Rewards and Punishments

On the first day of school since the trip, I met with Daishi during lunch and summarized my rogue trip to Aomori. Of course, I left out unrelated details like certain events at the hotel. Utilizing the plural pronouns, he was left immensely confused.

"Here," I said, handing over his souvenir. "It's vanilla and I made it myself at the festival."

"That's cool! I don't really use candles, but I like the smell of vanilla. It'll be cozy to use during the upcome'n winter season, my room gets cold easily. Thanks for this, Chaimaru-senpai!"

I expected him to accept it with not too much excitement, but he was surprisingly pleased with it and gave me an approving smile.

As a result of my punishment, I was ordered to return to the orphanage immediately when school ended. In lieu of that, I snuck off and walked with Daishi to his house in order to deliver Ms. Ashikaga her souvenir.

"Oh my," she said, "this is a lovely design! What is 'Angel's Wings'? The pearly wax made me believe it was vanilla."

"I looked it up and apparently it's a culmination of multiple flowers that butterflies typically land on. Their original colors are orange or yellow, but I prefer white because of the name."

"It's a beauty, Vieira-kun."
I had sort of expected it, but she hugged me like a momma bear. Since my accident, she'd been the only one to give me a parental hug.
"I appreciate the fact you thought of us on your journey. We're quite lucky to have you in our lives."

The spoken language was a funny concept. Only humans had the ability to conjure sound in a certain octave and rhythm that allowed speech to be possible, and it was a bizarre concept to think such sounds were able to affect the epicenter of human emotions: The heart. Despite jumping to conclusions and knowing them for only a short while, I had like I found some resemblance of family with this woman and her son; if only it was official.

I stayed for nearly an hour, but explained that I needed to check in at the orphanage soon and left in a hurry. During my punishment, I would often go to Daishi's house for an hour to hang out with him and talk with his mother – mainly about university stuff. For the caregivers, I fibbed wanting to walk instead of ride the bus as my excuse for my tardiness.

At the orphanage, I'd spend my time with Ringomori in the dining room doing homework. We studied two different concepts due to school, and didn't necessarily have to ask one another for help, but being in close proximity was more than enough.

During our minimal free time, we started to get into each other's habits. I continued to teach her how to draw, starting off small with simple pictures of meadows and flat landscapes.

"It's always surprisin' how accurate you are with the angles of perspective, Yoru-chan. But I guess video recordin' helps a lot with that."

"That seems to be accurate, but I just can't get the proportions just right. I envision how it's supposed to look in my head, but it's difficult to translate it to paper. How do you do it?"

I taught her a few methods and she'd put them into practice, but I wasn't the only teacher. On days when she didn't learn to draw, she would teach me how to bake – per my request. I started off small, with cookies and brownies that any ten year-old can make. I quickly transitioned to adding other ingredients like bean pastes and sesame seeds.

"You're a surprisingly fast learner, Chamaru-kun. You have gotten quite the hang of things swifter than me with drawing."

"Well, I'm just eager to learn how to bake your pan roasted apple cake. I'll be knockin' your socks off with it soon enough."

She giggled, "Then I'll do my very best as a master to get you to that goal. Now I'm the one who can't wait to try the other’s baking."

She recorded the process of her drawings and my baking with the apprehension that, according to her, "they would make a funny compilation with the amount of times we've both failed. It will be a delightful time to edit."

Some might be asking if I ever confessed during the weeks of our punishment, and the answer is I haven't. I did, however, come to a concrete solution. I'd confess to her at our next peer outing, which would be after our punishments ended and the new year began.

During the times I wasn't with her or with Daishi, I was doing my mandatory additional duties for the orphanage. Every few days I – and a few other naughty orphans – would have to throw out the trash from every bathroom, bedroom, office room, and the kitchen. Not only that, but at the end of the week, I'd have to clean the bathrooms entirely on my own; Ringomori was given other duties.

While I didn't necessarily need to do it, I had gone to therapy once a week in order to escape the occasional boredom of the orphanage; everyone needed some fresh air. Every time I visited the Shizuko household, I would see Delilah in one of the rooms reading a book while eating a packet of pop rocks – each time was a different flavor.

I asked, "Does Daishi-kun always offer you these when he comes for a session, and do you always accept them? Also, how often is he comin' in for a session?"

She hid the packet behind her back and put up a defensively adorable face.
"Bad Matcha-kun. It's not a good thing to be jealous that I get snacks from him and you don't~!"

"That's not what I asked. I'm not jealous."

"We're running a stable economy here, I give him some vanilla chocolate cups in return."

"Okay now I'm jealous. You've never done anythin' like that for me."

"Eeh~? Don't you have someone else who can make that stuff for you?"

She was correct, I did. No offense to her, but I'd much rather be offered sweets from the girl that I had a crush on. I'd bring it up at my next baking lesson.

If anything, these punishments were rewards.

➼ ➼ ➼

In early December, the snow made itself known after persistent nights of falling until it blanketed the city in a flat, fluffy frozen tundra. No need to worry, this was normal for us.

One Monday, I was sitting in my room reading the latest manga that Ringomori had given me; it was quite a thick one. I couldn't do anything with her because she had apparently caught a cold and didn't want me or anyone else to be infected by it.

I wasn't susceptible to colds because my body was accustomed to the Hokkaido winter, which was why I was predominantly unaffected by the inferior Aomori storm. Ringmori would have been the same as me if it wasn't for her body's naturally poorer health.

I didn't see her for the nearly a week, doing my normal routines without her. It was Friday and I flopped on my bed. I had sent her a text message on my flip phone informing her that I finished the manga; a tearful ending.

I thought, Finally, tomorrow will be the day we get our smartphones back. I can finally play D4Dream and listen to music again! This week's been the first time I truly felt punished, but at least it's over now.

I was called for kitchen duties and ate with the rest of the orphanage, except her. Returning to my room, I checked my flip phone and expected a response, but there wasn't any. I figured she was either sleeping or simply didn't see the message yet, so I took the manga and went to her room to drop it off at her desk.

I knocked and knocked on her door, but there was no answer.
Okay, she's probably sleepin' then. I shouldn't wake her up and just do it another time.

I saw a caregiver come out of another orphan's room and approached her.
"Hey Kaya-san, can you let me know the next time Ringomori-san is awake so we [I] can deliver this manga?"

She looked puzzled, causing me to believe she was confused at my grammar. But then she said,
"You don't know about the situation?"

I mirrored her puzzled expression, albeit more worrisomely. That was enough to answer her question, and it looked like she was struggling to say what she was talking about. She eventually broke the news to me, ignorance was bliss.

"Ringomori-san isn't here at the orphanage. She was taken to the hospital."