Game Gyaru

Chapter 10: Memories 2

Hakuta headed down the stairs first. She was taking her time, so this left him with the responsibility of finishing up their dinner. The boy was fine with accepting it, seeing even he understood why she would hesitate on following him down the steps.

Why indeed would be so harsh to her on this matter. If anything, it was uncalled for seeing as she had done wrong to him this time around. And even then, what he said to her was too far. This idea was not lost to him as he peered over the stove heating their food.

As expected, she was no cook. When he wasn't the one cooking their meals. The pair would usually get take out from some cheap restaurant nearby. According to Shiuka, that was how she would spend her nights when not hanging out with friends, which was not often at all. So therefore she never gained any experience in the kitchen despite having one all to herself when her dad was gone.

Speaking of parents, that was one person Hakuta never imagined he'd miss so much. While his father was a huge knucklehead, at least that was a man who loved him. Being in this house with someone he'd barely call more than an acquaintance made him miss any semblance of connection.

Back to the food at hand, there were some instant ramen boiling away in a bigger pot. This would surely be more than enough for the pair, but also lacking. So he was glad she took some time to get some beef cut up and some vegetables out as well. The latter was a surprise, but judging from all the seasoning that drowned it, this girl appeared to have listened to his advice.

Finally, as he finished up cooking their food and setting the bowls out. Shiuka had made her way down the stairs to join him. The typical gyaru energy she possessed was missing. Instead, now replaced with empty eyes as the girl sat down at the kitchen counter besides him.

She seemed to be quite distraught from his words, certainly more than he expected. They had their spats from time-to-time, and she certainly had some choice words for him to back then. This time though, she just took what he said and rolled over without much of a fight. Oddly uncharacteristic coming from her, at least in his eyes. Maybe he did go further than he thought he did.

This made the first half of their meal a bit awkward after he set her bowl, topped to the brim with meat and some vegetables. Well, it was mostly the beef and a couple of ounces of bean sprouts. Still, that didn't brighten her mood as the girl slowly slurped up her noodles while chewing on the meat.

This was certainly more polite of eating than he was used to out of her. In fact, even though he was still clean, she was being a bit more proper compared to him. Something about that change made him uncomfortable, that somehow despite always complaining about her manner. Hakuta missed the old ways she would do things.

"I..." He broke the deafening silence between them after getting some bites in. There was no reason to continue this divide between them. Especially when it was his fault she was this way. "I want to apologize for what I said." She paused from eating to slowly turn her head towards him. A small noodle still hung from her lips as she stared at the boy. "I didn't mean what I said about how high school was going to be your peak." He was genuine in what he told her. The things that he said to her before were coming from a place he didn't want to admit openly about. That he wanted to hide away what he truly felt about seeing those pictures.

"Well..." Finally, she spoke for the first time since dinner started. "It's not the insult I cared about." While it was nice to see him apologize to her for once, it wasn't why she felt the way she did. "Those memories are important to me. I don't like how you can just throw them away so easily."

This was a conversation that was fairly touchy for this girl. Considering the circumstances, it made perfect sense. "My mama, she passed away when I was still little." Which meant she didn't get to spend that much of time with her. Especially given her age, where she didn't remember what the woman even looked like. "But, at least I still have this picture." Shiuka produced from her shirt pocket, an image of her mother standing out in a grassy field.