Saturday, 21 July 2012

09.36 Local Time

Third Person Perspective

~~~

Blasting on the tops of the hundreds of kilometres of magnetic train tracks through the villages of Japan's countryside, a shinkansen train bound to Tokyo station bulleted through the air at unbelievable speeds.

Aboard that train, a woman and child were sitting on the window seat of the train. The child was enjoying the view of Mount Fuji outside the window while the older woman was reading a few cosmetic magazines.

Who were these two though, you might ask?

They were in fact Nobita's close relatives visiting him all the way from Fukuoka for a long summer holiday. The excitement bubbling from the 5-year-old girl sitting next to the window really translates well into her facial expression throughout the journey. God knows how much the girl has smiled throughout the journey...

"Mom! Mount Fuji looks beautiful!" This girl remarked as she pulled her mother's arm to divert her attention away from the magazine.

"Yeah! Mount Fuji does look beautiful, Aiko!" The mom said.

"You know what, mama... I can't wait to meet Nobita again!" Aiko stated, after returning her gaze towards her mom.

Her mom laughed while brushing her daughter's brown hair. "It's been a while since you've last seen him... You must have missed him so much by now."

It was indeed the case. Aiko (Yoshikawa, Aiko) has not seen her beloved cousin for almost two years by then. It doesn't seem like much to Aiko's mom, but to Aiko herself... two years is a long time not seeing a relative they loved.

So naturally, she would get really excited to know that she would finally be able to meet with her cousin.

"What does that train voice mean, mom?" Aiko's curious mind asked.

"Ah, the driver said that we're 20 minutes away from Yokohama." Her mom replied, "Which means that we're around 50 minutes away from our stop!"

"Yatta!!" She exclaimed in a joyous tone.

As the train barrelled through its track, carrying both Aiko and her mom in upmost comfort, over in Tokyo the boy Aiko was excited about was sitting in his room. The scorching temperature of the summer day effectively made his room into a gigantic oven, slowly cooking Nobita and Doraemon alive.

Both sought refuge in a small, old, dusty, and faulty tabletop fan with a broken swing mechanism. Nobita was completely topless, sitting right in front of the fan, yet his body was still completely drenched in sweat. Doraemon nervously checked his interior temperature to avoid overheating his internal components, otherwise unrepairable damage would occur.

"Can't believe how hot it is today..." Nobita weakly remarked.

"Yeah, true... I wish that it would rain soon." Doraemon added.

"It doesn't look like it will rain soon... not a cloud in the sky."

"I hope it did..."

That short, half-hearted conversation was a normal occurrence between them that day. There was no hate, or annoyance thrown at each other. But rather, the heat made them a little less productive.

However, the repetitive nature of their conversation soon came to an end after Nobita's cell phone rang. Nobita was not interested in picking the call up, mainly because he felt that walking towards his desk was equal to the distance that he had to take to walk to the school, while in reality, it was just a few meters away.

But soon, he got really annoyed by the ringtone of his phone that he finally decided to pick the call up. It was from Suneo and he knew well enough what Suneo was going to brag about, knowing that he was on a vacation in Paris.

He sighed as he accepted the call. "Hello, Suneo... 'sup?"

In his usual cheeky tone, Suneo replied, "Morning Nobita! How's Japan?"

The shirtless Nobita walked towards the window and rested his arms on the frame, replying to his friend's question as he enjoyed the little cold breeze that blew onto him. "It's hot... very hot. Not much else going on other than that."

"Well, good luck enjoying the heat there!" Suneo cheekily replied, in which Nobita took offense to.

"Hey, you're just gonna brag about the cold French weather you've got, right?" Nobita replied, with an answer which caught Doraemon completely off guard.

"Nobita-kun... He is in France, which is also in summer season..." Doraemon corrected. "I'd be surprised if you didn't actually know anything about this."

Nobita looked back towards his blue robotic cat, apparently showing no remorse to the obvious mistake that he has just did. He denied the fact that he did something wrong and acted like he'd known this fact beforehand.

"I-I know that..." Nobita said, before returning to his friend on the phone. "Anyways, you fox haired buffoon, how are things going there in Paris?"

"Ah well, it's not too good either. It has been raining since we arrived yesterday, and it's still drizzling lightly this morning." Suneo replied. "We aren't actually sure about our plans today, because of the rain."

"Huh, that's too bad. I wish we had that rain here." Nobita remarked as he rested both of his hands again on the railing of his window.

A short conversational pause happened between them, before Suneo broke the silence.

"By the way, Nobita... What's wrong with Suzy-chan?" He asked.

This caught Nobita by surprise. "What do you mean by 'what's wrong'?" Nobita asked. "She's just like what she's been acting all the time."

"No... I mean... She's been acting strangely nice to me as of late."

"Isn't that a good thing? You won't get your ass handed to you."

"I know, it's just quite baffling to me that it's happening. I mean, I would wake up to a series of insults randomly towards me for no reason. But I don't see it today."

"Suneo, are you liking that kind of thing? Are you a masochist?"

"No!! I mean... It's strange that it happened."

"Since when it has happened?"

"Well, everything starts off a few weeks ago...

~~~ Flashback in Suneo's POV ~~~

I was taking an afternoon walk around my backyard when I heard someone getting really annoyed at something. Because of the intense noise (and swearing) coming from there, it caught my attention as to what annoyed this person so much.

I looked to my right side, where my next-door neighbour (Suzume) lived. I took a small ladder and peered through the top of the separating walls that stood between our homes.

"Oi, Blonde Gorilla-chan... What are you doing?" I asked. "You're so loud."

Suzume (AN : He would have called her Suzy, but to make this narration simple I would use Suzume) was there, crouching down upon her unfinished garden. I would assume that she was doing some gardening work when I checked up upon her.

"What do you mean, bean sprout?! I'm doing this gardening work that my mom asked me to do." She replied whilst wiping some of the sweat off from her forehead.

Seeing that she was genuinely having a hard time doing that small patch of garden. I tried to soften my stance towards her.

"No, I mean.... You're getting too loud there. Do you need a hand?" I offered.

Her glaring gaze slowly dissipated, as the tension between us slowly got softer and softer. "W-what do you want?"

"I asked whether you needed help in the garden or not. Is there someone else home?" I offered.

"No, there is no one here at the moment." Suzume replied.

"Right... I can offer you a hand if you want. It looks like you had some sort of problem with the garden-"

"Nice one, Sherlock! You think I was doing this for fun?!"

"Please, I can't help you if you don't calm down, Suzume-san! Here's what I' m seeing is that you didn't harden your soil up properly from what I've seen here."

I did that just to make her believe that I was the man for the job. Sure, I wasn't an expert gardener, but I had enough experience gardening.

"Alright, alright! What do you want to do here?" She exclaimed. "I accept your offer!"

"Alright! Let me get over there." I said as I stepped down the small ladder and headed my way towards her backyard.

As I arrived, the scene of ruined garden greeted me. Most, if not all the plants that she needed to put down were uprooted because the soil were not properly put down.

"Geez, what in the world did you do here..." I said as I crouched down to re-plant all the plants back into the ground.

"Don't blame me for it, I don't know a single clue of what I needed to do to properly garden!" Suzume replied.

"Okay listen, I will help you do the gardening, under the condition that you keep your goddamn mouth shut the whole time and do what I tell you to do. No more "bean sprout" this or "bean sprout" that." I firmly explained.

I can see the subtle look of surprise that Suzume had in her face, before nodding slightly to my condition. "O-okay..." She muttered.

~~~

".... Then I basically helped her do the garden." Suneo finished.

"Huh... Then what does that fit into the problem that you're having now?" Nobita asked.

"Well, since I helped her... I'm not sure how to put this, but she started to ask me for more help in things that she should have been able to do for herself." Suneo said, "Don't get me wrong though, she's still as toxic as ever."

Nobita chuckled a little. "Huh, Suzy-chan's pretty weird..."

"Yeah, I know right?" Suneo replied. "It feels like she's just trying to ask me for unnecessary help."

As both teens were having discussion through their phones, Nobita could hear his mom calling his name from the outside of the room.

"Nobita!" She called.

"Ah, Suneo... Sorry to cut short but my mom is calling... Gotta head now." He said, in which Suneo replied that he too had something to do himself in Paris.

Soon after he hung up the phone, he dashed towards the door. "What is it, mom?" He replied after he swung the door open.

"Your cousin is arriving soon, why don't you help me clean downstairs?" his mom said, while sweeping the upstairs floor using a well-worn broom.

The thought of his cousin arriving excited him yet again, despite the gruelling heat that he was currently enduring. He had, in fact, forgotten all about it.

However, hearing the words 'help' and 'clean' was still enough to annoy Nobita again. Split seconds of changing mood back and forth ended up in him still being utterly annoyed.

"Why should I do it??" He groaned.

His mom laughed, hearing her son's response. "Haha, just kidding... I've already cleaned it up." She spoke. "Nevertheless, your cousin is going to arrive soon... Prepare yourself up!"

That excited him again... "S-sure...!"

A few minutes later, Nobita put his shirt back on and tidied his room. Doraemon was quite curious as to who this cousin was, as he had yet to know anything about Nobita's younger cousin until then. Quite a surprising revelation, knowing that he has been living with Nobita for more than four years now.

Then he heard a car pulling over right in front of his home. He took a glance from the window, and it was the long-awaited arrival of Nobita's younger cousin.

He dashed downstairs while Doraemon waited in the bedroom. Embracing the arrival of his aunt and cousin, he opened the door revealing a woman in her 40's, together with her 5-year-old daughter.

"Nobita!!!" She exclaimed as she embraced her older cousin.

"Aiko!!" He replied to her hug. "Long time no see!!"

"Yeah! I missed you so much!" She replied.

After she released her hug to continue embracing her auntie, Nobita embraced his aunt. "Long time no see, Aunt Kawashiko!"

"You too, Nobita-kun!" She replied. "You're so tall now!"

"Thanks!" Nobita replied, "Come on in!"

As the two of them settled themselves in the living room, Nobita invited his cousin to his room, where then she met the blue cat robot. At this point, Doraemon almost always expected the guest to call him a tanuki, but this one is different.

"Nobita, why is there a funny looking cat here?"

This is quite worse than being called a tanuki. Doraemon however, were having none of it. Nobita came to Aiko's rescue by shutting his friend's mouth down.

"Get yourself together, Doraemon... She's only 5 years old, why are you getting mad at her?" Nobita said, rather with a scolding tone. "Besides, it's a break from being called a tanuki, anyways."

Doraemon calmed himself down, however... He was still kind of angry.

"Aiko, this is my friend, his name is Doraemon." Nobita introduced the blue cat robot (Again, assuming that everyone in this world acknowledged the existence of a future relic without running towards the media to report this kind of sighting).

"Hi, Doraemon!" Aiko greeted, seemingly without any sense of remorse (why should she anyways).

"Hi..." Doraemon sighed and replied with his normal friendly tone, albeit a little forced.

"Let's play together!" she exclaimed, as she placed down her pink teddy bear in front of Doraemon's cupboard. Doraemon and Nobita observed her every move as she was trying to introduce her much-loved teddy bear.

"His name is Momo! He is my friend in house and we play together!"

As she was introducing and playing with her teddy bear, Nobita whispered to Doraemon's sound sensor. "Doraemon, you know the drill... Just be a normal, friendly babysitting robot just like you were initially designed for."

"Oh yeah, sure!" he said while nodding to his command.

Doraemon then became Aiko's companion while Nobita went downstairs to meet with his aunt. Sure, Doraemon was having a hard time getting back to what he designed for, but he quickly got up to speed and managed to play a few board games with her.

Their play session lasted until right after midday, Aiko got extremely bored and decided that she wanted to go around the neighbourhood. Doraemon then called for Nobita to tell him about her intention.

"Nobita-kun..." Doraemon said, as he approached the bespectacled boy downstairs with Aiko tagging along behind him.

"Yeah?"

"Aiko said that she wanted to go out with you." Doraemon said,

"Oh yeah, that's true! She wanted to go around the neighbourhood with you, Nobita-kun!" his aunt replied.

"Does she?"

"Yep, she does..."

Nobita smiled, "Alright sure... Where do you want to go, Aiko?"

"I want to see the festival!"

"Huh?"

There was in fact a festival held around the area, but Nobita wasn't too sure about taking her there, because it is quite crowded. He hesitated before accepting her request.

Nobita got ready in no time while Aiko took her little red handbag with her.

"Alright Mom! Aunt Kawashiko! I'm going!"

"Okay, take care you two!"

"Bye Nobita, take care!" Tamako added.

Nobita and Aiko walked through the neighbourhood, following the direction that led them towards the main road. There were a lot of food vendors on the street and frankly, that's where the festival was held: across the main road. He thought that she would rather want something like ice cream, Mochi's, or playing some games.

On his way, he stumbled across Nonko. At that time, she was returning from the convenience store for an errand that she was running.

"Oh hey, Non-chan!" Nobita greeted, with Aiko holding his right hand up. "What's up!!?"

"Oh hey, Nobita-kun!" She answered with glee. "What are you guys doing?"

"Oh, just taking my cousin Aiko for a walk, you know.... Sightseeing!" Nobita answered.

The brown-haired girl then glanced towards the girl, who was no more than half the height of Nobita.

"Hey, Aiko-san!" Nonko greeted her as she knelt to match Aiko's height. "Give me a high five!" Nonko said as her hand gestured her to do high five.

"Non-chan!" Aiko exclaimed as she did a high five.

"Haha, she's cute!" Nonko grinned as she stood back up.

"Indeed." Nobita nodded. "What're doing out here, by the way?"

"Just running some errands for my mother." Nonko said.

While the two were having a conversation, Aiko noticed something peculiar in Nonko's bag. "Chocolate!! Is that chocolate?!" Aiko exclaimed as she pointed at a purplish thing inside Nonko's plastic bag.

"Sssshhh!" Nobita hushed. "Don't do that!"

"Oh yeah, it is a chocolate." Nonko said as she took a glance at her bag.

"Would you like them?" She offered as she took out the chocolate.

"Ah, n-no-" Nobita denied initially.

However, his efforts were futile, knowing that Aiko shouted "Yes!!!" louder than he said 'No'. She got what she wanted, at least.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed as she bowed down.

"My pleasure!" Nonko replied.

Feeling bad, Nobita reached into his pocket, seemingly to give Nonko some compensation money. Nonko stopped him, however.

"No, Nobita-kun.... You don't have to give me any money!" Nonko said as she gave a gesture to stop.

"B-but..." Nobita said.

"No, it's fine. Seeing this young little girl eating the chocolate I gave is enough to make me happy." She said as she brushed Aiko hair. "Anyways, I'm going to continue walking."

"Yeah, me too." Nobita said as he took a few steps. "Again, thank you so much, Non-chan!" He said. Nonko replied to him with a thumbs up.

"Hey Aiko, don't do that again, yes?" Nobita warned.

"Okie!!!" She exclaimed as she munched through the chocolate.

They continued their journey to the main road using the route that took them to the empty lot. Coincidentally, the 'empty lot' weren't exactly empty at the time of their journey. There were in fact Gian and Haruo (His elementary school friend) hanging out there.

"Oi, Nobita!!" Gian thunderous voice called him.

"Hmmm?" He replied.

"Wanna join?" Gian offered him.

Of course, this was something that Nobita couldn't just shrug off easily.

"Sure!" He said, apparently forgetting his duties to keep an eye on Aiko. As Nobita played a game together with Haruo and Gian, Aiko sat in the shade of the big tree, eating the rest of her chocolate.

Then something interesting passed by the empty lot: an ice cream truck. Of course, this caught Aiko's attention. Out of Nobita's ignorance, she sneaked out from the empty lot.

Without little to no effort, she successfully escaped Nobita's watch, and went on a journey to chase the ice cream truck. (She didn't run to chase it; instead, she took a steady but a quick walk to follow the truck)

The ice cream truck took a few corners and turns, which Aiko could hardly follow and pay attention to. She ended up losing the truck and got stuck in the main road. She has no clue on where the ice cream truck went and didn't know her way back, either. She was lost.

Back at where Nobita was during when the event was unfolding right behind him, he was done with playing and remembered that he needs to continue his journey together with Aiko.

However, there was a problem that he didn't expect to have. A problem so catastrophic that he didn't see this coming.

"That's it, I'm done. Now I have to look for my .... cousin?" He said as he froze. The place where Aiko sat before had nothing there, save for a piece of chocolate's plastic wrapping.

"Aiko?" He called out. "Aiko!!" He shouted as he glanced left and right, hoping Aiko would be there.

"Hey! You know where Aiko is?" Nobita asked, he was concerned on his cousin's wellbeing.

"Wait, don't say that the girl I just saw was your cousin." Gian said. "If I remember her correctly, she had a white shirt and blue skirt on, right?"

"No way, where'd she go to?" He asked.

"She ran away, chasing an ice cream truck." Gian said.

"No way!!" Nobita exclaimed as he facepalmed. "When did you saw her leaving?" He asked.

"I think it's around 25 mins ago." He said, resulting in Nobita getting shocked hearing that.

"No!" Nobita exclaimed before running to look for Aiko.

"Aiko!!"

3.46 PM

Aiko was stepping along the pavement right beside the main road right across where the festival was held. It was her initial destination with her older cousin, but now that she was separated from him, she was just a lone wanderer vulnerable to adult attacks.

"Ice cream truck?" She murmured.

Many adults felt pity when they saw her walking completely alone and unattended in that road, they were afraid if something bad might happen to her if no one failed to act.

Apparently, some adults did ask her why she was walking alone, or asked her about her parents. But she ignored all of those questions, because she took the advice her mum had said to her that she should not interact with any person she didn't know.

Unsure where she should go, she entered the festival that was open to the public. Because she was just a little kid wandering between countless of teens and adults that went by alongside her, the security that stood guard in the gate failed to notice her presence.

She got deeper into the festival without herself even realizing it. She was too focused on searching the ice cream truck that she had seen before. But she didn't even see any ice cream truck there.

But then, she finally came across what she was looking for. An ice cream van parked on the other side of the festival, albeit a different van than what she had seen before. But she couldn't care less about that, if it's an ice cream van, then it's an ice cream van.

After finally found the van, she then she glanced back in order to give the non-existent Nobita that she wanted an ice cream. Sure enough, when she glanced back, she realized that she was all by herself.

"Nobita?" She called. "Nobita?!?" She called out. But to no avail, he wasn't responding.

Meanwhile, Nobita was desperate looking for her. He then decided to go sweep the Riverside area, close to his school.

"Aiko!!!!" He shouted as he glanced left and right.

"What I'm even doing, this is all my fault!!" He said, blaming himself for the trouble both kids experienced.

Bad thoughts did appear in his head. But he tried to shrug that off. "Aiko!!!" He shouted again.

Then he met some pedestrians that was walking in that area.

"Excuse me, ma'am... Have you seen a little girl wandering around here? She was wearing a white shirt and blue skirt." Nobita asked a woman that was doing an evening run.

"No, I haven't.... Sorry kid." She replied.

Later, "No, I haven't seen 5-year-old girl around here, sorry." An old man said.

And later, "No, sorry!" A businessman said.

Those were the answers Nobita was getting when he tried to ask the passing pedestrians.

Back with Aiko, she started to get a bit desperate. She checked every corner she could find, hoping to find Nobita hiding there. But no, she was in fact all alone wandering in the city she has little to no knowledge about.

"Nobita!!! Don't play with me!" She exclaimed, as her tone of speaking started to waver. "Nobita...." She said as she started sobbing.

As expected, tears started to flow down her cheek. Yes, she was crying because she couldn't find Nobita. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to return and meet her mum again. The bystanders looked at her with pity. But she still ignores their questions that would help her get home.

Then she decided to walk aimlessly. She hoped that she would stumble across Nobita or even her mom if she did. She regretted her decision to ran away from him.

4.08 PM

As the sun started to slide further down, she walked beside the riverbank when she saw the ice cream truck from before. She couldn't do anything other than to stare towards the truck through her watery eyes.

However, it seems like there was a teenage girl the same age as her older cousin waiting for her ice cream.

Aiko stopped at the bench near the truck, still sobbing as she approached the ice cream truck. She didn't intend to stop by the truck. However, something that she didn't expect happened.

Because of the sounds that she made, it caught the attention of the teenage girl that has just gotten her ice cream and was about to sit at the bench where Aiko sat.

"Hey!" She called. "What are you doing here, alone? Where are your parents?" She asked as she knelt to match the height of Aiko.

Aiko, however, didn't respond much to her.

By then, she knew that Aiko was a lost kid. "Did you get lost?" The teenage girl asked. In which, Aiko then nodded to the question.

"Well, my name's Shizuka Minamoto, can I who you lost?"

Yes, the girl in question was none other than Shizuka Minamoto, a charming girl dubbed as the princess of the area. Someone in which Aiko could rely upon.

"I-I lost my cousin..." She muttered. "... I ran away from him following that ice cream truck... Now I can't find him and I'm afraid that I can't go home without him." Aiko continued before starting to cry again.

"Hey hey..." Shizuka tried to calm Aiko down, sitting right next to her as she rubbed the back of the poor girl. "What is your name?"

"M-my name is A-Aiko..."

"Aiko-chan... Calm down, alright? I will help you find your cousin." Shizuka soothed her. "Do you want this ice cream?"

Aiko stopped rubbing her eyes and gazed towards the strawberry-vanilla ice cream that Shizuka offered. She didn't hold back this time and accepted her offer. "Wh-what about you, onee-chan?" Aiko asked.

"Don't worry, I can always buy another one somewhere." Shizuka replied. "As long as you're happy, then I'd be happy too."

Aiko slowly took the ice cream and said, "T-thank you... onee-chan."

Shizuka smiled. "You're welcome!"

Shizuka then glanced towards the necklace that Aiko happened to wear. She vaguely remembered that Nobita also had a pendant that resembles the shape of the pendant that Aiko currently wears.

She was started to get suspicious at the girl in front of her might in fact be the cousin of her closest friend.

"By the way, your necklace ornament kind of reminds me of friend of mine." Shizuka remarked.

"Ah yeah... My cousin has given me this!" Aiko responded.

"Your cousin?

"Yeah!"

"What is his name?" Shizuka asked.

"Nobita...?" Aiko murmured.

"Eh?" Shizuka was surprised to hear that. "Does he have glasses and short hair?" Shizuka asked.

"Yeah, he's my cousin!" Aiko replied. In response of seeing Shizuka's surprised look towards her, she asked back, "Onee-chan... You know Nobita?"

"Y-yeah! He is my best friend!" Shizuka exclaimed. "I can help you find your cousin and get you home! You should have told me this earlier."

At this point, Aiko started to give off a sincere smile, a genuine sign of happiness after knowing that she didn't meet the wrong person after all. "Hm!" She exclaimed.

Shizuka let out a sigh of relief, knowing that she wasn't dealing with a complete stranger's lost cousin after all. "Alright, I will let Nobita-san know that she is safe with me and bring you home."

"Thank you, onee-chan!" She exclaimed.

Separated by just a few blocks away, Nobita was starting to get desperate. He was overwhelmed by guilt and regret because he got distracted at something that he shouldn't have.

Not only that, but bad thoughts also slowly overwhelmed his thoughts. He could not imagine what is going to happen if he couldn't find Aiko. Those scary thoughts were enough to keep Nobita motivated for the search.

He flipped open his phone; it was around 4.15 PM. He sighed as he had lost Aiko for around an hour or so.

When he was about to let out a sob at a nearest bench though, the sound and vibration of his phone caught him completely off guard.

He glanced at his flip phone that was already sitting open in his hand, with the name 'Minamoto Shizuka' was on the caller ID.

He picked up the phone after taking a deep breath. "H-hey, Shizuka-chan... What's up?"

"Nobita-san!" She exclaimed. "Are you looking for certain someone?" She got into the topic right away.

Nobita's eyes widened up hearing that, "Y-yeah, my cousin... How did you know??" He asked.

"Because apparently I stumbled across her when I was buying some ice cream." Shizuka, sighed over the phone. "She's with me, her name is Aiko... right?" Shizuka said.

All hopes are not lost after all. Nobita can now breathe calmly knowing that his cousin was now in the safe hands of his best friend. "Yeah, I have been looking for her for the past hour or so."

"You didn't keep your eyes on her all the time, right? You shouldn't do that, Nobita-san..." Shizuka said, sounding as if she was lecturing him. "... That's just stupid, like, actually really stupid."

"Y-Yeah..."

"Anyways, you can meet us here in the riverside park near our school." Shizuka said. "Where are you, right now?"

"I'm not far off... I'm here sitting right in front of our school." Nobita said. "I'm coming over."

He continued his journey to where Shizuka and Aiko were waiting. His steps were now calmer and the sweat that he had before was slowly getting evaporated away. Half a smile can be seen in his face, a sign of relief.

Minutes later, he arrived at the riverside park. It didn't take long for him to spot Shizuka and Aiko.

"Aiko!" He called out,

"Nobita!!!!" Aiko exclaimed happily after finally found her cousin's whereabouts. She almost immediately shot up from the bench and dashed towards the bespectacled boy.

"Oh, I was worried as hell after I lost you!" Nobita said as he embraced his female cousin tightly. "I'm so glad that you are safe. I will never do that again!"

Then Nobita took a glance to Shizuka who was sitting there in the bench, smiling at the sight that unfolded in front of her eyes. She crossed her arms and gave him a 'nice' hand gesture.

"Thanks a bunch, Shizuka-chan!" He thanked.

"Yeah, no problem!" She replied. "At least I found a way to keep her entertained."

"Yeah, you've helped me a lot." Nobita said as he approached Shizuka and sat down on the same bench right next to her.

Aiko trailed off and sat between Shizuka and Nobita. "I can't imagine what would have happened if you didn't meet her." He said, gazing at Shizuka.

"Yeah... You're lucky that I stumbled across her." Shizuka said. "If I hadn't met her, something worse might have happened."

"Right..."

"But seriously though, what you've done is so stupid that you effectively put other's lives in danger."

"Yeah, I know..."

After both finally reached the point where they don't know what and how to respond, an awkward silence between the two started to materialize. Shizuka took her phone out to try not to make the situation too awkward. But then, out of the blue, Aiko broke the silence.

Not with a whimper, not even a bang... But with a full-blown nuclear explosion.

"You two are both like Mama and Papa!" Aiko exclaimed, which caught both teens completely off guard.

She then continued with a remark which added to the blow. "We are looking like a family, Shizuka is mom and Nobita is dad!"

"E-Eh!!" Nobita said with sheepish grin. "Aiko!!!!"

"Ah!! Aiko-chan!!" Shizuka exclaimed. "Don't say that!"

Aiko responded with a completely innocent laugh.

She glanced back towards the ground, "Come to think of it, we do look like a family, aren't we?" Shizuka quietly said with a rather demurely tentative tone.

"What?" Nobita said.

"No no no!!! You heard nothing!" Shizuka said in her defence.

"A-Anyways, it's already evening, and we need to go home as soon as possible." Nobita said as he saw Aiko has finished her ice cream. "Right, Aiko?" He said before standing up, with Aiko following him.

"I'm going home, right now. bye!" Nobita said as he walked away. "And again, thank you so much Shizuka-chan! You're the nicest girl!"

"Come on Aiko!" he gestured as he walked down the staircase.

"See you tomorrow Shizuka!!" Aiko exclaimed as she trailed off Nobita's path.

Shizuka was left sitting there in the bench, gazing at Nobita before his figure cannot be seen again.

"And again, thank you so much Shizuka-chan! You're the nicest girl!"

That line, said by Nobita keeps replaying on her head.

She kept her head down, held onto her unfinished ice cream, looking at it as she was flustered by the line. She felt the inside of her body is exploding with butterflies... but also with joy.

"Honestly, what a stupid guy he is...."