Memory

"Mum, please, I'll do anything; I just don't want to go outside!" Haruki stammered as he was violently pushed to the door. "Haruki, for f**k sake, go outside." Haruki's mother said, "You're a f***ing mess being holed up here for weeks!". "B-but Mom, they'll make fun of me again!" Without a second thought, she smacked Haruki viciously, regarding him with disgust, roughly grasping his shirt and drawing him closer. "WHAT...did I say about you calling me mom!?" she shouted, clutching him harder. Shaken and worried, afraid of the future, he said, "I'm sorry, ma'am." He quaked as he walked outdoors, fully aware that refusing the sentence would have left him terribly injured.

He hurriedly and timidly scuttered into the park,afraid of being discovered by other children. He decided whether he would look for a concealed location. "Here?" he asked himself, discovering what appeared to be an abandoned playhouse, covered in dust. "Perfect," he muttered to himself as he settled back and considered what he should do. He decided to sanitise the area and declare it his base of operations. As he began to go across the floor, he was taken aback by a child-like shadow that appeared out of nowhere. He stood motionless, praying they would vanish. "Is anyone there?" the voice said, quizzically. "Might as well go in." Without hesitation, he entered the house and stared directly at Haruki. As he initially appeared stunned,his face soon transitioned into a smile.

"Wow, I've never seen you around in this park before! What's your name?" The boy exclaimed excitedly to him, "H-haruki," he muttered. "Pardon?" The boy, not exactly hearing what he had just said, "Haruki. It's Haruki." "H-harune!?" The boy questioned, once again not quite hearing what he just remarked. Haruki, getting slightly annoyed at the boy's poor sense of hearing, fully exclaimed, "UGH, IT'S HARUKI." Haruki, surprised and embarrassed by his speech, swiftly covered his mouth, looking to see the boy's reaction. "Hahaha! Well, my name is Nazuke!" Nazuke snickered, "I knew you could be loud!" "It's not that funny," Haruki hissed. "Stop laughing at me." Taken aback by the current change of mood, Nazuke quickly remained quiet as he awkwardly glanced around, searching for something else to say, while silence quickly filled between them. "Yknow."," Haruki murmured. "You don't have to speak to me... A lot of people despise me." Bewildered, Nazuke wondered why he would say such a thing and why someone would hate him. Curious, he said, "Well, I for one want to be friends with you!" As he carefully reached out his hand, Haruki, shocked by the unprecedented action, was taken aback but couldn't resist for long when he took a single glance at Nazuke's eyes, full of warmth, comfort, and love. Everything the boy wished for and more unknowingly attracted to the boy's keen manner. In a slow but slightly eager way, he reciprocated, timidly shaking Nazuke's hand to be met with a smile that was brighter than any sparkling star in the universe.