I do not own chapter 4
Enjoy!
Mari couldn't believe it!
She had a friend!
His name was too difficult for her to pronounce so she just called him 'Li' short for 'Lidio', he talked really funny too but she didn't care!
He was her friend!
Something she could only dream about in her dreams and now she had a friend who would listen to her blab away and she could tell him all her worries, even if it's stupid and even play games she wanted to play! He smiled a lot too and he was kind of like superman when he puts on a show for her to make her smile.
Many of times, she would think, she would wake up one day and find out 'Li' wasn't real and it was all a dream but every day, he would come to her at the back in the playground.
He was kind and caring and acted like a mommy, he made her feel safe and warm inside, it almost made up for hiding him from daddy because she had made friends with a boy no less, her daddy meant well, but he would frighten her only friend away and her daddy would tell grandpa and ask her friend lots of weird and confusing questions with that weird gleam in his eyes making her friend go away.
He was her little secret.
They were going to be together forever.
Ch 4:...I'm leaving...Maria
Kouki Takarada was many things, the son of one of the richest men in Japan and even in some parts of the world, he was married to the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, who had gifted him with the most adorable little girl he had ever seen but above all else he was a father.
He was the overprotective father type so he naturally was suspicious when she started coming home as if she was high on candy and giving out that cute adorable smile as if it was Christmas every day, if it hadn't been for work, he would have followed his daughter to where she disappeared to every day.
So after a small push, he was surprised when he found out she had made a friend.
A part of him was happy that Maria had someone around her age to play with, the father in him wanted to find out everything about her new friend and undergo a thorough investigation.
Like, if they were a boy.
A Boy.
The word that haunted him every night.
He would keep his sweet, innocent daughter away from boys, god only knows what they are thinking these days and it would be even worse if he was an older boy while his own father would latch onto the boy in hopes that there would be something romantic going on and he would soon see little great grandchildren coming to visit him in his old age.
Over his dead body!
There was no way in hell that he would let his pride and joy be contaminated by a boy!
"Maria, where you going?" He asked, seeing his daughter trying to sneak out with a comb and hair bubbles.
Maria froze and turned around slowly to her daddy. "I'm going to see Li, daddy. I'm going to do Li hair and then were going to play dress up" giving him enough information to satisfy him and looking her daddy straight in the eye.
Her daddy stared at her for a second before smiling. "Have fun with your friend" kissing her on the cheek and Maria nodded before going out of the room towards the playground.
Kouki was relieved.
Maria new friend was a girl.
# Scene change#
Lidio was defiantly not a girl, he wore a dark jacket like hoodie with jean trousers and his messy blond hair was hidden under a baseball cap with sneakers on his feet, he was currently swinging on a swing, waiting for Maria to show up.
"Li!" A happy voice said and he stopped swinging and turned to see Maria coming towards him with some combs and hair bubbles and stuff and rose an eyebrow.
He had mentioned to Maria in passing that his hair wouldn't, stay down no matter how much he tried and Maria seemed to have taken it on as a challenge and was keen on taking on the hair that even his mother couldn't fix.
He was just glad that she wasn't carrying anything sharp that she could hurt herself with and resigned to his fate.
"You're sure you want to do this? I keep telling you, it's useless" He said, trying to stop Maria but the girl wasn't having none of that and was behind him and already keeping one part of his hair down with a hair clip with applying jell to the other half and combing it, the hardest her little hands could do.
The hair was down and Maria looked smug for a second and as if mocking her, his hair freed itself from the jell and pushed the hairclip out of it almost lazily and Maria was shocked but it was too early to admit defeat and she pursued in trying to make his hair stay down, it was like tangling with a beast and she used every hair spray and hair jell both of her parents owned.
It did not stay down.
The hair resisted it all and stood up like a peacock proudly and she couldn't help but gape.
"I told you, Maria, it's useless to even try. The best you can do is make it look like it's not a hurricane of hair, but it would stand up" Lidio said, his hair was dripping large quantities of hair jell onto the ground.
Maria huffed, knowing she had to admit defeat, she had been truly bested by the impossible hair but it didn't mean she liked it.
"How about we play on the seesaw?" He asked, noticing Maria was in 'that' mood again and needed to be distracted before she went into full blown five-year-old-throwing-a-tantrum mode.
Maria nodded with a huff in her cheeks and she ran after Lidio to the seesaw where Lidio was already sitting down waiting for her with a smile and she sat down at the opposite end, making sure her dress was there for her to sit on, so that she didn't have to sit on the cold seat and both of them jumped up and down on the seesaw-like bunnies.
Lidio suddenly stopped and rolled up his sleeve expecting a plastic blue watch, to look at the time, he should be getting back into the hotel to pack by now and said. "Maria, sorry but I have go now. My dad is expecting me" he said, getting off the seesaw and upsetting the balance making Maria plummet to the floor, thankfully she wasn't at the highest point or she wouldn't have been able to absorb most of the impact from being dropped suddenly.
"See you tomorrow, Li!" Maria said, waving happily to him but the smile quickly vanished once she saw Li face.
"Maria, I won't be here tomorrow"
There a pause.
"It's okay, come the day after tomorrow," Maria said, ignoring the feeling of dread.
Lidio shook his head and said, slowly. "I won't be coming the day after tomorrow either, I won't be coming back to this playground ever again. I'm going home tonight"
"Then I'll find a way to visit you" Maria's voice sounded somewhat desperate, hoping he didn't live that far away.
"I live far away, Maria," Lidio said, drawing closer. "I live beyond the sea, a place where you can't reach me"
"THEN DON'T GO!" Maria shouted and Lidio was surprised by her outburst. "YOU'RE MY FIRST FRIEND! AND NOW You're LEAVING ME! IT'S NOT FAIR!"
"Maria...you have to understan-" Lidio was cut off by Maria.
"THAT'S WHAT ALL THE ADULTS SAY! I DON'T WANT TO ACCEPT IT! IT'S NOT FAIR! WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TOGETHER FO-" Maria was pulled into a hug.
Lidio and Maria lips met.
They kissed.
On the mouth.
Maria's eyes widened realising that she was having her first kiss!
It was weird at first, but now she felt like she was melting, her face turned three new shades of red.
They broke apart and Lidio placed his finger on Maria lips who was too stunned to react.
"Silly, girl. I said I was leaving. I never said I wasn't coming back" he said, with a predator smile that he didn't even know he had on while his bodyguards were taking notes.
"e-eh?" That was all Maria's brain managed to get out.
Lidio got out something from his pocket and got closer to the still dazed Maria and placed it in her hair, the next time she looks in a mirror she would see a rose and took off his hat and placed it on Maria's head.
"I won't let you forget me because even though I'm not here anymore. I'm always right beside you, giving you strength!" Lidio declared proudly, knowing Maria would need all the help she could get from what's to come and Maria flushed another shade of red, from how the light was hitting his features, really bringing out his eyes and making them twinkle in the sun, his hair almost transparent yet looked really pretty and magical.
Maria found herself looking away from the intense eyes that were boring into her, it was all too much for her heart to handle so she just nodded with blushing cheeks.
"SON!" A male voice shouted, entering the playground, they both turned to find a massive man with muscles ripping out of his shirting and wearing sweat pants, coming towards them, clearly a foreigner.
To Maria, this man was the most, scariest person she had ever laid eyes on and she instantly hid behind Lidio to get away from the scary man.
Lidio would have laughed from Maria reaction to his father if not for the fact, his reaction was even worse when he first met the man so he couldn't blame her and smiled at the man coming this way,
"Dad!" He said in Italian and Maria just stood there dumbly as her friend rushed into the big man arms and was pick up and placed on his shoulders.
The man eyes turned towards her and Maria shrunk back, trying to look as small as possible.
"You must be the friend, my son is always talking about." The man mused in Japanese, looking her over. "Give you a feel more years and you'll be attracting men, left and right," The man said, trying to smile to seem friendly but just looked even more hostile.
"A-Are Li, daddy?" Maria stuttered and Lidio looked on in pride that she hadn't broken down crying.
"Li?" Turning to his son and giving him a wiggly eyebrow suggestive look as the boy himself forged ignorance about where his father thoughts were going and would no doubt tell mom as soon as they got home. "Yes, I am. It was nice to meet you, but I have to take my son away to pack his suitcase and go back home" smiling again and turning away from the little girl, getting the feeling he would see the girl again sometime near in the future.
While Lidio looked back at Maria for the last time in the years to come, he gave her a look that said, he would come back some day, no matter how years pass.
Once father and son were out of sight, Maria allowed herself to cry.
Her friend was gone.
And scene!
Maria and Lidio separation got me to dig deep into myself and find the sadness in my heart, now I can become happy again with a box of chicken wings! Next chapter will be a time skip, over ten years have passed since the day they were separated and Lidio steps into the country he swore to come back to as an adult looking more like his mother than father attracting a whole lot of eyes as he tracks down a man that owes his father money and ends up at an LME party.