Chapter 2

I was debating on if I should tell Haru about Sosuke. But then how do I tell him? Do I tell him that he was my closest childhood friend and that we planned on spending the rest of our lives together? Maybe he had forgotten about all those promises and had already moved on without telling me. It's not like he had been around all these years.

I felt my body jolt upwards after someone had pushed my head to the side. As I looked around I saw Haru staring at me with curious eyes. I realized that I had stopped studying with him and became too wrapped up in my own thoughts.

"Is something wrong?" He asked me.

"Nope. I was just thinking." I answered. He continued to analyze me as he looked at me. Even with his bored expression I knew that he knew that I lied. There was obviously something wrong since I always give Haru my attention when we're studying, but he never did like to press me when something was bothering me.

"Maybe we should have something to eat." He suggested as he stood up from his spot on the floor and walked towards the kitchen.

"Mackerel?" I laughed as I followed him.

"How did you know?" I laughed as I watched him pull out the frying pan and the familiar fish. I stood beside him and watched as he cooked us some food.

"I think we need to broaden your horizon with food." I suggested.

"Why?"

"Because we can't keep having mackerel every day."

"It's healthy."

"Not to have it every day, Haru." He stayed silent as he continued to fry the fish. I shook my head and went to the familiar fridge to pull out some juice and pour it in glasses for us.

"But you like mackerel." I gave him a soft smile as I walked over to him with our drinks.

"I don't mind mackerel, but it would be nice to have a change every once in a while." He stayed silent as he finished up with our snack before surprising me and stealing a quick peck from my lips. "That…that was bold." I mumbled.

"Now we can have mackerel."

"Wait, what?"

"You wanted to change it up, so now I did and now we can have mackerel in peace." I sighed at Haru's simple way of thinking. It was so simple that it was complicated.

When I walked into my house I felt like I could handle all my emotions. I was thinking about not telling Haru about Sosuke because I was pretty sure that Haru probably wouldn't meet Sosuke. However, when I walked into my kitchen to find the Yamazaki family sitting at my kitchen table I realized that maybe that was wishful thinking.

"Kei, you're home! Looks who's here!" My mom waved her arms about in excitement as I looked at the Yamazaki family, but my eyes stopped moving when I saw Sosuke. His shoulders had become broad and you could see that his legs were having trouble fitting under our table since he has grown in height. He stared at me with the same emerald coloured eyes that I knew from my childhood.

"Come sit down and tell us everything you've been up to." Mrs. Yamazaki waved me over to the seat beside hers. As my legs moved without permission I sat beside her and began to listen to her talk about the past few years. I wasn't paying attention though. Sosuke and I continued to stare at each other as we sat across from one another. I was wondering what he was thinking. I was wondering why they were all in my home. This all happened so fast and I didn't know what to do.

"Are we going to be together forever?" Sosuke shrugged his shoulders as we continued to swing on the swing set. I waited for an answer to my question because I didn't know when I would see him again since he was moving away from me to continue swimming.

"I'll send you mail as much as I can." He mumbled. He gave me a surprised look as he saw me stretch my hand towards him and stuck out my pinkie.

"Promise?" As he gave my pinkie a quizzical look before looking at me and smiling, he wrapped his pinkie around mine.

"Promise."

"You stopped sending me mail." I whispered as I sat on the familiar swing set with Sosuke. The two of us managed to sneak away from our parents to come outside to the place that felt so familiar.

"I know." My fingers played with each other as I stared down at my hands. I couldn't look at the man who was now sitting beside me on the swings. He didn't look like the Sosuke that I knew and loved, but at the same time he did.

"You broke your promise." As much as it pained me to say those words – they were true.

"I know."

"And you can't-"My words got caught in my throat as I felt so many different emotions hit me like a wave. My fingers clenched onto the fabric of my pants as I bit down on my lower lip. "And you can't even apologize." My voice cracked as my eyes began to glaze over with tears.

"I'm sorry." My head shot in his direction and that was probably the first time I got a proper look at his face all night. Familiar teal orbs stared back at me as his, once serious, facial expression was soft. There were no creases in his forehead and his jaw wasn't clenched.

"You don't know how much it hurt me." I whispered.

"It hurt you as much as it did me." He stated. As I stared into his eyes I felt the all familiar feelings that he gave me when I was a child. I felt my mouth begin to dry up out of nerves as I looked at him. "Don't cry." He whispered. I felt my right hand move up to my cheek and I noticed that a single tear escaped my eye. I quickly looked away from him and wiped away the tear.

"I wasn't crying." I mumbled.

"Because you never cry, right?" His sarcastic tone was noticeable as he sat beside me. I avoided eye contact with him as I looked away from him.

"Sosuke! Kei! It's time for Sosuke to go home!" My mom yelled from our backdoor. I sighed and stood up from the swing that I had been sitting on for so long.

"Kei…I have to tell you something." I turned around and looked up at Sosuke. He towered over me as he stood in front of me. Then it happened, word vomit. I didn't know it was going to come out and I didn't know why it did come out.

"I'm seeing someone." I could tell that his brain was processing what I had just blurted out.

"What?"

"We've been seeing each other for almost a year."

"Who is it?"

"You don't know him."

"Who is it?" His was more stern with his voice now as he stared at me. I swallowed the lump in throat before answering.

"Haru. His name is Haru."

"He's Rin's friend, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"He's the one you went to school with, right? With Makoto?" I nodded my head. As he stared at me for a few seconds I wondered what he was thinking, but when he pushed past me to go inside I grabbed his hand.

"You know that no matter what, you'll always be one of my closest friends, right? I mean…we made those promises when we were five years old."

"So they don't matter because we made them when we were five?" He asked me.

"No of course not." I shook my head at this ridiculous idea. "Of course they matter and I promised that we would be together forever and we will be because I can't not have you in my life, Sosuke. You are so special to me." Sosuke didn't say anything. As I continued to keep his hand in mine I asked him one more question, "Sosuke, what was it you wanted to say?"

"Nothing. Just that you'll be seeing me swimming again soon." As he yanked his hand out of mine I silently followed him into the house.

Alright! That's chapter two! So what do we think, huh? Tell me your thoughts! I got 1 review for the first chapter, so let's push for 2!

-xoxo JaminJazzi