13. Watching Movie

The three sat on the grassy ground under a young tree. Feeling tired after walking around. It's almost noon and sunny but the place they were at was airy and cool.

They drank the cooled fruit drinks they bought from a machine they had passed on the way here.

"Hey Aki-kun. Does your family live here in Imperial city?" Ozaki asked after a while.

'Aki-kun….' Akira silently repeated this new nickname that Ozaki called him since after their self introduction in his mind.

"No, I live by myself."

"Oh, we are the same then. But living alone is also good. You have the power to decide on your own thing and there is no curfew. Ko is also living alone but his sister is still strictly monitoring him. Hehe, just like earlier. Anyway, do you have something to do after this?"

"Yeah, I planned to go to a bank and buy some stuff afterwards." Akira answered."

"Then how about tomorrow?" Ozaki asked again.

"Ahhm, cleaning the garden? Yeah. I will clean the garden.

"Really? What kind of garden? Ozaki asked curiously.

"Vegetables and herbs."

"You are really into that kind of stuff huh. No wonder you took pharmacology." Ozaki commented and lied down afterwards.

There was a silence between the three of them after this as though each of them has something in their mind.

Akira arrived home past 6 in the evening. He just changed his clothes when he received a message from Ozaki.

'Hey Aki-kun, let's watch a movie tomorrow.'

~~~notification sound~~~

'The tickets are on me.'

~~~~

'Ko and I will wait at the Imperial City Movie 

Center. See ya.'

~~~~

'Oh by the way, the time is at 4 PM tomorrow so be there before 4 PM.' 😉

Akira put his android phone inside his pocket after sending a thumbs up emoji. Then he went down to cook his dinner.

Tonight he cooked a simple meal. 'Spicy Instant Noodles topped with egg.' Yes, he can only cook simple foods. He may be talented at other things but when it comes to cooking his talent is only average.

Akira finished his day walking in the garden after dinner, then slept early that night.

The next morning, Akira starts tending the garden. He started inside the green house. Around 2:00 in the afternoon, he left the house and went to ICMC. Exactly 3:00 PM he arrived at the entrance. Surprisingly, Ozaki and Ko were already waiting at the cafeteria inside near the entrance.

Ozaki waved at him from the inside and Ko, as usual, just smiled.

"Yo, you really did not arrive late huh." Ozaki joked as Akira took a seat.

"Wanna order something? I will go and order it for you." Ko asked when Akira was seated.

"Thanks. A milk tea would suffice." Akira answered.

15 minutes before 4:00 PM, the three entered inside the movie theater with a big bucket of popcorn and some drinks.

The movie they watched was a zombie film with a bit of mystery. Akira noticed that Ozaki would comment if the scenes were about some kind of psychological behavior act and occasionally Ko would comment about the vehicles that are being featured in the movie.

The movie finished at 6:15 PM in the evening. The three decided to eat dinner first in a restaurant and went to play arcade inside the mall.

Akira really enjoyed and marveled this kind of experience. When he was in grade school, junior school and high school, no one invited him to go to an amusement park or maybe because no one had friended him. He was always categorized as a snub, scary and weird. He was always a lone wolf in the class. 

Actually, it all started in his preschool. He lived alone with his grandfather below the hill with no other neighbors, often slept in the wild, and trained at a young age. So during his first day in preschool, a little girl asked his name but at that time he was so nervous that he ended up not being able to answer which made the little girl cry. The little girl's fatty older boy cousin got angry and acted on him. Out of instinct, he twisted the boy's hand which made the boy peed and cry.

When he was in grade school. The teacher asked him about the parts of plant and some examples of plants which he ended up explaining in a long complete details including their scientific name, their medicinal benefits and their possible reactions to human's body. If the teacher did not stop him, he would go on explaining more.

There was also a time when a drunk man suddenly run amok outside the school's gate when the class ended in the afternoon. He had kicked the man in the balls and was knocked down. The drunk man's child and the other children ended up crying and became scared of him because of that. Since then, no other children got near to him. When they saw him coming, or walked in the hallway, they would walk away from him or take a detour. This became the normal scenario until his highschool days since he did not transfer to another school. Because of this, his grandfather became worried about his social development and often brought him to carnivals and to other local festivals. He also made him join every school activity and some small local competitions. But despite his grandfather's effort, Akira's image to his classmates and schoolmates remained the same.