Day16

I usually spend Sundays with my mother. With her being too busy six days a week, it had been difficult for us to find the time to spend together. I’ve always reminded her to take breaks every now and then as she always seemed to push herself. But every time I did, she would just smile at me, nod, and sometimes tell me to just keep doing my best so she could rest in the future.

Mom was born in a middle class family. Her parents passed away when she was still in high school. She used some of the money they left her to finish high school and saved the rest for her other needs. She had a hard time getting used to working. But she tried her best at everything. There was a time when her savings was almost depleted but her hard work brought it back up.

She met my dad while transferring companies. He helped her adjust to her new company and she felt very happy there. They both loved one another and dad decided to propose to her almost two years after meeting one another. Unfortunately, dad’s parents hated mom as they wanted dad to marry someone wealthy, being a rich family themselves. Dad persisted and still married mom, even when it was against his parents’ wishes. Because of the unhealthy relationship between mom and dad’s parents, they decided to cut her off when dad passed away, saying she brought misfortune upon their family.

It was a hard time for mother. Losing dad made her feel like she had lost everything. She continued to live lifelessly, just waiting for her time to come, until that one day, when she collapsed in her office.

I’m not so sure. But according to mom, finding out that she was pregnant to me was what brought her hope. She wanted to do everything to raise me and give me a great life. According to her, my birth brought back her determination to live.

Today was different from the usual Sundays. It was Valentine’s Day. She had been talking to me about some guy in her office who kept asking her out for this day, despite her repeatedly turning him down. But before leaving for school last Friday, I told her to accept the guy’s proposal. After all, based on what I’ve heard about the guy, he seemed like a nice guy and she seemed to like him. I closed the door after telling her that.

Because of what I did, not that I’m complaining, mom did go out with him for the day. I was ready to waste the day away by sleeping or watching TV when Miya texted me, asking me to go to church with her and meeting her parents while I’m at it. I felt like refusing. But I felt that she was going out of her way to invite me. Turning her down would be betraying her, so I accepted. She sent me another message, telling me to go to the park.

The last text message she sent me reminded me of the day she broke up with me. But the park was just near the church so I understood why she picked that place. I wasn’t sure as what would be the appropriate thing to wear when going to the church so I ended up just wearing casual.

I didn’t see Miya when I arrived at the park. There were a lot of people walking around, carrying flowers. I assume they’re waiting for their dates. I’ve thought of buying some flowers myself, but decided it would be a bad idea. After walking around for a few minutes, I sat down a park bench and just watched the people passing by. A few moments later, a bouquet of flowers blocked my path, startling me. I turned to the person holding the flowers to complain, only to find out it was Miya. She was wearing a cute pink dress.Her bangs were lifted to the side by a couple of yellow oval hair clips.

I was confused, of course. I, myself, decided against getting flowers for her since she was going to be with her parents and we were going to the church. I half-heartedly accepted the flowers, speechless.

“I’m disappointed,” Miya pouted and sat beside me. “I would really think my boyfriend would bring along flowers or chocolates on our date.”

“D-date?” I exclaimed, turning to her. “You told me we were going to the church with your parents.”

Miya examined my clothes disapprovingly. “So you thought you were going to meet my parents and you wore t-shirt and jeans?”

I felt myself flush at those words. She was right. I didn’t think of wearing something better for her parents. Suddenly, something she said sunk in. “Wait… What did you mean ‘I thought I was going to meet your parents’?”

“It was a joke,” she sighed. “Well, it surprised me and made me happy that you accepted. Sadly, it’s not going to happen today.” Rolling her right hand into a fist raising it, she continued, “Those two decided to take a parents-only date for today and left me all by myself. What? They thought little Miya’s going to just sit there like a good little girl?” I watched her expression change to a vengeful one. “I’ll show them the error of their ways… Mwahaha…” she laughed, what seemed to be a poor attempt of an evil laugh.

Though it was enjoyable to see another side to Miya, I felt weird holding a bouquet. I was certainly not going to go around the city, showing off that I had been given flowers to. “Then, I’ll just go home to-”

“Stop!” Miya cut me short, tugging my shirt. “Is my beloved also going to leave me to face this cruel day all by my lonesome?” she cried dramatically. How she could say all those embarrassing lines so naturally is beyond me.

“No, actually, I was just-” I tried to explain, though was cut short once more.

“Good! Let’s go!” she exclaimed as she stood up and pulled my arm. “I’m not going to let you go until you give me flowers or chocolates or both,” she said in a very persuading tone. Turning to me, she added, “By the way, if you’re going to give me only flowers, it has to pass my high standards and you have to pick them up yourself. If, on the other hand, you decide to give me chocolates alone, you have to make them yourself.”

“Eeh?” I complained, while feeling silly being pulled around by a girl and holding a bouquet in my other hand. “So I pretty much have no choice but to give you both?”

Stopping, she turned to me again. “Can you bake chocolates?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No…”

“Then, yes, you have to get me both.” She turned and pulled me again.

I wasn’t sure where she planned to drag me to. But she stopped when we reached a crepe store. She looked longingly at the crepe displays that I knew I had to get her some. “Which one do you want?” I asked.

Examining each one carefully and answered, “I can’t choose! How can anybody choose from all of these?” she exclaimed like a kid.

“I’ll take the cheapest one with chocolate that you have!” I called out to the shopkeeper.

“Nooo!” Miya complained. “I’ll take that one!” she pointed to a crepe with banana and strawberry toppings, covered with chocolate syrup and topped off with whipped cream.

“Fine… Switch the order to two of those, please!” I called to the shopkeeper while pointing to the same one.

“With vanilla ice cream, please!” Miya added.

“Coming up!” he replied.

After paying and taking the crepes with us, we walked away, nibbling on our snacks. “Well, you got your chocolate. Let’s go look for your flowers,” I told her.

Miya pouted and muttered, “I’ve been cheated…”

As it was very difficult to eat and hold the bouquet at the same time, I told Miya we have to take a seat somewhere. She agreed and we returned to the park. But when we arrived, the park benches were already full. Miya already finished her crepe and was staring at mine.

“Let’s drop by my house for a while to-” Before I could finish my sentence, Miya suddenly moved towards me and swallowed my ice cream, almost whole. “Waaah!” I cried.

After swallowing, Miya placed her hands together and said with a serious face, “The ice cream was melting. I didn’t want to dishonor its sacrifice.”

“I could’ve eaten it myself!” I complained.

“You were saying something about going to your house?” she asked, reverting back to her usual expression.

Giving up, I told her I have to leave the flowers in my house to free my hands. She agreed and we went on our way. Upon arriving, I removed the flowers from their wrapper and placed it in a jar. Of course, I poured some water on the jar to let the flowers live longer. I turned to Miya, just to find her peeking from outside the doorway.

“What’s the matter? Come on in!” I called.

She entered the house, saying something about it being impolite to enter a house without permission. That was the same weird person I was with earlier, right? I took a scoop of vanilla ice cream from our freezer and placed it on my crepe, before finishing it.

“I want ice cream too,” Miya whispered to my ear as I was throwing the crepe’s paper wrapper away.

“No, you already finished two scoops,” I said. “Too much ice cream will be bad for your health.”

“But one of them had almost melted,” she complained.

I placed my hand on her head. “Greedy people reap unripe fruits.”

Miya walked to the corner near the door and sat there.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Sulking…” she answered.

Her childishness really amused me. Since I’ve freed my hands, I thought it was time to continue our date. “So, where do you want to go to next?” I asked.

She stood up, and pondered. “How about we do everything we did on our last date?” she suggested. “But this time, we’ll end it right.”

Honestly, that was one suggestion I really didn’t want to follow. But not having a better idea, and knowing I had fun that day before she broke up with me, I accepted anyway.

We skipped the park and just had lunch first at a seafood restaurant near the park. We just paid for what we individually ate. After that, we moved to the arcade, where we also played a few shooting games, then to the karaoke booth, where Miya sang the theme song of “Yuki no Kisetsu”, the movie we watched before, among others.

Instead of watching a movie, Miya wanted to go window shopping, so we did. I bought some flowers while Miya was browsing inside a store and gave them to her when she went outside the store in a panic, just noticing that I was gone. She was ready to bash me with the flowers, but just hit me lightly. She looked really worried that time.

As we did before, we sneaked into the school, arriving at the rooftop at around 6:45pm. We looked at the beautiful scenery, lit up by the light of buildings, houses, and streetlights. It wasn’t as beautiful as the scenery before. But being with Miya made it breathtaking, nonetheless.

Miya sighed deeply then spoke up. “Did you enjoy the day, Kyosei-kun?” she asked in almost a whisper.

I was reminded of that dreadful day with those words. But knowing Miya, I played along. I turned to her, smiled, and nodded. “I enjoyed it a lot.”

“I'm glad...” she said softly.

Miya walked to the railing and placed her crossed arms on it. “How do we end a Valentine’s Day date?”

I walked to the spot next to her and said, “I tell you that I love you?”

Miya laughed softly. “Let’s be more original… I know!” Miya turned her head my way, “Why do you love me?”

The question caught me off-guard, but there had to be a reason. “I’m not really sure. Maybe it’s because I love talking to you and spending my time with you. Maybe it’s because you made me feel like there’s a place where I belong.” Suddenly recalling many things from the last few days, I added, “Maybe it’s just that I love everything about you.”

Miya looked disappointingly at me, “You just went back to the question.”

“Well, it’s hard to answer! How would you answer something like that?” I complained.

Miya pointed at herself. “Are you asking me why I love you?”

Suddenly, I felt as if I was being vain. After all, Miya just accepted my love for her without really saying if she loved me or not. “Well… do you?” I asked.

“Yes!” she answered without hesitation.

Her answer cheered me up. But I wasn’t going to let myself be distracted from the topic at hand. “Well, why do you love me then?”

Miya closed her eyes and faced the city view. “It’s simple. I love you because I love the me that’s with you.” She turned back to me and smiled.

Her answer was surprisingly simple. But, at the same time, it made perfect sense. Her answer left me speechless, pondering on the thought.

“Well, let’s go eat dinner. My treat!” she called me as she walked to the door.

“Okay, but I’m treating!” I replied, following her.

On the way out, both of us kept insisting on treating the other. But both of us ended up just agreeing on going dutch, as usual. We returned to the seafood restaurant since Miya enjoyed the fish. I wanted to walk Miya home, but she didn’t want to and persisted in walking me home instead. On the way home, I asked her how long it took her to think about her answer to the question earlier. She just smiled and told me she knew it from the start.

My mom was home when we arrived. She was surprised to find out that I had a girlfriend. She wanted Miya to stay in the house a bit longer, but Miya refused, saying her parents would be worried about her. After that, she left, leaving me with a Valentine’s Day I would never forget.