Kairi was the girl who lived next door. I've known her since I was 12, she was 5-years-old at the time. 10 years later, she's 15 and I'm 22. I love her, people say it's wrong because of the massive age-gap, but love has no limits, right? If it does, then I am willing to break that. But then I had to leave, for a job. She wrote me a letter one day and this is what she had to say:
"Riku, please say you'll wait for me. I'll grow up one day, you'll see. Saving all my kisses just for you, signed with love, forever true."
Slowly, I read the letter once more, then placing it back in the envelope, wishing that I have never read it. I shake my head off of any thoughts of her, but the memory of that day comes rushing back in.
I was making my way towards the house next door and the rain drops were falling like her tears that day. The moment she opened the door, the brightest smile was plastered on her face, her auburn hair swaying with the wind that rushed in the door, and her eyes shining like glitter. I smiled back at her as she lets me in.
"I have to say something." I began. The shock and sadness that appeared in her eyes killed me. Without hesitation, I continue to say what I had to. "I'm leaving."
"What are you talking about, Riku? Where on earth are you going?" she asks me. No one can miss the silent stuttering of her voice, but I did. And I felt so ashamed of causing it.
"My family expenses are decreasing. I got a job offer at Radiant Garden that pays well." I explained to her.
She didn't want me to go. It was so obvious from her voice, the way her eyes sank, the constant twirling of the hem of her skirt, and biting her lower lip. "You'll wait for me, right?"
I didn't know what she meant at first. But then I realize, she wanted me to wait for her to grow up and we could finally be together forever. I was silent, and I just stared at her. Maybe I couldn't wait. Maybe we can't be together. So, she began to cry. I scooted over to her, and hugged her comfortingly from the side. "Kairi," I said, so she would face me, but she doesn't.
"Kairi, please don't cry." I told her. "You'll forget me soon, you're just 15 and I'm 22. And Kairi, I just can't wait for you." It was all a lie. I will wait for her forever.
Soon, I left my home world, Destiny Islands. I will miss this place, and I will miss Kairi. Now, I'm at Radiant Garden, working as one of the chairmen of the president, Ansem. I didn't even do a lot, all the work are mostly just given to the more well-known ones.
Knowing that I didn't have any work today, because there were no stacks of paper on my desk, I dismissed myself early and took a stroll at the Main Plaza. The letter that Kairi wrote to me kept repeating in my head, it's impossible to forget it. It's impossible to forget her.
"Riku, please say you'll wait for me. I'll grow up one day, you'll see. Saving all my kisses just for you, signed with love, forever true."
I shake my head, then looking up, noticing that the sky was dark. Was I really out that long? It doesn't matter, I walk back to the house I've been renting the whole time. I change into suitable clothes for sleep and plop down at bed. Soon, I drift off to sleep.
5 years later…
Kairi hasn't written me a letter for a long time. 5 years to be exact. The contents of the last letter she wrote kept ringing in my head, like it was an alarm signaling me to wake up and I was purely annoyed of it. It kept haunting my memory, a memory that I desperately want to erase.
"Riku, please say you'll wait for me. I'll grow up one day, you'll see. Saving all my kisses just for you, signed with love, forever true."
Exasperated, annoyed, haunted, I grab a gym bag from my closet and pack my clothes. I had to see Kairi, I had to explain. I had to explain how my heart kept haunting me with her memories, and had to ask my Kairi if she'd marry me.
I caught the first plane that headed towards Destiny Islands. 10 or so hours later, we land. I call over a cab to give me a ride towards my home. As soon as I reach it, I run over to the porch and drop my bag on the wooden flooring. I raced towards the house next door and ring the door bell.
Kairi opened it, revealing that her auburn hair has grown, the happiness has once again filled her azure eyes, but her lips weren't curved into a smile—but a small 'o' that told me she didn't expect me coming back. She lets me in and I sit on the same couch where I told her that I couldn't wait for her. My heart pounded against my chest, not from the nervousness I am emitting for what I'm about to do, but with fear. Things have changed.
The moment she walks back in the living room with 2 glasses of orange juice, I start flooding her with comments on how beautiful she looks now, how much she's grown, how I lied about not being able to wait for her, I said that I would wait for her, and now she's grown up. But she didn't at all look pleased about it—she, instead, looked nervous.
"Riku," she said. It was the first thing she's said to me from our whole conversation. "I have something to say."
All the blood from my face left. I was as pale as my silver hair. My head was filled with the dreadful things she could possibly say to me. Was this payback for me breaking her heart?
"Riku…"
I walk down the sidewalks, not wanting to go home just yet. My teardrops fell like the rain. The words from the letter Kairi has written to me has finally decided to stop haunting me. It was instead replaced into more haunting words.
"Riku, I'm married to your best friend Sora."
the end
High-fives to the people who know which song this is based on! Can you guess? No…? Well, today is your lucky day (even though it's Friday the 13th as I write this): it's Conway Twitty's "Don't Cry Joni." Don't hesitate to review because it's what motivates me and helps me improve.