The First! Meliana Kisatu, The Childhood Friend. (Bashful)

Let me tell you a story.
A story of my experience with my childhood friend.
Meliana Kisatu, or Meli for short.

Let's start from the very beginning when Meli and I were in kindergarten.
You see, at the time, I was actually really popular. No, seriously!
I knew a lot of people, from school, the supermarket, and even with neighbours. I was a very active kid. But let me be honest here, I was very dense. I didn't know what it meant to have feelings or receive feelings from others. I was slow. I learnt that shit when I met my second bitch.

Anyway, I was really popular, but Meli was the total opposite of me. She was shy, often made fun of by many of our peers, and worst of all, she never saw herself as she truly was. She hid from the crowd; she's always been the shadow of everyone.

So, here is the story.
I recall that I was returning from the supermarket with my parents. And on my way back, I saw my friend playing at the park. There I was, "Mom, Dad. May I play with them? Tomorrow is the weekend anyway."
Both of them looked at each other, then my dad squatted to be on the same height as me and said, "Have fun, but don't be late, okay!" while patting me on the head.

 I smiled ear to ear, raised my hand, and said, "Yeah!!" After that, I sprinted towards my friend while waving goodbye at my parents, "Bye, Dad, Mom. I promise I won't be late."
With my friends, I played lots of games until the sun was almost gone. One by one, all of them left the park until only three people were left, Jio, Wino and me.

Jio said, "Yo, you guys still have energy?"
Wino said, "Bro, we played a lot today. Take a break!"
Jio replied, "Is it because you are gaining more weight recently, or are you just being boring?"
Wino raised his voice, "What did you said? You want to fight?"
While the both of them doing their shit, I was walking and let them do their bussiness.

They rented a lot of things that I don't understand, so to not get into their argument, I just skedaddle and found myself in the forest part of the park. There I was alone, walking without any sense of direction, until...
"Don't worry, Mr. Squirrel, I'm here for you. You can have my peanut", I heard someone talking with... a squirrel?

What the...? Who was that? That sounded like a girl that I know. Is she getting lost? That was on my mind when I heard her voice.
"Come here, Mr. Squirrel. I..."
I was sneaked toward her voice, not knowing she was actually looking directly at the bush that I was sneaking through. Our faces met, and I called her name, "Meli?"

She turned red and then ran without saying anything. She didn't even scream, we just took a glance for about 3 seconds. I crawled out of the bush and ran back to my friends. When I arrived, they finished their argument. We parted ways and went home.

"What was that all about? Why is Meli talking to a squirrel?" I kept thinking about that for the night, even when I was about to take a Z.

On Monday morning next week, we met each other and she insisted on talking to me in a quiet place. We agreed to talk in the cafeteria's back alley, and she said, "Don't you dare say anything to other people about me."

I replied to her statement, "You... what? Talking to a squirrel?"
Her tears were coming down as soon as I said that. I didn't mean to harass her or anything, I was just trying to reason with her. I knew I messed up, so I walked up to her and tried to stop her from crying. As a kindergartener, I only knew one option to make someone stop crying: hug the person and kiss them on the forehead. That's how my mom would do to me whenever I cried, so I thought it also applied to other people.

I did that, and she was shocked, even stopped crying. But my noodle brain back then thought I cured her from crying and said, "It's okay. I'm sorry for making you cry, okay. I won't do that again", not knowing I just planted a seed inside this girl's heart.

After that, she said, "I... did you just kiss me... on the forehead?" and looked at my face with sparkling eyes. I didn't understand that at that time, so I said, "That's how my mom always does whenever I was crying. I'm glad that it also works on you."
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that was what I said back then. If I went back in time and met my kindergarten self, I would choke him and scream, "YOU'RE AN IDIOT."

She calmed down and said to me, "Promised?"
I replied, "Promised!"
And we did the pinky finger promise thing.

After that point, we became close friends. Sharing stories, playing together, and even coming to each other's houses often. But whenever we did those, we didn't invite anyone. As a kid at that time, I thought I would respect her wishes because she was shy. But now, or should I say, when I met Nana and learning about feeling, I understood why she did what she did.

She was trying so hard to be alone with me and develop our feelings, but it did work because I was dense as fuck back then.

Get this! We were in fifth grade. She made a move to make me fall for her.
Let me tell you this!
We were walking home that day and stumbled upon a new restaurant. She invited me to that new restaurant and I was surprised. Her family owns that restaurant. She served me food that she had cooked, and we ate together.

"Hey, Uta, do you like my food?" She asked.
I responded, "Yeah, this is pretty good."
Instead of thanking me for my gratitude, she did what? She fed me more with HER SPOON, and my dumbass still thought that just a normal thing. I still absolutely had no clue what happened. I saw her get excited, and I was happy for her, but that's it. I thought she was excited because I praised her cooking. No, that was her excitement because I just indirectly kissed her.

I regret what I did to her when I was in kindergarten because now, I feel like I have to include her in everything that I do with the other six.
She is shy, even now, it isn't very pleasant to convince her that I will protect her because she will take that as I love her more than the others. I know she will murder them if I'm not prioritizing her.

Despite these circumstances, we are still just childhood friends in my eyes, but deep down, I'm no longer feeling it. Now, I only see her as "Bashful" of the seven, and I don't like it.