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Isn't a Japanese festival just the nicest in the world?
People can finally let their stress out and just relax, arriving with beautiful Kimonos and joy.
Haven't you always had a little curiosity about their culture?
Don't you want to know the difference between the Japanese festival and yours?
Well, there was a girl called Kanakuro Gowaii that was very curious about it.
She had golden-brown eyes that always shone, dark skin, and pitch-black hair.
She was only allowed to stay in the orphanage, she wasn't allowed to go out, even though they bought her a beautiful Yukata.
They basically forced her in and she was never let out.
She was only allowed to watch the people walking down to the festival from out the window.
But she managed to escape with the Yukata.
And I don't think anyone cared, anyway. So what's the use keeping her in if nobody would care if she escaped?
Yeah, I know, I don't know the answer, too.
As she was walking outside of the busy streets, she admired all the people that were wearing Kinonos.
She frowned.
"They're so much different than mine…" she said poorly, " I'm stuck with this stupid summer Kimono…"
Even if you couldn't see the difference, she had great eyes and noticed it by sight.
She gazed towards the sky and there she was shocked by the sudden blast-off of the pretty fireworks.
"Wow, " she said, but that didn't mean she had to smile. She didn't smile.
I don't think I've ever recalled her smiling once in my life.
And after gazing at the fireworks for what felt like an eternity, she found herself sitting on a bench all alone throughout the whole festival, but it wasn't over yet.
She wanted something she could buy so she could eat, starving was her stomach as she glanced at the traditional foods.
And they always looked yummy, no doubt.
But she didn't have any money, and she was just eight, after all.
But everything changed when a boy suddenly approached her.
She, Gowaii, had no idea. She was too sad to notice.
"Why did I come if I knew it would end like this?"
But as the juvenile tapped her shoulder, her head shot up as fast as a blasting rocket, at least that's what the boy was referring to.
"Woah! That was fast! Like a rocket!"
She was startled.
"Who is this boy? What's he doing here?"
"Umm…" he began, " You've been sitting on this bench for the past forty-five minutes alone, am I right?"
Gowaii nodded.
"How do you even do that? I would get bored…"
He scratched his head as the silence arose but the little girl prevented it before it could even start.
"My name's Kanakuro Gowaii. What's yours?"
"Amane. Yugi Amane. Nice to meetcha!" he grinned as he brought his hand out for the young woman to grab.
She shook it delightfully but didn't really show it.
Amane sat next to Gowaii, he postponed midway as the loud noises emitted from the boy's stomach.
"Oh. I guess I'm hungry. Want something?" he asked out of curiosity, he previously saw her sitting on the bench with absolutely nothing to eat.
Gowaii just started at the young juvenile.
He would spend money on me?
Nobody's ever done that for me before…
She nodded, all that without radiating a single emotion.
He got up and smiled.
"I'll be back! I'll try to hurry!"
"You don't need to-"
But what's the use screaming back at him? He already ran away and took a left, probably to a food stand or something.
She was really pleased, really. She had just met a boy who was talking to her and wasn't hating her instead, as everyone else did.
But she found something special about him. Something she couldn't quite make out.
What was it?!
I don't know, either.
So she sat there and thought long, but she couldn't decipher it.
Finally, she figured she'd just pushed it aside.
"That shouldn't bother me, I have a friend, at least…"
Amane came running back with two white transparent plastic bags that looked like they had food in them, from where Gowaii was sitting.
He stuck one bag out.
"Here!" he grinned, " This's for you!"
Gowaii gladly accepted his offer.
~
{^°^ 15 minutes later~ ^°^}
"Ha~! So full~!" Amane shouted while rubbing his stomach in circles.
"Finally… something that isn't orphanage food…"
"You eat a lot…" Gowaii spoke.
"Yeah! That was delicious~~!!!!" he screamed almost instantly before it went silent again, " Y'know, I came here with my little brother, but he abandoned me like-- three hours ago, maybe. I didn't want to stop him, he would get violent otherwise."
Gowaii looked at him.
"So I was thinking I'd have to eat dinner alone but doing that is pretty lonely, " he continued, " But I found you so it's not so lonely anymore!"
"Brother?"
"Yeah! His name's Tsukasa and we're twins!"
"Where is he?"
"Oh, He's busy playing Katanuki."
"What's that?"
"It's just an activity game where you carve a colored mold of candy in the shape of an animal or a star or a cherry blossom just by using a needle or a toothpick. Those who are able to skillfully carve the mold receive a prize. And he'll even go as far as to skipping dinner."
She was about to speak but it was unknown to him that he cut her off.
"Plus I hate it when people can't differentiate us…" Amane grumbled and crossed his arms at the thought.
He noticed that he was at a festival and being sad and grumpy at a festival would ruin the mood. That's why he came to Gowaii in the first place.
Plus he was being grumpy and sad so he soon halted the irritable demeanor.
With a corny joke.
"…but I'm his Onii-san because I…"
He paused, suddenly.
He sat up on the bench just to crawl near Gowaii, near on her ear, near as possible.
He stuck his hand out on his cheek, signaling he was going to whisper.
And then…
"…came out first…"
The child pronounced the rest in a deep and sly voice.
Gowaii didn't know what to do, not even how to react.
But then that light bulb in her brain finally dinged.
Gowaii found an answer.
And she slapped him subconsciously.
~
"So… how did you know I have been sitting here for forty-five minutes?"
"Hmmm, " Amane thought as he rubbed his cheek, the place he got slapped on, back and forth, "When I arrived with my Otouto at the festival, I saw you sitting on the bench and when I came back 45 minutes later, you were still there."
"Ohhh…"
Gowaii gazed at the dark atmosphere with all the shiny stars it possessed with relief. She turned back to the boy and noticed that he was holding something else that wasn't food in his hand.
"What's that?"
Amane, the boy that had just finished eating wasn't also paying attention to the little girl, but when he noticed it was getting too silent, he turned to the left and was met with the face that read "Are you gonna answer me now?".
A "Huh?" was the only thing that came out of that mouth of his.
"What were you looking at?" she answered his question in another question.
He replied anyway. "Just at the stars. Aren't they pretty?…"
She was confused. Gowaii didn't see the "pretty" in stars.
She shook her head.
Amane was astonished, the fact that she doesn't see the beauty in stars surprised him.
"Ok, let me tell you something, " he paused and inhaled, then exhaling was the following action, "I wanna be an astronaut one day! Flying with a rocket to outer space, discovering new planets if I have luck on my side, everything that's possible in space. I mean, I can't blame you. You've probably never seen a planet up close in a telescope before."
Gowaii shook her head once again.
"Never."
He felt instant pity for her. How could you miss out on seeing something so precious?
"I'm not even allowed to go out."
"Really?"
"Hm."
"What!? What kind of dumb punishments do your parents come up with?"
Amane managed to bring back the awkward peace again. The second she dropped her head, he knew that was a wrong question to ask.
"E-ehh--…e-ehh, " he managed to spit out, preceding a bunch of stutters, " I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that…"
Her head still lowered to the ground. Silence.
The youngster swallowed greedily.
"Hey, come on! We're at a festival, you shouldn't be sad…" he waved around with his hands.
Still silence.
"…"
"Sorry, " the boy finally spoke, looking elsewhere, but he turned back to her direction due to hearing the sound of sniffling.
She wiped and wiped but they didn't stop slithering down from her eyes.
She forgot to tell him…
…that even the mention of her loved ones…
…make her cry…
She loved them, but they didn't love her back, and only if they did, only if they stayed at the adoption center a little longer that day, she wouldn't have been sent to the orphanage, they wouldn't have ended up in that big "incident".
It hurt Gowaii every time she'd have to think back in the past.
Despite being only eight years old, she doesn't have anyone she can love anymore.
Therefore, she was happy, no, lucky to have met someone as kind as Amane, because he wouldn't stop petting her, only until she would stop crying.
She wiped the tears completely away from her eyes, she felt better due to Amane's embrace.
They shared it with one another, and they didn't stop, not until a firework that blasted from the sky startled them both.
The boy child raised his head up high and his eyes were glued to the picture of fireworks shooting across the aksky.
Gowaii's eyes were stuck at the sky, too.
And even though this was just looking at the sky, they haven't broken their embrace, yet.
They cherished that specific moment.
"Here!" Amane eventually broke the embrace and the silence simultaneously. " I want you to have these!"
Sitting in his hand were a yellow and green tag. He earned them by buying stuff at the stalls at the festival.
She had three tags, too. But she didn't buy souvenirs, she just found them lying around.
After all, she didn't have any money.
"Take these, write your wish on it and hang them from the bamboo tree somewhere near the lost children center! Use yours, too!" he screamed at her, " It'll definitely come true if you gather a lot of hope!"
She stared at him.
"Those were what I was referring to! Those were what I wanted to talk about earlier…"
"Does it work?"
"I was told it does!" he shouted even louder this time, " Now hurry!!"
So she obeyed the young boy.
She did as he said and came back, but she couldn't find him anywhere.
She looked further in the distance and she spotted him, walking with someone else that looks exactly like him. Even from the back.
"- and this girl was crying so it was my duty to pet her! I gave her all my tags, though. It was worth it! How was your Katanuki night?"
"Same as always. I won."
"She, wait, her name was---- hmmm--- Go-- something--hmmm, Go--wei, no-- ai!!! Gowaii!! That was it!"
"Nobody cares."
"At least you don't. I do."
She listened to they're conversation for a bit before turning back to the orphanage.
"I didn't even get to say goodbye…" they thought in sync.
She arrived and got scolded for leaving, sure, but she enjoyed herself. And she wouldn't have had a nice time without him.
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A/N: Leave comments about what you think!!!
This took like forevs. So happy that I'm finally done! Happy! Scool and shit mad this stall a little but its done! Hope you like it!
1972 Words