Charles and Richard Chapter 11

Richard couldn’t stand not thinking that way. Thinking that Charles liked someone the way Richard himself liked Charles made his heart ache. Did Charles get shy when he saw Jennifer, just like Richard did? Was his heart pounding so much that he couldn’t even look her properly in the eyes? Even though he could hear her laughter right beside him, could he not meet her gaze and only picture the dimples on her cheeks? If their hands accidentally brushed, did his heart drop with that much excitement? Did Charles, when he saw Jennifer, feel that way too? The more Richard thought about it, the more miserable he felt. But there was nothing he could do. Richard would have to just sit back and watch Charles and Jennifer hit it off. That was the only option…

Or was it really?

∞ ∞ ∞ 

As his track record thus far sufficiently proved, Richard had a rather tenacious personality. He was greatly disheartened by the news that Charles had a girl he liked. He was also shocked that the girl in question was a blonde. However, he soon decided, with his characteristic tenacity, to turn everything around and think positively. Charles was supposed to hate blondes, yet he liked Jennifer. Maybe Richard’s own blonde hair wasn’t so bad after all.

The most important thing was that he could observe the girl Charles liked. Charles must have been drawn to something about Jennifer. Richard resolved to discover that charm of Jennifer’s. Once he figured out what it was, the rest would be easy. He just had to copy it. Then Charles would surely like him back. Surely that would happen!

Based on that reasoning, Richard began to observe Jennifer closely. During English literature class and math class, Richard was busy glancing at Jennifer’s face more than the teacher’s. Jennifer was hardly any different from any other ordinary girl. Richard found watching her so boring that even innocent English literature and math became tedious, but as noted, the boy had a persistent nature.

He observed Jennifer carelessly all week long. The information he could glean just by staring at her during class was extremely limited. Just as Richard was about to be disheartened once more, a new week began and a tedious math class started. Richard watched Jennifer out of habit. Even her shimmering blonde hair, reaching down to her shoulder blades, was boring him to death. And then it happened. Jennifer, whom he had never once made eye contact with, suddenly turned her head and stared straight at Richard. Of course, Richard was startled.

That was all. Jennifer gazed intently at Richard for just a brief moment and then turned her head back. Richard’s heart thumped for no reason. He couldn’t concentrate on the class at all. He was left with nothing but the question of why Jennifer had looked at him. In the past, he would have dismissed it as a chance eye contact, but now things were different. He had been observing Jennifer deliberately. And with not exactly good intentions, either.

Had Jennifer noticed? What if she had? He still didn’t know anything about Jennifer. He hadn’t figured out why Charles liked Jennifer!

Richard spent the rest of the class in a semi-panic. Thanks to that, he didn’t even notice the other girls who were glancing at him. Contrary to Richard’s wishes, the bell eventually rang, signaling the end of class. Richard, almost frightened, stole a stiff glance at Jennifer. Jennifer didn’t look back at him again. She just packed her bag and left the classroom with her friends. Relieved, Richard slumped limply over his desk.

His relief was short-lived. Just as lunchtime was ending, Richard was walking to his locker alone when someone suddenly grabbed his arm from behind. Startled once more, Richard turned around to find Jennifer standing there. She looked at Richard with wide, unblinking eyes.

Jennifer: You’re Richard, right?

R: Uh, huh? Yeah… that’s right…

Jennifer: Hmm. Okay. Hi.

Jennifer said her piece and turned to leave. Richard was dumbfounded. He couldn’t even tell if what had just happened was a good thing or a bad thing.

The next day in English literature class, Richard was floored. Jennifer sat down next to him. Jennifer hadn’t even acknowledged him like she had the day before, yet Richard, all tensed up on his own, kept dropping his pen so ridiculously often that it was almost comical. Finally, the pen rolled all the way to Jennifer’s feet. Instead of just picking it up and handing it back to Richard, Jennifer wrote a note. She returned the pen along with the note. Richard secretly unfolded the note.

<Let’s have lunch together today.>

Reading the note, Richard sensed it immediately. This was a golden opportunity. Having lunch together would let him see other sides of Jennifer. He might even discover what had made Charles fall for her. A little while later, he sent the note back to Jennifer. It was scrawled with a simple <Okay>. In that process, there was one thing Richard had overlooked: even Charles had never had lunch alone with Jennifer. And what Charles knew about Jennifer was probably not much more than what Richard knew.

Richard remained completely oblivious. He was so absorbed in his own feelings and goals that he forgot to look around him once more. As he always did, he forgot to look again at Charles.

The boy and girl had lunch together on the tennis court stands. Richard observed Jennifer meticulously. Still, he saw nothing particularly special about her. No matter where or how he looked, Jennifer was just too ordinary. He simply couldn’t understand why Charles thought she was special. Throughout the lunch hour, he watched her every trivial move, but he couldn’t find a satisfactory answer. However, Jennifer seemed to like Richard well enough.

The conversation they had during lunch went roughly as follows:

Jennifer: Do you know you smile a lot more than before?

R: Me?

Jennifer: You’ve been talking more lately, too.

R: Have I?

Jennifer: Yeah, so a lot more girls like you now.

R: Me?

Jennifer: The girls all know you’ve been looking at me during every class.

R: They did?

Jennifer: When you look at me, the other girls look at you.

R: I didn’t know.

Jennifer: Want to have lunch together again tomorrow? Here.

R: Sure.

Jennifer: Let’s do that. I have to go meet my friends now. See you.

R: See you.

Being slow and insensitive to changes around him, Richard couldn’t even imagine it yet, but in any case, he was popular with the girls.

Actually, Richard was a rare handsome man. Until now, no one had made a big deal of it, so it was a fact Richard himself wasn’t even aware of. His facial features were harmoniously balanced. His long, clear-shaped eyes looked deeper and more vivid thanks to his eyebrows and eyelashes, which were a pale brownish color. His smooth nose bridge and straight nose tip fell into perfect alignment, and his healthy, rosy lips softly covered his white, neat teeth.

Thanks to having done ballet since he was young, Richard’s posture was always upright and graceful at all times. Because he played tennis and golf as well, his physique was more athletic than his peers, and since swimming was his hobby, his shoulders were well-developed and straight. His lustrous, fine blonde hair was neatly swept back with pomade, but when it got disheveled, that looked stylish in its own way.

The true value of Richard’s handsome face showed when he smiled. His vividly blue eyes, like squeezed-out paint, would fill his gently curving eye sockets, and his upturned mouth was hard to look away from. Even though he was still just a young boy. Until now, Richard had rarely smiled at school. But the moment he fell in love, everything changed. Richard’s transformation was truly dramatic. The only ones who hadn’t properly noticed it were Richard himself and Charles.