So I Thought
Ever since they were little, Leon
and Noel have seen each other. Their families are friends with one another, but
what they have can hardly be called a friendship. The two kids constantly tease
and pull pranks on the other. When one wins, the score between them has to be
settled somehow. Whether that’d be by putting the other one’s face in cake or
spraying them with a hose.
“You know, you’re a big poopy face!”
Noel would say.
“No, you are!” Leon would say back.
“No, you are!”
“No, you are!”
After a couple years of their competition,
Leon decides not to play into Noel’s hand since that’s what she wants. Knowing that
Leon isn’t going to fall for any of her traps, Noel smirks with the implication
that she’s setting up something when she isn’t doing anything at all. The two
play calmly together for the first time in a while, which surprises their
parents.
Once it’s time for Leon to leave,
Noel says, “I know it was killing you for me to do something, so that’s why I
didn’t do anything. It was fun watching you be scared of what I might do.”
“You-!”
Instead of saying anything, Leon
closes his mouth and tries to not let his frustration show on his face while
Noel keeps prodding him with her devious smile. When they have to hug each
other, Leon squeezes Noel to let out his anger and she does the same. From
there on, Leon attempts to be as emotionless towards Noel as possible while
cracking here and there. Noel keeps pushing and poking to get any kind of
reaction out of him and the times that she does get a result, she considers it
a victory. This is how things are between the two and their parents let their
two-person war continue since they think it’s cute.
Years pass again and both go to the
same school and learn in the same classroom. Despite making new friends, they
always focus on each other as they always have by pulling pranks on one another
and seeing who would crack under the pressure they gave each other. One girl gets
jealous of all the attention Leon is giving Noel and decides to start bullying
her by starting rumors and messing up her work.
When Leon sees this happening, she
goes up to the girl and says, “Stop bullying, Noel!”
Leon sticking up for Noel gets the
bully to run away. As Noel is fixing her things, Leon helps her.
“Are you okay, Noel? She didn’t
hurt you, did she?”
“N-no, but you should’ve been there
when she was bullying me the other times! Stupid, stupid-”
“I’m sorry. I’ll try to be there
more often.”
Leon’s words silence Noel as she
starts to recognize that Leon and she are more than just friends. She knows
that they aren’t friends, but they aren’t enemies either. She’s never been able
to pinpoint what to call their relationship and she doesn’t want to admit the
obvious. The boys that have a crush on Noel are shocked by what they witness.
They thought that Leon and Noel hate each other because of the way they acted.
Now, they see that he’s competition, so they start to bully him.
Just like Leon, Noel catches them
in the act and says, “Stop bullying Leon! Only I can do that!”
This attracts the attention of the
teachers who take the boys aside to bring them to the principal’s office.
“Thank you, Noel,” Leon says.
“Don’t think that this means that I
like you, stupid! Only I can bully you, stupid! No one else can! No one!” Noel asserts.
Leon continues what he’s doing as
Noel expects a reaction. She then puts her fists to his face as if softly
punching him.
“Do something, Leon! This is why
you got bullied! You’re weak! You don’t defend yourself! Do something! Hit
back!”
Leon calmly does his work while not
paying attention to Noel. Noel only stops bothering Leon when she thinks that
her being upset is what he wants her to do. Once she gets home, Noel wrestles
with her feelings for Leon and decides to take action by writing an anonymous
love letter to him. She walks over to his house and puts it in his mailbox. She
doesn’t know what she wants from this. The only thing she knows is that it makes
her feel better.
From there on out, Noel writes an
anonymous love letter to Leon when she beings to feel loving towards him. She
also gets anonymous love letters as well. Since she doesn’t know who they’re
from, she feels nothing from reading the sweet messages she gets. Part of her
wants to think that it’s Leon writing the letters, but her good and bad opinion
of him prevents her from accepting this. While going over to Leon’s house, Noel
makes sure that she isn’t caught putting the love letters in the mail, but what
she doesn’t know is that Leon’s parents catch her doing this. They read the
letters after Leon does and don’t tell them they’re from her. Instead, they secretly
tell Noel’s parents about it and talk about how their children are falling in
love with one another.
Leon’s parents then encourage him
to write love letters to Noel when he opens up about having feelings for her.
“What about the girl who’s sending
me these letters?” Leon asks his mom.
“Maybe the sweet girl is Noel. You
won’t know unless you ask,” she says.
“This can’t be Noel. She’s the furthest
thing from sweet.”
Even though Leon doesn’t believe
that Noel is the one sending the letters, part of him wants to. He writes love
letters to Noel but doesn’t sign his name and puts the letters in her mailbox like
how she does. This back and forth continues for five years as they are against
each other in public while loving each other in private.
They’re both ten years old now and
they’ve written dozens and dozens of letters to one another while keeping their
relationship relatively the same. Wanting to make the two kids advance their
relationship, Noel’s parents secretly tell Leon’s parents that she’s coming
over to deliver a letter and that they should make Leon go to the door.
Leon’s parents quickly do this and
tell him, “The girl who’s been leaving you letters is coming!”
“What? Really?” he asks.
“Yes! You should go to the door and
greet her with one of your letters.”
“Okay.”
Leon goes to the door not expecting
anything special only to be surprised to catch Noel in the act of putting a
love letter in the mail. Scared by this, she quickly takes out the letter and
puts it behind her back along with the flower that she found along the way that
she wanted to give him.
“Noel?”
“I’m…I’m here to steal your mail!
Yeah! I bet you didn’t know that you won money and other prizes! Well, I’m not
giving them to you! Hahaha!”
“You were the one leaving the love
letters?”
“What-what love letters? I don’t
know what you’re talking about.”
“I saw that you were going to put another
letter in the mail with a flower?”
“Well-uh. This isn't a love letter
and a flower. It's…um…”
“You can stop hiding it.”
“Okay, fine, but why haven’t you
written me back? Do my letters mean nothing to you?! I work hard on every one
of them!”
“I love them. I keep a collection
in a safe place, so they don’t get ruined, and I have been writing back to you.
It’s just that I don’t sign them. This is one of them.”
“I don’t believe you. I think you
would right something nasty to me.”
“Here, I’ll read this letter to you
then. It’s a song or poem I came up with.
Don't leave me now
I've been waiting for what's felt
like an eternity
You've kept me in Purgatory
And I've been burning
To let you know that my love for
you
Is pure and true
And to know if you feel the same
too
You've got me waiting to hear you
say
"I love you"
I've held onto hope, kept holding
on
I lay down my heart and surrender
it to you
You've got me on the edge of hope
To know if you love me too
I'll always remember our time
together
I pray that it will last forever
And we would live together
Happily ever after
It's been love at first glance
So will you give me a chance?
You've got me waiting to hear you
say
"I love you"
I've held onto hope, kept holding
on
I lay down my heart and surrender
it to you
You've got me on the edge of hope
To know if you love me too
You've got me waiting to hear you
say
"I love you"
Please let this be the day
You've got me waiting to hear you
say
"I love you"
I've held onto hope, kept holding
on
I lay down my heart and surrender
it to you
You've got me on the edge of hope
To know if you love me too
You've got me waiting to hear you
say
"I love you"
I've held onto hope, kept holding
on
I lay down my heart and surrender
it to you
You've got me on the edge of hope
To know if you love me too
I need to know if this is the way
you feel too
Because I love you”
Noel is taken aback by Leon’s poem.
His words and the way he uses them are the same way he uses them in the letters
he sent her.
“So…you were sending me letters…stupid!
Why didn’t you make the first move?”
“What?”
“Guys are supposed to make the
first move, not the lady!”
“I wouldn’t call you a lady.”
“Tch. The least you can do to make up
for it is give me the first kiss like you’re supposed to.”
“Okay.”
Leon walks to Noel and as he gets
closer, she closes her eyes and waits for his kiss. He gives her a quick kiss
on the lips then moves back.
“Huh? What was that?” Noel asks.
“What?”
“The kiss was supposed to be longer
and you were supposed to hold me while you kissed me.”
“Oh.”
“Seriously, you’re so stupid. What
would you do without me?”
“Live in peace and quiet?”
Noel growls then starts softly hitting
Leon’s face with her fists.
“Idiot, idiot! You’re so stupid!”
Leon grabs Noel’s hands.
“Hey! Let me hit you more-”
Leon kisses and holds Noel like she
wants.
“Was that what I was supposed to
do?”
“Y-yes.” Leon is about to let go of
Noel, but she holds on. “…hug me a bit longer.”
“Okay.”
“…do you really love me?”
“Everything I’ve done hasn’t
convinced you?”
“Smarty. I want to hear you say it.”
“Okay.”
“Then say it!”
“…I love you.”
“Okay.”
“You have to say it too.”
“…I love you too.”
Leon and Noel begin their relationship
at this moment. A moment recorded and heavily photographed by Leon’s parents and
Noel’s parents who were secretly watching them.
The End
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