Glassy Dream

Part 4

It was finally Sunday and it's been about two days since Ayumu confessed to me.

After I brought him over to sleep at my house, I couldn't find him at our usual meeting place for the past two days. I tried to give the benefit of the doubt and assumed that he had to deal with his own thing, but this was the first time this occurred. But as I was starting to get worried whether he'll come back, I found him sitting at the usual place like those two days never happened.

I tried to do everything to get his attention, and then after a few attempts to make him laugh, I eventually noticed that he was giving me the silent treatment. Even though he avoided talking to me, he still followed me around to do our usual weekend schedule.

We would go to the arcade, play a few fighting games, explore different parts of the town we never been to, and get something to eat.

The whole time I would be having a one-sided conversation, but even with this silence, I knew he was listening. So after a few hours of just relaxing and doing what we wanted, I decided that I would finally use my secret weapon to get him to respond.

"Ayumu, we should get something good to eat."

Silence.

"It's my treat."

I saw his ear perked up, but he continued to avoid eye contact. He eventually said, "It's not like we're doing anything interesting. Anyway, hearing you drone about baseball, it's getting kind of draining."

After those words, Ayumu immediately stood up and started speed walking towards the stairs. Trying to keep up with him, I would try to walk next to him, but he would keep his head down and continued to avoid making eye contact.

He almost looked like a stubborn child. It was pretty cute.

As we approached our favorite convenience store, Ayumu sat at the sidewalk as I went in to grab our usual snack.

Just in time, the elderly clerk smiled and handed over the snacks to me without even asking me for what I wanted. It was usually four curry steam buns, two red beans steam buns, a chocolate milk, and a coffee milk.

But this time, she spoke to me and said, "That's a lot of steam buns for a young man. Make sure you don't eat too much before dinner."

I lightly laughed at her joke and just replied with a simple "Sure."

Finding a nice spot in the park, I handed Ayumu the coffee milk and the two red bean buns, but he didn't take it. I gently placed down the food next to him and proceeded to open the buns that were still warm from coming straight out of the oven. I enjoyed every small endeavor of life.

After a few more buns, I decided to bring up the elephant in the room.

"Sorry about bringing you to my home. I promise that I immediately knocked out as soon as we got home, but I didn't expect you to leave so early. I was kind of disappointed."

Ayumu choked on his bun and pounded against his chest to breathe again. Looking at me with such angry eyes, he said, "You're doing it on purpose, aren't you?"

"I'm just trying to lighten up the mood."

Ayumu ignored my response and proceeded, "I get it. I shouldn't have just fallen asleep like that. It must have been annoying taking me with you."

"No, actually, I was glad that I was able to get you to stay at my place. You always complained about not wanting to go home, yet you never accept my invitation to come over."

"Come on, don't you get it, man? Sometimes you're so caring about others, yet you don't get how much that kindness can be suffocating. Didn't you ever think about how I feel?" Ayumu stared at the cold red bean buns and coffee milk in front of him.