By Zephyria 
Heehee, hehe, keke, kuku, Aska, who had been laughing with all sorts of sounds, seemed satisfied with wiping off the moisture and looked up at me. His face was red and blotchy from how hard he had rubbed it.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Hurt? Why?”
“No, doesn’t your face hurt? It’s all red.”
“Why am I dizzy, though?”
Aska, who was holding my waist tightly, started shaking his body from side to side. He couldn’t control his strength because he was drunk, and I staggered along with him.
“Stop it, you’ll fall.”
“Isn’t it fun?”
“……”
I didn’t know what to say. Aska, who had become generous with his laughter, tilted his head back and continued to laugh with his mouth wide open, showing everything inside. He looked like someone who had eaten the wrong poisonous mushroom.
“Is it fun?”
It wasn’t fun at all, and I was just embarrassed. But I was worried that he would cry again if I told the truth, so I raised the corners of my mouth and smiled.
“It’s fun.”
“What is?”
“You keep shaking me……”
What on earth is this? I was about to touch my forehead because of the sudden sense of shame, but Aska suddenly headbutted my chest, thud, thud.
“What’s wrong?”
“Liar…… You always lie…… You’re a real lying bastard…… You son of a bitch, you only like to play, you never eat properly, you don’t come home, you son of a bitch……”
He kept headbutting my chest while mumbling, and I coughed dryly. Usually, he controlled his strength quite well, but I couldn’t stand still.
“Stop hitting me. It hurts. Let go of this and step back for a second. Let’s go talk.”
“When I was moving charcoal, he didn’t even give me money……”
“Charcoal?”
“He definitely said he would give it to me…… Then he suddenly told me that kids don’t usually get paid much…… But I worked just as hard as the adults. And he was bald…… He had blue eyes…… He’s at the charcoal shop next to the Raven Well……”
Aska, who was talking while sniffling as if he had suddenly remembered something unfair, started sobbing again. It was impossible to go to Talim right away. I sat down, slightly perched on the fountain railing.
“He made you work and didn’t pay you? The owner of the charcoal shop?”
“Yeah, he’s bald…… He has blue eyes and always wears gray clothes…… He’s fat……”
When I patted his back to soothe him, he stopped crying quickly. I lifted Aska’s chin, wiped his eyes, and said.
“Where is the shop?”
“Next to the Laverie Raven Well……”
“Is Laverie the name of the village?”
Aska sniffled and nodded at my question. I rubbed his cheeks, which were red from rubbing against his clothes earlier, and said.
“Okay, I’ll scold him next time I see him.”
“I need to get the money from him.”
“How much?”
“Five coins…… And he hit me……”
I frowned at his mumbling.
“That bastard hit you?”
“Yeah……”
“Where?”
“Here……”
He pouted as if he felt wronged again as he thought about it. Soon, he gasped and groped the side of his thigh.
“Kicked me…… He kicked me…… Sob……”
“He kicked you here?”
I gently stroked the place Aska was pointing to and said.
“Don’t cry. I’ll kick him the same way next time I see him.”
“He kept swearing at me…… He works at the chicken skewer shop……”
For a while, Aska told me about the unfair things he had experienced in his life. I didn’t know because he didn’t talk much about himself unless I asked, but he really had a tumultuous life since he was young.
It was to be expected since he spent his childhood in the slums……
“He keeps telling me I have to sell my hair…… I don’t have any, though…… I was bald, but he keeps saying he’ll give me money if I sell it, he keeps saying it…… But I don’t have any hair……”
There were a few stories that I couldn’t understand at all. I had vaguely heard the story that he shaved his head, put mud on it, and wore bandages when he lived in the slums, so maybe it was about that time.
“Aska.”
Aska, who kept saying that he had to sell his hair to get money, looked up at me. His eyes were more unfocused than before, and he seemed to have a fever, so it seemed that he was getting more drunk as time went on.
“Shall we go home?”
At my question, his mouth, which had been gaping open, closed tightly. And Aska, who seemed to be thinking for a moment, nodded.
“But I have a favor to ask before I go home.”
“What favor?”
Perhaps because of his usual behavior, it even seemed polite that he told me in advance that he had a favor to ask. When I looked at him with slightly surprised eyes, Aska hesitated and said.
“I want to swim……”
“……”
I was going to grant his wish if possible, but this was impossible no matter how I thought about it. Besides, Aska’s gaze was fixed on the small fountain where he had washed his face a little while ago.
“There’s a swimming pool in the Greenhouse, so let’s go there.”
“When will we get there?”
“I’ll give you a piggyback ride. Let’s go swimming quickly.”
I quickly showed him my back and knelt on one knee so he wouldn’t think of anything else, but he didn’t get on my back even after waiting. When I turned my head, I saw Aska looking at me and slowly backing away.
The moment I raised my knee, thinking, ‘No way,’ Aska turned around and ran away.
“……”
People can’t think when they’re too embarrassed. That’s how I was right now. I was just stupidly watching him get further away quickly, but Aska, who had suddenly stopped, looked back at me.
“……”
“……”
Aska was the first to move after we just stared at each other from a distance. Aska, who hesitated and slowly came over after a long time, stood next to me.
“What were you doing?”
“……”
I asked because I was dumbfounded, but there was no answer. His lips were sticking out, and he seemed unhappy because something didn’t go as planned.
Was he trying to play tag or something? But I couldn’t do such an undignified thing in this unfamiliar place, where someone might suddenly come.
“Let’s do that at home too. Swimming and tag.”
“At home?”
I nodded, but Aska didn’t seem to like it. He shook his body with his arms drooping and a ugly expression with his lips sticking out.
“But my legs hurt……”
“I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”
“No, not that…… My legs hurt when they touch like this……”
Aska stammered and stretched out his words like taffy as he touched his legs. I listened to his unintelligible mumbling and asked.
“You don’t want to go home?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to go, it’s just not now.”
“Then when are you going to go?”
“A little later……”
“……”
Aska looked at me while slurring his words.
My stomach had been churning since earlier, so I couldn’t think properly. If it were normal, I would have coaxed him and taken him inside somehow, but my head wasn’t working, so I couldn’t even think of what to say.
I couldn’t control my facial muscles either, so I was expressionless all the time. When I closed my mouth without any expression, Aska slowly came to my side and grabbed my collar.
“Heehee.”
“……”
“Heeheehee……”
“……”
Then he stood close to me and laughed, swaying his body like a cloth fluttering in the wind. It felt like I was looking at a baby who burst into laughter for no reason as soon as our eyes met.
Is it because I’ve never dealt with a drunkard that I’m so embarrassed? I couldn’t abandon him, and I couldn’t knock him out, so I was at a loss.
“Why do you keep laughing?”
I ended up frowning and asking. Aska leaned towards me and started headbutting me again, thud, thud. I grabbed the back of his neck after getting hit in the chest, shoulder, and chin.
I was going to pull him lightly to tell him to stop, but Aska suddenly went down as if he was falling. Surprised, I reached out and wrapped my other arm around Aska’s waist. I staggered as I hugged him tightly, and when I finally managed to stand still, Aska hugged my neck.
Before I could say anything, he stood on tiptoe and jumped up and down, so I reflexively supported his buttocks with my arms. Then, as if he had been waiting for it, he went straight up and wrapped his legs around my waist.
He hugged me like that without saying anything. I sighed inwardly and sat back down on the fountain railing. I would be grateful if he fell asleep like this.
But Aska wasn’t going to move as I wanted him to. He sat back in a comfortable position and touched my earlobe, constantly touching the earring post with his index finger.
Even when I didn’t wear earrings, he sometimes touched my earlobe, but when I wore earrings, he seemed to have to touch the post to be satisfied.
“Do you want it?”
“Want what?”
“The earring.”
“No.”
“Then why do you keep touching it? Do you like touching it there?”
I had always been curious, but this was the first time I asked. Aska took a deep breath until his chest swelled and said.
“It gets caught on my finger. Like this…… When I do this, it gets caught on my finger, so it’s kind of fun.”
“……”
As I tried my best to understand, something similar came to mind. Is it like a security blanket?
“You’ve touched it even when I wasn’t wearing earrings.”
“That’s also soft in its own way, so it’s addictive.”
“……”
“I can sleep well too……”
His pronunciation continued to slur as he spoke. It seemed like he would fall asleep soon.
“If I wake up in the middle of the night and have a hard time falling back asleep, I get sleepy again quickly if I touch it.”
“You touched it while sleeping too?”
“You didn’t wake up? And you sometimes wake up angry in your sleep.”
At those words, I took Aska off my body and asked.
“Get angry? Who? Me?”
“The last time you met your dad, you kept getting angry and saying you had to kill him……”
Was I talking in my sleep? Me? I was embarrassed and creeped out because it was the first time I had learned this fact. It’s not like I wanted to eat something, but I was saying those things in my sleep……
“Does it happen often?”
“Not often, but sometimes…… But if I touch you, you fall asleep quickly.”
“Touch me? Where?”
“Your stomach…… And your chest, legs…… Eyes, nose, and mouth…… And your head and neck too…… Fingers and palms……”
“……”
He touched me while distinguishing the parts so meticulously? I was the most dumbfounded that I had fallen asleep without noticing even though I had been touched so thoroughly.