Dream A Lost Time

Chapter 8- Festival

On the basketball court, players were practicing in black uniforms. The No.10 player was dribbling the orange color ball while passing the other players. He jumped towards the basket and his orange hair fluttered. In Rey's eyes who was spectating him, it was like he got wings. He almost reached the basket but could not dunk. However, he made the ball into the basket and landed on the ground in an unbalanced state but controlled himself. After the last basket goal, they finished their practice. All the players took a breather and sat down on the bench. Chinta walked to Rey and asked Rey, "how are you here?" Rey replied, "I was practicing with my soccer team and found out the basketball team is here, so I thought you would be here with them." Chinta said, "That explains, I am done for today. let me change then we will go." Rey nodded. Chinta walked to the changing room and wore his casual clothes. He came back to him in five minutes. He said goodbye to his teammates and walked with Rey.

It was the start of spring. Rey asked Chinta, "are you coming with us to the festival? Kiniko already asked to Miya and Reet." Chinta replied with a neutral expression, "don't you want to go alone with Kiniko. it's your chance to ask her out." Rey replied, "I would love to. But you know how she is. She wants to go all of us together." Chinta nodded and agreed to go with them. Rey said, "okey we will all meet at Kiniko's house at evening." Rey parted ways with him on the way to home and he walked alone to his home.

Next day evening, black -haired boy was looking at the front door and he lifted his hand to press the doorbell. Four people were already waiting for him in Kiniko's house. "He is finally here," Chinta said when he heard the doorbell. He wore a black full sleeve shirt with blue jeans. Three girls nodded in unison. They all walked towards the front door by descending the stairs. Girls in black traditional dress opened the front door and looked at teenage boys in sky blue shirts and gray joggers, "you are late," Rey apologized, "I am sorry, Miya." Chinta said 'hello' to him. Rey replied, "hey Chinta." And his gaze moved to a girl in a green traditional dress, and said, "hi Reet." She replied to his greetings with a smile, "hello Rey." At last, Rey's eyes met with a girl in a traditional red dress. At the time, he laid his eyes on her, his heart skipped a beat and thought in her mind, "beautiful." It was not like the other two girls were less beautiful than Kiniko. It was just that he never looked at Miya and Reet in that way. Rey controlled his urge to comment and greeted her in normal manners, "Hi Kiniko." Kiniko responded back to him with a small smile on her face, "hi Rey." Chinta suggested, "shall we go now. we don't want to miss the festival." All others nodded in unison.

They started walking under the orange sky towards the festival. Rey and Chinta walking in front of the girls. In a few minutes, they all reached at the festival site. They followed the crowd and ascended the stairs towards the main shrine. All the stalls were packed with people. Rey and his group first walked through the crowd and arrived in front of the main shrine where people were in queue for their turn to pray. Rey and his group joined the queue and got their turn after five minutes. After praying, they started enjoying the leisure activities. Rey and his friends walked to food stalls. Rey walked to the food stall and registered his order to the middle-aged man with a small black beard and short black hair. Middle aged man finished the order in 10 minutes. Rey picked up the order and walked towards the temporary seating area. Rey handed crispy poppers to everyone. After enjoying festival delicacies, Rey and his group walked through the gaming section. Miya pointed at the game stall and suggested, "let's play that game." No one object to her and They all walked to the stall owner. It was a prize-winning game. There was a total of 5 selves and each one had different prizes placed on. Better the prize, the more difficult it was to reach with rings. It was a simple game to throw the ring like an object. The object was about 32cm in diameter and to win the game ring must cover the prize with a ring. Miya took the first turn but failed to win. Next was Rey, who also failed. Now it was Reet's turn, she threw the ring, and it landed on top of a small cat-like toy. Owner took the cat toy and gave it to Reet, "you won this Kid," Reet accepted it with a delighted smile on her face, "thank you, sir." Kiniko and Chinta had the same fate as Rey and Miya. They did not win anything. Next Chinta tried his luck to win the draw but failed again and cursed himself, "Damn! I am so unlucky." This time no one participated in the lucky draw, but only Chinta. It took them an hour to them to explore the gaming area. After exploring, Chinta whispered to Miya and Reet, "hey just listen guys, we have to leave Rey and Kiniko alone." Miya understood what he was trying to say, but Reet was little dense to these things. She asked, "why do we need to leave them alone?" Miya said, "let's hide, I will explain to you." Kiniko asked to Rey who was walking beside her, "Rey, where are Reet and the others." Rey turned back and looked in the crowd and his friends were already disappeared. "Did we lose them? I don't think, it must be his plan. Well, this is good, now I can spend some time alone with her." Rey looked at Kiniko and replied with neutral expression, "maybe we lost them. but don't worry about them. they will be fine." Kiniko nodded and asked to Rey, "what should be do now?" as he listened to her, and his eyes met with ice cream stall. "Wait here, I will get some ice cream for us," Rey said to Kiniko and walked to the ice cream stall. Rey ordered one vanilla ice cream cone and one strawberry ice cream. He paid and came back to Kiniko. He handed the strawberry flavored ice cream to Kiniko while small smile on his face and said, "This is your favorite. Isn't it?" Kiniko took the ice cream and nodded. Artificial lights illuminated the festival after sun saying its farewell for the day. Rey and Kiniko walked through the crowd. Rey spotted empty bench and suggested to Kiniko while making gesture with his hand towards the bench, "let's sit there." Kiniko nodded and walked with him. They both sat down. Both took last bite on ice cream. Silent fell around both, they did not have anything to do but themselves. Rey started feeling nervous and his heart started pounding, and he thought, "what's going on, why I am feeling so nervous. It's not like my first time alone with Kiniko. why I can't come with any word to start the conversation. And why is she silent?" Kiniko's situation even worse than him, her cheeks turned red, and she could not help but thought, "my heart is beating so loudly. Could he hear it." Rey finally took the courage to take a glance at Kiniko. As his ocean blue eyes landed on her face, he was bewitched by her cuteness and the world around him started moving slowly. He unconsciously moved his hand towards her face, and he wiped the small ice cream bit leftover on her face with his finger and licked it. Kiniko's face even turned redder than before, she could not even lift it up. Rey came back to his senses and realized what he had done when he did not see any moments in the figure next to him. "What the hell I did," Rey thought while his face started turning red as well. He jumped back in nervousness and apologized to her, "I am sorry, Kiniko. I used to this when we were little, it just that I did out of habit." Kiniko replied in slow tone, "it's okey." She thought to herself while redness on her face was still visible, "well, it's not like I mind him. it's just so sudden, and I am not ready for it." Rey sighed when he heard Kiniko and looked towards the crowd. His eyes met with three figures who were approaching them. One of the figures said, "hey why are you both silent? Did something happen?" Kiniko recognized the owner of the voice and looked at her while composing herself. She replied while changing the subject, "Reet, where were you guys?" Reet about to explain to her but Miya interrupted her and suggested, "let's go guys. we must hurry otherwise; we would miss the fireworks show." Now Kiniko and Rey calm down in the presence of their friends and nodded with her suggestion. Rey started walking with Chinta behind the girls and Chinta asked Rey, "hey did something really happen between you two? '' Have you asked her out?" Rey replied, "Damn! I was so nervous; I could not ask her like that. It's so difficult. But thanks though." Chinta replied, "What are you thanking me for?" Rey replied while showing smirk on his face, "well, you are the one who planned all of this to leave us both alone." Chinta smiled bitterly and replied, "I created a chance for you, but you missed it." They all arrived at the site to see the fireworks display. A Crowd formed to see the fireworks. Chinta and Rey walked next to girls. Girls were all standing next to each other, and Rey stood next to Kiniko and beside him, Chinta. First firework rocket flew in the sky while producing a whoosh sound and exploded with sparkling colors. Everyone's eyes moved to the sky to see the dazzling scene. An old man who was sitting with her wife on the bench looked at the sky and they both felt like they returned to their youth. People felt emotional attachments to the fireworks and captured the moments in their memories for forever while enjoying with their loved ones. Rey and Kiniko were also one of them who were making beautiful memories with their friends. More rockets started following the first one and painted the whole sky with bright beautiful colors. Colorful flowers stayed a bit longer in the sky and they faded after the last rocket exploded. Everyone felt satisfied with the ending of the fireworks and started to leave off the festival with their friends and family members. Miya suggested to her group, "Maybe we should also take leave now." Rey and the others nodded in unison and started walking to their homes. Kiniko praised the fireworks show enthusiastically, "fireworks are the best." They all agreed with her but not as much as Kiniko. Miya whispered into Kiniko, "Maybe you like fireworks even more than Rey." Kiniko recalled the scene that happened when they were alone, and her face started turning red. Kiniko did not say anything to Miya. Kiniko and Rey parted ways with their friends and walked in different directions. Rey and Kiniko did not utter a single word while walking. After walking a few steps, they arrived in front of Kiniko's house. Rey said farewell to Kiniko while saying words, "good night." Kiniko responded to his words, "good night, see you tomorrow." Rey nodded and walked to his home. He opened the door and walked in, "I am home, mom." Charlette also came back from the festival. Rey did the dinner with his mother and fell asleep while thinking about the activities he did in the day.