"My Eminent Serenity" | chapter 14
The time for Tanabata, or star, festival was approaching as the people in Japan started to hang papers containing their wishes on a bamboo as part of their tradition. Ayako did the same when she passed by a decorated bamboo standing on the entrance of the train station. She hung a blue paper and prayed that the gods would make her wishes come true. The celebration for the festival would be held at the end of the week and she couldn't hide her excitement upon the event.
'Tou-san and Kaa-san will be coming home on Tanabata festival...' She thought.
When she arrived home from school, their telephone rang. She immediately ran from the door towards the ringing phone and answered it, "Moshi moshi... Kaa-san!!! Hai... hai... n-nani?" Her eyes widened. "Y-you can't come home this weekend?" She repeated what she heard as a tear uncontrollably flowed from her left eye, wetting her cheek.
"Of course," She wiped the tear dry with the back of her hand as she controlled her trembling voice, "Yeah, I understand! Please do take care. Bye bye..."
Then she replaced the telephone and plummeted unto the floor. She sobbed as she cupped her face with her hands, tears started to burst... Ayako was in anguish.
Yuto flipped his phone and dialed a number. He was bound to spend the 1-hour waiting time for his part of a magazine interview making his homework when he got bored. He waited for someone to answer but it was a failure, he heard a recorded voice telling him to just leave a message. He pouted and pressed redial.
'Just one more time and I'll stop this...' He won't surrender that immediately.
This time, he made it.
"Moshi moshi..." A person answered in a low tone.
He smiled, not noticing about the tone of the person on the other line. "Moshi moshi Aya-chan!! How are you?"
He heard her sniffing, "I'm fine..."
His face turned sour, "You don't sound like you're fine."
"I seriously am..." And another sniffing sound.
"You've cried?" He wildly guessed.
He caught her. "No, no... I just have colds, yeah... colds!" Her alibi sounded like a lie.
"You couldn't acquire colds in this kind of weather. Tell me, what happened?"
He heard nothing from the other line. He thought she was crying again but waited for her to say something,
"T-they won't be coming home. I hate them!" Her voice sounded so broken.
Finally, everything made sense. "Your parents? Why?" He inquired, worry was on his voice.
"Something came up with the foreign investors that will be supporting one of the government's projects and they needed to talk to them. They don't know when they can settle it..." She explained. "I'm sorry for sounding so stupid... this isn't the first time they did to us but it still hurts, you know..."
"Ahh, sou desu ne..." Yuto couldn't find the exact words to say. He could feel her pain but he didn't know what to do to ease her burden.
An idea crossed his mind, "Hmm, why don't we go out during the weekend? It's Tanabata festival anyway! You can forget about it for a while..." He sounded cheering her.
"EH?!" She blurted. 'G-go out... with him... for the Tanabata festival? Is he serious?' She thought. "Won't you have any performances on that day?"
"We have but we will just be performing one show so we will have more time to celebrate with everyone for the festival!" He explained.
"Ahh..."
"So, you're on it?" He asked, finalizing everything.
"Maaa~ I guess I will...." She answered, still hesitant of going out with him. 'At least this might take away my depression for a while.'
To think of it, they would be mingling with so many people if they would join the festival which would be a bit of dangerous for the both of them. Him <-- being a famous celebrity; her <-- being the girl with the celebrity.
'Maybe this is a fatal idea...' She thought.
"I'll take that as yes!" He cheerfully exclaimed.
She sighed. She realized that she had stopped crying already. Never did she imagine that Yuto would be the one to save her from despair.
'Really, really a fatal one...'
-x-x-x-
"NANIIII???"
Ayako heard her friend Michiko freaked out at the sight of their assignments for the summer vacation sprawled on top of a table.
Michiko was frustrated. Ayako was already half-way finished with their 'work' but she hadn't started anything yet.
"What are you doing the whole time then? It's been two weeks since our vacation started!" Ayako asked while trying all her might not to lose sight from a novel she was reading.
She was in Michiko's house. Her friend persuaded her to pay a visit the day before the festival, so they could talk about their assignments before plunging their selves into the bliss of festival mania.
"I told you, we went to Osaka last week then I did fan-girling then some random stuffs that I've never done during school periods like shopping and others." She enumerated.
Ayako sighed. 'So she never started a thing yet...'
"Can I copy yours?" She asked, mimicking a cute puppy's face.
'She failed.' Ayako thought. 'I think I've seen this kind of face already... When was it? Hmm...'
"Please Aya-chan!!!" She continued pleading.
Ayako gasped. She remembered Yuto also pleading her using that weird and failed imitation of a cute puppy's eyes. 'Why on earth are they staining puppies' reputation on being pitiful?' She smiled at her thoughts.
Michiko peeked behind the book that Ayako was reading and saw her smiling, "You'll let me copy your assignment already?"
"Yeah, fine! Just don't include the essay parts; the teacher may say we're duplicating answers." She finally agreed with curled brows.
"Yosh!" Michiko exclaimed as she cuddled on her friend's side.
Ayako was disturbed with her actions, "Oi, stop it! I'm still reading!"
"Hehehe!" Michiko giggled as she moved away from her. "By the way Aya-chan, do you have any plans for the Tanabata festival?"
Ayako's eyes widened at her question. She remembered the conversation she had with Yuto last night. "Y-yeah, I already have."
"Really! I was about to ask you to come with us. I know your oneechan will be working so you'll be alone but you have plans already, which surprised me. Who are you going with?" She inquired curiously.
"N-neh??" She got baffled, 'Should I tell her the truth?' "J-just with a friendly neighbor..." She smiled nervously.
"Owh, a neighbor..." Her eyes narrowed, "How interesting..."
'I'm a goner if she'll ask me more things about who I'm going with... SHE SHOULDN'T KNOW WHO THE HECK IS MY NEIGHBOR!' Her thoughts freaked out.
"Anyway, have you heard about the Tanabata festival tale?" Michiko asked, changing the topic.
Ayako almost wanted to put herself out of the sofa where she was sitting in relief. Luckily, her friend has the knack at reading the atmosphere of situations and Ayako was happy she didn't ask anything more about that sensitive topic... though she was guilty hiding something from her.
"What tale? The one we had in Literature class?" She asked in an uninterested tone. She was tired of hearing that tale over and over again from her late grandmother.
"No, the Tanabata confession tale!" She revealed, trying to get her friend's attention.
Ayako's eyes narrowed and she looked at Michiko, "What? Confession tale? There is something like that?" Her book was now on her lap. She was completely drawn by her voice.
She nodded, "Yeah! It says that after the fireworks display and the people's noise have died down, anyone who will confess to the one they like near the TokyoBay will surely be responded positively because of the goddess Orihime and Hikoboshi's love for each other which became the basis of the festival!" She explained, "Well, as what we've learned in the Literature class, Orihime and Hikoboshi were separated due to Tantei-sama's orders, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Then Tantei-sama was moved because Orihime was pleading hardly to see her husband so he let them see each other every Tanabata festival! Then, on their way on meeting each other, they'll also bless those people whose hearts will also be meeting... so that's it!"
"Really.... that's so trivial Michi-chan! I wonder where you get those kinds of stories!!" She said in disbelief.
Michiko smiled with pride, "You know that I'm into anything that promotes the development of our culture, ne! ~"
Ayako went back to what she was reading, 'Yeah, you're really a trivial person!'
"Oh another thing," She muttered.
Ayako tilted her head to looked at her friend, "What?"
"Take note of the weather!"
"What weather?"
"If it will rain during the festival, the magpies that helped Orihime and Hokiboshi to meet again couldn't come so the lovers will need to wait another year to meet again. The same goes with the confession tale. Rain is not a nice sign. It will mean that either the relationship that formed on the raining festival day won't last long or the confession will be an epic failure!"
"R-really!!! What a catch!" Ayako blurted, 'So rain is the great sign! W-wait, why am I so interested? I'm not confessing to anyone on the festival! What the...'
"So Aya-chan, before you go the festival, check the weather report first, okay?" She sounded reminding her.
"Haa?! Why would I? Wait, why do you sound like I'll be confessing to anyone?" She asked, being defensive and insulted at the same time.
"Confessing? I'm not saying you're confessing to anyone.... You're the one who said it yourself!" She said, teasing her.
Ayako 's eyes widened, "H-hey! You're tricking me!"
"Oi, don't put words on my mouth dear. I'm not tricking anyone!" She said, in the verge of laughing.
Ayako flustered, "Stop it Michi-chan!!!"
"Hahahaha!!!" Michiko laughed as she rolled on the floor. "Gotcha! Hahaha!!"
"I'm not!!!" She yelled as she covered her face with the book. 'What the heck... this doesn't sound good. Why am I being defensive anyway! WAAAAAH!'
-x-x-x-
Lying on her comfortable bed, Ayako pondered about what happened in Michiko's house. The confession tale did really get her interest but she never planned on confessing to anyone, much more to the one she would be going with -- Yuto.
She knew she liked him, adored him, idolized him, looked up at him, and maybe loved him at some point but she also knew the golden rule of friendship, 'If you don't wanna lose the closeness you have with a person, never try to fall in love with him or her'.
She sighed. A scene of memory crossed her mind. It was during the time when Yamada was helping her choose a gift for Yuto's birthday.
'Himeji-san... honestly, do you like Yuto-kun?' His deep and wonderful voice filled her ears with delight but his question got her heart pounding.
'Nehh?' A tint of red flashed across her cheeks, 'Maa~ I guess I do. He's not that difficult to like...'
'Then why don't you tell him?' Yamada immediately countered.
The tint of red on her face turned into blushes, 'T-tell him?' She stuttered.
'Yeah! Like confess to him first or something... I know Yuto-kun for a while already and I think he likes you back!'
She wanted to float. She couldn't contain what he was saying anymore, 'Seriously? B-but... I can't confess to him... T-that is... unimaginable! I have never confessed to anyone my whole life!'
Yamada smiled, 'Daijoubo! Things will unfold according to what has been planned. If you'll end up together, then no one can stop you, not even the destiny itself'.
She looked at him with bewilderment.
"I'm still wondering what Yamada was talking about on that time..." She muttered as she looked at her white ceiling. "But he said he thinks Yuto-kun likes me... He only thinks. Nothing can prove it. It's all theory! Yamada-kun's judgment could be wrong. Maybe he just looks at me as a good friend. B-but, I can gamble."
She sighed again.
"No, I couldn't gamble our friendship like this." She shut her eyes as confusion drowned her.
She thought about it, did self-brainstorming and compared all the consequences. Then, she arrived at a final decision, "Okay... I'll put this all on a sign. After the fireworks display, at exactly 8 in the evening, if the rain falls then I won't be confessing but if it won't, then that confession will happen!"
She thought of what her decision was again. 'Could I really tell him that I like him?'
"This is all too stupid!!!" She blurted out and covered her face with her pillow.
-x-x-x-
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