Chapter 116: Happy
LEO
It was half past eight. Twenty minutes before I was going to meet up with Mario, thirty minutes before the fireworks were to start.
I had my fourth helping of beefy patty in buns from the cooking club’s stall. I got the first three for free from Thomas, but the fourth was pushing it too much, I thought, so I insisted on paying for it—just like the Second Lady did. I felt pretty noble myself as I handed over the coins!
As I was biting into the juicy meat, Thomas said,
"I’m going to watch the fireworks with Isabelle later. The stall here’s going to close in ten minutes or so. Would you like to come and watch them with us?"
I almost said ’sure!’ immediately, like a kid being asked if he wanted candy, and was glad that I held myself back, remembering my promise to Mario.
"Oh, sorry—I think I will be, erm, somewhere else," I said.
"Eh? You are not going to watch the fireworks?" Thomas asked.
I had to think quickly. Of course I was going to watch the fireworks! But how did I turn down a friend’s good offer?
This wasn’t something I ever learned to do, and the Academy never taught such useful skills either—they should really do a course on these things, I thought to myself.
"I, eh, am meeting up with someone. I promised already!"
Thomas narrowed his eyes slowly, looked right into my eyes, seemed to be thinking about a few things, then said,
"Sigh, I guess I’ll just have to entertain Isabelle myself. She tends to get too excited over fireworks."
"I would be too! Anyway, have fun with Isabelle!" I yelped, turned, and ran away.
On the way to the Clock Tower, in my rush, I bumped hard into someone who felt like an immovable rock.
"Ouch, I’m sorry!" I said immediately.
"Leo?" the man turned to face me, seemingly not feeling the impact at all.
It was Dimitri.
"Oh, hi, Dimitri!"
"I was wondering where you were. We are going to watch the fireworks from the top of the hill over there. Let’s go, Leo," he said (’we’ being Briant and Alexis, whom I managed to catch only a quick glimpse of as Dimitri literally lifted me up and put me over his shoulder like a bag of rice).
"No, Dimitri! Put me down!"
"Heh, you will get lost if I put you down in this crowd," he joked.
"Seriously! I gotta be somewhere!"
"Where are you going?" Alexis asked, catching up with us as Dimitri was heading toward the hill already.
"I-I-I have found a better spot to watch them from!"
"Really?" Alexis asked again.
Damn.
That was not a good lie (and I didn’t even know why I lied in the first place).
"Let’s all go together then. It better be really good!" Dimitri said, stopping.
"No—I mean, yeah, sure, but, like, can you put me down first?"
"I’m not putting you down till you tell us first! Haha!" Dimitri was still playing around.
Then I looked at Briant, who gave me a knowing grin (what did he even know?) and said to Dimitri,
"Put him down. Leo probably has some secret place to go that he wants to keep secret."
"Oi, no secrets between friends!" Dimitri protested, but put me down nevertheless.
Not knowing what more to say, I just took off as soon as my feet touched the ground, leaving the confused trio behind.
But after I ran only about twenty steps or so, I stopped (foolishly) when I heard someone call out my name.
"Leo!"
"Yeah?" I turned to see who it was.
"Thanks for coming to watch our play today."
It was Beatrice.
"Oh, I saw you at our choir performance too. Thanks, Leo."
Janice was there too.
"Do you want to watch the fireworks together? Janice and I are going to grab a drink and watch them from the field with everyone else," Beatrice asked.
"So-sorry, Beatrice. I can’t."
"Eh? Why not?" Janice asked, leaning in closer to me.
"I already have... plans," I said.
I wasn’t getting any better at turning people down despite it being my third time in a row in the space of a few minutes.
"What plans?" Janice asked again, now looking even more curious than before.
This was not a good sign.
"Like, I can have plans too, right...?"
That was not a good excuse at all.
But thankfully, Beatrice pulled on Janice’s sleeve, smiled at me, and said,
"It can’t be helped, then. Enjoy your evening, Leo."
Why did she wink?
I didn’t know.
But of course, I winked back.
And rushed off again.
Then, on the way, someone from the crowd suddenly grabbed my collar from behind, making me stop so abruptly that I almost choked.
"Yeek!"
"Where are you running off to, Cheese Boy?"
It was Blanche, with Fabian and Liesel standing on either side of her.
"Aoah—let me go! Let me go! I’m going to be late!"
But Blanche didn’t let me go. Instead, she playfully pulled on my collar even harder.
"Heh, you are not going anywhere," she said.
"I have somewhere to be, Blanche!"
"Somewhere to be?" Liesel asked.
"Yeah! Somewhere!"
"Where?" Blanche asked too.
"Not here!"
Fabian then intervened (Thank you, Fabian!).
"Girls, don’t tease Leo too much. Maybe he promised to watch the fireworks with his friends," he said.
"So we are not your friends?" Blanche teased.
"You are! But not now!"
That made everyone laugh, and Blanche finally let me go.
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I was sure I was going to be late.
Mario might be there already.
I went to watch everyone’s club activities today but didn’t get a chance to do anything with Mario for the whole day.
And we had promised that we would meet and watch the fireworks together.
He told me—he told me that we were special friends. Special friends should keep special promises. And fireworks were special. So I had to be there!
I ran and ran, at one point sort of getting annoyed about why Mario had picked somewhere so far from the main field to meet up, but nevertheless looking forward to the fireworks.
Then I saw him from afar, finally, just under the Clock Tower.
He seemed to be searching for something, as if he had dropped something precious and was trying to find it. It must be something really important for him to pace around so nervously like that, I thought. Mario never lost his calm, I thought (except when he got angry with me a few times, but I forgave him already, I thought).
Then I heard the bell strike, followed by the whistling sound of a rocket going up behind me.
I wanted to turn and look at the first firework, but I was so close—and Mario was there, waiting for me. It seemed he had spotted me too.
"Mario!"
I ran up to him as fast as I could, and for that one last step, I launched myself at him in my excitement, and then—
"Ouch!"
I yelped as I banged my head against his chin.
I fell to the ground immediately and rolled around in pain. The first firework had gone off already, but it hurt so much that I had no time to feel sad about it. I then looked up at Mario, and he was holding and rubbing his chin.
Our eyes met.
Me on the ground, grabbing my head.
Mario standing, rubbing his chin.
Because we were so stupid and clumsy and bumped into each other.
Like that time on the first day of the Academy.
Mario laughed.
And that made me laugh.
We were stupid. So stupid.
And it was funny that way.
Then we were on the ground, Mario and I, lying next to each other.
We looked up at the sky and watched the fireworks explode.
It was spectacular—bigger and better than any fireworks I had ever seen back in Erdville before.
It was awesome. Just too awesome for me to look at it alone and enjoy it alone.
I was glad that I came to meet Mario so we could watch it together.
Then I turned to look at him, because sometimes when you are having a lot of fun together, it feels really nice to see your friend enjoy it too, but I realized that he was looking at me instead of the fireworks.
"Mario! You are missing the fireworks!"
"I really don’t mind," he said.
I didn’t understand, but I guess it was okay.
He looked happy enough.
And that made me happy too.
The fireworks were beautiful. I didn’t want them to end. Every firework that followed was bigger and prettier than the previous one.
Then I heard the bell go off to signal that the last rocket was going to go off.
If this fantastic moment was going to end, I wanted it to be special—more special than any firework anybody had ever seen before. Like, super, super, super big and special.
Then it happened—just as I hoped for, or even better than I could have wished for.
Everyone roared in awe as probably the biggest firework in the history of the Empire exploded in the night sky.
It was beautiful.
Then Mario squeezed my hand (since when were we holding hands?) and said,
"Thank you."
I never thought those words could mean so much.
I was happy.