The Day After the Raincoat
The morning after the raincoat incident. Stepping into the cafeteria with Amy, we spotted Rain. She was sitting at a wide table, eating her breakfast.
"Ah!" The moment our eyes met, Rain jumped up from her seat and greeted me. "Morning!"
A grain of rice clung to the corner of her mouth, catching the light. She smiled as if she had completely forgotten about running away in tears yesterday. I decided not to bring it up. When I gave her a small wave, her smile grew even wider.
"Come over here!" At Rain's beckoning, Amy led us toward her table. She was sitting alone. The men who had seemed to be her teammates yesterday were nowhere to be seen.
"Where are your teammates?"
"They're all on vacation except for me." Shine and I sat down across from her.
"Pork cutlet again today?" "Yes, please." Shine and I nodded. Amy immediately walked off to order our food. Silence fell as Rain, Shine, and I exchanged glances. Then, Shine spoke up.
"Rain." "Yeah?" "Who is Hughes?"
At Shine's question, Rain's face instantly flushed bright red. Her eyes darted around frantically. Remembering yesterday's events, she was clearly flustered.
"He's... he's my teammate?" "Teammate?" "Yeah..." "Do you always go looking for your teammates when you cry?"
At Shine's innocent question, tears welled up in Rain's eyes. Her face was dyed as red as a ripe tomato.
"I... I didn't cry." "I see." Shine fell silent, seemingly losing interest. Rain hung her head, casting tentative glances at us. A strange silence lingered until Amy returned.
Shine and I stuffed our mouths with the pork cutlet combo Amy brought over. A blissful smile spread across my face at the crispy texture bursting in my mouth. Once we finished eating, we headed straight to the gym. Rain followed us, as if she had business there too.
"Rain." "Yeah." "Did you do your stretches?" "Ah... no, I didn't..." "I thought you wanted to grow taller." "Well... yeah..."
Shine spoke to Rain. For some reason, it looked like Rain was getting scolded by Shine. Rain kept her head bowed like a child who had done something wrong. Shine nodded and spoke.
"We haven't done ours either, so let's do them together later." Shine grabbed my hand as she spoke, giving me a look that urged me to agree. I nodded with an awkward smile.
"You drank your milk, right?" "Yeah." "Good girl." Shine praised Rain. Was drinking a bit of milk really worth getting praised over? For some reason, a pang of jealousy hit me. I quickly squeezed myself between Shine and Rain. Both of their eyes turned to me.
"Jeff?" I reached out, grabbed both of their arms, and bolted toward the gym. The two of them let themselves be dragged along without a fight. Behind us, Amy's soft laughter drifted through the air. Running down the hallway like that, the three of us soon arrived at the gym.
Inside the gym, Victor was waiting for us as always. He looked at us with a tired face and spoke.
"Three of you today?" "Hello, Victor!" "Hello, Rain. Looks like you made some friends."
Rain looked back at us at Victor's words, her expression turning complicated. Amy, who arrived a moment later, led us over to Victor. Shine looked like she wanted to play with the ball, but she didn't object to Amy's guidance.
"What are we doing today?" "Same as yesterday." "Yesterday's?" "Yeah. Make sure you can maintain that flow consistently."
With those words, Victor flipped open a small book. I immediately raised my hand. A blue electromagnetic field crackled over my palm. I knew the trick now. The currents dancing at my fingertips began to repeat a steady, rhythmic pattern, just like yesterday.
"Like this?" "Stop, then do it again." I stopped channeling my ability as Victor instructed. The blue current vanished instantly. The moment I confirmed the sparks were gone from my hand, I drew upon my power once more.
Crackle! Blue light flared up instantly. I focused my mind, trying to replicate the same flow as before. The wild, erratic sparks gradually settled down, eventually repeating the same steady rhythm.
"Too slow." I pouted at Victor's critique. He spoke without even looking up from his book. Was he even watching? As I stared up at him in doubt, he closed the book and raised his hand.
"This is how you do it." Crackle! Blue electricity instantly surged around Victor's hand. Unlike mine, his current flowed in a perfectly steady, controlled rhythm from the very start. "With some practice, you can even do this." As Victor spoke, he altered the flow of the electricity. The zigzagging currents, reminiscent of falling lightning, suddenly stretched out into a perfectly straight line.
I nodded blankly. I understood what Victor was explaining in theory, but applying my ability like him seemed like it would require a massive amount of practice. Whining inwardly, I kept practicing.
"It's too hard..." A constant stream of complaints escaped my lips. I turned my gaze to Shine. She was sitting on a bench, swinging her legs, doing absolutely nothing.
"Is it hard?" "Yeah..." I nodded at Shine's question. "Victor. Jeff says it's hard." "Of course it's hard. You can't be perfect from the start." "But if she doesn't finish, we can't play with the ball." "I never said she had to master it today." "Then how much longer does she have to do it?" "Hmm..."
Shine pressed. At her question, Victor checked his wristwatch before speaking. "An hour." "That long?" "Fine, thirty minutes." The time was drastically cut down.
"Jeff, you only have to practice for thirty minutes." Shine smiled, shaking my hand. I stared blankly at Victor. He scratched the back of his head and flipped his book open again. I practiced my ability for thirty minutes just as he said. Bit by bit, though agonizingly slow, I could feel my control over the power improving, gradually moving closer to what Victor had demonstrated.
"Done!" Checking the time, I immediately jumped up and ran to the corner. The thirty minutes I promised Victor were up. That meant it was time to play. In the corner sat the rubber ball Shine and I always played with. It looked like no one else had touched it. Picking up the ball, I looked around. Amy was talking to Victor as usual. I turned my head the other way to look for Rain. She was standing in front of a machine with numerous targets floating on it.
"Rain!" Absorbed in whatever she was doing, Rain flinched and spun around at my call. The moment our eyes met, I waved my hand and shouted, "Let's play together!"
Rain didn't answer. Watching her hesitate, I lifted the ball high above my head. "Let's play catch!"
Rain fell into deep thought. A subtle smile played on her lips, and the corners of her mouth twitched. For some reason, she seemed too embarrassed to answer. I tossed the ball toward her. "Catch!"
Bounce, bounce. The ball hit the floor, bounced a few times, and rolled over to Rain. It stopped right at her feet. In the end, she picked it up. A bright smile spread across my face. "I... I guess I can play with you for a bit?" Rain walked over to me, holding the ball as if she were doing me a massive favor.
Shine, Rain, and I formed a triangle. It was just a simple game of throwing a ball back and forth, but the three of us had an incredibly fun time. The smiles never left our faces. After running around and playing for a while, we decided to take a break. We sat side by side on a soft mat, catching our breath. As our ragged breathing gradually slowed down, Rain spoke up hesitantly.
"Um..." "Yeah?" "You guys live here, right?" "Yep." "...For good?" "Yeah. For good."
At my response, the tips of Rain's ears flushed red. She mumbled to herself before letting out a small smile. "I see..." "Are you happy about it?" At Shine's blunt question, Rain's face turned completely crimson. Fidgeting with her fingers, she slowly nodded.
"Jeff! Shine! Rain!" Just then, Amy, who had been talking to Victor, called out to us. It seemed their conversation was over. I immediately tossed the ball aside and ran toward Amy. Shine and Rain, who were sitting beside me, followed right behind.
"Are we leaving now?" "Yes." Amy replied to my question. I quickly waved goodbye to Victor and dashed out of the gym. Patter-patter-patter! As I started running, Shine and Rain bolted after me. Glancing back, I saw Amy walking at a leisurely pace. Confirming she was behind us, I ran straight to our room.
"We made it!" Reaching the room, I quickly turned on the TV. Right after, I tuned into the channel broadcasting the rerun of The Adventures of the Little Witch. There was plenty of time. I immediately stripped off my clothes. Shine did the same, tossing her clothes aside.
"U-Um, guys?" Rain, who had followed us into the room, stammered in confusion. She didn't seem to understand our sudden actions. "Aren't you going to shower, Rain?" I asked as Shine and I dashed into the bathroom. Unable to even answer, Rain covered her blushing face with her hands.
While Shine and I were showering, Amy barged into the bathroom. We told her we could wash ourselves, but she insisted on grabbing us and scrubbing us down from head to toe all over again. My plans were ruined. Thanks to Amy, we had to spend way more time in the shower than expected.
After the shower, Amy started drying my hair with a towel. My head shook left and right. I kept twisting my neck to check the clock on the wall. "Jeff, stay still." "Okay..." The towel moving with Amy's hands blocked my view. I vigorously shook my head to fling the water out of my hair. Splatter! Water droplets flew everywhere. Seizing the opening, I slipped away from Amy's grasp.
The show was about to start. My skin felt warm and cozy from the hot water. Dragging my sluggish, relaxed body, I sat down in front of the TV. "Jeff!" Amy chased after me and quickly wrapped the towel around my head again. With Amy's hands blocking my vision, I squirmed and twisted my head. "I want to watch this!" "I know, so stay still."
While Amy was busy drying my hair, Shine finally crawled out of the bathroom, dripping wet, and climbed onto the bed. It seemed she planned to dry her hair the way I had taught her. Shine spread her hair out wide over the pillow and lay down. "Shine!" Amy shrieked at the sight, grabbing a towel and rushing over to Shine.