Animal Crossing: The Series

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Bells - Part 3

"I don't believe you, Yū. I just don't believe you," Ai said, shaking her head.

"I know! Isn't it amazing! Imagine, people coming from all over the world and paying us to see paintings!" Yū said excitedly. "We'll be famous! And rich too! Can you believe--"

"No," Ai interjected. "I can believe the painting exhibition, but I can't believe you." Her hands were clenched, almost shaking even. Her face was looking at her feet as her expression changed from intrigue to something that Yū had only seen once before, when Margie moved away two years ago.

Sadness.

Confusion started rambling in the two boys' minds. They looked at each other, unsure of what made Ai disapprove of their plan. Alfonso looked back at her and tilted his head. "You can't believe us?" he asked in all sincerity.

"Not you, Alfonso," she cleared up. Lifting her head up, she looked intently at her best human friend. She spoke softly, almost somberly: "You, Yū."

The orange alligator's eyebrows (or rather his eyelids) raised up in surprise as he turned to look at his partner in crime. All Yū could do was look stunned, as if a rug was pulled from beneath him. He didn't say a word, but instead pointed to himself to check if he heard her right.

"Yes, you Yū."

He unfortunately did.

"Before in the past, I think that you'd want to do it because it's fun, not because you wanted to make money off of it," she explained.

"Well," Yū started, scratching his flustering cheek, "What's wrong with making a few bells from it?"

"Nothing, but--" "Then it shouldn't be a problem!" Yū defended rather proudly, but still with a smile in his heart.

"That's not the only thing..." she sighed. As she went on, her voice started to be sprinkled with sadness. And the smile that was once in Yū's heart started to droop as he listened. "Yū," Ai continued, "you used to do things because they were fun! And I talked to Celeste the other day, and she told me how you refused to donate the painting to Blathers for the art exhibit he was working on. It's not that there is anything necessarily wrong, but..." She paused, preparing for what she was about to say next.

"You're not the Yū I once knew."

Yū, dense as a doorknob, just shrugged it off. "Of course I'm still Yū! Maybe I've changed a little bit, but it's not bad to change! People change all the time."

"But not you!" Ai exclaimed frustratingly. Maybe if he would've just listened, he would've heard the voice of a friend begging for a younger him to return. Maybe if he had looked deeper into Ai's eyes, he would've seen not anger but longing. Maybe, Ai thought, the Yū that she once found a strange delight in would listen.

But the Yū she knew—the one that would've wanted to help Blathers accomplish his dreams and maybe donated that painting; the one that would've encouraged James instead of compete senselessly with him in the Sports Festival; the one that would've made an exhibition because he simply wanted to have fun doing it—the helpful and friendly Yū, had moved away. And...

Ai felt like she might not see him again. And this time, it couldn't be fixed just by Yū visiting the village.

But she didn't say any of that. She didn't know how to say it. And he didn't know how to interpret the one thing she did say.

He could not hear her.

"Um, Ai...I don't know what you're talking about," he said, almost in defeat.

That statement of utter loss seemed to hit Ai in between the eyes. Her head drooped again as she sighed, exasperated; any trace of anger replaced by a somber frustration. A quiet stillness lingered between the three friends for a moment. As birds and mole crickets chirped in their disorderly harmony, the only sound that came from the usually noisy bunch was a deflated dismission: "Never mind Yū."