Sunday afternoon, and it was raining.
It wasn't as though there was something I had to do outside, but it was just really felt gloomy whenever it was raining. It felt as though the world was started to shrink and all I could feel was the coldness of the wind, the wall, and even the floor.
For some reason, whenever it's raining my room felt so empty too…
Having nothing left to do, I plopped down my body onto the chair and settled my elbow on the table, resting my chin on my hand. I silently glanced outside the window. Small water drops were slowly falling from the glass to the window frame as though they were racing against each other. I discreetly voted for the large one to win but it ended up merging with the other drop. What a bummer…you could have won by yourself, you know, I said to the large drop whose now nowhere to be found.
Shifting my eyes to my table, I fixed my posture and opened the cabinet under it. Inside it was occupied by a single book, it was the book my sister bought from the bookstore.
After days of convincing her to lend it to me, she finally gave up and said, "I'll lend it to you just for one day" thinking I couldn't finish a book in one day. But that was where she made a mistake because I'd already finished half of it and halted afterward.
"It makes no sense…," I said under my breath.
The book told nothing but a bunch of poems and people telling their experiences, nothing special about it. It just made me feel disappointed.
Once again, I opened the book and read a few lines. There was a part of it that made me confused. It says, defying gravity wasn't that hard (Of course, that was hard.) try to fall in —. That just made me more confused since the book had more dashes than the word itself.
"Why do they even sell this book?" I complained to no one in particular.
If I ever met the author of this book, I would make sure to have him revealed what was those dashes means. And maybe a few smacks of the book on his head since he made my head hurt.
Complaining and feeling disappointed, I heard someone knocked on the door.
"Sakura, are you there?"
Sure enough, it was my sister. If it wasn't her then that means there was a ghost in this house. As if ghosts exist.
I put the book back in my cabinet, close it, and hastily run to the door. As I opened it, my sister, with an umbrella in her hands, shown to me.
"Yes?" I answered, hiding behind the door. "What is it, Big Sis?"
She lifted her vacant hand to me and waved. "Good afternoon!"
"What?" I asked confused.
"I mean, I'm going to the convenience store. I just felt like sipping some instant noodles today. Wanna come along?" she declared, rubbing her finger to her chin.
I looked at the window and realized that the rain had stopped, but there were still dark clouds. Then again, the instant noodles rang on my ears. So I immediately answered.
"Yes, I want to. Wait for me, I'll change for a second."
I slightly closed the door and took my yellow hoodie out of my closet. After I wore it, I went back to my sister as quickly as possible.
"Sorry for the wait!"
"Let's go?"
"Oum." I nodded enthusiastically.
After we got out of the house, several puddles on the road came into my view. The fact that there were so many puddles made me think that they sure need to repair it as soon as possible. As I peeked at it, it reflected my face and the gloomy sky. I tried to make a funny face but then, I remember my sister behind me. She would certainly tease me if she saw me do that.
Hence I gently stepped on the puddle, preventing the water to splash to the hem of my clothes. I watched it as a circle appeared under my shoe grew larger and larger until it stopped at the edge of the puddle, as though I just made a small wave by my feet.
"Sakura!" my sister called, I was so fixated on the puddle that I didn't notice that she preceded me.
"Wait for me!" I sped up my pace and tried to catch up to her.
"You're too focused on the puddle, Miss Grown Up. Want to jump on it?" she teased.
"No, I'm not!" I denied firmly. "I just thought that its reflection was kind of artsy."
"Okay, if that's what you said. Even though, you had glimmers in your eyes earlier."
"Wua!" Did I really had that earlier!? "Th—that was just the… Reflection from the light of the sun! You know, the one that formed rainbows." I exclaimed just I had thought of a reason in a split second.
After a few moments, we arrived at the convenience store. When the door slid open, a boy spring up in front of me.
"Oh!"
He exclaimed as he had his eyes at me. He cradled a huge amount of sweets in his basket, chocolate and candies alike. He even had gummy bears in it. His face was slightly round but I couldn't say he was fat, his eyes turned wide than saucer as I witness his face flushed, as if embarrassed. He had this spiky black hair—sure enough, it was the spiky boy.
"Spiky Boy…" I muttered but it seemed he had heard me.
"Don't call me that, I have a name, you know!" he shot back.
He looked at his basket, seemingly uncomfortable, and hid it behind him.
"This umm… This is for my little sister, she had me buy it."
Eh… So you're a big brother, huh. It wasn't as though it would cause me anything that I'd known it.
"Ah, okay."
"Anyway, did you get the permission of your parents for the trip? Have you already submitted the paper teacher?" he asked which made me thought back to the piece of paper I'd placed on my father's desk.
I wondered if he saw it…or he just ignored it, thinking it would just be a waste of time. He could be quite strict sometimes. That said, I still hoped that he would give me his permission since the spiky boy didn't stop asking me about it. It made me curious why but just asking him wasn't enough, since his face turned red and acting strange whenever I spoke to him. Don't tell me he was allergic to me… Because it would make me pretty mad.
"Nope," I replied curtly.
"Then you need to convince him more or else, you—" he halted, eyes widened.
He shifted his body and turned to leave. "Then, see you at school." Then immediately took his leave.
What's wrong with him?…
For a moment, I completed what was happened but ended up shrugging my shoulder and let him be. I watched him went in the other direction without looking back at us. Suddenly, I felt my sister patted my shoulder. I turned to look at her.
"Your classmate?" she asked, excessively close to me as though she was guarding me or anything.
"Yep," I answered offhandedly.
"I see…," she said skeptically.
"Pretty close, aren't we, Big Sis?"
She flinched and stepped back, as I reminded her about the distance she had shortened a moment ago. She took the basket by her side and handed it to me with a smile.
I looked at her dubiously.
"A proper grown-up should do this such of things, is that right, Miss Grown Up?"
"Seriously, I felt like you're taking advantage of me, wanting to be a proper adult," I muttered.
"Nope, of course not!"
"Really?" I narrowed my eyes as I looked at her suspiciously.
"Did I ever lied to you? Never, right?" she grinned.
I considered telling her about my ice cream that she ate yesterday but decided not to. Since we wouldn't get anywhere if we stayed standing at the store's entryway.