The dream:
In the middle of summer as the hot temperature was reaching its peak and the crickets were waking up from their sleep, a small child was running toward a laying young man, who was enjoying the fresh breeze of a colorful flowery bank near a small lake. As she was running toward him, the small child's precious eyes started noticing the presence of a mask on top of his face, ones arrived, she crouched and took it off but the light gray headed teenager was nowhere to be found, panicked she looked at her right and saw what it seemed like him, but without his usual mask, wearing a blue kimono as he was walking near a girl almost his age wearing a pink yukata and that same mask she snatched from him, as she was running she was getting taller and taller so much so that at the end of her run she found herself at that girl's place, with the same outfit and the same mask, the only difference was that white ribbon that she was holding, the end of it was held by that blue kimono man, but before she was able to get the mask off her face to have a clearer image of the guy that she was following, a young boy running past them almost felt, and at that instant her memories of that moment came back rushing in the shape of a scream:
"Shi, don't touch him" but it was too late, Shi have already pulled up his arm to prevent him from falling which resulted in him fading away right in front of Hotaru's eyes again
"Don't leave me" her lips mumbled as she was rolling over in bed until she was finally awakened by her boyfriend who was coming back from his morning run
"If you keep saying that every morning, I think that I'll just start skipping those morning rounds of mine" he said caressing her warm red soft cheeks
"Subaru"
"Good morning, did you miss me?" he asked
"Oh no don't mind me, and anyway I think that I as well should start hitting the gym before going to work" she yawned
"That would be great" he added before brushing her bangs aside before leaning in, their foreheads gently meeting in a tender moment.
Hotaru was not a highschooler anymore; indeed she was 25 now, working as a chef project in a big company in her home town, her quotidian was quiet simple and basic, after being woken up by her loving boyfriend Subaru, she would wash her face and then immediately head on to the kitchen to make breakfast for both of them, a basic Japanese breakfast with some rice, fish, miso soup and coffee as a side beverage. As she was starting the coffee machine Subaru came out from the shower with a soft white towel around his neck that he used to dry the rest of his hair, before heading to the balcony to let it dry with the rest of their wet clothes.
"You shouldn't go out with your hair not completely dry, let me do that for you" proposed Hotaru
"Thanks I appreciate it" he replied before taking a seat waiting for her to come and join him with two cups of coffee in her hands, but at the moment when she closed the door of the balcony Subaru received a message from one of his oldest friends, a picture of them with two other friends in the middle of a summer festival.
When Hotaru placed his hot cup beside his bowl of rice, Subaru instinctively showed her the picture that he received following a basic question.
"Say, do you have any great memory from any festival that you have been at?"
"I guess I do "she said after taking seats right in front of her boyfriend
"Here" he said handing her the phone "It is me and Gotchiro when we were just 20 years old, takes me back" he said before taking a sip from his soup.
As he was waiting for some kind of response, Hotaru was observing the picture with so much attention that her pupils were slightly shaking, she was so absorbed by it that she was able to distinguish a certain mask that seemed pretty familiar to her eyes, some would think of a white fox's mask, others as a cat one, but the eyes were too Roundy for any of those options to be right, that white pointy ears masks was being sold in one of the stands behind them.
"So that's where you were when you have made that special phone call"
"I don't know if it was the spur of momentum, but I was able to gather my courage to finally ask you out"
"I mean what took you so long?" she smirked before taking a sip of her coffee
"I don't know maybe the fact that I didn't want things to become awkward between us and I don't know I just thought that you were not into me okay?" the dark hair young man said smiling
"What do you mean that I was not into that one guy who would offer me to walk hand in hand to school whenever we would pass through that very dangerous and slippery path every morning during the winter?" she added sarcastically
"But that is the thing, a teenager acting like a gentleman for such a long period of time and instead of rewarding him with a slight open door, you are just literary ignored him" he responded as he was cutting a piece from his fish
"I didn't ignore you I was just daydreaming" she added
"Daydreaming about what?"
"Probably teenage stuff, then as I was growing older, I started to become way more self-aware about what was surrounding me, then I started developing feelings for you" she added as she was finishing the last spoon of rice from her bowl
"How romantic, did you hear that Gotchiro?" asked Subaru on the phone
"Yeah how adorable I have to say, you are a beautiful couple"
"Subaru" she said red embarrassed "You could have warned me before recording me without my consent" she said as she stood up from her chair and started to clean her part of the table"
"For what it is worth Hotaru, I truly mean it, what you said was beautiful"
"Thank you Gotchiro don't worry it is not like I was mad at you" she said as she opened the faucet
"Good to know, and good luck to you bro" he said before hanging up
"If I was your bro you wouldn't have left me in this mess" he whispered with a somehow annoyed look in his eyes
"Did you say something?" asked Hotaru
"Just talking to myself", he added as he was leaving the table to grab his lovers waist and whisper a simple yet sincere apology within her ear
"It is okay, I was embarrassed to admit such things in front of Gotchiro" she added smiling thinking that it was not a big deal and that she probably shouldn't have reacted that way.
"I got to say, I was really happy to hear those words coming from your mouth, mostly if they are destined to me" he added tightening up his arm a little bit
"I love you" she said as she was drying her hands with a kitchen towel, before letting Subaru grab her head and put it side to side to his heart
"What do you think those beats means?"
"I love you too"
"It is almost that, but it is more like I love you more than you'll ever love me" he said with a relieved look on his face
"How could you say that, now I am really going to be mad" she added burying her face within his torso
"Please don't be"
"Maybe I should make you hear my heart beats too" she said as their eyes met, but as soon as they were going to kiss Hotaru's alarm rang
"Man, I am going to be late" she said staring at the clock hanging in the kitchen
"Same for me, go get dressed I'll drop you today, I have some extra time this morning"
"Great thanks a lot" she added running toward the room
Despite her young age Hotaru became a chief project in a company specialized in video games, it was one of the most prestigious one in Japan, as she arrived at the building of her company, Annie a colleague of hers immediately came to great her
"Hotaru, long time no see"
"Hey Annie did you just came back from your vocations?"
"Yes, you can name it that way since I wasn't working but actually, I had to take that week to visit Gotchiro's entire family in his hometown, and by that, I mean his grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins" she added as they stepped into an elevator
"Poor little soul did they try to test your skills as a future wife or something"
"Obviously and it is understandable but thank god I was able to pass the test and anyway they were not harsh on me or anything, for what it is worth I feel like I am the only one who took those days as a test, they were so nice and everything but I have to admit even though they would have asked me to pass a cooking test for example because of how bad my fiancée is concerning cooking I would have accepted their challenges" she confirmed with a determined voice
"Are you sure that it is about Gotchiro's cooking and not your love for competition speaking?"
"I really don't know what you are talking about" she responded as she was trying to escape her gaze by starring at the corner
"Fine I believe you" she smirked
A step outside that elevator and that was it, both of them immediately went to their respective desks to respond to any new email that they might have received, before attending a meeting concerning the new update of a game called "Make a choice" it was a reverse harem game, where unlike any other game at one point, the girl would have to choose between the guys that have madly fallen in love with her.
"So what do you think about this character of yours Hotaru, are you sure he needs to die?"
"Absolutely I mean even the writers thought of it as a great idea"
"I don't know I kind of liked Shi" said Erik
"Me too, but at the same time it would make the choice easier" added James
"I am curious to know about how many people will choose Shi regardless, I mean I liked the phase that comes after, the one when she keeps moving and finally choose one of the other ones" added Annie
"I don't know I guess that we should have added another option about the death of that character like instead of choosing from any of them, we could have just let her stay single" proposed Erik
"Let's say that the budget doesn't allow us to do so, but I understand your point of view, I mean if Shi was alive, the MC wouldn't have chosen any of the other guys, so if you see it from that angle they look more like second choices than real lovers" said Annie as she was taking a look at some papers