Not immune to bias

“Alright then Anton Bec,” I say, getting right to the point “Let’s finish this."

“Wait what?” Anton trembles, lowering the gun “How did you know my last name?"

“That gun,” I say “The one that belonged to your older sister, Edwina Bec."

Anton puts up his gun again and shouts “I’ll shoot if you don't stop."

“No, you won't,” I say “You don’t have enough evidence for me”

“You think I care at this point?” Anton asks.

“Look I don’t want to say everything, just stop,” I say, realizing that I’m already running out of things to say.

“You’re just an annoying piece of shit aren't you” Anton scowals.

I try to think about everything that has been happening and try to find a connecting point

Anton punches me.

And again.

And again.

And- You get the gist.

“Stop Stop!” I yell, now on the ground.

“Why should I?” Anton retorts.

“I mean how are you gonna explain to Jiro why I'm not around or have a bloody face?” I quickly say.

When I say Jiro, I remember that joke that he made earlier.

Anton considers it for a second, then is about to punch me when I catch it.

“Huh,” Anton says.

“You know what?” I say, standing up, “I don’t need you to explain anything."

“Abou-” Anton tries asking.

“Your sister, Edwina Bec” I interrupt, letting go of his hand “She died, correct?"

“Well anyone could figure that out,” Anton says “Why else would I have something this specially made from someone else?”

“That’s true,” I say “But would they know that she died of an overdose?”

After Anton hears that, Anton drops the gun embroidered with his dead sister’s name.

“Guess I got it in one,” I say.

Anton scoffs.

“Look you can talk ab-” I try before Anton cuts me off.

“Why did you shoot yourself with my gun?” Anton asks as he picks it up from the ground.

“Wait what?” I say.

“Let’s talk about you now” Anton continues “You always say the most out-of-pocket things, like when you were entering my house for the first time, you were talking about an-”.

“Wait wait go back” I try.

“What if I don’t want to?” Anton asks condescendingly.

“I mean about me shooting myself,” I say “I thought you were drunk”.

“That’s correct,” Anton says “You thought I was drunk”.

Anton continues “I find it easier to get information if they think you can’t get info at the time, they allow themselves to make mistakes”.

“But I saw you drink 5 shots of vodka,” I say “How-”

"Was I not drunk?” Anton finishes for me “It’s called training, it adds to how they would think I’d be drunk”.

“Wow,” I say “I’m impressed, you were even singing like you were dru-”

“Don’t turn the conversation” Anton scolds, pushing me to the wall “Now tell me everything”.

I think of a way where I don’t tell what I have been doing and don’t get shot.

I come up blank.

“Answer!” Anton yells, putting his gun back to my head, “Or I'm gonna shoot in 3”.

I could just tell him the whole truth, but even then he would probably not believe me and still shoot.

“2” Anton continues.

Already giving up, I think of the fun I had at that karaoke place after I tried to kill myself. All the songs that were sung.

Then, I realize it.

“1” Anton says, about to shoot.

Before he can though, I grab the gun and aim it up, him firing at the high noon sun.

“Her death must have been hard on you,” I say.

“That doesn't have anything to do with this,” Anton shouts.

“I don’t blame you for thinking that,” I say “But neither of us should blame you”.

“For what?” he says.

“Your sister's death,” I say.

He goes to punch me but I dodge.

“Here’s what happened,” I say “You, back in the USA, around elementary to middle school, were living with your family”.

Antton kicks me in the shin, putting me onto the ground, but I persist.

“But one day, your sister got home with drugs and you saw it” I continue, standing back up. “And she told you to keep the secret”.

Anton points his gun at me but I put it down.

“You decided to keep it a secret” I continue “And everything was all fine until she died of an overdose, she probably fainted and died soon after in the hospital”.

“After it all, you blamed yourself so much and moved to Japan” I finish.

I stopped for him to sadly sigh and tell me the story in more detail, but Anton still was as stoic as ever.

“What else do you want from me?” I ask.

“For you to shut up” Anton scolds “Look, you told my life story, so what? I’m not just gonna break down because of it”.

“Wow,” I say “You really are standing with your forced personality”.

“What?” Anton asks.

“All of this,” I say, gesturing to him “It’s not you, it’s some act”.

“An act of defiance” Anton interjects.

“Correct,” I say “A defiance of who you are, keeping on the last memories of your sister, her gun, and her personality”.

This is the line that finally broke Anton’s resolve, and just silently sat down.

“Hey you-” I try to ask.

“Leave me alone,” Anton says “Isn't your crepe melting?”.

“Uh good call,” I say.

Walking back, I see that Jiro is waiting annoyed once again, with 2 crepes, both melting down to his hands and dripping onto the ground.

“He-” I try to say.

“No” Jiro interrupts, giving me the ¬_¬ face.

“Um,” I try “Can I get my crepe?”.

“Is this why Anton is so mad and tired all the time?” Jiro asks “Is this what you get when you pay for the whole trip?”.

“Ok then,” I say “Can I just get my crepe?”.

Jiro sighs as if he was a 90-year-old man, and gives me my crepe.

I will say, I love it when it’s melted, the ice cream merging with the dough. It's so good.

“Also why is your face bloody?” Jiro asks.

“No reason” I sputter.

“Fair,” Jiro says

After that, me and Jiro just went around the place, Jiro got a Kirby pillow from a random store, and I got diarrhea from the food.

“Where’s Anton?” Jiro asks as we’re under the arch that shows us on the screen “You know after your makeout session”.

“No?” I say “He just wanted to go by himself somewhere, I’ll just go and get him real quick”.

“Whatever you say,” Jiro says.

I look behind the building from earlier and sure enough, there’s Anton.

“Hey, you ready to talk now?” I ask.

After a long pause, Anton grumbles.“Fine”

After another long pause Anton says “Look, she was so cool, and when she died, I wanted to preserve her memory”.

Anton continues “I copied everything about her, her love of football, her taste of music, her personality, even what she was, a great cop, but I couldn't could I?”.

“What the hell do you mean?!” I exclaim. “You-”.

“It’s not impressive” Anton Interrupts “She was so much better at everything, maybe I should have died”.

He sighs.

“Look,” I say “It can feel crappy when a family member dies, but you’re alive, and they are not, the only thing you can do now, is to move forward”.

“Easy for you to say” Anton scoffs.

“No,” I say looking right at him “No it’s not”.

Anton looks into my eyes. And sees it.

“So what?” Anton questions “You’re just like me? How does that help?”.

“Eh,” I say, kinda shrugging “I find that people who go to therapy are people who don’t have friends that they can go to for advice”.

“So I thought relating us could do something,” I continue.

Anton just stayed still like he was frozen.

“Hey, you know,” I say “It’s not like you would be fixed in one day, it takes time to process this and even then, you shouldn't just have no pain, just get to the point that it’s not controlling you”.

Anton just stared into space some more.

“You want to get a crepe?” I ask “Jiro keeps on insisting that we’re making out”.

Anton says “Well I am Bi so that does kinda-”

Anton jolts up and sputters “Wait no I'm not, wait, um no it’s”.

While he does whatever this is, I chuckle a bit while rolling my eyes.

We go back and get Anton a crepe with Jiro sighing this time like he’s a 100-year-old man.

“So, you did it right?” Jiro says.

“Did what?” I ask as I’m waiting for Anton to get his crepe.

Jiro is about to probably say that I was making out with Anton when Anton himself pushes Jiro in the back.

Jiro faceplants right into the pavement.

“You done?” I ask absentmindedly.

“You can’t just push me down!” Jiro exclaims.

“Well I just did,” Anton says.

Jiro was already close to his breaking point so after standing up, he took Anton’s crepe and threw it at him, most of it landing on Anton’s hair.

“I just got that,” Anton sighs.

I look at Anton and say “Looks like the crepe was so good, it really changed your hair color”.

Anton looks at me puzzled a little bit, then jokingly remarks “That explains that white part in Jiro’s hair, it’s whipped cream”.

Jiro, just like Anton, is originally confused, then starts to laugh as well.

We spent the night doing this, passing light-hearted insults at each other while on the train back to Anton’s place.

Almost made me forget about what I needed to do.

When we got back, I was about to open the door, when I remembered the thing I was thinking about.

“Can one of you two open the door instead?” I ask.

“Why, yOu hAvE A HaND,” Anton says fake drunkenly.

“No, no wait,” I say “Every time, either Reina or Atsuo hits me with a door on accident so I just don’t want to be hit again”

You know when you have a thought and it goes through 5 different ones until you get to something completely different? Well, that was the face that Anton had after I said that.

Anton finally gets to the point he wanted to say and asks “When Atsuo was going to her internship, why did you assume it was bad?”.

“Once again,” Jiro says “Unlike you who don’t admit the fault of your country, we know the places where Japan falters”.

“Is that true?” Anton asks.

“No, only we do,” Jiro says.

I decided to ignore whatever that was and just open the door.

I go to the door and unlock the door, all the time expecting Reina or Atsuo to come right out and hit me with the door.

I open it and, well no, they and Daitan are all fixing the door, the door right now on the ground.

“Really you’re not letting me fix it?” Anton whines.

“That’s another thing I should have insulted about Americans” Jiro remarks.

“Look,” Daitan says “We decided to just fix it now as none of us have anywhere to be”.

“Were you fixing it the entire time we were gone?” I ask

“In a nutshell yes,” Reina says “We found the problem with it, which caused another problem, and after we fixed that, it’s another problem”.

“Let me see that,” Anton says.

“That’s another thing” Jiro comments “Americans are also incredibly se-”.

“NO” Anton shouts “It’s just that I’m the one who tried to fix it last time”.

“Me too!” Daitan exclaims “In fact, I should be more responsible for it since I'm trying to fix the door while you three went on a trip to get a Kirby pillow”.

“Hey it’s fluffy” Jiro whines “Plus I paid all of it for myself, so you should really be arguing with Anton”.

“What did I do?” Asks Anton.

“Everything” Daitan says.

“Oh well look at you,” Anton says “You pretend that I’m lazy, but you’re recording all of this, probably making more than me in a whole week”.

Anton points at a foldable Apple phone that is recording that I didn't even notice.

After that, they just started to scream at each other like, as Jiro puts it “An old couple”.

“Got it,” Atsuo says, pulling out a nail from when presumably they tried to fix it last time.

She then picks up the door and tries to put it back on.

I pay no mind to this and continue to listen to Anton and Daitan.

“You just hog all of the money for yourself” Anton shouts “Like when you bought that Apple Vision a few years ago”.

”At least I used my money” Daitan Interjects “Unlike you just today”.

”Shut up,” Anton says “It was one day!”.

After a short pause, they look slightly past me.

I also look back, right as Atsuo, falling right on me with the door.

”Welp” I sigh.

We tried to fix the door for the rest of the day but as Reina said, every fixed problem just caused another problem.

Once it became 11:00 PM we decided to just hire someone to fix it despite Anton’s protests.

“Alright, I’ll order a pizza, and hope that the guy will fix it,” Daitan says.

”What are we gonna do about Anton?” Atsuo asks.

Anton is right now on the ground after Daitan knocked him out (Another thing that Tomori apparently taught her).

“Eh, it’s fine,” Daitan says “It’s not like he’s dead”.

Jiro then checks Anton’s heartbeat.

“No he’s dead,” Jiro says.

“WHAT?!” Daitan screams, rushing to Anton to check for herself.

After checking, Daitan punches Jiro and says “Don’t fu-”.

Remembering that she’s on camera right now, she instead says “Don’t do that again”.

“It was a joke,” Jiro says “You can even see him breathing.”

“Well maybe I want you to stop breathing,” Daitan says.

“Ok,” Jiro says, curling up into a fetal position.

I just look at the scene, dumbfounded, or whatever the present tense of that word is.

“I’m done with my first page!” Reina exclaims as she pushes the screen to my face.

I look at it.

It’s titled “Pride&Joy”.

“It’s not tennis-themed?” I ask.

“No,” Reina says “It’s more than that”.

“Which is?” I ask.

“Read,” Reina says with conviction.

Even a summary would be too long for this, after all, I'm on what? Page 13? Plus it’s not important, it was just a few friends at a coffee shop on the first page.

“Sure,” I say “It’s good”.

“Really?” Reina argues “No criticism?”.

“Well it’s up to you if you like it or not,” I say.

“I’ll just go ask Atsuo tomorrow,” Reina says, walking away.

Atsuo went for overtime at the internship btw.

I know, right? Isn't it an internship? Even America’s internships aren't that bad.

I sigh. “Wish I could do something about Atsuo”.

I decided at that moment that my final plan was just to go to that same bridge, and get run over. Justice for what I did.

One more day.