“Come on, come on, this way!”

Kai drew a sharp breath as he tried to keep up the pace with Krystal. The girl moved so fast he almost lost him against the crowds in Kyoto.

Well of course it’s not as crowded as Tokyo, but at least in Tokyo Krystal didn’t walk that fast.

When Kai could finally match Krystal, he saw a big welcoming gate painted in red over there. Standing prettily among the warm sunlight of Kyoto.

“Welcome to Fushimi Inari.” Krystal said while smiling, and nudged her head. “The thousand gates I am talking about is not here, we gonna walk a little further.”

Kai followed Krystal’s lead, and they were walking along the stone path inside. Kai continuously turned around to see the Japanese pray to their God. They looked so calm, peaceful and respectful.

“I really like Japanese people’s behavior.”Kai uttered without taking his eyes off a grandma who accidentally saw him and gave him a smile. “They are helpful, and they are friendly.”

“Now that you say that, Korean is a little bit harsher indeed.” Krystal replied. “When I first moved to Seoul, my Korean wasn’t this good. I was talking to an ahjumma for direction, and she rose her voice because she got impatient with my stutters.”

Kai chuckled when he heard that. “Poor you.”

Krystal nodded again. “But not everyone in Seoul is like that. Maybe that ahjumma just had a bad day. Well… we can not generally judge people after all.”

Kai hummed and was about to say something when his shoulder bumped against someone. “Ah, sumimasen…”

The man that he bumped to, was around his 30 with muscular and proportional body. He gave Kai a glare and looked away while grumbling.

Kai cringed when he saw that and looked at Krystal. “Yeah, we can’t do that generalization after all.”

They walked while chatting around, random talks and chirps.

“So if this is called Fushimi Inari, does it have any relation with Inari sushi?” Kai asked with his innocent face, making Krystal laughed.

“Oh well, I am surprised you could remember the name of that sushi.” Krystal said while folding her arms. “When I told you the names, you shrugged it off and said all sushi is just sushi after all.”

“Inari means God of good abundant crops. It means success in business, having a good income.” Krystal explained. “I don’t really know much, but that’s what I read before.”

Kai let out an ‘oh’ before asked again. “Could it also means a success in love?”

Krystal gave him a funny look. “How could you be so cheesy all of sudden? Talking about romance out of nowhere?”

“I am just asking,” Kai rose his shoulders.

Krystal smiled and shook her head. “I don’t know exactly about that… but maybe you could include that as one. Toori gate is a very beautiful place after all, perhaps you could find your destined one inside. Among the vibrant red color of Toori Gate… she could be there. Standing, waiting for whoever hold her red string appear.”

Kai thought for that word for a while before chuckling and waved his hand. “It’s not even a manga story, let’s not talk about it. Hahaha.”

Krystal sighed. “Who started this first, actually…”

To their pleasure, the red gate showed up after a good minute of walking. It’s toori gate, and even from far they had already seen how beautiful it is.

The two kids entered the gate, and greeted by thousands of red pillar with either Kanji or Chinese words written on each. Kai couldn’t read any, but it didn’t matter for him.

As they went deeper inside, the gate had slowly turned to form a symmetrical effects of a never ending red mazeanyone doesn’t mind to trap with.

Krystal touched every pillars there with great curiosity, running her finger through the smooth textures of the strong woods used to build the gate. “This is so pretty.”

Kai took his camera out, and started to snap pictures of the pillar. He kept on clicking, adjusting to search better angle, then looked at it with a great satisfaction.

When he felt he could get a better piece, he started to snap more pictures. He his heels as he kept on clicking, until his camera found Krystal who was also taking pictures with her phone.

Krystal looked so pretty that day. She is pretty and of course she looks pretty all the time. But that day, she looks not just pretty. It’s like… she glows among those thousand of red pillars. She stands out in the middle, making the place looked even more picturesque than it already was.

Kai felt his heart clenched when he knew he only had few hours left with her. It pained him when he knew he maybe wouldn’t ever seen this girl again.

Just, how big is Seoul to search for a certain girl with blonde hair?

Kai felt a lump rose on his throat, and his fingers froze on his shutter button. He kept on directing his lens to aim Krystal’s figure, but he didn’t take that picture.

It’s like, the whole world had frozen and he wished the clock would stop ticking away.

He wished he could stay in this moment forever, among the tranquility of the gate’s peace and a magnificent view of Krystal’s face.

Kai could feel his jaw tightened along with his hold on the camera .

Would he be ready to let go of this moment? Would he be ready to turn the amazing days with Krystal into memories?

Could he beg for more time? Could he ask for more than what they had?

And just as Kai debated with his own self, Krystal turned to look at the camera.

Kai widened his eyes when he saw Krystal’s eyes looking straight at him through the lens.

The blonde girl smiled, and slowly rose her polaroid and placed it in front of her eyes.

A second passed, and the sound of shutters suddenly filled the air.

Both Krystal and Kai took the pictures of each other with their own cameras.

As they lowered their cameras, Kai gathered all his courage and called out for Krystal.

“Bubblegum, I-…”

“It’s Krystal.”

Kai stunned when he heard Krystal’s reply. The owner of the voice smiled and tucked her blonde hair behind her ear.

“Sorry for the late introduction. My name is Krystal.”

Krystal smiled, and Kai swore his heart just stopped beating at that time.

“Nice to meet you, Kai.”

A/n

And after the straight 5 days, Krystal finally tells Kai her real name XD

And can we take a moment to appreciate these red gates for a little more, imagining both Kai and Krystal standing there in the middle and takes picture of each other.

Sweet :')

We only have two chapters to go before After - Globe is coming to a massive end <3

So enjoy the new chapter, and I will see you on another chapter soon -^^-

*for the love of writing, onerusticpen*