Chapter 31: Confession and Interview, Ripples Hidden Beneath the Everyday
Chumley learned from Yugi and the others that they had gathered yesterday afternoon and thought for a long time, but still couldn't come up with a confession line that satisfied everyone.
What Yugi came up with was: "I like you, Little Ribbon, please go out with me!"
Others complained it was too direct.
What Tristan came up with was: "Nosaka, I've liked you for a very, very long time. You're the only one in my eyes. I can't live without you, please be with me!"
Others complained he sounded like a criminal-in-training.
What Téa came up with was: "My dearest Miho-chan, if you are a pen, I am willing to be your cap; if you are a treasured sword, I am willing to be your sheath; if you are a lamp, I am willing to be your lampshade."
Others complained it was rambling and incomprehensible, with Joey adding, "Why are they all things that get poked?"
As for Joey, he hadn't come up with anything; he was too busy complaining yesterday.
As a result, even now, Tristan hadn't written a single word on that pure white Millennium Puzzle. The school festival was just a few days away, and if Miho Nosaka were to accept Chazz Princeton's confession, Tristan might regret it for the rest of his life.
"Although that's true, I'm not much of a love letter writer either," Chumley said, resting his chin in his hand. "Unless you want to write flashy lines on the Millennium Puzzle like, 'A gathering of wishes will become a new shining star, becoming a path of sparkling light,' or 'The king's might shall descend here, behold the power that echoes through heaven and earth'—I could whip up dozens of those for you."
"We already know about that," Joey said. Though he couldn't write love letters, he was excellent at complaining. "How could a normal person have as much Soul as you? It's practically shattering into pieces!"
"Just so you know, my skills are limited, so don't expect too much," Chumley stated preemptively after a moment of thought, before beginning to write in his notebook.
"At least it's better than Joey, who can't even manage a period," Tristan quipped, not forgetting to poke fun at Joey while conveying that his current expectations weren't high, as Chumley was his last hope. "I really wonder who'll end up with him in the future."
Finishing in a few swift strokes, Chumley turned his notebook towards Tristan.
"What did you write?"
The others all leaned in to see what kind of confession lines Chumley had come up with.
"Not being able to let go is one of the roots of life's troubles, and love especially so. I cannot imagine a future without you; every day I see you is a sunny day. Without you, my life loses its luster. Please go out with me, Miho Nosaka!"
Téa softly read out the words from the notebook, looking at Chumley with a surprised expression: "Isn't this wonderfully written? Chumley, are you secretly some kind of hidden Casanova?"
"Please don't flatter me," Chumley said, a rare shy expression on his face. "Just hearing you read those sentences aloud makes me mortified, let alone actually going through with a romance. I used a quote from someone called 'Seneca' from Ancient Rome in there, because I have a feeling 'Little Ribbon' is a bit of a literary girl, and she might appreciate this more artistic touch."
"Actually, Tristan thought along similar lines, it's just that what he ended up writing was practically a criminal declaration," Joey said, patting Tristan's shoulder and laughing heartily. "Chumley, what you wrote is way better than Tristan's!"
"I've decided to write yours, Chumley! Oh Great God Ōkuninushi, please bless me, I must succeed in my confession!" Tristan put his hands together, bowing devoutly towards the window as if praying to the gods for blessings. With his utmost effort, he wrote Chumley's confession lines as neatly as possible on the Millennium Puzzle.
"Next, all that's left is to send out the Millennium Puzzle and then leave it to fate," Tristan mused. After asking Téa to wrap the disassembled Millennium Puzzle and tie a bow on it, Tristan began to hesitate again about how to deliver it. "Or perhaps, I could drop it off at her house?"
"Tristan, you actually already scouted out her home address?" Chumley asked, looking astonished.
"Don't make it sound like I'm going to commit a crime!" Tristan retorted. However, after Chumley's suggestion, he felt that delivering it to her home might indeed be inappropriate.
"How about you give her the gift in person, Tristan?"
"If Tristan could do that, he wouldn't have resorted to the idea of a 'love Millennium Puzzle' in the first place," Joey said, rejecting Yugi's suggestion.
"Then how about quietly placing the Millennium Puzzle in Nosaka's desk when no one is around? After all, Tristan's signature is still on the Millennium Puzzle, right?" Téa suggested a good idea, and the others readily agreed, deciding that Tristan would carry it out after school today.
————The Boy's Ardent Heart————
The day passed quickly. The daily routine at school was dry yet fulfilling, and soon it was time for dismissal.
The dismissal bell rang, and students tidied up their homework to take home, leaving the classroom in groups of three or five. Soon, only a few remained.
Joey had to go find his good partner—the cleaning lady—because of a punishment. Yugi and Téa left school, leaving only Tristan, who had to wait until he was the last to leave the classroom to discreetly place his confession gift, and Chumley, who had been called to the principal's office.
Although his homeroom teacher hadn't informed him, Chumley didn't even need to think to guess why the principal wanted to see him.
Sure enough, in the principal's office, Chumley not only saw the principal, who rarely appeared before students, and his own homeroom teacher, but also a reporter holding a microphone and several cameras.
Last night, Chumley had encountered the escaped convict, Lucky. The incident occurred quite late, so it was too late to make it into this morning's newspaper headlines. However, the police promptly announced that "a concerned citizen" had assisted them in "apprehending" the escaped convict, though due to the convict's violent resistance at the time, the police were forced to shoot him dead.
But precisely because it hadn't made the morning headlines, the news media had ample time to prepare for the "concerned citizen's" interview. Especially after discovering that the person assisting the police was actually the child of a diplomat, the media could hardly suppress their inner desire to write, practically itching to spin a 2000-word feature out of the photos released by the police.
And after the school learned that the "concerned citizen" was actually one of their own students, they enthusiastically cooperated with the media's interview request. Sure enough, they not only found several students from other classes with influential backgrounds to pose as Chumley's classmates, but also arranged for several teachers, whom Chumley had barely met, to be identified as "heroes' mentors."
Of course, with such a great opportunity to promote the school, how could the principal himself let it slip?
There wasn't much to say about the interview process; it was nothing more than expressing gratitude for the school's nurturing and such, with all questions having pre-arranged answers. It's worth noting that behind this interview, the principal seemed to have utilized resources obtained from the director Chumley had beaten up last time.
Even the director himself shamelessly showed up, cordially taking a photo with Chumley as if they were strangers. To put aside hatred for popularity and fame—Chumley couldn't help but marvel that this director would surely achieve great things in the future; he was utterly shameless.
(end of chapter)