Youth
A love confession gone awry.
By: Rosethorn Li
Kasumi has never learned to say 'no'. She's always been nice, since she was a little girl and learned to share. If her friend wanted what she had, Kasumi would offer it and say, "here you are". Her friend would be happy; anything it was worth it, for that smile.
But not always.
There was a love note in her locker the last day of middle school; it said 'meet me behind the school, please, I have something to tell you'. They would graduate tomorrow; she couldn't decline. It wouldn't be right, to leave them there. She doesn't know this Souji-san. An underclassman? A first year? Whoever it was, she would say, "Hello, it's nice to meet you. I'm sorry, I can't, but thank you."
So she did. So it went. He was two years younger and very nervous, even under her most reassuring smile. "I-I like you very much!" he told her. "Please go out with me!"
"I'm sorry," she said as she'd planned. "I cannot-"
He was closer than she'd thought, more insistent. Taller than her, broader, and then there were hands clenching on her shoulders and a mouth over hers.
"Please," he said again, pulling away. Blushing.
Kasumi can't answer. Her first kiss, like this?
His hands fall away. He looks devastated.
"Souji-san." Somehow, she manages to smile, bowing. "I cannot. I..." No, no, she will not cry. Not in front of this little boy.
All she can do it walk away.