Purple Ink (SatoGou)

Chapter 1

You were red and you liked me 'cause I was blue

But you touched me and suddenly I was a lilac sky

~ Colors- Halsey

Hi again everyone. It took me a long while to get this started. I rewrote the first chapter three times. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I really like the plot idea for this story, and I really want it to work. It was originally inspired by the song 'ceilings' by Lizzy Mcalpine. If you wanna listen to that and you listen to the lyrics you'll hear it's kinda about imagining these romantic scenarios with someone that's not really there. Not that Goh doesn't exist, but y'know, he's not there with Ash.

I hope you all enjoy. <3

Nobody remembers much from when they were seven, but I think I remember more than most. There are whole, vivid memories amongst the fractured, mismatched pieces from random days out of chronological order. There are people, some that I still know, and some that I don't, so clear I can picture them standing in front of me, years later. But, if I wanted to remember everything, all I'd have to do is look back on the letters from Red.

I first met Red about five months after my seventh birthday. I was an outgoing kid, always full of energy and never able to sit still. I had a lot of friends- if you asked me for a list at the time, I'd probably name every single kid in my class. Talking to new people was one of my favourite things, and I'd constantly bombard them with questions, full of so much curiosity I could barely contain it. So, at the end of the first month of school, when the teacher told us they were starting a new 'pen pal' program, I was pretty stoked.

The idea was simple: They partnered us up with a random kid at another school somewhere in the country, and we would write back and forth to one another. The kids at the other school had written first. Once they'd all arrived, the teacher greeted us in the morning holding a pile of them, a big grin on her face. Dawn was buzzing beside me, practically bouncing in her chair, eager to read what her pen pal had written to her. Even at seven, she described the whole idea as 'very romantic'. I didn't understand what she meant.

Dawn's my best friend, even now. We met when we were three years old, just before nursery school. My mom and her mom met first, in a parent's meeting they attended before they sent us there. They decided to set up a playdate for us, so we'd know each other on the first day, and not be in a room full of strangers. According to my mom, we sat in a sand pit outside while they sat drinking tea in the kitchen, watching us through the french doors. They thought we were getting along, until I started pulling Dawn's hair, and she cried so loud the neighbour popped her head over the garden fence to see what was going on.

Despite the rocky start, we did gravitate towards each other at school. By the age of six, we were pretty inseparable, even if we did argue more than we had regular conversations. When my mom asked about her, putting on the baby voice she'd never stopped using, I'd tell her I didn't like Dawn, but she'd just smile, like she knew I was lying.

The teacher circled our desks, placing letters in front of us, in little white envelopes. The front of Dawn's read 'pen pal' in strangely neat writing for a seven-year-old. She stared at it in awe, holding it up with both hands. I rolled my eyes at her, and looked down at mine. The handwriting on mine was also a lot neater than mine was, but instead of 'pen pal', mine said 'stranger'.

I opened it, blinking down at the lines, eyes darting across them so quick I had to read it twice to actually take in any of the words.

Dear stranger,