|Author's Note| Rated T for language...and stuff. I'm pretty sure this fic isn't M.
Pairing: Koko x Sumire.
To the readers, I apologize for any errors. I hope you don't skip paragraphs haha. Well, then. Enjoy!
Highway 340
Chapter Fourteen
"Experience of being dead in the air," Sumire said. She put on her adorable 'I'm-going-to-kill-you' face, but she raised her index finger and handed me a slice of chocolate cake. A greeting written in cursive adorned the top of the slice, and after a while, she gave me a lighter and a small, thin candle. "You dork. Happy birthday. Chocolate's the best, cheers you up in the toughest of times."
"Who said I had a tough time?"
Sumire smiled. "Don't you ever get tired of being the hero? Well, birthday boy, be happy for yourself, even just for this evening. It's time you celebrate your, um-"
"24th birthday," I finished, striking a match and watching it burn in a special kind of way. I've never had a birthday cake for years - technically, Sumire only gave me a slice, but it was so much more worth it than nothing at all. Sumire began counting on her fingers and gaped at me.
"Well, what?" I asked in between mouthfuls of cheese, bread, chili, and beef.
"Well," Sumire raised the plate of chocolate cake, "make a wish! Quickly, we need to go somewhere!"
I stared at the flickering flame of the candle. "You...believe in that kind of stuff?"
"Of course I do," Sumire said. She held the plate eagerly and urged me to blow the candle. "There's no harm in trying, is there? Besides, it's not wrong to have hope especially when situations become so hopeless."
Closing my eyes, I whispered, "Can I wish for the impossible?"
The heat of the candle caressed my face, and Sumire burped first before answering. "The thing about wishes is that they're supposed to encourage you to make them possible. Kind of like goals, but more imaginative. Nobody else is going to make them possible for you."
"Oh, all right."
Sumire inhaled sharply in the background.
I wish that this day would never end.
As soon as I opened my eyes to a thin strand of smoke, Sumire pulled me up and abandoned the chocolate cake. She just chuckled while running through the swarm of families and teenagers with my hand in hers. We didn't stumble this time. We jumped over plastic cups, soda cans, and burger wrappers. It seemed like a bad idea to sprint like this after eating too much, but I looked up at the dark sky and found my answer.
Sumire wanted to ride the Ferris wheel with me.
Good thing the queue for the Ferris Wheel was short. There were children playing along the rails and eagerly waiting for their turn. It made me reminiscent of my own childhood, back when all I had to worry about was what thrill ride I should take first in the theme park. "What I don't get is the fact that you can tolerate heights and fast car rides yet you can't manage to stay alive in a rollercoaster," I remarked, catching her by surprise.
"Height and speed are two completely different things. Combine the both of them, and you get one hell of a phobia," Sumire said straightforwardly. Her hand tugged on mine again, and she hauled me forward to our seat. Unlike the conventional Ferris wheel seats nowadays which were enclosed in glass and metal, ours was an open one - which was amazing, considering that I wanted to be able to experience the ride without any solid surface to block me from the skyline and evening atmosphere.
Constructive criticism is very much welcome!