The sky was very sunny indeed. It was the brightest sunny day that the silver haired young man had ever seen since the last battle he and his party did together. He sure missed those times, but his time in Inaba was asking a harsh permission for him to come back to his real place. He could not possibly argue with his parents though—they were doing their jobs overseas and they had finally come back.
It was always in a very bad time indeed. Just when Souji had those strong bonds surrounded him. But he didn't regret it. He knew that when he connected himself to all of his friends that someday, there would be a time for them to say their goodbyes. And this was it.
But, there was a hole in his determination. He felt not up to this situation. He felt afraid and dreaded to lose everything—to lose Rise in the progress.
He knew the consequences when he backed Rise up, gave her the courage and gave in his lovely, drunk emotion to make this wonderful relationship between him and that redhead. They knew that they couldn't meet up as often as they wanted to be. Rise would be back in her showbiz at spring, and he needed to continue his study in an utterly new place he needed to adapt.
But they did promise to not forget and will always keep closely connected to each other.
No matter, he needed to hurry. He hasn't packed some of his things before his departure. But suddenly, a text message arrived on his cellphone. Supposedly it was from Rise. He reserved his favourite ringtone for his dearly beloved.
'I want us to meet at our usual place … It's urgent, and it's important. OK senpai? See u there! – with love, Rise'
He blinked a few times, just to make sure he didn't read the text wrong. He wondered on why Rise texted him, usually she just frankly calls him directly to his cellphone. He detected some unusual problems. So he hurried himself after he pardoned himself to Doujima in the living room.
He rushed his way through the hill, that place where Rise spilled every of her true intentions back when they were in case. His heart felt broke, as if something bad really was going to happen with Rise. He decided to be a cold head and decided to stay calm. But for some reasons, he just couldn't do that. His heart was still pondering about Rise's safety, because she used the words 'urgent' and 'important'. He wouldn't want to be late.
He just felt not good, and he was an eager beaver to know what would make Rise said urgent.
"Rise!" he shouted after he arrived at the hill. He found Rise was putting her concentration on the view before she broke it and saw his gasping figure.
"Ah, senpai! You finally arrive!—what happened to you?" she asked while she was enclosing her steps to him, she looked at the gasping Souji who was running out of oxygen, "I'm sorry that I made you rushed your way like this!" she apologised, "But I don't know why, I felt happy by you doing so," she tittered.
Seeing his lover was giving him enthusiastic gleeful chuckles, he couldn't help but to smile and went along to chuckle with her instead, and then he decided to speak up, "Don't worry about me, but how about you? What was it that urgent? I couldn't help but to …" he looked deeply unto Rise's eyes, "… worried about you," he looked away because he was to hide his blush from her.
Rise gave him a giggle and a shy embarrassment. Both of them were flushed, they were in their happy moments—just before they remembered that they would be apart very soon—very soon indeed.
"Senpai," she broke their silence, "Come on, let's sit down." She walked to the benches in the hill and offered a hand to the young man behind her.
After they sat for a while, Souji looked at that beauty. Those people who were to call her Risette were not wrong on how charming Rise was. He silently gave thanks to Yosuke who gave him the information about Risette before they had gone to meet her face-to-face for the first time.
"You know senpai … I know what you're thinking right now," she suddenly said, curling her pink hair and looked down on the ground. That made Souji broke his wondering and jerked up, "Don't worry about our relationship—don't worry about your bonds with your friends."
"What do you mean by that, Rise?" he asked. He felt that she didn't make it very clear to him.
"I meant that … You have been through a lot, and look at you …" she pointed her slim pale finger to his chest, "You are maturing. Your voice has changed ever since we last met. That's the same when you have been going through for Inaba—for us—for me," she said.
Souji looked at Rise again before he decided to glance over the beautiful sunny sky he complimented an hour ago. He didn't know what to answer—or to say, "I think I know what my mind is troubled by now," he pointed his finger to Rise, "It's all because of you, Rise."
"Up until now, I know the consequences on meeting and to be in relationship with you. I would have to say goodbye to you earlier than I could have expected. Spring will go by and you will go from my side." He added.
"But not entirely gone from your life, right?" she added.
"Certainly, but I'll miss you, a lot. And I will miss the others too," he said.
"Time flows, senpai. You know that even though you won't go away to your parents' place, I'll still keep back on the showbiz this spring too," she said, "But to tell you the truth, even though I looked like that I don't really want to go back to the showbiz and be separated with you, I don't feel regret."
"Me too," he said, "But what I'm thinking about is the future. What will our relationship be if we are to be separated for too long and too far from each other? You're back at the showbiz, and I'll go to my parents' place. Knowing that, it'll be a tough job to get ourselves meet up, Rise."
Rise bit her lips, as if she wanted to shed a tear immediately from her eyes, "Do you think I want to be like this too, senpai?" she asked while Souji was shaking his head slowly, "Of course no! I wanted to go back to the showbiz, and I still want to be with you!" she said, "Those are the choices left for me! So what about it? A long-distance relationship? It doesn't matter! All things that I do for you will eventually lead to meet you—even it's going to be once a week, I'll still keep on seeing you—despites how busy I am!"
She looked at him with tears in her eyes, "Don't you want to be like that, senpai? What could go wrong? I'll always search for you, everyday I'll keep calling you, every day I'll keep texting you so you don't forget me," she said.
Souji closed his eyes to think. Suddenly, he offered his pinky finger, "… Pinky swear," he muttered.
Rise nodded and offered him her pinky finger to swear, "Pinky swear,"
That silver headed man rubbed the tears left on his lover's cheek. She looked flushed and pretty annoyed, but she was still smiling for him. And that would make him happy. She giggled like a child and said, "Well, so what you really worried is our relationship, huh, senpai?"
He nodded before he finally gave her a tight hug he hungered for. Rise was surprised, but instead of breaking the hug, she replied back by tightening their embrace. They didn't want to be separated, truthfully. But they had decided to be not separated merely because of their distance, but they will still be close to each other—because they believed in their bond.
They broke away, and that man gave her a kiss. A very simple and chaste kiss planted on her soft pink lips. They seemed to like it, since they haven't done this every since the case with Adachi. Time soon found that they deepened their kiss, hunger for more. But it was interrupted by the sights of the people who were flushed by their closeness and missing for each other.
"I guess you thought that we should continue this somewhere, eh, senpai?" she tittered haughtily.
He took her hand by chance, and ran down from the hill, "You see through me, because I want this to be planted deeply in our mind—"
"Because this will be the last we could do in Inaba, anyway?"
Thanks for reading this one! Apparently, this is my second fanfiction for Persona fandom (except the first one in Megami Tensei base ...), I'm really happy to write this one for SouRise. I mean, they need more love, it would have seemed. A good feedback is a very good way to give me the points of my mistakes (and grammatical error) in this fanfiction. You had my gratitude! :D
Sincerely,
Prophetor