Chapter 33: Brotherly Relation (Flash Back)

"Sarah! Sarah! Look at that!" I turn my head to look at her and found her squealing like a kid. "Let's play that game, we could win a prize." She said, pointing at a stall.

"Maria you can go ahead and play." I shake my head in annoyance.

We are here at the festival. Well, you might have guessed that already but my frustration is because Maria goes over enthusiastic by just looking at every stall we pass by so we have to stop just so she could play out her heart like a kid she is.

"Okay!" She utters and quickly runs ahead then suddenly stops in her track and turns to me again. "And don't go running away back to find him before I come back!"I roll my eyes at her and mouth the word 'whatever'.

It's been an hour since we arrived at the festival and during our stray walk around, we lost him to the crowd and thus we've been looking for him for half an hour already which caused me and Maria to split up which also resulted in us to nearly getting lost too and why wouldn't we?! The whole town is almost here at the festival and to say crowded would be an understatement because why any townee would want to miss such a rare festival? Anyway, apparently I'm the only one still looking for him while Maria gave up and told me to just enjoy the event and then head home but how could I! I want him to be with us! To be with me!

"Hey, Maria!" I call her and run towards the food stall. She is gawking at the cotton candy in the process with an open mouth and I know her in a state like this, I could make her do anything I want.

Heh!

"Listen, I'm going to try to search him for the last time so you have to stay around here until I come back."

"Yeah?" She says without even looking at me. I smile while she drools over the cotton candy.

This is my chance. Without wasting another moment I run through the crowd for him.

After searching and calling through several stalls, I came to rest at a secluded bench, panting hard to grasp some air that I lost while running around. After a minute, I feel someone behind me and before my instinct could warn me, a hand came across my face and darkened my vision, before I could shout, the voice called.

"Guess who?" I squint, hearing that familiar voice and slapped the hand covering my eyes.

"BRAAT!! WHERE WERE YOU! We've been searching for you for almost an hour now!" I say in the most annoyed tone I can muster up but inside I feel a pool of relief.

"We? Or just you? Because Maria is busy drooling at every food stall she sees." He says, skeptically while pointing his thumb in a direction without even looking. I move my head towards that direction and no doubt he is right, the stall owners are shooing Maria away due to her hungry eyes that are scaring their actual customers away. I didn't notice but I'm being dragged away and when I look at the person holding my hand and making me move through the crowd is him.

"Hey don't you think we are moving in the opposite direction? Maria is that way." I point out behind me.

"She wouldn't notice our absence for another hour. No worries." He scoffs.

"But we shouldn't leave her behind." He didn't stop and neither answers me and I let him be. For one thing, I know; I was curious about the plan he had in mind. And why not? I'm a woman after all.

We finally stop at a place where there is not even a single soul and when I say that, I mean it literally is empty. We are behind the stall area, the glimmer of the festival evident from this place and I didn't realize that he was holding my hand until he releases it before a warm squeeze.

"That's better now. Fresh air, flowers, grass and a good view finally." He squats down on the grassy ground and motions me to do as well and I comply. He hands me the chocolate covered apple he was holding in one hand and I start nibbling on it. I know he loves apple and he knows that I love chocolate, what a perfect combo. I smile thinking about it and he looks at me from under his lashes.

"Say, what's so funny? Care to share?" He pushes.

"Just thinking about us," I say, smiling at him.

"My, my, what made you think about us?" He asks, coyly and winks at me. I hit him on the shoulder and he laughs a little.

"This apple covered chocolate," I say, looking at it. "How well we know about each other and how much time has passed... since we started sharing and trusting each other." I take a bite and I can see him from the corner of my eyes, he is staring at my chocolate apple. I hesitate to say the next thing but I say it. "I'll always cherish this brotherly relation we have." And I hear him chuckle.

"Brotherly?" He laughs "Yeah right because you're no girl in this relationship and that's true."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I said it and I like the way I am, more of a boy." I chuckle with him this time.

"And I like it too." He says, staring at his chocolate apple while playing with it, bobbing it back and forth. "I like the boy version of you more... It is an epiphany of energy to me, drowns the entire enigma I may have about myself." I try to understand his words while biting into my chocolate apple and he scoots closer to me and brushes his thumb over the side of my lips. "You got chocolate here."

"Am I chocolate covered Sarah now?" I smile, looking at him.

"Yeah, my favorite." His face comes closer, his body leans in my direction, my breathing stops as I stare into his light blue eyes which seemed much brighter even in a dark place as such.

Never have I seen them from this proximity, they were clearer than the ocean itself, it was like a book of million words, a book filled with his heart content which I could never get tired of reading even if it were more than a millionth time.

His stare directs towards my lips and unconsciously my lips part slightly, his thumb still grazing down to my lips, I gasp lightly and his eyes fall onto his own thumb towards my mouth.

"Does it feel brotherly now?" He says, smirking at me and I couldn't utter a single word. I froze physically and mentally. I couldn't manage to think of anything. My mouth hangs open as he backs away a little.

"Uwaa...Umph!"

We take a sharp look towards the source of suppressed cry and there is a girl behind the tree at a distance, clamping a hand over her mouth. Immediately we both stand up, embarrassed and my fear turns into reality.

"Maria!" I call her. She makes an attempt to escape with her mouth covered with her hands but he comes in her way, both hands sprawled in the air in order to block her path. Maria looks back and forth between us, astonished and embarrassed all at the same time. She finally lets her hand down and moves her shaking finger towards me.

"H-He... He kissed..... GAH! I can't even say the word." She says in an exasperated tone. "You know what it means?!" She says, holding her head in both her hands. "He doesn't respect our culture!"

"Maria we didn't-" I try to talk when I get cut off.

"Easy there." He says. "I know I did a forbidden thing but..."

What? Why isn't he defending himself? We didn't do anything Maria was thinking of?

"But what!? There can't be any reason for you to cover up!? I saw you both doing that... That thing from behind the tree!" Maria shouts at him, still embarrassed about what happened.

"You misunderstood-"

"But it was completely brotherly. Siblings do that too but not very often though." He cuts me again.

"You take me for a fool!?"

"I can prove it to you, come here let me do it to you." He moves closer to Maria but she blocks his path, spreading her palms straight to his face.

"H-hold your horses right there!" Her hands trembling in fear.

"C'mon! It's a friendly one. People in the city do it all the time. The one on the cheek doesn't have any deep meaning to it." He says, waving his hand in the air dismissively.

"W-well this is no city I assure you that! And stay away from my sister!" She hisses at him. Maria comes near to me and I'm still in a daze when she holds my hands and drags me with her. When I pass by him, he whispers.

"For you, it wasn't friendly." All the air I had inside me left me once again.

~~~

It's 8 pm and I'm in my bed, under my sheets, trying to hide from the memory of an hour ago.

I didn't know what happen... I just know it all happened in merely a snap of fingers and I couldn't even follow. Maria dragged me all the way home and I was quiet throughout our walk while she was constantly nagging me about the people of the city and their bad influence... I couldn't even remember what else she said.

"I know you are not asleep yet Sarah!" Says Maria. "AND HOW DARE YOU LEFT ME BEHIND! I'm so thankful to the stall owners that they shooed me away so that I had the chance to follow you guys. You know how weak I'm towards food and still, you used it against me!" She huffs out a breath. "I know you are there Sarah! Stop avoiding me!"

"What do you want me to say?" I speak in an annoyed tone so that she may leave me but I know she is my devil sister and she won't until she vomits out all she has in her mind or make me vomit out words.

"I know it wasn't friendly at all." She says in a serious manner. I uncover my face from sheets and look at her and find her staring at the ceiling. "I know it was something more and not just a friendly gesture."

"Why do you think so?" I ask, not knowing what else to say.

"Because he never showed such gesture before not when he used to frequently visit the city with his mother or when they used to live there with his father. I know he is smart enough to know that. You know that it wasn't that simple gesture."

"Why would you say that too?" I say, yet again confused and mixed.

"C'mon Sarah!" She says, looking at me with a frown on her temple. "Or else there might have been such kind of exchanges often between you two that I'm unaware of?" She says, shrugging.

"But if it isn't friendly, it might be brotherly," I say, looking at the ceiling now.

"What? Brotherly?"

"Yeah, he asked me if it felt brotherly. He implied that feeling that's why he asked me." I say, not understanding what I am trying to say myself.

"I don't know what you are blabbering about but have he ever done that to you? Brotherly or you may call it 'friendly' or whatever." She asked with a concerned look on her face and I look at her with no emotion on my face because I'm confused myself.

"No."

"Then it proves. Neither brotherly nor friendly and not at all... Wait, was there something else too?" She pauses, thinking. "Ah! Never mind." She deadpans. "Look Sarah somewhere inside you... you have feelings for him too-"

"I do not!" I say, furrowing my brows at her.

"Okay, you may not realize it whatsoever but do not let your feelings overwhelm you, don't let your hormones play with you. Don't do something that may disgrace your family name or your image and you know perfectly well what I'm talking about." She says, gently with a low voice, full of concern. "Daddy likes that kid and he will accept him as his son immediately if he asks for your hand." I didn't reply to her. I don't know how and why her last sentence affected me so much.

I was wide awake until then and it made me toss and turn throughout the night just thinking about us, together bound in a relationship as such.