Infinite Possibilities of Ice Cream 1
For elementary school students, the most boring thing is being dragged along for their parents’ errands, which ruins their precious Sundays.
Today, he had planned to have a card game tournament with his friends, but his father forcibly canceled it and brought him to his junior colleague’s wedding.
“Why do I have to come along?”
As he gazed at the wedding reception hall adorned with flowers, ribbons, filled with makeup, perfume scents, and adults’ chatter, such complaints naturally slipped from his mouth.
“Sōma, don’t make that face. You’ve played with him before, right? So, why not congratulate him?”
His father reprimanded him for making a dissatisfied face.
“That’s true, but…”
Indeed, the groom today had visited their house a few times, invited by his father.
He even played with him, but those memories weren’t fun at all since he would always come drunk and challenge him to video games, only to thoroughly defeat him.
As he continued to pout, his mother tried to soothe him.
“Well, come on, it’s not that bad. It’s just a few hours, and you just have to sit quietly in your nice clothes. Your dad has to make a congratulatory speech in front of many people because he’s his direct supervisor, okay?”
By the ‘nice clothes’ his mother mentioned, she meant the formal suit for kids that they rented for this day.
It’s tight all over his body, making it hard to move and difficult to breathe, and worst of all, the choking bow tie.
It’s big, bothersome, and looks childish.
‘I can’t believe I’m being made to wear something like this, even though I’m already in the second grade of elementary school.’
He wanted to try wearing a normal necktie like his father.
While his parents were chatting with acquaintances, he fiddled with the bow tie for a while, but no matter what he did, it just didn’t feel right.
He wanted to take it off, but he knew his parents would scold him later if he did that, so he had to endure it until the end of the ceremony.
He intentionally sighed, trying to show some resistance.
“Sō-chan, stop doing that at a celebratory event.”
After troubling his parents, he couldn’t think of anything else to do, so he looked around.
The venue for today’s wedding was the largest hall in the biggest hotel around here, and there were so many invited guests.
Adults, adults, adults.
Dressed-up adults chatted away until the reception started.
All kinds of adults, from young adult men to elderly ladies, were crowded together. It felt like an adult trade fair.
Strangely, today’s attendees were all adults, and there were hardly any children.
Sōma had been to several weddings before, and there were always a few children, but today there were none to be seen.
Maybe he was the only child present.
It’s not like he wanted to play with other kids, but it was a bit lonely not having anyone to share this boredom with.
In any case, it was boring.
Eventually, his mother seemed to pity him for looking so lifeless and signaled to a table.
“Sō-chan, Dad and I are still talking, but why don’t you go ahead and sit at the table? If you ask the waiter, maybe they might give you some juice?”
There was nothing to do sitting at the table, and it was still boring, but the juice sounded nice.
“Okay. I’ll do that,”
Sōma replied, following his mother’s suggestion, and quietly headed to the table.
There, he noticed that one of the kids he had given up on seeing was actually sitting there.
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“Hey-hey, Dad, I’m hungry. Can I have some of that bread over there?”
“You’re a good girl, so be patient a little longer. You can have some juice, though.”
“Okay.”
Next to Soma’s seat was a petite girl dressed in a beautiful, fluffy orange dress, and on her lap sat a pure white stuffed rabbit.
It seemed unlikely for an elementary school student to bring a stuffed toy to a place like this, so she must be younger than Sōma, probably a kindergarten child.
“Hello!”
The girl noticed his gaze and smiled while holding the glass with both hands, taking a sip of juice.
She was incredibly adorable, and her smile made her even more adorable.
Unintentionally, Soma’s heart skipped a beat.
“H-hello.”
He stammered, returning the greeting as he took a seat on a kid’s chair.
“Excuse me, can I have some juice, please?”
Soma then called out to the waiter, who was busy moving between the tables, just as his mother had told him to.
“We have apple, orange, grape, and grapefruit juice. Which one would you like?”
“Um…”
Soma wanted to say all of them, but if he drank too much before the meal and had to go to the restroom frequently, he would get scolded.
“Apple juice is delicious.”
The girl next to him said, showing her own glass as she spoke.
“…Then, apple juice.”
“Understood.”
The waiter quickly brought over the apple juice and a straw, placing them carefully on the coaster.
Soma tried it right away.
“See? It’s delicious, right?”
“Yeah, it’s tasty.”
He nodded. The taste and aroma were several times stronger than the juice he usually drank.
With each sip through the straw, he could taste the concentrated flavor of the apple.
“Hey-hey, which side are you here for, the groom’s or the bride’s?”
Perhaps bored, the girl, still hugging her stuffed animal, started a conversation.
“I’m here for the groom’s side. My father knows him from the company.”
Since he had nothing else to do but drink his juice, Soma responded.
“I’m here for the bride’s side. I’m her cousin.”
“Ah, so she’s your older cousin. I’m jealous; she probably gives you pocket money and plays with you a lot.”
“Yeah, she does give me pocket money, and we play together a lot.”
The two children, left with nothing to do, they naturally began exchanging a lot of words.