Earrings

Kritvik Bhatt

“How are these?” She asked me with a smile.

“Great,” I replied, smiling.

She then turned her head frontward again and kept the packet of earrings that she had in her hands, trying them out. “Well, you’re no use.”

“Huh? Why?”

She turned her head to me and replied, “You only reply with one word—‘great’! On every single one!”

I chuckled as I turned my head downward and said, “They all are looking good, man.”

“And that’s why I want you to say something else!” She turned her eyes, widened with anger, downward at the stall again. She was looking at other packets of colorful earrings with different logos or characters on them. Her right hand was scattering a few of them so she could have a look at others beneath. “Like, it’s really tough already, and you’re making it even tougher.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t ask me about that stuff, man,” I said as I turned my head downward toward the red-colored plastic basket, where all that stuff was kept.

The man inside the stall in front of us was attending to other visitors on our right as we looked at the basket for earrings. They were discussing something, maybe, and their indistinct chatter was hitting my ears, obviously.

The sun was setting down. The day was turning into evening, for some reason, and the atmosphere was no longer bright and sunny. It was turning a little darker. It must have been about four-thirty, maybe.

Behind us, people were still walking from stall to stall, chatting and laughing and enjoying to the fullest, obviously.

Sana’s porcelain soft hand took out another packet of earrings with a logo of an anime-like eye radiating energy or some stuff like that for some reason. It was black-colored metal, maybe. She turned her head to her right and said, “It looks cool, right?”

I turned my eyes to her hand and looked at the packet on top of her fingers. I analyzed it for a moment, and then turned my head to her. “Yeah, man. But, the last one was better, maybe.”

“Really?” She frowned as she turned to the basket again.

“But it’s cooler, for some reason.”

Her eyes narrowed as she turned to me again.

I smiled back.

She then turned to the basket again and started to push them here and there, looking for something.

I turned to the basket too, and, for some reason, an earring colored dark yellow and blue caught my attention. I moved my right hand in and took it, looking at the graphic of some energy ball or some stuff, maybe.

She turned her eyes to the packet I had in my hands and asked, “What do you think about it?”

“Nah.”

I threw it in the basket again and both of us started to search again.

Suddenly, just as I was pushing earrings here and there like her, both of our hands touched a little as they flew by each other.

THUMP! My heart punched my chest for that, for some reason.

“Yeah, I was that virgin, after all.”

We continued to wave our hands at the basket for some moments, until some seconds later, I took my hands out and only searched through my eyes.

“We both acted like it was normal, for some reason. Or maybe, it was really normal for her, and I was the only one affected by that. Damn! I… It’s obviously not the first time I touched a girl’s hands, man.”

She then took out another packet of earrings and glared at it for some seconds. After a couple of seconds of glaring, for some reason, she commented, “I only wear studs, you see. And they don’t really come in anime designs. That’s sad.”

“Damn, you don’t wear anything other than studs?”

She shook her head as she kept the packet back on the basket and started to move her eyes around the basket. “Well, I don’t like to.”

“Huh? Why?”

She shrugged. “Studs are convenient.”

“But… studs are uncomfortable for walking on streets and stuff, maybe.”

She frowned for a second, and then turned to laughter. “Ahahahaha!”

“W-What?”

She turned her laughing face at me, and in between her laughs, she said, “Not the football ones, K! Ahahahhahahaha!”

“T-Then what?” I smiled.

“Earrings!”

I gulped in. “Studs? And earrings?”

“Studs are a type of earrings! Ahahahhaa!”

“D-D-Damn…” I frowned and smiled as I turned to the earrings again. “Earrings come in different types too, huh?”

She was still chuckling as she turned to the basket and said, “Yeah, emo.”

She was still smiling as she scanned the basket with me. She then shook her head. “I can never move on from what you just said, K.”

“Stop it!” I said with a smile.

“No!” She yelled back, smiling. “What you said was just so… cringe. And dumb. It really…”

“Stop it! I can’t hear it anymore!” I turned to her and said.

She chuckled, turning her head right to left at the basket. Suddenly, her eyes frowned a little and her smile started to fade as she looked at one of the earrings. She slowly moved her right hand toward it. Her mouth widened with awe as she took it up.

I turned my head downward to the packet in her hands. It looked like some comical representation of a beautiful meteorite falling. It was C-shaped and colored in shapes of blue. The coloring too was great, for some reason. It was shining brightly.

“Damn.”

“It’s… really cool, right?”

“It’s great,” I said, still smiling. I then turned my head to her and said, “You should get these.”

Her widened lips turned to a smile as she turned to me and said, “I’m buying this.”

I turned from her hand to her face as she turned to mine too. She then turned her head to the front and raised the earrings toward the dude in a black t-shirt and denim jeans and said, “Sir, how much are these?”

“Three-fifty,” The man replied back.

She then turned her head down as she took out the money from her pockets and started to count them. She took the appropriate sum out of them and raised the money toward the guy. He took it and both of us turned backward and started to walk away. She had turned left, but maybe she was not aware of it. She was glaring at the earrings in her hands which she had just bought. And, she continued to smile damn hard. I too continued to glare at her with a slight smile for some seconds as we walked.

Then, she turned her head to her right at me. “Like, this meteorite is… so important in the storyline of the game, you see.”

“Damn, really?”

She nodded. “And, it was, like, one of the most beautiful moments of the game.”

“Great.” I then turned to the earrings. “They look great. I’d like to have something like that too.”

“You should!”

I turned to her again.

“Well, like, Jenshin is such a game, K! I… I had forgotten about it for the most part, you see. I didn’t really remember what had happened in its storyline, since I’ve completed the story long ago, like, a year ago.”

“Man, you play Jenshin a lot, huh?”

She nodded. “Now I’m just playing it to get the rest of the characters and just have fun in my free time, you see.” She then turned her head to the front. Her smile faded a little and her eyes turned emotional, for some reason. “And, coming to this place made me realize that… I had so many memories with this game, and I used to love its storyline so much. I enjoyed it so much. I… That I was so connected to its characters, its story, its fights, and all that happens in it. I really love this game so much.”

I was just glaring at her as she spoke. “Why… do you love a game so much? And how?”

She shook her head. “Dunno…”

I nodded and smiled, turning my head to the front. “It’s… so great, man. That you feel so much for a game. I… I too want to feel something like that for something as you feel for Jenshin, for some reason.”

She turned her head downward and said, “I actually know why I was connected to this game so much. I’m sorry, I just lied.”

I nodded, waiting for her to continue, maybe. But, for some reason, she stayed silent for a couple of seconds.

She then said, “Y-You see, I’m just not comfortable with sharing it.”

“Yeah, man. I understand,” I looked at her with a slight smile.

She turned to me, and… smiled back. “You see, it was COVID time. I lost contact with my school friends and I didn’t really have any friends in my neighborhood.”

“Let bygones be bygones, man.”

We both turned our heads to the front. We walked beside each other, walking in the grass, with the lines of stalls of stuff on both sides. We both were silent, and maybe it was for the best of both of us.

“I wanna say more.”

“Yeah, you should. Maybe you’ve kept some stuff inside your heart for too long.”

“You see, I… I didn’t really have friends in school either. They were just some girls I used to hang up with. But, I didn’t really feel like one of them. Like, I never felt I was a part of them… a part of their friend circle. I never felt myself when I was around them. Well, you get it, right?”

“I went through some of the same stuff before COVID,” I smiled.

“Yeah, so you do.”

“So it was… Like, this game, Jenshin, was my escape mechanism. And, many other games were. But, this game’s character made me feel wanted, made me feel a part of their journey, made me feel important, and… well, made me feel things I’ve never really felt before, you see.”

“It’s so damn great that you felt so much for those characters that someone made, for that journey someone else thought of.”

“Yeah,” She smiled. “It’s kinda cringe. And, well, I know it’s cringe.”

“It’s not cringe, man!” I shouted at her as I turned my head to her. “It’s… so cool! Just so damn cool!”

She turned to me and looked into my eyes, her smile fading as she glared at me seriously. She nodded. “Thanks, K.”

I too turned my head frontward, and again, there was silence between the two of us as we walked.

Then, again, she broke the ice. “Anyway, you know what Kirishima-sensei whispered to me?”

“When did she whisper to you?” I frowned.

“When you had just clicked the photo of the two of us. Remember?”

I kept on frowning, trying to remember the incident.

“You must not have noticed. Anyway, you won’t believe what she asked me.”

I turned my head to her and asked, “What did she ask you?”

“Wellllll…”

“Just tell me already!”

“Ahahaha,” She chuckled. “Well, she asked me if you were my boyfriend.”

I continued to glare at her with shock as her lips turned to a smile.

She too was blushing a little, maybe. She then turned to me and looked into my eyes.

“Really?” I asked her.

“Really.” She then turned her head frontward.

I turned to my front too and commented, “So Japanese are like that too, huh? Just roam with a girl and they think you’re in a relationship with them.”

“Maybe!”