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As of late, Rohan found himself dreading his summer days. All of it was because of that boy, everything was his fault. Rohan's parents both worked and his grandparents were off on a trip to Europe, so he was left in the care of Reimi and her girlfriend Aya. There, he was free to draw and play all he wanted to. It would have been perfect... if not for that boy, Josuke.
Out of all the other kids in his daycare, he was the only one who managed to get on his nerves every single day. All he ever did was follow him around and say dumb things that made no sense. He ruined his drawings and never ever left him alone! Not to mention he was dirty most of the time and would never stop talking no matter what. He was extremely annoying.
“NO! STOP,” Rohan yelled out when he saw the mud-covered pompadoured boy approach him. “Stay away from me. You’re gonna get everything dirty!”
Josuke pouted, stopping just a few steps away from Rohan. “Don’t be a meanie, I just wanna play,” he said in a whiny voice. He jumped from one foot to another, seemingly unable to contain all of his chaotic energy in his small body. “Come play with meee, Rohaaaan.”
Rohan shook his head, looking away from him with a frown. “No, go play with someone else.” He tried to get back to drawing, hoping Josuke would leave him alone. But, of course, that would never happen.
“But I wanna play with you.” Josuke stomped his tiny foot down in frustration, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Why’d you never wanna play with me?”
He let out a sigh, not bothering to look up from his paper. He put his arm over it protectively. He wasn’t going to let Josuke ruin his doodles again. Why couldn’t he just leave? Go play with other people! Why did he always insist on playing with him? “Because I’m not gross and stinky like you.”
Josuke let out a soft gasp, bringing his hands over to his face. “Nuh uh! I’m not stinky!”
“Are too.”
“AM NOT!”
“You’re super stinky. The stinkiest. Now shoo.” He made a ‘go away’ gesture with his left hand as he drew a line on the paper with his right.
“No…” Josuke whined, sounding like he was about to start crying. He sniffled, rubbing his eyes with one of his hands. “I’m not stinky…”
Upon hearing this, Rohan quickly looked up, eyes wide. If Josuke started crying again, he’d be grounded! Or at the very least heavily scolded by not one, but both of their caretakers. “Don’t be a crybaby! Stop crying,” he said softly, glancing around them to make sure Reimi was nowhere near them.
“Stop being mean,” Josuke said in between sniffles, “I’m not a stinky crybaby, you big meanie.”
Rohan frowned, trying to think of a way to fix this whole situation. He could always play with Josuke, but that would mean he’d have to stop drawing and go do whatever dumb thing he wanted to do. That wouldn’t be any fun at all. He could probably also walk away and hope Josuke didn’t tell on him, but then he wouldn’t have a nice table to draw in. He couldn’t trust Josuke not to tell on him either anyway.
“You never play with me, you’re a bad friend,” Josuke said in between sniffles. Rohan hadn’t really been aware of the fact that they were even friends in the first place.
Rohan scanned the room quickly, trying to find a better solution to this issue. He didn’t want to be scolded again. He didn't want his drawing privileges suspended either. His eyes landed on a magic kit at the corner of the room… Hm. He had learned a few magic tricks from a show he watched on the television recently. And he had played around with the kit here just a few days ago. Rohan hoped no one else had played with it since, otherwise his tricks wouldn't work out properly. “Hey Josuke, do you wanna see something cool?”
At this, Josuke stopped crying, looking at him with teary eyes and pouty lips. “Cool? What is it?”
“Y-Yeah…Super cool. Let’s play together and you’ll see.”
His whole demeanor changed immediately upon hearing those words. “Really? You promise?” he asked with a shy smile, wiping the tears out of his eyes.
“Sure, I promise,” he said, turning back to face Josuke. Rohan swore he could see Josuke’s smile shift into an evil smirk for a second, but Josuke quickly covered it up with an excited grin. Had he been fake crying to get Rohan to play with him? How rude! But now he had made him promise to play with him… ugh. If he broke his promise he would probably cry again just to get him in trouble.
“Yay!”
Rohan nodded, leading the boy over to where the magic kit was. Josuke tilted his head to the side when he saw Rohan pick the box up and he leaned closer. “What’s that?” he asked, reading the label and gasping, “You’re a magician? You know magic?! That’s so cool!” He jumped up and down in place, a huge smile on his face.
A slight blush made its way to Rohan’s face at the compliment and he set the box down on a table next to them. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Um, sit over there,” he said, pointing at a small couch right next to them, “You’re going to be my audience.”
Josuke nodded, rushing over to the seat and looking up at him expectantly. Rohan pulled out the deck of cards and took a deep breath. Lets see if he remembered how to do this… He glanced over the cards to make sure everything was in order and split the pile in half. Good, no one had messed with it. This would be easy then. “Um, anyway. For this trick I will need a volunteer from the audience,” he said placing both piles of cards next to each other. He figured he should play the part of a magic performer, at the very least.
“Me!” Josuke exclaimed loudly, despite being the only other person there.
“Ah, yes. You. Come on up here.”
Josuke leaped out of his seat and rushed over to him. Once he was there, Rohan pointed at the cards. “Pick one of those groups of cards and shuffle them without looking, then pick one card and don’t show me! I will have to guess it at the end.” he instructed, watching as Josuke did just that.
“Okay. I have my card,” Josuke said, staring straight at it for a minute before looking back at Rohan to wait for further instructions.
Rohan nodded once, “Good! Now remember your card and then place it into the other pile. Then shuffle the cards to your liking.”
Josuke placed the card in around the middle and shuffled the cards as best as he could. After this, he looked at Rohan again. “Now what?”
“Oh. I’m going to guess your card now,” Rohan said, taking the pile of cards from Josuke. The trick to pulling this off was separating both halves by suit. One half had all the cubs and diamonds and the other half had all the spades and hearts. Not that Josuke would have been able to tell.
The pack he had been handed was the one with spades and hearts. Among all of them, a single diamond suit card stood. The ace of diamonds, that had been Josuke's card. Rohan looked through the pack, pretending to concentrate. The pompadoured kid stared at him with wide curious eyes, waiting. Rohan pulled out the card, showing it to Josuke. “Was this your card?”
Josuke clapped his hands, nodding his head repeatedly. “What! How did you do that?! That's so cool, Rohan! Again! Again!”
“No, no. Let's do another trick next,” he said, putting the cards back in their box and picking out a box of crayons. Perfect. “Now… I'm gonna make these all disappear.”
Josuke raised an eyebrow. “The crayons?! How?! That's impossible!”
“A good magician never reveals his secrets.”
He smirked just as the other kid frowned at him. “That’s lame, Rohan,” Josuke complained.
Rohan made sure to apply pressure to the side of the box to keep the crayons from sliding down. He held the box right in front of Josuke. “Anyway. Here are the crayons right? Watch as they disappear once I slide my hand in front of them!” he exclaimed, waving his hands around before finally passing it in front of the box. When his hand passed through it, no crayons could be seen from the opening.
Josuke nearly jumped up from his seat, trying to see the box from up close. “What the heck! Rohan! How did you do that?!”
He shrugged, waving the box near Josuke, careful not to tilt it or make any sound. “Wow!!!” Josuke exclaimed, shifting his gaze over to Rohan. “Where are they?”
“Want me to make them appear again?”
Josuke nodded enthusiastically, wiggling in his seat a little. Rohan smiled, feeling quite proud of himself. He tilted the box, waving his arm in front of him and holding the side of the box as he tilted it back. Sure enough, the crayons were all visible through the display. “Ta-da!” Rohan exclaimed. Josuke nearly lost it at this, laughing loudly with a big grin on his face.
Despite being less than one year younger than Rohan, Josuke was super easy to impress. It was a little bit cute, in all honesty. It made his job of distracting him much more easier. “That’s crazy!”
“A lil bit, yes.”
“Can you make other stuff disappear too?” Josuke asked with a tilt of his head.
Rohan nodded, digging inside his pocket this time and pulling out a dime he had found on the floor earlier. He was glad he’d found a dime and not a quarter, he wasn’t sure he could properly hide something that big in his hands. “I can make this coin disappear.”
Josuke looked at the coin and then back at Rohan. “Really?!”
Rohan took the coin in between his index finger and his thumb, then nodded. He rubbed his other hand in front of it a few times and when it was pulled back, the dime was gone. Josuke looked at him with wide eyes. “Oh, but what’s this, right behind your ear?” Rohan said, pretending to pull the dime back out from behind his ear. Josuke nearly screamed at that, looking at the young artist with a huge grin on his face.
“Whoa! Rohan! You’re super freakin cool!”
Rohan stood proudly, a smirk plastered on his face. “Yeah, I know. The coolest, probably.”
To his surprise, Josuke nodded. “Definitely the coolest! You’re so smart and artistic and stuff!!!” The barrage of compliments caught him by surprise, and he felt his cheeks heat up again. Rohan cleared his throat, looking away from his smiling face. Should he say thank you? Or leave it like that? He decided to go for the latter, ignoring the flattering remarks all together.
“Um… would you like to see more?” he asked, walking over to the kit again and looking through it. He had a few more card tricks he could perform for him. There were a few rings and other trinkets he more or less knew how to use.
“Yes! More magic~” Josuke said in a sing songy voice, adjusting himself on the seat and staring at him with a smile. Rohan smiled too, picking up the pack of cards again. This was turning out to be much more fun than he had originally assumed it would be. He found himself doing magic tricks for Josuke most of the day, both of them drew together afterwards. It turned out to be a super fun day and it marked the beginning of their unexpected friendship