Chapter Text
"Himeko, I swear that I'll always love and protect you no matter what tries to separate us."
"If you ever want a shoulder to cry on, lean on mine."
"Red was always a boring colour to me, but after meeting you, it suddenly became my favourite."
3 knocks rhymes against the door of Himeko's house, slightly startling her and made her head perk up. "Himeko, can you get the door for me?", yells her mom from the kitchen. "Yes mom", she yells back. Maybe it's the hoard of designer bags mom bought the other day.
Himeko looks at the clock. It's 8:27 P.M. Sort of a late time to be delivering the goods though... What if some shady weirdo pops up and kidnaps me? Ugh, be calm, Himeko! You're 16, too young to be thinking this way.
Himeko reluctantly paces towards the door and slowly opens it. The person behind the door was not a shady weirdo, not a delivery man, but...
"Kafka?!" Himeko exclaimed, earning a "Who is at the door, Himeko?", in which her mother yelled from the kitchen again and peeking her head from behind the wall. "J-just a friend mom, don't worry about it!", she replies to her mother in a slightly panicking tone (and a lie), then looks back at Kafka who chuckled at the sight and whose hands are holding a bouquet of roses.
Kafka isn't even wearing any pajamas, she's wearing a white button up with black pants, a handsome and flashy look compared to Himeko's simple nightgown. Oh well, Himeko is quite pretty so she looks elegant in just a nightgown too. But why does Kafka look like she wants to take Himeko out on a dinner date? Maybe she actually wants to do that, but they're both broke teenagers, so that might have to wait.
"What are you doing here?" Himeko says as she crosses her arms above her chest, her eyes darting from Kafka's face to the bouquet of roses in her hands. "Who are these for...?", she asks. "For you, silly. It might seem like a basic gift, but I've wanted to gift you a bouquet of roses for a while now because I knew you liked them. Appreciate it?" Kafka says and lightly stretched her arms out, offering the bouquet to Himeko and smiling like a dumb idiot simply in love.
Himeko's cheeks get coloured with a light pink hue and her heart skips a beat, taking the bouquet from her hands. "Thanks. I guess...", she says, averting her eyes from Kafka's since she's never been a big fan of eye contact. Plus, she's inlove with a handsome weirdo, so that's that.
Kafka chuckles again. Her voice has always been imprinted inside Himeko's mind. It always rings in her ears every day, at school and outside of school. It's the same sound that she always hears in her dreams when Morpheus offers his arms for her to slumber in. "Do you not like the roses I gave you? Should I buy you another one, or something else?" Kafka says, putting her hands in her pockets and leaning against the door frame. She was slightly taller than Himeko, and the door lean just emphasized that.
"No, you don't have to. I do like it... It's just, why now? It's kind of late. You know you could always gift me something right after classes are over." Himeko shyly says, fixing her hair a bit with her free hand since her girlfriend is in front of her. Kafka keeps her foxy smile as she quietly admires the beauty of her red headed girlfriend, even when she's in a simple nightgown and even when she's fixing her hair. She's not obsessed, just devoted. Don't judge her.
"That shouldn't matter much, my star. I just like gifting you anything, at any time of the day, and any where I want. The time may be random and you may not like it, but I know you're always happy about the gifts. So don't be shy, I'm yours after all." Kafka stops leaning against the door and takes a step closer to Himeko. She grabs Himeko's hand and brings it up to her lips, kissing her knuckles.
Himeko's blush grows slightly more as her heart beats faster at the sudden contact. "You're so idiotic, you know that, right?", she flusteredly claims. "Only for you." Kafka replies, bringing Himeko's hand up to her face after kissing her knuckles, leaning into her touch as she still smiles at her. Himeko caresses her cheek with her thumb, then tip toeing slightly to lean in and give her a quick peck on the lips. "Right... Now go back home, it's late and we have school tomorrow." Himeko continues.
Kafka can only chuckle at her cute reaction, a small blush visible on her cheeks. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then, sweetheart. I love you." Himeko's embarrassed and frustrated face turns into something sweet, smiling at her girlfriend's simple "I love you".
She hugs her, face nuzzled in her chest as she replies back with a "I love you too". Kafka immediately returns her embrace with the same amount of warmth.
Puppy love is precious. It happens often to the youth. To elementary kids, and to teenagers as well.
You would think that the rose symbolising eternal love was a promise Kafka quietly made to Himeko, in hopes that she would notice. Well, it is. So what went wrong?
Kafka's parents were constantly arguing, to the point her mother was planning to bring her and move out of the state after she filed a divorce, wanting to leave her now ex-husband behind. One day after school, they were at a park. Himeko was constantly bugging her to tell her what was wrong, wishing Kafka would open up and tell her everything that was bothering her, Kafka could only get fed up with all the stress and exhaustion that built up within her, so she yelled at Himeko.
"Enough! You're just annoying me. You're doing nothing to help and you're just making it worse for me. If all you do is bug me, then just don't even try."
"What...? All I want is for you to tell me what's wrong, but you won't even bother! I'm trying to help you, I want to help you! Why are you moving out? What happened? Just tell me, please, so I can help you." Himeko desperately exclaims, feeling hurt by what Kafka had just said, but she still chooses to put her feelings first.
She wanted to be considerate of her, only for things to end up in a heated argument. They were constantly yelling at each other, with Kafka having the louder voice and words, Himeko only ended up running home crying.
"So what if we break up? That doesn't even matter to me. I'm forced to move out one way or another. You're just going to be another memory for me."
"Are you serious, Kafka? Just another memory?! I know you don't actually think that, so why can't you just be honest with me? Please, tell me. Let me help you, I don't want you to bottle up everything. If you can't tell me now, you can always tell me through text. We don't have to break up." Himeko cries out.
"That's where you're wrong. I don't have to tell you anything, because we wont see each other ever again. So stop trying, Himeko. I shouldn't matter to you anymore, not in this current state we're in."
The day is getting darker, the clouds are threatening to weep, and the thunders roars a warning, all while Himeko's heart shatters at that very moment. Not everything has to have a happily ever after, does it?
The next morning, Himeko woke up. She remembered the events that occured last night, and a bad headache was threatening to bash her skull open.
She walks out of her room and towards the door, opens it and sees that Kafka's house, which was across hers, was empty. Sort of. There was only one car. They had two. She went over to her house and tried to look over the gate by tip toeing, only to be met with Kafka's father sweeping some leaves that was outside of their house.
Seeing only one car and how little the stuff was left at their house that now only her father owns, already made a pit in her stomach, knowing fully that Kafka vanished from her life. Thinking that she'll never meet her again, she stops tip toeing over their gate and stalking Mr. Franz, Kafka's father who also looks like he's in a miserable and soulless state, she goes back to her house with her head hanging low, letting the despair quietly consume her.
She just didn't think how she'll actually meet her again in a few years, and that Kafka's words only fell on as lies that both of them could have never predicted.