STRAWBERRY LOVE
CHAPTER 4 Later that night, back at his apartment, he mustered the energy to tell me to my face. I waited anxiously to hear it, bracing myself for the emotional slap across my face. He started on about how, as children, we sometimes say things we don't mean and somehow commit to things we don't necessarily want to, and so on. I wasn't listening, but it was nice to know that he WAS trying to make this as painless as possible. As his lips mouthed the Godforesaken words, his voice was barely audible. He was as embarrassed about this as I was, and as expected, I broke out into tears and turned away. He tried to stop me from running to the door, but I pushed him out of the way and walked out into the cool autumn night. "Wait! Where are you going?!" he called out after me. "I'm taking a cab to Tomoyo's house. I'll see you tomorrow at the airport," I replied, almost bitterly. - I stepped out of the taxi and gingerly made my way to the front gate. "Who is it?" a voice rang out. "I-it's... it's Meiling," I whispered. The gates opened almost instantly and I walked into the wide courtyard. From the large mansion, Tomoyo came running. She put her arms around me and pulled me onto her chest. I sobbed bitterly as she shushed me, walking into her house, and up to her room. We sat on her bed, and I wailed and moaned the story to her, although most of it was slurred together and nonsensical. She didn't say a word. "How did you know, how did you know?" I choked. And she replied, "I just do." And it hit me- Tomoyo, she too loved someone more than anyone else. She too had devoted her essence to that one person, only to have it go unlooked. That person, that girl. That Sakura. The one she made costumes for, and was always videotaping. The girl she was always watching, was always eyeing. She was the first person to leave scars on Tomoyo's heart. And Tomoyo accepted the fact that Sakura returned her love in only the simplest form: friendship. But that was enough for her. That made her content, satisfied. It occured to me that Tomoyo had been suffering with a love very different from mine, yet all too similar. She had also been suffering longer, harder. Surpressing these emotions from day one. And I was overwhelmed. I never noticed her until that day, but she was just like me. EXACTLY like me. She was the one I was waiting for, the one who understood how I felt to the very core. During this time, I came to this conclusion: neither of us would ever stop loving our hatsu-koi, even if they weren't meant to love us back that way. But we could love again, love another being. And that's exactly what we did. We loved each other. OWARI. * * * * * Afterword I don't normally incorporate Japanese into my writing, but some words either had no meaning in English or had a really poor translation. Here are the words in chronological order: dango round flour dumpling shikigami "familiar," creature created by witches, sorcerors, etc. nihao Chinese for "hi" oi hey!, expresses surprise shougakkou elementary school chuuou kouen central park daiou king o-fuda strips of paper used for casting spells hatsu-koi first love/crush owari the end Meiling-chan ga suki I didn't translate this because it has no certain translation. It can mean either "I like Meiling" or "I love Meiling." It's up to the reader to decide how to interpret it, based on their personal interpretation of the story.
