Chapter 19: Dreams for the Future

The ice melted, the seasons changed, and thanks to the daily commitment to drinking milk, after four years, Kenma Kotsume finally reached the same height as Yoriko Arisu.

Kenma Kotsume looked at the height listed on his health check form and pressed his lips together, not too pleased.

Yoriko Arisu patted his back to comfort him.

“It’s okay, Kenma, you’ll definitely be taller than me in the future!”

Kenma Kotsume:

“That line has no persuasive power coming from you.”

He couldn’t understand it.

He drank milk every day, so why couldn’t he catch up to Yoriko Arisu’s height?

…Could the difference be in sleep?

Since the incident in first grade when he secretly woke up early to play Game, Kenma Kotsume’s Game time had been strictly controlled, leaving no room to exploit.

This also meant his sleep time was sufficient.

But he still couldn’t catch up to Yoriko Arisu…

He could only blame it on the deficits of his childhood, maybe something congenital.

Tetsurou Kuroo put his hands on his hips.

“Boys hit their growth spurt later, Kenma, you don’t have to worry too much.”

As someone a year older and whose rooster head gave him a few extra centimeters, Tetsurou Kuroo was now half a head taller than the two of them.

He wrapped one arm around each, pulling the three of them together.

“There’s a Volleyball Club match tomorrow, remember to come watch!”

Kenma Kotsume showed a resistant expression.

“I don’t want to.”

“I want to go Home and play Game.”

After entering fourth grade, Tetsurou Kuroo couldn’t wait to join the school’s Volleyball Club.

Originally, when Kenma Kotsume entered fourth grade, Tetsurou Kuroo wanted to drag him in too, but Kenma Kotsume refused.

Because he wanted to play Game.

He wanted to hurry Home before his parents got off work, quickly pull out the Game Controller or Game Console—depending on what Game he felt like playing that day.

Although the Kotsume family limited Kenma Kotsume’s Game time, they didn’t forbid him from playing altogether.

Every year, his Birthday Gift or New Year Gift was either a Game Console or Game, and he was well taken care of.

This meant he wouldn’t openly rebel against his parents, but would do so in secret.

Like going Home earlier after school to increase his Game time.

Yoriko Arisu suggested.

“Why not sneak the Game Console into your bag during school and take it out to play while watching the match?”

Then she was stared at by her two childhood friends.

Tetsurou Kuroo sighed.

“Sometimes I think you’re pretty scary, Yoriko.”

Always coming up with some surprising, strange ideas.

So rebellious!

Tetsurou Kuroo:

“By the way, aren’t you spoiling Kenma too much? Don’t encourage him to do weird things.”

Yoriko Arisu: “I’m just thinking of a way. This way Kenma can watch the match too. Isn’t that good, Kuro?”

“But if he plays Game in the stands, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of my invitation?”

Tetsurou Kuroo put his hands on his hips.

He wanted his childhood friends to see his cool side!

Yoriko Arisu cheered him on.

“I’ll watch for Kenma’s share too!”

Tetsurou Kuroo grabbed her hand, his eyes filling with tears.

“I take back what I said earlier, Yoriko, you’re an angel!”

Kenma Kotsume couldn’t stand the antics of the two.

“I get it, I’ll go watch.”

He casually broke apart their clasped hands.

Tetsurou Kuroo looked at his now-empty hand, then at the childhood friend squeezing in between him and Yoriko, pretending not to care.

“Kenma, you’re too stingy.”

As a shy cat who was now a fifth-grader and considered a big kid, in this age when everyone was generally aware of the opposite sex, Kenma Kotsume found it hard to take the initiative to hold a girl’s hand.

But breaking up other people’s hand-holding was possible.

Kenma Kotsume lowered his head, rubbing the ground with the toe of his shoe.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Yoriko Arisu looked at their interaction, a question mark popping up above her head.

“Kenma, do you want to hold hands?”

She held out her hand to Kenma Kotsume.

“Then let’s go hand in hand, just like when we were kids.”

Kenma Kotsume froze for a moment, a hint of a smile appearing in his eyes.

“Okay.”

Tetsurou Kuroo pointed at himself with hopeful eyes.

“What about me?”

Yoriko Arisu reached out her free left hand to grab his, her face showing resignation.

“Good thing I have two hands!”

Otherwise, she couldn’t hold them both.

Today, there was no Volleyball Club practice.

The Coach gave everyone a day to rest, so Tetsurou Kuroo could walk Home with his childhood friends.

An ordinary day passed, and it was time to do Homework again.

Today’s Essay topic was dreams.

What was her dream?

Yoriko Arisu chewed on her pen tip for a long time with no ideas—now that she was older, she no longer pulled her own hair. She looked up curiously at the other two at the same table to see what they were doing.

Tetsurou Kuroo was struggling with math problems, while Kenma Kotsume had just opened his Essay notebook.

She poked Tetsurou Kuroo’s arm and, as he looked over, whispered.

“Have you ever written the Essay: Dreams for the Future?”

Tetsurou Kuroo leaned in, also lowering his voice.

“Yeah.”

Yoriko Arisu guessed.

“Is it about being a volleyball player?”

Tetsurou Kuroo praised her.

“Correct!”

Kenma Kotsume looked at them.

“Is there a need to whisper so quietly?”

“We don’t want to disturb your thinking.”

Yoriko Arisu sat up straight.

“Kenma, have you decided what to write?”

Kenma Kotsume.

“Yeah, being a Scientist.”

Yoriko Arisu’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Kenma, you want to be a Scientist in the future!”

Completely unexpected!

But after thinking about it, Scientists are smart, and Kenma is smart too. Scientists like to stay in laboratories and not interact with others, and Kenma likes to stay at Home and not interact with others… It kind of fits!

She was about to praise him when she heard Kenma Kotsume say.

“No, it’s just an easy topic to write about.”

Astronaut, Scientist, Teacher, Doctor, Pianist, Writer, Painter…

As kids, everyone had glittering expectations for the future, so picking one of these was the safest option.

Yoriko Arisu and Tetsurou Kuroo stared at him, mouths wide, as if their worldview had been shattered.

Yoriko Arisu murmured.

“You can do that?”

She felt emotionally betrayed!

Tetsurou Kuroo felt a little better.

After all, he was good at using the truth to bluff others, but he didn’t expect Kenma to be even more outrageous!

Learning to fake accounts at such a young age!

Tetsurou Kuroo:

“Kenma, what’s your real thought?”

Kenma Kotsume sighed, listless.

“Don’t want to work.”

The other two nodded together.

Yeah, that feels right.

“But isn’t not working impossible?”

Yoriko Arisu put down her Automatic Pencil, resting her chin in both hands.

“If you don’t work, you can’t earn money, and if you can’t earn money, you can’t buy food, and if you can’t buy food, you can’t survive.”

Tetsurou Kuroo also put down his Homework notebook, crossed his arms, and fell into thought.

“You can farm by yourself, right?”

Recently, Kuroo’s Grandma wasn’t satisfied with just planting herbs in the yard and started growing easy-to-mature, tasty vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers.

Yoriko Arisu:

“But there’s still no meat, and Kenma doesn’t like eating meat…”

Also, having Kenma farm felt harder than having him work.

In her mind, she pictured Kenma Kotsume holding a hoe, flipping the soil twice, then lying down to play Game.

Kenma Kotsume:

“I feel like you’re imagining something rude.”

Yoriko Arisu.

“Hehe.”

Tetsurou Kuroo.

“Not denying it at all.”

Tetsurou Kuroo asked.

“Yoriko, what do you want to do in the future?”

Yoriko Arisu fell into a daydream.

“It would be nice if I could make money by sleeping.”

Tetsurou Kuroo.

“No, there’s no such job.”

Kenma Kotsume joined the daydream.

“It’d be great if you could earn money playing Game.”

Tetsurou Kuroo.

“You two are getting more and more ridiculous!”

Kids with no ideas decided to seek help from adults.

The theme was [Why did you choose your current profession?]

The first to be asked was Miwako Kotsume, whose profession was Kindergarten Teacher.

Faced with the Automatic Pencil held up like a microphone to her mouth, the black-haired woman thought for a moment.

“I guess it started from taking care of Yurihana. I found out I liked taking care of children, so I chose this job.”

“And it’s best to guide kids from a young age so they don’t grow up twisted.”

She smiled, though a faint dark aura seemed to rise behind her.

That way, no boys would bully girls as cute as Yurihana.

But these kinds of things weren’t for children to hear.

Seeing her mother’s smiling face, Yoriko Arisu rubbed her arms, goosebumps rising, and was dragged away by the unfazed Kenma Kotsume.

The next was Kentaro Kotsume, who was still working overtime, so they interviewed him by phone.

The sound of wind whooshed through the line, making it seem like he was still out working.

“No particular reason… I sent out a lot of resumes, and this was the only company that hired me.”

After explaining, the topic quickly became the usual.

“So Kenma, you have to study hard…”

Kenma Kotsume abruptly hung up, cutting off the conversation before it could start.

Tetsurou Kuroo was sympathetic.

“Sounds rough.”

He definitely wouldn’t choose a job he didn’t like in the future!

Next were Yoriko Arisu’s parents, also interviewed by phone.

Shota Arisu followed the family tradition, inheriting his parents’ profession.

Yurihana Arisu had loved caring for flowers and plants since childhood.

Yurihana Arisu’s voice was cheerful.

“Originally, I wanted to open a flower shop after graduation, but my parents persuaded me to find a steady job. I thought taking care of patients was similar to tending to flowers, so I chose to be a Nurse.”

After hanging up, Tetsurou Kuroo complained.

“How do you connect opening a flower shop and being a Nurse?”

Kenma Kotsume.

“The common point is probably caring for life.”

So Yoriko’s whimsical thinking came from her mother.

He felt her parents stopped her because they were afraid their daughter would get scammed.

Yoriko Arisu was suddenly enlightened.

“You can open your own shop? Then I want to do that!”

That way, if there were no customers, she could sleep.

Tetsurou Kuroo put both hands on her shoulders, staring into her eyes with a serious face.

“Yoriko, trust me, you must never open a shop.”

At least not by yourself.

Yoriko Arisu.

“ovo?”

Kenma Kotsume stabbed in from the side.

“Feels like it would go out of business soon.”

Yoriko Arisu puffed up like a pufferfish.

“You two are so mean—I’m going to get mad!”