Milton's
[MILTON'S MAP IN THE FIRST COMMENT]
1. Main entrance;
2. Books and magazines;
3. Videogames;
4. Perfumery;
5. Screens and home theaters;
6. CD's and DVD's;
7. Toys;
8. Clothing;
9. Side entrance;
10. Sweets and snacks;
11. Restaurant entrance;
12. Playground;
13. Dining hall;
14. Kitchen.
I enter Milton's.
Ino Yamamoto, Izumi Natsumura and Hamano-san are in the book section.
Izumi Natsumura runs from shelf to shelf, takes some books, shows them to Hamano-san and gives them to her.
Hamano-san smiles kindly while she's holding a large pile of books.
Meanwhile Ino Yamamoto's arguing with Izumi Natsumura.
One of the salesclerks approaches Izumi Natsumura and tells her something—probably to stop running and yelling at the store.
Ino Yamamoto says something to Izumi Natsumura, and they both start arguing.
Hamano-san tries to calm them both.
I approach them.
���Ok, so what's this one about?" Ino Yamamoto points at one of the books on the shelves. On the cover there's a big and strong guy along a weird creature, and they both are posing in a way I can only describe as extravagant.
"It's about some dudes with powers, but the powers are monsters that fight each other."
Ino Yamamoto laughs.
"See? Manga's weird. I don't know why you read them."
"'Cause they're amazing. Duh!"
"Says you because you're also weird. And an otaku."
"I'm not an otaku!" Izumi yells. "You're the otaku!"
"Hey, stop yelling," says Hamano-san.
"Yeah, whatever, but manga's so weird. What's this one about?" Ino Yamamoto points at a book with a monster? A demon? I don't know what that is on the cover.
"Oh, that one's about a dude with a crocodile head, but he doesn't remember who he is of who cursed him. So, to get his memories back, the hunts magicians and grabs 'em by the head and put 'em in his mouth 'cause there's someone in there, who tells the magicians 'you're not the chosen one' or something like that, and then he get 'em out of his mouth and asked 'em about what the guy in his mouth said, and then he kills 'em. It's awesome."
Ino Yamamoto laughs and shakes her head.
"God, manga's so weird. Who thinks about this stuff?"
"Geniuses," says Izumi Natsumura.
"How can they be geniuses? They draw the weirdest things."
"Maybe those drawings are not that weird; maybe they're just out of context," I say, and Izumi Natsumura and Ino Yamamoto turn towards me and stare at me puzzled.
"What?" Ino Yamamoto asks.
"Yes, Izumi Natsumura only gave us a very simplified version of the plot. Maybe if we know more about it, it will make more sense."
"But it'll be still weird. It's about a guy with a crocodile head who has a guy living inside his mouth. How can't this be weird?"
"I told you, maybe with more context it won't be that weird. For example: Izumi Natsumura—
"You can call her Izumi-san, you know," says Hamano-san. "Calling her Izumi Natsumura all the time must be tiresome, and it's getting pretty annoying, to be honest."
"Oh, sorry," I reply and bow respectively, "So can I call you Izumi-san?"
Izumi Natsumura shrugs.
I guess that's a "yes," so:
"Thank you, Izumi-san," I say and bow respectively. "And now tell me: how did the main character know he had a guy living inside his mouth?"
"I dunno," Izumi-san shrugs, "I haven't read that part."
Ino Yamamoto sighs.
"Well, this is getting boring. You keep reading your otaku stuff and wasting all your—
"I'M NOT AN OTAKU, YOU BAKA!" yells Izumi-san.
"Yeah, sure, like I care, I'll take a look on the CD's"
"And I'll be in the clothing section," says Hamano-san, but, before she leaves, Izumi-san grabs her by the arm.
"STAY WITH ME, SOTOKA-CHAN, ONEGAISHIMASU!" She says with a concerned look.
"I won't take long."
Izumi-san shakes her head.
"STAY!" Izumi-san starts to pull Hamano-san.
"Stop it, Izumi-san."
"IZUMI-CHAN! CALL ME IZUMI-CHAN!" Izumi-san pulls Hamano-san even harder.
"Let me go!" cries Hamano-san.
"Hey, what did I tell you?!" The salesclerk who scolded them some minutes ago is approaching.
"DON'T LEAVE ME!" Izumi-san pulls Hamano-san with all her strenght.
"Let me go! ¡Ah!" Hamano-san drops all the books she had on her hands, and they fly in the air for an instant and then crash to the ground.
Hamano-san bends down to pick them up.
"Just leave them there," says the sales clerk. "And go."
"Ok," says Hamano-san, "and we're sorry," she bows and then heads to the main entrance.
Izumi-san and Ino Yamamoto follow her.
"Sorry for the inconveniences," I say and bow respectively; then I get up and follow the girls.
We get out the main entrance.
Izumi-san looks a little bummed out.
"And now how'll I buy my manga?"
"Which manga? The one you dropped? Were you going to buy all that?!" Asks Ino Yamamoto.
"Um… yeah."
"So that's why you have your room full of them, and why do you want that many? How much do you read?" Ino Yamamoto asks—and, now that I think about it, Ino Yamamoto asks so many questions.
"Ino Yamamoto," I say, "nobody likes nosy people, and nothing we do here makes much sense, so don't ask that much."
Ino Yamamoto smirks at me, but also shows me the middle finger.
And that's a problem: is she happy or mad at me? Because she smiled at me, so she should be happy, but she insulted me with her middle finger, why should she be happy? Or maybe she enjoys to insult me, but, then, if she enjoys it why she haven't done it before? And how did when knew she enjoyed it if she haven't done it before?
It doesn't make any sense.
Hamano-san puts her hands inside the hoodie she's wearing and takes out a cellphone. She checks it.
"It's 9:42. Where do we go now?"
"Come here," says Ino Yamamoto, and she leaves.
We follow her and arrive to Milton's side entrance.
"Come on," Ino Yamamoto heads to the entrance, but Hamano-san stops her.
"They kicked us out," she says.
"So? The salesclerk's on the other side of the store, and what's the worst it could happen? They kick us out again?" replies Ino Yamamoto.
"That makes a lot of sense," I say, and apparently everyone agrees.
"Ok, fine, let's go. But if something happens is on you," says Hamano-san.
"Whatever," says Ino Yamamoto.
"Yeah, so I can go buy my manga now!" Says Izumi-san as she runs to the entrance, but Hamano-san immediately stop her.
"Hey, don't go that far," she says while she's clinging to Izumi-san as hard as she can. Her arms are around her torso and her face is practically buried in Izumi's side, "that's where the sales clerk is."
"I don't care," says Izumi-san while she's struggling to get free, "I want my manga, Sotoka—
Izumi-san stops moving. She's now staring at Hamano-san, who's practically hugging her.
Izumi-san smiles, and I've never seen her happier—and I know, I've only known her since yesterday, but she really seems happier.
"Yes, I want my manga," Izumi-san pretends to struggle. "So, don't let me go, Sotoka-chan, or I'll go get it."
"Stop it, Izumi-chan," Hamano-san's still clinging to her.
"This is fun," says Ino Yamamoto, and maybe she's talking to herself because she's not looking at me, "but this will be even better," she approaches Hamano-san, and then bends close to her and tells her something.
Hamano-san raises her head, stares at Izumi-san, lets her go and stands up.
"NO! HUG ME MORE!" Izumi-san hugs Hamano-san, and Hamano-san tries to push her away.
"Wow, I didn't know you can sometimes be even dumber than her, Sotoka-san" Ino Yamamoto laughs.
"And how was I supposed to know," Hamano-san face is mad and red. "There's no way of knowing if she's joking around or if she means it."
"I'M NEVER JOKING WHEN IT COMES TO HUG YOU, SOTOKA-CHAN!"
"But you were joking around like a minute ago," I say, "when Hamano-san was practically hugging you."
"Yeah, but that time I was joking around seriously."
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"What?" Ino asks.
"That doesn't make any sense," I say.
"Let me go," says Hamano-san.
"Of course it makes sense, "says Izumi-san. "I was joking around 'cause I was really happy that Sotoka-chan was hugging me, but I did it seriously 'cause I wanted Sotoka-chan to keep hugging me fore—OW, OW, OW!" Izumi-san cries because Ino Yamamoto starts pulling her earlobe.
And she lets Hamano-san go.
And Ino Yamamoto lets Izumi-san go.
"Anyway, I'll go to the clothing department," says Hamano-san, and she starts walking away.
"I'll go with you, Sotok—
"No. I'm mad at you," says Hamano-san, and she keeps walking away.
Izumi-san runs to her and holds her by the arm.
"Gomen'nasai, Sotoka-chan," she cries. Literally. A bunch of tears are coming out of her eyes—but why, though? Hamano-san just told her she was mad at her, and that makes perfect sense because Izumi-san hugged her against her will, and then ignored her plea for a while, so she has all the right to me mad at Izumi, and she didn't insulted her in any way, so Izumi has not reason to cry. Or maybe is just that everything Hamano-san says can affect her a lot, because they seem so close (and they may or may not be a couple). But, anyway, if she cries or not doesn't affect me in any way, so why should I care? "I just wanna be with you, and I was so happy when you were hugging me and Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! I made you mad! Gomen, gomen, gomen! I screwed it all! I wanna die, I wanna die, I wanna die, I wanna die, I wanna die, I wanna d—
"Fine," she says, "you can help me find something cute. But no hugs."
"Arigatōgozaimashita, Sotoka-chan!" Izumi-san holds both of Hamano-san and yells. "You'll gonna look even more kawaii even if that's not possible 'cause you're so beautiful and perfect, and I daisuki desu, and I'm not gonna let you go never ever ever, and come on, let's go, let's go!" Izumi-san runs towards Milton's without letting Hamano-san go, so Hamano-san has no option but follow her.
They enter Milton's.
And so does Ino Yamamoto and me.
Hamano-san and Izumi-san are in the clothing section. Izumi's picking a lot of clothes and showing them to Hamano-san—and I don't know why they're wasting their time with that; all the clothes cover basically the same function, so they should concentrate in the durability/price instead of shallow and useless details like the design or the color.
But that's none of my business.
Ino Yamamoto heads to the CD/DVD section, and I follow her.
She starts to check them one by one.
"Do you like CD's?" I ask her.
"Not really," she replies, "but I like to look at them, even though most of this ones suck. Oh, look, they have one of Loveless, and they're pretty good. Do you know them?"
"No."
"You should. They're pretty good, especially in their first albums."
"Ok. Noted. I should listen to Ain't calling the cops and God is somewhere but here by Disintegration and the first albums of Loveless."
"Right," she says, "and what bands do you listen to or what?"
"Well… mostly classical music, The Steves, Captain Major, Peace—that's what my dad always put in the car—Dresden Nights, With Love, No MP Left, Final Boss—I've discovered those bands a little ago; I'm just starting listening to bands and all that, so I don't know that many."
Ino Yamamoto stares at me with an expression that may be of disgust or disdain or pity or condescendence or confusion.
"Give me pen and paper," she says.
"Um… what?"
"Pen and paper! Give me pen and paper!"
I run from one place to another but there's no one here so I go to the check-outs, and there's a sales Clerk in the toy department and I approach her and:
"Do you have pen and paper?!" I ask her.
"I'm sorry? Oh, yes, just a moment," the sales clerk takes a pen and a piece of paper from the counter and gives them to me.
"What're you doing here?!" the sales clerk that kicked us out yells at me from the other side of the store.
I then pick the pen, the piece of paper and go back to—
Ino Yamamoto's already here.
"Let's go," she tells me and she runs to the clothing department.
I follow her.
"Let's go," she tells to Izumi-san and Hamano-san. Izumi-san's throwing away all the clothes she sees, and there's already a lot of clothes in the floor.
Hamano-san's picking them up.
"Don't throw them away, Izumi-san!" Hamano-san yells
"But none of these will enhance your beauty, Sotoka-chan!" Izumi-san yells. "They suck!"
"Let's go! Now!" Ino Yamamoto yells, grabs Hamano-san's arm and pulls it upwards.
"But I have to pick up all this," Hamano-san shoves Ino Yamamoto's hands away. "Why don't you help me out instead?"
"What are you doing over there?!" Yells the sales clerk that kicked us out.
Hamano-san gets up immediately.
"Let's go, Izumi-san," she cries.
"Ok, but I want some coffee," replies Izumi-san and heads to Milton's restaurant.
"No, Izumi-chan, not there," Hamano-san yells.
Izumi-san's already there.
And we have no other option than to follow her.