My Treasure

{Three}

The first few times I saw him was at night when i would go for a walk, and I started to think that maybe he wasn't real. That he was part of my imagination. How would someone so beautiful exist? Was I going crazy from being alone all this time.

But he was infact real.

I still remember the day at his parents' bar, when his sister caught me staring at him....

Part of me was embarrassed, but i just couldn't look away from him....

I tried not to stare at him, but I kept feeling as though someone was watching me while i was there...

And every time I looked, he was looking at me, he was always smiling....

I remember the first time I was able to speak to him after many failed attempts where he would disappear before I had even gotten the chance.

One of the first things I did was try to find what he likes, we had spoken more and more over time, and I realised it would be more difficult than I thought.

I tried for a while to see what kind of things he liked.... it didn't take long to figure out he liked small decorative things and pretty pieces of jewelry.

Things like seashells that were in pretty colours, the large clusters of wisteria and roses in front of the bakery window on the main street.

And jewelery, particularly the small delicate type. Mainly things with pearls or thin golden charms.

After a while, I was lucky, and I found something that he loved.

It was a pearl hairclip, it was small, rose gold with small pearls in the shape of cherry blossom flowers...

It was perfect...

I had seen him looking at it that day, I saw how much he loved it and how his eyes lit up as he looked at it with a smile on his face. I could see his smile quickly drop as the woman told him the price of it.

It felt wrong to see him so sad.

So once he left, I bought it for him before anyone else would be able to get it.

Yes, it was expensive for something so small. But if it made him smile even just for a few minutes, then it was worth it.

I wanted to see what he thought when he saw it, I wanted to see if he liked it as much as when he first saw it.

But once I handed it to him, I forgot all about it. I was too busy enjoying his company for the next two hours. It was only when I was back on the ship when we left that I remembered it....

I could hear him shouting for me as we left. As soon as i heard him shout my name, something clicked.....

He stood there holding the gift in his hands, not knowing it was for him. I remember how confused he looked when I told him it was for him, how that expression switched into surprise when I mentioned his birthday.

I just happened to remember it at the perfect moment, I remembered hearing the kid talking about his birthday as they left and made sure to do my best to remember it.

I wished I could've seen his face when he opened it, to see if he smiled or not. If he liked it or hated it. But I was able to get my answer when I returned one day and saw him wearing it pinned into his hair.

That day, I learned a few things about him.

Mainly about why I never saw him with anyone else, that he had nobody else other than his family. No friends, not for the past ten years..

At that point, I knew I could and would never leave him alone. He didn't deserve to just be abandoned and forgotten by people he had been friends with, nobody deserved that.....