Point of View 3...
Summer. The mere thought of it would show an image of the sea.
I decided to dra--, I mean, to have Iya come with me to the sea. And she agreed. Thankfully.
"So, what do we do now?"
"Ermm...honestly, I kinda don't know."
I replied while giving her a peace sign. She sighed and glanced at the droplets of rain. What a crappy luck. I thought summer would be more fun than this. I just wanted to see Iya be excited about this trip.
I sighed out of frustration. Iya might have sensed it. She stood up and smiled.
"Well, there's nothing else to do now. We're here and we have no choice but to have fun."
"I mean I kinda get that, but how?"
She chuckled. The kind that gives off positive vibe. Seeing her being this cheerful made everything feel better. She grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the shed. She laughed. Softly. Gently. And Prettily.
"Let's run!"
Her eyes shined brightly. Like the sun. It almost feels like I was melting. I smiled back and run with her.
"Whoever gets sick is weak!"
I said while running faster, as I try to shield my face from the raindrops. She chuckled. Again.
"You're on!"
We arrived at the inn. Completely soaked with rainwater. We looked at each other and laughed as we tease one anothers appearance.
"This is so fun! Let's enjoy this to our hearts content."
I said, still laughing. But I stopped when I saw her expression. It's back. Her eyes was empty. She was gazing at nothingness, again. She was somewhat distant. Again.
"Yes, it really is! All the pain was worth it! It's sad that we won't be able to do this anymore."
She said as a reply. The way she agreed that this is indeed fun was no doubt genuine. But something about the rest felt dark.
"What pain? What are you saying? And of course we'll do this again! I'll make sure of it!"
Maybe it's an assurance. I made sure to cheerfully say all those words.
"Just talking to myself. And thank you!"
Her expressing gratitude made all the unwanted things fly. I decided to invite her inside and rest in our rooms.
The rain stopped around midnight. It was quiet. The sun came out of the clouds and I can finally say that the real summer has began.
We played the whole day. We tried various things. Swimming, beach volleyball, scuba diving, and surfing. It was such a long day. And it's so fulfilling to see various reactions from Iya. Despite not looking like it she's quite athletic. We won against another tourist at beach volleyball. I was a little bit taken aback by how good she was at surfing. We lost to the great rain yesterday but we did everything we planned to do. The only thing left to do now is watch the sunset. We both agreed that it was the best way to end a trip to the beach. She actually switched to a novel addict mode and started mumbling about stuff. I didn't quite got it but she looked so happy, so I guess it's fine.
The ocean sparkled. It was orange, with a little bit red and yellow. Nothing like it's normal blue color.
"So mysterious! I wonder why sunsets happen? They could just have thought of a different way to switch day and night but they chose to do it this way."
She said out of nowhere. I got used to this sudden thoughts. She's not Iya if she's not blurting out random words and asking mysterious questions.
"Maybe They couldn't think of a different way. But I'm okay with this one. It's beautiful and calming."
"You're definitely right! Sunsets are the best. Everything looks amazing. It shows an entirely different vibe from the normal day and night. I love this!"
"I love this too!"
"...But it's kinda sad how it ends. It's quite scary. During the day it was so bright. The sunset is so lovely. But after that, night would come. It's dark and lonely. So cold and scary. It was such a perfect place for me."
"..."
There it is. Another random things to say.
"Oh, the sunset is gone. That really shows that no matter how beautiful it is, the end of everything is inevitable."
She said smiling. The darkness covered the orange scenery as her face cast a shadow of sadness.
"Yeah, everything ends. We really can't do anything about it."
I replied. That's the only thing that I could say. I honestly can't stand times like this. I felt useless. No matter how much I touch her, she would distance herself. She's not willing to let me or anyone else see the real her. I felt helpless. I'm so pathetic at the fact that I can't, and I won't be able to pull her from her own perfect place.
"Liose? What are you doing? You okay? Let's go."
"Yeah. It's nothing, I'm quite fine."
Point of View 4...
"A summer festival?"
I nodded. I'm planning to enjoy the summer to it's fullest. I learned about the summer festival while walking home from the grocery store. Maybe it's a sign. The flyer landed straight at my foot. As I looked at it, a sudden urge to say 'cliché' hit me. But I fortunately didn't let myself say it. Iya's way of seeing things finally caught me. I just sighed and told her to go with me.
"Sure, I can make it! I'm kinda glad it's in another town. Let's meet up at 6. The late will treat the other."
"Sure. It's settled. See you then!"
The days passed. It's finally time for the festival. Iya has this habit of arriving 10 minutes early but she would always look defeated everytime she saw me at our meeting place waiting for her. Every time I go out with her leaves me so excited. I would end up arriving 30 minutes early. The same thing happened again. She pouted as she saw me.
"I'm not late. You're just too early. Do you seriously have nothing to do?"
She said. I just shrugged and gestured her to walk first. She sighed, smiled, and walked. It was fun watching her eyeing the food stands. We ended up trying all the food and playing the games. Competing about who gets many prizes. I was good at shooting and the games in this festival was on my side. I won. I got a lot of prizes and that made Iya grumble.
There was a fireworks display. It was beautiful. Iya guided me to a spot and it made my whole night. There's no one else other than us and the fireworks can be seen clearly. It was loud but stunning.
"The fireworks looked picture perfect."
"Yeah, it was."
We enjoyed the whole night playing and thinking only about the festival. We were on our way home when she suddenly spoke.
"I want to carve this on my brain. So I can think of it everyday."
She said happily.
"That's a bit weird. We can just do this again, next year!"
That was a bit of a bad answer. Her smile faded, instantly. I kinda regretted answering that way but there's nothing I could do, because I already said it.
"...I hope so."
She replied. The whole night continued quietly. I waited for her to go inside her house. She waved before going inside. I waved back at her and caught a glimpse of her face. It suddenly changed the moment she went inside.
I'm a horrible person. Utterly despicable. I know things aren't right. Yet I made myself believe that everything was right. I tricked myself. I failed to accept the reality in front of me. I was selfish. I wished for happiness and decided to ignore the signs. Iya didn't bother to say anything. Because she understands me better than I do.
I started to walked away. I didn't look back. I chose not to. Because I'm afraid and pathetic.
Point of View 5...
"Now what?"
She asked. She closed her book and looked at me as if I'm the most annoying person in the world.
"A school from another town will be having a festival. Isn't it exciting!"
"And so what?"
"Tsk...tsk...tsk...don't let me say the obvious. You know that I won't bring this up suddenly without any reason, right?"
She sighed. As if she was defeated by something.
"You want to go and you're dragging me again, right."
"You know me too well. I'm waiting at our usual meeting spot, okay! Well then, see you!"
I said while closing the door of the rooftop. I saw her face before I closed it. I could only laugh at her no filter expression. She still ends up going even if she doesn't want to though.
The only thing I could hear was the clacking noise made by my shoes. We do have a festival at our school. It was weeks ago. But Iya didn't came to school. I didn't get to enjoy it due to the girls clinging and pestering me, so I really wanted to enjoy it with Iya without disruptions. I could confidently say that Iya loved school festivals. Her books influenced her greatly and she would always talk about how lovely the scenes of a school festival from the novels to me. I'm looking forward to it.
It's finally time. As always I am standing at a tree located near the station. I was lost in thought when I felt a presence beside me. She frowned at me. Her face screams, 'why are you early, again?!'
"You really have nothing better to do, don't you?"
"So harsh. I do have something like that."
"I doubt that."
She said that and started walking. I chose another town so that bumping into someone we know would be rare. Iya feels at ease when she's outside of this village.
The train was crowded. Maybe because of the festivals happening in various schools. I luckily found one empty seat. I obviously gave it to Iya. She refused at first, acting tough, but she eventually gave in. I'm standing in front of her. There's so many people inside, it's loud and noisy. My eyes caught a glimpse of Iya and she looked nervous. More like anxious.
"You okay? Want some water?"
With a nod of her head, she just smiled. Yeah, right! You're definitely not okay. I didn't bother to ask more and I gently pat her head. She was shocked but she seems to have relaxed after that. After a sudden realization, she brushed my hand away from her. She looked down and stayed like that until we reached the neighboring town. The train was full of voices, chattering, and gossiping. But at that moment I can only feel the silence.
We arrived in one piece. Or two. I mean there's two of us, I guess. This town was different. The other town was full of arcades and malls. Our village is covered by trees and mountains. But this village was more lively. There's a lot of buildings. Hotels, apartments, schools, hospitals, and such.
We walked for about 10 minutes and the school welcomed us warmly. There are so many visitors. The stalls are booming and everyone was having fun. I gave Iya a side eye and saw that her eyes was sparked with excitement and anticipation.
"Liose! Hurry up! Let's eat that one. It's an apple coated with sugar. I read that it was worth it. Oh, and let's try that noodles. Ah, that shooting game was always in a novel. I would always imagine how it feels to play that!"
She said like a child. Pointing at the things she wanted to buy or to experience. That made me chuckle. I wonder if it's because the school festival was full of unknown students and visitors. It felt perfect. Iya cheerfully marched forward. She didn't hate the noise. In fact, she enjoyed the sounds of students trying to advertise everything they sell. She looked so happy. Her eyes almost looked like stars glowing in the dark. Too bright.
"Yup! Let's try all of it!"
I cheerfully uttered to her. As she unconsciously held my hand and pulled me in a direction of the candy apple that she mentioned earlier. She didn't realize it, so I decided to keep quiet and enjoy the festival.
We ate lots and lots of food including sweets and spicy meals. We played different types of games like shooting game, there's also archery and darts game. We won it easily and raided almost all stalls that piqued our interest.
The festival was about to end. I grabbed Iya's hand and ran. I researched about secluded place that have a good view of the sky. We passed by students and some teachers. But that didn't matter. We reached the spot while catching our breaths.
"That was rough!"
She said, scolding me. She hit my shoulder. It didn't hurt. But a thought came to my mind.
"Ouchh! That seriously hurt."
"Huh? What are you sayi--"
She didn't got to finished her words due to a loud bang. The fireworks exploded. This is the second time we saw fireworks together. The first was when we went to a summer festival. I was hoping to dance around the bonfire with her but Iya would probably hate that. Knowing that many people would see us. Still, the fireworks was beautiful. Like stars dancing at the dark sky. It looks so ethereal. So pleasing to the eye. It certainly caught our attention. We forgot our small bickering while watching the lights spread like flowers at the sky and disappear in the darkness.
"Liose!"
I looked beside me and saw her smiling face. So blinding. So pretty. So precious. It was so warm that even the cold weather doesn't bother me anymore.
"Thank you!"
She uttered those two words genuinely. She was sparkling. It froze me and felt multiple emotions inside my head and my chest.
"Welcome, always!"
I also gave her a smile. Not as bright as her but it was definitely genuine.
And that's how that day came to an end.