A short story.
“Grandpa, can you tell me one last story? I promise to go to bed afterward,” said the little girl with big bright sparkly little eyes, staring opposite an elderly man with long, silky white hair.
“Ahh, how can I refuse when you look at me like that, you little troublemaker? This is the last one for today, and you must go to bed afterward or else no more bedtime stories from tomorrow onwards, okay?”
“Okay-y-y, pinky promise.”
“What kind of stories do you wish to hear?” asked the elderly man, while sitting himself in the rolling chair beside her bed.
“Ohhh ohhh hmmm,” the little girl uttered. She glanced across her bed as she put her pointer finger on her chin, a gesture she learned from the elderly man. “Oh I know, I want to listen to a story about friendship!” the girl exclaimed, proud of her newfound knowledge of the topic.
“Hmm, then let me tell you a story about the Sun and the Moon,” replied the elderly man scratching his chin with his pointer finger.
“Ha ha ha, how can the Sun and Moon be friends? They are days and nights apart. That’s silly grandpa” The warm giggles of the little girl warmed up the chilly night.
“Ooof, then what do you think friendship is?” asked the elderly man, squeezing the tip of his granddaughter’s nose teasingly.
“Ouch no, that hurts.” Pushing her grandpa’s hand away, the little girl answers seriously, “a friendship is when you share your favourite chocolate chip cookie with your friends and they share their favourite toys with you.”
“Well, that is surely one of the ways to explain friendship. Friendship is a wondrous thing and there are many ways to explain it. You little one, do you want to listen to it or not?”
“I wanna listen to it, sorry I’ll be quiet”.
“Okay.” The elderly man carefully put a blanket over his granddaughter, patted the top of her head, and began telling the story.
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Friendship. Friendship is extraordinary. It is diverse and possesses different meanings for everyone. For most people, friendship is a mixture of one’s admiration, affection, compassion, loyalty, commitment, and dependence on one another. For some, friendship goes beyond sharing time: for them, it is for eternity. Whereas for some others, it is not: they part together with a bittersweet memory and move forward in life. Friendship is bizarre, and it is rare in life to find a friendship that is genuine, true, and pure. A rare friendship is when someone understands you better than yourself. Someone you can share and express everything regarding yourself. Someone who takes a stand in your most salutary concerns in a crisis, and the Sun and Moon are a great illustration of that.
It was the little things in their lives that made them shine the brightest in the dark. Or perhaps they shined bright just for each other. In any way, the sun and the moon were indeed two of the brightest luminescence. If one was like a volcano blaze about to erupt, then the other was as a gleaming calm of radiance. Yet when you mention one you can’t mention without the other.
I guess both were each other’s saving grace. When the Sun was born, it was the brightest of all, Blinding everyone with its brightness to not see anything else other than itself. Everyone has their own selfishness and wishes to shine brighter than one another. Yet it was their envy and selfishness that led them to isolate the Sun.
The same can be said for the Moon. When the Moon was born, it shined brighter than the rest, despite its small size. Though the Moon didn’t blind everyone with its radiance it was still the brightest luminance of all. Once again behind the faces of admiration hid the darkness of envy and jealousy.
Their meeting was quite accidental. The Sun and the Moon were not fated to meet when they did and in the blindness of the eclipse, it was accidentally perfect. In that endless perpetual darkness, they found each other. In the calamity of their existence, they found the remedy. And their darkest cadences started to become filled with wondrous sparkling light.
Years turned to decades, and decades turned to centuries. The young Sun and Moon became mature and filled with youthful radiance. Maturity comes with its disposition. It is a journey from physical to the intellectual, from childhood toward adulthood and developing intellectually, comes with its own responsibilities, burdens, and rules. No one is an exception to that, not even the Sun and Moon.
But despite the responsibilities, burdens, and rules, there is always room for commonalities. Some struggle with it. Some in-depth their mutual understanding. Whereas for the Sun and Moon, it was the latter. In their commonalities, they created a mutual friend, the Earth.
Their duo became a trio. Earth couldn’t shine as bright as the Sun and Moon or the rest. Yet when the Sun and Moon shined, their luminescence transcended the beauty of Earth, highlighting its uniqueness. Their friendship was filled with love and laughter. It was flawless, but as the hour of the clock ticked, there came another calamity.
The year of the Eclipse. The year of separation came. Earth could not stand the darkness of the eclipse, as it was born weak. As the hour of the clock ticked, the weaker and the closer to its deathbed the Earth got. And once again, the darkness of eclipse started shadowing over the three of them. Along with the darkness, there is always light, but in this cadence, the consequences of the light could only be won by the separation of the Sun and Moon.
The Sun and Moon can not coexist without each other. Just as in every darkness there is light, in every light, there is a hint of darkness. The two cannot coexist with the other. The Sun and Moon are not some altruistic beings, they too have their own selfishness in their darkness. Yet no matter how selfish they wanted to be, at this hour of the clock they could not.
A rare friendship is when someone takes a stand in your most salutary concerns in a crisis. Even if they wanted, they could not for how much they loved each other and the Earth. They had a choice to be selfish, but being selfish for this choice was another type of death. Years by years the darkness grew and commenced to shallow the other radiance of lights, little by little. Leaving only, the Sun, Moon, Earth, and few others.
The Sun and the Moon wanted the Earth to live a life full of content, safe and well. For them, the Earth was the precious entity they created and despite the opposition of the Earth, they made their choice. And in this chaotic hour of darkness, they taught the Earth a bittersweet lesson. That is no matter how much one begs someone, they cannot change the mind of someone who made their decision.
As the hour of the clock ticked, the hour for the solution to this calamity came: the sacrifice of the Sun and the Moon and their separation. Even the brightest luminesces have to pay the price. Earth as the sole witness watched it all happen — the last interaction of Sun and Moon.
As the cadence for separation came between the Sun and Moon. No intimate gesture, no words spoken between them. They locked eyes for a brief moment, and somehow they both knew that this would be the last time they would ever see each other.
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“Wait what kind of friendship story is this? They didn’t even say goodbye. That’s not what friends do, they just looked at each other. And all just for what a new friend they create. This doesn’t make sense. Hmmph” the girl asked in indignant confusion.
“Ha ha,” laughed out loud the elderly man and paused before answering carefully. “That is because you are still little. Sometimes just a little glance and eye contact can have unfathomable emotions beneath them. It is similar to music being played in the background that contains a hidden message. Perhaps one day when you grow up and listen to a sad song while reminiscing this moment you will fully understand it. But for now, you better go to sleep.”
“B-But that doesn’t make any sense. Grandpa you party pooper.”
“Yeah, yeah I am. It is pretty late in the night, goodnight little one.” said the elderly man as he stood up and kissed the forehead of his granddaughter dearly before he left, and just as he was about to close the door the little girl asked a question.
“Wait, what song should I listen to, when I think of this story again?”
Surprised by the sudden question of his granddaughter, the elderly man went stiff for a second by the door, before he gave a warm-hearted smile and replied, “Maybe Kokoronashi. Now Sleep Well, grandpa loves you”.
“I love you too, Grandpa. Goodnight,” The little girl said, watching her grandpa close the door. She closed her eyes and fell into a peaceful slumber.
************
Kokoronashi playing in the background…..
‘If I abandoned everything
Would it be easier to laugh and live?
My chest is starting to hurt again
Don’t say any more
If I forgot everything
Would it be easier to live without tears?
But I can’t do that
Don’t show me any more
However close I get to you
I only have one heart
It’s cruel, it’s ugly, I’d rather you take my body
And destroy it, tear it apart, do as you like with it
No matter how much I scream and struggle, or my eyelids swell
You just hold me without letting go
You can stop now
If my wishes came true
I would want the same as you
But I don’t have any
At least come here
However much I’m loved by you
I only have one heart
Stop, quit it, you’re being too kind to me
I can’t understand, however, I try
It hurts, I’m in pain, use your words and tell me
I don’t know what’s going on, don’t leave me alone
It’s cruel, it’s ugly, I’d rather you take my body
And destroy it, tear it apart, do as you like with it
No matter how much I scream and struggle, or my eyelids swell
You just hold me without letting go
You can stop now
If I have a heart
How could I find it?
You smile a little and say to me
If that’s what you’re looking for, it’s right here”
- Ver.Sou — Kokoronashi/Gumi Lyrics
They locked eyes for a brief moment and somehow they both knew that this would be the last time they would ever see each other.
Work Cited
“Anime Lyrics . Com.” Anime Lyrics Dot Com — Kokoronashi — Somehow — Vocaloid Original Songs — Doujin, Music and Lyrics by Papiyon-P Illustration by 24 Performed by GUMI, www.animelyrics.com/doujin/vocaloid/kokoronashi.htm.
Youtube link to the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KNPNJHrv9I&ab_channel=Sou
Friends.com. Definition of Friendship, friends.com/definition-of-friendship.
