Vows to you

03: Hikari

An average child can learn how to speak by the age of three.

But it was not so with their firstborn's case.

The moment their son touched the hard covers of a book, he would start skimming through the pages, young, golden eyes darting back and forth through each line. At first it would seem like he was only looking at them, but Mr. and Mrs. Takishima took it all back when they saw bookmarks between pages and their son underlining and making corrections of sentences with perfectly legible writing.

So the moment their son reached three years of age, they finally asked.

"Kei, can you speak Papa? Mama?"

The child stared at them.

"Pa-pa, Ma-ma"

No response

Mr. Takishima sighed and patted his son's head. The little boy turned to the window and watched outside. His father looked at where he was looking at and saw the sun rising higher above the sky.

"It's beautiful, isn't Kei? The sun is giving us a warm, new day after a long, cold night. It gives us a new day to look forward to the moment its warm light* touched our homes"

"Hi… Hika…"

"Hmm? Kei, are you trying to say something?" he was alarmed with joy and called for his wife "Mama! Mama! Come quick! Our son's finally going to say his first word!"

When Mrs. Takishima reached their side, they listened intently what young Takishima had to say

"Hika… Hik-Hikar…. Hika…"

"Come on Kei my dear, say it, say the word '*light' say 'Hikari'"

"H-Hikari… Hikari… Hikari"

"Well done Kei!"

"Kei you're amazing! That's my baby boy!"

"Hikari… Hikari… Hikari!" young Takishima repeated and for the first time in his life, the corners of his lips tugged upward and he brought his hands together in a big clap. He started laughing and clapping with glee as he continued repeating the word "Hikari! Hika-Hikari! Hikari!"

No words could describe the feelings of his parents but they only have one, same comment.

'At last'

And this day was forever marked in Mrs. Takishima's album. Even if his first word wasn't 'Mama or Papa' it was worth it if they could see their son looking so happy like that again. They had never seen him so happy and their son's happiness is their happiness.

Little did they know that, that single kanji character would become a name that their son will meet and eventually worship; they would just have to wait for another three years.

A small comeback update after a while. Chapters 3 is up!

More chapters coming soon~!