Chapter 3
“I’m Haruko Miyai, by the way – just call me Haruko,” Haruko introduces herself as she and Naoyuki leave the lunchroom for their lockers. “I’m in your reading class.”
Haruko, Naoyuki thinks. So that’s her name. He nods. He studies her for a moment. She is dark-haired and fair-skinned with round, light brown eyes. She really does look a lot like my mom. Realizing that he was still staring at her, Naoyuki forces himself to look down at his white sneakers. An awkward silence replaces their voices as each waits for the other to speak up. Oh, come on, say something! Naoyuki tells himself. You still didn’t really thank her! “Um...”
“What?” Haruko asks expectantly.
Naoyuki can’t get the words to come out. His face turns red with embarrassment, and he ruffles his hair, grumbling with frustration. Haruko giggles a little. He’s like a really little kid, she thinks, only he’s super-shy. “Can I just call you Naoyuki?” she asks. Naoyuki nods.
They stop in front of a line of lockers, classrooms on either end. Naoyuki nods toward the classrooms to the right and waves a little. “Oh, I guess it is getting late, huh? See you later, then,” Haruko says as she watches him run off again.
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“Kondo!” the reading teacher yells. His head pops up in surprise. “Where are we now?”
Naoyuki scans the page and points to the last line he heard. “No, Kondo,” the teacher grumbles. “This is the eighth time this week!” she yells as his classmates begin to snicker. “We’re here,” she says, pointing to a sentence only a line or so down from the one Naoyuki had indicated. “Now get up, go to the front of the room and read.” Panicking, Naoyuki gives her a pleading look. “We’re waiting,” the teacher insists. As Naoyuki takes his book and slowly gets up from his desk, his classmates break out in taunting laughter. Haruko stares at him worriedly.
He finally takes his place in front of the class, his hands and legs trembling, and starts muttering lines from the book. “Stop that mumbling and speak up,” the teacher orders him. He tries to start reading again, choking on the words as his face turns bright red, and his eyes begin to water over.
How cruel, Haruko thinks.
The students’ growing laughter drowns out Naoyuki’s trembling voice and the teacher snaps at him again, demanding that he read more clearly.
Sheesh, he’s shaking all over, Kotaro thinks. How long is she gonna make him read?
Finally, the teacher says, “You may take your seat, now,” and Naoyuki rushes back to his desk, burying his face in his arms and holding his book up to hide his hot tears. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” the teacher snaps as she takes the book from in front of his face and drops it on his desktop.
At long last, the bell rings, and the teacher dismisses the class. Naoyuki stuffs his book in his bag, slings it over his shoulder and rushes out of the classroom and to his locker. Haruko finds him there not long after. “Are you okay?” she asks him. Naoyuki nods.
“Do you want me and Kotaro to walk you home? I mean, there’s safety in numbers, you know. If we go together, maybe those bullies won’t bother us.”
Naoyuki gives her a confused look, shakes his head and shrugs.
Haruko isn’t sure what he means. “No?” she asks.
Naoyuki shrugs again and says, “Hm?”
“Oh, you don’t know?” Haruko asks. “That’s right! You haven’t met him, have you? Kotaro Nomura is in our class, too; he’s got – You know what, you’re about to meet him.” She sees him nearby and calls out to him. “Hey, Kotaro!”
Kotaro approaches Haruko and Naoyuki. “What is it?” he asks.
“You wanna walk with us?” Haruko asks.
“Sure, I guess,” Kotaro replies.
“Let’s go,” Haruko says cheerfully.
The three kids start out of the school together and come down the walkway. Naoyuki looks up suddenly, and Haruko asks, “What is it?” Just off to their left stands the high-school boy who had gotten the bullies to leave Naoyuki alone after Haruko stepped in the day before.
“Isn’t he that high-schooler?” Kotaro whispers.
“Yeah,” Haruko whispers back. “What’s he doing here?” Naoyuki notices the boy nod a greeting to him and he nods back, then he, Haruko and Kotaro start off down the sidewalk.
They soon arrive at Naoyuki’s house, and he knocks on the door. He briefly turns and bows a thank-you to his friends before Shizuyo opens the door. “Hello!” she says. “Well who do we have here? Some friends?”
Naoyuki nods. Shizuyo notices Haruko and smiles. “Is this the girl you were telling me about?” she asks, patting Naoyuki on the head. “You like her, don’t you?” Haruko and Kotaro exchange slightly freaked-out glances as Naoyuki cries in embarrassed protest and tries to get his caretaker to take her hands off of him. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Shizuyo says.
Naoyuki sighs. He waves goodbye to his friends and follows Shizuyo into the house.
“Bye!” Kotaro and Haruko call as they walk off the porch.
“Huh,” Kotaro says, “so he really isn’t..so different from us, after all.”
Haruko smiles. “Nope.”
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Naoyuki leaves for school early the next morning. When he is almost at the entrance, he sees that the five bullies are once again waiting for him. He quickly leaps over the low brick wall surrounding the school and runs up to the front door, where Haruko and Kotaro are waiting. “Naoyuki, are you okay?” Kotaro asks as Naoyuki bends over and tries to catch his breath. Naoyuki nods and motions for them to wait a second, then follows his friends up the stairs and through the door.
Haruko’s friends, Kei and Tohru, watch jealously from a few feet away. “I can’t believe she’s spending all her time with that retard instead of us,” Tohru complains. “What is she thinking?”
“It’ll be her problem when she gets what’s coming to her,” Kei says. “Hanging around with that kid only brings trouble.”
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“So, Naoyuki,” Haruko says, “you know that project coming up in reading?” Naoyuki nods. “Do you want to be in a group with me and Kotaro?” Naoyuki nods again. “Sounds good,” Haruko says, smiling. “Maybe we can meet at my house to work on it sometimes. I’m sure my mom would love to have you.”
Naoyuki suddenly stiffens up, that frightened look flooding over his face, and drops his book. Haruko scrambles to pick it up and hands it back to him. “You okay?” Naoyuki shakes his head, as if he was trying to shake off a thought, and then regains his composure, nodding in answer. He quickly bows and rushes off to class. I wonder if that’s his way of saying thank you, Haruko thinks. I’ll have to remember that.
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Haruko and Kotaro sit with Naoyuki at lunch that afternoon and walk to class together, afterward. The teacher gives them time to start on their reading project – a play that they were going to have to memorize and read aloud – and they get into a group and start practicing, laughing at each other when they mess up words and act it out.
All too soon, the bell rings, and the fun ends. Haruko and Kotaro join Naoyuki on his way down the hallway. “That was fun,” Kotaro says. “I wish we got to have the whole class to fool around more often.”
Haruko giggles. “You just like to tease me about that one part,” she says.
“What? It really was funny!”
Haruko smiles at Naoyuki as he laughs at their playful arguing. “You were still only reading instead of talking,” she says, “but we finally got you to smile.” Naoyuki smiles shyly back at her.
When they leave the school and go down the walkway, they see the high school boy standing a short distance off and nod at him, then continue down the sidewalk toward Naoyuki’s house. When they arrive, Naoyuki knocks on the door, and his teacher comes out. “Oh, hello,” she greets Haruko and Kotaro. “It’s nice to see you back again.” Haruko and Kotaro greet her with a wave. Naoyuki starts to follow Shizuyo into the house, then he turns around and bows a thank-you to them.
“You’re always welcome,” Haruko replies.
Surprised to have been understood, Naoyuki blinks up at her and smiles gratefully, then follows Shizuyo into the house. Naoyuki goes up to his room and pulls his homework out of his backpack. Only moments later, Shizuyo steps in. “It’s been a long time..since I’ve seen you smile,” she comments. “Those two...They’re real friends, aren’t they?”
Naoyuki stares up at her in surprise, as if she had uttered a word he’d never heard; then, slowly, he begins to nod. Shizuyo closes her eyes and heaves a sigh, then she leaves and shuffles into the living room. She lowers herself on to the couch and pulls a large book from underneath the coffee table, flipping it open to reveal old photographs, laden with dust. She stares wistfully at the photo of her friend, a fair-skinned woman with green eyes and dark hair, standing with her husband and holding a small child. “Aya, where are you?” she asks aloud, as if talking to the woman in the photo. “Do you know what you’ve done to your son?” Shizuyo laughs bitterly to herself. “He hasn’t smiled since the day you left – and I could never touch him. Maybe these new friends of his...will bring his smile back for good.”
