What Shine Likes
What Shine likes. What on earth am I doing right now? Why am I solving this pointless workbook? I mindlessly move my pen, breezing through various math problems in the blink of an eye. Sitting next to me, Shine is still groaning as she struggles with her work. I rest my chin on my hand and watch her. Her face, so deeply focused on something, looks incredibly cute. As I let out a soft chuckle and twirl my pen between my fingers, Amy takes my math workbook away.
"Are you all done, Jeff?"
"Of course." What does she take me for? Problems of this level are a piece of cake. As I look at Amy with a confident smile, she lets out a subtle grin and begins grading my answers. I naturally expect a flurry of checkmarks, but what falls over my solved problems is a torrential downpour of slashes. My eyes tremble. Watching the red rain patter down across the page, my mouth hangs open in a daze.
"This one, this one, and this one too." The words keep flowing from Amy's mouth. She finally stops her red pen at the very last problem. "Wrong."
"Huh...?" I ask back in a trembling voice. Really? Did I really get them wrong? I stare at the workbook in disbelief. The places where I wrote down what I thought were the exact correct answers—thick red slashes are drawn right through them. That reality strikes deep into my chest. Clutching my chest at the stinging sensation, I take back the workbook Amy hands to me.
"Did I... really get them wrong?"
"Yes. Solve them again."
I look at Amy with a skeptical face. She only nods and pats my head. Receiving the workbook, I slump down powerlessly.
"Jeff. Want me to teach you?" A voice comes from beside me. Shine is looking at me with a subtly mischievous grin. Her workbook isn't even half-solved yet.
"No...!" There's no way. I must have just made a temporary mistake. I erase all the answers with an eraser. Then, my pen moves once more. These are simple problems I can solve entirely with mental math. But what is this? Answers completely different from the ones I wrote earlier come to mind. Yes, I definitely just made a mistake before. My hand moves without hesitation. Looking at the problems I solved in an instant, I set my pen down.
"Jeff, you're not playing a prank, are you?" Amy says, looking at the speed I solved the problems in disbelief. I shake my head. I really solved them properly this time.
"It's true. I worked really hard," I say, hugging the workbook tightly. The fact that the answers I solved were being rejected was unbearably sorrowful.
Shine, who was watching me from beside me, looks down at her own workbook. A vast space with more than half remaining. She purses her lips tightly and starts moving her pen again.
"Shine, I'm all done." I look at her and give a victorious smile.
"It's too early to be smug," Amy says as she pulls the workbook out of my arms. I watch Amy with a nervous heart. The workbook in her hands. And my gaze shifts to Amy's face.
"Pfft...!" A laugh bursts from Amy's mouth.
"Amy?" I call her name in an anxious voice. Why is she laughing? Why?
"Look closely, Jeff." Amy opens the workbook. Then, she moves her chair next to me and picks up a pen. "This is wrong." This time, the red pen doesn't move. She kindly begins to show me how to solve the problem. I stare at it with confused eyes. I clearly know this. I know this method. Why? Why is it wrong?
"Okay..." I nod and calmly follow her lead. I write down the steps on paper that I would have normally done in my head to find the answer. The resulting answer is a number far off from the one I got through mental math. With trembling hands, I touch the paper with the steps written on it.
"This is..."
"I'll teach you, Jeff." As I hold the paper in confusion, Shine, who has finished all of her problems, approaches me.
"Are you all done too, Shine?"
"Yep." Shine nods with a confident expression. I also shift my gaze to look at her workbook. A page with only clean answers written on it. It seemed she had also solved the problems using mental math.
"Let's see." I look at Amy and Shine. With a sense of surely not, and holding onto a sliver of hope. I got them wrong—me, of all people—so there's no way Shine got them all right, right? Right? I'm not the one who's weird here.
"Oh~" Amy lets out an exclamation of admiration. My mouth hangs wide open. Because on Shine's workbook, perfect circles keep falling. At that unbelievable fact, something wells up in my eyes.
"They're all correct?"
"How's that?"
"Amazing. You did really well." Amy praises Shine. Receiving Amy's praise with a beaming face, Shine looks to be in a great mood. She proudly shows off her workbook. Looking at the correct answers written on it, I begin to compare them with the answers written in my workbook. None. There are none. Not a single correct answer. I got them all wrong. And twice at that.
"Ugh..." My clenched fists tremble. An unbearable sorrow rushes over me. Why did I get them wrong? A tear rolls down my cheek, its hot warmth cooling as it leaves a trail behind.
"Jeff, are you crying?" Shine asks worriedly. I shake my head and wipe my cheek with my hand. I'm not crying. Crying over something like this is just too pathetic.
"I'm... not crying...!" I huff, calming my rapidly rising and falling chest as I hide my tears.
"Was it too difficult?" Amy asks worriedly. She pulls a handkerchief from her pocket and offers it to me. I blankly accept her touch. The gently moving handkerchief lightly presses against the corners of my eyes. Once the handkerchief is gone, my blurry vision returns to normal.
"No!" It's not hard. Really. I gulp and lift my pen once more.
"I'll teach you, Jeff." Shine pulls her chair next to me and sits close.
"I can do it on my own."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Shine gives a small smile at my rejection and stands up from her seat.
"Amy, I'm all done, so I want to have some juice and snacks." I snap my head up at Shine's words. Amy, who had been sitting and watching me solve the problems, gets up at Shine's words and begins to prepare snacks and drinks. A sense of urgency washes over me. Me too. I want to eat some too! My mind is in a whirl. The problems I had easily solved with mental math now loom before me like a massive wall. It feels like standing before a giant barrier. I can't see any way to get over it. But I don't stop.
"Why isn't it working?" Perhaps due to my impatience, my thoughts begin to slip out of my mouth. Shine, who is drinking juice and eating snacks next to the desk where I am struggling with the problems, smiles mischievously.
"I'll teach you."
"No." I refuse to the end. I can definitely solve it on my own. Normally, these problems wouldn't even take ten seconds each. My face heats up. My tongue goes dry. The rustling of snack bags from beside me. The sound of Shine sipping her juice through a straw. It all rings clearly in my ears. My vision blurs once again.
"Ugh..." My small hands cover the workbook. Why can't I solve them?
"I'll help you." When did she get so close? Shine, who has dragged her chair over to sit right next to me, grabs my arm. I nod. The tears that had gathered in my eyes begin to disappear.
"This goes like this..." With each explanation she gives, the blocking wall crumbles in an instant. My eyes widen. This? Like this? Really this easily? The problems are solved so effortlessly. But before Shine finishes speaking, if I try to move on to the next problem, a giant wall blocks my path.
"Jeff. I'm still explaining this one."
"Uh-huh..." I nod obediently.
"You two really get along well." Amy, watching us from the front, wears a pleased smile. I diligently move my pen to solve the problems. But without Shine's explanation, I can't solve them. It is a truly strange feeling.
"All done...!" I solved the last problem. Feeling a huge sense of liberation and achievement, I raise my hands high. The feeling is so refreshing that a laugh even escapes me.
"All done!" Shine, sitting next to me, moves in the exact same way. We raise our hands high and look at each other. Bright smiles appear on both of our faces.
"Thanks, Shine!" I wouldn't have been able to solve them without her. I truly feel that way.
"Jeff, you need me." I nod at her words.
"Let's see." Amy, who was watching us, picks up the workbook. I watch the workbook Amy is grading with a nervous heart. Just then, Shine gently wraps her hand around my hand, which is trembling with anxiety. I feel a warm heat. Surprised, I look at Shine, and she smiles softly. It is as if she is telling me to trust her. I gain confidence from that smile. The trembling vanishes in an instant. I wait for the grading with a confident expression.
"Wow~" Amy finishes grading with a soft exclamation. The result is all correct. Receiving the graded results, I immediately shout to Amy.
"I want snacks too!" Shine and I run to the dining table where the snacks are placed. Our small footsteps echo in the room. The workbook fading behind us has long been erased from my mind. Sitting at the table, I stuff my mouth full of delicious snacks. The crispy, crumbling snacks wrap around the tip of my tongue. A festival of sweet sugar. The following wave of juice softens the dry snacks and guides them down my throat.
"Delicious!" It was while I was eating the snacks so deliciously. Amy seemed to ponder something for a moment, then asked us a question.
"When is your birthday?"
"Birthday...?" Shine tilts her head and asks back.
"Your birthday. I mean, the date you were born." At Amy's words, Shine and I look at each other. I didn't know the date Shine was born. The same went for me. Born in District 23, I couldn't know exactly when I was born.
"I don't know."
"Me neither."
"Hmm..." At our answers, Amy mumbles slightly. It seems she has something she wants to say.