Say "I Love You" - Kimi Ni Todoke

9

A/n: bold = Shota, italics = Sawako

Sawako thought that she would be prepared by the time he wanted to sit down and talk about his memories. She never thought that he would remember this soon so, naturally, she didn't know what to do. She didn't know how much he remembered either but she wouldn't want him to resent her at any point simply because she didn't tell him as soon as they were reunited. According to her, there was absolutely nothing she could do now other than to tell him everything if he asked the dreaded question.

Whilst being lost in her hurricane of thoughts, Shota noticed that something was off and began to question whether or not he should ask her about the strange dream that he had during the night. His eyes searched hers looking to see if it was okay for him to ask her, and he was met with fear and worry and confusion. His hand traced her arm as he clasped one of her hands in his and led her to the table in the dining room. She seemed almost out of it, as if she wasn't really there, but he made sure to carefully direct her to the location.

"I know that this is a really weird question and you'll probably avoid me after this for asking you this question, but, have we met before? As in, did we know each other when we were younger?"

Not exactly the question she was expecting but at least she wouldn't have to 'spill' everything that she knows. Of course, she didn't know every detail, only parts where she was present or involved so Shota would eventually have to ask his parents and that was exactly what she was afraid of. If his parents found out that she was still alive and that she knew even the tiniest bit about the secrets they had tried so hard to keep out of the media, they would go after her and get rid of her just like they did to her parents and she couldn't allow that to happen. She had to live her life for her parents so that they would be able to see the kind of woman she would become, even though they weren't physically with her. But now she was getting ahead of herself. None of this might even happen. Shota might not remember everything, but she would have to answer his questtion first if she wanted to find out what he knew.

"Well you could say that. Why do you want to know?"

"I've just always felt like I have known you, since the moment I saw you in the park. You just had a familiar atmosphere around you. And I had a strange dream last night."

This spiked her attention. What dream? Being the curious person that she is, she knew that she would have to ask otherwise it would continue to dig into her until she finally asked him.

"What happened in the dream...?"

She braced herself for the worst...

"It was really weird, and it didn't really seem like a random dream. It was more like a memory. I don't know. You probably think I'm really weird now huh? But yeah, so it felt like a memory. I don't want to make you upset when I tell you what happened but there isn't a way for me to say this without being blunt and saying it how it is. In the dream, you and I were children and there were a few gunshots. We were running away from some muscular guys that were trying to separate us. I can't remember exactly what happened and I don't exactly want to go into detail, but the last thing I remember was blacking out while you were being dragged away from me, crying you eyes out. And then I woke up. I think I might be going a bit crazy here. What do you think?"

Shota was now acting shy and scratching the back of her head while Sawako was in absolute turmoil, even if she wasn't showing it. How was he being so calm? Here she was wondering about the worst case scenario and he was only wondering if he sounded like a weirdo.

"Okay...I can tell you everything I know but you're going to have to take this seriously and try as hard as possible to not be offended. And, you can't tell your parents about me or what I'm about to tell you. What happened in your dream, what you remembered? It's real... I don't exactly know where to start as it seems as though you don't remember everything but we used to be really close. Our parents were close friends and had been since the start of university. They were all best friends actually. Their bonds with each other became even stronger when your parents started a romantic relationship, and soon after, mine did the same.

I don't know exactly what happened during their university years, but I do know that afterwards they were all separated as they followed their degrees and such. Your parents were the first to reunite out of the group because, as you know, they are both part of the business industry. They fell in love... again and they thought about how great it would be to have a group reunion so they met with my parents in the US.

For a time, everything was perfect. They were all friends and did anything and everything together and soon your parents and my parents got married. At the same place I think. Might have been at the same time but maybe that's a bit too cliche.

I think, after that things began to change. Your parents started to become more secretive as your family's company became more and more well known, and eventually, they started to brush off my parents as if they were never friends in the first place.

I'm not going to go into too many details as we could be here for a very long time and I'm sure that you have other places to be so let's just say that your parents got into contact with the wrong kind of people to get more money invested into their business. Long story short, my parents found out and yours wanted to make sure that they kept their mouths shut. I know for a fact that my parents would never tell anyone because your parents were still their precious friends. I think that deep down your parents must have known that, but they got rid of them anyway. They tried to get rid of me too. I overheard my parents talking about what happened one night and somehow, your parents found out and they tried to get rid of me too. Your dream was all too real. After that, my uncle found me. I was in your basement. I kept on hearing your voice and wanted to shout out but I couldn't. You wouldn't have understood and you would have grown up without parents if my uncle had told the media about what had happened. I'm going to stop talking now. This is probably too much information for you to process right now. I'll be in my room if you need me."