"Are you still traumatized?"

"Afraid of what?" I asked.

"I dunno, your mumbling was really interesting," the Tanuki answered while he seemed to find a track for us. This bamboo forest is too vast.

"...something about your parents?"

I sighed. It's still in my mind, huh...

He smiled faintly. "Do you regret your decision?"

"No," I said, "Absolutely not,"

He chuckled, "It's been 10 years anyway, there's nothing you can do about it,"

I smiled. It's been 10 years since that day I decided to be with this tanuki on his journey. My parents seemed really not unsure, but I could see the horror in their face.

"I just...,

I just thought, if only I could've said it better. I mean, they barely knew you. They knew you, but not really. If only I had more time to explain things,"

"If only, right?" he asked.

I didn't answer.

He lifted his hat, and swiing in front of him. The summer was really scorching, but this bamboo forest kinda protected us a bit.

"If only your parents knew me better.
If only they were more understanding.
If only I didn't need to make a journey.
If only I lived only in one place,"

I listened.

"...in your place," he continued.

"Is it too much?" I asked.

"I dunno. There could be another "If only I hadn't met you,", "If only we haven't seen each other,", "If only you're less decisive,", "If only you didn't spare me that takoyaki that day...,""

"Hey!" I chuckled.

"What? I only made "If only"'s like you did,"

I rolled my eyes.

"Look. You can't do all the "If Only" in your lifetime," he put his hat back on.

"I mean, look, this is only one of the possibility of we meet and... fall in love,"

He stared me right in the eyes. Yes, his warm eyes never change since that day.

"It's not "If only", it's one of the possibility coming true.

Yeah, we kick butts and we lost a lot of stuff in our journey. Your parents know this path is full of dangerous things, it's understandable they don't want you to go.

But you know that we have each other. That's why you can only move forward and strive for the best as I would do for you,".

I closed my eyes, "Yeah, we almost lost each other,"

"But we didn't,"

"We didn't", I agreed.

"We've tried our best not to let that happen,"

"Yeah...,"

As we're lost in our conversations, we saw a small house.

"I guess we're closer to your home," he said.

"I dunno, I guess we're still a bit one town away," I answered.

"Don't waste any more time then, let's find a place to sleep," he smiled.

I smiled too.

"Let's,"

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A commission I did for  Salrie

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