Forgive and Forget

Sakurako was on her bed looking through her phone when she received a message from Yumi.

“Sakurako, do you want to hang out today?”, the message read. Sakurako was happy to start getting messages from her friends.

“Let’s take a bus to the city and shop!”, a message from Daiki popped up.

This was her first step in becoming more open towards her friends. She was remembering what Yumi told her a few days before. It’s okay for her to take it slow because her friends are there to support her. Yumi asked who Sakurako was in love with too, but Sakurako didn’t feel comfortable enough to tell her; she was afraid Yumi might see her as crazy. Yumi didn’t try to push her friend to tell as she knew this was new to her, but she did tell Sakurako to bring her something from the past if she ever goes again. This gave Sakurako a bit of hope that maybe her friend does believe her.

“I have to finish the history project for school this weekend, maybe next week we can do something.”, Sakurako replied back. 

“I totally forgot about that! Can I see one of your papers?”, Daiki immediately replied.

“Do it yourself!.”, Yumi replied and Daiki sent a sad face sticker to the chat. Sakurako was glad to have people like them around her.

Sakurako was mostly done with her project but she figured she could finish it tomorrow. She was going to take today to see Chiharu now that he’s okay with seeing her.

After getting ready, Sakurako walked out of her room and Rena was sitting in the main room.

“Sakurako, are you going somewhere today?”, Rena asked.

“I have to meet up with someone.”

“Ahh. You’ve been going out with friends a lot lately!”, Rena was happy for Sakurako. “It’s good to see you wanting to do things with them now.”

Sakurako was happy to hear her grandmother’s support; she was glad that she didn’t try to stop her and instead encouraged her to go out more.

“Don’t waste your youth by being in your room all the time. Go have fun. You’re surrounded by good people, don’t take them for granted.”

Sakurako chuckled and smiled, “Thank you, I will!”, and she left her house.

At this point, going uphill was no problem for Sakurako; she ran upwards as if she was on the flat ground. She was panting hard when she got to the tree.

“Future girl!”, Chiharu was standing under the tree facing Sakurako.

“Sakurako! How would you like it if I called you ghost boy?”, Sakurako playfully teased back.

Chiharu chuckled. “Why are you up here today?”

Sakurako blushed, “You…you said to come back so i did.”, she felt slightly embarrassed and was swaying back and forth like a kid.

“Have you fallen for me or something?”

Sakurako blushed even harder, “No…”

Chiharu found this cute and laughed. “What do you want to do?”

Sakurako didn’t know. She didn’t think about that; all she thought was about seeing Chiharu and that’s it. She didn’t really plan to do anything as long as she saw him.

“You like history right? Want to see what your village was like 50 years ago?.”

Sakurako didn’t say anything but gave him a smile to show she was okay with it.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sakurako was still amazed by how different her village was back then. They were walking in the neighborhood where she currently lived.

“Whoa, I can’t believe my neighborhood used to look like this. They probably renovated most of these houses between now and later.”

“You live here? Which house?”

Sakurako saw her house and pointed there, “It’s that one!” A man and a lady came out of the house and caught Sakurako pointing at it. They stared at her and Sakurako realized it was the family she barged in on the first time she came back in time. Sakurako felt embarrassed as she thought she’d never see these people again. The man and woman quickly turned around and started walking the other way.

“It’s that girl again.”, the man whispered.

“Honey, I’m scared.”, the woman replied

“Just don’t make eye contact with her.”

Sakurako could distantly hear their conversation but couldn’t blame them. In their point of view, she’d see herself as crazy too. "I wish they'd forget about that.", Sakurako thought.

Sakurako’s stomach grumbled.

“Oh, you haven’t eaten yet?”. Chiharu asked.

“No, I skipped breakfast before coming here.”

Chiharu chuckled, “Here, I know a place.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chiharu and Sakurako went to the restaurant that would later become Akira’s market. It was silent between them and Sakurako felt awkward.

“So tell me about the future.”, Chiharu suddenly broke the ice.

“Uh, well…we have phones now.”, that was the first thing she could think of.

“Everyone carries those around with them?”, he gestured to a landline that was hanging on the wall.

“No no no no! My brick! That’s a phone.”. She remembered what Chiharu called it. "It's so much better than that. We can call, text, share pictures together! It's amazing!!."

"From what I've seen, it doesn't seem that amazing.", Chiharu rolled his eyes as he thought Sakurako was overhyping the future.

"The past doesn't have internet.", she thought to herself embarrassingly. 

A waiter came over to the table. “Hello, welcome to-Chiharu?”, Akira was surprised to see Chiharu.

“Akira, you got a job?”, Chiharu was surprised too.

“Mm. I thought if I can’t do well in school but still want to go to college, I might as well start saving up in case I don’t get any scholarships."

Chiharu was proud of his friend’s sense of responsibility.

Akira gestured to Sakurako, “Who’s this?”

Sakurako turned her head the other way. She didn’t want Akira to see her because she was scared it might change the future.

“She’s…someone who got lost so my family is taking care of her for a bit.”

“He’s making me sound like a lost puppy.”, Sakurako thought to herself.

“I see…well, I hope you find your home soon.”, Akira bought the lie.

“Mm. Thank you boy I’ve never met before.”, she said with her head still turned the other way.

Akira left their table before taking their orders. “Wait, you forgot-”, Chiharu started but he was gone too quickly.

“Don’t worry, I can help you.”, a voice called out. “Geez, if he keeps doing this, he’ll get fired in no time.”, the waitress arrived. “Chiharu? Hospital girl?", Rena recognized Sakurako right away.

“You’re working too?”, Chiharu wondered.

“Why are you here with her?”, Rena questioned.

“I-”

“You already forgot about Kaori and you went off to find someone else? Is that it? I thought Kaori meant more to you!”, Rena was tearing up. Akira came out and saw this and rushed over to their table.

“Rena! Chiharu, what happened?”, he wondered.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You did. You forgot about Kaori.”, Rena ran out of the restaurant. Everyone was speechless.

“Let me talk to her.”, Chiharu got up from his seat and went outside. He spotted Rena sitting alone crying at one of the two tables that were outside. He went to sit across from her at her table.

“I never forgot about Kaori.”, Chiharu started. “My feelings haven’t changed for her. I go up to the sakura tree everyday, sitting there waiting for her because that’s what I promised her.”

“How’d you meet her?”, Rena was talking about Sakurako now.

“If I tell you, you won’t believe me. But all I can tell you is that when I am with her, it feels like Kaori is with me. It’s because of her that I got to laugh again and I’m not spending my time dwelling on the past. I genuinely feel happy when I’m with her; the same kind of happiness I felt around Kaori.”

Rena was starting to understand him. She couldn’t force him to stay in the past and think of Kaori; but she was glad to hear that Chiharu was keeping his promise. Her anger subsided and she was feeling better after listening to Chiharu. "I'm sorry, I just wish I could move on from this faster."

"It's okay, take it slow. It's not something anyone can get over so quickly. Especially if she was by your side all this time. You can still remember her but also move on from this. Don't get angry at yourself if it feels like you're forgetting about her by moving on. Kaori would've wanted you to be happy."

Rena listened to his words and knew he was right, "She would want you to be the same."

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Chiharu and Rena came back inside and Chiharu sat down.

“I already took their order. There’s another table that needs help,”, Akira informed Rena. Rena’s expression changed to a more professional one and they both left.

“Sorry-”

“Akira told me everything.”, Sakurako interrupted him. “You should spend time with them again. I think that right now, they need you. They have each other but they are also worried about you, so seeing you out like this like there’s no problem just made her angry.”

Chiharu didn’t say anything.

“In the future, Rena told me she regrets losing you. She said she wished she was there for you more. She wants to know what you’re going through too. She doesn’t want to lose this relationship with you. Get back together with them again. Make more memories so you won’t have any regrets; so they won’t have any regrets. They want to be with you for as long as they can. Don’t take them for granted. I'm sure Kaori would've told you the same thing.”

Chiharu couldn’t reply with anything but he agreed with what she was saying. He doesn’t want his friends to grow up with regret and hate themselves for thinking that they didn’t try hard enough with him.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chiharu and Sakurako were facing each other under the sakura tree.

“Will you come back again?”, Chiharu asked.

Sakurako smiled because Chiharu wants to see her again. “Mm. I’ll see you next weekend!.”

“Good. I have something planned, just for the two of us.”