Chapter 45: A Difficult Boy to Handle, Who Gets Upset If You Praise Him Inappropriately

A Difficult Boy to Handle, Who Gets Upset If You Praise Him Inappropriately

My outing with Tomohiro-kun ended with us eating dinner and then buying lumber, my main goal.

By the way, I bought the lumber from a lumber store a little ways from the shopping center. While the hardware store in the shopping center does have it, it's mostly plywood.

I'm not looking for DIY projects, I'm looking for wood for my crafts. That's why I'm particular about the type of wood and the grain.

Attention to detail elevates my work. God resides in the details.

...There's no way the one who bestowed divine inspiration on me could be found there. What a heathen.

I don't believe in some imaginary god whose existence I'm not sure exists, but in a higher being who bestowed divine inspiration and reincarnated me into this body, whose existence I'm not sure exists.

There are higher beings!

Hikari knows because she's been reborn!

Speaking of which, how did Miho-san get reborn? As far as I can remember, she didn't share my faith.

Although it bothers me a little, it's not that important, so I decide not to dwell on it too much. My time is limited, so I need to use it more wisely. I don't have time to look back on the past.

...You know what they call people who can't learn from the past? Fools. At least learn from experience.

Thinking about the difference between this genius and the natural genius who learns things without being taught at all, I get ready to go out with Satoshi-kun.

It's too much trouble to think about it, so I think I'll just wear the same outfit I did with Tomohiro-kun the other day.

If Mama were here, she could check my fashion, so I could come up with something new, but on a day like this, Mama's at a neighborhood association meeting.

Feeling a little resentful of Mama's cuteness, who tends to be called in from the preparation stage because her mere presence livens up the atmosphere, I leave the house dressed in an outfit that she's approved as cute.

I could ask my little sister, but right now she's still busy studying for her entrance exams.

I realized after I got home that maybe I should have just asked her to pay attention to me for a bit of a change of pace.

I'm not very good at fashion. I can choose safe color combinations and things like that, but trends are hard to come by.

Well, what can I do? There are no trends in woodworking!

I should have been praised for even being able to recognize color combinations!

I thought, getting angry at my lack of taste, and arrived at the meeting place seven minutes before the appointed time.

Satoshi-kun is smart, but he's stupidly and stubbornly always arrives five minutes early, so he'll be there in two minutes. When he's going to be late, he'll let me know in seconds, so since there's nothing on my phone, he'll probably be on time.

...Could he have overslept? Nah, it would be anything but that. There's no way Satoshi-kun, who is like the personification of a clock, would have overslept.

Hm, I could call out using Satoshi-kun's greeting.

Assuming Satoshi-kun will arrive exactly on time, the time since the last time is 41 hours and 36 minutes. The countdown stops at the first word of the greeting, "See you later," so if Satoshi-kun arrives exactly at the appointed time of 9 o'clock, it will be 24 seconds. After that, I can just adjust the number of seconds using my internal clock.

If I were to greet Satoshi-kun with seconds detail like him, I would have to check the time beforehand like this.

He can do this so nonchalantly, so it's really gross for Satoshi-kun.

But it's precisely because I do such gross things that I can get my point across to him. It's a way of showing that he's always in the back of my mind, that I can remember him this much whenever we meet.

It's really gross, and if a normal person did it, they'd be turned off and that would be the end of it.

He's been doing this since elementary school, so it shows how much Satoshi-kun likes me.

He doesn't have any other friends, after all.

When I think about it, I feel a little sorry for him.

"Good morning, Mashiro."

"Good morning, Satoshi-kun. It's been 41 hours, 36 minutes, and 23 seconds. Thank you for coming today, you're a little early."

While I was feeling sorry for him like that, Satoshi showed up just one second early, not keeping to the agreed time.

Before he could even tell me the time, I told him to overlap the time a little and we finished greeting. Satoshi-kun was trying to correct the number of seconds as usual, but his eyes widened in surprise that I had even mentioned the number of seconds.

It wasn't his glasses that were round, but his eyes. Even though Satoshi's actual glasses are glasses, they don't have a transformation function. It would be convenient if they could change shape. Though it will be just hard to use.

By the way, Satoshi-kun's eyes have been looking a little unhappy lately. He's always had trouble communicating and always looks grumpy, but it seems to be getting worse. According to my analysis, the glasses themselves don't fit properly. It's about time to change them.

"Well, let's hurry up, then. It's better to spend as long as possible looking at the exhibits."

"I'll give you the tickets first," I said, handing them over to Satoshi-kun, who I'd reserved online and printed at a convenience store, and when he tried to pay, I told him he could pay me back when he gets promoted.

Satoshi-kun will likely earn more than me in the future, so he can pay me back ten times the amount when he does.

I persuade him by saying this isn't a treat, it's an investment.

He still seems reluctant, so I ask, "Or will you have no intention of having anything to do with me once you graduate and become an adult? Will you not meet me once you get promoted? You will, right?"

Then I'll convince him it'll be fine. It's a bit pushy, but I'm acting on the assumption that this promise will make it harder for Satoshi-kun to leave me.

As a reincarnated person, I rarely have any honest, pure words. "Mama, you're cute!" is about all I can say.

I turned a blind eye to the fact that if I gave up on the squishy hand and focused on creating a work of art, no matter how hard Satoshi tried, I'd never lose out in income.

And when our eyes met, I smiled brightly. Forget the inconvenient things. That's an important thing to do if you want to live a carefree life.

That's fine, but aren't there some things you just shouldn't forget?

We went to a museum a little further away and paid the admission fee, which was half price because our school is affiliated with it. This was something we had to pay on the day, so it was Satoshi-kun's own pocket.

Of course, if he wanted the girl to pay for him in front of the attendant, I would pay, but there was no way Satoshi-kun would say that when he tried to pay for his ticket.

I thought about slapping him across the face with a wad of cash to make him understand, but I decided against it, since I didn't want him to awaken some weird sexual fetish.

...Why pay for admission when you already bought your ticket?

The admission fee is for the permanent exhibition, while the admission ticket is required for the special exhibition. There are combination tickets that let you enter both, but if you get a discount, it's cheaper to buy them separately.

I like to spend money, but I don't like to waste it, so I opted for the more economical option of buying them separately. This system might be confusing for people who aren't used to it.

Satoshi-kun and I both like to eat our favorite side dishes from the middle, so we'll start with the permanent exhibition. It's convenient because you can go in as many times as you like within the day.

Incidentally, it was my influence that got Satoshi-kun to start eating his favorite side dishes from the middle. He's so easily influenced, it's cute.

The reason I eat from the middle is to throw some weight behind the choice between first and last. It doesn't really mean anything.

Actually, when I was asked about it before, I said something along the lines of "Even when you're full, when you eat what you want, your digestion is activated and there's space in your stomach. By taking advantage of this phenomenon, commonly known as the "second stomach," you can feel less full," and he agreed.

You're smart, but you're easily fooled, Satoshi-kun.

...By the way, if you think about it this way, wouldn't eating what you like first suppress the activation of your digestion and reduce the amount of food you eat? I haven't looked into it, but there might be a paper on this somewhere.

Thinking about such trivial things, I entered the permanent exhibition, which I'm visiting for the third time. It's far from my house, so I don't come very often, but I have come several times because admission is half price.

Humans are weak to the word "bargain." I'm human before I'm reincarnated, so naturally I'm weak to bargains too. And a bonus. I can't help but feel happy when I get something extra.

I asked Satoshi-kun, who was going through the exhibits more easily than I expected, and knowing that he was a regular customer, I asked him to explain the exhibits to me.

Satoshi-kun was a little taken aback by the sudden and unreasonable request, but as a regular customer he must have remembered and studied the exhibits well. He gave me a more detailed and easier-to-understand explanation than the written explanation.

It was a bit frustrating.

In stark contrast to my frustration, I absorbed a ton of knowledge from Satoshi-kun, who seemed happy to be teaching me something.

I'm not the kind of kid who only responds with "hmm" or "I see" if the subject isn't of interest to them, but a good kid who listens carefully. I listened carefully without relying on the usual mainstream responses.

I try my best to avoid saying things like, "Oh, I didn't know about that amazing fetish, wow, is that so?" as I continue the conversation, making sure that Satoshi-kun, who is mainly explaining things, is enjoying it.

This kid is smart, so if I just praise him casually, he'll probably get upset. ...I feel like there's something strange mixed in, but it's probably just my imagination.

Around lunchtime, we left the permanent exhibition and headed for the special exhibition, also known as the Poison Exhibition. A variety of poisons are on display, from gaudy and poisonous ones to ones with a mineral-like beauty and very plain-looking ones. The extremely detailed and emphatically explained case record of the combination of tetrodotoxin and monkshood is enough to make you lose your appetite.

I didn't mind it too much though.

We spent a good two hours enjoying the exhibition, which isn't particularly large, before heading straight to the collaborative cafe.

The poisonous-looking menu, colored with food coloring or something, even includes puffer fish dishes, which is just crazy. Why would they explain the puffer fish poisoning incident and then try puffer fish dishes? It's crazy.

I love that kind of thing.

It was a sight to see Satoshi-kun staring at me with a complicated expression while I was eating puffer fish with the power of money.

When I offered to share some with him, he refused. I can understand that.