When I first met Tohru-kun, it was May in our second year of elementary school. It was the rainy season and subsequently, I could feel the cold rain pouring that day. With my favorite umbrella, I was walking home from school.
Meow
As I was walking through the park near my house, I heard a lonely cry. I turned in its direction.
"A kitten..."
It was an abandoned kitten. Haphazardly put inside the cardboard box was a small white kitten. The box was soaking wet and there was a sorry excuse of a towel laying on the box. There was nothing covering the kitten, its body shaking cold from all the rain. As I crouched down, the kitten started meowing as if it were begging me and crying for help.
"Sorry..."
I felt a prickling pain in my heart, but I couldn't take him home, my dad had cat allergies after all. That was why I couldn't bring him back. However, I left my umbrella on top of the cardboard box. I prayed that someone kind would find this kitten and take it in. As I take off, I kept hearing the lonely meowing, as if it didn't want to be left behind. However, I kept on walking, not daring to turn around.
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I couldn't just leave the kitten alone. After I got home and took a bath, the kitten kept coming back into my head when I was in my room.
It's freezing and it's starving, if no one finds it, it'll die...
I couldn't hold myself back any longer. I took a used umbrella and rushed out of the house. I didn't even think of anything to say to my mom. But I kept on running, running to the park where the kitten was.
But someone else was already there.
A boy who was about the same age as me was holding a black umbrella and looking down at the cat in the cardboard box. I remembered seeing him before. I was pretty sure he was in the class next to mine. His name was...
I don't remember at all.
I hid my body, not wanting to be seen. I decided to wait and see what would happen. The boy blinked his eyes many times over, but his face didn't portray his thoughts at all. All of sudden, he took ahold of the meowing kitten. The kitten's body started to shake. The kitten was making those really harsh eyes, so I began to worry.
What should I do at school? Am I overthinking things?
That boy smiled at the kitten, it was a kind smile, as if it was telling the kitten that everything would be okay. I felt a throbbing sensation in my chest. Just what is this...?
While I was putting my hand on my chest, I heard the boy beginning to speak.
"It'll be alright."
Thanks to his soothing voice, the boy embraced the kitten in his chest. Carefully holding his umbrella, the boy walked off. I didn't move for a while afterwards. My body felt weak with relief. And for some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about that boy. I couldn't get that boy and his kind smile out of my head as I headed home.
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As the days passed, I began to learn more about that boy. He was in the neighbouring class and his name is Tohru Yonekura. He wasn't the type to play dodgeball during lunch break, instead he would sit on his desk and read. I hadn't seen Tohru-kun chatting with anyone before. He was quiet and docile, that's the type of impression I got from him. I felt like I could relate to him a bit, well, maybe more than that.
He would have a strange daily routine. After school, he would go to the library by himself and start writing. It looked like he put a lot of effort into that. He would work away until the final bell would ring. Looking at him, it looked like he was having fun. What was he doing? That was always on my mind. Once I couldn't contain my curiosity any longer, I made up my mind to finally talk with this Tohru-kun.
After school, I went to the library. Since there wasn't any chattering in the library, I could feel my body shaking with fear, but I kept persisting. However, Tohru-kun wasn't there at his regular seat. I felt disappointed but also a bit relieved. On his seat was his backpack and his secret papers were spread out all over the desk. He was in the washroom. Waiting for him to return, I took a seat next to his bag.
"Ah..."
The papers started flying about because of the outside breeze. Reflexively, I reached out my hand to grab them. I picked them off the floor and placed them on the desk and before I knew it, I was looking at them. It was the typical Japanese writing paper, with individual squares about 30 square centimeters in size. In each square, I could see hiragana written. Seeing all of them together, I immediately understood that he was writing a story.
I had a slight idea what it might be, but I was surprised seeing it first hand. I always had an image in my head of an author being a smart adult, but seeing a boy my age writing felt pretty amazing. I started getting curious as to what was written. My eyes started glossing over the papers, as I couldn't contain my curiosity any longer.
I usually never read novels since I only read manga, but for some reason I was drawn in right away to what Tohru-kun wrote. The contents for whatever reason were drawing me in like a magnet. One by one, each hiragana came together to make sentences that gave me so many emotions. Every small detail in the hiragana characters seemed to dance about. For a while, I was completely absorbed in what he wrote, completely forgetting about the time.
Suddenly, I sensed something. I turned around and saw Tohru-kun's surprised face looking at me, which shocked me as well. I calmed myself down by taking a deep breath. I did my best to look calm as I asked him something.
"Did you write this?"
And that was how I met Tohru-kun. And it was because of that meeting, that I would be able to spend so much of my life with that person.