I'll Love You Forever: Chapter 6 — Do You Remember?
It's a cold, dark night.
Much darker than usual. Off in the distance, the dim lights of the city visibly shine upon the hill. Traversing through the dim streets would have been impossible if not for the occasional barely-functioning streetlight.
In the midst of night, a young man takes refuge upon a lone bench. He takes a deep, sharp breath, observing his breath condensing in the frigid air. He takes his cellphone out from his pocket whilst quickly looking over in the distant road in an impatient manner.
He scoffs, finally seeing the person following him arrive.
"D-Deku, wait up!"
The young girl struggles in her footing. She had been sluggishly following the young boy for who knows how long. Her breathing is rough and burdened, and it's clear that she had been fatigued from overexertion.
She practically falls down against the bench beside him, taking moments to catch her breath. Even though she was visibly exhausted, the boy only continues looking at his cellphone.
"Come on, we're almost there."
The boy says as he stands up from his seat.
"What? Can I at least catch my breath for a minute?"
The girl pleads.
He clicks his tongue.
"You can breathe when we're there. Come on, it's like five more minutes away."
She responds worriedly.
"What are we even doing here anyway? The doctors told us that I should be taking it easy since we're going to be expecting any time now!"
He struggles to give her an answer.
"We just... We just need to make sure we're okay."
She's understandably confused.
"'Okay?—' What does that even mean? And... why now after all this time? Why couldn't we have done this earlier while I wasn't in the third trimester?!"
He scoffs.
"Look, just-! Let's just get there, and try to have a good time, yeah?"
She's worried, panicking almost.
"How am I even supposed to focus on that? My stomach just keeps on cramping, a-and... Toshi has been kicking a lot lately! You know that the nearest train station from here is a ways away; what if... what if something bad were to happen?"
He puts his hands on her shoulders, and gives her a solid gaze.
"You're going to be fine... alright?"
She notices that even though he said that, his words were shaky. He thinks that she catches on, prompting him to avert his hands towards her necklace.
"You're a mess..."
The boy inches over, and adjusts the girl's accessories, looking downward from her face. As he ties it around her neck to the best of his ability, he takes multiple quick glances into her eyes.
She notices, giving him a shy smile during the moments they make eye contact. He continues fitting her dress' collar, wrapping his arms around her neck, moving closer towards her body. The two are practically hugging at this point, taking warmth in the presence of each others' bodies.
It's then that she just had a thought.
"Do you remember the night we became boyfriend and girlfriend?"
He smiles with sharp exhale from his nose.
"Oh, man..."
Fondly, she reminds herself.
"I was fixing your suit, just like you're doing with me."
He remembers... it was a happy memory.
"Yeah, if I recall, I almost said it right then and there, but then we got-"
They then both remember a ...not-so-happy part of that memory; even then, they both share a laugh in the uncanniness of it all.
He reminisces further.
"It was a night just like this, and it was raining, and..."
Her voice chokes up in comical manner.
"And then 'she-who-shall-not-be-named' shows up...
Hey, whatever happened to her anyway?"
He cringes to himself, but in a self-satisfactory kind of way.
"Oh my goodness, don't even remind me."
She continues his thought.
"Then there was the whole misunderstanding, then you had to chase me...
I don't... I don't think I ever apologized for throwing you into the air."
He scratches the back of his head.
"No, it's okay, I deserved it. It would have gotten a lot worse if it weren't for Katsuki and-"
He stops his thought, and the two stare off into the distance for a few moments, observing the distant city lights from where they're sitting.
Nostalgia is such a fascinating emotion. Living in the moment has such a vast difference compared to reminiscing on it in the future. You couldn't have known that you were making memories when, at the time, you were just living your life as normally as you could remember.
How bittersweet. It's a blissful reminder of the past — remembering how new, different and exhilarating the days of yesterday were. Even then, you're also reminded that those feelings are gone... that all the love, the passion and the promises given in the past have changed.
Forever doesn't exist. Soon, everything fades with time — everyone will grow up and come to understand that their lives are a finite concept. We are all capable of growth and change; it's what makes us human, for better or worse. Even then, some of us aren't ready to handle that change, especially when our lives come at us at the blaring pace it does.
But when you find someone whose feelings for you don't change?
What a lovely sentiment.
...Laughable, even.
"That was the night you told me you wanted me."
The girl says, her face growing warmer, more red. She shyly inches closer towards him, nuzzling her head against his neck. The two sit in silence for a moment of respite.
She smiles sweetly
"That was the night you told me you loved me. Well.. we've been saying it for a while, but... that night was the night that it truly felt like you meant it."
He doesn't respond. After his silence, she lightly tugs on his arm.
"You remember, don't you?"
His head slowly drifts off.
"...Always."
Afterwards, the two turn to face each other. What a familiar sight... The memories of their time together come rushing back as they come to remember the love they had shared. After all, they were each other's firsts.
Acknowledging that, however, they didn't know what it was like to love someone this way before they had each other. How could they know how to treat the person they loved when they've never had any prior experiences like that?
They're new to this. Is it no wonder how they were each other's first, while also hoping that they'll be the last? Now, they're going to get married, grow a family, and spend the rest of their lives together before even the prospect of graduating High School. They're going to become adults, leaving everything they've known behind, all because they didn't know any better.
Forced to grow up.
This is what they wanted right?
This is happily ever after.
He shivers.
It must be because it's cold.
She places her palm on his face.
Giving him a tender kiss before pulling away.
"I love you..."
He turns over, smiling.
"...Me too."
The girl slowly stands up from where she's seated. She turns towards her lover, and clasps his hands in hers.
"The hill that we told each other... it's only a few minutes away."
He slowly looks up at her.
"You... want to go?"
She gives him a big, open smile.
"Yes! We're already here, a-and we haven't been there since that night. Don't you think it'll be fun to go back there after all this time?"
He's surprised, seeing her go from worried to excited.
"But what about..."
She pulls him up. It's obvious that she's struggling, but she begins pulling him towards the direction of the hill. Even though she has difficulty moving, she's still giving him a bright, hopeful smile.
"You said that we needed to make sure we're okay, right? Then let's go to the spot where it all started! We're already going down memory lane, so why not? Come on, we're practically there already!"
She continues pulling on him, but his face is visibly showing doubt. Even then, she's trying not to point it out...
"Hey... don't you want to remember...?"
While still stringing him along, he suddenly plants his feet against the gravel, causing her to trip over. She manages to catch herself before falling, but she still takes a few seconds to recover.
She turns around to him.
"Hey! Why did you do that?"
He responds coldly.
"If you have enough energy to walk all the way there, then you can walk five minutes to where we're supposed to be going."
She's dumbstruck, but he doesn't say anything more. He takes a few steps towards her; she unconsciously takes a step back. She tries to make sense of the situation, hoping that he can enlighten her.
But... he doesn't. He walks around her, not even giving her his gaze.
"Let's go... We're late."
He trails off.
She can't even muster a response.
She only watches him drift away.
Farther from her.
Farther and farther.
Further and further...