That Summer

Chapter 17

A couple of days passed and I still couldn't bring myself to tell Haru about what happened to me at the greenhouse. Honestly, I was still trying to process everything. He didn't seem to notice anything different about me and if he did, then he was doing a great job at pretending not to know. I couldn't really think of how to start a conversation about Hana and all the things she told me. I'm pretty sure her name wasn't Hana either. Spiritual beings are really something else with their strange rules and weird connections. That was why I never believed in the supernatural or spiritual world because all these things seemed impossible and unthinkable. But at the same time, I allowed a spiritual being to take me on a journey through time and space so I don't think I really had a say in whether or not this was real or not. Just thinking about this made my head hurt. I've usually under high stress but never experienced headaches like this before. Maybe time traveling and other spiritual powers were taking a toll on my body.

"Since you have less than 2 weeks left, what are your plans?" Haru brought up while I was lying on my bed listening to wooden chimes rattle against each other.

"I wanna hang out with Hiro." I closed my eyes and heard one bamboo fight against other bamboo sticks.

"What about me? He got to see other expressions that I don't get to see. I love looking at your face." I could feel vibrations on the bed from him jumping up and down.

"What are you? A child?" I laughed while keeping my eyes closed.

"Can I at least meet him?" He stopped jumping and I could feel his body crawl closer to mine.

"Why?" I opened my eyes and his face was right above mine.

"I should know who my master is with." He hadn't called me master in a while.

"You're not my pet." I felt like I was trying to tell myself that.

"I miss Kiku." He tried to change the subject.

"I'm sure she misses you too." I felt like I said this before.

"Do you really want to go back home?" His tone became more serious as he laid down next to me.

"Yeah, I can't really stay anyways." I was surprised he asked in such a serious tone.

"Why not?" He really didn't see the problem.

"I'm not from here. The life I live is in a different city. This is all really nice but, this was given to me by you, a spiritual being. Though I'm grateful, I can't possibly accept this." I sat up and grabbed the chrysanthemum I received for the day.

"But I gave it to you willingly. Besides, how do you know what your life was originally supposed to be like?" He said while still lying on the bed.

"You know I still find all this spiritual stuff hard to believe." I opened up about my thoughts.

"After all this time?" His eyes shot open and he scooted himself closer to me.

"Yeah, maybe it's because there's some information you've been hiding so it makes it hard to believe." I started probing.

"Seems like you're fishing for something." He laughed.

"I'm looking for answers," I responded quickly.

"Well, go ahead and ask." He sounded excited.

"Haru, you have to tell me the truth, okay?" I grabbed his hand.

"I will." His tone darkened.

"You knew Hana beforehand, didn't you?" I started.

"Why are you bringing her up after all this time?" He sounded confused.

"Haru." I needed him to stay on the subject.

"Yes, I did." He scratched the back of his head almost as if he was ashamed for keeping this piece of information from me.

"How do you know her?" I was curious to see what he had to say because he didn't know I had an awful encounter with her the other day.

"She always had a thing for caring for flowers." He wasn't necessarily lying.

"How much does she know about us?" I continued interrogating.

"She probably knows that you are from the past. She probably knows who you are too. But that's all I can say." He muttered.

"She's a very powerful spiritual being isn't she?" I beat around the bush.

"What makes you think she's a spiritual being?" He sounded shocked.

"Is she not?" I asked.

"Why are you bringing her up?" He seemed irritated.

"Haru, is there something you're not telling me?" I also felt irritated.

"What do you mean?" He sounded like a robot as if he was being controlled.

"When you said that you became my pet, you really meant it, didn't you?" I felt his hand tighten around mine while he looked down unable to look at me in the eyes.

"It was on my own accord." He sounded so serious.

"It was the moment I gave you a name, wasn't it?" I recalled our first meeting in my room.

"It's not your fault though. I asked you to give me a name." He still tightly held my hand.

"I know you keep a lot of secrets. I don't really care to ask too much. However, if those secrets pertain to me, then I feel like I have a right to know." I reasoned with him.

"They say humans are reckless creatures. Sometimes it takes spiritual beings to save them." He let go of my hand and get off the bed.

"Haru, are you allowed to tell me?" I looked up at him.

"It's not the right time." He reached out his hand towards my forehead and the last thing I remember was seeing his hand cover my eyes.

I woke up to the sounds of a now comforting wooden chime slowly ringing back and forth. My eyes winced in the morning light as I tried to open them. I moved my fingers and I felt something in my left hand. It was a white chrysanthemum. I slowly sat up to adjust myself the natural light filling the room. But as I did my right hand bumped into something on the bed. I looked to my side and saw Haru lying there in human form. He is usually in the form of some animal so it was strange to see him look like a young man. He looked the same when he was awake because his eyes are always closed when I looked at him. The only difference was that his taunting grin wasn't there. He had a straight face that I saw for the first time. I was so used to seeing his smile it was almost terrifying to see him so serious recently.

"It's cold." I pulled the comforter over his body.

"You're warmer." He said, suddenly grabbed my wrist.

"Oh, so you're awake?" I was unfazed by his strange antics.

"You're noisy." He turned the other way.

"Haru, you purposely made me fall asleep, didn't you?" I threw a pillow at him.

"For someone who usually sleeps during breaks, you are really active in the morning." He lazily sat up and squinted his eyes at me.

"Our conversation isn't over." I jumped off the bed and headed to the closet.

"Where are you going?" He sounded like a puppy.

"I want to see Hiro." I changed my clothes into a nice gray dress and heels.

"Why?" He got off the bed and stood in front of the closet doorway blocking my path.

"Because being with Hiro would be more productive than going back and forth with you just to get some answers." I slipped out under his arms and walked out of the bedroom.

"It seems like you figured something else out with such a determined expression." I heard him murmur.