Year: 4
Season: Summer
Ib: Age 12
Garry wasn't expecting this when he woke up in the morning. It was Sunday, the day he and Ib usually met, and he received a text message from Ib a few minutes after waking up, informing him to meet in their usual place in the park, which was fine, since he habitually made his way towards their meeting spot every Sunday anyway, even when they weren't meeting up. He had gotten used to this routine about a year ago, so it wasn't that much of a hassle for him, but what was surprising to him, was what he saw when he arrived there. He stopped where he stood, and just stared at the scene for a little bit.
Ib was standing there as he expected from the girl, but behind her, were four other kids around her age, all giving him an apprehensive look. They gathered around the bench he and Ib would always meet at, and some of them even looked a bit scared of him – a blonde haired girl in particular was hiding behind a violet haired girl. He… He wasn't really that scary, was he? Ib hadn't been afraid of him when they met in the gallery, but of course, she was very brave for a little girl, so maybe that wasn't a typical reaction towards him…
"Um, hello." He greeted lamely when he realized that he was staying quiet unusually long. So much so that Ib tilted her head slightly in confusion.
Ib turned towards the others, "This is who I was telling you about, he's Garry. He can be our model for today." She was either completely unaware of her friend's apprehension towards them, or she just didn't care. If Garry had to guess, it was probably a little of both.
"Model?" Garry muttered, her words finally registering in his head. "Um, Ib, I don't really think –" Before he could even finish his sentence, one of the girls bounced towards him.
"Nice to meet you Garry!" The enthusiastic girl said, giving him a wide smile, "You can call me Aiko!" She looked to be in the same grade as Ib, if he had to guess. Her black hair was only shoulder length, as opposed to Ib's mid-back length hair, and her eyes were brown.
"Nice to meet you, Aiko." He replied, bowing politely in her direction, and she did the same. "But uh, Ib -"
Ib turned to the rest of the students, again ignoring Garry's complaints, "This is Junichi." The only boy of the group politely bowed down to him. The boy had his black hair combed to one side, and his eyes were also brown like Aiko's. He was probably in the same grade as Ib, and he was giving Garry a peculiar look, not a fearful one, but more of a thoughtful look. It was preferable to the fearful one that the blonde haired girl was still giving him, but all the same it kind of freaked him out a little bit.
"This is my upperclassman, Yuki." Ib continued her introduction, pointing to the tallest girl of the group, who was standing there with hardly an expression. The older girl bowed, her hair appeared to be closer to his own color, a light violet. She seemed to display no outward emotion, and she wore glasses that were sitting on the brim of her nose, about to fall off it looked like. Her eyes were blue, a big contrast compared to the other two people Ib introduced earlier.
"And this is my underclassman, Rin." The younger girl peeked out from behind Yuki's back, and nodded towards him, still looking apprehensively at him. Her hair was easily the most distinct of the bunch, being blonde, but he wasn't able to tell if it was natural blonde, or dyed. Her eyes were a very prominent and beautiful green color. She was also the only girl who wore her hair in a ponytail, making her even more distinct from the rest.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." He again bowed towards them all hoping to ease their concerns, "But I asked again, you want me to model for you? Ib, I've never really modeled, I don't really know how good I can be at this…"
Ib smiled, usually something that Garry liked to see, but now he felt oddly fearful of the little girl. "We're all in the art club, and we agreed to practice together this Sunday with a model. We tried modeling with one of us, but then that person wouldn't able to participate, so I decided to pick someone!"
"And that someone just happens to be me." He sighed as she nodded her head. "Well… I guess I have nothing against being a model for you," He said, "But I have no experience in doing this. Doesn't this require that I sit still for hours on end?"
"You can have a couple breaks here and there." Ib stated to comfort him.
"That's nice." He remarked dryly, feeling a bead of sweat go down his neck.
"Did you bring him a prop?" Aiko asked suddenly, making Garry realize that she was still standing rather close to him. Even more odd though was the way she was looking up and down the entire length of his body, making him feel a bit exposed.
Ib reached down into a bag she brought, and gently pulled out a flower that was wrapped up. "I got this." She showed it to the group, first to Aiko, and then towards Yuki and the other two.
"Ohhhh!" Aiko said upon seeing it, running towards Ib now to get a closer look, "A rose!"
"A blue one," Junichi muttered, getting his own look, "I figured you'd get a red one, since they're more common."
"No." Ib shook her head, and looked towards Garry with a far off stare, "Red is my color, blue fits Garry a lot better…" Garry gave the girl a concerned look, but her eyes quickly refocused, and she turned back towards Yuki as the older girl began to speak.
"So we're fine with Garry being the model then?" Yuki asked the group, turning to get a good look at them all, "Any objections?" The only one who seemed to be a little hesitant about Garry was Rin, but she clearly saw that the rest of the group was fine with it, and her eyes laid on Junichi the longest, who was also fine with it, so she didn't bother to object.
"Here, hold this Garry." Ib walked over to him, gently holding out the rose for him to grab.
"Wow." He mumbled, gently reaching forward to pick it up, "This is kind of nostalgic." He made sure to hold it in a way that the thorns wouldn't stab him, and he tried his best not to recall the times when he feared for his life as his rose slowly lost its petals… Nostalgic as it was, he didn't necessarily miss the times when the rose was his lifeline.
She nodded, seemingly unaware of his thoughts, and she asked, "Did you bring your coat?"
"That I had on back then?" He asked, referring to their time in the gallery. He already suspected that Ib was trying to bring up the imagine of him in the gallery, but that only confirmed it. "No. It's in the middle of June, what you see is what you get. If you told me ahead of time I would've gotten it though."
"It doesn't matter." Yuki brushed it off, coming up to them, "we can work with what we've got. Garry, if you could please sit down against the tree over there." She pointed out where she wanted him to go. He nodded, and went over to sit, holding the rose in his hand. "Could you hold the rose with both hands?" Yuki asked, walking up to him and repositioning him how she wanted it to be.
Junichi noted from the corner of his eye that Ib looked mildly annoyed that Yuki was touching him, but wisely decided to stay silent on the matter.
"That looks good!" Aiko called out after a minute of Yuki posing Garry. Rin reluctantly nodded her agreement. He sat with his legs crossed, holding the rose with both hands in front of his chest, and he leaned back against the tree, looking straight ahead.
Yuki stood up and looked down on her handiwork, and after a moment nodded to herself, "That will do."
Garry tried his best not to move, and asked, "So you want me to-"
"Stay exactly in that pose," Yuki nodded her head in confirmation, "Don't move."
"Ok. So I need to stay like this for how long?" He asked, already feeling a horrible itch forming on his nose.
"As long as you can." Ib answered as she walked over with Aiko at her side, "Don't worry, we'll give you a break eventually."
Garry wanted to roll his eyes, but didn't want to mess up however Yuki had set him up, and now the itch on his nose felt even worse than it did before… Oh man, this was going to be a long day. From what he was able to see from his pose, Garry saw Ib and the rest of her friends form a small half circle around him, and they began to pull out their supplies from the bags they brought. He noticed Ib setting up a stand, and putting some sort of paper on it, and then she grabbed out her tools. From his vantage, he figured they were doing watercolors, since they all seem to be using the same set up as Ib.
"We're going to begin now, Garry," Yuki called out, "Please hold as still as you can possible be."
He inwardly groaned at that, because now he felt like he need to scratch his arm, and his head, and his leg... Outwardly, he replied, "Will do, please do your best." And that was the beginning of what Garry would like the definition of torture to be changed to: Modeling for a bunch of middle school kids who didn't want him to talk, move, or even breathe. Oh, he was going to get Ib back for this somehow... Maybe... Ok, probably not.
He lowered his eyes down towards the blue rose, and he felt his memories from back then surfacing. He remembered when he had nearly died, he was lying face down on the floor, and he felt someone take the key out of his hand, and soon after that he felt their presence again, standing over him. When he looked up, he noticed a little girl, who couldn't be older than ten, holding out a blue rose, and then he realized that he wasn't dying anymore. He traveled with her through that hell, protecting her as much as he could, doing his best to get the both of them out of there alive.
"Garry, are you feeling alright?" Junichi called after what felt like an hour.
"Huh?" He glanced up, and realized that he was about to doze off, "Sorry, it's just really nice out, and I was dozing off."
"Should we take a break then?" Ib asked, putting down her brush as she looked towards Yuki, since the older girl was the leader of their little group.
"Yeah! I want to go get some ice cream!" Aiko exclaimed, jumping up to her feet and stretching her limbs. Yuki and Rin also put down their brushes, but both of them were much quieter than Yuki.
"You may move now, Garry." Yuki told the man, watching him still hold his pose.
"Oh, good." He let out a long sigh, as he released the tension in his muscles, allowing them to loosely fall to the side. Sitting like that against the tree left marks in his skin, and his hands were beginning to cramp from holding the rose for so long. "Oh man, it feels nice to stand up and move."
"Can we get some ice cream?" Aiko went up to him and asked. Rather tactlessly, Garry couldn't help but think, since he hardly knew the girl, but he didn't say anything rude to the girl. Instead he simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Um, go for it." Garry replied, confused as to why she came up to him of all people.
Aiko laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head, "Well, I have no money..." Now Garry couldn't help but roll his eyes – that was why she came over to him, of course.
"Aiko!" Yuki voiced sternly, "You can't ask our guest to buy you some ice cream! You should've gotten money from your parents if you wanted to do something while we were out."
"No," Garry shook his head, moving from foot to foot as he slowly got feeling back into them, "It's alright, I just got paid a few days ago, I can afford to get you all some ice cream if you want."
"No." Yuki answered, "It's fine."
"I insist." Garry retorted, pulling out his wallet from his back pocket, "Come on, there's a small shop not too far from here. You were all sitting out here for as long as I was on a hot summer day, you might as well get something cool to eat."
"Are you sure?" A small voice asked, and he looked over to see Rin standing with her hands clasped together in front of her skirt. She was still very shy, but it was the first thing he heard her say, so he didn't press the issue. In a way, the girl reminded him of Ib when he first met her.
"Yes, I'm sure. Any friend of Ib's is a friend of mine." He replied, trying to make the girl less afraid of him.
Aiko smiled widely at that, and pulled on Yuki's arm, "Come on, it'll be fun! He's offering, so it'd be rude to turn him down, right?"
"We'll have to pack up so no one steals anything." Yuki murmured, looking at everything they had left on the ground.
"I'll stay here and watch." Junichi volunteered, "I don't really like ice cream very much anyway." He shrugged his shoulders, and leaned against the tree Garry was just at a little bit ago, "I'll just chill out right here under the tree."
Rin looked between him and Garry, before stepping out towards Junichi, "I'll stay too." She said quietly. There was a tint of red on her cheeks as she looked towards Junichi, but it quickly disappeared as she looked back at the ground timidly.
"If you're sure." Yuki muttered, "Do you want us to bring anything back?"
"No, I'm fine." Rin answered with a shake of her head.
Yuki nodded, "Ok then, with them behind I'll feel better about leaving our things here. Lead the way Garry." Garry walked through the park, and out into the busy sidewalk, and began walking towards a small ice cream shop on the corner of the street.
"I bet Rin likes Junichi!" Aiko turned towards Yuki and Ib, the excitement not leaving her voice, "It's so cute! Do you think she's going to ask him out?"
"Ask him out?" Garry muttered aloud, "Isn't she your age Ib? That's too young."
Ignoring his comment Ib replied, "It was obvious that she liked him for a while now. Rin looks at him all the time and blushes, she's hardly hiding it."
Aiko gave Ib an annoyed look, "Are you saying I only just noticed it now, and everyone else already knew?"
"Yes." Ib replied, a light smile gracing her face, "That's exactly what I'm saying."
"Well, you know what I noticed? I know you like G-" Aiko's mouth was suddenly shut by Ib who ran over to her in what had to be a record breaking speed and slapping her palm over her mouth. Ib's face was beet red, and she didn't dare turn her glaring red eyes away from Aiko.
"Do not finish that sentence." She whispered quietly, her glare intensifying, "You'll regret it." Aiko nodded as a bead of sweat made its way down her forehead, and Ib slowly released her hand from the poor girl's mouth.
Garry watched the exchange in surprise and turned towards Yuki, "I don't remember talking about dating and stuff until I was like fourteen or fifteen, twelve just seems too young to me."
"The difference is that you're a boy." She stated, as if that explained everything.
"What does that have to do with it?" Garry asked. Yuki didn't even say anything, instead she just gave him a blank look. "It means everything, got it." He said, quickly looking away.
Moments later they entered the ice cream shop, and soon they all had their favorite flavors and were sitting down on a couple of tables situated along the windows, eating their treats. Aiko took a long lick of her chocolate ice cream and let out a sigh, "Ice cream is so nice on such a warm day!" Ib nodded in agreement, not really feeling like talking as she ate her vanilla ice cream.
It was actually pretty nice, as everyone focused on eating their ice cream rather than talking. The sun on their backs as they sat in the air conditioned building by the the windows felt very nice, and the ice cream itself tasted fantastic. "Garry," Yuki snapped Garry's mind out of his little daze, and inadvertently gaining everyone else's attention as well.
"What is it?" He asked, looking towards her with a lifted brow.
"Why are you with Ib every Sunday? You are much older than her. It's honestly kind of weird." Ib let out a startled cry at that, and Garry too was left a little speechless. "I have nothing against you for doing it," She added quickly, "I'm just curious as to why you've been with her. From what Ib has said about you at school, it seems that you've been seeing each other for years."
"When you say it like that, it sounds wrong." He forced out a chuckle, scratching his nose sheepishly, "We only hang out occasionally on Sundays, and rarely do we see each other outside of that."
"But why?" Yuki pressed onward, despite how awkward Garry felt, "Are you her uncle?"
"No, we're not related." He sighed realizing that he wasn't going to get out of this, so he decided to tell the truth, "We met each other several years back at an art museum, it was a very interesting experience."
"Very interesting in what way?" Yuki asked, tilting her head curiously, "Did you just look at the artwork together?"
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." He answered, shaking his head as he licked his ice cream.
"What does that mean?" Aiko asked in confusion, "What's there not to believe about going to a museum?"
"It means exactly what he says." Ib replied, "If it weren't for Garry I'd be dead." Garry blinked in surprise, amazed that Ib would say something like that aloud to anyone. He never even spoke a word of what happened to anyone other than her, and he'd prefer it to stay that way. No one needed to know what happened. However... He looked up at Yuki and Aiko, Ib had apparently trusted these two enough to reveal that amount of information, so he'd trust them for a little bit too, to test the waters with them, in other words.
"You're too modest, Ib. I recall our first meeting involved me dying on the floor, and you saving me." He replied, "If it weren't for you, I'd be dead."
"After that." Ib clarified, "You saved me then."
"And you saved me after that too." Garry retorted.
"I feel like we've gone over this before." Ib sighed, leaning back in her chair, giving Garry a flat look. One which Garry returned right back at her. It didn't last long though, since both of them broke out into a smile.
"I don't understand, how can you die at a museum? There's security there, and I know I would've at least heard something about people nearly dying back then from my parents talking about it." Yuki explained, "And yet, I can tell you two are genuine."
"Well, thank you for thinking that much at least." Garry chuckled, looking away from Ib, "I wonder why you'd believe us and not question what we're saying at all, though."
Yuki shook her head, "It's easy to tell if people are lying if you're looking for the signs."
"Oh?" Garry said aloud, "Is it really that easy?"
"Yes." Yuki confirmed, "For instance, the movement of your eyes are an important factor, any twitches should be noted as well, and the fact that you didn't go on the offense when I told you that I don't understand how you could possibly die is also a sign that you weren't lying."
"Wow." Garry muttered, feeling impressed by the girl, "Are they teaching that to you at school?" If that was the case, then he was definitely born too early.
"No." She shook her head, "Library."
"She's really smart!" Aiko exclaimed, wrapping her arm around the violet haired girl and chuckling, "She knows everything!" Even Ib nodded in agreement with that, and that was proof enough that Aiko's claims were true.
"However, before we strayed off topic, I wanted to ask you something else. What is it that you claim that I wouldn't believe regarding the museum?" Yuki asked, bringing things back to topic.
Garry sighed, and turned to look at Ib, who just shrugged. Well, they really didn't have much to lose by telling her, did they? "You're the first person I've told this to," Garry leaned back in his seat, looking towards the ceiling thoughtfully, "I'm wondering whether I should tell this to a bunch of kids though."
"We're not kids!" Aiko cried. Ib also looked mildly annoyed, while Yuki just looked at him impassively, nothing seemed to be able to faze her.
Ib sighed, "It's fine Garry. This will be the first time I tell anyone about it too, and I trust them, they're my... friends." Garry smiled at that, glad that Ib trusted them so much. He was quite worried for the girl for some time, since she would often talk about how she wasn't making friends, so to see her finally connect with people was very heartwarming.
"Well, I honestly don't even know where to begin." Garry stated, looking back towards them all, "The art museum was having a exhibition of Guertena's works. I just went upstairs to the second floor of the museum, and there was this massive painting, stretched all along the wall."
"I saw it too." Ib supplied, nodding along to his story.
"Right, and I don't think I'll ever really forgot what it's called: Fabricated World." Just the mere name of it made him shudder. While the nightmares have finally started to subside, there were occasionally nights where he still dreamed of the horror he witnessed there.
"When I saw it, I looked into it, and suddenly all the lights went out." Ib added onto his story, looking downward at the table as she recounted her memories alongside Garry.
Garry nodded, "Yeah, the same thing happened to me."
"I wandered around the museum, looking for anyone, and then I saw that pit of water was opened. So I jumped into it." Ib continued to explain.
"Of course, I assume you checked all the doors too before you did it?" Garry asked, "Everything was locked, no one was around, I waited a couple of hours before I was desperate enough to do that."
Ib nodded, "And then we were in a different world, all the paintings came alive, and were trying to kill us."
"You forgot to tell them about the roses." Garry stated off-handedly.
"Oh, right, we each had our own rose, mine was red, and his was blue. Whenever we were hurt, the rose would lose some petals, and if all the petals fell off, we'd die." She held her hand in front of her, looking at it as if it still held a rose, "We had to protect them with our lives…"
"This sounds really scary." Aiko shivered at the mere thought of it all, "Did it really happen?"
"Yes." Garry nodded, "It was in there that Ib and I met each other. She saved my life by restoring my rose, and after that, we traveled through that place together trying to find a way out."
"Was there anyone else in there?" Yuki asked curiously.
Ib and Garry looked at each other. "Yes, there was one more." Ib explained, "We learned that she was a painting though, and needed one of us to stay in the other world, so she could go out into our world."
"How did she go about accomplishing that goal?" Yuki questioned.
"She tried to kill us," Garry didn't bother to sugar-coat it at all, but he didn't dare say another word on the subject. Ib noticed he refused to elaborate on it, so Ib continued onward.
"She almost killed me, but Garry saved me from her." Ib said, "We fell into this large box, and my rose was almost completely destroyed in the fall. She came down, and tried to get Garry's rose, but we ran – Garry had to carry me since I was too weak to move."
Yuki nodded, "And what happened to her?"
"We had no choice but to burn her painting." Garry muttered. His eyes glazing over, lost in the memory now. He regretted it – both he and Ib didn't want to do it, but they weren't given a choice…
"When we did that, she burned away." Ib added, when she noticed Aiko and Yuki's confused expressions.
Aiko visibly paled, and she stuttered out, "Y- You killed her?" Garry and Ib both looked down remorsefully at that, unable to say anything to dispute it.
"Aiko," Yuki said, using her stern voice as she did earlier, "Don't say things like that."
"Y- Yeah. I'm sorry." Aiko mumbled. Sheepishly looking apologetically towards Ib and Garry.
Garry sighed, "No, she is right I suppose. We did kill her..."
"No, she isn't right." Ib said suddenly, looking sharply at him, "I was the one who burned the painting, so it was my fault."
"But I was the one who insisted we go check the room out in the first place!" Garry exclaimed, "And it was my lighter you used to do it…"
"I was the one who agreed with you to go in there." Ib shook her head, "And I was the one who used the lighter, it hardly matters whose it was!"
"Be quiet, both of you." Yuki said, rubbing her forehead, "It's clear from what you've told me that you really didn't have a choice, this girl was attempting to murder you, and you did the only thing you could to survive. It was no one's fault but her own for putting you into that corner."
"Do you really think so?" Ib asked dubiously.
"Ib, you know I always go by what logic dictates, and from what you're told me, that is clearly what happened. Nothing can dispute that." Yuki explained, "Of course, I wasn't there to see it with my own eyes, but from what I can discern from your story, that is indeed the case."
Garry nodded thoughtfully, "I hate to put all the blame on her though. It was my fault for making her react like that... She really wasn't that bad, she just wanted to get out as much as we did."
"It doesn't matter anymore." Yuki stated, "It happened years ago, and at the time you both were probably very confused and afraid, you did what you felt you had to at the time."
Garry looked down thoughtfully now, "Perhaps you're right."
"The only two issue with you story is that going into another world is impossible," Yuki stated, leaning back into her chair and tapping her chin thoughtfully, "but even knowing that, I can tell you two are genuine in your emotions about this, so something like what you're saying must have happened."
Aiko watched the exchange in silence, licking her ice cream every now and then. "What was this girl's name?" Yuki asked.
Ib and Garry both looked away at that, "I don't want to say it." They both said almost at the same time.
"And that settles it," Yuki sighed, "you two are telling the truth, as bizarre as it is. Your reactions are both too genuine to be lying about something as strange as this."
"You believe us?" Garry asked in surprise.
"I guess so, logically it shouldn't exist, but everything else you've said is true, so as far as I can tell, since there was nothing about an incident regarding the museum from back then, I guess you really did go into an alternate world where this stuff happened. It also explains why you two keep seeing each other afterwards, tragedy brings people together."
"When you say it like that it sounds completely ridiculous." Garry muttered, feeling strange now that a girl was saying that she believed them about their tale. Hearing himself recount it along with Ib just pointed out even more how unbelievable it all really was.
"To be fair, Garry, it ispretty farfetched." Ib stated, "Things like that just don't happen every day."
"I guess so." Garry replied, and he shook his head, glancing towards Yuki, "You know Yuki, I'm forgetting who the older one between the two of us is."
Yuki blinked in surprise at the unexpected praise, and looked away. "Rin and Junichi are probably getting bored waiting for us," Yuki said with an abrupt change of topic. Getting up she added, "Let's go finish what we started earlier today."
Garry stretched, already feeling the cramps and uncomfortable bark pressing into his back, "Oh boy, posing time again."
And so the rest of the day went with Garry posing for the art club students, getting a break every hour or so. It was an odd way to spend a day, but Garry was glad to have met Yuki, she gave him another perspective of that horrible day from way back when, the day he felt he had made more errors in judgment than he would like to admit.
But maybe Yuki was right, maybe it truly wasn't his fault for what happened to her – what happened to Mary. She had sealed her fate when she had them cornered, and like cornered animals tend to do, they lashed out to try and survive in any way they could, and it unfortunately resulted in her demise. He didn't have to like it, but he now knew that what he did back then wasn't all his fault, and was just what a person in his position would naturally try to do.
"Alright Garry, that's good enough for today." Yuki called out to him, looking up at the sky that was quickly turning multiple shades of orange and purple.
As they were all packing, Junichi came up to Garry and looked him up and down. "You're an all right guy, I can see why Ib said no to me."
"No about what?" Garry asked, stretching his stiff arms and legs.
Junichi shook his head, "Nothing important." He then bowed to Garry, "It was nice meeting you Garry."
Rin also came up and bowed politely, having warmed up considerably over the course of the day, "Thank you for posing for us today, and I'm sorry for being afraid earlier."
Garry waved it off with a chuckle, "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad that you're talking to me now."
Yuki, Aiko, and Ib then followed up behind them. "Would it be alright if we called you out some other times?" Yuki asked, "You're very good at posing, you barely move at all."
"Sure, I'd be happy to help you out." Garry replied, "Though try not to make it every weekend."
"Thank you." Yuki bowed, and turned to walk away. Rin and Junichi followed behind her, leaving behind on Aiko and Ib now.
"Um... Well..." Aiko mumbled, then she bowed deeply, "I'm sorry for saying what I did earlier! I wasn't thinking and I just blurted it out."
Garry laughed at the girl's demeanor, "Don't worry about it, I don't hold it against you."
Aiko looked up, and in true over dramatic fashion, she jumped forward and wrapped her arms around him, "I am so jealous of Ib! I want a Garry of my own too!"
"Get off him," Ib cried in an annoyed voice, prying the girl off Garry. Again giving her a stern glare.
"Aww, I don't want to make poor little Ib jealous," She said laughing, running away from the fuming Ib, "I'm going to go meet up with everyone else!"
And then it was just the two of them. It was how Garry pictured the day to be – just him and Ib, but truly it was nice to see that Ib was making friends, so it didn't bother him much at all.
"Are you alright going home on your own, Garry?" Ib asked, looking up at him.
"Hah, I am more than capable of doing so!" He exclaimed, crossing his arms, "Don't let me hold you back from being with your friends, Ib." He added lightly, giving her a smile, "Go have a good time with them."
"She nodded, and looked extremely relieved, "I'm sorry! I promise to make you dinner next week then!"
"That's really unnecessary." He muttered, "I'm very happy you made some friends your own age. They are all good kids. So if you want to be with them over me, I won't hold it against you."
"No! I don't want to leave you alone all the time. I'll hang out with them, but I won't forget about you either!" Ib exclaimed, "So… Next week it'll just be us!"
Garry again felt happy that she cared so much, and a warm feeling spread through his chest, "Thank you for worrying about me Ib," He pat her on the head, "I'll look forward to next week. For now though, be with your friends."
She nodded, and launched herself towards him to give him a quick hug. Almost as fast as she did it, she turned around and took off after her friends without wasting another second. Garry blinked a few times in surprise, before settling on a smile. While he did feel a bit lonely, Ib's happiness more than made up for it. With one final glance back at him, Ib ran off out of the park with her friends, leaving Garry to his own devices for the night.
XxXxXxX
Note:
So if it's not insanely obvious, Yuki is based off of Nagato Yuki from Haruhi Suzumiya. I even kept the name because I lack that much creativity. Rin is loosely based off of Natsune Rin from Little Busters. Aiko and Junichi at least I just made up on the spot. I decided to make Aiko the excited annoying-but-means-well girl, and Junichi is just the cool guy.
These characters will be showing up occasionally, but I promise none of them will take over screen time from Ib and Garry.
CHAPTER 5 REVISED: 9/2/2014 – Added in more detail, combined a lot of sentences, fixed a lot of errors. All of this added in an additional 1.8k words to the chapter.