30 minutes and 30 years

2000

Fresh air and sunlight on my skin, I was on my way to school. It's Friday, the 28th of January, 2000. I waited for the bus to arrive. I played my cassette player and put my earphones on. Harry Connick's version of It Had to be You was playing. It was from the movie When Harry met Sally, which was released 11 years ago. I watched it with my mother, and it has been my favorite movie out of all the movies I watched. I have a special place in my heart for old things. Sometimes, I think I'm an old soul trapped in a teenager's body. During my 13th birthday last month, she gave me a Harry met Sally OST cassette tape. I have a cassette tape collection but I have been listening to it the most ever since mom gave it to me.

The bus arrived and I entered. I looked around the bus, but I noticed he wasn't there. He probably woke up late again, or probably didn't ride the bus on purpose.

I sat at the back, at the right side by the window. I always sat there, I've been sitting there for years that everyone who rode the bus knew it was my place. I always look outside, watching the green color and the blue color collide, it has become a daily habit of mine.

The ride from home to school was only 15 minutes.

I walked through the hall, and opened my locker. A note fell.

"Sorry it's a month late. But I hope you like it.
-Yuta"

I looked through the locker and found a The Smiths cassette player.

I love The Smiths, and I have been saving to buy the cassette player. Sometimes, I find it unbelievable how well he knows me. How Yuta knows me.

After school, I waited outside for him near the parking lot. I wanted to thank him, but I haven't seen him all day. I figured he might be there.

30 minutes later, he came outside of the school. He came running to me and waved his hand.

The way his hair synchronized perfectly with how he ran. The sparkling night sky in the form of his eyes, his rosy lips, and his shaped cheekbones, if you ever told me that perfection in the form of a human being did not exist, I would never believe you. Nakamoto Yuta existing, is just mere perfection.

Yuta and I grew up together in the suburbs of Osaka, our houses were only a few blocks away. I was born a year and 2 months late before him. Ever since me and my mother moved here from Nerima since I was 5, we have been inseparable. Although if I were to be honest, the pair we made looked like we came straight out of a movie. It was not cliché, though. But I think it's ironic.

He was the popular, perfect one while I was the quiet, unlucky one.

When I say, unlucky, I really mean it. I was always different. When there were family affairs and awarding ceremonies in school, everyone had both their parents come with them, while I only had my mom. Sometimes, Yuta's parents would come with me when she was busy and couldn't. My father left us when I was 4, and I have no decent memory of him, whatsoever. All my mom told me was that he was a good man, but he wasn't a good husband to her. I wondered what that meant. I never understood what that meant. As I grew up, I started to understand, and never brought up my father in conversations anymore.

My mother was from an affluent family, though she didn't finish college. She said she met my father and decided to run away with him. But it was a bad decision, she said. Though she never regretted anything, she always told me that in life, we make bad decisions and it isn't wrong to do so, but it is wrong to define yourself with the bad decisions you've made.

My mother worked a lot and always came home late. I would spend afternoons playing with him and his dog and sometimes sleep at his family's place. My life wasn't always rainbows and butterflies like his. But he helped bloom flowers in the empty and gloomy yard I had in my life, and hopefully, soon, butterflies would come and rainbows would appear.

"Did you receive it?" He smiled widely at me while drying his hair with his towel. He just finished practicing soccer.

"Yeah, where did you buy it?"

He put his things in his bag, "I bought it at the music shop near the mall, I heard you humming 'There's a Light that Never Goes Out' while we were walking home, and coincidently, I saw a cassette display of The Smiths outside the store while my friends and I were on our way to practice." He glanced at me and smiled. "I bought it with my own money."

I hit him with my bag, "Your own money!?" I raised my voice in shock and noticed people were looking at us. I looked back at him, his eyes widened in shock. I lowered my voice, "You shouldn't have bought it, I know it's very expensive. I was saving for it anyway, I will just pay---"

Before I could continue, he brushed me off. "Shut it, Sana. I wanted to buy it for you."

"I am thankful, Yuta, but this is too expensive."

"As long as it's for you, no matter how expensive, I'd get it for you." He winked at me.

I rolled my eyes. That goddamn wink.

He smirked and sat on his bike, "Let's go?"

I sighed in defeat and sat behind him, his bag on my lap.

"Hold tight, okay? You wouldn't want to fall, it'll hurt real bad." He laughed at the thought of me falling.

I wrapped my arms around his hips, and held on tightly. I had a different thought in mind.

Little did he know, I had already fallen, and I knew too well that it'll hurt real bad.