Sunset vibes shined against Sophie and Star silently resting on a park bench in the Virgo District. With vanilla and ube soft-serve ice cream in hand, Star finished much faster than Sophie did even with their tiny spoons. Rowdy children sprinted past the two as a massive fluffy golden retriever playfully chased after them. Star's attention traced itself toward the children's mother and father, who stockpiled on top of their family dog. Her eyes drooped down in worry.
Sophie frowned. Even ice cream was unable to please Star at the moment, and she knew the reason why. Luckily, her epiphany triggered itself as she reached behind her back, rustling through a big plastic bag containing a special surprise inside. Star turned around.
"Got a little something for you," Sophie said, extending out her surprise. A neon blue and pink-spotted dolphin plushie rested against her palms. Star's eyes lit up in glitter at the sight of her surprise. "I saw you looking at this during the field trip. Your friends were pointing at it too."
Star wrapped her arms around it and cuddled it by pressing the dolphin's snout against her cheek. "How did you get this?" She asked. "It was in a crane game. I had no money."
Sophie flicked her head back to hide her face from Star, as she was guilty of the total money that she spent to receive the plushie in the first place. Little did Star know that Sophie had spent over 50,000 Japanese yen in a scam-driven gachapon crane game located in an establishment next to the aquarium. Their rules were uncouth, and Sophie fell for them to make Star even happier.
"Sophie?" Star tugged on her sweater.
"Hmm?!" Sophie's voice cracked as she pretended nothing of the sort happened. "Oh, don't worry about it! The good news is that I got it, so enjoy!"
Star's eyes returned to normal. She sighed and placed the plushie back into Sophie's lap. Her eyes refrain from looking into Sophie's. "Thank you, but I can't have this." She confessed.
"Huh?" Sophie was confused. "Why not?"
"You gave me so many gifts already," Star revealed. "I can't take this. I feel bad."
"I... I just really want you to be happy-"
"But I already am happy," Star said. "I'm happy that I can spend time with you and Mr. Sasaku. I'm happy that I have a home now. But you are..."
"Trying too hard?" Sophie sighed, turning to peer into the distance as she swept her legs back and forth. "Star, I want to do all this for you because I care about you. You never were able to go to the aquarium or get a cute plushie for yourself. You never had ice cream trips or amusement park visits. Not even a chance to try cuisine from Earth. I just wanted to-"
"Why?" Star raised her voice, pressured by Sophie's constant showering of blessings and gifts. "You're not my mom. You're just one of Mr. Nakai's friends. Mr. Sasaku wanted to take care of me because Miss Springwell was hurt. You didn't have to come. Why did you?"
"Because..." Sophie held her tongue. She could not admit it herself no matter how painful the reason was. "It's hard to explain. You're still young, so you don't-"
"I am so confused!" Star shouted. "You are always with me, but sometimes you shout at me. You love me, but sometimes you say you hate me!"
"Hey, guys!" A voice startled both Sophie and Star at the moment. They turned around and were met with astonishing surprise with Sumire Nakai's glowing and glistening presence in the heat. She wore red and black striped tight gym clothes as her sweat glossed her skin. She puffed out large breaths from her chest and maintained it after cooling down. "What are you guys doing here? Ooh, ice cream!" She said as she leaned forward to examine the vanilla and ube combination. "I could use that right about now."
Sophie's eyebrow raised itself in question. Star placed her ice cream and turned around, placing both of her palms on the bench's top. "Auntie Nakai, are you retiring?" She asked, changing the subject between them.
"Retiring?" Sumire said, wiping her forehead. "No, I'm... just taking a break! It's always nice to take breaks and train yourself for much later. Look here!" She pointed at her core and clenched her stomach, revealing a moderate six-pack while flexing some of her muscles. "See? Training always pays off!"
"Hang on," Sophie mentioned, tapping on Star's shoulder. "Star, Auntie Nakai and I are going to talk for a bit. Stay here, okay?"
Star pouted, thinking about her prior conversation with Sophie. "Okay." She muttered.
Sophie pulled Sumire aside, curious about her situation. Sumire's resting face was a warm smile that seemed to appear drastically different than usual. But she knew the truth.
"S'up?" Sumire asked, smiling at Sophie.
"Haha," Sophie said sarcastically. "You don't have to hide what you feel from Star, you know. She's around the age when she should be understanding these kinds of things."
Sumire sighed. "Can't help it..." Her tone dramatically fell flat. "Been trying to take my mind off of things."
"For five months?"
"I would have taken longer if it weren't for Ryo and the others," Sumire said. "I just..." Her voice cut off as she shook her head with an impassable and nonchalant expression beaming from the side of her thin mouth. "Ever since... you know... i've been having problematic trust issues. Not even the kind that you can shrug off."
"What happened to you should be hard to digest," Sophie stated. "Nobody expects you to get past what happened between you and Rion. I hope you're not thinking about it that much."
"I'm not," Sumire said. "As you can see, I've been semi-retired, guess you could say. That shit took a toll on me. Corlean and Charlotte's starting to take the fort back home, Lucine's still doing jail time because I couldn't pardon her, Ziko's visiting her, and Zack..." Sumire muttered, looking away in spite.
"Have you heard from him ever since?" Sophie asked.
"No," Sumire coldly replied. "I don't even know where he is. But the point is, all of my friends from Sagittarius have moved on except me. I guess I was the only one who gave a shit about Rion until I figured out who he was, so I was the one who got the short end of the stick," Sumire sighed and placed her left hand on her hip. She jerked her head back in shame. "What is wrong with me... honestly."
"Nothing! You know what you should do?" Sophie mentioned, tipping her head to catch Sumire's eyes drifting away. "You should take that beach trip with Ryo that you were mentioning last month. You can make some homemade food to help him remember those days you were talking about with me. You know, when you were visiting him every week to help him open up."
"Ryo..." Sumire whispered. She suddenly snapped her left fingers as another epiphany appeared in her head. She winked at Sophie. "You're right. I should do something like that. We haven't spent some quality time like that for a while now. He's been hanging out with other people in Sunlight."
"Really? Who?" Sophie asked.
"Sophie? Auntie Nakai?" Star approached the two of them while holding an empty cup of ice cream. "I have to go to the bathroom."
Sumire glanced at her smartwatch. "It is that time now, I guess," She joked while kneeling to meet her eyes with Star's. "I'll let Miss Hiragi take care of you now. Be a good girl, okay?"
"Okay," Star said, grinning at the sound of her friendly manner.
Sophie held Star's hand and turned back to face Sumire. "I'll take care of her," She said. "You should get going. Remember to take that beach trip with your brother!"
"Will do," Sumire said, saluting. "Thanks for checking on me. I'll see you two cuties later!" Without another word, Sumire jogged away, continuing her exercise regimen.
"All right, the bathroom's over... there," Sophie said, holding Star's hand and tracing her attention through the park bathroom. She released Star's hand and pointed at the bathroom. Star sped towards it while Sophie rested back on the bench.
The previous family who stockpiled on top of each other with their pet dog continued playing in the upcoming mellow sunset. Sophie's eyes moved from each family member until she stopped on the family's young daughter. Her childish giggles and innocent quips were captured through Sophie's smile, but she knew it was not genuine. Her previous talk with Star made it clear that she was missing something that she couldn't quite put her finger on.
This inner conflict of appeasing Star despite the difficulties of her genuineness inflicted pain as mellow as the sunset. She knew her endurance wouldn't last. Her eyes tracked down toward her black shoes and stared straight into the grass without blinking. She fell into an unstable trance after believing that the future was not bright for her. Sophie couldn't think properly as her hands fidgeted in anxiousness.
Sumire can't do it. Ryo couldn't. Why should I be any different?
As the sun began to mildly set, Star's twinkling hair sparkled from the corner of Sophie's eyes. She stood up from her bench, breaking free from her trance, and rubbed her thighs with her hands to dust herself. As Star approached Sophie, a glimpse of a face known to her memory and imagination came to light. She even heard a faint voice echo inside her ears.
I can love anyone I want.
"No..." Sophie whispered, sensing the dreary tight pain underneath her eyelids.
I want you to be my woman.
"Not again... not again...!" Sophie continued.
I choose you, Sophie.
"Stop it... please... stop..." Her lightheadedness impeded her train of thought and movement.
I love you.
"Sophie? Are you okay?" Star's worried face came to light as she tugged on Sophie's black pants. Even though she was worried, her expression deemed that she didn't appear surprised at all, strangely enough.
"Oh," Sophie realized Star's touch knocked her out of her inescapable trance. She flipped her long ponytail back toward her hip. "I'm fine, Ash."
"You called me Ash again," Star mentioned with a dead monotone voice. "You called me... Ash."
"I'm..." Sophie sighed, regaining her consciousness completely. "I'm sorry, Star. Let's head back to Sunlight, okay? Mr. Spiker's going to cook us some spicy stir-fry. You can invite your new dolphin friend to eat with you." She said, poking at the dolphin's snout as she rested it in Star's hands.
"I don't want it!" Star yelled, rushing away towards Sophie's car after dropping it to the ground.
After bending over to retrieve the plushie, Sophie held it tightly in her hands. She eyed Star from a distance, who entered the car by herself sulking at Sophie's unexplainable behavior. Sophie retracted her smile and rubbed her forehead, pushing her brown bangs away from her face. She took several seconds to regain her brainpower before moving toward the car as the sun had completely set.
Sumire, you're not the only one.
Right now, I can't even trust myself.