It's one of those rare moments when both of them find peace while accompanying each other. The small park's silent atmosphere, except for the bird's soft chirps, gives them the serenity that they want this moment.

Natsume Hyuuga, now in his sixteen years, sits comfortably on the curved monkey bars. His eyes seem to focus on a certain someone – a brunette, to be precise. The girl laughs from a distance—along with her friends—and waves at him. He waves back and his bored expression changes to a serene one.

Sumire Shouda, on the other hand, lets herself play with the swing; her perm hair sways along with the wind, and her face expresses calmness. Her emerald eyes look at the peach flower petals as it falls, her mind in completely reverie.

Both of them let the comfortable silence envelop them. No talking, no interaction, no anything.

As time drifts away, Sumire thinks twice about keeping or breaking the silence between them. She purses her lips for a little while and then decides to go on with the latter.

"So, how are you and Mikan doing?" she inquires, her eyes solely on focus to his face.

Without facing her, Natsume responds. "We're doing fine." He clears his throat before he asks. "You and Yome?"

Sumire smiles. "It's really nice to hear that. Koko and I are doing great right now."

"Hn." He nods approvingly.

Sumire's emerald-green eyes seem to be in a trance for a moment and then she sighs. "Hey, Natsume?"

"Hn?"

"Thank you." Sumire's grip on the swing's chain tightens.

Natsume looks at the cloudy sky, his arms supporting his weight as his fingers squeezes the rails. "For what?"

"You know…" she exhales, "for the experiences that you've given me. I never thought that you'd be able to truly fall in love with someone, so I kept on hoping that maybe I had the chance. Remember when I told you that I loved you? I never really imagined that we'd become closer, better yet, you became my best friend. I even thought that you had also fallen for me!" she laughs at this.

Natsume chuckles. "I almost did."

Silence.

"But then, she came."

A warm breeze passes.

Natsume nods. "I fell in love."

"It was like…" Sumire contemplates her thoughts for a second and then she turns to face him. "It was like she chose you."

A quite unsure yet a contented look makes its way to Natsume's face. "Yeah, and I don't know why."

The lass' eyes search for his, but to no avail, she sighs, takes a breath in and then smiles. "I do."

And with that, for the first time for quite a long time, Natsume glances at her with a genuine expression etch on his face. He smiles.

I'm ever so grateful to my beta-reader, ejo, for editing this story and for giving me the tips. It really helped a lot :)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything. I got the idea from the movie A Walk To Remember after re-watching it with my classmates. The characters belong to Higuchi Tachibana.

RE-UPLOADED for corrections :))