Chapter Text
“Oh! Noriko, wait a second! Just one more second and then you can go!”
She’d already been halfway to the street and had one arm through the jacket she’d stashed in her bag earlier when her mother burst through the front door. Noriko froze in place; the free arm of the jacket flapped like a surrender flag in the wind.
Her mother, for her part, didn’t comment on the jacket. She held a small box in her hands and approached her daughter with a breathless smile. “I can’t believe I almost forgot!”
“What is it?”
Noriko eyed the box, chose her words sparsely as if the wrong ones would cause her prized possession to be stolen from her.
“Was there something else I needed?”
“No, no! Nothing like that! Here, put your hands out.”
She slowly, inchingly, set her bag on the ground, shimmied her other arm through the jacket (careful to look at the pavement while doing so), and then held her hands out, bewildered.
“It’s a gift. For your first day of high school.”
A… a gift? But how…?
The box was heavy for its size. Noriko unwrapped the bow from the top (there was a bow) and plucked the lid off.
“The jewelry department got these in a few weeks ago and they reminded me of you. Do you like them?”
Inside the box sat a pair of earrings. Each was a pendant, a bar-shaped piece that hung down into a shining golden “stem” and terminated in a red, semi-translucent bulb. They were bundled together like a pair of cherries.
Noriko blinked at the pair; she didn’t want to touch them. Her gaze shot up to her mother. “Mom, can we… afford this?”
“Oh, hush. I bought it with my discount.” Her mother’s smile was warm. “Besides, you’re too young to be worrying about money.”
Noriko shook her head and shoved the box back out. “I can’t accept this.”
“Sure you can.” She picked each cherry from its perch and approached her daughter.
Noriko didn’t resist as the earrings were attached to her. She liked them—quite a lot, actually—but couldn’t get the probable price of the things out of her head. Why would her mother spend what was likely an entire paycheck on such a frivolous thing?
“There.” She stepped back to take a look at her handiwork. “Oh! You look so cute. My cherry girl.”
“...Thank you,” Noriko mumbled after a few seconds of prolonged blushing. “I… like them.”
“Good!” She slipped her phone out to check the time. “Okay, you’ve got to go now if you want to get there early.”
“A-alright!” Noriko snapped herself awake but kept a vague air of positivity. She bounced a bit as she bounded onto the road. “Thank you again!”
“You’re welcome!” Her mother waved, then cupped her hands to shout, “But take off the jacket, please!”
Goddamnit. She’d almost been free.
“I will!” she lied, and then immediately felt bad because she was lying to a woman who had just gotten her something very nice.
Noriko turned a corner around a building just then. This was not the most efficient way to the school, but at least her mother wouldn’t see her to complain about her gakuran again.
Today was going to be a good day.