Recommended listening to...
🎵Hotaru by Maiko Fujita🎵

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Another morning comes by. Same sun in the sky, same leaves on the same trees; and midst of all these, Natsuki's mom asks her to feed the cat again.

"Aw, mom! Can't you do it yourself?" she whines, unwilling to go outside.

"Weren't you going to meet up with Yukio-kun today? You can feed it on your way there." she insists.

Natsuki groans, still unwilling, but agrees to do as asked.

The furin- japanese wind chime bell -that is hanging above Natsuki's head as she sat on the porch, chimes, converting the wind into sound.

As much as it helps ease the mind on a hot summer day, these bells have cultural importance as well. When wind caresses the paper hanging from the clapper of the bell, it causes the clapper to collide with the side of the bell and it produces a clear, cool and calming sound, pleasing the ears.

With the heat of August on its peak, all Natsuki wants to do is lie down under a big shady tree near the river but there's something else she needs to do today.

Meeting with Taehyung.

She gets up in a heartbeat as soon as the thought of seeing him crosses her mind. If she doesn't get up right now, she would be running late.

"Mom, I'll take the cat food and Kei with me. I'm going to the shrine on the hill." she makes her way into her room to get dressed in a light clothing that will keep her cool.

"Don't forget your hat, Suki." her mom reminds her and follows her outside, handing the can of cat food to her.

"Okay," she quickly grabs kei's belt, tightening it around his neck on her way out and takes off onto the burning street.

The sun, for sure, feels like it is burning the concrete beneath her feet as she walks. Only the trees above her head makes it bearable.

"Yukio!" she yells, standing in front of his house.

"Give me a minute," he replies, yelling back.

"Kei, please, behave today, okay?" Natsuki looks down on her feet where Kei silently pants, looking ahead like an innocent puppy he is!

"Sorry, Yeontan was throwing a tantrum." Taehyung steps out, his hair tousled and messy but at least his clothes are presentable and Yeontan is resting on his hands.

"What happened to you?" Natsuki can't help but laugh at his appearance, "Wait, why are you bringing Yeontan with you? I told you that Kei will be coming with us, right?" she was at a loss of words.

"Eh? You told me that you will bring Kei with you so I thought that was a sign for me to take Yeontan with us as well...?" his words ended with a question mark, not sure anymore.

Natsuki facepalms. Taehyung has misunderstood it all.

"Um, so, should I leave him home?" Taehyung asks, ready to go back in.

"No, no, it's alright now." Natsuki stops him.

"Let's just go." she fixes the hat on her head and starts walking.

Taehyung notices the can in her hand and asks, curious, "What is it for?"

"Oh, mom asked me to feed the cat on our way." she turns around to glance at him.

They stop at the corner of the street ending where the ginger coloured cat is usually found.

She looks around for it, waiting for the cat to show up. Usually when she has to feed it, the cat shows up soon after she reaches there.

And there it is! The cat mews its way down from the veranda next to them, jumping down from the wall.

Natsuki opens the sealed can, putting it down as the cat circles around her feet, not getting scared of Kei.

Taehyung chuckles amusingly at the irony.

Soon the cat starts eating, swaying its tail in an elegant manner. No one would tell that it's a stray cat.

"Done! Let's go. Natsuki gestures him as they walk down the street towards the small hill.

Taehyung remembers the last time he had been there, the same path welcomes him, the memories flooding back in.

It hasn't been that long but the sound of ocean waves hits his ears and he feels nostalgic for some reason.

Natsuki hums a tune on their way. Taehyung can't listen very clearly as she is walking ahead of him as always but it sounds calming. He walks closer to her, trying to get her words.

"In the middle of the rainy season,
It's raining today"

He listens closer and finds himself smiling at her small voice. Not because he knows what she is singing, but, her voice under the heating sun of summer feels like a fresh breath of air or a gush of cool wind passing by.

"Lukewarm wind, quiet night road."

He, for a moment, feels like closing his eyes and listen attentively but he has to keep walking.

"The passing summer is near."

"Want to touch. Want to get."

"You are like this firefly."

"I still want it."

The words might not make much sense to his brain but the voice sure portrays a huge amount of emotion right onto his mind that keeps him wanting to listen more.

They climb the stairs and after a tiring but still cheerful walk, because of Natsuki's small humming, after quite a few minutes, they reach the top of the hill and the shrine comes in their view. She stops humming as they reach the end.

"Hello!" the kannushi, simply referred as a priest, walks upto them as they had just stepped inside the shrine grounds.

"Hello," they both bow down in respect to the elder and he smiles gently at them.

"It's rare to see kids coming here at this hour." The priest says.

"We were just here to pay a visit and walk our dogs around." Natsuki informs as the priest nods, understanding.

"Okay, take your time. I'll head inside to do some work." The priest goes inside as they bow a little again.

"There was no one here the last time we came, right?" Taehyung whispers into Natsuki's ear, leaning down towards her.

"It's soon the Obon Festival, so that might be the reason he is here, probably for some arrangements." Natsuki shrugs as taehyung nods.

He had heard about this festival before. Obon is the festival conducted in August. It is said that it's time for the deceaseds' spirits to return to their relatives to pay them a yearly visit.

This is also why it's considered  the ghost period. One rumer leads to another and it's become a big thing.

Taehyung puts Yeontan down on the ground and lets him run around.

Kei is securely with Natsuki and she isn't going to let him run around like last time only to end up in a same situation. The flashbacks still send shivers down her spine; if being a little dramatic.

"So, what were you going to tell me?" Taehyung asks, he walks around the shrine. Natsuki follows him.

"The cultural festival! As we compulsory have to participate in any one of the activities. I wanted to discuss and explain it to you." she sits down on the bench nearby, waiting for Taehyung to sit down as well.

Taehyung does as she gestures; sitting down on the bench.

The tree leaves are casting small shadows on them as they sit under the tree. The shadows sway and change shapes as the wind blows, rustling the leaves. It is strangely satisfying to a human eye.

"So, I was saying," Natsuki starts again, "this event is a public event. Many people will be coming to visit. People from other schools too. Some other school students will be participating too- that explains why Aki-kun and Haru-kun will be there -so we have to make sure not to make many mistakes." Taehyung takes everything in, processing in his mind.

She continues, "The teachers are too serious about it, it sometimes gets annoying and a pain in a- ah, I mean, irritating." she rolls her eyes, cracking Taehyung up at her attempt of hiding how she almost cursed.

"Some of the seniors of our school might attend it too." she decides to ignore his laugh and moves on. "So the point is, our class has to either perform a play or dance performance or transform our classroom into a café or restaurant for those one or two days."

"That sounds fun!" Taehyung exclaims.

"It does!" she smiles.

"Since our school doesn't have any club activities, we divide these activities per class. Every class will have their own activity." she adds.

"Oh, so what are we doing this time?!" Taehyung's voice is excited which makes Natsuki happy for some reason.

"Most probably... a classroom café since we played a drama last year." she suddnly remembers something as her eyes light up. "It was so much fun, It was a typical drama but Fumiya-kun was playing as Romeo and can you guess who was the Juliet?" she is already on the verge of laughing her lungs out.

Taehyung smiles as he tries to think but he knows only a little about their classmates yet.

"It was Haru-kun. Interesting, right? The girl who was supposed to play as Juliet was sick and no one else agreed to take upon that role so we had no other option besides finding someone from the other school. It was pure chaos." she lets herself laugh now.

Taehyung laughs too, joining her.

His eyes suddnly catch a glimpse of very faint and small dent on the left side of her cheeks; a single, small, almost not noticeable dimple. He stops laughing, gently admiring as she laughs without a care in the world.

She gradually stops as well, leaving a ping of disappointment in Taehyung's heart as the dimple disappears in the smoothness of her skin, becoming one with her cheek.

"Yukio?" She tilts her head, "Is there something on my face?" she consciously touches her face.

"Oh? No, it's nothing." he panics, for the first time. And for the first time, he feels like he wants to hide his emotions right now. He feels exposed and that is something new to him.

She still doesn't look convinced so he speaks again.

"I- I was just looking at the pond. It's dry... how sad!" he changes the subject really quickly.

"Oh! That reminds me..." she turns to look at the pond as well and notices that Kei has escaped.

Oh, no!!

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