Unlearning and Learning

There was once a boy whose eyes glittered when they scanned past hundreds and hundreds of glazed pages filled with his favorite heroes. His eyes glossed with boredom and dislike when he looked at his fellow humans. He was cynical would be a dire understatement; to be put exact, he didn’t just distrust them, he believed trusting them was a fool’s errand. Jacob would pass his idle time rearranging his comics or flipping through them. He stopped hanging out with his only friends when his closest friend cheated off him on a test. Even though it might sound trivial from the surface, it was a sad event in his life, which had impacted his fragile heart more than it would have struck other’s.

It was another afternoon worth of annual tests in his humid classroom. Jacob felt a slight tap on his shoulder, he turns around to see his then friend Mark asking for answers. He shakes his head and continues working on the horrid paper only to be interrupted again. This time he sighs with slight annoyance and complies with his request. The duo was almost successful in their naughty plight, if not for the teacher, who called their names. Both stands up hesitantly, the former cussing at himself for helping and the later sheepishly smiling. Jacob had already done regretting, worth of years as they reached the Principal’s office, little did he knew the forthcoming. He might have saved some regret for the grand finale. “I know what was going on, in there. So, you both might as well do us all a favor and confess who cheated off who, or both gets suspended. If confessed one gets away with cleaning the classroom for a week “. Jacob looks at his friend with eyes that screamed What now? Mark nods at him and gives him a reassuring look which made Jacob a bit calmer. “He, did sir” The Principal turned to face Jacob for him to agree or refute the accusation but the black-haired boy, who was skinnier than his peers, uttered nothing. His silence was proof enough for the Principal. He stood there frozen, as blood drained his face and his eyes fixated upon his friend.

That afternoon was the last time he had any actual friends; two years have passed since then. He is a boy of 16 now, usually known to roam alone. Today is another day in his life, he is quite but calling him sad would be quite superficial because he would often smile his wide gummy smile. Unfortunately, it was only for his comics to see. When he stepped out of his room, his face would often put on a neutral facade; harder to read than a Shakespearean play. His days became monotonous and smooth, his lack of companionship rarely wound him up in a disagreement or fight. The exceptions would be teachers and parents nagging him to mingle with his surroundings more, which he shrugged off as undesired advice.

It was a Friday, he picked up his black backpack which had too many key chains and set out to school. As he sat at his desk, he admired the calm weather outside the classroom’s window. The sky had an aftertaste of the midnight rain, pale yellow with clouds scattered everywhere. A chill ran through him, should have taken a jacket he thinks. He hears the shuffle of footsteps and knows by experience that the kids and the teacher started to fill the empty classroom.

“Early again, Jacob?”

The boy looks up at his teacher and nods out of courtesy, his gaze quickly going back to the clouds until the class started. That Friday was a special day for this cynical black-haired boy. The teacher claps his hands demanding attention his way, beside him, as Jacob notices was a boy almost his height. The boy’s hair was a darker shade of brown, his eyes almost matching his hair. The teacher introduced him as Reisuke Houjou.

” Sit next to Jacob, please” The teacher instructs as he looks at Jacob. Jacob was sure he could see a hint of twinkle in his eyes, another of his plans to socialize him. It wasn’t an extraordinary coincidence for every new kid to be seated next to himself, he makes a mental note.

Reisuke sits down next to him and shots a kind smile. He was a normal usual kid who was forced to sit next to him, until lunch. As the bell rang, Jacob wanted to leave for his usual spot in the school playground. He started to bend down and take his lunch out of his bag, half his attention on the conversation going around him.

“Want to join us?” he heard a girl ask “We can have lunch together” another guy adds in.

Jacob pauses his actions, listening in.

“Uh, I was planning to ask Jacob though. Does he eat with you guys?” he hears Reisuke say.

He hears the girl sigh, taking a step back. He could hear the sound of her shoe sole on the solid marble floor “You won’t like him.”

“He likes to be alone. Plus, he hates being with anyone. Not like we like him or anything.”

“Oh.” Reisuke pauses “I will still try! Thanks for asking.” He bids them goodbye. Jacob finally straightens up and puts the lunch box on his desk, taken aback.

“Do you mind if I join you?” Jacob stares at the speaker, he knew that he wanted to say no but he didn’t want to disappoint the boy’s sincere smile.

“Okay” he says almost in a whisper. It felt strange to have someone walk beside him through the sunlight and across the playground.

“I just sit there and be on my phone. I don’t think you actually will enjoy with me.”

“It will be okay, if you give me some attention too.” he chuckles.

They talked throughout the whole break, Reisuke offered him some of his snacks he bought from the cafeteria too which he gladly but cautiously took.

“I had no idea someone would be so into superheroes like I am, not here.” He shakes his head to emphasize his point. “Would you mind if I drop by? I want to see your collection.” It was surprising to Jacob how much he opened up to this boy.

“Sure.”

That was the first day of their friendship. After about a month of constantly being with Reisuke, Jacob finally pinpoints why he was so drawn towards him and why it felt safe around him. Reisuke listened, he didn’t make assumption. He was a person who lets one decide how they wanted to be viewed or perceived. If you tell him you hate pink while dressing in the bright shade every day, he will probably believe you.

“Why?” Jacob asks him, one day as he licks his melting ice cream. It was the summer break and the heat was scorching.

“Why what?” he asks turning to the now tanned boy.

“Why do you trust people so much?”

“I do?”

“More like why…why do you...” he thinks of a way to structure his words “Why do you never form an opinion about someone, even when they are begging for it?”

“Because you never know their story or thoughts” The light-haired boy says without hesitation, almost too quickly.

“I thought, you would take a while to answer” Jacob replies, was this all a pretend he ponders to himself. Still highly cautious of his new friend, or so it still seemed to him even after a month. It still felt so very strange to him.

“Because I put in effort.”

Jacob raises an eyebrow.

“There are times, I want to assume. But I remind myself that it’s the dumbest thing I can do.”

“How is it dumb? Assumption is basis of many great theories ever made.”

“Assuming a person’s situation or state, even if the person says differently themselves is a petty act of just being ignorant.” Jacob wanted to speak, but the bubbling guilt that he was storing, knowing that he was just doing the same, made him quiet.

“I see” After that both had a quite walk home.

Reisuke spent many hot and cold days in Jacob’s room, flipping through dozens of comics. Old, new additions, stocked, out of stocks, impossible to conjure up, he had it all. Most of his allowance and summer job salaries were spent on those rows of books on his wooden self. They had many sleepovers too, Jacob loved having him around and the other shared same feelings. It was quite pleasant to have someone to share the bizarre midnight thoughts.

When Jacob looks back, Reisuke was the one, usually talking when they were together but when he had to speak something, he made him feel the most heard. He had a unique way of interpreting things.

“So, you won’t be with me this lunch break?” Jacob whispered as the teacher wrote some lines on the black board.

“No, I want to hang out with June and his friends. Will you join, please? I might feel out of place without you.”

“June? That blond guy? I don’t think so I will. Isn’t he the one who suggested you, not to have lunch with me the first day you arrived?”

“I think so.”

“You go on, I don’t think he likes me.”

“You will be surprised, He loves collecting comics too, he doesn’t have as much as you thought. It’s not that he doesn’t like you, he just doesn’t make an effort to know you. He is just oblivious.”

Reluctantly Jacob ends up joining.

“Jacob Brylle is joining us? That’s a surprise” Alex smiles.

To Jacob, it felt like today was going to be a real bad day. It starts out awkward but as the time nears towards the end of the break, Jacob feels like he gained another friend. In fact, two more friends, he and Alex had lot in common and as for Tessa, she was just so easy to get along with.

Throughout their friendship, Reisuke ends up making Jacob unlearn and relearn in lot of ways. He learned to be patient and let people’s true colors shine instead of painting them black himself. He learned to not label everyone grey cause of one fallen angel. There were times Jacob made new friends and there were times Jacob argued over how bad the idea of meeting a certain person, Reisuke introduced was. On the later event, Reisuke would listen quietly, then say “I didn’t know they would do that to you but let’s be brave enough to move on from that.”

As the days passed and he heard more and more of his best friend’s (or that’s how Reisuke introduced him often) thought process, a growing guilt engulfed him; till he thought he couldn’t hold them in anymore.

One night, after dinner as both were getting ready for bed, the following conversation unfolded.

“Rei”

“Yeah?”

“You remember what you said about not assuming?”

“Yeah?”

Jacob draws in a deep breath “I do that, a lot.”

“I guessed as much after the many times you have rejected meeting my other friends.”

“Will you think differently of me now?”

“Yeah”

“Oh….” He lets out the breath he was holding in

“Something tells me you misinterpreted my answer. Yes, I will think differently of you, cause now I know more about you than before. Thus, its obviously is different than the lesser facts I knew about you, my perception increased.” Jacob laughs and Reisuke joins in.

“Goodnight Plath.”

“What?”

“You say such sappy things” Jacob chuckles

“Goodnight”

“By the way, Thanks for being such a good friend”

“You too, now sleep. We are not getting late for tomorrow at any case”

Reisuke left the city the next year. Changing school was inevitable too. Even though their friendship couldn’t maintain close proximity physically, they still remained the closest of the friends both will ever have. Often texting or calling. Both their parents would often drop them off at each other’s. Jacobs’s mother had shown her gratitude towards Reisuke’s parents and told them how much their son had done for Jacob.



Reisuke didn’t stay long to accompany him but he left behind new friends for Jacob.