Stars Between Us

05 : An Unrequited Love (part one)

Bethany's POV:

"Being his friend wasn't enough for me... I wanted to be his everything, I wanted to be the one who would wake up next to him, the one he would kiss and embrace when upset, the one he would marry and have a family with one day. But ever since that day, I knew that it would be impossible... because,... I was too late."

You might not know who i am, sorry; I'm Kozaki Bethany (Koko-chan), Hirō's childhood friend. I have just turned 20 years of age (July 7th) and, as you might know, I've had a crush on him since we were 11 y/o.

Back then, Hirō and I didn't really knew much about each other; all we knew is that we were in the same class where he was the class president. He was very smart and was known among the teachers and other classes, he was pretty popular if you ask me, while I was the one getting called 'fake' or 'poker face'. I was being bullied because they thought that I would be the one to stab you in the back or to be manipulative.

I really admired Hirō for his brilliance and his courage to speak up for himself and for others that, eventually, I started to fancy him.

One time, some rich girl's 'expensive bracelet' was claimed to be stolen and the teacher had to rummage through the students' backpacks. The teacher came to my desk and found that bracelet. I was in shock, "how did it end up in there?", suddenly the girl in question stared to cry out: "I knew it! I knew it! And no one would believe me! I knew that this stupid "doll face" wasn't that innocent and shy as we thought!" {e/n: "doll face" can also be used as an insult. look it up} I got sent to the guidance councilor's office and I hopelessly pleaded her that it wasn't me who stole that bracelet and, thank goodness, she believed me and promised me to have a talk with her later.

I was very happy when I heard that but I almost became blind when I was getting home. The girl was told that she might get in trouble and get her parents called up if continues to blame others and not giving proof. She decided from that moment that I had to be severely punished for humiliating her. Later on, when school was over and waited for my mom to to pick me up, it was pretty late, maybe around 6 pm. It was the perfect time to beat up someone at school: the school was isolated, only the janitors were working at this time and the principal was still in her office to maybe work on some documents; so, there were no witnesses. I was waiting in front of the school gate then i felt someone grabbing me on the shoulder. I was about to scream but my mouth was instantly shut by her hand. I was pushed to the metal fence and fell to the ground. "That's what you get for embarrassing me!"; the girl punched me in the face so hard and so many times that I still have marks on my face until now. She then held me by the neck, choking me, having a strong urge to kill me, telling me how much she wished I never existed. I really thought I going to die but then, I heard a "Stop hurting her!" from a distance; it was a childish voice of a boy who ran to separate (insert rich girl name) and I {e/n: I ran out of ideas sorry😓}. That boy was him.

"What the heck is wrong with you?! Are you not ashamed of yourself? I'm telling all of this to the principal!"

I was so surprised that he saved me, he then looked back at me with his adorable brown eyes and said "Let's go, Kozaki-san" I felt my heart flutter that he knew my existence; his hand grabbed mine and we ran away to the principal's office. Mrs principal was just about to leave but, fortunately, Hirō bumped into her just in time.

Hirō was panting because he was running a bit too hard but he didn't have to say anything because the woman saw my bruised face. She immediately took the two of us to her office. Mrs principal was a nurse before so she knew how to fix my bruises, she was also questioning Hirō since he was the only witness and he told he truth in all sentences. The woman then called my mom to tell her what happened. The three of us walked to the bus stop to wait for our parents. My mother's black subaru car rolled in and she came out of it within a second and embraced me "Oh honey! I was immensely worried! Oh my, look at your face! What happened?! Oh goodness, thank you m'am for calling me , there was a traffic jam and it was pretty long and-" "It's ok, Mrs Kozaki, no need to justify yourself." interrupted the principal

[...]

We then started to know each other more through our parents. My mom and Hirō's dad were college (best) friends; they were their for each other through their ups and downs for example: the divorce between Hirō's parents. We visit them a lot just like they visit us. One time, the two single parents had a conversation about us :

"These two are really cute together", said Lily (Beth's mom), "I wonder if they'll end up together one day."

"That would really surprise me", Ivan chuckled (Hirō's dad)

"Why's that? Are you scared to become 'the father-in-law of my daughter'?" they laughed and Ivan continued "Ha, no it's not that but, it's my kid you know?"

"What about him?" she asked

"I don't think he's that kind of guy to notice her affection for him. He's too focused on his studies and he might not notice. Just a dense little boy." a silent pause settled "I'm really scared for her you know", he continued, "I'm scared that her heart might be broken because of him when he didn't mean to"

"I would've known because I've been through that once..." Lily sighed "But hey! We're not predicting anything. Who are we to tell them what'll happen with each other?" she chuckled

The parents saw their kids learning  the basics to a board game as giggles and chatter faded in the background. Lily turned to Ivan and patted him on the back and told him to not worry about the kids

"Bethany will be fine. As a matter of fact, she can forgive and forget quite easily." Lily reassured

Little did Ivan knew that Lily was also worried. What if that were to happen? Lily couldn't bear that idea of her heartbroken daughter due to love

Because the last thing a mother wants is her child's broken heart...

Part two will be coming up in a few weeks

Hope you enjoyed the chapter :)