Today I decided not to go to school. I’m going to skip! I’ll have fun today! I’m going to an amusement park!

But first, I need clothes. I still don’t want to go home until I feel better.

I know it’s very sudden that I just decided to skip school and go to an amusement park, it wasn’t my idea. It was Hiro’s.

“We’re going now!” Hiro shouted so his parents can hear.

“Be safe at school, okay?!” Cindy-san, Hiro’s mom, said.

We left pretending we were going to school. We were both wearing our uniforms, but we had our casual clothes in our bags and planned to change on the way to the park.

Hiro was pretending not to smile but couldn’t contain his excitement.

“Ready to go?” Hiro said as he tried not to smile.

“You’ve ask me that so many times already! Geez, you’re too excited.” I too couldn’t contain my excitement. I nudge him because I was very much looking forward to the date.

“You’re excited to, no? I can almost see your smile!” he couldn’t contain it any longer and did the biggest grin I’ve ever seen.

My heart skipped a beat.

We headed to the park. It was an hour train ride north and like we planned, we changed in one of the clothing store we found on the way. Hiro said he was fine changing in the restroom, but for me I just couldn’t do it in there.

After the ride, we arrived.

It was packed with people. There were some with their families, some with their friends and there were even people dressed in their school uniforms.

We bought our tickets which cost us quite a bit, because we pretended to be adults.

“Where do you wanna ride first?” I asked.

His eyes were shining as he looked at all the possible rides we can do on the map we were given.

“I— let’s go to that one!” he pointed to the biggest roller coaster ride on the map, “Oh, wait! If we are here, we can probably do this one first. The Knees Shaker.” He was talking about riding the closest ride from us before going to the big one.

“Knees Shaker? What kind of ride is that?” I asked.

“It’s a ride where the person gets on to a big disk and spins the disk for a couple of minutes.” While he was speaking, he was enthusiastically hand gesturing how the whole thing works.

I don’t want to ride that. I don’t want to ride that. I don’t want to ride that. I don’t want to ride that.

“Are you sure you want to ride that?” I asked as a roundabout way of making him not ride it. Because I’m sure, if he rides it, I’m riding it.

We rode it.

“It really is making my knees shake. Who made an idea to make a ride that spins?” I said after we exit the ride. I almost couldn’t feel my knees because of all the spinning.

“Next is this, Head Spinner.” Hiro was already ready to get on the next ride.

“Huff, wait. Give me a sec.” My knees were still shaking.

He laughs at me, “I’ve never seen you this scared before!” he kept laughing.

“Shut up! I’m just doing what the ride was designed to do!” Knees still shaking.

“Want to take a quick break before the next?” he asked after he laughed at me.

“Yes please.”

He reached out his hand towards me, “Want to hold hands while we walk?” he blushed but tried to keep his cool.

I grinned and gave him an eye that says, “You’re very bold, I like that.” I took his hand and intertwined it between my fingers as a reward.

Before we started walking, I saw a glimpsed of him doing a hidden fist pump.

I suddenly had the urge to tease him. So, I started to caress my thumb to the skin of his backhand.

His whole body flinched as I did my touching session. Wait! No, that sounded wrong! I meant my teasing session. Gosh, this is also affecting me! I’ve never had this kind relationship, so I don’t know if I’m being too much or not doing enough. I’m probably doing too much with the intertwining my fingers and rubbing his hand as we hold hands!

But we did it already! So, isn’t this like a beginner level?

“God, I’m so happy right now. I feel like my chest is going to burst.” He frustratingly whispered under his breath.

I noticed the whole time I was teasing him; I had a huge grin on my face. As soon as I noticed, I covered it with my other hand but still…. I couldn’t help it!

“My gosh.” I said under my breath. I couldn’t keep all my thoughts in, my head and chest are overheating.

We walked to the nearest vending machine still holding hands. He puts in his money in the machine.

“What do you want?” he asked what drink I wanted while still holding my hand.

I was slowly starting to get used to his hands as I pressed for an iced tea.

After our break, instead of going to the Head Spinner, we went for the Pirate Ship. It was a ride where everyone sits on pirate ship, and it starts swaying from front to back. I was the one who suggested the ride because I thought it was better than the Head Spinner or the Knees Shaker, but this ride was as bad as the Knees Shaker.

“I kinda get why people created these kinds of rides,” I was about to vomit, but I swallowed it, “but still! I don’t know why they made a machine just to make people dizzy.” The vomit was coming again, “Hiro, I’m about to vomit.” I was trying my best to hold it in.

He quickly looked for a bag I can do it, but he didn’t had any bags, nor did he found one.

“I can’t find any bags.” I sounded apologetic.

“Sorry, I really need to puke.” The vomit was fighting me, and I was losing.

“Washroom!” he rushed me to the nearest washroom, which luckily was just a couple of steps from where we are.

I quickly go in the women’s and let it all out on the toilet.

I hate this feeling, but somehow this uncomfortable feeling of something coming out from my mouth makes me feel better. Vomiting is such a weird experience.

After relieving myself, I washed it off.

I came out of the washroom and Hiro was waiting for me.

I sigh in relief, “I feel so much better now.” I said as I walked out the washroom.

He laughs, “Man, you really can’t handle rides can you?”

“Yup, can’t handle them. That’s why for the next ride, we’re going to the haunted house!” I proclaimed.

“Eh! Ahhh, ngh…… urrr, o—Okaaa—aaay.”

He really wanted to ride the biggest one didn’t he?

“Your girlfriend gets what she wants! Now let’s go boyfriend!” I took his hand again and dragged him to any kind of haunted house I could find on the map.

Whilst walking, he entwined his fingers again to mine.

I thought I was getting used to this, but really! I’m still not!

“You wanted this didn’t you?” he teased me.

He thought he could tease me! But I’m way better than him at this kind of things! So, I hit him with a shojo-like reaction, “……. yeah, I was.”

Shit! This was effective to me also!

I got too embarrassed and didn’t see what his reaction to my payback.

After the haunted house, we continued to ride more attractions and less thrilling rides. We spend the whole day in joy and excitement without a care of our problems.

It made it even more fun because I’m with Hiro. I really love this man! He’s my light and joy in this world. Even before, Hiro was my inspiration to be a better person. When I was alone during kindergarten, Hiro was the first to ask if I was okay. When my dad and mom had fights, Hiro was the person who listened to my problems. When my mom passed, Hiro was there at the funeral holding my small hands. He was the inspiration that I had, he was my light and I wanted to be that light to my dark family. I wanted my family to rely on me when they needed someone to listen to their struggles. I wanted to be the light when they are alone in the dark, scared. I wanted to be their light, as Hiro was my light.

“Something on my face?” Hiro asked because I’ve been glancing my eyes to his face.

“Yeah, right here.” I touched his cheek.

“Oh? What is it?” he leaned over that I can easily reach him.

I pecked his cheek quickly, “A reward.”

He flinched back and touched his cheek where I had just kissed him, “What was that for!” his forehead was a little red.

“A reward, because you won.”

“You just wanted to kiss me didn’t you?”

“Yup!”

“Ok, you win. I’m getting way too flustered.” He started to drink from his straw.

The day was almost over, and we were just looking for the exit. We got lost during our exploration.

“Can I see the map again.” I asked.

He suddenly went to fight mode. He puts his arms up and quicksteps back away from me, “You can’t trick me twice! I know what you’re going to do! Attention seeker!”

It wasn’t offending but it was still irritating.

“Blushing machine!”

Is he complimenting me?

“Kissing maniac!”

Pfft, he developed ptsd!

“Hand holding slut!”

“Hey! You’re going too far.” I got angry when he called me slut.

“…..sorry. My bad.” His voice crumbled as he apologizes sincerely.

“Well! If you didn’t like it that much, I won’t do it again.” I let go of his hand.

“…..no, ma’am. I loved every second of it. I would like it if you continued doing it.”

I giggled, “I like your answer.” I slipped my hand to his and continued with our walk.

Suddenly, like an alarm you had forgotten turned on, I remembered that I was trying to see where the exit was on the map. That was what started that whole scenario.

“Can I have the map now?”

“Sure.” He passed me the crinkled map.

After I search where the exit is and where we are on the map, we finally got out of the huge park.

The sun was almost gone when we left. Almost all the people in the park was taking the same bus as us. We couldn’t ride the first two buses that arrived. The travel compared this morning was even worse. It took us almost 2 hours to go home, but we eventually got back safely.

While we walked back to Hiro’s house, we were talking about our memories during middle school. We were laughing as we talked about the funny moments when we slept over to Kaito’s house.

“And do you still have that picture of Yuri snoring so loud?” I asked as I was laughing.

“Yeah! I still have that!” he pulls his phone out and shows me a half closed eyed snoring Yuri in a picture laying on Kaito’s old bed.

I was laughing so hard after I saw how she looked like on the photo.

“I mean! Yuri’s always been weird! Even though she looks so pretty, the faces she makes aren’t idol-like.” Hiro said in laughter as he zooms onto Yuri’s half-closed eyes.

I laughed even harder of the close-up shot of Yuri, “Stop! This is making my cheeks hurt!”

“I mean!” he zooms in further that the only thing I can see on the screen is her half-closed eye. It made it even funnier because I can’t see her pupils.

“Byakugan!” I imitated a character in Naruto.

“Hahahahaha!” Hiro burst out laughing that made him almost unable to walk.

I think my cheeks are getting swollen from all the smiling I’m making.

After our pleasant moment, we finally calmed ourselves as we arrived in the house.

“I think they know we skipped school, especially your dad.” I said as he was about to open the door.

“……. yup, I think so too.” We both chuckled.

If they were going to find out about it, there was no point of us trying to deceive them. Especially, when the person who owns the school is Hiro’s dad. Our school is literally named after Hiro’s family name, Takeda High.

We entered the house and was scolded by Cindy-san, Hiro’s mom.

That was a good day.