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The roll is lying on the plate in the bakery, behind the glass. It catches my eye immediately as I enter and I know I will be leaving with that roll. However, before I can order…
A red haired guy steps in with an open paper bag and some tongs and grabs hold of that roll.
I walk up to him and poke him on the shoulder and he turns to look at me, his usual smirk in place on his face.
“Did you want this?” he asks.
“I did,” I say.
“Too bad,” he says, his smirk growing and his eyes narrowing. He looks pleased with himself. “Now it’s mine,” he declares.
“It’s not yours until you’ve paid for it,” I say.
“If you wanted it so badly, you should have hurried up, Nagisa,” he tells me.
“There are so many other pastries in this bakery. You knew I wanted it,” I argue.
“I did,” he freely admits.
“So why did you go and take it, Karma?” I ask.
“Because I wanted it too,” he says. “You said it yourself, didn’t you? There are many other pastries in this bakery. Why don’t you just take one of those?”
Annoyed, I look around. There is nothing else I want quite as badly as that last cinnamon roll that is now lying comfortably in the paper bag in Karma’s hand. Then I spot something behind Karma’s bag, another lonely pastry that he hasn’t noticed and I decide to go for it.
I grab a paper bag and some tongs and quickly reach for the last strawberry tart, sliding it into my paper bag. I look at Karma’s shocked expression. I know he has seen all of it and I’m very satisfied with that result.
“Why?” he asks.
“You said I should take one of the other pastries,” I say. “This is my choice.”
He looks like a child who just had his candy stolen right in front of him. Well, I basically did just that. Before he can pull it together, I hurry up to the counter to pay for my prize and leave the bakery. He follows me shortly after.
“Nagisa?” he says as he comes outside. He looks around, finding me standing next to the door. He has almost gone past me without even noticing.
“Did you want something?” I ask.
He comes over. I can see the gears turning behind his eyes. He is beginning to figure out why I did what I did inside the bakery and a stubborn expression appears on his face. This was not exactly part of my plans. I was hoping his love for strawberries would far outweigh his desire to bother me, but now I’m not so sure. Worst case scenario, he’ll just eat my cinnamon roll in protest, leaving me with a strawberry tart that I don’t really want anyway.
“Why did you go out of your way to take that?” I ask, pointing to the bag with the cinnamon roll inside.
Karma doesn’t answer. He even evades his eyes as I can’t try to look in there and interpret his thoughts.
“I felt like it,” he finally mutters.
He’s lying. I know he’s lying. If he just felt like it, he would have told me so while looking as smug as ever. I know that much about him at least. I also know that even if there is more to it, it’s not something he’s willing to tell me right now. Maybe he will someday, but not now.
I watch his eyes darting between my face and the paper bag in my hand. He wants the strawberry tart, but he doesn’t want to lose to me either. Finally, I decide to relent and offer him a compromise.
“Why don’t we split?” I offer.
Karma looks at me, surprised.
“Split?” he asks.
“The pastries,” I say. I go to the park and sit on a bench. Karma follows me and sits with me, still keeping his eyes on me. I open the paper bag and take out the strawberry tart. I break it in half and offer the bigger part to him.
Karma looks tempted and finally, his desire for the pastry outweighs his desire to bother me. He opens his own bag and carefully breaks the cinnamon roll, offering me the bigger peace.
We trade half a pastry.
Then we eat.
Once I’m done, I dust the crumbs off my hands and stand up, crumbling up my paper bag before throwing it in the trash can. Then I turn to Karma.
“Thank you for sharing with me,” I say.
Karma looks up at me in surprise, his cheeks dusted slightly red.
“You’re welcome,” he says before evading his eyes again. He eats the last bite of the strawberry tart and throws out his own paper bag.
“There’s a horror movie going on in the theaters right now,” I say. “I was planning to go and see it.”
Karma looks up at me and a smile breaks out on his face. “Is it good?”
“Depends on how you look at it,” I shrug.
“I’m in,” he says. “I could use a good laugh.”
Then we walk to the movie theater to get a good laugh at a horror movie.