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No matter how many times her parents reassured her that a new town isn’t as scary as she expects, Shinonome Ena was still rightfully afraid of a new environment.
The town itself didn’t look any different from the one she spent the first few years of her life, but she knew no one, and as a six-year old girl who valued the concept of childhood friendship, having no friends in a new town felt like the end of the world in her little mind. That, in turn, made the environment just as scary, no matter how similar it is.
Her little brother Akito doesn’t seem to agree, however.
“Ena, Akito,” started their mother one day, a good couple of days after settling into their new place. “Why don’t we go to the park today? Your father is going to be out all day, but he thinks it’ll be good for you two to meet some of the neighbourhood kids before school starts up after the summer break.”
“Can I bring my ball?” Akito immediately asked, eyes beaming with excitement over being able to play outside. Though the boy didn’t bother waiting for an answer as he instantly bolted to his room to grab a rather worn out soccer ball far too big for him to wrap his arms around. At the sight of this, their mother only chuckled.
But when she turned to Ena, the little girl only fiddled with the end of her dress, unsure.
“Do you want to bring your sketchbook with you? I think your father would really like it if you drew him a picture of the park,” her mother cooed softly, crouching to her level and gently patting her head in reassurance.
Ever so attached to her artist father, the idea of drawing him something sparked inspiration in Ena, as the little girl headed off to fetch her sketchbook, as well as her favourite set of pencil crayons, to stuff in a little backpack. “O-Okay, Mom…!” She chimed. “I wanna draw Dad the best drawing of the park!”
Her mother gave another laugh. “Alright, sweetie.”
Ena smiled, following both her mother and Akito out of the house.
The town itself had still been quite scary, having only been there for less than a week, but her mother took the scenic route to the park to help them relax on the way there.
The large, grassy park came into view, instantly captivating Akito that he let his mother’s hand go to play ball in the field. “Akito! Please be careful!”
Ena had also been quite captivated by the fields, so that when her mother gave her the go, she walked around to look for a spot that could give her a view of the park. The little girl found a good clearing, and took her seat to start her sketch.
For a while, no one and nothing bothered her, not even Akito’s yells as he excitedly played soccer with his seemingly newly made friends. Ena remained focused on her art, using the techniques that she had learned from her father to best capture the scenery before her.
But she felt something graze her ever so lightly, a soft piece of fabric falling close to her as she sketched. Ena instinctively stopped to turn.
A cute red ribbon had fallen near her.
“O-oh, sorry,” a meek, slightly husky voice called out, and before Ena could realize, she was met with a sweet shade of pink staring back at her. The pink-haired child who looked to be Akito’s age said nothing else and went to grab their fallen item. Ena only shook her head, dismissing the child’s apology.
Yet they stopped before they could straighten up, and Ena quickly noticed that they had been staring at her unfinished art for some time. “What is it?” The girl snapped, causing the child to flinch.
They shook their head, drawing the ribbon close to their chest.
“U-um…. I like your drawing…!” they stated, bashfully fiddling with their ribbon. The sudden compliment stunned Ena, but before she could reply, the child had been called.
“Mizuki! Come on, let’s go!” A voice called out, belonging to a much older girl who beckoned the child to come over. The kid named Mizuki turned away from Ena’s drawing and ran straight to the girl that called her out.
Ena frowned.
The first child she gets to talk to, and their meeting had been cut short.
“Oh, well….”
Ena returned to the park the next day.
After the chance encounter with the child named Mizuki, Ena’s day went smoothly, without any more interruptions, though she had yet to complete her drawing as she wanted it to be perfect for her father. Ena had asked her mother if they could return to the park once again, and to her mother’s—and Akito’s—delight, she obliged.
“You and Akito seem to really like that park!” The woman cheered, earning a smile from both children as they made their way to the park once more. Just like yesterday, Akito ran off to his new friends and was greeted with bright smiles, and Ena took her spot to resume drawing.
But to her surprise, someone had taken her spot, doodling on a sketchbook of their own.
Moreover, it had been the kid named Mizuki.
“Hey, you’re the one from yesterday!” Ena exclaimed, startling the little child who had been rather fixated on their own page. Their hand jutted from the page, causing them to whine a little about how their drawing just got ruined.
But the kid didn’t take it out on Ena, and instead scooted over to offer the older girl a seat. “I’m sorry,” they mumbled, though Ena thought they had nothing to be sorry about.
Ena took the seat, and the child only flashed her a smile.
“Um…. I’m Mizuki…!” They introduced themself with a little dip of their head, and Ena returned it in the same shy manner.
“My name is Ena…! I’m new here, you know!”
She watched as the child next to her hum in understanding, giving another nod. They seemed to study her face for the next moment that passed, before turning away in realization that they had stared for quite a bit. “Oh, um…. That’s why Onee-chan didn’t know who you were, either.”
But Mizuki shook their head once more, now putting their focus on the doodles they made. “A-anyway…! I thought your drawing yesterday was really neat, so I wanted to draw today, too….”
They once again threw the compliment that managed to take Ena aback, before she proudly looked at her own drawing that had clearly been above the level of her peers.
She took a quick glance at what Mizuki had been drawing, and to her surprise, it had been doodles of dresses and ribbons. Sloppy, for Ena’s standards, but clear enough to tell her what it had been. She could even spot the same ribbon that the child had dropped the day before, drawn with as much detail as a five-year old could possibly do.
But Mizuki caught her staring, and they instinctively hid the page from her. They even turned their whole body, blocking the entire sketchbook with their back so that Ena wouldn’t see.
“H-hey, what gives?!”
Mizuki flinched. “I-I’m sorry…. This is just…um…” They paused, as if they had been trying to find an excuse. Ena huffed, and when the pink-haired kid wouldn’t budge, she turned away once again.
“Whatever,” she snapped with a frown, deciding to ignore the strange child’s behaviour to focus on her own drawing.
The two children remained in silence as they drew, though Ena made the occasional glance at the younger child, who merely kept their focus on their paper. However, with the way they hid their paper, she could only keep wondering why Mizuki felt the need to hide their drawing.
Several quiet minutes passed, and Mizuki eventually stood up, with their arms wrapped tightly around their sketchbook. Ena caught a split-second glimpse of the same red ribbon wedged in between their torso and the book, in an attempt to hide it. “You’re going now?” asked Ena, with a childish tilt of her head.
“…yeah…. Onee-chan gonna call me soon so we can go home,” they only mumbled, and true to their word, they heard the same older girl call out their name from a distance. Mizuki gave Ena a polite wave, before running off to their sister.
Now alone, Ena sat in wonder.
Especially about the ribbon they seemed to always hide.
“What a strange guy.”
The girl frowned, and as her curiosity prevailed, she decided to ask them about it the next day.
Ena made her way to the park for a third day in a row, though this time, she filled her bag with items other than her sketchbook and crayons.
Inside, she brought a handful of ribbons and accessories from her collection, thinking that this could be a good way to start a conversation with the bizarre child she seemed to be drawn to. Ena could even offer to draw them together, if that were the case.
She wasn’t sure what it was about the pink-haired kid that piqued her curiosity. Perhaps it was the strangeness of their behaviour when it came to hiding the ribbon—which, at this point, Ena assumed had belonged to their sister—or it was the fact that Mizuki seemed enamoured by her drawing, enough to have them approach a complete stranger like her.
Whatever it was, Ena desired to talk to Mizuki more.
As she and Akito walked side by side, they caught sight of the nearby park. This time, Akito didn’t run straight to the soccer field, and instead took a few glances to try and find the boys he had been playing with.
Yet as both of their gazes travelled to Ena’s usual spot, they saw both Akito’s new friends, as well as the kid Ena had tried to befriend.
“Ei!” exclaimed one of the boys, hand clasped around a familiar red ribbon as he raised it up. The boys around him clamoured in rambunctious laughter, running around the poor pink-haired child who tried desperately to jump for their ribbon.
“G-give it back…!” Mizuki yelled, yet seeing as they were much shorter than the boys, they couldn’t quite reach.
One of the boys took notice of the confused Akito and Ena, and with a wave, he beckoned the younger boy to come over. “Hey, Akito! Come check out this weirdo over here who likes ribbons and girly things!”
“Haha, weirdo Akiyama!”
“Girly boy~”
The boys continued to throw more insults to the child who had been on the verge of tears, slowly giving up on trying to reach for their ribbon.
Ena couldn’t believe what she was seeing, yet much to her relief, Akito didn’t make a single move, and was instead equally horrified at the sight of the boys bullying someone much smaller than them.
One shove into the mud had been the last straw for her.
“Hey!” Ena roared, rushing towards the group and shoving a few of them away, equally as hard as how they had done so to Mizuki. She stood in front of the crying child, arms spread out to defend them. “That’s not nice! Give that back to Mizuki-kun!”
Before the boys could fight back, Akito also ran into the scene, and while he had been confused on who the child had been, he felt the need to say a thing or two to the boys he thought were his friends. “I don’t wanna play with you guys if you’re being mean to someone, you know! Go away!”
The boys looked baffled, though soon their faces scrunched up in disgust as they made their leave. “You guys are weirdos, too!” The kid who held onto Mizuki’s ribbon scoffed, throwing the ribbon down into the mud alongside the sobbing child.
Ena huffed in anger, before she gave Akito a small nod of gratitude and turned towards Mizuki. “Are you okay?” She asked, offering them a hand. In the meantime, Akito also fished out the dirtied ribbon, trying to rub the mud off to the best of his ability with his shirt.
Mizuki remained silent, refusing to look either Ena or Akito in the eye. However, they took her hand, standing up with the help of it.
“Did they hurt you anywhere?” Ena asked, observing the younger child.
Mizuki only shook their head.
“Good!”
They finally looked up, watching as Akito cleaned their ribbon off. “…sorry….” they finally mustered, hurt laced within their voice. “They were your friends, right…?”
Akito shrugged, frustrated with the fact that he couldn’t rub the little bit of mud that had seeped through the fabric. “Eh, I don’t wanna be friends with mean people,” he only sharply stated, bearing the same straightforwardness that Ena had.
In a sense, Ena felt proud of Akito in those few moments.
Mizuki took the ribbon from Akito and bowed their head, and when Ena thanked him again, he ran off to play.
Ena was about to check up on Mizuki again, when she heard their sharp gasp. “I-I’m sorry, Ena-chan…!” They went on, confusing the older girl before she followed their gaze, eyeing the fallen sketchbook that Ena had almost forgotten about.
The drawing she worked hard on for the last few days had been ruined, and while normally it would set Ena off, she couldn’t find it in her to get mad. At least, not towards Mizuki. She dejectedly picked it up with a frown, with Mizuki seemingly bracing for an outburst, yet what they got was a small, frustrated sigh.
“It’s not your fault, Mizuki-kun!” She tried to clear up, much to the surprise of the regretful child. “It was those meanies who were hurting you!”
The girl looked at the dirtied ribbon that Akito desperately tried to clean, this time taking her turn of looking apologetic. “Are they always mean to you?”
Mizuki nodded, a look of pain entering their face.
“It’s because I like cute things…. Ribbons, accessories…dresses, but then the other kids don’t really…like that…. So I don’t…really have any friends….” admitted Mizuki, gently caressing their ribbon with a tiny hand, showing a pained smile to Ena. “Do you think it’s weird, too, Ena-chan…? Everyone here thinks I’m a weirdo for it.”
It clicked in Ena’s little brain. Mizuki’s efforts of keeping the ribbon hidden, yet protected, as well as hiding the cute doodles they had the previous day. The moment Mizuki learned that Ena had been a newcomer, they became fearful that they would also get judged.
But as strange of a concept it is to Ena, a little boy like Mizuki liking cute things, she didn’t think of them as weird.
“Why? I think it’s cool you like those!” She chimed, showing Mizuki a bright smile to ease them. “That means we have more things to talk about!”
Ena pulled Mizuki to a bench nearby, setting both of their belongings down before she dug through her bag, pulling out the various ribbons and accessories she brought. She proudly showed her collection to Mizuki, whose eyes began to glimmer at the sight. “W-whoa…. You have so many cute ones…!” Mizuki exclaimed, and as Ena gestured for them to touch, they picked one up.
A small off-white and tan ribbon that she would often use to hold a little braid on her hair.
She proudly grinned.
“This one is my favourite! Look, it goes like this on my hair!” She boasted, demonstrating a sloppy braid before finishing it with the ribbon. Mizuki looked in awe, a shine in their eyes that Ena hadn't seen before.
“You look really, really cute, Ena-chan…!” Mizuki gasped. “L-like a princess…!”
But as Ena soaked in their comments, she also took a ribbon from her collection. A blue ribbon with white trim that perfectly contrasted Mizuki’s cotton candy pink hair. She immediately clipped it to their hair. In the same manner, Ena’s eyes sparkled.
“Wait, it looks so cute on you!” She went on, scooting closer to the younger child and fixing up their hair to better fit their hair. Mizuki flinched, but remained quiet as they simply let Ena do what she willed with their hair.
A soft smile grazed their face, and a small thank you could only be carried by the soft wind.
For what felt like an eternity to the two children, they shared the rest of their afternoon playing with each other’s hair, sharing laughs and jokes, finally giving Ena the sense of belonging she wanted.
A week had passed since Ena became friends with Mizuki.
Ena would spend her days going to the park, playing with Mizuki. They would exchange ribbons and accessories, or sit around drawing things until either one of them would be called to go home for the day.
But one day, Ena excitedly ran ahead of Akito to the park, seeing as it was the last day before all the kids would have to go to school for the new semester. She had wanted to show Mizuki a new friendship bracelet she had gotten to share with them.
To her dismay, Mizuki was nowhere to be seen in the park.
At first, Ena didn’t seem too dejected, seeing as the two of them had taken the liberty of moving their meeting places everyday to avoid the bullies. Yet when she looked at their supposed meeting place for the day, Mizuki was nowhere to be found.
With a frown, Ena decided to do the one thing she hated doing the most; ask for help.
She looked around to see anyone familiar that she could ask, before spotting an old lady that Ena recalled to be the grandmother of one of Akito’s new friends, and had once given both siblings some treats in thanks for playing with her granddaughter. Hesitantly, she came up to the old lady, fiddling with her dress.
“Um, do you know where Mizuki-kun is?” She asked, and at first, the lady looked confused.
“Mizuki-kun…?” The lady questioned.
“T-the boy I always play with. With the pink hair.”
The old lady nodded in understanding. “Oh, Akiyama’s little boy!” she chimed with a smile, yet it dropped the moment it showed up. “I’m afraid they’ve gone away just this morning, my dear.”
“Gone away…?”
“Yes, that’s right. They’re moving to France, you see,” the old lady continued with a small, sad smile. “I’m sorry about that, my dear.”
Ena frowned, but only shook her head so as to not be rude to the kind old lady. “No, it’s okay. Thank you,” she said, politely bowing to the elder who only smiled back. She walked away, the pang of sadness in her heart.
Her one and only friend had gone away, and now Ena was at a loss on what to do.
But what was even more puzzling was the fact that Mizuki hadn’t told her a thing, despite the many conversations they’ve shared ever since becoming friends.
“…no fair, Mizuki-kun….” She mumbled, on the verge of tears at that point.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
More than ten years had passed, but Ena hadn’t quite forgotten about the pink-haired child that she befriended all those years ago.
She thought about what they could be doing, and if they would ever see one another. As she grew older, she came to understand that Mizuki possibly had their reasons for not telling Ena that they were leaving.
Ena knew Mizuki to be quite a considerate person even as a child, becoming more evident the more they talked to one another. They possibly knew that Ena would only be sad if they had told her, but perhaps it hadn’t been that deep, either. Regardless of the reason, Ena didn’t hold it against Mizuki.
Needless to say, her memories of Mizuki had been quickly fading after not having seen them for a long time.
However, she did find herself missing Mizuki every now and then, and the evidence of it had been the same white and tan ribbon she now wore everyday.
Now becoming a high school student, she kept a keen ear over the latest gossip and trends, so it was no surprise to hear the chatter of the first-year students about a transfer student.
“Hey, did you see the new transfer in 1-A? Seems like they’re returning here from France.”
“No way! That sounds so elite!”
“And they’re hella cute to boot!”
The students become rather rowdy when a change comes to them. Ena wasn’t particularly interested in the first-years’ gossip, but two keywords struck her.
France. Cute.
Ena held her breath, but she could not assume yet.
Instead, her curiosity got the best of her that she decided to go find Akito to confirm.
But she caught sight of a familiar shade of pink, held up by a red ribbon that Ena could vaguely remember. Before she knew it, she came face to face with a pair of amaranth eyes with a warm glow.
The figure before her only smiled, their long hair swishing gently as they spoke with confidence. “Hi, Ena.”
A person so unfamiliar to her, yet one look made her regain all the memories that would’ve otherwise faded into obscurity.
The gasp that Ena wanted to let out got caught as she stared at her old friend grin at them the same way they did all those years ago, even if they looked far too different from how she remembers them. The cute uniform they wore had been telling of their resolve, one of which Ena never saw come to fruition.
Ena could barely feel the small tear rolling down her cheek.
“Mizuki…?”