1 Prologue

If only I hadn't met you that day, Maybe the accident would never have happened. Those nightmares will never haunt me, that misfortune will never follow me and I will not harbor this guilt.

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The little five-year-old girl looked at the big house in front of her, her round eyes sparkling. In her eyes, the mansion was very beautiful, like the castle in the fairy tales in the books she had read. Her little hands touched the high, blue-painted bars of the fence. She tried to peek at what was inside.

Her eyes blinked when she saw a boy playing basketball alone in his large yard, she had never seen the boy before. Not once or twice, she likes to peek at this big house, a house that is usually quiet as if uninhabited. The little girl's round eyes followed what the boy was doing, dribbling, throwing the ball in the basket, running, dribbling again so many times. The little girl's lips curved into a smile, feeling happy. The boy is good at playing ball, his throws are always on target. It looks so much fun and this little girl fantasizes if only she could play along too.

Suddenly the child turned to her, the little girl was shocked because his actions, which had been a secret spectator, were caught. They stared at each other for a moment then a mischievous grin formed at the corner of the boy's lips, the ball in his hand quickly moved, bouncing against the tall blue fence, making the little girl jump, thinking it would hit her face. The little girl reflexively took a step back, while the boy laughed happily.

The little girl pouted, feeling disapproved but the boy smiled at her instead. For some reason his smile looks sincere and friendly, it seems he doesn't mean anything bad, Maibe he is just teasing this little girl. A tap on the shoulder startled the little girl in two braids, causing her to turn around.

"You are here, I have been looking for you for a long time." Said a 10-year-old little girl standing behind her with her friends.

"Hey, Karin." Said the girl with two braids greeting the girl who startled her.

"Let's go home, Mai, what are you doing here?" Karina said. The girl called Karina looked briefly at the big house in front of her.

"Don't play here, the person who owns this house is fierce," she whispered to Mai, the girl with two braids in front of her.

"Let's go home, your mother will look for you," she asked again and grabbed the hand of the girl who was younger than her. Mai nodded. She looked back at the big house but the boy was gone.

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Mai's eyes widened and a smile formed on her lips when she saw the downhill road unfolding before her. Young children always love to go downhill, like a big slide for them. Without thinking, Mai immediately galloped down the downhill road ignoring Karina's warning. Mai laughed and Karina just shook her head with her hands on her hips behind her. The little feet had just stopped running when the corners of their round eyes caught something more interesting, in a playground. She turned to her cousin, who was still walking with her friends, waiting for her sister to catch up with her.

"Ka... Ka... Let's play there," she said while pointing to the playground filled with various children's games. Mai likes to play in the park. Almost every day she plays there.

"We have to go home, Mai, it's already late," said Karina refusing.

"We play tomorrow, okay?" Karina said.

"Just a moment, Ka. I still want to play," Mai said sulkily. Karina was silent then turned to her friends.

"Let's just play first, Ka," said one of them, perhaps feeling uncomfortable with the whining of the youngest little girl among them. Karina pursed her lips, her eyes rolled and she smiled and nodded.

Mai immediately ran again, this time into the playground, again ignoring her cousin's calls and warnings until Karina finally caught up and grabbed her hand.

"Don't run Mai, you'll fall," she said with a look of displeasure.

It seems Karina is angry because Mai has ignored her warning.

Mai looked down, feeling guilty.

"Okay, Ka," she said.

Mai knew that Karina didn't mean to be angry with her. Karina is just worried because sometimes Mai likes to be careless and ends up hurting herself.

"Can I play?" Mai asked while pointing at the swing in the garden.

"Yes, but be careful," said Karina.

Mai nodded, her sad face turned cheerful again. She immediately approached the swing she was pointing at earlier, leaving Karina and her friends who seemed to be busy themselves.

Mai's tiny footsteps stopped when she saw a boy sitting quietly on the swing she was interested in while enjoying ice cream. The child was the child she had seen in the big house earlier. Mai watched the child licking his ice cream voraciously, it seemed delicious. Mai so wanted ice cream, without realizing Mai was getting closer to the child and now standing in front of him, making the child aware that there was someone nearby, he lifted his head.

"What are you looking at?" he said, annoyed.

She watched the boy closely. His hair was dark brown and reddish from the afternoon sun. His skin was pure, too pure for a boy. His eyebrows are thick, his eyes are big round, and brown like his hair, his eyelashes are long and curly, his nose is sharp and his lips are pink. This child even looks beautiful as the dolls in Mai's room.

"Want?" he asked as he handed him his ice cream. Mai was just silent, remembering her mother's message that she was not allowed to accept gifts from strangers. The boy took something from the plastic bag he was carrying.

"I have two but this one is strawberry flavored," he said as he held up a pink ice-cream wrapper. Mai's eyes widened, she almost drooled.

"I like strawberries," Mai said innocently. More precisely, Mai likes strawberry ice cream.

The little boy smiled, handed the ice cream he was holding, Mai quickly took the ice cream. Without speaking she also sat on the swing that was next to the swing the boy was riding on and started eating her strawberry ice cream. For a moment the two children seemed to be competing to see who could finish the ice cream the fastest. The boy finished his ice cream first while Mai's ice cream was still half. The ice cream dripped onto Mai's clothes, her face was also smudged. The boy laughed seeing it.

"You little child, just eat smudged," he said mockingly.

Mai pouted, she didn't like being called a child even though she was still a child.

The boy is also a child even though he is taller than her and Maibe a little older than her but it seems that the boy is not older than Karina, her cousin. Mai hastily finished her ice cream so it wouldn't melt and dirty her clothes too, so the boy wouldn't make fun of her anymore.

"Wanna play with me?" the boy asked her after she finished eating the ice cream and threw the wrapper in the trash. Her mother always taught her cleanliness, trash should be thrown away.

Mai was silent hearing the child's words.

"Want to play with me?" Said the boy by repeating the question. Mai glanced briefly at Karina who was still engrossed in playing and didn't care about her. Mai nodded.

Moments later, Mai and her new friend were seen playing on the swing together, joking, laughing, competing quickly who could swing higher. Of course, the boy won. Mai was too afraid to swing her swing high, she was afraid of falling.

Her new friend suddenly stopped his swing. Mai thought the boy was tired of playing but it turned out that the boy was standing on the swing. A mischievous smile formed on his face. Mai immediately shook her head in disapproval.

"Don't... My father said you shouldn't be like that. Later, you can fall," said Mai with a warning

"It's okay, I want to fly," said the boy.

"Help me push," he asked.

Mai shook her head, feeling scared.

"I'll give you more ice cream, later," coaxed her new friend.

Mai's eyes immediately lit up and she nodded, Mai would never refuse strawberry ice cream. Mai hesitantly pushed the swing that her new friend was riding on, the swing was heavy at first but when she had swung it felt light. The boy laughed happily, not at all scared while Mai was tense but what can she do, this is for strawberry ice cream.

"Faster....!" Said the boy.

"What?" Mai said.

"Faster....!" He says it back.

"You'll fall," Mai said.

"I won't." Said the boy.

Mai rolled her eyes, half-heartedly obeying the orders of the boy she had only just met a few minutes ago. The little girl ignored her inner voice, her father's rules, her cousin's message. But later she regretted that her uncomfortable feelings had turned real, her new friend suddenly slipped and fell. Mai shrieked in fear, she closed her eyes, unable to see.

Oh, God... He fell... He fell...

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