The last part of the story is finally complete! Enjoy~!
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Dear Rena-chan (Part 3) Before she knew it, Jurina was standing in front of the other Matsui home. For some reason her heart was pounding, but this time it wasn’t because she had been running. She took a few steps forward until she stood face to face with the front door. After a gulp and one deep, shuddery breath, Jurina narrowed her eyes and, once she felt a small burst of courage, rang the doorbell.
“Coming!” a woman’s voice came from within the house. Jurina hid the bag of melon pan behind her back as the door opened to reveal Rena’s mother wearing a white cooking apron. “Ah, Jurina-chan! What a lovely surprise,” Rena-mama greets her as warmly as always. “What brings you here today?”
The child looked up at her shyly. “I wanted to talk to Rena-chan…is she home?”
Rena’s mother nodded, then turned around to call her daughter over. “Rena-chan, come here! Your little friend is here to see you!”
After a moment soft footsteps could be heard running towards them, and soon enough Rena had come into sight. But once she noticed who had come to visit, her footsteps slowed. Hiding halfway behind her mother, some concern could be seen on Rena’s face as she looked at Jurina apprehensively.
Rena-mama, oblivious to the tension between the two, smiled and started to return to the kitchen. “Jurina-chan, dear, please feel free to come inside. You two can go and play in Rena-chan’s room while I start to prepare dinner.” Soon she had completely disappeared from sight, leaving the two seven-year-olds standing in uncomfortable silence at the door.
“Um—” Jurina began, but she was cut off as Rena gestured for her to enter.
“Let’s go to my room.”
Nodding, Jurina stepped inside and took off her shoes, placing them next to the others lined up in the entryway. Rena immediately noticed that her friend had put her shoes away neatly for the first time ever. Normally, upon entering, Jurina would excitedly kick her shoes off, leave them strewn messily on the floor and wander about the house freely.
The two girls climbed the stairs, Rena in the lead and Jurina following wordlessly behind her. When they made it to her bedroom, Rena went to sit down on one of the cushions on the floor beside her miniature table, but the atmosphere was so heavy that Jurina was unable to bring herself to get comfortable. She stood at the opposite end of the table, eyes scanning her all too familiar surroundings.
There was Rena’s bed with the fluffy lavender blanket…the bookcase—filled with a mixture of picture books, fairy tales, and manga—on the wall by the window…and on the wall to her left was the yellow star-shaped clock that Jurina admires so much. Everything in the room looked exactly the way it always did, yet the usual sense of comfort was gone.
Jurina shifted her weight from one foot to the other, unsure of what to do next. It was deafeningly quiet and she didn’t like it one bit. Just as she was about to open her mouth and say something—
anything just to make the silence go away, Rena, looking at her suspiciously, beat her to it.
“Something smells like melon pan.”
Jurina’s eyes widened as she backed up towards the wall, doing her best to keep the paper bag out of her friend’s sight. Rena wasn’t supposed to know about that yet! Laughing nervously, Jurina cleared her throat and reached into her backpack with her unoccupied hand. Her fingers fished around until they met what they were searching for.
“Um, Rena-chan,” Jurina voiced, holding out a folded piece of paper, “I wrote you a letter.”
Though Rena stared at it, she made no move to take it. Jurina set her paper bag behind her and walked over to where her friend was sitting. She took Rena’s arm gently and placed the letter directly into her hands.
“Rena-chan…” Jurina’s voice was sincere, “I’m really, really sorry. I never wanted to get in a fight with you.”
“…”
“It’s just…I miss you.”
Rena’s cheeks turned a light pink at hearing her friend’s words. When she looked up, Jurina was no longer looking in her direction. Rather, her head was tilted towards the carpet and she seemed to be finding her socks particularly interesting. The sound of crinkling paper was the only thing that the girls heard next as Rena unfolded the note and began to read. Jurina dared to take a peek at her friend’s face and watched as her expression slowly changed from curious to confused.
When Rena looked up from the paper, she looked at Jurina questioningly and held it up for her to see. “Why are you giving me this?”
“Eh?” Jurina snapped her head up and to her horror, she discovered that she had accidentally given Rena one of her old test papers—one that she wasn’t too proud of, at that. Cheeks flushing, she snatched it away and gave an embarrassed laugh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for you to see that…” Jurina quickly crumpled up the paper and shoved it deep into her backpack, this time withdrawing the correct piece of folded paper and handing it to Rena.
“You can sit down, you know.”
Jurina, who was still standing awkwardly, lowered herself to the floor and scooted over until she was sitting across from Rena. Letting out a breath that she didn’t even know she had been holding, she relaxed slightly, watching in anticipation as her friend read her letter.
Dear Rena-chan,
I’m sorry for making you cry. You might be mad at me right now,
but I want you to know that you’re still my best friend. It’s always really
fun when we play together. Do you think you can forgive me?
I love you with all of my heart.
Jurina
Rena could have sworn that she had noticed something familiar about this letter the first time she read it, but after reading it once more her suspicions were confirmed.
Now, friend, fun, think, heart…Jurina had included all five of the kanji that they had learned that week inside her message. She was pretty impressed. But what stood out the most to Rena was the fact that Jurina had written the letter so carefully. Rena knew her friend. She knew that Jurina had no patience when it came to writing, which usually led to her characters turning out slightly sloppy. It made her feel special to think that Jurina would want this letter to be nice and neat.
Both of the girls were quiet again until Rena’s small voice broke the silence.
“You’re still my best friend, too, Juri-chan.”
Jurina’s heart practically leapt out of her chest. Feeling as if an enormous weight had been lifted from her shoulders, she broke out into a huge smile.
“But—”
Her smile falters.
“I don’t like it when you pull on me all the time, or when you try to get in the way whenever Airin talks to me, or when you say mean things about the stuff I like!” Rena crossed her arms and pouted. “It hurts my feelings.”
Hearing her quiet friend speak up for the first time really got to Jurina. She was flooded with guilt as she thought hard about the past few weeks at school and realized that everything Rena was saying was true. She didn’t know what to say.
“I never meant to hurt your feelings…” Jurina sounded distraught.
“But you did,” Rena told her.
“I know…” Jurina admitted, “but that’s not what I wanted. I just wanted to spend time with you. I like spending time with you!” Her voice rose in pitch and she felt a dreaded lump form in her throat as she had begun to fear that she might lose this battle. “Please don’t hate me!”
“Juri-chan, I don’t hate you,” any remaining traces of resentment that Rena may have still felt towards her friend dissipated once she saw that the other girl looked as though she could start crying at any second. It was true that Rena had never seen Jurina cry before, but now she was fairly certain that she didn’t want to. She scooted over to Jurina and pat her on the head. “Don’t worry, I forgive you.”
“…Really?”
Rena nodded. “Just promise you’ll try not to do those things anymore.”
“I promise!”
Rena gave Jurina a soft smile, which Jurina happily returned. Unable to control her joy any longer, Jurina pounced on the unsuspecting girl, who let out a yelp, and squeezed her in a tight hug. “I love you, Rena-chan!” she squealed, nuzzling into her friend’s side.
“Juri-chan, that hurts!” Rena chided, but she was smiling anyways.
All of a sudden, Jurina remembered her other gift and pushed herself off of Rena. “Oh yeah! I got this for you.” She crawled over to her backpack, took out Rena’s treat, and handed over the paper bag.
Rena opened the top of the bag and peered into it. Once she saw what was inside, her eyes lit up and she gasped. “Melon pan! I knew I smelled it earlier.” She giggled and hugged the bag to her chest. “Thanks, Juri-chan!”
“Eat it after dinner, okay?” Jurina fell to her back and rolled over to face Rena, only to notice that her friend was looking at her weirdly. “Huh? What are you—”
“What happened to your knee?”
Jurina sat up and shielded the bandage with her hand. Turning her body away from Rena slightly, she shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
The look on Rena’s face made it clear that she didn’t believe her. “Did you hurt yourself?”
“No!” insisted Jurina. “Really, Rena-chan, don’t worry about it…”
Rena stared at her with a frown. “You’re lying.” Her eyes sparkled with tears, which, of course, didn’t go unnoticed by Jurina, who then panicked. She didn’t want Rena to cry any more.
“Ah! Wait, Rena-chan. I’m sorry. You’re right…” Jurina’s voice got quieter, “I fell down and scraped my knee today.” Her friend inched towards her in order to get a closer look. “But I’m okay, see? It doesn’t hurt or anything.”
Rena reached out and touched the bandage gently. “Be more careful, okay, Juri-chan?”
“I’ll try.”
The girls exchanged smiles and then Jurina let out a content sigh. She stretched out on the floor once again, lying on her back. The warmth had returned to the room. She closed her eyes for a second before opening them and turning to Rena. “Come lie with me!”
“Why?”
“'Cause it feels nice.”
Rena hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and gave in. She settled down on the floor next to Jurina, and the two friends spent the next few minutes enjoying the comfort of just being together again. They talked about school and about the interesting things that had happened during the days they spent apart, catching up with each other and resuming right where they had left off. For the first time in what seemed like a very long while, both seven-year-olds were having such a great afternoon that they had completely lost track of time.
Soft golden rays of sunlight shone through the window as the sky outside started to turn a pale orange, signaling that the sun was almost ready to begin its descent. Jurina lets out a yawn. She never failed to start feeling a little sleepy at this time of day. Her drowsiness proved to be contagious because a yawn escaped from Rena as well, who pushed herself into a sitting position and rubbed her eyes.
“Nee, Juri-chan, are you staying for dinner?” asked Rena, stretching her arms above her head. She saw that her friend had somehow rolled over onto her stomach with her face in the carpet. Receiving no reply, she asked again, a little louder this time. “Juri-chan, do you want to stay for dinner?”
Jurina stirred, then flipped over again. “Dinner…?”
“Yeah.”
Jurina stared up at the ceiling blankly, her tired mind taking a little longer to process what her friend was saying. But when she finally realized that it must be getting late, her eyes widened and she bolted upright. “Uh oh, I’ve gotta get home. Mama’s probably wondering where I am.”
“Eh?” Rena watched as Jurina stood up and grabbed her backpack. “You mean she doesn’t know you’re here?”
One hand on the doorknob, Jurina turned back and looked at Rena with a guilty grin.
“Juri-chan!”
“I know, I know!”
Both girls stood near the door, Jurina in a clumsy rush to put on her shoes and the other watching her in mild amusement. Rena opened the door once her friend had gotten her shoes on correctly, and Jurina steps outside, hopping down the two steps leading to the front door.
“I’ll see you soon, Juri-chan,” Rena called out. She watched as Jurina starts to skip down the driveway but stops suddenly, turning back around to face her.
“Rena-chan?”
“Yeah?”
“Will you still come over tomorrow for our sleepover?” Jurina’s voice was hopeful.
Rena pretended to think long and hard about it. She made her voice sound as uncertain as she could. “Hmm, I don’t know about that…”
Jurina’s jaw dropped and she looked absolutely miserable, at which Rena burst out laughing. “Just kidding! I’ll come.”
Relieved, Jurina closed her mouth, but as Rena was still in hysterics, her lips formed into a pout. “Mou, stop laughing!”
“Sorry, Juri-chan,” Rena wiped away tears of laughter that had formed in her eyes. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
Jurina’s smile returned to her face and she continued down the driveway to the sidewalk. She called over her shoulder one last time, “See you tomorrow, Rena-chan!”
The two girls waved goodbye until Jurina had walked so far that they could no longer see each other. As Jurina continued home alone, she briefly thought of her mother. She would probably scold her for coming home so late and then make a fuss about the bandage on her knee…but not even that was able to bring her high spirits down. The child was too preoccupied thinking of her sleepover with Rena.
She was going to show her the new board game she received from her cousin the other day, and maybe she could ask Rena tonight if she would bring along some of her favorite manga! They would play all day until nighttime, and even when her mother sent them to bed, Rena would sleep in the futon right next to hers! And as soon as she got home today she was going to ask her mother to make her favorite meat sauce spaghetti for them to eat for dinner tomorrow…
Jurina giggled in excitement and broke into a run.
This weekend was going to be so much fun.
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Well, it's finally finished! I hope the ending didn't sound too rushed...
Towards the end of the story I was sort of thinking of writing a sequel...one about Jurina and Rena's actual sleepover and the adventures the two of them have over the weekend
What do you guys think? Should I do it?
Anyways, thank you all for reading my story!