Feels Like the First Time

Chapter Sixteen - A Day Out

Takashi had left after drinking his tea and giving me a kiss which had sent my heart racing. He'd given me an hour and a half to get ready while he went home and changed. I definitely didn't have time to wash my hair, which took at least an hour and a half to air dry and I couldn't use a hairdryer on it, so I quickly washed and started to put on my make-up.

I did a soft pink look on my eyes with a subtle eyeliner, my not-too-heavy foundation and a touch of dusky rose lipstick that was just a few shades darker than my natural lip colour. 30 minutes left. I rifled through my wardrobe checking over several dresses and skirts as I could already hear the wind outside. I finally landed on a pair of dark wash, wide leg jeans that I thought would do the job. I went back through to try to find a top that would work with them and found a loose button up shirt in a purple plaid and a tunic style black V-neck that came in at the waist and had long flowy sleeves.

The bra will decide, I thought, throwing both shirts onto my unmade bed and yanking open my underwear draw. My favourite matching set of red satin under black lace had been worn yesterday, only to be thrown somewhere in the room later. There was a possibility of a similar scenario so I wanted to feel good about the underwear but it couldn't be too much in case we did a lot of walking. I found a comfy but cute pair of black knickers that came up high on my hips with lace hems and decided to wear my trusty bra that had a wide band and slightly padded cups. Although they weren't matching, I knew they were good so I quickly changed into them and started thinking about the shirt. A quick glance in the mirror told me I was having a good boob day so I went for the black V-neck. That same glance also told me that I was not having a good hair day so I spent my last ten minutes fixing my hair into the perfect French plait.

At exactly the time we'd agreed on, there was a knock on my door. I couldn't help the small skip I did on my way to answer it and the resulting grin when I found Takashi on the other side.

"I just need to put my shoes on and then I'm ready." I informed him as I left the door open to go back into my room. I picked up a pair of socks and my purple trainers. I knew they didn't go but I didn't care, they were comfy and I loved them. Moving back to sit on my sofa, I smiled at Takashi in the doorway as I put my shoes and socks on.

"Let's go," I sang, grabbing my handbag and shoving my keys into it as we left.

* * * *

"I can't wait to see the cherry blossoms." I mumbled to myself as Takashi and I made our way through Kansen-en park, which I walked through most days to get to University. The previously lush green leaves were just starting to turn and fall.

"Why?" Takashi asked, surprising me. I looked over my shoulder at him to see him gazing at me with a slight frown. My mouth automatically opened to start to tell him why I was so excited about the cherry blossoms but an image of me telling a similar story to Nick and his eyes glazing over had me pause.

"They're supposed to be pretty, I guess." I shrugged in response. I instantly felt Takashi's hand on my elbow, trying to turn me towards him.

"Why?" He asked again when I was facing him and an annoyed voice in my head wondered how he had guessed.

"It's a bit of a long story, and I can get carried away. I don't want to bore you." I explained and started moving down the path again.

"Okay." He responded, nudging me gently with his elbow to signal me to continue. I looked at him once more nervously but the calm, interested look on his face made my decision.

"When I first learnt about Japanese theatre, I learnt about Noh and the cultural developments of the Muromachi period." I paused to look at him to make sure he was following, the calm look he gave me encouraged me to continue. "Buddhism seemed to be so deeply integrated into the culture of the time, well, and Shinto, and it fascinated me. That's a lot of what I did my masters on. The philosophies behind Buddhism especially really impacted the cultural developments so I looked into them more. I remember reading this book about the cherry blossoms and evanescence and aware and thinking "This is exactly it!". It was a feeling that I'd experienced before, aware, I mean, you know when you look at something and all of a sudden you realise that nothing lasts forever and you get this weird ... feeling. Aware, I guess. I'd never heard it described before and to see it written down in such an eloquent way and describing something so popular like the sakura ... it blew my mind." At this I paused again, I looked over to him nervously realising I started to ramble. My nerves went up a notch when I found him staring at the ground as we walked. I quickly apologised, moving my eyes to the ground also and trying not to think about how awkward this was.