Me and Ai

Chapter 85: Another Year With My Beloved

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We went on our way to the shrine which was just walking distance from the house; it's a fifteen minute walk.

"Here we are! Welcome to the shrine, Ai! And welcome back, sis! Haha."

Kuro rushes to the office of the shrine; he's probably going to tell the head that I'm here. Sigh.

"This place is beautiful and big." Ai says as he looks around.

"It is, isn't it? Want to go around?"

Ai nods and I tour him around the place.

"Is this where the performance will be held?" Ai asks as we reach a part of the temple grounds.

"Yes. This open ground here at the back will be the venue for the stage; it's perfect because it's a huge open area that's enough to accommodate the stage and a big crowd of people. The stalls will be at the front of the temple grounds and at the eastern side."

"What about the western side?"

"That's where they'll set up the fireworks. It's going to be beautiful, I'm sure."

"I look forward to it then, both the fireworks and your performance. The festival sounds fun."

"I would say it is." I say in a somewhat sad tone.

Ai turns to me and holds my hand.

"Kaori, are you okay? Do you feel unwell?"

"I'm fine. It's just that I wanted to enjoy the festival with you...instead of performing."

Ai seems sad as he realizes that I wanted to be with him instead of the stage. "I'm sorry I didn't realize. It was selfish of me...I didn't think properly."

"I-It's okay! If you really want to see me perform, then I won't mind. As long it will make you happy then I'm fine with it! I'll do my best! We can always go around the festival before it closes; it closes an hour after the fireworks so there's still time for us to go around after."

"Kaori-chan!"

I turn around and I see familiar faces that are about to tackle me to the ground. Everyone is here toda—
"Hey! W-Wait! Hold on!"

As I thought, they didn't slow down and tackled me to the ground!

"Kaori-chan! You're back! I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, Machi." I say in pain.

"Hey, move over Machi! Give me some space!"

"No way, Tori! It's your fault for glomping her at the same time as me. I was first!"

"Hey...you two...are crushing me..." I say in pain. Sigh. These two didn't change.

"You two! Stop fighting and get off of Kaori this instant! You're both crushing her!"

A tall man with long black hair tied into a pony tail lifts the two girls off of me.

"Are you alright, Kaori?"

He holds out his hand to me and helps me get up.

"Thanks, Jirou. Machi and Tori are still a handful as always."

"They sure are."

"Hey put us down already!"
"Let go of us, Jirou!"

"Kaori, who are they?"

"Oh, they're people who work here in the shrine. That man is Jirou; he's the eldest among us all. Machi and Tori, despite their young looks and childish actions, are two years older than me. They're the people who took care of me and taught me the traditional dance along with Takeo-sensei, the shrine's head."