Chapter 10: There are Many Ways to Scale a Fish

They were indeed going to learn about how to scale and gut a fish. Ishi wasn’t sure why something like that was being taught at an aquarium. This seemed more of an activity at a butcher than here.

“Let’s get into partners now.” The instructor told them. Ishi closed his eyes and took one massively deep breath. Of course they had to do things into pairs, that could only mean one thing.

“Can I be partners with you, Hattori?”

“No, I’d like to be your partner.” She had only been here barely a week. If this continued on, he was going to lose his mind.

“You guys really need to get a hobby.” He was frustrated with his classmates, and it was showing. “We can’t just keep asking her every time, and I doubt I can keep coming up with ways to settle this.”

“Then how do you figure we solve this?” One of them asked. Ishi sighed, everything he ever said went in one ear, then out the other. Well, they should try and solve this issue. Otherwise they’d be wasting unnecessary time bickering instead of learning.

“...Person who catches this fish wins.” Without any warning, he threw up the fish at his station, a Sardinops. The animal wasn’t large, it wasn’t even fully grown. So it looked to be a decent challenge.

Apparently a lot harder than it looked as he saw the slimy creature flying up into the air from slipping out of so many hands. Hopefully they weren’t going to eat this thing, or else he’d really regret his decision.

“Um, is that allowed?” Youna asked him while they were watching this sight. She was concerned about getting in trouble with the instructor, who didn’t seem to care about this debacle.

“I guess it is.” Ishi noted the lack of a reaction from the man. It was probably because he was too entertained by it to care. While chatting, he didn’t care to pay attention to what was going on in front of him. The boy probably should’ve since the small fish ended up flying right into his face.

The slimy creature slowly slid down his face and into his hands. It was disgusting, and he had his eyes closed to prevent any gunk from getting in there. Which is why he didn’t see the reaction of his fellow classmates upon seeing him catching the animal.

He did hear it though, as the collective sighs of disappointment filled the room. For he was the winner of the game he made up, and wanted no part of.

“That’s not fair, you already-”

“I don’t care.” He cut off any complaints. “We’re not doing that again.” In defiance to everyone, he placed his fish down hard enough to make a point, but soft enough so that he could actually use it. The students got the message and went to their spots with heads hung down. Sometimes, he got really tired of these people.

Now it was time to honor the agreement, which he really didn’t want to do either. Personally, the boy wanted to do it with his best friend because that kid wanted to do all this. So he could most likely just sit back and not have to try so hard. Now he actually had to pay attention to what the instructor was telling them to do. While having to work with the girl he despised, the boy realized something.

She was really good at this.

“You’ve done this before?” He asked her while it was her turn to scale the fish. The bits of it were falling off like butter. She made it look easy.

“I had to learn it for an event once.” She said. Out-of-context, that sounded crazy. It was for a TV segment to promote herself to people. Her and some other idols had to do what was known as a ‘mukbang’ for entertainment. Which for someone like Ishi, who was not in the know, was basically an eating thing.

Actually, even in context, he thought it was crazy.

Anyway, they also showed themselves learning how to prepare the fish they were to eat. So it ended up being a good learning experience for her.

“Great.” He murmured.

“You think it’s cool too, right?” She got a little caught up in her story to catch his sarcasm.

“No, but I learned a little more about you. Unfortunately.” He thought that he should shut his big mouth. After what he told her earlier, this felt like cosmic revenge for his attitude. His life now seemed to be under the control of a god that found it funny to watch him suffer.

Now it was time to gut the fish, which involved cutting into it and removing the guts.

“I’ve been waiting all day for this.” Otoya had the knife up in a rather threatening manner as he made his way for the belly of his own fish.

“Can you please stop being so weird about it?” Ishi said what everyone else was thinking. “And don’t forget not to hog all the work either. You know you got a partner, right?” At this point, in his excitement, Otoya had yet to hand the knife over to the person standing besides him. This person just so happened to be Youna, who would’ve been more than glad to not have to touch this thing.

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“Hehe, I guess you’re right.” He responded. “After all, everyone should experience the joys of gutting a fish.” Despite being a third year in high school, there was still that little bit of eighth grade syndrome in the boy.

“R-right, it’s m-my turn… Now…” Youna held the knife in an unsteady fashion. It was shaking as she moved the tip toward the belly of the beast.

“Be careful not to cut yourself.” Otoya’s words, while kind, weren’t doing her any favors in not feeling the pressure. She had never done anything like this before, and she was worried that she’d mess it up for the both of them. Not to mention that having to see the guts of a fish as she cut through its flesh made her want to…

“Ah…” She gagged as she caught a wiff of the innards of this animal. Nearly dropping the knife, she put hand over her hand as she felt the need to throw up. Youna thought to herself that she couldn’t be doing that. Puking all over herself here would be beyond humiliating.

“Maybe I should take care of this.” Otoya uneasily comforted her, cautiously beckoning for her to return the knife.

“Everyone’s gotta learn someday.” Ishi was less sympathetic, since there were surely going to be worse things they’ll end up doing anyway. He sliced through his fish’s body with no trouble while Rinse looked away, worried about her class rep. “We’re all almost adults, we should be prepared for anything that comes up.”

“You don’t have to be so mean about it.” She said as she walked away from him. “Even if that’s true, it doesn’t mean we gotta do it alone” The girl went over to rub Youna’s back.

“Thank you.” She responded positively to the gesture. “I’ll be fine, please don’t worry about me.”

“For some reason, you keep forgetting that I’m not a nice guy.” He remarked as she returned to their table.

“But that doesn’t mean you have to be a bad guy.”

“I don’t have to be anything.” He countered. “I choose to say what I say, and do what I do. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less.”

“So you don’t care that you’re just pushing everyone away with how you act?” The two of them were brewing up an argument. An inevitability resulting from their forced partnership.

“I can live with that. I almost never agree with anyone anyway.” He answered. “But if it makes you feel better, I’m looking forward to going to the beach like everyone else.”

“Really? And why is that?”

“Because I get to go sit back and ignore everyone while they’re out swimming or whatever.” Now that was something more up his alley. Just the thought of it made him want this to be over sooner so he could enjoy it.

“You’re really something else, aren’t you?” She shook her head in disappointment to see how happy he was for once. Of all times to make him smile, it just had to be from that.

“I deserve it.” To him, this day was a complete mess. Even though the only bad thing that happened to them was the bus breaking down for a little bit. Ishi felt like this was the longest day of his life for having to take care of a bunch of children. “Honestly can’t believe I wanted to be the class representative. Never going to make that mistake again.”

“And I’m really glad you’re not the rep.” She retorted. “The class would be miserable if you were in charge.”

“And I’d be at least twice as miserable as them.” He had his own counter. “Even now, I’m pretty unha-”

“Ahem.” They heard a student clearing their throat to get their attention.

“What?” He turned his head to ask what they needed. That was when he was greeted by the entire group staring right at them. Things began to feel very uncomfortable now that they were aware of how many people were listening in on their conversation.

“Um…” Youna was the first one to meekly speak up. “We’re done here, so if you’re ready. We should get going.”

“Yeah…” Ishi didn’t like the icy glares sent his way. Obviously they heard what was being discussed. All of the people were probably not a fan of how much time he got to spend with Rinse. Not to mention how much of it was viewed as ‘wasted’ since he practically disliked her. This animosity was building between him and his fellow classmates, but at least he could just ignore it all when the time to spend some time at the beach. In fact, everyone else would probably forget all about it given their attention spans.

Right?

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