* * * *
One Month Later
“So, Maomi. Who exactly was that loser you saved?”
“Huh, I still don’t really know…”
It was at “Yamayama-chan” a month after that incident. I gave a half-hearted reply to my colleague and best friend, Tamaki, while snapping off the tip of a chicken wing and biting vertically into the base.
The crispy fried skin was fragrant. If I scraped the meat off the bone with my teeth, I could separate the meat and bone cleanly in my mouth.
“You can’t say you don’t know. After drinking with him for three weeks straight, you must have a sense of who he is.”
“Well, you see… Yuma’s life story is just so extreme.”
The hunched boy, Yuma, had only 389 yen in his possession that day. It was all in cash and the electronic money on his smartphone was at zero.
He didn’t have a credit card either. We sat side by side at the counter of “Yamayama-chan,” and with a beer in his hand, I asked him about his life.
He said he had a huge fight with his parents that two months ago and ran away from home. He ended up staying at a friend’s place in Southeast Asia, but he had little money.
He had a mountain of savings, but he was stubbornly living on next to nothing because if he used electronic payments, his parents would find his location and force him to come back to help with the family business.
Every day, he’d post “I’m starving” on social media, and a kind-hearted office worker named Miitan DM him, saying, “I can lend you money if you’re in trouble.”
I watched Yuma devour the food, barely drinking any alcohol, and sighed, thinking how full of plot holes in his story was.
“That loser! If he has no money, why doesn’t he just work instead of starving himself!?”
“I know, right? But… here, here, Tamaki, have a chicken wing.”
Putting aside what his family business was or what his “mountain of savings” was, I said the same thing Tamaki had shouted.
It was one thing to not get along with his parents, but since he had a place to stay, he should at least get a job. And Yuma declared.
“I’m too capable and can do almost anything. If I started working, I’m so sure I’d do too well and my parents would definitely find me. That’s why I didn’t want to work.”
“What’s that?! Is he an overly self-conscious chuunibyou?”
“I know, right?”
I was speechless for a moment. But if that’s what was going on in Yuma’s head, I decided it wasn’t my place to lightly deny it.
I concluded that he had a hard time and listened to his story, paid for his food, let him drink a little, and saw him off to his rundown apartment with a shared bathroom.
Yuma had gotten a meal, a drink, and someone to talk to all at once, and he was in a great mood. I felt like I had done a good deed and headed home, having made a young man in need smile.
I had no idea that Yuma had already secretly exchanged contact information with me.
The following week, I received a message from Yuma. I was surprised, but he said he’d treat me this time, so we decided to meet at “Yamayama-chan.” And Yuma’s appearance had become much more respectable.
His crisp linen shirt and black jeans were definitely freshly washed. His hair, while not styled, must have been cut at a barbershop. His sallow skin had regained its color, and Yuma looked like a model young man from every angle.
It was his unkempt hair and tattered sweatshirt that had hidden it all. It just goes to show how important grooming is.
“Maomi-chan, what do you think?”
“Yeah, you look great! Your hair and clothes are fresh. Did you start a work?”
“Nope. I just charged my electronic money and used it. You gave me the courage to do it.”
Oh, so he’s not worried about his parents finding him anymore? I didn’t pry. If he said I gave him the courage to move forward, that was more than enough to make me happy.
That one line made me feel so good that I let Yuma pay for the drinks. The following Friday, Yuma invited me to drink at “Yamayama-chan” for the third time. To my surprise, Yuma was wearing a pristine suit.
When I asked him why, he smiled shyly and said he had returned to work.
“I want to give this to you for encouraging me, Maomi. They’re beer vouchers.”
He took a small package out of his inner suit pocket.
“Where did you get these?”
“I bought them with my own money. You said last week you drank all the beer your brother gave you, right? There’s a lot, so you can drink with these from now on.”
“What?! A lot? Are you sure? Well, if you don’t mind, I’ll use these to buy beer for a day trip camping with my friends. Is that okay?”
“Uh, yeah, sure, that’s fine.”
“Yuma, thank you. It’s an honor that you’d give me a gift with money you worked hard for.”
The finely woven navy suit had a wonderful texture, and with his hair styled with hair product, Yuma looked strikingly dignified. If there were a guy like this at my company, the female employees would definitely be all a flutter.
With his confident demeanor, I could say Yuma had made a full return to society. I was genuinely relieved, thinking Yuma was okay now, and drained my mug of beer.
Yuma squinted as if he were looking at something dazzling.
“Hey, Maomi. You don’t see me as your brother anymore, do you?”
“What? Yuma is Yuma. Keita is Keita.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m a self-sufficient adult with a job and a steady income.”
“That’s right! Yuma, it’s so great you started working! It’s amazing that you made up with your parents too!”
I gave a small bump to his shoulder, and Yuma shrugged it off.
“Great and amazing, you’re treating me like a kid brother,” he grumbled.
Then he mumbled something in a voice so small I couldn’t hear.
“But I guess that’s one way to do it…”
“That’s right! You should come to the day camping trip. I’ll introduce you to everyone as a good guy, and we can have fun together! If it’s hard to make friends at work, you can find them outside.”
Yuma was helping with his family business but had put off the decision to take it over. It seemed he had no one at work to talk to casually.
His friend who was traveling in Southeast Asia still hadn’t returned, so Yuma had no one to talk to.
Yuma said, “I’m fine with just you, Maomi.”
but I was sure his world would change if he had more friends.
I believed that my final act of meddling would be to go from being a special benefactor to just one of his close friends.
“Hmm. Well, if your friends are okay with it, then sure.”
Yuma didn’t seem too keen, but taking the first step into a new world is always nerve-wracking. I was delighted and immediately got permission from my day camping group on LINE.
“I see, so the guest you were talking about on the group LINE, Yuma-kun, was that loser! Well, I get to meet him at the camp next week. I’m so excited to see what kind of person he is!”
“Yuma’s not a loser anymore. He’s good-looking, so everyone will be surprised, I’m sure.”
The mountain of chicken wings on the plate was gone during our long chat, and Tamaki said she had a show to watch, so the night ended at 8 PM.
I wanted to drink more, but I didn’t feel like pub crawling alone, so I waited for my train on the platform.
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