"Ne ne, Choutarou-kun!"

    "Hai? ?" he gave her his brightest smile at his childhood friend as she ran towards him. He was standing under the cherry blossom tree – their little secret spot.

    "You know you know," grinned excitedly as she took Ohtori's hand, a habit of hers whenever she was overjoyed, "I finally confessed to Shishido-senpai and he's agreed to go out with me!"

Ohtori suddenly felt as if his heart had just stopped.

    "Oh really?" he forced himself to maintain the bright smile he had on his face, "That's great."

He was really happy for his friend to find her contentment... right?

Then why does his heart ache?

It was then when he finally realised these new feelings in his heart.

Ohtori yawned as he entered his classroom. He didn't have enough sleep that night, for he had a dream about what happened on that fateful day – the day where his heart was broken.

Sighing, he took his seat, which was next to the window, and stared out at the clear, blue sky. Not noticing that his childhood friend was currently standing behind him, looking out at the sky as well.

    "Isn't it a good day?" she smiled as Ohtori looked at her, smiling as well.

    "Good morning, . It is indeed a good day, ne..." 

    "It reminds me of that day when we both ran away from our parents to the riverside; to watch fireworks." Both of them smiled as they remembered that time.

----------

The end of season fireworks,
and the slightly wavering eyes
lit up our memories on the dry sand.
I won't ever let go of this hand again.

----------

    "That was beautiful, ne, Choutarou-kun?" ten year old stood on the path next to the river as she continued staring up at the sky, even though the fireworks had finished a while ago.

    "Yeah..." Ohtori was smiling with her as he, too, looked up at the clear night sky, "How I hope that fireworks would continue forever..."

    "But if that really happened, then fireworks wouldn't be so special and beautiful anymore, won't it? Even though fireworks will only last for a few seconds, those few seconds are enough for us to remember its beauty in our hearts, right?"

Ohtori looked at the shorter girl in surprise, only to find that was smiling gently at him. Smiling along with her, he took her hand, "Let's go home before our parents gets worry."

The way home was a quiet one, as Ohtori leaded them back home, never letting away her hand.

----------

    "And I remember that in the end, our parents scolded us and grounded us from stepping out of our house for a week." chuckled again, "I remember for that week, we're only allowed to do our homework, and our holiday ended off that way, quite sad, wasn't it?"

    "But we both got a chocolate as a reward." said Ohtori, smiling at her.

    "Hmm...much better now." grinned as she patted Ohtori's head since he was sitting down and she was standing up. "You looked kind of depressed when I entered the class room."

After a slight pause, decided to speak again. "So, what happened?" she asked him, eyes not leaving him.

    "It's nothing, just that I have a dream this morning." He replied with a sadden smile.

    "A dream...? Wha—"

was interrupted by the ringing bell, as well as their teacher stepping into the classroom.

    "Oops! Will talk to you later during lunchtime!" as quick as possible, ran back to her seat as she heard her teacher greet the class.

    "Good morning students."

----------

Ohtori waited under the cherry blossom tree, told him that she would talk to him during lunchtime, hence why he was now waiting under the tree for her. How long has it been since he last ate lunch with her, he wondered. Two months, Ohtori knew it well. He had been counting every single day that had spent her lunch with Shishido, and not him.

    "Sorry! Am I late?" shouted as she ran towards him, "I went to the cafeteria for some buns, here." She smiled brightly as she offered one of the buns in her hand to him, "You will be having practice later on right? So take it, or else you won't have the energy to play tennis!"

    "Thank you."

    "So," leaning against the large cherry blossom tree, started, "what dream did you have today which caused you to be so depressed?"

Ohtori went silent for a moment before giving a sad smile, "About a few months ago, I got rejected from the girl I liked. This wasn't the first time I had this dream already."

    "That girl must be blind then, to miss out such a great person." She replied, eating the bun she had bought, while looking at him gently.

But Ohtori simply shook his head, "It's not like that. It was more like...she didn't even know my feelings and she got herself a boyfriend."

----------

Please don't say a word.
Please don't hurt me.
Because when even the first light of spring
scatters and fades away into the distance,
I will hold your hand.

----------

It was a complete silence between them as Ohtori started eating the bun she had brought for him. The bun was sweet, like honey. This made him smiled.

looked at him with the corner of her eyes and hold onto Ohtori's hand, comforting him.

Ohtori saw her smiling at him; smiling him the smile that he always loved.

Words weren't what Ohtori needed at the moment, what he needed was her silent touch.

----------

Even if there were no words,
even if it was an eternal dream never to be awaken from.
In the gentle rays that shined thru' the woods,
a peaceful world is all that remains.
Stay with me just like this – I prayed from my heart.

----------

    'I'm sorry, Choutarou-kun. It's all too late... I couldn't return your feelings then and now. These are the only things I can do for you...'

Into the distance
Into the distance...

-fin.
Kei

Note: The lyric up here was the translation of Ohtori Choutarou's song, 'I wish...'. It was translated by xenium and it could be found here. Also, I've mess up the order of the song, so don't try to listen to the song while reading it, you will get confused.