Chapter 429. Soul Exchange. (1/7)

As soon as I parked up outside the thicket of trees, I let out a long sigh.

“You sure took your time.” I was a bit startled when I heard Rosa’s voice. My head darted about but I didn’t see her. It was pretty dark.

“Where are you?”

“Up.”

I looked up and discovered she was seated on one of the thick tree branches of what appeared to be an elm tree. My knowledge of trees was undoubtedly lacking. Rosa sat atop it in a leisurely fashion with her legs dangling off one side while swinging them back and forth in the air.

“What are you doing up there?”

She lifted up a pair of binoculars on her lap, grinned, and explained, “Getting a good view of the show. How was it?”

“How was what?”

“Your little accidental kiss with sleeping beauty. Hehehe, I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw it from up here you know. You’ve got to tell me everything that happened leading up to it.”

“Sorry…”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“Even if it was an accident, it shouldn’t have happened. I should have been more careful to avoid letting that happen.”

“She didn’t really react that much to it though.”

“She woke up but thought it was a dream.”

“Hahahaha! Seriously?”

“Yeah. I was somehow able to go along with it and play it off successfully. She seems to still think it was a dream she had.”

“Oh, so the second time you kissed her was you playing it off?”

“Yeah.”

“What a terrible guy. Deceiving girls like that.”

“It’s better for her if she thinks it was just part of a dream.”

“Well, it's up to you I guess. I like that girl though.”

“Are you going to come down?”

“Hmm… I’ll come down in a bit. If you keep walking straight you’ll find the campfire and tent. The food’s still warm, you should eat before it gets cold.”

“Wait up there, I’ll be right back.”

“Why?”

I didn’t bother to explain. I headed over to the campsite and confirmed what she cooked. It was wrapped up in a sheet of aluminum foil. She’d made a burger and it actually looked and smelled quite good. 

We carried around a few condiments, spices, and some fresh local produce we bought from the towns and cities along the way. We hadn’t purchased meat though, so it seemed she caught something in a trap and prepared it while I was away. 

I guess she turned it into ground meat by slicing the meat into thin slices and cutting up those thin slices further. She’s seriously way too reliable.

I put on a sweater, stuffed the burger wrapped in foil in the side pocket, then returned to the tree Rosa was seated atop.

“Aren’t you eating?”

“I will. I’m coming up.”

She smiled and playfully teased, “Hehe, can you really make it all the way up to me though~?”

“No idea, probably not, I’ve never actually climbed a tree before.”

“That’s unexpectedly honest of you.”

“I have, however, watched people climb palm trees on beaches to get coconuts as a child though. They always made it look so easy.”

“Then let’s see you try, just don’t fall and get hurt~”

I removed my belt and wrapped it around the back of the tree trunk.

Using it as an anchor point I leaned back as I put one foot down on the tree trunk. I raised my other foot above it and took my first step up. I slid the belt up the back of the tree trunk and repeated the process three more times. On the third repetition, my heart nearly leaped through my chest as I messed up the timing and slid back down to the bottom.

“I thought I was about to die there. Haha… that was… scarier than expected.”

“Hahaha! That wasn’t bad though for your first attempt. I thought you were going to climb it with just your hands, I didn’t expect you to whip out your belt.”

“Did you climb it only using your hands?”

“Naturally.” She confirmed in an overly smug fashion.

“Are you secretly a monkey disguised as a human or something?”

“I do like to monkey around. Maybe when you get here you’ll get to find out whether or not I really am one.”

“Please don’t, I really don’t want to fall to my death because you’re monkeying around.”

“I’d just save you like the time you fell from the school roof.”

“There’s no snow this time to cushion the fall.”

“It’s not as high up though.”

“Don’t do something that will get yourself hurt.”

“Hehehe, then just don’t fall and I won’t have to, dum-my~.”

I made a second attempt to try and climb it. This time I made it thirty feet off the ground and came into contact with the first tree branch. I held the two ends of the belt together in my right hand and reached out to grab the tree branch with my left but I slid down the trunk again. Only this time I lost my grip on the belt when I was about ten feet off the ground. I landed flat on my back.

“Ssssss.” A hiss leaked out of my mouth as I winced. That seriously hurt.

“Are you okay!” Rosa cried out in a fluster.

When I opened my eyes, Rosa had a worried look on her Rosa’s face and she seemed ready to immediately jump down to my side. I felt a strange warm fuzzy feeling sprout in my heart.

“I’m fine. It was just a little fall, nothing too big.”

“But it looked like it hurt.”

“I’m sort of used to it. I took a lot of hard falls as a kid and learned how to take them.”

“Are you suggesting that your mother dropped you as a child?”

“I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Huh? Then how?”

With my back to the ground I gazed up at Rosa and the tree illuminated under the rays of the moon peeking through the gaps in the leaves as the memories of those days slowly surfaced while we talked.

“Well, in simple terms, let’s just say there was a lot of roughhousing on playgrounds in my elementary school during recess.” 

“Oh, you mean you were bullied a lot. I see. I see. It makes sense.”

“It’s more from playing basketball.”

“What? You played basketball? Yeah right. Who are you trying to fool here?”

“I’m not lying, I really did back then and even enjoyed it.”

“Did you join your school team?”

“There wasn’t anything like that in elementary school. But there were teams at my middle school.”

“Oh? Did you join any?”

“Haha… well, I actually did. Or at least, I tried it out for a while. Just for my first year in middle school. I guess it just wasn’t a fit for me though.”

“What do you mean? Did you suck that much?”

“Yes and no.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was pretty athletic back then. I was good if I played alone and I could beat most people in a one-on-one. I could compete on even footing against the kids who were chosen for the A and B teams, but I was put on the developmental team, the worst of them.”

“What? If you can compete with them, why'd you get dumped on the developmental team?”

“Well, there were a few reasons I guess.”

“Like what?”

“When it came to playing on a team of five people, I was clueless, completely lost. I didn’t know how to coordinate or get along with others. The concept of teamwork made no sense to me.”

“I see, I see. I can definitely see that happening with your friendless nature.”

“That’s not the only reason though.”

“Oh? What other excuses do you have?”

“Haha, yeah, I guess it is a cheap excuse. Ethnic background had a factor to play. My middle school was mostly populated with one major ethnic group. A lot of the teachers were from the same ethnic group, and outsiders typically weren’t very welcome. They stuck together a lot. If you weren’t one of them and not part of their tight-knit circle, you didn’t really get to belong. You were essentially not welcome there.”

“What, did you also get bullied in middle school because of that?”

“I wouldn’t say that. Elementary might be considered being bullied, but middle school was more like being treated as if you didn’t even exist. It’s more like your presence wasn’t acknowledged.”

“That’s basically bullying, isn’t it?”

“No, with bullying your existence is at least acknowledged to a certain extent.”

“I see.”