One SHOT #1: A Christmas Promise [Christmas Project 2013]

A Christmas Promise

By: nikolojeyb

"I, Yamada Ryosuke, swear to never forget the bond and the friendship I have with Chinen Yuri and Nakajima Yuto. I swear to always keep the memories we shared with each other." 

I can still remember that day. That one Christmas day that we swore to each other to keep our friendship. Yamada, Yuto and I were best friends since we were kids. But when we stepped in to high school, Yamada has to study in Australia and leave Yuto and I in our Japan. That Christmas was the day of Yamada's departure, that was the day that we made our promise to each other. We made a pinky swear and wrote our promise in a piece of paper, put it in a box and buried it under our favorite tree in the park where we usually hang out. We were only sixteen back then, we didn't expect that things would change as time pass by. 

Seven years have passed and Yuto and I already graduated from college. About Yamada, we have lost touch with him two years after he left. We didn't have any news about him for five years. We got a job in an advertising company and we will be working with Johnny's agency talents. On our first day at work, we had a meeting regarding our first project. It turned out that we will be working with Hey Say Best for their new CM. And we were also assigned as part of the team who will be introducing their two new members.

The members came for the meeting, one by one. Takaki Yuya came first, then, Hikaru Yaotome and Arioka Daiki. Kota Yabu and Inoo Kei came together. The original members are so nice and friendly. They treat us like we are their friends. Okamoto Keito came after a few minutes. 

"I wonder what happened to Yama-chan? He is late today." Keito said. 

So, they call him Yama-chan. His name reminds me of our best friend, Yamada. Does he still remember us? Will he still recognize us? Will he still remember the memories we shared? 

"O, Yama-chan, what happened? You're late." My thoughts were interrupted when Yabu spoke. 

"Ah, gomen ne, Yabu-kun. I woke up late today. I almost forgot about our meeting." Yamada said, scratching the back of his neck. Smiling shyly at his new groupmates. 

"Yamada!" Yuto and I blurted out together. We ran towards him and hugged him. 

"O, matte, matte. I didn't know I already have fans here. And I didn't expect they'd be fan boys." Yamada said, smiling widely. 

"Eh? Fans? Fan boys? Yamada, don't you remember us?" Yuto said in surprise. Yamada just looked at him, confused. 

"Sorry, but I don't know you. And I don't think you know me. You are just fans, right? You don't have to pretend that you know me." He said. 

"We are not pretending. Maybe we have just mistaken you for our best friend. You look like him and you also have the same name. I'm sorry for bothering you." I said apologetically. 

"Chinen, why are you apologising to him? We both know that we are not mistaken. He was our best friend and he has forgotten us. He broke his promise." Yuto angrily said to me. 

He's right, but I had to pretend otherwise, I don't want to lose our job just because of that best friend who broke his promise. I am mad at him, but we have to hold on to our jobs. And Yuto understood my point, so he and I chose to pretend to not know Yamada. 

Many months have passed and it's almost Christmas time. Eight years after Yamada left us only to be forgotten. Our project leader asked us if we could suggest a place where we can shoot their Christmas CM and the promotional video for their Christmas single and Yuto suggested the park where we used to play and hang out. 

"Okay. This is the perfect place for the CM. Thanks for suggesting it, Yuto." Our leader said. I don't know why Yuto chose to suggest this place. This park holds too much of our memories with Yamada. And to think that Yamada doesn't even remember being friends with us, going to this place makes it more painful to accept. 

"Why did you suggested it?" I asked Yuto. 

"Because I want to move on. I don't want to remember anything about this place and Yamada anymore. I want to create another memory here to cover up for the memories of our lost best friend. I want to forget him already," he answered. 

"But we promised to not forget each other, have you forgotten that?" 

"He was the first to break his promise. He has already forgotten us. So, there's no use in keeping that promise. We have to grow up and move on and accept the fact that his life now doesn't include us anymore." I can feel pain in his every word. He is really hurt with everything that has happened. 

The days have have passed and it's Christmas day already. I promised Yuto that we will be taking out the box we buried eight years ago and burn those promises we made. Yuto believes that it will help us move on. It is our day off and we agreed to meet on the same place. Today is the day that we will free ourselves from Yamada's memories. 

"Sumimasen, Chinen-san, Nakajima-san?" A girl interrupted us. 

"Hai?" We both said. The girl has blonde hair but her facial features are inmistakeably Japanese, and her accent tells us that she didn't grow up here in Japan. Behind her stands the one that we decided to forget. Yamada Ryosuke. 

"Hi, ano, my brother here wanted to talk to you. But he is too shy to approach you because of what happened the first time you met." She said. We looked at Yamada and saw that his eyes are different. So different from the eyes he wears when he is with HSB. He now wears the eyes that we missed. 

"Okay, you can talk while we unbury our box here. You can talk, and we will listen." Yuto said coldly and went back to what we are doing. 

"Ano, I'm sorry. I don't know how to start. I don't know what to say. But believe it or not, I didn't mean to forget about you, guys." He started, but seemed to not know what to say next. He looked back at the girl for help. 

"Six years ago, his family had an accident. He lost everything, his parents died, and he even lost his memories. He lived a new life with my family and later on, we decided to go back here to Japan, with the hopes that he can recover his memories here," she explained. 

"Thanks for bringing me here, Chinen-san, Yuto-kun. This place helped me regain my memories. It helped me remember the promise I made for you, guys. Now, I want to keep my promise with you. I want to have my best friends back." Yamada said. 

"Okay, so let's take out our promise? We will keep it as a reminder of our promise. A token of our friendship." Yuto said. All three of us got the box out of the soil and we opened it and read our promises to each other. 

We are so happy to have Yamada back. It wasn't really his intention to forget us. He didn't leave us. He came back for us. And this is the best Christmas gift we ever received in eight years.

-End-