"Tomoya-kun, it's bedtime." Both my parents bent over me. "Have sweet dreams." My papa, who I called Pops (and still do), said to me quietly. Mama waved and they both let the room.
Life was what you could possibly call normal for me. I had kind parents, kind friends and lived in a little house with a garden to play in. I loved going to school, I had just entered my first year. I never knew the meaning of delinquent; I never knew such slackers existed. I used to have my own little world, an imaginary friend named Hikaru and also many imaginary pets, but I grew out of that when I started school and made friends quickly. I played fun games with my friends every day. We never fooled about; nobody ever thought of missing school, we all looked up to our senseis… I guess being a kid was great. Life was cool.
I turned over in my bed. My bed was small, even then, but that increased warmth. I breathed heavily as I started to go off to sleep.
The next morning, there was Mama. "Tomoya-kun, it's time to get up! It's a new morning!" Her sweet voice woke me up and I rolled over in bed, then sat up and stretched my arms wide. I smiled up at her. "Can I have bento for breakfast like a grown up boy?" I queried, waning to seem responsible and grown up to my parents. "Yes, you can! But it might take a while to make, and also we don't have any bread for sides and for your bread and milk tonight! Being a grown up boy, do you want to pop over to the bakery with pops to buy some?" Mama told me. I nodded my head quickly and enthusiastically.
Pops and I set off out the door and walked down the street for a few minutes, then entered a shop with the title '古川ベーカリー Furukawa Bakery'. This bakery was new, I hadn't seen it before! I ran in to see a man and a woman with their child. Their child looked about a year older than me but seemed frail and small for her age. "Ohayo gozaimasu! I'm here to buy some bread from this lovely new bakery!" Pops watched me, letting me talk and letting me seem grown up like I wanted to seem. The woman waved at me. "Hello, little one! Which bread would you like to buy? We have seeded bread, icing bread, wholemeal bread and crab-flavoured bread! I can let you have a taster of the crab-flavoured bread if you want." The woman was kind. "And I'm Furukawa Sanae!"
I saw the girl watching me. Our eyes met and she blushed. She looked so alike to her mother! I turned to Furukawa-san (Sanae) and giggled. "Yes please! And I'm Tomoya-kun! Okazaki Tomoya-kun!" I smiled at her. "Nice to meet you, Tomoya-kun!" She handed me a piece of bread and I happily took it and ate it. I enjoyed it. It created a fusion of taste in my mouth. The crab bread was awesome! "The bread is amazing, Furukawa-san!" I complimented her. "Can I have two bits of wholemeal bread and one bit of crab-flavoured bread, please?" I asked. Sanae handed me a bag of bread. "You don't have to pay, since you're so cute!" Sanae told me. "Thank you, Furukawa-san!" I said cheerfully, and walked out the shop. Pops was there waiting for me and we continued to walk home. The rest of that day was lucky. Pops got a new job where they paid him lots of money, and Mama seemed really cheerful.
At dinner, I took a seat around the lowered table. I clasped my hands together and bowed. "Itadakimasu!" My parents and I said in unison. I started eating. I took the crab-flavoured bread from the middle of the table and cut it into three pieces. I gave one to me, one to mama and one to pops. "Try this bread I got today! When Pops and I went to the bakery there was a nice lady and she let me try some of this for free! There was a man and a little girl too. The girl was cute!" My family started eating the bread. "I like it!" said Mama. "Good choice, Tomoya-kun!" said Pops. The family enjoyed the bread as well! I smiled and watched them eating the bread.
After finishing the bread, it was bedtime. Mama tucked me into bed like always and Pops wished me a good sleep and told me to have sweet dreams. I suddenly fell asleep. I had had a long, exciting day and was tired out. I really wanted to go back to the bakery to see Furukawa-san and introduce myself to the man and the girl, but I was sure that we'd meet again!
I'm not sure if it was a coincidence that I met that girl or not. I didn't realise that later she would play a big part in my life when I entered high school. I had a carefree life. Nothing bad ever happened. I was hardly ever sick and Mama told me that everything would always be alright and that I was a miracle that had happened. I had never had arguments. The only arguments I saw were on the television and outside of my house. My house was a calm place.