"M-Mama?" I mumbled. I was frozen, staring at the back of the room. I knew that I had to go back to my seat, but I couldn't move a muscle.
"Y/n," I heard Keiji whisper from the middle of the row. I forced myself back into the real world and headed towards my seat.
I took a seat right next to Keiji and watched as more people got called up to the stage.
"What happened?" Keiji whispered.
"My mom's here," I hesitated. He looked at me with slightly widened eyes and smiled. I closed my own and smiled back, averting my gaze back up to the podium.
I was quite surprised, in fact. I didn't expect my mom to show up at all. How did she even manage to show up? It was a weekday, and she always had work.
My heart was racing. She had actually made time in her busy schedule to come to my graduation. It was odd, but I wanted to thank her infinitely.
"Thank you all so much," I heard our principal say.
That was it. We both had graduated. 12 years of school were all gone in a matter of seconds.
I would probably never come back here, except for when I visit Akira.
I turned over to Keiji, who was sitting calmly in his seat, just like he used to sit in class. He was focused on the principal's speech, but his eyes looked dark. Darker than ever. As if they held some sort of passionate secret of regret that they would never tell.
He always looked stuck in thought, but I never knew what he ever thought about. I've asked him a few times, but he usually just responds with something cliche like "you."
Right now, he definitely wasn't thinking of me. He had way too much on his mind. I noticed that the calmer he looks, the more thoughts were scattered around his mind.
I missed the days where I could stare at him for hours and just dream about what he was thinking about.
After today, I would never be able to look into his dark teal eyes or ruffle his black hair. God, I missed him already, and he was right next to me.
Once the ceremony finished, all of us were told to go be congratulated by our parents. I knew that Keiji's parents weren't here, so I offered him to come to talk to my mom.
He would always say that my mom was more of a mother to him than anyone ever was. I really wished that he would tell me more about his past, but I wasn't going to live off of his trauma or pity him in any way. If he wasn't ready to tell me, there was no point in forcing him to recall a bunch of unnecessary memories.
"Y/n, Keiji!" my mom smiled as the two of us walked over to her.
"How did you find time to come here?" I asked.
"I thought it was important, and I'm really proud of you," she smiled once more, pulling me into a hug.
"My son-in-law, you too," she pulled away from me and wrapped her arms around Keiji. I watched as his face turned slightly red, and so did mine.
"I can give both of you a ride home if you would like," she offered. We both nodded and waltzed over to the parking lot.
Everything was going by so fast, and this was one of the worst times for time to pass by so quickly.
I was going to regret all of the moments I had with Keiji, and it was already starting to happen. I could've spent more time with him and I could've been nice to him, but I guess everything worked out in the end.
