"Ehhh?! you going to become hunters together?" Pairo said loudly, quite shocked once we told him everything. Me and Kurapika looked at each other wearing confident smiles, and so we nodded to him.
After thinking for a while, we decided to tell Pairo about what we planned.
"But... will it not be dangerous?" He was clearly worried.
"The outside world is dangerous, Pairo, and I want to be strong enough to go there... taking the exam is perfect to prove I'm strong enough!"
Kurapika countered his friend, I could really understand how he felt,
"Yes! and I'll be with him anyway, my parents will train me, and they're hunters! so it will be a piece of cake!"
As I said convicted with the plan, the boys looked at me confused, I gave them the same look not understanding what was going on.
"What's piece of cake, [Name]?"
Kurapika asked. So that was it, they aren't really familiar with expressions. Actually... do they even know what 'cake' is?
"Oh.. I meant it will be really easy." I giggled, and continued, "Anyway! I actually would love to have Kura with me!"
I sweetly said, I enjoyed him a lot. "So now Kurapika have a nickname?" Pairo said giggling, and Kura looked at us kinda embarrassed as we kept with the giggles. But soon he smiled at us, shyly.
As the days slowly, but quickly passed by, I helped Kura and Pairo on getting better with the foreign language, while they also taught me a few words in their own idiom.
We sometimes would also observe my parents as they worked, and would ask them some stuff regarding the hunter exam.
Me and Kura only got closer. I know that I'd soon have to part though, and that made me feel sad. But when I looked at his bright brown eyes, all those gloomy feelings vanished. After all, we would meet again one day, right?
"When are you going?" Kura quietly asked me, looking down at the grass. We were sitting nearby the same river, this time without Pairo as he had some errands to do in the village.
"After tomorrow it seems..." I said, also facing the grass. "How do you feel about it, Kura...?"
For some reason I felt curious about how the boy was handling it, so I turned to look at him, waiting for a response as I couldn't see his face, which was hidden by his hair.
"Well... I don't know..." He moved his position a bit, hesitantly facing my way, and when he noticed we made eye contact, he subtly looked away. I was confused, but my question was never really answered since he got up saying it was better to call it a day.
Was he upset?
In the next day I woke up and went to have breakfast with my parents. Nor Pairo or Kura came in the usual time, and I wondered if something was up. It was much quieter without their presence. No giggles or the common chatting, specially since my parents were focused in what they needed to finish. It felt so odd. I wish I could ask them so we could stay longer, but they once explained me that unfortunately postponing work isn't an option.
After I ate, I told them I'd go by the river to see if the boys were there or something, since I found it quite strange they didn't show up.
I kept on waiting for half an hour and without noticing, I started to throw small rocks at the river as I thought about the situation. I felt really happy around them since I couldn't interact with many kids at my age, we moved from place to place after all.
"[Name]?" a familiar voice could be heard. I turned to its source and saw the brown haired boy. "So you're here." Pairo said.
"Can you come with me?" He asked.
I got up and looked at him, wondering what he was up to. "Where are we going? and why nor you or Kurapika came earlier?" We walked through the spiral forest.
Pairo was taking longer than what was supposed to answer my question, what was wrong? "You're going to find out. And sorry, we were busy with something..." He said hesitantly, he was hiding something for sure.
As we kept walking, we entered a clearing where Kura stood,
"Kura, we're here!" Pairo announced.
I kept attentively looking at the blonde boy, wondering what was going on. And as I was distracted, Pairo vanished from the place. I looked around and couldn't find him anymore, they only got me more intrigued.
Kura suddenly turned to face me, with his arms on the back and a hesitant expression. He slowly walked to my direction,
"Kura?"
And as soon as I mouthed his name, his arms pulled out an object. I looked at it, surprised. A flower crown. I didn't know what to say or do.
Kura shyly looked at my face, searching for a reaction or some kind of answer. But since he noticed I was quite surprised, he went ahead and placed the flower crown delicately on my head, slightly adjusting it.
"We... wanted to do something for you before you have to part. I know it's not much, but..." He started to say, but stopped halfway and looked at me, he seemed distracted by something on my face, I don't know what it was but I simply couldn't stop smiling, brushing both my hands on the flower crown.
The flowers had my favorite color, they were so delicate and beautiful.
A smile slowly formed on Kura's face as well, "A person from the village told us that when we give a flower crown to someone, we're wishing them happiness, so..." Kura said but trailed off, changing his expression to a confident one, "And you cannot break our promise, got it? 4 years from now we'll be taking the hunter exam together." I nodded at him, "Of course! it's a promise."
I offered my pinky to him, and he immediately locked his own on mine.
"And..." He started to say, making a pause before continuing, "Can you come with me?"
Even if it sounded like a question, the boy held my arm, firmly but gently, dragging me to somewhere.
We got into the woods while he went ahead of me, moving his hand to my wrist instead of holding my arm. The trees were thick, and when we managed to have a clear view of outside, we found ourselves near a cliff very close to the trees, it looked rather dangerous.
Kurapika sat on the grassy ground, bringing me down as well. He gazed into the distant view over the cliff, and started to talk,
"Have you ever wondered about why Pairo seems ill?" and before I could give any answer he kept going, "It's my fault... Pairo saved me from falling from a cliff. This very same cliff."
I got speechless by what he said, my eyes widening significantly as I stared him, while he never really looked at my way. I noticed, however, his eyes started to gain that light I adored.
"I want... to go to the outside world and get a doctor to heal him. And get him to go with me to explore the world. I'm not sure if he will accept taking the hunter exam, but... I want him in my adventures."
I smiled sweetly at him, Kura really cared for his friend! while I kept looking at him, I didn't notice he was also facing me though, with a somehow curious look, "Is something up?" I asked,
"I was just wondering where Pairo is, he was supposed to come here too",
"Oh, that's right, I'm starting to miss him..."
I turned to him, "shall we go and look for him? let's spend the remaining of the day together since I have little time left."
And so, we three spent the day doing the activities we usually would do, just enjoying ourselves until the time's up.
I didn't think the hours would go by flying, and the next day would come so quickly.
Unfortunately my parents didn't allow me to spend all day off again, since we needed to clean the place we stayed, and also organize our belongings. So we only had the morning, which we spent like the other one, eating breakfast and just having fun.
The boys then said they needed to go back, much to their displeasure, since the village elder was getting upset for how long they would be out in the woods. They promised they would come back to wave goodbye by the morning though.
The early morning was quiet, and as we made our final preparations so we can part, Kura and Pairo came running towards me.
Nothing much happened, other than sharing goodbye messages and bringing back that one important promise,
"Don't forget, 4 years from now we'll be reuniting on the exam hunter."
"I know."
I said with confidence in my voice.
We then shared our final words, before parting ways; but that wouldn't be forever, so there was no reason to be sad about it. Now I just needed to become strong enough to take on the exam alongside him.
A/N:
I noticed the way I was writing wasn't looking so good and changed it to be more organized, I hope it's good enough now. (•﹏•)
I also edited the first two chapters. <3