Light seeped through my fingers as I held my palm outstretched before me. Leaves delicately rustled in the kind spring wind; cherry blossoms lay idly on the branches of trees, on the cusp of fully blossoming. The mellow grass I laid on gently tickled my feet. Soft rays of sunlight slipped through the sparse spaces in between leaves, setting patches of field faintly aglow. I sighed contentedly, slowly fluttering my hand ever so slightly, allowing more light to leak through my fingers.
A familiar sarcastic voice broke me out of my reverie. "So do you ever do any work or do you just laze around town and smoke all day?"
I smiled at the chef who leaned on the fence, facing the field. "I'm not smoking today, am I?"
"Why's that?"
"It's beautiful."
"What is?"
"Life."
Chase eyeballed me confusedly; the sunlight lent itself to turning his usually violet eyes a sprightly amethyst colour. A small smile slowly broke across his face as I watched him, reaching for his pack of cigarettes, from where I laid across the field.
He lit his cigarette, and the crisp smoke he exhaled was almost invisible in the brilliant sunlight.
"You're weird," he paused to remark, before proceeding to plant his cigarette back in between his lips.
"How mean. I thought I told you to call me interesting."
A laugh escaped from the gap amid his lips, and he came to seat himself next to where I lounged on the grass, placing one hand behind to support him. He pulled one knee up to his chest, resting his arm on it so he could dangle his cigarette lazily from his svelte fingers. The sunlight seemed to filter itself through the tiny gaps that the individual strands of his hair created, turning his strawberry blonde hair an even lighter colour.
"Komorebi," I remarked softly.
He shot me a look of confusion, but made no move to say anything. Chase was the kind of person who didn't waste his words. He languidly brought his quickly diminishing cigarette back up to his lips, taking his time to let its smoke gratify his lungs.
"Komorebi. It's Japanese for 'when sunlight filters through leaves of trees'. There's no one word to describe it in English."
"Interesting," he drawled, raising an eyebrow up to signify part interest and part disinterest.
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"You just called me interesting, didn't you?"
He rolled his eyes, but the smile that tugged on the edges of his mouth voiced that his action didn't really reflect the amusement he felt.
I turned my gaze back to the cherry blossom trees, admiring how the stray petals that had reached their blossoming stage before the others wafted in the wind. I sighed again, smiling peacefully to myself.
Chase turned to look at me. "You've been smiling the whole time I've been here. Have you gone crazy or are you just really happy to see me?" He smirked at his own joke, fixing his gaze firmly on me.
"Aren't those two the same?"
He couldn't help the smile that threatened to tug at his lips once again, but he nudged me gently instead, being careful not to burn me with the now short cigarette that he held between his fingers.
"I used to cry at least once a day when I was younger."
His eyebrows rose again. "What were you sad about?"
"I wasn't sad. It's just that the world's so beautiful, and life's so short." I turned my head to face him, expecting a roll of his eyes again, but instead I was met with furrowed eyebrows that seemed deep in thought. Moments passed in silence, him seemingly reflecting and me watching intently.
"So why don't you cry anymore?"
I smiled, reaching for the almost finished cigarette that rested between his lips, promptly bringing them to my own before he could react.
"Figured I should enjoy it, rather than cry about it. No point wasting an already short life, right?" I slowly inhaled on his cigarette before plopping it back where I'd gotten it from. His hands instinctively went back to hold it.
He grinned. "Didn't peg you as the sappy kind."
I brought my hand up to my chest, feigning offense at his words. "I'll have you know that I'm actually very sappy," I joked, smiling to indicate the untruth in my words.
He stayed quiet, waiting for me to continue.
"The gods envy us."
"What?"
"Any moment could be our last. Everything we do is more beautiful because we're doomed."
"How morbid."
"Only if you let it be."
He finally threw his cigarette onto the field floor and crushed it underneath his shoe. I watched it crumble and disintegrate, smiling a little at how it seemed to magnify my point on how everything is bound to soften and rot.
I sat up to mimic Chase's position, stretching my arms out behind me to ease my muscles that ached from a morning of farming. He observed me quietly. Silence fell like a blanket over us. Minutes passed. Neither of us made a move to lift it.
He crossed his legs and turned his gaze up to the sky, which was quickly turning a vivid shade of orange.
"Sun's setting," he finally remarked, getting two cigarettes out of his packet and handing one to me.
"Don't like the sunset," I replied, nodding to simultaneously thank him for and accept his cigarette. I placed it between my lips as his one hand went to form a protective shield against the wind while the other held his lighter, which set the tip of my cigarette ablaze. He proceeded to mimic the action for himself, exhaling a lungful of smoke that was no longer almost invisible in the quickly darkening evening air.
"Don't all girls like the sunset? They think it's romantic or some crap like that, right?"
I laughed as I exhaled smoke through my mouth. "I told you, I'm not like most girls."
"That's what all girls say."
We sat side-by-side, smoking, watching the sun make its speedy descent. The sky was a concoction of deep orange and indigo.
"Morning's my favourite time of day. It's when everything's starting afresh. I hate it when the sun goes down. Marks the end of another day in the limited days we've got."
Chase stared at me intently, his eyes squinting slightly, like how one would when trying to find the next piece of an intricate puzzle.
"You're a mystery, aren't you?"
My eyes bulged out of my head as I erupted into a fit of laughter. "I just told you a huge chunk about me, and I'm still the mystery?" I shook my head, bringing my laughter to a quiet still. "If anything, you're the mystery."
The sky was now a shade of navy blue; the moon high in it. I crossed one leg over the other, leaning my body weight on my arms which rested behind me, as I looked up into the evening sky. Stars littered it haphazardly, slowly gleaming as if they all shared a little secret. A small smile crossed my face.
"But I guess the night's got it's own beauty too." I threw my cigarette on the ground as I stood up slowly, letting my bones crack back into place after having been relaxed for too long. I stretched felinely, letting out a sigh to relieve the tension in my lower back.
"I'm heading home."
Chase followed suit, getting up easily, without the languid motions I'd had. He ran his lithe fingers through his hair, stifling a yawn as he did so. He simply nodded, but made no move to start walking until I did.
He didn't voice any intentions to do so, but he walked me home, still smoking on his cigarette that he hadn't yet finished. We walked in silence, him one hand in his pocket, the other moving with his cigarette.
He suddenly broke the silence. "I like oranges."
I turned to face him, confusion expressing itself on my face. "What's that?"
"Not a mystery anymore, am I?"
I smiled while rolling my eyes at him. We fell back into silence.
"This is me," I finally said, motioning to my house, which stood a few feet ahead of us. He nodded mutely, throwing his cigarette butt onto the ground, crushing it beneath the heel of his shoe, as he'd done before. The night air was flowing so quickly I could almost hear it in my ears. Chase trudged up beside me to the porch of my house, hands in his pockets. I spoke.
"Night."
He nodded again in response. I went in, silently closing the door behind me. I could hear his footsteps slowly growing fainter and fainter.
The world's beautiful.
Everything we do is more beautiful because we're doomed.
The people in the world are even more beautiful.
Chase's smiling face, cigarette dangling from his lips, flashed through my mind.
I threw the door back open.
"Chase!"
He turned around lazily, hands still in his pockets, as an eyebrow raised itself.
I threw an orange I'd retrieved from my bag to him. He caught it effortlessly, one hand still in his pocket as the other grasped the fruit.
"Thanks," I said, nodding, for how he'd both listened to me all day and walked me home.
He threw me that smile in return, and I watched him throw the orange up in the air and catch it repeatedly, as he turned around and made his way back home.
Disclaimer: I do not own 'Norwegian Wood' by Haruki Murakami, "the gods envy us..." quote which is by Homer (The Iliad) or Harvest Moon.
Author's Note: Sorry this took me so long to upload! I actually started on a chapter a while back, but then I decided that the chapter needed something before it to show how Chase and Molly are already friends. This chapter is supposed to have taken place a while after the last chapter concerning Chase, the one where they went drinking. So please assume that for every chapter some time has passed in between! This chapter was meant to be Molly opening up to him a bit, while also talking about her view on life. Their relationship will really start developing in the next chapter (well, the one after next because it alternates between Chase and Luke for chapters). I hope you enjoyed it! My writer's block is gone so I'll be back with more chapters soon. Please review and follow if you liked it!