"Why do you do that?"
I looked at him in confusion. "Do what?"
"That," Taiki said, pointing to my hands. "Those hand motions you do in front of your stomach while you crouch over a bit and then go, 'Hurumph huru huru huru rururu' or something like that."
"W-What…? You mean this?" I proceeded cup each of my hands, quickly alternating them in an up and down motion then make eating noises as if my mouth was full but decided to stuff my face anyway.
"Yes, that. You always do that when you're annoyed," he said, annoyed himself. "I've seen your brother and Cross do it sometimes as well, when they are annoyed or in some similar emotional state. I've seen Nobu do it as well."
"It came from Nobu, this thing," I declared, briefly doing the motion again.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Nobu did it, then I did it, then Nii-san did it, then Aniki did it, then the rest of our crew did it. Before Nobu, I think his crew leader started it." I paused. "At least, as far as I can guess."
"I see…," he said. "And?"
I looked at him in confusion again. "And what?"
"Why do you do that?" he said. "You never answered my first question."
"Don't you know?" I replied, "Many of us commoners eat when we're sad. Haven't you noticed?"
"Ah, yes," he caught on. "That unhealthy eating habit Iroki told me about, common amongst commoners and some nobles, at least from what I hear from Tel. What about it?"
"You know how we poor kids love to eat because of our malnourishment, right?" He nodded. "It's like a combination of both. We're eating both to make ourselves feel better and to not starve to death. Killing two birds with one stone."
"You have such a horrible temperament, Ryuu," Taiki said, ignoring my glare at him. "How could you have possibly been able to acquire such food every single time you were angry, sad, or annoyed?"
Begrudgingly ignoring his previous statement, I replied, "I didn't. I mean, we didn't. I don't have food on me now, right? But I'm pretending that I do anyway. See, when I do this," I proceeded to do the motion again, "I'm pretending that I'm overindulging myself on a pile of food set in front of me. The food's not there, but I'm still acting like I'm eating just to make myself feel better anyway. Understand?"
He squinted his eyes, not in an expression of skepticism, but in deeper confusion. I guess he doesn't understand. "I'm just repeating what Nobu told me when I asked him about it, okay? So… think about his mindset, kind of," I told him. I sighed when Taiki's face didn't change immediately and said, "You know what, never mind…"
"I think," he said suddenly, "…I think I understand somewhat."
"Good."
"Since you do not have food whenever you do that," he explained his findings, "you eat this sort of imaginative 'air food' coming from the hope in your mind that you'll still survive and that you'll get through that seemingly hopeless state you're in right now, somehow. Similar to a dying soldier clinging to the hope that he'll be able to survive and eat his favorite crablette dish when he gets back to home base, so he imagines the taste and makes himself feel better, giving himself a state of contentment in mind. Right?"
I stared at him in silence.
"I read a scene like that in a novel," he then declared.
"Um…," I said, unsure of what to say in response of… that. "Uh… yeah, sure, it's kind of like that."
He leaned back in his chair and smiled in response to the approval. "I see. I'm glad I could understand."
"Yeah…" To be honest, I know what he said was more or less wrong, but he put it in such a way that I don't know how to prove that he was wrong.
"Well, Ryuu, since you're not in the state of near-death, I think you should just stop whining and get back to your paperwork already."
"Yeah… Wait, what?" I double-taked. "I just taught you a valuable lesson."
"A lesson you are not practicing properly," Taiki scolded, wagging his finger at me in shame. "Now get back to work, you whiny baby."
I glared at him, begrudgingly and reluctantly walking back to my work station, muttering, "Hurumph huru huru huru rururu" to myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment