Stars Fell on Tokyo | ✓

12 | summer love

    JULY 1963 

       BY THE END of June, Louanne and Kohei became inseparable but in a friendly way from dawn to dusk. Every day he'd show her all the cool drawings in the world, going over his storyline a thousand times and for the first time since he had a real friend, Louanne listened. The summer sky was filled with youthful laughter as if they were in their own little world but the two didn't mind that it stayed that. Whenever the sun would set, Louanne wished that it would stay up a little longer if it meant that she can spend more time with him. It's not that her grandparents were boring her, if anything, they're great people. They didn't look at her like she was some tattooed alien. It was a shame that her father had to leave all of this behind.

       It was almost a sunny Monday with a few grey clouds rolling by that Louanne began to notice the change in him. Kohei wasn't the same boy who hides behind trees and stutters in his words... sometimes, he was more confident around her and their conversations weren't short this time either. She wore her finest greyish-blue dress along with a nice creamy white short-sleeved sweater and matching colored flats. The color palette of her own had complimented the sky above them while Kohei sported an earth-toned brown shirt and white pants.

       Like always, they met in the alley between their houses that morning and the heat was just right. Louanne was curious about where their adventure will take them next.

       "So where are we going today, Kohei?" Louanne asked.

       "Today is a secret but it's also not a secret," he replied.

       She furrowed her eyebrows at his choice of words. "What?"

       "The secret is—" Kohei takes a step closer to her, cupping the side of his mouth and up to her ear— " it's one of my favorite places in Tokyo besides the Todoroki valley and it's not so much of a secret anymore since I just told you,"

       Technically he didn't.

       "And what's the not-so-secret place then?" Louanne asked.

       He grinned from ear to ear. "You'll have to follow me to find out. It's not too far away from the city and it's kinda hot so I'm sure the place we're going to will be refreshing for you,"

       At that moment, she knew what he was talking about but decided to keep it a secret for him.

       "Alright, lead the way!" She pointed in a direction.

       Kohei took her by the hand and led her down the path which looked like they were going to the train station to Todoroki valley. She admired the softness of his hand as they ran across the street in a frenzy, giggling along the way when they bumped into a couple of people on the sidewalk. They took a sharp left and a right until the two were a few miles away from the city, reaching the forested path.

       "There's a river that runs through Akiruno City, you see in the foothills of Okutama?" he pointed down the road.

       "And where's that?" she asked him.

       "To the west of Tokyo," Kohei cracked another smiled and nodded, "that's where our destination lies,"

       From what she recalled, Louanne didn't remember Hawai'i having a lot of rivers flowing steadily like this, practically she rarely went near them. All she could remember was the waves crashing against the rocks and the water was gently towards the shore, safe for surfers to enjoy. As they wandered deeper into the valley, the sound of running water gets louder by the minute.

       Louanne looked at the water and it could still remind her of home. The way the leaf steadily fell from a tree branch and a single ripple happened as the leaf made contact with the water. Aside from the river in the back, everything else was quiet.