2014

The leaves were turning yellow, the weather was getting colder, it was the start of another new season, the season that you loved. You loved watching the leaves of the cherry blossom fall. You loved sitting under it.

You were on your way back home and you took a shortcut because you did not want to meet HIM. HIM who bullied you so much, HIM who never left a chance to embarrass you. You didn’t understand why he would pick on you and why everyone worshipped him so much and called him a kingka! Because to you, he would always remain a jerk.

You were the kind of person who no one bothers to know about and you were okay with that because you didn’t bother to know about anyone too. You loved it when you were left alone, for you, that was the time when you were at peace with yourself. 

He was a Kingka, tall, fair and supposedly good looking. He would always have that silly smile on his face and girls would drool over him for that. He seemed to love the attention and he was completely opposite of you.

But there was something that connected you both, The Cherry Blossom Tree and it seemed to hold many secrets... It had all started there.

Every day right after the arts class, he would go at the back yard and sit there while trying to paint  something. You first saw him when you took a wrong turn. You usually sat and read under this cherry blossom tree that grew right next to the back gate of the school and it was a secluded area surrounded by bushes. That day you had got a detention and got off class late so you were running to your favorite place when you realized that you took a wrong turn. This place seemed as calm as your place and this was right next to the Cherry Blossom tree but divided by some huge trees and this one had different entry too, the reason why you never noticed this place earlier. You were contemplating over whether to change your favorite place when you saw HIM. Usually he would be surrounded by so many people and he would have his signature silly smile on his face but that day he looked different. He looked so calm as he stood there and stared into the blank canvas trying to draw something. For some strange reason, you stopped running and stared at him. Strangely, you felt this strange connection with him. Strangely, it felt like he was at peace and that he was being himself for the first time. This felt like the real him, not like the plastic kingka that he looked like when he was with others and you didn’t know why but you felt at peace seeing him like that.

After that day, something changed. He was still the kingka that girls would go crazy for but now you understood a part of him. Now when you looked at him, you remembered his eyes. The intensity with which he looked at the canvas and the satisfaction his art gave him. You remembered the look on his face, like he wanted to capture the beauty of Cherry Blossom on his canvas but somehow; he knew he couldn’t do justice to it all. You knew there was a part of him which was removed from everyone and this made you feel strangely closer to him.