We entered the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor but this time we were not the only ones in the elevator. Along with us was an old lady who was standing there wearing a pure white dress and had a hat over her head probably to protect her from the sun. She looked at the two of us and just smiled lightly. We smiled back at her and were back to waiting for the elevator to descend.
We have seen her a couple of times before. She lived on the same floor as us. Apparently, she lived on her own since her daughter is currently living out of the country. But she didn’t since her husband died here in Japan. Tired of all this, she bought this apartment along with a person to take care of her since she couldn’t herself do that.
"Are you two going to the festival today?" she asked us, surprising both of us. She rarely ever reply back to us when we talked to her before. "Why are you looking so surprised?"
"Um…" I stuttered a bit. "I-It’s just that in our meetings before, you have never really talked to us so we thought you don’t really like talking to others."
"Oh my, it’s nothing like that. It’s just that I thought I would be interrupting you two," she replied, making both Ai and I blush. "You both look so adorable together. Just like how I used to with my husband."
"Thank you, ma’am," Ai said bowing down in respect and she placed her head on Ai’s head lightly.
Seeing this scene from an outsider’s perspective feels quite soothing for some reason. It brought a little smile to my face as she started patting Ai’s head.
"No need to thank me for anything," she said and laughed a bit. "It’s just seeing young love before my eyes again. It’s been some time and it’s lovely seeing you two together. I wish you both stay beside each other your entire lives."
Ting
The sound chimed in the elevator as the door opened to the ground floor. Both Ai and I stepped out and turned back seeing the lady still in the elevator wondering why she did not step out.
"Have a nice day you two," she said as the elevator doors were closing. "We will meet soon."
As the elevator door closed in front of us, we both looked at each other, confused by what she said. But we decided to shrug it off. Ai grabbed my hand and we walked out of the building onto the streets. Now, Ai latched onto my arm as her body temperature was helping a lot in fighting the awful heat of summer. If it wasn’t for her, I am sure I would have been having a really bad time during these months.
"So, where should we go first? You are the boss today," I said to Ai who was grinning at me for some reasoning and my guts were telling me something was wrong.
"Let’s head to the Yukata store first," she said enthusiastically and started dragging me with her.
We got ourselves a taxi which Ai made to halt right before us and I had no idea where this Yukata store was. Only Ai had an idea about it and she showed the place on her phone to the taxi driver and all he did was nod. For some reason, I felt a bit nervous on the way. It was not because of Ai resting her head on my shoulder. I have already gotten used to those things but I had this weird feeling in me. My guts were screaming at me to run away.
As far as I was concerned, Ai was surely taking us to a Yukata store but I have no idea what all this surprise thing was about. Only did I realize later on arriving why I wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place. I don’t belong here.
"You are finally here," Haruka said, waving at us from a distance.
I looked at Ai and all she did was smile at me. Only then did I realize something. I didn’t have to remind Ai about the festival. She had already planned everything for today. I thought I was the one who came up with the idea but she had already thought everything out. I was dancing in the palm of her hand the entire time.
"Okay tell me what is going on," I said standing before Ai, Haruka, Asumi, and Sakura who had a bit plushy in her hand for some reason.
"Well…the thing is…" Ai started saying while playing with her hair. "Asumi’s family owns this store and we always came here if we wanted Yukata for any reason. It was really convenient too since we got it at a really cheap price."
"I get that but then why am I here?" I asked, still uncertain of what the real reason for all this was.
"So that you can get along with my friends more," Ai said. "I thought that would be nice since you don’t really have any friends in school yourself, Kazu-kun."
"Guh!!"
That single line was enough to make a large hole in my heart. It definitely was a critical hit. I stumbled back holding my heart taking in the hit I just got from my girlfriend. I know this is true but she could be more subtle about it. Or not say that at all.
"Ai-chan, I think you were too blunt," Haruka said while nudging her shoulder at Ai. "You just depleted Kazuki-kun’s life to half."
"I think even more than that," Asumi said.
"Oh wait, Kazu-kun! I didn’t mean it in that way!!" she shouted holding the almost dead me. "I meant it like…like…um…"
"It’s alright Ai," I said in a weak voice looking the other way. "I know I am a loner so I should be accepting that fact without any problem."
"Noooo! I am so sorry!!"
When we got Ai to finally calm down and stop apologizing, we entered the sh– No, I think calling it a shop would just be disrespectful. It’s because it looked like a mall of itself, stretching to as far as the eye can see. Everywhere you look, there were Yukatas. There were yukatas on the walls, first before us. On the tables, everywhere. This looked less of a shop and more of a storage area by the sheer amount of yukatas there were.
And don’t even get me started about the different options you could get. I don’t think I have seen these many colors in my entire life as the colors I saw in just one section of the mall. Some of them were even colors that I didn’t even know existed. Why are there so many shades of blue? It’s my favorite color and even I had no idea it could have so many shades. Why do they look so similar? How many things can you possibly make on a yukata? I was honestly overwhelmed at this point.
"So are you getting one?" Asumi asked who was standing beside me.
"Wait, where is Ai?" I asked her, to which she pointed at the corner of the shop. I could see Ai being dragged by Haruka, who is getting almost every Yutaka she can touch.
"She loves making Ai into her dress-up doll," she said, and I laughed. "Are you getting one?"
"Me? I don’t think I will really. I mean, I have never really tried wearing one and it seems like a hassle. Moreover, I am afraid I might get it dirty right before the festival," I explained.
"Nothing to worry about that. We chose our yukatas around this time and came back here to change. We have multiple changing rooms so there is nothing much to worry about," she said. "So…how did you and Ai even meet and get together?"
"Didn’t Ai tell you already?" I asked her and she shrugged her shoulders. "So you want to know the story from my side?"
"I have been friends with Ai since we were in the first year of middle school. We got in the same high school luckily so I have known her pretty well. Despite the way she looks, she is pretty naïve sometimes too," she said. "I just don’t want her to have a broken heart."
As those words left her mouth, I just stood there silently. No words were exchanged for some time. We both just stood there, not saying anything and not moving too. If we were to stop our breath at that time, I am sure someone would have mistaken us for statues. I took a deep breath and looked at Asumi.
"Well…to be completely fair it all started one day when I woke up and turned around seeing her laying down right next to me in my apartment," I started and just heard Asumi cough out loudly.
"Wait what?" she said going up close to me.
"Hey, hey, calm down. You asked for a story from my perspective. I am telling you the story from my perspective so be patient with me here," I said pushing her away. "It was the day when both I and Ai started going to school together. Long story short, she confessed to me on that day itself but I made her wait for some time. I didn’t want to say yes to her right away just because she was beautiful. It is because I wanted to know more about her to feel the same towards her. The same was she does towards me."
"Why not turn her down then?" Asumi asked tilting her head.
"Let’s just say there were very bad consequences to that," I said, trying to be as vague as possible. "That and I somehow knew I would fall for her. And boy did I fall for her really bad. So bad that I doubt I might not be able to go back from there. And thank you."
"Huh? Why thank me?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.
"For being such a good friend to Ai. She really needed someone like you," I said with a hint of sadness in my voice. "For being by her side when I was not."
"Don’t mention," she said, hitting my shoulder lightly. "I can see why Ai fell for you."
"Maybe."
During that conversation one sentence, I said stuck to me somehow. Not being by her side before. I wonder what would have happened if I have met Ai way before in the past. Would I have still been acting the same way as I did or maybe I would have run away from her thinking she is crazy? That could also have been an outcome for me back then. But right now is different since…let’s just say books have a lot more power than one thinks there can be in it. Some are powerful enough to even change a person’s life, changing how they see this world.
I looked up to see Haruka and Sakura walking toward me and the silhouette of Ai was following them from behind. Both Haruka and Sakura had big smiles on their face as they walk slowly toward us. Once they got near, they both stopped in their tracks and Haruka had a big grin formed on her face.
"Kazuki-kun, did you ever think that Ai-chan could look prettier than she currently does?" she asked me a weird question.
"If you are talking about the Ai I know…" I said and took a dramatic pause. "…it’s possible. It’s still possible for her to just blow me away by her beauty."
"Eeep!"
As soon as I said that we all heard a cute squeal from Ai right behind Haruka and Sakura and all four of us laughed at just how cute she is when she is flustered. Well, she is the cutest of all.
"Well then…prepared to be blown away," she said and both Haruka and Sakura stepped aside.
Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.
My eyes widened as I just stood there dumbstruck as I look at the heavenly sight in front of me right now. There were other people too in the building and all eyes were on one direction, on Ai. She was wearing a dark blue yukata with a white floral design on it. Her hair was tied up in a high bun and she twirled showing her entire yukata and she had a red belt on holding the entire thing together. I have never seen her in a yukata before but now that I had I was more than sure that there was no way that I could not be amazed by just how pretty she is but that was not it.
She had a big smile on her face which looked a bit childish but I could tell that Ai was enjoying herself a lot and I was really happy about it. Since we have been busy with all the fuss, we hadn’t had enough time to go out and enjoy things but today was different. Today I made up my mind about one thing.
Make this day the best day ever for Ai. No matter what.
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