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Nothing can surpass the ultimate freedom and freshness of the racing wind when spring blossoms. The flowers bloomed right through his peripheral vision. Maki can smell each petal. They trail and linger in vivid colors as Maki circles the world. Even when dusk is near, planning to make everything that blossoms turn just in a brief moment of waiting. Maki could not stop thinking about it as he raced against the brazen opposite flow of the current with his cadet blue bicycle.
They rush and hit him with absolute coolness on the forehead, which is drenched in sweat. His hair dances through the ambiguous rhythm like crashing waves without a shore to stop and meet. Maki’s hair has outgrown itself. The wind highlights the outlines of his long, dark strands of beautifully messy hair. He had no time to go anywhere else on his bicycle. Not when there is the whole ground and horizon to view, conquer, and breathe into with all the wind swarming around Maki.
It feels never-ending. His journey had a start, but yet, no ending in sight. It always starts with Maki’s bicycle parked in the garage. Not exactly parked, but it is somewhere lying like a dead body inside the garage of his house. Maki himself felt like a walking corpse. Until he touches the metal and rubber of his cadet blue bicycle. Two dead make one big life. Maki’s eyes lit up. His soul was lit up, too. A wide-eyed soul who wants to venture to the blue sky with clouds opening him up into new worlds. It was like this ever since he got that bicycle on his first birthday in high school. Maki could not just settle anymore.
The path he chose to cycle through was not chosen at all. Maki felt destined for wherever his feet cycled. Maki is young and impulsive. Despite all the reckless things his youth has made him do, throughout all his youth, he wishes that he could decide something for himself. Nothing has ever restrained him. But nothing has also given him true freedom. What path does he want to pursue?
Maki could not even choose the path he wanted to cycle through like a sane person. Even if the course he cycles through is just unpaved dirt, mud, and wild vines and is full of vermin roaming around freely, he gets through it all. Maki gets through all the paths he must cycle past for no reason and almost no sanity. Tiny scratches get plastered into his face. He’s most susceptible to getting one under his eyes. Just one more centimeter, and he will never get to see the blueness of the sky he once remembered. The dry, old, and sharp brown branches hit his face very often. Sometimes, people with the biggest and brightest pupils forget the beauty of their crystal-clear vision.
All the people older than him say that time will reveal all the answers. The coming of age will be the peak where he can finally decide for himself. Maki has not found a purpose for himself. There are no signs and, therefore, no real directions. So he lives like a streak of wind going against the strong current. He lives freely without an exact direction. Because at the end of every path, nobody is there to warmly embrace and greet him. Like a prize for the finish line. But there was never a finish line for Maki. It was just going full circle back home and turning around to go back home.
There was no comfort in knowing such familiarity. Knowing that the seeming end and start line are the same place, home, why not try going through any random lanes around town? No matter how dangerous and unknown, or mundane and dull. Time was only there so Maki could cycle however long he liked.
Only a few days ago, exactly two days ago, on the first day of spring break, Maki had a cut under his left eye. He wore a small bandage just because his mom kept pestering him with care and concern. That cut did not stop him from going through the same shortcut around the forest over and over again. For a few days, Maki was quite lucky. Perchance, not caring has made him lucky for a few days. No new cuts have hit his face anymore. So far, it's like a hidden lucky clover is hiding somewhere in his hair. His arms received the pain of cuts from thin but deadly brown branches instead, like always.
"Looks like I'm passing you by again," he mutters to himself as if he can keep his eyesight and look again if he keeps going through deadly branches. This time, with a blue shirt, beige vest, and brown trousers.
Once again, Maki cycles through the road by the forest. It is a strangely special shortcut, instead of going through the main road. Sometimes tourists like to go there to hike at dawn. Maki cycles with a thin smile. His butt gets sore and tired from sitting down for a long period of time. He starts cycling harder while standing.
Usually, at this moment, the heroine would look straight to the front with the biggest grin that challenges the setting sun. Maki did not feel anything strong. His thin smile disappears into a face that only feels indifferent to everything that goes around him. The world is not tied to not revolve around him, and he does not want to be bound to revolve around the earth
For a brief moment, he forgets about the thin and sharp branches right around the height he’s standing. The sharp edge of the brown tree branch stings his skin. It sinks briefly to the frontmost layer of his skin, then tears it into one medium-length cut right under his eye and right above his small bandage that is hiding his previous wound. Maki winces in pain. It was almost life-threatening for his left eye. This is the closest cut he got to his eye.
“Shit, it really hurts,” Maki curses. He looks back at the forest he is leaving behind, then looks back at his front, back to the main road. “At least I am not inside that damned forest anymore.” His eyes squint with the most excellent focus that comes after pain.
He tightens his grip on his bicycle handles. The foam of the handles has the softest gel inside them. It comforts Maki’s palms, which have their fair share of pain from rough textures. If it is still hard to tell, Maki falls off his bike often. Not because he lost control of the bicycle, but because he had no full control over other external factors as he strode along the road. Such as rough and big pebbles, and hills that go down to valleys without warning.
Even with how many curses the forest receives from Maki, the birds always continue to perform the best elegy for Maki during his afternoon to evening cycles. He likes to curse that forest to his heart’s content. Though that will never stop Maki from cycling through that unknown road ever again. His left arm starts throbbing and getting pumped too much rush of blood from his heart. Maki thinks of stopping for a while. He is not far away from home; no, it is just a few blocks away from where he is now. A peaceful residential suburb that can get lively at times. He does need to catch his breath before it looks like he’s crying red blood.
Before he could pull the brakes and go to a stop for a short break, a tiny golden retriever puppy giddily strutted into the middle of the road. Maki panics and yelps at the sudden and unexpected cute disturbance on the road. He pulls the handles of his bicycle’s brakes abruptly. Maki swears that pulling the brakes suddenly results in him doing somersaults mid-air with his bicycle. His life was taken and flew into the ether for a split second. Then he hit reality hard against the black and crummy asphalt.
All the bones in Maki’s body feel broken and in pain. His ears start ringing, and his head is throbbing violently. Now, he is lying on the asphalt road in a fetal position. His eyes feel like bleeding again. Oh, no. It is just tears swelling up and coming down slowly from the ends of his eyes, making his eyes puffy. Making the cut right under his left eye puffy. His cut did not have to hit the asphalt so roughly, thankfully, with the littlest thanks there is. His right face must look like a mess.
“Ruko! Haruko!” A voice shouts out. Possibly the owner of the golden retriever puppy, shouting the name of that little rascal. The voice sounds like a young boy, someone who is about Maki's age as well.
Maki wanted to grunt, but embarrassingly choked and coughed instead. In the situation he is in, it is nothing but embarrassing. Just lying helplessly on the street is awkward and unseemly. But when he tries to move, he stays helpless. He looks like a clown, doing everything to move but staying unmoving and indifferent.
That damned dog, Haruko, is sitting right in front of Maki with his tongue out. Maki can hear his whimpers. Suddenly, the dog leans closer to him and licks the cut under his left eye. Maki winces but somehow feels a bit better after Haruko licks away the dirt at the tip of his nose. Maki chuckles coarsely.
“Oh, you poor little thing,” the voice says again with a pout and a playful tone as he parades while skipping closer to Maki. His skipping footsteps echo in Maki’s ringing ears. His playfulness almost sounds like mockery to Maki’s ears. With the situation Maki is lying helplessly in, he should not take anything to heart so easily.
More things happened. The boy went near Maki and spoke a few more words. Maki cannot remember everything that happened. His head is throbbing vigorously, his ears are ringing and deafening all syllables to be incomprehensible, and his lips are dry and partly open. His whole body is aching. Maki’s eyes are only a millimeter from closing as his cut keeps stinging in spiky pain.
But in all that pain, he can feel the boy's tender touch as he fixes the bangs blocking his eyes neatly. He can see the boy in a blur. Maki’s eyes are teary after all. The boy said something like a magic incantation that puts a blanket of comfort around Maki to make him close his eyes and live unconsciously for the next long hours. Though those words only sounded like slurring words, Maki could never say anything back with his eyes closed. His whole body is shut down. The calming peace of passing out and sleeping after tremendous pain and injuries is like heaven for the reckless.
𓇢𓆸
Is this truly how spring feels? Where all the flowers of florid, abounding in colors, turn the breezy days into vibrant moments to keep forever as multicolored memories. Taki opens the door to his home. The creaking door was then greeted by the blast of the spring breeze. The whisk cools him in a lukewarm way. Taki beams at all the colors he can see. Birds sing, whistle, and shout about their arrival and departure. They borrow—no, they take your twigs and leaves from your overgrown plants on your porch. Adults do not mind. Their attention is not set on the sensible beauty of the world through different seasons anymore. They are busy reading the newspaper they received in the morning or mowing their lawns with their teenage sons. This could build them a home.
This could build us a home. Spring is home for everyone. For children’s kites to have their last dance with the whimsically romantic setting sun. When the kite falls, children are willing to race all the way to the woods to retrieve their kites from tall branches. Being young means having a ridiculously spectacular will. Taki has never lost that young spirit in him, even as he grows into a youth, a teenager. Being a youth is a warning that your final moments as a child and as a teenager are only a few breaths away. So keep reminding yourself to take the longest breaths you possibly can.
Sometimes, children’s kites would fall on his balcony. Just like the one right now. A blue and yellow butterfly kite was flying marvelously. The butterfly was having a stunning rendezvous in the sky. Perhaps distracted by a flower in the form of Taki, the blue and yellow butterfly falls on his balcony on the second floor. Taki giggles with his eyes closed. He turns around and enters his home once again. He trots up the stairs and runs to the second floor. Taki slides his glass door and steps onto the balcony.
The wind is not as free as you think. Their currents cannot make U-turns, and you have no way to control where they whisk and cool the sweat around your neck. That is why controlling and playing with kites is the mastery and art of controlling what you can in life. Such control will not stay permanent, even from within oneself. The world goes beyond our own selves. All and every kite will fall at wherever gravity pulls them.
Taki was a kite runner throughout his childhood. He is enthralled by running to wherever the kite leads him. He must be the first to discover it, and he always was. That was the biggest achievement a little kid like him could have. Chasing after something definite in an inexact place sends an unexplainable adrenaline rush that Taki sincerely enjoys.
When a kite is pulled by gravity to fall with grace on his balcony, Taki takes his trivial task of pushing it off and returning the kite to its rightful owner very seriously, with all his playfulness. Even if it is just a short run to his balcony, he is always greeted by the feelings of elation and the smell of the aromatic fragrance of plants he took care of by himself. His balcony is not a home to these fallen kites; the blue sky is their rightful home. His balcony is already a home for a harbor of diverse yellow flowers—Japanese roses, arctic poppies, sunflowers, marsh marigolds, and daffodils.
“Gotcha!” He points at the butterfly kite with excitement and giggles.
Butterflies loved Taki's yellow poppies the most. Too bad that this butterfly is too big to hang around his mini garden. Taki untangles the kits from suffocating the stems of his freshly bloomed yellow poppies with a soft smile. He grabs the kite and then looks below while holding it high.
"Here's your butterfly, little one!" he yells with amusement at the children hanging around and waiting in front of his house.
"Thank you, big brother! Can you drop it to me, please?" One of them yells. A boy with a long green sweater. He is the oldest among them.
"Of course! Passing it onto you." Taki winks, then drops the kite delicately to fall with grace back into its owner's tiny hands.
He opens the glass sliding door gently. He hums as he walks back into his house. He turns around and closes it back, remembering to lock it. He must have forgotten to lock it previously after watering his yellow flowers in the morning. Taki hurries off to go back to the first floor.
Woof!
The house has been very quiet for a while, with just Tak,i until this familiar sound of the dog he loves must come; it is, "Haruko! You took quite a long nap, did you not?"
Taki crouches down and pets his dog's fluffy little head, Haruko. Haruko is a golden retriever puppy, just like Pompompurin. He's still a few months old and looks very cute and plump. Taki got this golden retriever as a spring present. He is really thankful for his mother's thoughtful gift: Haruko. Taki plays with Haruko's ear,s flopping.
"Boing, boing," Taki whispers as he plays with his puppy's floppy ears. Haruko turns sulky and nibbles his owner's pointed finger. "Oww, sorry, Haruko." He immediately pulls his hands back to himself.
Woof! (It's okay, I still love you.)
Taki chuckles. He picks up Haruko and then hugs him, putting him on his firm shoulder. "Love you too, my spring child," he whispers and kisses his so-called child in the form of a golden puppy. They really are father and son with the same yellow (dyed hair) and golden hair.
He holds Haruko in the sky with his two hands. "Let's go out!" he exclaims. Taki gently puts Haruko back on the floor.
Woof! (Race you!)
Haruko runs with his tiny legs and fast speed to the door. Taki skips happily to the door, opening it for his darling puppy son. "What a windy afternoon," he whispers to himself as he locks the door behind him.
The golden retriever puppy takes his sweet time walking down the stairs. Taki waits patiently. Instead of helping, he should encourage Haruko to take his little steps. There are only three steps to Taki's door, but it's taking almost more than five minutes. After all, time is endless when spring air lingers everywhere. Especially the fragrant aroma of his legion of flowers growing and blooming in his modest garden lawn at the front yard.
Cheerful flowers such as wallflowers, bluebells, peonies, hydrangeas, hyacinths, petunias, primroses, and crocuses bloom beautifully this season. When discussing spring, we can never let go of the beauty of cherry trees. A delicate pink weeping cherry tree grows gracefully in the middle of his front yard. Haruko runs to the left side of the tree. Taki walks to the right side and meets his puppy in the middle. They strut calmly. Taki unlocks his house's wooden gate and opens their way to the street. He turns his back on Haruko, trusting that he will be fine around the neighboring street, unlocking the wooden gate to keep his garden safe and secure from any unwanted guests.
“Agh!” A voice yelps. Taki almost jumps from the sudden noise of someone near who is most possibly in need of immediate help.
Woof! (What the heck?)
"Ruko! Haruko!" Taki shouts out for his golden puppy son as a fatherly instinct, turning around to head to the street.
Then he sees a boy his age with dark hair and wearing a green plaid shirt on his blue cadet bicycle in the ether. It is Maki, but Taki does not know him. Taki stood in awe, stunned. Until the terrible, awful sound of the boy crashing alongside his bicycle against the asphalt makes him wince in shared pain, too.
Woof! (C'mere!)
It turns out that Haruko is just fine. He is sitting calmly in front of the hurting boy. Haruko licks Maki's face, and he does not complain. It is not like he can complain about the situation he is in any way. Taki can see that Maki is still capable of moving a little and still breathing. He is still alive. Taki sighs in relief. He skips happily to the middle of the road to check on the young teenage boy.
"Oh, you poor little thing." He pouts.
He crouches down to the ground and lifts up Haruko into his loving arms. He kisses Haruko's cheek deeply, then lays him gently on the ground again. "Go, wait in front of the gate. I have to help this poor little thing out," Taki orders Haruko, who nods in return and sprints to the front of his master's gate.
Woof. (I'll wait here.)
A soft hiss of wind from the woods hits them. Taki looks closely at the foreign-looking boy. He checks all the bruises around the boy's body. His heart begins to hurt, too. The boy's two pairs of eyes are still partly open. "Just close your eyes and rest. I'll take care of you."
He petted Maki's head softly, who could only respond with a muffled sound. He probably does not even know what he is trying to say. Taki fixes his messy bangs that were previously neat but got ruined by the wind again. Maki's bangs cover his own tired and closed eyes, and they poke at his own cut. Taki tucks them neatly.
Strength is something all boys have. Might is what most boys have. A caring heart is what they truly need. So with all his strength, Taki carefully lifts Maki with his might and consideration in bridal style. Maki's left hand hangs around Taki's shoulders. Taki carries Maki through and through the locked gate and doors. Haruko follows them, too. Once they reach the living room, he silently naps on his cushioned bed.
Upon arrival in his homely sanctuary, Taki lays Maki gently on the big yellow leather couch in the living room. He wipes the injured boy's face. A face so dirty and bruised after hitting the asphalt, especially the right side of his face. Taki pulls away the old band-aid and sees Maki's cut healed, but leaving a visibly blurred scar that will be gone after some time. The cut above it looks very raw and recent. It shouldn't be a big deal, only a normal cut with pain that is brief enough to hold.
The rest of the visible body parts are also cleaned by Taki with wet wipes. He takes off Maki's shoes and socks. Taki gives antiseptics to his injuries as well. He checks Maki's temperature. They are normal. The injured boy's breathing and heartbeat are also steady, thankfully. But his clothes are dirty. Taki is hesitant to touch the stranger's shirt, let alone take it off.
Instead, he takes one of his shirts and trousers fresh from the laundry, a red graphic shirt and short green trousers. He then places it neatly on the table right beside the couch Maki is sleeping on. They must be around the same size, an educated guess by Taki. He sits on the wooden table, facing the boy he just met. He looks at him with concern painted in his eyes, the same eyes that are usually overjoyed and rarely witness unfortunate events. He sighs, growing a bit stressed. How can someone know how to take care of a sick teenager who is a complete stranger? Taki places a blanket with a sunflower pattern over Maki and hopes for the best.
𓇢𓆸
An enchanting melody is coming from a hum. Maki is captivated by the voice, waking up slowly and steadily from his slumber. He sits comfortably on the royal blue sofa with a small and soft pillow on his lap. Maki looks at the coffee table and sees a tea that is ready to be served. Then his 'stranger danger' alarm rings as he continues to hear someone’s hum. It is most likely the homeowner. Well, who else? He sounds like a man—no, a young boy.
Maki looks around the living room. The walls are painted yellow, and he’s glad that not all the furniture and decorations are yellow too. That kind of indoor home design would have been an eyesore. The hum from the presumed young boy gets closer to the living room. It’s coming from the right, which is the kitchen, probably. Maki holds his pillow tighter.
He tries to think about who the homeowner is. It could be anyone living around this street, obviously. Maki looks at the pillow. Then he uncontrollably sneezes. He’s used to bicycling through even the coldest season, when the draft is cold or when it is snowing moderately. He then realizes that there is so much golden fur sticking to the pillow.
Oh, it’s most likely the owner of that damn dog.
Haruko runs to Maki at full speed, jumping up to the sofa. The whimsical puppy wags his tail and walks up to the pouting boy's lap. Instinctively, Maki's face, which was filled with mild contempt, softens into a giggling face as he pats Haruko's fluffy golden head. The affectionate desire to coddle and cuddle the golden retriever puppy came naturally to him. He even knows that dogs love to be scratched under the ears the most. Haruko closes his eyes, drowning in all the endorphins and channeling them to the boy as well.
To show him how much he relishes the adoration, Haruko licks Maki's cheek. The boy just grins wider, and his dimples appear. With curiosity, Haruko likes the unique patterned texture. It's different from his owner's round and plump cheeks.
“I won't let you out alive if you make Ruko like you more than me,” Taki says from the corner of the room. He doesn't even realize how menacingly weird he sounds.
Maki's smile drops in an instant. He stops petting Haruko, freezing in this bizarre situation he is in. The puppy turns around and barks once at his owner in the most delighted tone. Maki notices it and loosens one thin layer of his guard down. He looks at Taki with a clenched jaw, analyzing him and thinking hard about all the things he doesn’t know about this strange boy, just the fact that he’s the owner of this puppy, presumably named Ruko.
“Instead of looking at me like I’m such an outlandish oddball, you seriously should be showing your utmost gratitude to me,” Taki says as he takes silent steps closer towards Maki.
“What—”
“You fell from your bike, and I swiftly rescued you. I tended to your wounds, too. I even let you hold Haruko as emotional support!” Taki exclaims as he points out Ruko, who's enjoying Maki's belly rubs. The boy doesn't even realize that he is instinctively and automatically rubbing Ruko's belly.
“If anything, you should be looking at me with glassy eyes, like an angel who just saved you.” Taki crosses his arms and pouts.
Maki becomes flabbergasted, and his jaw drops for a few seconds. “Did a few loose screws fall from your head? You’re talking like you just saved me from a car crash. I could manage myself on my own just fine because it was just a simple accident of falling off from the bike.”
“Funny, I’ve never seen anyone literally doing parkour in the air just to fall from his bike.”
“Geez, it’s literally because of your silly puppy, Ruko or something, suddenly running off to the middle of the road.”
Ruko yelps at the mention of his name in a negative tone. He gets off of Maki's lap and leaps towards Taki. The blond boy gets on the floor and caresses his sweet puppy, looking into those puppy eyes.
Immediately, Taki gets defensive when it comes to his one and only son. “Hey! It’s not my little Ruko’s fault—”
“Damn right, ‘cause it’s the owner’s fault who fails to train his months-old puppy and lets him roam around a busy road. Don’t you know that thousands of road accidents happen every day?” Maki's annoyance grows exponentially based on how increasingly ragebaiting Taki's responses are.
Taki gasps dramatically. “Don’t let my precious Haruko hear that! He’s growing up just fine.” He cups and closes Ruko's small ears, shielding him away from all the rough and sharp words of the world.
“It’s a male dog?” Maki asks curiously.
“Yeah, why are you so concerned? You're not his vet,” Taki snickers.
Maki shakes his head, “Oh, nothing. I'm just a bit surprised because his name sounds quite feminine: Haruko.”
“Do you have a problem with how I name my dog?” Taki raises an eyebrow
“Well, no—”
“That's good, then!” He ends the argument right then and there before Maki could give any reason to justify his assumption. Then, Taki points at the clothes on the black coffee table. “Now, you should go take a shower. I've selected my clothes, fresh from the laundry, for you to change into. And don't worry, it's a bit oversized for me, so it should fit just fine for you.”
“Thank you,” Maki murmurs. The other boy feels like it’s lacking true sincerity, but he was quite pleased with the seemingly forced gratitude. “But this doesn't erase the fact that I still think you're a creep. I just don't want to argue with the likes of you right now.”
“You'll regret saying that.” Taki clicks his tongue. “Because I know you'll always be indebted to me.”
“Whatever, creep.”
Maki grabs the clothes with blatant annoyance, crumpling the smooth fabric like a scratch paper. Taki just shakes his head. It’s always easy to plainly refrain from his anger towards someone who’s visibly acting immature. The vexation will pipe down soon like soothing water running through the hair and cooling the mind during an agreeable shower.
𓇢𓆸
The shampoo falls on Maki's hair, and he massages his scalp. It smells just like lavender. He has never stopped and sniffed the fragrant flowers, even though it’s the vivid and colorful spring. The first time he had ever smelled the flowers was when he went into this house, the outlandish oddball’s house. His words, not mine, Maki thought.
Today is not like any other normal day during Spring break. Despite this short break to enjoy the time by spending it with friends, he never allocated the time on his hands to do so. After all, Maki has no close friends. To avoid feeling such pain that hurt his boyish ego, Maki cycled through his bike by himself. So, for the first time in these lonely days, though he won’t admit that he is, He finally found himself a new acquaintance. Still, Maki doesn’t feel quite eager to be more deeply and closely acquainted with Taki, finding the boy quite bizarre to his taste.
As he thinks more about the boy, Maki realizes that Taki smells just like the liquid soap he’s rubbing and scrubbing all over his body. It’s honey mixed with a woody scent. He has not familiarized himself with the art of fragrance. He enjoys bicycling through the woods or running through hills and valleys, but he lacks a sense of curiosity and calmness to stop and observe the intricate details of nature around him, letting all of it overwhelm and consume his senses. Of course, he would. It’s his own soap! Maki catches himself thinking without common sense, shaking his head. Whatever, it smells good…
After finishing his shower and wearing the clothes from Taki that surprisingly fit, Maki gets out of the bathroom and hears Taki humming a melody again from the living room. He walks closer, then stops just five steps behind Taki, who’s sitting on his comfortable yellow sofa. Taki began singing a few words, and Maki listened attentively.
The damp spring’s epilogue
The restless state of my heart
These days without clear skies
Blur your silhouette
Then he continues humming again. Maki listened even more deeply, as if his heart was enchanted and lured to hear more of the story of the song. It’s still around the end of March, so Spring is still many flowers away from its epilogue. Yet, here is Taki, singing about an inevitable ending of the season. So far through this verse, the song does not exactly sound heartbreaking, but it is quite melancholic. Perhaps too melancholic for a season as delightful as spring.
“How did you like the first verse?” Taki asks after abruptly ending his humming.
Maki was startled at Taki addressing him without any cues beforehand. “Wait, how? Um, how did you know I was behind you?” He stutters.
“Well, I could smell the pungent honey mixed with sandalwood tingling right behind my ears. It smells marvelous, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, yes. You smell marvelous,” Maki utters. Crimson pink colors start creeping to his ears and cheeks, embarrassed and shocked at himself. “Um, hold on. I mean, what I meant was: Your soap has a pleasant scent. Which in turn, of course, makes you smell, as you said, marvelous.”
Taki chuckles with a sweet smile. “I’m glad that you agree with me, then, stranger.”
“My name’s Maki. And you are?”
“Taki. We’ve had the most agreeable meeting, indeed.”
“Alright, Taki. I’m glad that I can call you something agreeable now instead of just calling you the Creep.”
“Hey, am not! That’s just not fair when I literally saved you,” Taki grumbles and punches at his sofa.
“Are we really going to argue about this all over again? I really won’t extend it this far.” Maki shrugs and puckers his lips.
“Someday, you will apologize to me. It’s not now and not so soon with that bruised ego of yours, but I believe you'll be mature enough someday.” Maki rolls his eyes, then shakes his head, realizing that he just proved to Taki about his immense immaturity.
“Let’s talk about something else. You were asking me about that little verse you just sang, right?” Taki nods enthusiastically. Maki walks closer and sits next to Taki on the sofa together. “I liked the tune, and the lyrics are enchanting. It’s like a feeling of nostalgia, but not in the inherent meaning of sadness. It’s like there is hope that’ll be drawn even clearer as you progress through the song. Have you finished the song?”
“Unfortunately, not yet. It’s still a work-in-progress, but I feel quite stuck on the first verse.”
“It’s good. Spring isn’t ending anytime soon; this song is too early.”
“But it will. It’s impending.”
“You sound like you’re scared by the end. There will always be next year for the same season.”
“I want to finish it before I abandon it. Because by next year, it won’t only be the song that’s abandoned. The flowers that blossom at this present time will wilt by the end of the year, and new ones will cover the dead roots and leaves.” Taki sighs. “If I could, I’d finish it now.”
“Just take one day at a time. You can do it, Taki,” Maki encourages. It might just be the first positive thing he says to that name.
Taki’s face lights up at the mention of his name. “Thanks, really.” He grows shy as he thanks Maki, looking below at his lap, fidgeting with his fingers.
“Why are you in such a rush to finish the song? Maybe when it’s finally the epilogue of spring, you can look around and gain inspiration,” Maki suggests.
“I want to sing the song to the epilogue of spring, not when that imminent time finally appears. So I want to finish it now and sing it later, not finish it later to sing it next time.”
“I suppose that I can’t debate with your passionate decision. That’s how all artists are like, are they?”
“You can say that, at least for me.”
“Okay, Mr Oddball. I can’t wait for your song.” Maki pats Taki’s shoulder twice.
“You’ll be the first to hear, Mr Fall-Off-My-Bicycle. Is that what you like to do? Bicycling all day?”
“Yeah. And again, you can’t blame me for falling off my bicycle.”
Suddenly, Haruko barks at him out of nowhere. The puppy’s name feels implicated in an indirect accusation right from Maki’s statement. Haruko runs to them from the kitchen, then stands between the two boys’ legs. Taki pets his puppy and glares at Maki.
“Oh, sorry, Ruko. You could do no wrong.” Maki joins the petting session. Their hands brush off each other sometimes, and it sends mild jolts to his nerves, for some reason. He looks over at Taki, but the other boy looks indifferent, too focused on petting Haruko.
“Tell me, Maki, where do you enjoy bicycling?” Taki asks.
“Anywhere where there’s nobody. To the woods, to hidden roads–unpaved ones, at least yet to be. Where there are lots of birds, wild grass, and plants I can’t identify.”
“Your friends enjoy going there, too?” He asks again, his curiosity never-ending.
“What?” Maki stops petting Haruko, but his hands still rest on top of the puppy’s head. Abruptly, his hands clash with Taki. He instantly pulls his hand back to himself.
“Hm, I just figured you’d, you know, go with your friends. It’s spring break! Everyone’s enjoying themselves happily with cordial togetherness,” Taki elaborates.
“No, I don’t.” Maki gulps. Growing a bit frustrated by all these jabbing questions that lead him to even more accumulating self-pity.
“You don’t go with them because they don’t want to? Or you don’t have friends?” Taki is still petting Haruko, not thinking much of the questions he spews lightheartedly.
“Are you really just going to play with me for the whole day?” Maki says agitatingly in one breath.
Taki stops petting Haruko. “Huh? I don’t quite understand what you mean.” He tilts his head in confusion.
“Darn it, sorry. I don’t exactly feel like myself right now. A bit sensitive, I don’t even know why.” Maki takes a deep breath and sighs heavily.
“Everyone can be quite sensitive, that’s totally alright.” Taki’s knee nudges Maki’s softly. “I was only asking that because if you have no friends, or your friends are very uninterested in joining you for bicycling, then we should be friends.”
“Really?” Maki raises his left eyebrow.
“I really am for real.”
Taki smiles, offering his right hand to the front. Maki shakes it, smiling back. For their first sign of friendship, they have tea together, peppermint. Maki dislikes it just like the way he doesn’t enjoy mint chocolate; They taste just like toothpaste but made edible through black magic. Still, he tries to be amiable and thankful to Taki’s generosity.
After a friendly time together, warmed by tea, they finally prepare to bid each other farewell. Taki is standing in front of his door along with Haruko, and Maki is already standing over with his blue bicycle by his side. Haruko barks twice, the two syllables for saying ‘goodbye.’
“I’ll see you again tomorrow,” Taki says and proposes at the same time.
“Huh?” Maki narrows his eyes and tilts forward.
“We’re gonna bicycle together tomorrow, are we not? We should go through all your paths so I can help you identify and learn the plants together. It’ll be a good journey for both of us,” Taki explains.
“Make it three. Haruko’s got lots of energy to spend an adventure with us.” Maki winks. “I’ll pick you guys up around the same time. Bye, Taki!”
“Bye, Maki!” Taki waves at his newfound friend until he’s out of sight.
When the birds are flying with their joyful song, the flowers bloom with beautiful colors, the fruits are ripe to be plucked right from the tree, and the breeze blows to lead you to where you must go, that is only the prologue of spring.