At the street junction where Sunny and Basil left the school grounds, Sunny unexpectedly turned down the sidewalk instead of crossing the junction.
"Where are you going?" Basil asked.
"I don't wanna go home yet," Sunny replied, a mischievous curl of his lips. "Let's go to the mall instead."
Basil raised both eyes in surprise. "The mall? Why?"
"Why not? Looks like a lot of people go there after school."
They'd only glimpsed sections of the mall over the past couple of weeks, mainly window shopping. Basil figured that the mall was a huge place, a sprawling shopping center with loads of clothing stores, tool shops, furniture shops, tech emporiums, gaming stores, grocery stores, and food courts. It was like Faraway Plaza magnified a hundred times or more.
"Do you need to buy something?" Basil asked.
Sunny smiled. "Nope, let's just hang out."
Basil raised his eyes with surprise. He didn't expect Sunny to want to go to the mall with him. Perhaps this was just a temporary fling; maybe once Sunny made some more friends he'd go to the mall with them instead.
In any case, Basil was more concerned about what Mrs. S would think if they swerved off to the mall instead of going straight back home after school. "Shouldn't we go back home first so your mom doesn't worry about us?"
Sunny's smile grew a little wider. "I called my mom and told her we'd get back home a little later today." He fished out a new cell phone from his pocket.
Right, Sunny's mom recently bought him a new phone.
"Oh," Basil spoke, "you planned all along on going to the mall with me today?"
"Yup."
Ummm. Not what I thought you planned to do after school, at least not with me.
I guess if it's just to hang out, it's fine.
"Ah...okay, mall then," Basil conceded.
Basil followed after Sunny as they walked down the street towards one of the many mall entrances spread throughout the city blocks. He saw crowds of students from their high school making the mall their destination too, and wondered if he'd catch sight of Marie or another familiar face in here.
The jam packed crowds inside the mall, no doubt contributed by more than a few back to school shoppers, gave Basil an uneasy claustrophobic feeling. He preferred wide open green spaces, but figured that in a way the mall had its own appeal. To some, the rampant consumerism offered by the promise of sales discounts, the glitter of expensive brands, and the promise of fashionable new clothes must be a paradise.
Basil didn't take Sunny to be that kind of person. And he was right.
They were lost on what to really do in the mall and just wandered about without a destination in mind. The Sunny that Basil knew from back in the day would've balked at the thought of hanging out here and would've done anything to stay home instead. He didn't understand what caused the sudden change in Sunny's personality.
Well, everything different about Sunny that he'd seen recently, he attributed that to the impact of having stayed completely inside his house for four years. Anyone would want to go out, hang out, and get some fresh air after that ordeal.
"Hey, look, a book store," Sunny pointed out.
"Oh, sure, but, ummm, do you want to go to Hobbeez first?"
Basil wasn't aware that Hobbeez was a franchise, but the rather obvious letters painted bright orange hanging above the store to the right of the bookstore clarified that matter.
"Nah, book store," Sunny insisted. "I think you'd enjoy it more."
"You don't just have to go to the places I'd enjoy," Basil protested. He was much more of a library person than a book store person in any case.
"Just? Come on, Basil," Sunny said, a hint of a grin, "I love reading books too."
I guess you're right...
The bookstore attracted a different sort of crowd than the average teenager hanging out after school at the mall. And, as it turned out, artists loved the brand new volumes of comics and manga offered within.
"Hey, Sunny!" Mincy spoke, noticing them as soon as they entered the store. "Hey, Basil."
"Hi, Mincy," Sunny replied with a delighted smile, walking over towards her.
"H—Hello," Basil said, following Sunny.
"What're you here for?" Mincy asked Sunny. "Looking for the latest edition of Tennis Crush?" She held up a volume in her hand that even Basil hadn't read yet.
"Not really here for anything," Sunny replied. "But now that you mention it..."
"It's good," she said, offering the book to Sunny, who took it in his hands and started flipping through. "They're getting really close to revealing the guy's family secret."
Wow, sounds like I want to read it too!
Basil's hand moved towards his wallet, remembering his new credit card that his parents had registered for him that could spend up to two thousand dollars. He might end up making his first purchase with the card today.
"Sunny, let's get it," Basil offered. "I want to read the new volume too."
"Sorry, I think Mincy plans on buying it," Sunny replied. "She was here first and—"
"No, you can have it," she said. "I already read the scans online in Japanese."
"Wait, wha?" Basil said. "You can speak Japanese?"
"I've been learning. But, I'm really not very good at it," she responded with a self-deprecating laugh.
"Good enough to read manga? That's impressive," Sunny said.
"Manga's pretty basic..."
"But if you can read manga, you must've memorized over a thousand Kanji," Sunny said. "I still kind of shudder when I think about learning all those characters."
Yeah, I remember back then, Mari was teaching Sunny Kanji characters, but he always complained about how hard it was to memorize so many of them, and finally gave up after a few years.
"Learning all those Kanji wasn't the hardest part," Mincy tried to say humbly, averting her eyes. "It's the grammar that really confused me."
Basil, who didn't know any second language beyond a few classes in Spanish, came to feel distinctly inferior to his two multilingual friends. Even if Sunny didn't really get the Kanji reading part down.
"I'm going to check out some other books," Basil said, smiling, moving to another section of the bookstore.
"Okay," Sunny responded, then went back to discussing manga with Mincy.
Having caught up on all the books he loved from his childhood in the past couple of weeks, Basil had refreshed his memory on the names of his favorite authors. He kept a keen eye out for any new books released by those authors in the bookstore's mystery, thriller, science fiction, and fantasy sections. It didn't take long for him to find several new books published by the ones who were still alive.
(One of the books he'd enjoyed was Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. There was a character in that story, also named Basil, who had certain...tastes...that matched his own. Too bad Oscar Wilde was long dead. Can't expect any new books from him.)
Basil flipped through the new titles, delighted to find out what they had to offer.
Whenever he immersed himself in the writing of an author whom he loved, he always grew the feeling that he was returning to the home of an old friend. Even if the story and its characters were completely different, just being able to recognize that author's style of writing, that feeling of familiarity—it was wonderful in too many ways.
During those long years spent taking care of his sick grandma as he waited for Sunny to come back to him, the characters written by these authors were his lifeline, his only friends. Some of them kept dark secrets that reminded him of his own, and so he felt he had somebody who shared his burden.
Not all of those characters developed into better people; many plunged down paths of no return, delving into alcoholism, self-harm, hurting their friends, their families, betraying those closest to them, some ultimately ending their lives in gruesome murders and suicides...
He stopped that train of thought before it went any further.
Sunny came back for me at the end.
I'll always be grateful. I have to live to help him in whatever way I can.
The good thing was—most of the newer titles released by these authors weren't so dark. He found three books that he wanted to read and brought them along with him as he went back to Sunny and Mincy.
"Hey, Basil," Sunny spoke, "Mincy just told me that she wants to start a new club at school."
"Oh, that sounds great!" Basil replied. "What kind? Book club? Art club?"
"Manga club!" Mincy replied.
Ehhh...
Basil just smiled.
Manga was not exactly the most popular hobby of students back in Faraway High School. Sure, a few enjoyed it, but they were bookish types like himself who didn't advertise their hobby at a whole club. If any of them did start a manga club, they were certain to get laughed at by the bullies, who were much worse than the delinquents.
Maybe it'll be different here.
Thinking about it, Basil actually liked the idea. Mincy didn't think starting a manga club here would make her a laughingstock; she clearly held a lot of confidence in her hobby. Maybe she could popularize manga at their school. Then he wouldn't have to feel so self-conscious whenever he found himself...reading...
Okay, he'd still feel ridiculous self-conscious about getting caught reading that type of manga in public.
"Sounds like a great idea for a club!" Basil responded.
I wonder if Sunny would be able to make lots of new friends at this club?
Mmmm, but if he does, they probably won't be considered the popular ones...
Basil blinked as he felt an embarrassing heat coming up into his face.
Somehow, he'd convinced himself inside his thought labyrinth earlier today that Sunny would get to be one of the popular students, or at least he'd be able to hang out with the most popular groups at school. Having now heard Mincy's manga club idea, if Sunny planned on becoming a regular at such a club, he was going to be jock repellent.
I want Sunny to be well-liked, but it's more important to me that he gets to pursue the hobbies he enjoys.
"I just need a teacher to supervise the club," Mincy mentioned.
"Oh, my English teacher might be interested," Sunny said. "She told us today that manga was one of her favorite genres and that she'd read lots of amazing manga on par with her favorite books."
Wow, Sunny's English teacher is like that?
School in the city sure is different...
"What's her name?" Mincy asked.
"Ms. Kowalski," Sunny replied.
"Alright! I'll try to find her and ask her about starting a manga club."
"I can ask her for you," Sunny offered.
"Really? That'd be awesome. Thanks!"
Basil smiled along with her. Of course, if he had time, he'd join the manga club too.
"Anyway, I gotta get going," Mincy said. "I was just visiting this bookstore to check out some new manga, but I always read the scans in the original Japanese." She smiled cheekily. "See ya!"
"Bye," Sunny and Basil said as she left the store.
"Hey, I recognize those authors," Sunny said, looking at the books in Basil's arms.
"Oh—oh, yeah, I read their novels to you, didn't I?"
"Those were great! I wouldn't mind listening to what they've written recently," Sunny said, adding the latest volume of Tennis Crush on top of Basil's pile.
Basil blushed at the thought of them continuing their evening book reading sessions. "O—Of course!"
Sunny is being too nice to me. I don't know how to handle it.
I feel like I have to make it up to him somehow...maybe I'll try really, really hard to convince our old friends to forgive him.
Basil purchased all their new books with his credit card, committing to his memory that he now had a balance that he needed to pay off at the end of the month. It felt kind of bad to be using the money that his parents had lent him, though.
If I had a job, I'd feel much more deserving of this credit card.
Well...guess I should focus on school for now instead of finding a job.
After leaving the bookstore, they hung out for another hour around the mall, mostly window shopping, before they decided that the growing ache in their bellies needed to be addressed.
"I don't want to go back home just yet," Sunny said. "Let's try something from the food court first."
Basil didn't want to deny Sunny food, that would just be mean. "Mom might get angry at you if you're not hungry for dinner, though..."
"Nah, she'll get over it," Sunny said, smiling.
From the way Sunny smiled, Basil grew the strange feeling that Sunny had a very well prepared comeback planned when it came to an issue between him and his mom about food.
They went over to the food court, where the smell of deliciously greasy—nastily greasy—food brought Sunny to a counter selling Singaporean Fried Noodles. He chose a box of noodles with shrimp and veggies.
"That'll be eight seventy-four," the person behind the counter said.
Sunny turned towards Basil with an embarrassed smile. "Erhhh, I actually don't have enough change in my pockets..."
Basil took out his credit card. He tried to give a warning look, but just couldn't resist pleasing Sunny, and ended up smiling genuinely instead. "Here you go."
"Thanks so much. I'll have to pay you back later."
"It's okay, Sunny."
"I'll come up with the money somehow."
Once Sunny got his hands on the box of noodles, he devoured almost half of it in under two minutes. He appeared embarrassed as he turned his face at Basil, grease covering his lips. "Sorry."
Basil offered Sunny some tissues. "Here."
"No, I was wondering if you wanted to eat some," Sunny said. "You did buy it, you know."
"Well..."
Basil had never tried Singaporean Fried Noodles before, and seeing the way Sunny dug into it, he was starting to feel rather hungry. He nodded and started going over to the condiments section of the food court to obtain his own utensils when he suddenly found a pair of chopsticks holding up fried noodles to his face.
Sunny, you...
Sunny smiled. "Try it now!"
I have hygiene standards...
Sunny was not the best at maintaining good personal hygiene, he knew. He'd heard from Kel that Sunny apparently had the greasiest hair when he first came out of his house.
You seriously don't think I'd mind eating food off your chopsticks?
Only one explanation made sense.
After explaining how bad disposable utensils were for the environment the other day, Sunny must have gotten convinced. Sunny didn't want Basil to open the wrapping of a disposable fork that he'd just throw away quickly after using if Basil didn't like the noodles. Taking one bite from Sunny's own chopsticks was just an environmentally friendly taste test!
Against all reasonable hygiene, Basil accepted. He just couldn't refuse...
Sunny brought his chopsticks close to Basil's lips. Basil ate the batch of noodles off Sunny's chopsticks.
I'm eating food that Sunny...
"It's pretty good," Basil said with a smile. He liked the noodles' texture and salty taste.
"Want more?" Sunny asked.
"It's okay..."
"I really don't mind, you bought it for me!"
"Ah—ah...sorry, I meant should get a fork to eat the rest."
Basil went and got a fork, finishing the box of noodles with Sunny. He wished this scene didn't look so suspicious, two boys sharing the same box of noodles at the mall food court. Sunny didn't seem to mind. He probably just didn't know what others would think.
Basil's head was swimming in a sweet pool of ambrosia. He tried his best to hide it from Sunny.
***
"How was the first day of school?" Mrs. S asked.
"It was alright," Sunny replied. "I already got homework to do, though."
"You should get working on it tonight. I don't want to see you playing any video games until you're done."
"Okay, mom..."
Sunny's fork tilted a drumstick back and forth, a drumstick that he expressed a clear lack of interest in after today's food court snack.
"How about you, Basil?"
"School was okay," Basil replied. "I got along with one of my new classmates."
"That's great! How are they like?"
Do I really have to explain Marie to Mrs. S?
"Well, she's..."
***
At lunch the next day, Basil went to help Sunny out with his new courses. They went to the school study room and there Basil discovered that Sunny had forgotten nearly everything he learned about algebra and geometry.
"To isolate for x when it's in the numerator, you have to...Sunny, are you even listening?"
"Sorry."
Sunny's hand had moved unexpectedly close to Basil's face, and Sunny quickly retracted it. His working left eye observed the traces of bruise marks on Basil's cheeks intently. "Do those bruises still hurt?"
"Not much anymore."
The expression on Sunny's face worried Basil. It almost felt like Sunny was about to press his fingers against Basil's cheek to check whether or not those bruises actually didn't hurt.
"Sunny, pay attention," Basil spoke.
"Sorry, I just feel bad," Sunny said. "My eye doesn't hurt at all anymore but those marks on your face are still...very noticeable. I'm always afraid that you might get hurt really badly one day because—"
"Sunny," Basil grumbled, "these bruises can't compare to losing half your vision."
"I don't really care about losing my sight."
Basil rolled his eyes. This wasn't the first time they compared who did worse to the other.
But I think if you asked anybody, they'd say that losing an eye is one hundred percent worse.
The past few times they argued about it, Sunny would always come up with a weird scenario like "what if I gave you brain damage because I hit you so hard. You were out for longer than I was, that could be a sign of a concussion" at which point Basil would retort that he could've also done brain damage to Sunny since injury to the retina could carry over to the optic nerves. They'd been over so many scenarios by now that they both knew it was better to just drop it as soon as they started comparing.
"Anyway, back to algebra," Basil continued. "If x is in the numerator, you have to multiply both sides by the denominator—"
"I already got that part," Sunny responded. "My question is, what if x is in the denominator?"
"You don't have to worry about that yet. You'll learn that case later."
Sunny looked disappointed. "That just makes me feel like they're teaching us half the whole solution and expecting me to be satisfied somehow."
"Okay, but what's the answer?"
"x is...seven?"
"No, you forgot to subtract the three on the other side!"
The bell rang, signaling that it was time for afternoon classes. "Sorry, my next class is a bit far away," Basil said, packing up all his supplies. "Have to get going."
"I'll meet you after school," Sunny said with a smile.
Basil smiled back. "I'll wait for you if I'm done school first!"
On his way to his next class, Basil passed by a familiar crowd of students who gave off the air of the delinquents from Faraway, but less in the realm of outcasts and significantly more like judgmental bullies. He felt a pair of eyes glancing over him as he passed by.
"Hey, flower boy," a girl called out. "Wanna add some makeup to your face?"
What? I'm not interested in makeup...
Basil turned around and saw that girl with long wavy black hair and pronounced eye shadow makeup he'd seen yesterday. The boy with a buzz cut standing beside her laughed at her comment.
"It's free!" he advertised, pointing to a glitter bottle in her locker. "I know you'd like some mascara!"
Basil spun around and marched to his next class while trying to block out those words.
He supposed this was the part where people at school were going to start making his life hell.
I hope Sunny doesn't get bullied just for being seen around me.
A friendly voice suddenly spoke right beside him.
"Ignore those creeps," Marie said, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. "That girl used to be my friend, but she started hanging out with the wrong crowd around middle school, so I let go of her."
"...Thanks," Basil replied in a quiet voice. "It's okay. I'm used to being told comments like that—"
"That doesn't make bullying okay," Marie interrupted. "If she does that to you again and I'm around, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind."
Basil tried to smile. "I appreciate it."
"So who's that guy you were hanging out with in the study room at lunch today?" Marie asked.
"Oh, that was my friend," Basil said. "Maybe I'll introduce him—"
"You can keep him. I'm not into guys."
Basil raised his eyes.
"I'm sorry, I assume too much," Marie said, flushed with embarrassment. "If you meant you wanted to introduce him to me as a friend, then yeah, that'd be great!"
"Ummm...okay..."
"Sorry, the people I used to hang out with always tried to set me up on a date with this guy I hated," Marie went on. "But I know you wouldn't do that."
"I'm sorry they did that to you," Basil empathized.
"Don't worry, I've ditched all those losers."
She was probably not aware of it, but Basil wasn't as flustered by her comment about him "introducing" Sunny to her to go on a date as he was by her comment "You can keep him".
As he arrived to class and sat down in his usual seat beside Marie, he felt his face growing redder and redder.
"Wow, you turned into a tomato," Marie said. "They should really turn up the aircon in this room."
"Yeah, they should," Basil responded quietly.