How It All Began...

Park bench, around twilight. She is alone, sitting with her head down. You could hear her sobbing. Now, she isn't really crying because someone hurt her. Rather it seems like she hurt someone's feelings. She ran to the park to escape the would-be dramatic confrontation. After she told him she likes somebody else, she never intended to explain further, and she never wanted him to beg her to like him instead.

The person she had hurt was a good friend. But she couldn't bring herself to deceive the guy into believing she likes him too. That was just cruel. So it's better this way, to tell him right away, that there was no romantic future for both of them.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps walking toward her. She looked up and saw him. Well, not the guy she was expecting, but the very reason why she had hurt her friend. He couldn't know, could he? She asked herself.

"Hi." That voice. It was enough to send shivers down her spine, but she fought the urge to fangirl-scream. Instead, she allowed herself to hyperventilate. This seemed normal, since he already saw she was crying. It would only look like she was hurting a lot inside.

"H-hi." She blinked. He blinked.

"I saw you from a distance, and I wondered if I can be of help." He smiled tentatively. It looked like he was weighing the situation. Just to make sure that he wasn't interrupting something. "I found myself walking to this place, and I didn't mean to spy on you."

"Oh- Yeah..." She stammered. "It's okay. I-i...I'm okay."

"That's good. Hey, if you don't want to say anything, it's cool." He raised his palms and smiled. 

Oh glob! This was something she didn't expect. This was too much, actually. "No. Really." She hesitated. But found herself telling him more. "Do you know how it feels like when you've hurt someone but didn't really mean to?"

"Uh-huh. Sounds like me today, actually." He dropped his gaze, and there was a small twitch of the corner of his lips.

"Huh?" I fixed my gaze on him.

He looked up and said, "Yup. That's me today. I know how it feels. Specially if you hurt a really good friend."
"Yeah. Me too."

"Huh- Turns out I can't help you after all. We did the same thing..." He trailed off and fixed his eyes on a tree in front of us. 

"Yeah. I feel so horrible. But I don't want to hurt a friend either."

"Hmmm... But your friend is hurting now, right?"

"Yes, but he'd be more hurt if I deceived him."

"True. Same goes for me. She'd be in worse pain if I did that to her."

At that precise moment, both of them looked at each other. And said, "Weird. Did we really do the same thing?" Then they both laughed.