He is sitting in the park. It's gloomy, dank and wet. There's no one else around. The playground ahead of him is completely empty. He stared for a while. Thinking back to the days when it would have been acceptable for him to run over and jump on the swing. To be sited right next to her in the now empty bench, to hold her hand while walking in the flowery pathway. To tell her the three words in his mind that is all for her. He curses under his breath for letting this chance to slip by…again.
In a world governed by the titans, happiness is reserved only for the strong and lucky. For the children, it is the money that makes them happy. For having lots of money means having friends. The middle and lower class were therefore left with themselves.
Like any other day, Petra plays alone in the playground. She doesn't like to be alone, but she has gotten used to it. She is pretty, most of the people around her say. However, the playground she plays at is surrounded by the children of greedy people. No one is allowed to play with them.
All alone in the playground, she swings back and forth, back and forth. Sometimes quick, sometimes slow. Moments later, a boy approached her, and asked her to play with him. He is small, small like her, with black eyes and a clean atmosphere. At first, she was hesitant, but in the end, she gave in and played with him. Days passed and the two of them became playmates, Petra became happier and wonders if this is the feeling of having a friend that is different from the rest.
At the end of the day, the boy handed to her a doll; it was pretty old but is very clean. "This is for you". She was ready to accept it but was stopped by the glare of the parent of the boy. They looked down on her, and she became ashamed. In the end, she did not accept it. Frowning, the boy threw the doll at her side, before walking away without even saying goodbye. Petra has lost many friends, but for some reason, him walking away was the most painful, mainly because he is special for her. Crying, she picked the doll and hugged it tightly in her chest.
Days have gone by, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and the boy comes to the playground no more. She already accepted her faith, and that she will not see that boy again. Once more, she plays in the playground alone.
Some memories are unforgettable, for Petra it is her innocent childhood memories and her first taste of love. Today, she is now a member of the survey corps, a soldier who offered heart to humanity. She has been in relationships, but none have lasted all those years, through good and bad times, a friend has silently stood by her. She regularly writes her father, and in return, her father would send her romance books and novels. An overdose of romantic novels and books has shaped her belief that love is a destiny. She believes that somewhere out there is a person she is destined to meet.
It is the end of winter and the start of spring. The days off of the survey corps were almost finished. As she is getting ready to leave their house she noticed a notebook in front of their home, with no one near around. With no one to return it to, she opened the notebook and found out that it is a journal filled with only one sentence and phrase with drawings in each page. She read the journal up until the middle. The sentences in the journal taking her to familiar places and giving her familiar aura.
The first page consists of a drawing of a handkerchief and a sentence that states the following: "I wish I could wipe away the tears streaming down your face". The next page was a picture of a bench and says: "If only I can sit right next to you". On the third page is a pathway with flowers, and says: "someday, I will walk with you, holding you hand". She noticed that the drawings were familiar and that those were the same bench and pathway in the playground she used to play with. The next page shocks her out; it is a sketch of a little girl with the same doll the boy gave her long ago. It took her moments to put the pieces of the puzzles together. It must be him, she thought, the boy she has been looking for. She asks her father if someone visited them. Her father answered her that her superior came earlier that morning.
Petra hurriedly ran towards that place. The place where she first met him, that same playground in the journal, the place her heart is telling her to go. When she arrived at the playground, it was almost sunset and the playground is starting to get unoccupied. It was until she moved closer to the bench when she saw him. It was her superior officer Lance Corporal Levi, sitting on the bench. She approached him with a smile on her face. The two of them looked at each other and Petra handed him the journal. "Captain, is this yours?" Levi accepted the journal and replied "Yes".
Petra believes this is not a mere coincidence. But she fails to realize that destiny has orchestrated many chance encounters and created many opportunities to connect. Yet they let the opportunities to slip by. Until now…
"Where did you find this?" he asked. "Right in front of my house". He scanned the journal and asked her, "Did you read this?" "No, I was not able to finish reading it" Petra answered. Levi stopped at the page with the sketch of the little girl. It was then that Petra asked, "Did you draw this?" "Yes".
Petra was engulfed with mixed emotions. She was happy and at the same time, scared to ask, in the end, she pointed at the doll in the drawing and said, "Do you remember, you gave this to me?"
Levi looked at her for a moment, and said, "I did not give this to you".
Those words were sharp, and it pierced into her heart. For a moment, she thought she has found him, but she is wrong. It hurts. She felt like crying but she kept it hidden well enough. "Oh…I am sorry captain… I mistook you for someone else". Her voice was shaking and she immediately turned around to walk, run as far away as possible. "Hey, wait up, are you free now? Would you like to drink with me?" Petra turned around and answered with a fake smile, "I am sorry captain… I still have to get back to my house".
Petra realized that destiny has played a cruel trick on her. While she was walking away from him, Levi looked at his journal once more, reminiscing the meaning behind his entries.
While Petra was crying, Levi was behind looking at her, he turned around, took his handkerchief and goes to her place however, when he arrived at her place, she already left the playground. He would constantly go to the same playground and watch over her for most of the time, when all the children would leave the place; he will go to the swing Petra plays with and sit on it. He would go to the bench she uses to sit on and sit on it. He would walk on the flowery pathway she uses to walk on. Finally, as a child, he draws a picture of the two of them in the playground together and attached it in his journal.
He looks back at his drawing and was very angry to himself. "Shit". In a small world given to humanity, they chance upon each other. And he let the chance slip by again. Finally, he looked at the last page and it is not finished, the only thing written is the word "Someday". He then curses under his breath and says, "Not today".