He sits frozen on his bed for a whole minute after rekindling his guitarist intuition; he may have discovered his new dream profession, acting like a statue.
His bedroom door slightly opens, and his mother, with tears in her eyes, exclaims shakily, "T—that was magnificent... I thought my only son had quit playing the thing he loved most... this makes me so relieved..."
Those words penetrate his ears, and he abruptly returns to reality; I have no idea where he was in that noggin of his; I could've checked his brain, but saying this as the narrator is embarrassing... I became sluggish.
As he stands up to console his mother, he sets the guitar beside him and asks, "H—how long have you been listening for?"
He approaches his mother and embraces her by the shoulder; she hugs him and says, with a runny nose, "I've been listening since the first strum, I was going to tell you to come and have breakfast..."
He becomes uncomfortable, his cheeks flushing as he mumbles, "So you've been listening since the beginning..." He then notices his father standing in the doorway behind his mother.
Because he's wearing eyeglasses, you can't see his eyes, but tears are streaming down his cheek as he adds, in his typical deep and dull voice, "That was wonderful, Susumu-chan."
I'm very sure I know where he acquired his boring characteristics.
His mother and father continue to cry joyful tears as he tries to console both of them with reassuring, but dull and generic, words.
He asks his parents, "Are you done crying?" His mother sucks in some breath into her mouth before exhaling, "I'm all good—"
She comes to a halt and turns to face her spouse... Is she communicating with him telepathically...? Wait... I keep forgetting I'm a narrator so I can just describe what they're saying!
His mother asks his father, "Should I tell him to go on another errand?" His father nods.
"After breakfast, could you swing by the market? We're currently running low on meats and veggies," she adds as she turns to Susumu.
Susumu asks, staring blankly into his mother's blue eyes, "Another errand?"
He finds himself standing in front of the entrance to a mall, carrying a list of goods he needs to buy; he groans and looks down at his list.
he thinks as he walks inside the mall; it's not packed like a can of sardines, which is unusual for a weekend.
He wanders aimlessly across the mall, passes the bookshop, then instantly backpedals to the front of the bookstore, walks in, and muses,
He then travels around the bookstore, stopping in the aisle labeled with the letter S and scanning the manga on the shelf.
His eyes widen as he notices the manga; he goes for it and grabs it; he pulls it out and nods; he thinks to himself,
The person in front of him has the same brown hair as... Is that Fumio? Yeah, that's Fumio in front of him all right, which is quite odd, to say the least.
Susumu takes a minute to realize that the person in front of him is one of his best friends, and he asks, "What are you doing here, Moriyama-san?"
Fumio stiffens his entire body as he is startled by his instantaneous question, twists his entire body around slowly to face him, and adds, "I—I could ask you the same thing."
Susumu sees past his lousy acting, the leg trembling being a dead giveaway— I'm seriously tempted to share a fun fact... you know what, screw it:
Moriyama Fumio is an excellent student in general, just trailing Shinsato Ayano on the school scoreboard; nonetheless, he is easily shocked by the simplest things, such as an unexpected water droplet landing on his shoulder.
Susumu examines the manga Fumio is carrying; the cover depicts a couple of schoolgirls, probably in senior high school, closely following a male with brown hair; all things considered, the manga appears to be within the harem genre.
Susumu chuckles as he gazes at the manga cover. Fumio raises an eyebrow and says, "What are you chuckling at, Ishibashi-san?"
He waves his hand to urge him not to worry, then continues, "I never realized you were interested in the harem genre, Moriyama-san," and Fumio shuts his eyes and shakes his head as those words leave his mouth.
"Takashi acknowledged me about this manga, saying it was wholesome and lovely," he stops as he shrugs, "so I decided to check it out, got an issue with that?" he asks in response to what he deems an insult from Susumu.
Susumu closes his eyes and bows his head, "No, sorry for believing you were interested in the harem genre to begin with," he mumbles to himself before turning his sight away, "Though it does feel like you're incredibly attached to it."
Fumio slouches his shoulders and asks, "Heh? What did you say?" Susumu smiles back and answers, "I said nothing."
Fumio squints his eyes; the person in front of him then departs the counter. Susumu looks over Fumio's shoulder and indicates to the open spot behind him, "The guy behind you is finished."
Fumio turns around to face the cashier; before looking back at Susumu, Fumio's eyes brighten, and he offers his hand, saying, "Give me your manga." Susumu stares at him defiantly, "And why?"
Fumio retracts his hand, scoffs, and says, "I merely meant to make your wait a bit shorter, but since you sounded so defiant, I guess you'll have to wait for me to finish paying up at the counter."
Susumu clicks his tongue and adds, "You should have told me before you said that, here," before extending the manga to Fumio, who extends his arm and grabs the manga after hearing those words.
Okay, this is a bit off-topic, but why has there been so much clongue ticking— tongue clicking lately? Is this a new phenomenon? Okay, let's get back on track.
He turns around and walks over to the checkout, where he stands in front of the man operating the register, slides the two manga onto the counter, and the cashier scans it.
Fumio returns his gaze to Susumu, who is gazing off into the distance, and says, "Ishibashi-san, could you give me the money for your manga? Four hundred yen is enough."
Susumu's dark iris shrinks as he returns to reality; he looks at Fumio and says, "What? I thought you were paying for everything?" Fumio looks unimpressed and says, "Did I say I was going to pay for your manga? I don't recall saying that."
Susumu rummages through his recollections but finds nothing comparable to what Fumio stated right now, so he sighs defeatedly and pulls out his wallet.
He digs into his wallet and pulls out four hundred yen coins, which he then hands to Fumio, who has his palm out; as he drops the currency onto his hand, he pockets his wallet.
Fumio then returns to the cashier and says, "By the way, the person behind me is with me." He places the coins on the counter and then pulls out his wallet and pulls out four one hundred yen coins; he pockets his wallet and places the coins on the counter.
The cashier takes the coins, deposits them in the register, and places the manga in a plastic bag before reaching out to Fumio, who gladly accepts it from his grasp.
The two friends exit the bookstore, Fumio holding the plastic bag and Susumu looking at his phone; Susumu scrolls through an undisclosed search engine and sees a picture of an arcade, which is also in the same mall as them.
He turns to Fumio and shows the photo, "I still have some free time, want to check out the arcade in here?"
Fumio looks at him, then turns to look somewhere else as he thinks, maybe thinking about the response to his request. His face then relaxes as he turns back to Susumu, "Sure, we can go check it out; it's been a while since we went out like this, right?"
Susumu chuckles as they begin walking to where the arcade is located, "Yeah, you're right, though I wish Fujikawa-san was with us as well, it isn't a proper hang out without all our buddies, you know?"
Fumio slouches his shoulders and adds, with a sullen expression on his face, "If that's the case, then all of our after-class hangouts aren't actual hangouts because Shinsato-san wasn't with us for any of them."
Susumu turns away from Fumio with an embarrassed expression, "W—well... forget what I said," he whispers under his breath, "though it's nice you consider Shinsato-san as a friend after all this time acting like we don't know her."
The two of them stroll into the arcade, their expressions bland, and they gaze around. "What do you want to try, Moriyama-san?" Susumu inquired abruptly.
Fumio closes his eyes and scratches the back of his head as he thinks; when he opens his eyes, he adds, "Perhaps the crane game might work."
Susumu nods, "Sure, we can do that," and the two go up to one of the arcade's many crane games, where the prize is a cool-looking bear.
If I were to give my view, that's one cool-looking bear, its claws are enormous, its mouth has these vicious fangs, and it has a string that when you pull it, it emits a low roar, like 'roooaarr' or something like that.
Susumu squints his eyes, looks at Fumio, and points at the bear, saying, "That's one cool-looking animal!" Susumu has the right idea.
Fumio pauses for a moment before inserting a coin into the coin slot and saying, "You're right, and I want it," before fiddling with the joystick for a moment, aligning it so the claw is above the bear.
He then presses the button that says 'Grab' and the claw starts going down, "Please hold onto the line..." he whispered as he put his face against the glass, the claw takes the bear by the string.
It pulls up, and the bear lets out a low roar, the claw then moves to the drop hole, and releases the bear.
Fumio is shocked by the unexpected sound and stumbles backward, landing on his buttocks. Susumu comments on the loud buzzing from the crane game, "I assume that means we won."
Susumu laughs. The buzzing stops and Fumio rises up. Susumu looks at the bear and takes it from the slot at the bottom, then hands it to Fumio, saying, "Congratulations, Moriyama-san."
Fumio agrees and takes the cool-looking bear from his hand.
Susumu feels a vibration coming from his jeans and his eyes widen, he pulls out his phone and stares at the notice, "Well, I guess my free time is done," he pockets his phone.
"Your leisure time was relatively short, may I ask why?" Fumio removes Susumu's manga from the plastic bag he was holding and delivers it to him.
Susumu snatches the manga from his grasp and adds, "It's safe to say I didn't expect to see you here, and I wasn't going to go to the arcade in the first place."
"But it was enjoyable going to the arcade," Susumu says, smiling. "Perhaps next time, we might invite Moriyama-san and Shinsato-san; what do you think?"
"Yeah, it sounds nice, Ishibashi-san," Fumio says with a nod.