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The teal-eyed young boy just finished packing his things, ready to head home. It was already late as the sun was already setting. He walks out towards the school gate, passing by a big sakura tree which was growing nearby the gate perimeter.
“Excuse me? Sousuke-kun”
Sousuke looks around, looking puzzled. Nobody.
“um, up here”
Sousuke looks upward into the tree branches. He knew that teary eyed young boy stuck up in a tree. Poor thing looked like he was stuck up there for quite a while.
“Just what are you doing way up there, Makoto?”
“Well, there was this cat was stuck up in the tree so I tried to help it… and then… um …I can’t get down. I’m scared”, Makoto starts crying.
Feeling irritated, Sousuke slowly walks away. Why should he do Haru’s work? Aren’t they quite close? Sousuke stops for a while and heads back.
“Makoto, where is Haru?”
Makoto didn’t answer, still crying badly. Clinging to the large tree branch for his dear life. Sousuke clicked his tongue and puts down his backpack. He then attempts to climb up the tree.
“Stop crying already. You’re so annoying!”
“s-Sousuke?”
“Stay there and wait for me, so stop crying already!”
“o..Okay”
Makoto wiped his tears and waited patiently and carefully watched as Sousuke slowly climbs up.
“Makoto, reach for my hand” told the teal-eyed boy.
“b-but I’m too scared! I’ll fall!!”
“Then don’t look down! Just keep your eyes on me! I won’t let you fall!”
Makoto slowly reached to Sousuke’s hands. Sousuke tries to stretch a litter further so that Makoto can reach him, carefully shifting his weight. The branch didn’t look like it could hold up the weight of 2 young boys at the same time.
Crack!
Makoto started crying again, the branch he was on started give away to Makoto’s weight. Sousuke was starting to run out of options. Sousuke was only a few centimeters away from reaching the other boy.
“MAKOTO JUMP!”
“But I’m scared!”
“I promise I won’t let you fall! Just trust me already!”
Makoto swallowed hard, slowly he loosen his grip and reached out even closer to Sousuke. With a final hard kick he finally manages to grab hold of Sousuke’s arm and gets pulled in. He smiles with tears flowing from his eyes. He then clings hard to the tree trunk that Sousuke was clinging on to. Sousuke smiles back at him.
CRACK!
Both of the boys started to feel the whole tree is tilting… then more broken sounds to be heard as the tree began to tilt even further.
“MAKOTO, HOLD ON TIGHT” ordered the teal eyed boy as the tree began to break.
Both boys held onto each other as the tree fell. Full force of a few seconds, then as if time stopped. Sousuke slowly opened his eyes. Makoto was still clinging on to him. He slowly looks around and soon realizes their problem wasn’t that bad.
“Hey Makoto… Open your eyes”
“Is it ok now?”
“…take a look”
Makoto opened his eyes. The first thing he sees is Sousuke with a smug face. He looks around, the world was upside down. He looks above, the ground was probably just a foot away, the tree didn’t completely broke off. Both of then jumped off onto the ground safely and started giggling.
“Sousuke-kun… Thank you! You’ve kept your promise!”
Makoto smiled at Sousuke with the sweetest angelic smile ever, which Sousuke imprinted deep in his mind. His hear probably skipped a beat. The next day people would be wondering why the sakura tree near Sano Elementary School broke in such a weird way…
___
Coffee? Check. Swim gear? Check. Now to head off to therapy session at the university gym. Sousuke takes the route passing through the sakura grove. It was early spring and the trees barely even started budding. He jogs at steady pace. Nobody was around since it was way far too early for someone to be awake on a Sunday morning. Yep, complete solitude.
“Excuse me. Could you please help me, Yamazaki-kun?”
Sousuke looked up. His eyes came into contact with a emerald eyed angel stuck up in a tree. Sousuke sighed, placed down his bags and then started to climb the tree. He reaches out his hand to Makoto.
“…Tachibana, somehow I felt like this has happened before.”