Even Though I Loved You First

““Uwah, Arisa!””

“…Can you all get away from me?” (Arisa)

Trying to shake up all the people who were over me, I slightly glanced at my mother who was watching the ordeal with her usual expression.

It was the day of our graduation, and right now I had my siblings Asahi and Aiku, my father Itsuki and my boyfriend Kei all clinging to me while bawling their eyes out. I don’t mind Kei, but the other three are really getting on my nerves.

“Now now, Itsuki. Let’s leave her alone for now, you too Asahi, Aiku.” (Akina)

At my mother’s instructions, my two older siblings both separated from me with satisfied expressions on their faces. Kei also was separating from me, but as he did so I grabbed his arm again and pulled him over.

“?!” (Kei)

“Oya, Arisa’s getting bold— ouch?!” Cutting short my brother’s words, my older sister slapped him on the back of his head. “Shut it, idiot.” (Asahi)

I separated from Kei and we both joined the conversations within my family. “Hah~ This somehow takes me back to my own graduation day.” Aiku said with a smile.

“Speaking of which, neither of you cried! Aren’t you taking a whole different approach with Arisa?!” (Aiku)

“I mean… how do you expect us to cry when you were shedding tears while hugging your best friend at the time?” (Asahi)

“Kuh—” (Aiku)

Ahh… I remember that, I remember how my sister had a distant look on her face as she looked over at Aiku and his friend both hugging each other and crying a lot. It seems that said memory is now a part of his black history… for some reason.

“Well, speaking about crying; though she doesn’t look like it, your mother seems to want to cry too.” As my father said so, Kei glanced at her with a hint of curiosity as I also saw her with an astounded expression.

“Huh? Who wants to cry? Aren’t you only hiding your own tears, Itsuki?” (Akina)

“Hmm, I wonder. Come on, admit it. You want to cry because your youngest daughter is about to leave the nest too!” (Itsuki)

“I. Don’t. Want. To Cry.” She voiced with a pause in between words. My father only chuckled and with a ‘If you say so’ dismissed the matter. However, this seemed like a good opportunity.

“So mama doesn’t care about my graduation?” I said in the most innocent voice I could muster. My mother— no, my family was taken aback at my behavior, but it was mostly my mother who seemed a tiny bit uncomfortable.

“No— t-that’s not—” (Akina)

“It’s sad, you know?” (Arisa)

“I-I—” Finally, she gave in. With her face turning a different shade of red, she pulled me in her arms and in a soft voice she muttered “I’m proud of you.’ I only smiled and hugged her back.

“They seem to get along well,” (Kei)

“They do, it’s my wife who has trouble being honest with herself.” (Itsuki)

↤⨳↦

“Cheers!” As our excited voices rang across the table in a family restaurant, all of us decided to start eating and dug into our meals. I was with Karane and the others celebrating our graduation. It was around six o’clock and the sun hid a long time ago.

“Time sure flies!” (Karane)

“Cliche line to say. Noted.” (Hiyori)

“How rude?! I was trying to get everyone into the mood!” Karane said with a hurt look on her face.

“The hell is this ‘mood’ about?” Seichiiro snarked.

“Probably something that an insensitive person like you wouldn’t get.” I said in reflex. He pissed me off.

“Hah?” (Sei)

“Hm?” (Arisa)

“N-Now now, you two. Play nice!” (Kotone)

““We’re not cats, you know?!”” (Arisa & Sei)

We planned for all of us to stay up quite late together, simply because we didn’t know if we would see each other again after today. Well, of course we will see each other once or twice. However, some of us would probably start packing up since we decided to leave the city and even the country for our studies.

“I have to say. From all of us, I never expected you to be the one to leave the country, Hiyori.” (Kokoro)

“Hm? What does that mean?” During the last year, I could somehow see improvements in Hiyori’s physique, she was no longer tired and her complex seem even better as of late.

“It was indeed a shock when you told us you were going abroad. What was it that you were going to study?” (Sei)

“Business Administration.” She nonchalantly said.

“Huh. Well, I’m still surprised that you changed so much in just a year, but I hope things go well on your end, do pay a visit here and there.” Kokoro said as if she was hiding her impulse to cry.

“It’s not like I’ll disappear forever, you know? I only want to study abroad under the wing of a relative of mine for a year after college graduation, so I’ll be back after that.” (Hiyori)

“Uwaaah, Hiyori I’m going to miss you a lot!” Karane threw herself at Hiyori. As she barely caught her, Kotone who was watching from the sidelines giggled happily.

It was a new sight for us seeing Hiyori this expressive.

“What about the two of you?” Leaving those two to their own, Kotone turned to Kokoro and Seichiiro. I was particularly interested in those two, granted on how close they were I doubt they will go to different universities.

“I’ll also be studying Business Administration, I have to take over my family business after all.” Now that I think about it, she was from a family which was well-off financially.

“Same here,” Seichiiro shortly said.

“Well, that’s no fun! Have some unique dreams like Arisa!” (Karane)

“If she wants to deal with annoying children, that’s up to her.” (Kokoro)

“Oh my, I would expect that from anyone but you Kokoro. How did it go? Ahh, yes! ‘I want t—” Before I could even finish my statement, Kokoro hurriedly covered my mouth with her palm.

“‘I want to,’ what?” Seichiiro, who by logic was the most invested in what I had to say, asked me to continue. I tried to shake the Kokoro but I couldn’t. A volleyball player’s grip is no joke.

“Say something and I’ll log you out of this world.” (Kokoro)

Now she’s threatening me?!

I only gave her a helpless nod, and as if being wary of me she removed her palm from my mouth. I only shook my head and urged Seichiiro with a small ‘It’s nothing.’

↤⨳↦

I’m tired… Laying on my bed, I looked at the ceiling as I waited for the sense of sleepiness to wash over me. It was around eleven and I just got home, I figured Kei was already asleep so didn’t call him. I did send him a message to make him now I was home.

I wanted to greet my parents but they were asleep already so I didn’t bother.

“What does a person do after this point?” Was something I kept wondering. I graduated highschool already, what’s next after this? Obviously it is college, I already had a spot and everything…

But how do I prepare? Just how different is university from highschool? Well… I could ask mom about everything tomorrow. I have at least three months (don’t really know) free before I enter.

In the end, it took me a little while to fall asleep, I finally decided to call Kei first thing in the morning tomorrow.