Hoodie(3)

Walking in the street, Dan can't find any sign of the other group. He sees a mall nearby and decides to go to the mall across the street to enjoy his alone time. He walks in, and the first thing that attracts Dan's attention in the mall is a shop that has a Japanese name. "That's interesting." Dan's father is from Japan so he learned a little bit of Japanese from him, but he only recognizes small amounts of Japanese characters and the national flag of Japan outside the store. He enters the shop and looks around. It turns out to be a store that sells Japanese clothes. Dan sees many clothes with Japanese characters on them. However, none of them seems interesting to him. He keeps walking to the end of the store then he notices something. Dan reaches his hand to a hoodie. It's black with a Japanese character in white color on the front, "Yakyu" Dan stares at the Japanese character. He turns it around and sees a number, "18". He feels curious and wants to know what the character means. Dan looks around to see if he can find anyone to give him some help with the character on the hoodie.

A woman in uniform noticed him. She approaches him and asks if he needs any help. "Hi, can I help you?" The woman asks.

"Yes, actually, I do have a question." Dan's happy that someone comes to him to help. He stares at the hoodie and points at the character. "Is it Japanese? What's the meaning of this?" He asks the woman.

The woman's smiles and answers him. "It is Japanese. It means baseball in Japanese."

"Baseball?" Dan is surprised.

"Yup." The woman nods.

Dan didn't expect that he would find a baseball hoodie in the store. "Oh? Really? Then what does this number mean? Why 18?" He continues to ask.

"It's kind of a Japanese culture." says the staff. "In Japanese baseball culture, 18 is for the best pitcher on the team. Only the best pitcher can wear this number. It's a number for the ace." The woman explains.

"So that means…if I see a Japanese player wearing 18, it means he is the best pitcher on the team?" Dan asks.

"Exactly." she replies. "However." The woman continues to say, "if you were a student-athlete and the ace pitcher on the team, your coach would probably let you wear 1. It works differently for student-athletes and professional baseball players. In the Japanese professional league, NPB, every team gives 18 to their aces. However, in high schools, the aces wear number 1." and she explains more to Dan.

Dan listens to her explanation and looks at the hoodie thinking to himself. "My number is 1, that means if I were still a student, I would be the ace. But now since I'm a professional athlete, and half Japanese, maybe I should wear 18 instead?"

"Sir? Are you ok?" The woman asks and interrupts when Dan's spacing out. She stares at him and wonders what he's thinking. Dan's just standing and talking to himself. He has totally spaced out.

A couple minutes later, the woman leaves Dan to serve other customers while he is in the middle of thinking. When he realizes, she's already gone. Dan shrugs and thinks, "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm only half Japanese, so numbers don't matter." He puts the hoodie back then heads to the entrance. He takes a few steps then stops. "Shit…" It doesn't take Dan too long to change his mind. He walks back to grab the hoodie because he really likes it, and it looks cool. Deep down, in his heart, the boy wants the number; Dan hopes he can be a real ace one day, someone who deserves the number and being called the best one. He takes the hoodie and walks to the cashier to check out.

While Dan is buying his hoodie in the mall, Matt and Josh are enjoying their time on the 89th floor. They meet the other group who is going up to the observatory on the way to the elevator. They take the high-speed elevator together to the floor. When they arrive at the floor, Matt starts being like a kid who is curious all the time and runs around. "Check it out!!!" says Matt. He is curious about everything he is seeing. He looks down through the floor, and the floor is transparent so he can see the city right under his feet. The city is mind-blowing and amazing. He sees buildings and mountains, and all of them join together and create a beautiful view. When Matt's stunned by the scenery in front of him, Josh's standing in the line to buy coffee for himself and watching Matt enjoying the place. It's not his first time visiting the building so he doesn't feel as excited as Matt does, but he's still happy to see his friend having a good time.

"Why is he always so energetic?" Josh glances at Matt and wonders. In a second, he has his coffee in hand and walks to Matt.

"This place is amazing!!" says Matt. He looks back at Josh and says.