✔ | At Least We Have Forever

Chapter 6 - Being With You

"From... everything that might hurt you in any way. I want to protect you and shield you from the pain that they could inflict on you."

Riya was utterly shocked when she heard that kind of answer from him. But seconds later, her face turned solemn, and once again faced the horizon where the setting sun was.

"For a long time, I've been suffering already from so much pain. So there's no reason for you to do that for me. I guess I could say I was already immune to that. There's no way you could protect me from something I've been feeling for a long time," she stated in a serious tone.

Shuichi's face turned serious, as well. "I know it's a little bit unbelievable but it's true. There's something that drives me to do that for you. You might be getting immune from that but I won't let you bear it all alone. For some reason, it pains me to see you sad most of the time. You're still having a hard time showing them your real smile. You're just too hurt to show it to them."

The two of them fell silent after that. Silence filled the air for some seconds before she burst out a chuckle that surprised Shuichi.

She tried to stop chuckling before facing him. This time, she showed a faint smile—one that was different from what she had shown to him before.

"You're one extraordinary person, you know that? Since when did you become a psychologist?"

"I don't need to become a psychologist to know what you're feeling inside. At first, it's hard to know that. You were already avoiding people long before they come near you." Then he stared at her seriously. "That's what I thought at first. I have to admit that I was hurt when you did that. But since I don't know the reason, I just let it pass. It took me a while to accept some possible reasons why you chose to isolate yourself from the rest while doing your job. But I couldn't just ignore the fact that I could never do something to shield you from our classmates' words against you. Somehow, I could feel you're getting hurt because of it and yet, you chose to hide it so that no one would know. I couldn't ignore that, Riya. I chose to be close to you since day one even though you're pushing me away from you."

Shuichi's words struck her heart. It was an overwhelming feeling that she had inside her heart at that moment knowing that someone doesn't want her to feel pain. Even though she tried pushing him away, he was still going to do what he wanted to do. And what's even more overwhelming was the fact that his eyes were full of sincerity as he stated those words.

She couldn't deny the fact that she was happy because of that.

"Thank you..." she sincerely said after moments of silence. "I never thought you would care for me that much even though I just met you six days ago. I even asked you to stay away from me and yet, here you are in front of me saying what you wanted to say." But then her face showed a glint of sadness that Shuichi managed to see. "Still, I couldn't just force myself to be close to somebody. I still need to prepare myself. I hope you won't mind that."

He smiled after that. "I won't mind... if you promise not to make me stay away from you again. That's all I'm asking from you."

That's when she smiled and then she nodded as an answer. And for some reason, that made her happy.

They parted ways after they watched the sunset and left the bridge. But even if the sun had set that day, she could feel that she was about to welcome brand new dawn different from many dawns she had welcomed before. It's because this time, a new tomorrow awaited her... along with her new friendship with Shuichi.

xxxxxx

Kurama went home feeling somewhat elated but it's not a mystery to him. It was just a short time that he and Riya talked but the feeling it left inside of him was so different he couldn't even name it and yet, he's accepting it. That small talk somehow brought out something in him that was quite different and unexpected.

It's something... that he had never felt all his life. From being a spirit fox to being a human, he couldn't deny that he hadn't felt something quite mysterious and different. And through all that, he couldn't deny the fact that he was attracted to Riya since... day one.

No... Probably not just day one. There was this certain fact that he has ignored these past few days since he had somehow forgotten about it. But there's no way that he could simply connect it like that even though it's just a feeling—an intuitive guess. He couldn't simply rely on that.

Probably, he'll soon find out the answers that he wanted to know. Right now, he'll just do what he and Yumi had agreed on.

And he'll do it no matter what it takes.

But unknown to him, someone had already found out that certain fact he had ignored. And all that was left was the day of the revelation.

Or so Hiei and Koenma thought.