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𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐘.
❛ chapter twelve ❜
"mari, stop being mean!"
the somewhat whiny command, given from the impatient six year old standing in front of him was met with a deep silence that had hung over the eight year old for quite a hefty amount of days now. it wasn't as if he was ignoring him or anything; the little boy with dark circles under his eyes simply did not have the strength to respond to whatever it was his little friend was saying to him. he couldn't, out of fear that if he opened his mouth something much different would come out.
something he could tell nobody.
kiyoshi humphed in annoyance over at mariano who simply continued to rest his head on the wooden table, blinking over at him. the six year old wasn't quite sure what to do, and in fact he was quite hurt that his friend had stopped talking to him. however, he knew him like the back of his hand- mariano did not like talking too much in the first place, and whenever he stopped it was because he was- one, acting like what he was, a spoiled rich kid- two, annoyed (he checked this out as he had done nothing and even given him his snacks cause mariano's maid forgot sometimes)- three, angry (but then he would've been punching him like he did everyone else), or four, sad but too scared to show it.
the six year old hummed quietly as he always did, a sign that he was thinking and therefore his mind was creating, whether it be a noise or the ripple of emotions that caused him to wrinkle his nose at the same time. if mariano was sad, surely he would've told him; he always did, in ways that nobody else could quite decipher but whenever he drew with only blue or purple, kiyoshi knew to hold his best friend's hand even if he didn't tell him he wanted him to.
"mari, i miss you." the younger mumured before sticking up three fingers that his best friend lazily looked over at. "this is how many days you been shush-shush. you do not have to be shush-shush. not even if your papa said so- cuz he will not see you at school or at recess."
the older simply looked up at the younger whom's curls, like always, had been seized by the heat and made somewhat a frizzy, wavy mess that stood up on the top of his head, almost covering his pretty brown eyes. he always looked that way, but mariano liked it. if his hair was always messy, then nobody would find out how cute his hair was and that's how his older friend preferred it. what he did not prefer, however, was the odd ache in his chest whenever the younger wasn't by his side and that was his biggest secret- one he was too scared to whisper when they laid under the blankets with eachother after kiyoshi had hid him once again in his room after his father had gotten mad- one he was too scared to say at lunch when they swamped food because mariano quite liked the white peach juice, ongiri and bits of grilled fish mixed in with rice kiyoshi's mother packed that everybody else found strange (his chopssticks as well) and kiyoshi quite liked to share even more, just as much as he liked the fancy meals mariano's maid packed that his family couldn't afford to buy- one he was too scared to say, even at recess when kiyoshi forced him to hop around like a frog even though mariano called it stupid, yet still ended up doing it no matter how foolish it felt- one he was too scared to admit during art class when kiyoshi scribbled their names together in purple and pink and looked over at him with a large smile that exposed the fact that his third tooth had fell out the other day yet tooth donated to the tooth fairy or not, mariano still loved that stupid, stupid smile.
he hated it.
he hated that he loved that smile- because it meant he was different.
