Hey all! This is my first PoT fanfic! I was inspired with this storyline when I was playing tennis with my friends a while ago. It will be quite short, but I still hope you guys would like it.

By the way, if any of you is reading my other story, the poll is up!

When We Were Young

Chapter 1 of 3

Ever since I was little, that little magic spell

Gave me strength with a power that I couldn't see

Even on nights when I fight against many wounds

I always tremble when you hold me

"Chiisana Koro Kara" by Judy & Mary

"I really, really like Eiji-kun!" a little blonde-haired girl chirped happily.

"That's wonderful!" a woman, commonly known as Mrs. Kikumaru, exclaimed with much love in her eyes. "Then Sa-chan can marry Eiji when you are both grown up! You will be my daughter-in-law!"

The little girl danced with excitement, circling an equally cheerful red-haired boy. The little boy took the little girl's hand in his and they jumped around together.

"I really, really like Sa-chan, too!"

When you're a young girl, time seems to pass so slowly, and the image of being a grown lady and wearing high-heeled shoes like your mother seems so far away. But as you turn into your teenage years, time seems to go much faster. You go to school, hang out with friends after school, do homework, and one day is gone. And you think back to your childhood and wonder why you wanted to get older so badly when you were just a little girl. You start to miss the times when you could sleep all you wanted, when the chubbier you got the more you were liked, when sadness was something you couldn't even comprehend.

Uehara Sachie, at age fourteen, misses all of that. She was a third-year student in Seishun Academy, not particularly smart or pretty, nor was she very enthusiastic about anything at all. Everyday she went to school like anyone else, and after school she helps out at the bathhouse that her family runs. Everything about her was a reflection of an ordinary fourteen-year-old, except for one thing. She was Kikumaru Eiji's oldest and closest friend.

The two of them were friends ever since they were born. Their mothers had been friends, and naturally let their children play with each other. They slept in the same cradle, shared the same toys, and they were even bathed in the same tub. They were inseparable. But as time passed and Sachie grew older, she began to realize that they have both changed. Eiji has grown to be, as much as Sachie hate to say, much more handsome than when he was only a little munchkin. With his promising tennis skills, Eiji was one of the most popular guys in school. Whereas she was only known as the girl with the golden hair that is Eiji's childhood friend.

Not that she was jealous of him, of course. She was allergic to attention.

"Sa~~~~~~~Chan!" a familiar, youthful voice called out to her from outside her window after a couple of pebbles were tossed at it. Sachie, still in bed, reluctantly opened her eyes to the voice. She lifted her head to look at the alarm clock, which read 5:00. With a groan, she got out of her bed and stomped across the room to her window. She didn't' even need to look to figure out that the voice belonged to Kikumaru Eiji.

"What are doing here so early in the morning?" Sachie shouted in her hoarse, morning voice as she opened the window. A gush of wind blew in to her room along with a bright smile from her redheaded friend.

Eiji was standing on the sidewalk in front of her house, looking up expectantly at her. Despite the early morning, he looked perky and ready for any challenges of the day. Sometimes the perkiness that always surrounds him annoys Sachie to the deepest point in her heart.

"Let's go to school together, Sa-chan!" Eiji said happily. After receiving a weird look from Sachie, he added, "I have morning practice today!"

Sachie rolled her eyes. "That's your own business! Don't wake me up this early for nothing!"

"Sa-chan doesn't want to watch me play?" Eiji pouted, and earned himself another look at Sachie's eye-whites.

"I want to go back to bed."

"If you don't come with me, I'm going to tell auntie that you were the one that ate the last strawberry daifuku last night!"

"What?" Sachie narrowed her eyes. "Don't you dare, Eiji…"

"Strawberry daifuku is auntie's favorite dessert, ne!"

"…" the look on Sachie's face told Eiji that he had succeeded. "I'll be down there in five minutes."

Eiji's face beamed with joy. "I'll be waiting, nya!"

Compared with Eiji, Sachie was like a dark cloud that floated beside the shiny rays of Eiji's sunny personality. She dragged her feet as she walked, and her head was tilted sideways, as if she could fall asleep right there and then. She resented the way Eiji wakes her up everyday earlier than she needed to. It was Eiji who has morning practice, not her.

"I really hate sports," Sachie said through a sigh as she glared up at the redhead. It was another thing that she resented, Eiji's height. When they were only kids, she would always make fun of his height. But on this last year of Junior High, Eiji seemed to have doubled in height in one night.

"Why, Sa-chan?" Eiji asked innocently. "You used to play tennis, too!"

"I only played because you forced me to."

Eiji only smiled wider. "You were really good at it, Sa-chan!"

"That's because the coach was scary!" Sachie shuddered at the thought of the ferocious tennis coach. She remembered that she was forced to run many laps and do pushups whenever she came late to lessons or made a mistake. "It was all your fault that I had to go through that!"

"Tennis is fun, nya!" Eiji said irrelevantly. "Sa-chan, you'll get fat if you don't exercise!"

"… You're really asking for it, boy!"

Sachie chased him all the way to school. Episodes like this replays everyday, as if they were a routine. Like getting used to waking up early for school, the reason for these little fits became almost habits. They were so superficial that she doesn't even realize that she isn't mad at all when she chased him. Still, she chased, with a reason that stuck with them since birth. They were inseparable.

"Sa-chan! You're the first one here again!" a sweet female voice snapped Sachie out of her trance. Since she couldn't bear watching the whole morning practice (the captain of the tennis club reminded her of her old coach a lot), she came to the classroom early.

A girl with long, brown, wavy hair stood in front of her desk, smiling down at her. Akiyama Yukino was Sachie's closest friend next to Eiji. She was, doubtlessly, one of the most wanted female students at Seishun Academy. She was beautiful, sweet, and witty; she was a role model. As of last year, Akiyama Yukino and Fuji Shusuke have become the most envied couple in all of Seishun Academy. It was probably the reason why she became friends with Sachie, because Fuji Shusuke was good friends with Kikumaru Eiji. To Sachie's surprise, she and Yukino had become quite close.

Sachie smiled sourly at the pretty girl. "You're lucky that Fuji-kun doesn't drag you to morning practice everyday!"

"I'll say! I'd hate to leave my comfortable bed so early!" said Yukino, "but I bet you can never say no to Kikumaru-kun, ne! When are you guys going to be officially together?"

"What?" Sachie frowned. "Oh, not again, Yukino! We're only friends!"

"Come on! It's so obvious that he likes you!"

"Please," Sachie grunted, "he only likes me as much as a cat likes his yarn ball."

"Are you jealous of a yarn ball, Sa-chan?"

Sachie stared at Yukino incredulously, but before she could retort the bell rang and people started to file into the classroom. When Eiji and Fuji entered the classroom, several girls approached them. Many girls offered Eiji boxes of homemade breakfast and snacks wrapped in pink handkerchiefs, and he accepted them casually, smiling all the while at the free foods. Sachie rolled her eyes; if Eiji doesn't become a professional tennis player in the future, she thought, he should become a host in a host club.

Sachie dreaded lunch time on Wednesdays. Every Wednesday, Yukino would make boxed lunches for Fuji and herself, and they would go off to the school's backyard to eat alone. Sachie, who usually ate with Yukino, would have to eat with Eiji, who talked a bit too much when he chews. What's worse is that he always talked about either tennis or his new toothpaste. But today, she had no one to eat with.

After buying a sandwich from the school vender, Sachie walked up the stairs toward the classroom, thinking of ways to avoid food from Eiji's mouth. But when she entered the classroom, she couldn't find Eiji, as he was surrounded by a majority of the girls in their class. Eiji must've received even more free food, she thought. Not that Sachie liked to eavesdrop, but the girls just talk too loud for her not to hear their topic. Unfortunately, the topic was about her.

"Kikumaru-kun, you walked to school with Uehara-san again today?"

"Kikumaru-kun, are you going out with Uehara-san?"

"Kikumaru-kun…"

Eiji only smiled brightly as he was bombarded with embarrassing questions. Seeing no sign of disagreement from Eiji, the girls thought their theories justified. Some looked sad, and some quietly congratulated him. Either he did not have any idea of what's going on, or he didn't mind the misunderstanding at all. Sachie, on the other hand, was getting redder and redder. She stomped into the classroom, ignoring the girls' envious stares, and dragged the redhead outside.

They didn't stop walking until they've reached an empty hallway. Eiji was about to ask her what's wrong, but he was stopped by her deadly glare.

"Why did you just smile to every question from those girls?" Sachie asked hotly. "Don't you know that they might misunderstand our relationship?"

"Sorry, Sa-chan…" Eiji pouted innocently. "But I think it wouldn't be bad to go out with Sa-chan!"

Sachie gaped at him, unbelieving her ears. She raised her left hand and stroked her thumping temple. Then she said while looking at him seriously, "You know, there is more to a relationship than just going out on dates!"

"I know!" Eiji chirped, "There needs to be love, right?"

"If you know, then why do you say such things?"

"Because I love Sa-chan!"

Eiji's smile seemed to be too bright; Sachie squinted her eyes. "No! It's not the friendly love between you and I!"

"I know! My love for Sa-chan is the kind in between man and woman!"

Sachie's jaws dropped even lower. She couldn't believe how easily and casually Eiji is saying these things. Is it because he's not smart? Maybe he's just naïve. Or, maybe he's really tricky on the inside, like Fuji. Sachie swallowed hard and shifted her gaze away from the human light bulb.

"Weirdo!" Sachie said before heading back to the classroom. "Don't you dare walk with me after school!"

It was something that only happened in movies and comic books. Her childhood friend had just confessed his love for her, and in a bizarre way, too. She still didn't believe that Eiji really understand the "love" he claims to have toward her.

When you were young, love was unlimited. You could love anyone older than you, younger than you, taller than you, shorter than you, however different from you. But when you grow older, that love becomes smaller. So small that it can only belong to one person. It's no longer open for everyone, but instead, you start to get too careful around love. You can longer hold whoever's hand you want, or say whatever you want. Should love really be strictly "one and only", if it made you so scared to break the "rule"?

Today, Sachie didn't wait for Eiji to finish after school practice and headed home on her own. For the first time in fourteen years, they were separated.

TBC.

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