Vancouver, 2003

 

            The sun was getting red, indicating that day would turn into night in a few minutes. The air was warm and the wind brushed gently among the tree’s branches. No sound could be heard except the bird’s sounds and the wind which blew almost soundlessly. With closed eyes, Nam Haeri, an eight years old girl listened to nature’s melody, absorbing every rhythm of it. The wind was breezing gently, pushed away some strands of her hair while she was absorbing the peaceful surroundings around her. She always loved this situation. She loved the situation when harmonious melody which was coming from nature filled her ears. She loved the silence which enveloped her. She loved when she could spend her peaceful time without being interrupted. But she was wrong.
            “Nam Haeri!” a boy’s voice suddenly broke up the silence which wrapped Haeri a moment ago. She sighed deeply, no longer enjoying the harmonious melody. She then remembered the thought of her peaceful time without being interrupted, but now she realized how stupid she was to think about that. No, she never had the peaceful time as long as that boy still chirping with no end around her.

            “Nam Haeri, don’t you hear me?” that boy repeated his question with his high-pitched tone. She sighed again, desperately this time. Then she turned her position to face the boy who was smirking smugly towards her.

            “What’s now, Kris?” Haeri asked him with her annoyed face which made the boy’s smirk grew even wider.

            “Nothing, I just want to call your name.” he said calmly like nothing bothered Haeri while in fact, Haeri was nothing but mad towards his annoyance. Haeri closed her eyes with frustrated expression written bluntly across her face. First, that boy interrupted her moment of silence. Second, he called her with his high-pitched voice like she was deaf or something. Third, he said nothing with his calm voice even he knew Haeri was madly interrupted by his action.

 

 

            “Fine then. I’ll go,” Haeri stood up abruptly, ready to left the boy. An annoyed pout could be seen clearly across her face while she stood up.

            “Tch, I’m just kidding grumpy,” he said with closed eyes, not cared even a little if Haeri really left him alone or not. “Stop being such a grumpy cat or else you’ll be as old as your grandma,” This time, he looked at Haeri with a smirk and teasing eyes. Haeri only rolled her eyes towards his tease. She grew accustomed by his teases so it didn’t bother her anymore.

            “Come, sit again. I have something important to tell you,” his tone was serious, totally different from his usual tone. Haeri looked at him in disbelief. Never once she saw him talks so serious, except now. Haeri waited a little bit to make sure that he didn’t play a prank by using his serious tone. Realized that he was serious, she then took a seat beside him and waiting until he spoke.

            For a couple minutes, they were just sit side by side and not uttering a single word towards each other. They were, once again, listening to nature’s harmony in their special spot at their special place. Their special place was a tree house which located in Haeri’s house. They named it as neverland. It wasn’t more than a tiny little house, but for them neverland was beyond everything. Neverland was like their second home, a place where they found their happiness, a place where they shared their best moments, a place where they spent their childhood times together. In short, neverland was like a place to come back, no matter how old and how far they were. Neverland was a place where they bond their friendship and it’s nearly impossible for them to forget this place.

“Riri, will you promise me something?” that boy, Kris, asked Haeri carefully, afraid that he would mess up everything. Partially afraid that he would make Haeri upset.

“You’re being so strange today, Kris. Now, what promise?” Haeri asked him in confusion, totally blank with the thing he would tell her.

“Promise me that you won’t get angry after I tell you, okay?” he looked at Haeri’s eyes intensely which made her slightly uncomfortable.

“Okay then, I won’t get angry,” she said confusedly.

Kris closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before he told her the truth. With a careful tone, he started to speak out. “Riri, I’m going to go to China with my family. I’m… I’m going to stay there permanently. That means… “

“That means you’ll be leaving Canada very soon…” she spoke almost soundlessly with head hung low. “…right?”

Kris didn’t answer her question yet. He just couldn’t bear to see the girl next to him suffered if he answered her question even both of them knew the possible answer of it. Bravely, he took a glance to Haeri. He could see her eyes glimmered with tears that she tried to hold. In their normal days, probably Kris would laugh and called her a crybaby if he saw her shed a tear. But today is an exception. He felt pain crept up his heart when he saw his best friend cried because of the news he just told her. He didn’t like it. He hated to see the sad face of his best friend, but unfortunately he could do nothing to ease her pain (and his).

Haeri, in other way, was taken aback by the news she just heard. She obviously knew Kris’s answer towards her question but still, she didn’t want to believe it in a first place. Yes, she did want him to leave her because of his annoyance. She hated him because of his pranks. She hated that Kris always use her as an object of his pranks. But now, she admitted that she rather receive all his pranks than to let him go.

“When?” she croaked, hoped that he would laugh on her and tells her this was a joke. But his answer was far from what she expected.

“Three days from now on…” Kris said lowly.

Another silence engulfed them again, but not the comfortable silence that they liked. This silence was thick and full of their scattered emotions. Both of them felt the same emotions; sad, angry, and pained, but none of them uttered a single word. Not until Haeri spoke up.

 “You lied.” she said lowly. Anger and tears formed in her eyes.

“Haeri I-“

“You lied!” she shouted. The tears that she tried to hold back finally found their way to fall.

“You lied to me! You said… you said you wouldn’t leave me! You said that we would be together until we get old! But what’s this? You broke your promise by telling me this! I hate you, Kris. You’re a liar! I hate you!” she shouted at him. Tears were falling uncontrollably and her chest rose up and down heavily during her outburst but she could careless. All she wanted to do was scream out loud to him.

“Haeri please lis-“he tried to plead but she cut his words instantly.

“No! I don’t want to listen to you! For what I listened to someone who broke his promise?”

“But Haeri, you promised me you wouldn’t get angry once you hear this,” he spoke up.

“It’s you who broke your promise first, so I don’t think I couldn’t do the same! You think I couldn’t break my promise just because you’ve warned me? It’s unfair!” She shouted him with all of her strength.

By that, she stomped her feet and took her leave. She left him alone in the tree house without looking back at him. She didn’t care if she left Kris in the tree house with guilt building up his heart. Kris, on the other hand, has expected this. He knew Haeri like an open book. He knew Haeri’s mad stage, especially this time. So he just sat there and watched her disappear into her house. Kris sighed deeply before he climbed off of the tree house. He looked at the tree house after he arrived at the ground with guilty written on his eyes. Then, he took a leave, leaving Neverland behind him without looking back.

And this was the last time they spent their days together in Neverland.

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Hello everybody! Finally I come back after my long term hiatus (or hibernation, I guess? Lol). I’ve been busy lately due to my national examination, college entrance exams, and some whatnots hehehe but now, I’m free as a bird. Yeheeeeyyyyy!!!! It took a long time for me to finish this prologue (yeah I’m being a lazyass here. Sorry :p) because I easily get stuck with my words and writing style (like what happened earlier with my description and foreword).

Once again, I want to say my deep apology to you all because I couldn’t write a proper description and foreword yet. But I swear to God I will revise it as soon as I can. I’m terribly story for this :(

Anyway, please enjoy my first ongoing story featuring Kris and don’t be afraid to give me your comments :D I really appreciated it :). Well, happy reading guysss!!! :DDD

 

 

p.s: I’m sorry if there were a lot of grammatical errors because English is not my main language :(. Oh yeah, Ramadan Kareem to all of you guys who celebrate it! May God bless all of you in this holy month. Happy fasting!!! :D