You Promised Me Forever

Chapter 2

Haruki. Age 5. Summer.

"Kaori-chan? Haru-kun! Where are you?" Takeji calls out. I tiptoe to under a slide, but nearly scream when I find Kaori there too.

"Haruki-kun! Get your own hiding spot!" Kaori hisses at me with a glare.

"I'm gonna lose if I leave now! Come on, please let me stay!" I whisper back.

"Oh, fine," she rolls her eyes and I plop down next to her. We listen to Takeji continue calling for us and trying to trick us or claiming he's close by though he's actually on the other side of the playground.

"Man, there's no way you guys are actually under the slide, right?" He calls out and we both slap our hands to our mouths to stifle our giggles.

"Shh!" Kaori puts a finger over her lips. We can hear him walking over but this doesn't stop our snickers. However, this does make us both giddy with excitement.

"Okay! Haru-kun, here you are!" Takeji pokes his head on Kaori's side of the slide and he looks surprised. "Oh, or Kaori-chan? Well, since I found you both, I guess there's no winner. But like we agreed earlier, I'll pack everything up so we can go back home, okay?"

"No way! Who'd you see first?" I jump up and hit my head on the slide.

"Geez, Haruki-kun, are you okay?" Kaori puts her hand on my head and I blush. Takeji suddenly disappears so I take this opportunity to slap her hand away and hiss at her.

"Don't touch my hair like that! Besides, you like Take anyway!"

Kaori's eyes widen and a light blush floods her cheeks. "Who told you that?"

"So it's true? You like Take?"

"...Yes," she nods after a while and looks down before adding on. "You aren't going to tell him, right?"

"...No, of course not. That's not my place."

"Are you mad?"

"No. I don't care as long as you don't leave me for him."

"Why would I ever do that? You're my friend, I'm not going to abandon you for anything."

"Really?"

"Yeah. If we leave each other, it's because we agree to it, okay? You're very important to me, Haruki-kun."

"Okay, then let's make a pact. We will stay as best friends. We won't leave each other behind unless the other person wants to for a really good reason or we both agree to it. Otherwise, even if we fight or go far away from the other, even if we don't say good morning every day to each other, let's stay friends."

"Forever," Kaori held out her pinky.

"Forever," I wrap my own around hers. We both share a smile and get out from under the slide while Takeji comes over to us.

"That was our first promise," Kaori speaks just above a whisper, looking in the direction of the setting sun.

"You better be good at keeping promises, because I already vowed to myself to never break mine."

"Hehe, okay. I guess I'll promise myself that too."

"...Good."