🐱 Okada Shota
That day, Shin-ichi's mother had been busy since the morning and couldn't make him lunch, so she told him to buy it from the school store. As Shin-ichi picked up his lunch and was heading back to the classroom, he bumped into his classmate Okada Shota in the hallway. He had a well-proportioned physique, and was a talented athlete who could run the 100 meters in under 11 seconds and often received certificates in the tennis club. Come to think of it, Shota always eats his lunch from the school store. The two of them went back to the classroom and ate their lunch together at a desk by the window.
They attend Rakuraku Gakuen, a private junior and senior high school located in the eastern part of Fukuyama City. For Shin-ichi, who lives in Onomichi, commuting by train for 40 minutes is a difficult task. Shota, however, commutes by Shinkansen from Hiroshima City. In terms of both the time it takes and the cost, it's much more difficult than Shin-ichi's. Shin-ichi had been wanting to ask Shota about it directly for some time. Just then, the conversation turned to commuting to school.
"It's no big deal."
Shota answered nonchalantly. Unlike Shin-ichi, Shota is an optimistic person about everything. Rather than being optimistic, it might be better to say that he doesn't worry too much about anything. He might make mistakes, but he can get away with it by sticking out his tongue and bowing his head. From Shin-ichi's perspective, it's a personality that he truly envies. However, from Shota's perspective, it seemed that Shin-ichi's thoughtful and careful actions were something he envied instead.
"Does it take a while to get to school?"
"Maybe it's about the time it takes for a tiebreaker tennis match."
"I don't know much about tennis. How long is the Shinkansen ride?"
"Maybe about 30 or 40 minutes."
"That's shorter than I thought. Are you going to sleep there?"
"Not at all. I'll probably oversleep and end up in Okayama. Well, I once missed my train on the way back and ended up in Hakata."
"So you won't be able to get home that day?"
"Not at all. I got there around 11 o'clock, though. That's fun in its own way."
"Really? But it's hard to stay awake the whole time."
"Because I read while listening to my Walkman, I don't get sleepy."
"Reading? That's amazing!"
Shota stuck out his tongue in triumph and said,
"Hahaha, I read manga. I've read the entire Kochikame and Dragon Ball series."
"Oh really? But paying for train fare and manga must be a pain, right?"
"My parents are sending me to this school to train me as a dentist, so they'll pay that much."
"That sounds great, I'd love to be in that position. Where in Hiroshima do you live?"
"A place called Rakurakuen."
"Rakurakuen sounds similar to our school."
"There used to be an amusement park with that name."
"It's not there anymore?"
"It closed down a while ago. Apparently, it used to have roller coasters and a planetarium, and it was really popular."
"Apparently, you've never been there?"
"Yeah. It closed down when I was a baby."
"That's a shame."
"Not really. Do you know the Seven Wonders of Hiroshima?"
"No, I don't."
"One of them is the mystery of Rakurakuen Amusement Park."
"What mystery is that?"
"I don't know. That's the mystery."
"Huh?"
"Is it a mystery why it closed down before the postwar theme park boom, even though it was open before the war?"
"Mystery? You say? Are the Seven Wonders really true?"
"Yes, they are."
"So, what are the other six?"
"I don't know. I think I heard about it, but I forgot. Nowadays, with the Famicom, we don't need amusement parks. Have you finished the Super Mario game you were talking about the other day?"
"Yeah, I've already beaten it so many times I sold the cartridge."
"It was hard dodging the fire Bowser spewed, right?"
"It wasn't that hard. But I prefer RPGs to action games, so I'm playing Ultima III right now."
"What's it like?"
"It's like the original Dragon Quest."
"Huh?"
"Don't you play role-playing games?"
"Looking at strategy guides and figuring things out is too much of a pain."
"But you said you go to a cram school near the station. Isn't it great to have a textbook in hand?"
"Well, my parents told me to go, so I had no choice..."
Shota said, scratching his head. Generally, Shota doesn't like complicated things. He's a member of the tennis club, but his favorite event is apparently the 100-meter sprint. He says he likes sports where the rules are simple and the result is clear at a glance.
"So you don't really want to go?"
"Yeah. Dental school doesn't really require as good grades as medical school."
"I see."
Shota, who was looking out at the schoolyard, suddenly stood up.
"The tennis court's free. I'm going to go play a bit."
With that, he grabbed his racket bag that was leaning against the back of the classroom and ran out.
