roubai | i. wakasa

十八

"I forgot to tell you, but not that it matters, my co worker at the convenient store who also happens to be the owners' grandson, is getting married already next year." Rini says, sitting on one side of the swing while Wakasa sat on the other.

"How old is the guy?" Wakasa asks, his eyes looking forward, watching Takeomi watch over Haruchiyo and Senju, along with Shinichiro and Mikey at the roundabout.

"He's the same age as us." Rini responded, training her eyes down on the ground. "They've been together for already six years and he just proposed to her. When I asked him why did he hastily proposed to her, he said he feared that they'd drift apart and become strangers who knew all of their secrets." She continues, heaving out a breath afterwards. "At that time I didn't know what to say, but I congratulated him. His grandmother didn't opposed to the proposal and marriage too." She adds, "I wish I could see myself getting married too."

There was silent pause between them, only the sounds of Senju's laughter followed by Mikey's and Haruchiyo's voices could be heard along with the faint thudding sounds their feet make on the ground.

"Hey" Rini begins to say, turning her head to look at him. "If you get into a relationship with someone and they fall out of love for you, what would you feel?" She asks, getting up from the swing and going over to the slide.

As he sees her going over to where the slide is, Wakasa stood up as well, squatting down on the bottom of the slide as he watches Rini slide down, sitting at the bottom of the slide and right in front of him. "Then I'll keep liking you. Like I do now."

She smiles upon hearing his answer. "I mentioned you, silly." She responded, chuckling softly. "Why mention me?"

"Because I like you." He replies, his words fleeing with the air.

Her eyes looked at him as if she wasn't hearing right, tears began to brim. "What if...I only see you as a friend?" She asks.

"My answer is still the same." He responded to her. "I'll continue to keep liking you like I do now." He pauses, places his hands on top of hers hesitantly. "Did you know that for the past couple of days, because of you, I started hating the word friend? Back when I was ignoring you, I thought, what if I dated other girls so I could make you jealous? So I tried talking to them, getting to know them, but then I'd stop right there because all I could think about what kind of activities we'd do on a day like this."

"I don't want you to just keep coming to me with a broken hearted look. I don't even want to be just friends with you." Wakasa finishes.

Letting the words sink into her mind, she bit her tongue for a moment before speaking. "I guess I looked like I fool to you, huh?" She sniffs. "You're my very first friend, I told you everything...but what if we break up? I'll not only lose both my love and my best friend."

Wakasa chuckles softly, holding her hands firmly on his. "Is that what's bothering you?"

With a small pout on her lips, Rini nodded her head. "What do we do?"

"My feelings for you won't ever change." He assures her, rubbing his thumb against the back of her hands. "If you think that one day I'll go away, I won't. So, don't worry about it."

. . . . . . . . . . ♡

The following morning, Takeomi was weirded out to say the least when Rini finally joins down with them for breakfast. At first, he thought she was probably still half asleep that she tried to contain herself from smiling, but when he noticed her actually smiling while getting rice, he knew she was probably thinking of something.

After breakfast, he caught her humming to a tune he couldn't recognize. He's never heard her hum before, so it was fairly new to him to hear her.

"What's got you so happy in the morning?" He asks, leaning his lower back against the counter.

"Ah, nothing!" She responded, giving him a tight lipped smile. "Maybe because I've had a good sleep? I haven't had a good sleep in a while so maybe that explains it." She adds, shrugging her shoulders while passing onto him the already cleaned utensils to dry up. 

"Uh huh." Takeomi hums, slowly nodding his head. "What were you and Waka talking about in the slide? You looked a little serious from when I was watching you."

"The slide and the roundabout wasn't that far." She says, glaring at him. "But then again, we were just talking about...the mock exams! I just think our minds would still be on vacation mode when we go back to school."

Takeomi slowly nodded his head again before leaving the kitchen with Rini. "Speaking of Waka, he's been acting a little strange lately."

"Strange?" She repeats, turning to look at him. "How so?"

"It's just that, whenever we have a meeting, he'd suddenly gladly do errands for us." Takeomi begins to say, "Like when Benkei and Shinichiro ran out of cigarettes, he suddenly volunteered. And then while waiting for the other guys, he offered to get drinks for us. I mean, not that I'm complaining, but he offers, he comes back late. Like already in the middle of the meeting late."

Unbeknownst to Takeomi, Rini gulped but masked her facial expression with a look of understanding. "Maybe he went to the bathroom or the vending machines are broken?" She asks. "That's why he had to resort to going far to fetch it."

"I don't know what that guy inhaled or ate but doing errands for us is already great enough. Guess I should be thankful than be suspicious about it." Takeomi responded, fishing out a pack of cigarette sticks from his pocket before sticking it in between his lips. In which Rini immediately took it out.

"Smoke outside please!" She tells him, turning around on her heels and going back up to her room.