Hands pressed against the window, Mel peered through the display. She was fixated on one particular item on display. So much so that she didn’t notice the person coming up behind her. Suddenly, a light weight was lifted off her head, and her hair felt a draft of the cold autumn air.
“Swipe!” said a familiar voice.
“Mm? Hey!”
Her eyes followed up and spun her around to face Kai, who was waving her red and white cap. She took a swipe for it, but Kai quickly raised it above his head.
“Drop it!” she demanded.
“On the wet pavement?” he mused. “I don’t think you’d want that.”
Mel stepped up to him and jumped, but she was too short to reach it. Kai casually stood there, his other hand in the pocket of his hoodie. He leaned to the side to gaze past her as she clamoured.
“Whatchu lookin’ at?”
“That’s— None of your business!”
In the window, there were three shelves on one half of the display, showcasing different small devices. On the other half, there were several TVs stacked on top of each other, all tuned into the same channel.
“Oh? Are these electronics? Since when did these ever interest you?”
“I— There was something interesting on the TV, okay?!”
Kai raised his eyes. “Hm? A commercial?”
“Uh… No! I mean…! The baseball game that was on earlier!”
“Ah.”
Mel stopped jumping, defiantly standing up to him with clenched fists by her sides. “What are you doing out here, eh?! Did you come all the way here just to steal my cap?!”
Tilting his head down, he smiled as he lowered his arm, the soft, warm glow from the shop window making his smile evermore genuine. Mel immediately snatched her hat and placed it back on her head, facing forward this time, straightening it with both hands.
“I was shopping.”
“Sure you were,” she snarked, glancing all about his figure.
Without another word, she turned and began to walk down the sidewalk, expecting him to follow. And he did.
“Don’t you have homework to do or something?” she huffed.
“I finished it before I went to work. What about you?”
“I don’t do homework. You know this.”
“And you know I always finish my homework,” he laughed.
“Well… You never know if it’s different today!”
The two of them stopped at a crosswalk, joining the small crowd waiting for the street signal to change.
“You know, you could just write random answers in your homework. Better than not doing it.”
“Still too much effort,” she complained.
“Is it worth all the hassle from your parents, though?”
“Mom doesn’t care.”
“Doesn’t she constantly scold you?”
“That doesn’t mean she cares.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
The signal went off, and everyone began to walk. Once the two were on the other side, they remained silent for a while.
“Hey, do you have your walkman?”
“No,” she lied.
“That’s a shame.” He pulled out a small plastic box from his pocket. “I got this today, and wanted to show it to you.”
Her eyes glanced to the side, eyeing the cheap plastic case in Kai’s hand. “Hey… When are you going to get your own…? With all of the cassettes you own, I thought you’d have one by now.”
Kai shook his head. “Too expensive. Don’t have the money.”
“You’d have the money if you stopped buying cassettes.”
“Why would I do that?” he chuckled.
“So you could get a walkman, dummy!”
“If I want to listen to music, I can do it at home. If I want to listen outside, I can listen with you.”
“Mine is a cheap gift from my dad when I was a kid. It might scratch your cassettes one day and ruin them.”
He laughed. “That’s not how those work.”
“It isn’t?” she inquired, genuinely curious. “Then how?”
“You would know if you do your homework,” he teased.
“Wha—? School wouldn’t teach these things! You know this!”
“Mnnn…” Kai tilted his head and knit his brows in an amusing manner, expressing his doubt.
“All it teaches is plants… and history! Or combining numbers in stupid ways!”
“And kanji.”
“Yes! Kanji too!”
“Kanji is important.”
“Okay, well… maybe that’s true… But the super duper advanced ones?”
“You never know if you’ll need them.”
“I’m going to be a store worker! I don’t need to learn how to write words used in… I don’t know… A bank or something!”
Kai paused for a moment. “Are you seriously thinking about working at convenience stores all your life?”
“Why not? Those stores need lots of people like me,” Mel explained.
“Yes, but it’s temporary. People are supposed to move through, to other jobs or bigger stores.”
“Why?”
“Because you can’t make a living out of it. That’s how they can sell things cheaply.”
“I save up,” she seemingly boasted. “And I don’t spend much money.”
“That’s not a substitute for retirement.”
“Who cares? I’ll get to it eventu—”
“Melady.”
She stopped, almost tripping one foot over the other. The name had great power over her. She turned her head to Kai, who stopped just ahead of her. His face showed great concern.
“You can’t live like this forever. I’ve seen it with my grandparents. Life gets expensive as you grow older.”
“…”
“Especially with how long we live now. Think about it. Are you going to be working still when you are in your seventies?”
Mel was speechless. She could feel her face growing warm, which irritated her. In a sudden fit, she turned around and crossed her arms, puffing up her chest.
“Stop being ridiculous! You’re caring way too much about this!”
And she stormed off in the other direction.