After that, I did lessen the day of my morning habit (sitting on the bench). Because, first, I studied until late night and ended waking up a bit later in the morning. And, second, Aya and me, exchanged texts before I studied a bit and -still- ended waking up later in the morning.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKOCQfNvsNZ
It was only natural that -started from mails- we began to learn many things about ourselves.
I told her that I like coffee even before I tasted that delicious coffee from Mr. U.
I told her I had been drinking coffee more, since I had to study harder as a third-year. Told her, I would drink any kind of coffee just to know the differences. So it would make me learn more values than just simply drinking a coffee.
I told her that I am not picky about food. I could anything as long they’re edible. I told her I was dull because I didn’t have such as favorite food or anything like that. But if I had to prefer, I would like my food spicy.
I told her what kind of books I read. Books that I usually brought along with me to the bench before and after my third-year came. I told her that my close friends got me the nickname “The Man on the Bench”. Because -partly- I like to read books, there on the bench.
I told her about my interest in astronomy ever since I was a kid. I told her how awesome it felt, as a kid, when I made a rocket ship from a plastic bottle and let it burst aimlessly at the sky.
I told her that every night that, when the sky was clear, I would gaze at the stars using my telescope which my parents bought me on my twelfth birthday.
I told her about my memorization of many space objects. Stars, satellites, comets and other things that exist in space. I also told her about my weakness in math, despite my interest in astronomy.
I told her many others things about me but there was one thing I didn’t tell her yet. I didn’t tell her that she has the most beautiful smile I had ever seen.
I learned that Aya was the eldest of the two daughters in the family. The youngest had just started her middle school.
Being older, she told me how she always felt the responsibility of being a big sister. She wanted to be a role-model for her little sister but she told she me was not confident of her own expectancy. Because she didn’t know how to be a good role-model for her sister.
A sincere soul. That’s what Aya was and still is.
She told me how their family had somehow musical traits on their genes.
Her mother was a singer in her young age. She -the mother- rarely showed up on TV. She was not on the mainstream media because she traveled to many different places to sing.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ikF8kMZuP
Aya told me that her mother had held shows in almost every parts of Japan. But even though she was not on the mainstream, many people of her generation would know her, if they were reminded of her stage name.
Aya’s father was an undergraduate student when he met his would-be wife. By the time Aya told me of this, her father had became one of an important professor at a certain prominent conservatory.
The youngest daughter, Aya’s little sister, liked to sing and dance. She always watched those famous groups of girls on the TV. She had a dream that someday she too would show up on TV instead of mimicking them in front of it.
Aya herself had a talent of a pianist, and a very good player. I was informed of this fact before by Aya’s friend from the light music club (that little sister of the "good-guy").
She played a classical music.
I was dumbfounded when she told me the names such as Brahm, Tchaicovsky, Bach or Vivaldi. She told me stories on how they came to create everlasting legacies.
One day when we talked at school, I told her I only knew three people of such caliber. Wolfgang, Beethoven, and Mozart. She laughed and said that Wolfgang and Mozart that I was referring to might be the same person. And later I found out that she was true.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmO6ofS7yRY
That’s how I learned that Aya’s family was all musical.
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I learned many other things about her and vice versa.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgAFWTL2sqn
She told me how she met her best friend, Nao. I asked how Nao was like, because at that time I didn’t know anything about her except that she was Aya’s best friend.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZZlrKyPJT
She told me Nao was a cheerful and friendly girl. Nao and Aya were on the same class on their seventh grade. I could imagine how they could “clicked”. One was an easy talker (Nao) and the other was easy to talk to (Aya).
According to Aya, Nao was a happy-go-lucky tomboy. Nao was -as Aya described to me- “as bright as the sun”. But sun doesn’t shine all day. The truth was, in her heart, there was a side unknown to other people around her but Aya.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ554A8wxgFR
Aya told me there were times when the “sun” lost her bright. Times when the sun was away unseen and instead the rain of tears was what showed up. Behind her merry outlook and tomboy demeanor, Nao actually wanted what every girl had ever wished for.
Aya told me a story in the past about how Nao sometimes weren’t very excited when her birthday was coming up. Because she would have already known -through a simple guess- the gifts which people would present to her. And it was all of which she had never wished for. Nao would tell her best friend about it while letting droplets of tears fall from her watery eyes.
People around Nao knew her as a cheery tomboy. So, maybe, they would assume and think like I shouldn’t give her a gift that “she” wouldn’t like. When they said “she”, they meant “a tomboy like her”. They gave her what they thought Nao would like, without actually asking her about it.
Everyone didn’t know that Nao never asked anything too much. She didn’t want to be a princess in a nice white-dress. She just wanted everyone to know that she was simply a girl.
And as her best friend, Aya had many times told Nao to just tell everyone so. But no. Aya said, Nao choose to not to.
The “sun” would choose to hide away for a night until it then rise again as the usual “bright sun” that everybody knew. And the day would go on as normal as it should be. Without anyone knowing what actually happened to the “sun” when it went away into the sad and lonely night.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0EXSs9zAe7
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We, Aya and me, were getting closer through times we spent together. None of it would ever happen if I didn’t greet them on that morning.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt2fIYF5hce
We spent times together at school. We went and study in the middle of the placidity of the library. She taught me tenth-grade math lessons which I forgot.
Sometimes I went to her club after they finished practicing. She would stay and play me a “piece”. Every time I saw her playing I couldn’t believe that she was the same high-school girl I knew. She was so talented and I couldn’t help but to feel awed.
I was not the type to bring food to school. There was no particular reason. I just didn’t. Aya was the same.
Some point, Aya offered to make me lunch for days forward. I thanked her kind thought, but I said to her that she didn’t have to. Instead, I suggested us to have lunch at the cafeteria and try different menus every time. It would be fun to taste different flavors, I said to her. From then on, when we wanted to, we had lunch at cafeteria together.
On lunchtime, we would play a little game. Each of us would order a food separately, without one knowing what the other ordered. Then, before the foods arrived, each of us had to guess what our adversary had ordered. There were prize or punishment, and sometimes both. And the fun part was the reward or the penalty was decided afterward.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhIQPLbdShq
Aya’s favorite spot was a flower fields.
Our school had this flower fields with various kind of flowers. When the old flowers died, we were asked voluntary to plant new ones. And we had the freedom to decide on what flower to plant.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0h77raHlhc
It’s like of a symbol of remembrance. I remember the first time I planted some flowers there and then went back few months later. Then I looked at my already-blossomed flower and I thought to myself that during those gaps, I had grown. Just like the flower.
So the flowers were from the students and for the students. Aya would love to talk there and lost in time while watching the flowers.
Things were progressing until we finally hung out together outside school. We watched movies at the cinema. Ate at family restaurant. Had cups of tea and coffees at a desert cafe. And we had fun at the game center when there was time.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJEy4FIEu2q
From then on, after school, sometimes we walked to the station together. Before in the end we parted there and took different train lines.
Then Nao came into the picture.
Nao was Aya’s best friend; so certainly, she was an important part of Aya’s life. But it had to take quite some time before eventually Nao recognized me as -also- an important person in Aya’s life.
That time I had no idea what I was in Nao’s mind.
I was sure Aya must have told her everything about me. After all they were best friend. And you hide nothing from your best friend because you trust them. They would not be your “best friend” if they were not trustworthy.
“Trust” was the key word at that time. Maybe it was just me but somehow I got the feeling that Nao had not trust me yet.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ggRWDV0qM
At the time, I thought that this situation could “compromise” all what I had been doing. After all, girls always listen to their best friend than their loved ones.
I knew I had to do something about it.783Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNW4515zPl7
