“Okada-kun, what’s wrong? You looked dead during work today,” Riko-chan-san said, sounding worried.
“Riko-chan-san, have you ever breathed fire…?” I asked.
“Huh? Fire?”
“I breathed fire before work today…”
Riko-chan-san made a bewildered expression. It seemed that she didn’t really understand what I was saying. I supposed that was to be expected. If someone were to tell me the same thing, I’d have to think that they might be crazy.
“Are you alright?” Riko-chan-san asked.
“Yes, I suppose,” I said.
Even after work, when we were walking along the road together, Riko-chan-san was still worried. My face must have looked terrible.
“Ah, I’ll take my leave here. I’m going to buy a turtle on my way home today,” I said.
“A turtle?” Riko-chan-san made an expression as if to say that she really didn’t understand me anymore. “Should I come along?”
“No, it’s alright.”
“I’m free, you know.”
“No, this is… I want to choose a turtle on my own.”
I’d kind of become very picky when it came to reptiles. I wondered if it was alright to be like this.
When I got home, my mother raised her voice in surprise.
“Takuya, what on earth is that?” she asked. That was her immediate response to seeing her son come home holding a water tank, a turtle and the various tools needed to take care of it.
“I’m going to take care of this turtle from now on,” I said, holding up the turtle so that my mother could see it.
My mother groaned, putting a hand on her forehead as if she was feeling dizzy. “You haven’t gone crazy, have you?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.”
As my mother grumbled and complained, I set up the water tank in a corner of the living room.
“You’ve been kind of restless recently, haven’t you?” she said.
Indeed, I was an indoor-type person, the kind who would spend most of the day in the house unless they had something to do. Thanks to Mamizu, I’d been going places and doing things more often.