t-shirt and blue denim pants. I pointed to that t-shirt with my left hand and asked him, “How much is that?”

He turned his head right back and asked, “Which one, sir?”

“That one in the middle of Asuka and Yamori ones,” Sana told him.

“The one with Aoi and Airi?” He asked back.

“Yeah yeah,” She said, looking at him.

He then turned to us again and asked, “Two small sizes, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s six-fifty each. Thirteen hundred.”

I nodded as I turned to that t-shirt again. Sana then turned her head to her right at me, and I too turned to her. I jerked my eyebrows up, like asking what she was thinking.

She nodded. She then turned to the guy and said, “Okay. We’d buy it.”

That guy turned backward and went away toward the bundles of t-shirts.

Sana turned to me and said, “Well, you give six hundred and I’d give seven. We’d settle the rest later.”

I nodded as I turned my head downward toward my wallet that I had just taken out of my pocket. “I don’t have much left, man.”

“How much did you bring?” She asked as she turned her head to me while moving her little bag on her back to the front and opening its zip.

“About seventeen-fifty, maybe, or around that,” I replied as I took out the notes and turned them to her.

She took out hers, closed the zip, and then kept the bag on the table at the front and took the notes from me. She then started to count them, maybe. She then turned to me and asked, “Well, we bought a manga of six hundred, and this t-shirt of six-fifty. So you have…” She did the math for a moment, maybe. “So you have about five hundred?”

“Tickets for two-fifty too, man.”

Her eyes widened and she nodded. “About two-fifty, then?”

“Three hundred, yes. But fifty are yours, obviously, so yeah, two-fifty.”

She nodded and turned her head to the front as the guy walked toward us and kept the two packets of blue t-shirts in front of us. She raised the notes toward him. He took them, counted them, and then turned to us with a smile and said, “Thank you.” He then turned backward and walked to another guy at the right corner of the booth, who was in front of another customer.

She took up the t-shirts and turned back. I too had my eyes downward toward the t-shirts in her hands like she had, for some reason. We walked a few steps away and turned leftward toward where we came from, for some reason.

“What time is it?” She turned her head toward me.

I turned my head to her and replied, “About three or three-thirty, maybe. Why?”

“We still have a lot of time, you see.” She turned her eyes to the t-shirts again. “Well, it’s so bright and sunny right now. We’ll click pictures wearing this around four-thirty or five.”

“Huh? You wanna wear it right now?”

“Around four or five.”

“Only for photos?”

“Then we’d pack it again.” She turned her head to me—smiling damn hard, for some reason. “I always wanted to have matching t-shirts like this, you see. And, to have matching t-shirts of the best manga of my favorite game is just… Like, how do I even describe it?”

I smiled at her. “Yeah, man. We’re having a lot of new experiences.”

“Yeah!” Her eyes widened. “Like, we met with a voice actress, we bought mangas and got them signed, and we also met that artist!”

“There must be many more people here, man.”

“Well, not really, you see. Others are unknown people who worked behind the scenes. I don’t really know the other four-five people who have their booths here.”

I nodded as I turned my head to the front. “Maybe we should now just wander around randomly, man.”

“No. Let’s find key-chains and stuff. I also saw some earrings. I’m not gonna let them go,” She turned her head to the front and moved her bag hanging on her right shoulder to the front.

“Damn, man.”

She smiled as she opened its zip and stuffed the t-shirts in. I turned my head to her as she kept them in and closed the zip. She then turned to me and asked, “Anyway, do you wanna eat something?”

I frowned and asked, “Are there any booths for food too?”

“Well, there’s really a food court with some food stalls there. We can go there and look.”

“Okay. Let’s try it out.”

***

“I come from a really good family, you see, or else, I’d have cussed these people out,” Sana said, her eyes narrowed.

We were walking in front of the different variety and colors of food stalls on our right, walking beside each other. On our left were tables with chairs on them, which were filled with people sitting and eating. These chairs and stalls were spread all over the couple dozen steps of area, for some reason. Also, there was a wide gap between the stalls and the tables, which was partly filled with people walking in front of the stalls and people sitting on the ground in front of the occupied tables, for some reason.

I was walking on her left. “Yeah, man. I’m hungry now, and everything here’s just so expensive!”

“All you can do with your two-fifty is to drink a cup of coffee,” She smiled.

I chuckled. “No doubt.” I then turned to her.

“Well, what do we do now?” She suddenly asked me as she turned me and looked back into my eyes.

“… I was just gonna ask exactly the same question, man.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Whatever.”

“Can’t we, maybe, walk out or some stuff, eat something, and then get back inside?”

“Once you go out, you can’t go back in without another ticket,” She said. “And, I don’t have money for that.”

“Obviously we don’t.”

“Let’s get what we want quickly in the next one-two hours and then leave. We can then eat somewhere from outside.”

“Yeah,” She replied. She then turned her head to the front. “But, who sells a pizza for seven hundred?!”

I turned my head leftward toward the tables and people sitting on the ground. “How are they even paying for this stuff?”

“Rich kids, K. Rich kids.”

I smiled. “No doubt, man. Obviously.” I then turned to her and said, “Then let’s go in, I guess. You search for the key-chains and stuff, and then we’d go out.”

“Won’t you get some key-chains?” She asked.

“I don’t have a lot of money left, man,” I told her. “Maybe I’d get one if I think they’re inexpensive, but I don’t think I should, for some reason. We’d also need money for food and then to go back home.”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

I frowned suddenly as I asked, “How much do you have right now?”

“Well, about four hundred. You see, I brought a little more than two thousand.”

“Damn. Rich kids,” I turned my head to the front.

“What?! Just because you’re poor doesn’t mean I’m too rich, you see!”

I smiled. “Obviously it does, man. Obviously it does.”

She narrowed her eyes and turned her head to the front. Suddenly, she said, “Anyway, I’d recommend you that movie.”

“Which movie?”

“The movie about the t-shirts we just bought.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it looks interesting, man. No doubt.”

“Well, the manga I brought… It was the manga of that story from where the movie and that t-shirt came from.”

“The one we were fighting on?”

“Yeah.”

I smiled. “Yeah, man. It makes me even more interested in this stuff, for some reason.”

She smiled too. We both then turned our heads to each other again. “Well, I’ve watched the movie and read the manga illegally. But I wanted this manga just so I can re-read it and show it off to other people.”

“Huh?” I frowned. “Why would you get a manga you’ve already read?”

“It’s my favorite,” She replied with a smile. “And, now it has the autographs of its author and my favorite voice actress in the game. That makes this manga even more valuable for me.”

I smiled. “Great, man.”

“Anyway, I just remembered.”

“What?”

“We can’t leave before five-thirty, you see.”

“Huh? Why?” I frowned.

“Kirishima-sensei is performing on stage, didn’t I tell you?”

I tried to remember as I turned my head to the front, stressing my brain’s memory system, for some reason. “At five, right? Yeah, you told me. But you didn’t tell me it was Kirishima.”

“Yeah, I must not have told you the name, you see. But she’s performing at five, and we can’t miss that.”

“So what are we gonna do now?” I stopped just at the edge of the food court. In front of us was the opening of the shed with computers and stuff, and on its right were the booths, from where people were walking here and going there.

“About food?”

I nodded, my face a little expressionless for some reason.

“Well…” She said as she stared into my eyes. She then frowned and smiled. “We can survive hunger, right?”

I smiled too. “Sure we can.”