Episode 4.
After giving her a piggyback, Sean even picked up Sena’s books for her.
“Sorry, I must be heavy. I ate… a lot this morning.”
She had eaten fifteen pieces of fried tofu sushi, after all.
‘I should have stopped at ten…’
But it was too late for regrets now.
“I suppose you’d need to. To charge around like a bison.”
“A bison?!”
“I heard you won again today. That shooting contest with the boys.”
“Ah… yeah.”
So he was listening. Sena’s cheeks grew warm, perhaps from the sunlight, or perhaps from something else.
Maybe because his ‘priest-like’ image was so fixed in her mind, Sena had unconsciously assumed Sean Frost would be frail. But being carried on his back, he felt surprisingly sturdy.
…But does he know my name?
Her mouth operated faster than her thoughts.
“Knock knock.”
“…Who’s there?”
“It’s… Sena!”
The reply came a moment later.
“I know. Sena Lee Cruz.”
He knows? Really? Her heart thumped, partly from surprise.
Hearing her full name, formed by Sean Frost’s voice, felt strangely unfamiliar, enough to be disconcerting.
How does he even know my middle name?
“How could I not know?”
“You never asked for my name!”
“I hear your name often enough without asking.”
“…But the kids don’t really call me by my name that much…”
Having been at the same school since kindergarten, Sena had long been known to her friends more by the nickname ‘Spring’ than her real name. Even the principal affectionately called her ‘my Spring’.
Even so, what felt much more important to Sena was that the channel for conversation had finally opened.
“It’s only a few of the older kids who are like that. Most are nice, really.”
Actually, they’re probably all just full of the desire to be friends with you? Sena swallowed the rest of her words.
“Is that so.”
Even though his reply was just flat, Sena felt inexplicably happy for some reason. But that feeling was short-lived.
“I’ve never seen anyone juggle oranges back in New York.”
“……”
He really does see us as monkeys. Her joy evaporated instantly.
“I saw you managing up to five.”
“…You saw that?”
Inevitably, Sena was also a member of Elmir Westlake. That meant she was an ordinary fourth-grader who couldn’t resist a “I bet you can’t do this!” challenge. Finding it easier than expected, she had managed to keep five oranges in the air at once. She truly hadn’t known Sean Frost was watching, though.
“Can you do it? Juggling?”
“Haven’t tried. Not usually.”
“You know the orange tree in front of the library? It’s okay to pick them from there. Everyone does.”
“……”
And they’re not even store-bought? Sean was momentarily speechless.
The administration building housing the infirmary was now visible just ahead.
“Usually, the ones at the bottom get picked quickly, so only the top ones are left later. When that happens, sometimes the middle schoolers passing by pick them and share them with the younger kids.”
“How friendly.”
They had arrived. Sean’s steps halted in front of the infirmary. He bent his knee to let Sena down.
“Ah, thank you…”
Leaning against the door with one hand, Sena managed a smile for him.
“I’ll pay you back for sure.”
“No need. Just focus on getting better.”
Sean turned away. His retreating back felt deliberately cold. But Sena couldn’t tear her eyes away until his figure had completely disappeared.
And so, the next day.
Sena approached the group of fifth-grade boys lounging by the lockers. They were the same boys who had told the tasteless joke behind Sean’s back last time.
SLAM.
Sena’s hand came down hard on the locker next to them.
“…What do you want?”
The blond boy closest to her reacted first. His narrow blue eyes scanned her.
For Sena, it didn’t particularly matter which two of the four had been the main instigators of the unpleasant joke. It was clear the entire group was the problem.
Sena wasn’t smiling. A rare occurrence. Her voice, slipping through her gritted teeth, was soft yet firm.
“Be polite. Be polite.”
“I heard Spring confronted some fifth-graders at the lockers.”
Sean’s hand, underlining a sentence in his book, stopped abruptly. The hum of the vending machine mixed with the girls’ conversation.
“Why!? Which fifth-graders?”
“Nathan Stewart. Luckily, one of that group is Chloe’s cousin. I think they let it slide.”
Nathan Stewart. Sean knew who he was. It was impossible not to.
“Did you hear? That halfie transfer student…”
The minor uproar over Sena’s indignation was trivial to Sean. That wasn’t what truly grated on people.
Maybe to Sena Cruz, who loved flower gardens and was named ‘Spring’, everything seemed as pure and beautiful as spring blossoms. But Sean was gradually realizing that even this place called ‘California’, this so-called paradise, was still populated by the same kinds of people.
“He’s got that ‘good at eating rice’ look.”
To Eurasian eyes, he might resemble a white person, but in the eyes of white people, he was just Asian. In the end, it meant being neither one nor the other.
Sean was already acutely aware of that fact.
“What did she confront them about, anyway?”
“Not sure. I just heard she told them to be polite.”
With that, the girls left the library. Although it wasn’t a designated quiet zone, the space was engulfed in a dry silence.
“……”
Don’t tell me…
Sean’s brow furrowed slightly. Don’t tell me she got involved because of me?
Sean soon set his pen down on his book. He rested his elbows on the desk, lost in thought for a moment, until a boisterous noise was carried in on the breeze through the open window.
“Wait, wait! Spring, we surrender!”
A boy was skillfully drawing everyone’s attention. Sean was no exception.
From his spot on the second floor, Sean turned his head toward the window and spotted a group of kids gathered on the lawn. Last time, it was the high jump; this time, it was the horizontal bar, without any mats.
Pale yellow sunlight poured down over the green lawn and the children’s heads. September in California was absurdly warm compared to New York. There was a reason people endured the high taxes, always citing ‘the weather’.
Sean’s gaze landed on Sena’s face as she approached the group. Wearing the same orange gym shorts under her skirt, Sena had a white hair tie in her mouth. A vanilla-colored cardigan was tied around her waist.
Sweeping her black hair up with both hands, Sena smiled confidently. She pulled the hair tie from her mouth with her fingers and tied her hair back tightly in one smooth motion. Wispy strands fluttered in the breeze, and her white nape shone in the sunlight.
When she smiled widely, her blue eyes crinkling with laughter, the sunlight caught her long eyelashes.
Sean, chin resting on his hand, found his gaze stubbornly fixed on Sena, bathed in the daylight.
With her hair tied back, Sena strode purposefully towards the horizontal bar. The event seemed to be limbo.
“……”
The bar was set so low that Sena had to bend her knees almost at a right angle. Her back went down as if lying flat.
Can she even do that?
Sena Lee Cruz had a knack for capturing Sean’s attention in the most varied ways. And not just through physical activities like this.
“The history test was way too hard!! Why do they have to make it so difficult?”
“It’s because someone always gets a perfect score.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Spring got a perfect score on this one too, you know.”
“Wow.”
Surprisingly, the leader of the ‘oranges’ was also academically excellent. To the point where everyone assumed she’d probably end up at a top medical school one day.
“Watch your nose, your nose!”
Even from this distance, Sean felt he could almost hear Sena holding her breath. She tilted her head back. The bar came perilously close to her upright nose without touching it.
Taking measured steps, she moved forward. Her head slid smoothly under the bar.
She did it…
Sean read the shape of the words on her lips.
“I did it!!”
Sena beamed, bouncing gleefully on the spot.
Sean could now easily picture the conclusion of the high jump event he had only glimpsed while passing by in a car. Sena Lee Cruz must have smiled just like that, cheered just like that.
“Pay up the oranges!”
Sena thrust her hand out, the one she had stretched triumphantly to the sky. The reward for this limbo decider seemed to be oranges. Those damned oranges…
Eventually, Sean looked away. The scene outside the window was still bustling, but Sean focused solely on his book in the ensuing quiet.
But after he’d turned a few pages, a clatter of loud footsteps came rushing up the central staircase.
“Ah, Sean! There you are!”
