Charles and Richard – Chapter 6

Author: nicotine

When the weekend came, Richard showed up at the house with his skateboard.

R: Let’s go play at the park. We can throw the frisbee with Cherry, too!

C: No. I have to do homework.

Richard began showing up on the way to school as well. His black, gleaming sedan pulled up in front of Charles, who was waiting for the school bus.

R: Let’s go to school together!

C: No. I’m taking the bus.

When Cherry kept clinging only to his leg, Richard pushed the dog’s head away and directed him toward Charles.

R: Cherry, go to Charlie. Quick!

Cherry: Woof! Woof!

C: ….

Cherry did not go to Charles, and Charles, who had been silently staring at Cherry, suddenly stood up and went straight up to his room.

Despite repeated setbacks, Richard’s attempts continued tenaciously. He did not tire easily in the face of constant rejection. On the contrary, the one who tired first was Charles. He could not understand Richard, who had suddenly turned so active and forward.

As soon as he got home, Richard was always waiting for him. Stuck right to his side, he chattered incessantly about whether they should do this or that. Even when Charles managed to shake him off, at school too, if they happened to cross paths, Richard would loudly greet him and pester him to eat lunch together. Charles found Richard, who was suddenly showing interest in him and trying to get close, agonizing, but more than anything, it annoyed him.

In the end, Charles exploded. At dinnertime, when Richard kept scooping beans off his own plate and giving them to Charles, saying, “It’s because Charlie likes them,” Charles flared up in anger.

C: I told you I hate beans!

Richard wore a shocked expression.

R: You hated beans?

This time, Charles was shocked.

C: It’s been years that you’ve been hanging around my house and you still didn’t know that?

Mother: Charlie, lower your voice. Richie, you should eat what’s on your own plate.

And then there was a glacial silence. For Charles and Richard, that is; the parents were still amiable, and Cherry, drooling with his head on Richard’s thigh, was peaceful as well.

Richard’s incomprehensible goodwill continued regardless of Charles’s fury. Moreover, Charles, who was accustomed to receiving love lavished upon him without reservation, eventually grew accustomed to Richard’s attention as well. Ultimately, he began going home together with Richard, who waited for him on the way home from school, and a few days later, they started going to school together too, and the return route where Charles’s father, Charles, and Richard would close up the grocery store together also became familiar.

Before long, he was also hanging around Richard at school. “Hanging around” is not the right word. It was more like Charles quietly tolerated Richard hanging around him. In any case, Richard seamlessly blended into Charles and Charles’s group. He ate lunch with them and also found out that he shared classes with a few of Charles’s friends. Richard would also go over to Charles’s friends’ houses to hang out and sometimes eat dinner there.

As a result of painstakingly following the three sisters’ advice, it seemed Richard had carved out a path to developing into best friends with Charles. But it soon became clear that this method was also wrong. Their actions were like standing in front of a dead-end alley and believing that if they just stared hard enough at it, the wall would crumble someday. However, it was Richard who came to the realization a little sooner. Richard realized he was standing in a dead-end alley after the following incident.

∞ ∞ ∞

Richard, who quickly became close with Charles’s friends, soon invited all of them to his mansion. Two of them even lived in the same neighborhood as Richard. The boys planned a pool party. Charles had a class that ended late and arrived at their lunch table a little late, and only caught up with the topic some time after. By then, the boys had already decided on everything they were going to do and play at Richard’s pool.

C: You’re having a party at Richard’s house?

R: Yeah. A pool party. We all decided to hang out together. You’re coming too, right?

Charles’s face turned pale for a brief moment. He suddenly stared at Richard with a very unfamiliar expression, then shrugged his shoulders and abruptly started wolfing down the spaghetti on his tray. The topic quickly returned to the pool party, but Richard could not forget the expression he had just seen on Charles’s face. He had a feeling something was wrong, but he couldn’t tell what.

The pool party was held that very weekend. As the weather had turned chilly before they knew it, they held the party in the mansion’s indoor pool instead of the outdoor one. With the boys inviting a few girls they knew, the party got a bit more bustling. For the first time, Richard felt at ease even in his own mansion. He had always sat up straight at both the mansion and at school, and had never raised his voice or run around carelessly. But now, he was as comfortable as if he were at Charles’s house.

In the pool, where he had only ever dutifully studied swimming, he splashed around, played water polo, and ate snacks while floating on a tube. The servants, as they did for his friends, filled Richard’s hot chocolate to the brim with marshmallows. It was something that would never have been allowed under normal circumstances with his strictly managed diet, but that day was an exception. In every respect, it was as free as Charles’s house. Yes. In every respect, just like Charles’s house… It was then that Richard suddenly thought of Charles, whom he had momentarily forgotten while absorbed in the party. Charles’s pale face came to mind as well.

Richard suddenly lifted his head and looked around for Charles.

Charles was sitting perched on the edge of the pool with a tube around his waist, splashing the water only with his feet. Richard quickly smacked away a beach ball flying straight at his face, and from the middle of his friends, shouted out to Charles.

R: Charlie! What are you doing over there by yourself?

Charles paused with his mouth shut for a moment, then soon answered in a loud voice.

C: I just got out to go to the bathroom for a bit.

Ah, the bathroom. Richard was relieved. Charles took off the tube and tossed it toward one of the heads floating in the pool. He went to the bathroom, and as Charles disappeared from his sight, Richard soon forgot about him. When he thought of Charles again, he could not find him anywhere in the mansion. Richard realized Charles had gone home. The feeling he had then was something difficult to put into words.

No matter how much he thought about it, his mind was uneasy. Richard waited only for the party to end and then dashed over to Charles’s house. Charles was sitting on the front step of the house, brushing Cherry’s fur. The moment Cherry spotted Richard, he shot up and ran over. Charles, holding the dog brush in his hand, stared blankly at Richard. Richard, at a loss, pushed Cherry away, but there was nothing much he could do about the large dog bounding at him in delight. Charles, resting his chin on his knee, watched the scene and then spoke.

C: Richard.

R: Yeah?

C: What do you like about Emily?

Since it was extremely rare for Charles to speak first, Richard didn’t even wonder why he was asking such a thing. He answered straight away.

R: Emily and I click. And she likes Spider-Man like I do, and she knows a ton of things I don’t.

C: Then what about Emma?

R: I don’t know. Just because? She used to play with Cherry a lot with me. We always bathed him together every day, too. It was fun.

C: What did you like about Christine?

R: Christine is the best. Playing with that sister is super fun. She always sprays whipped cream into my mouth.

C: What do you like most about Mom and Dad?

R: Just. Because they’re Mom and Dad?

C: What about Cherry?