In those days, when business was slow, I would read in the nook, out of sight of the customers, and work on my English. Everybody knew that to really escape war after war, hunger after hunger, displacement after displacement, you had to go to America.

And one day not long after the picnic, I found Torou sitting in my nook, two textbooks and a notebook opened before him. He had kept his promise.

“Hi,” he said, looking up from his notebook. “Your mother said I could study here.”

“You talked to my mother?”

“Yes. She was very kind.”

I had been in the back with Mother, and she had mentioned no such thing. I think she preferred to see how our relationship might develop without her meddling.

“Do you mind moving over a bit, then?” I asked.

“Of course.”

The desk was pushed against the wall, only one side of it suitable for sitting. We sat on the same bench, him scratching at his notebook as I opened my books to read.

Like him, I had two books in front of me: one an English text, the other a Chinese translation, and a notebook where I wrote out new words in pencil. I was convinced the words I Reforged were easier to remember. So at night, I Reforged everything I wrote and in that way committed the translation to memory. I was sure English would be my way out.

We sat side by side for most of that first day, not speaking. There was a calmness to our pencils scratching at paper, pages flipping. It was the closest I felt to the days you and I used to spend reviewing the accounts, though without that same urgent competitiveness we used to share.

He came nearly every afternoon after that. I only joined him sometimes. I was too busy, either in the back, Reforging, or in the front, showing off our pencils to the customers. I would turn on my father’s charm and everything I learned from your mother. I was good at it, I think, though each interaction left me drained. I often caught Torou watching me. With each pencil I handed out, I wondered when it would come back, mutate with my blood, and reveal all of their secrets. Gone were the days when I enthusiastically demonstrated their smoothness, balanced weight, and customizability. They were excellent pencils on their own. Only we knew the power they possessed.