Half the World Apart

3. best friends

"Tomio! Wait for me," Riku grumbled and chased after the taller boy who was ahead of her.

The said boy turned around and stuck his tongue out, jogging back to her, "Short legs."

She glared at her best friend who giggled and patted her fluffy, dark brown hair, "You're like a puppy," he smiled.

"I'm 5'3! I'm not that short. Some people are just blessed to be born tall," she retorted, obviously directing it to her best friend who somehow grew to 5'11.

"No no, some people are just born short," he said before running away to the ice cream shop, Riku not-so-hot on his tail.

It had been about a week since her call with Tokyo.

Truthfully, she had wanted to call back but she was also quite scared of doing so, worried that he'd actually send her number to authorities. She knew he was rich, afterall.

Either way, her best friend had come back from his dad's home in the U.S. after a few months 4 days back and she couldn't be happier.

They decided to visit their ice cream shop they regularly went to as kids today.

"Mint choc?" Tomio asked, to which Riku nodded happily, "I still don't get why you like it so much."

"And I don't get why you don't," retorted the girl who the taller had his arms around.

"I've been away for 7 months and you haven't grown any taller," he sighed, jokingly, "Look, you still have the perfect height for my armrest."

"You say that as if you grew any taller," she spat, taking her ice cream and bowing politely to the staff.

"I did, actually — 2cm," he grinned at a bewildered Riku.

"You're lying," she waved off before picking up a piece of tissue and wiping the ice cream off the grinning boy's lips.

"I-I'm not," he said, his smile gone, eyes wide and cheeks sporting a faint pink as he speedily walked away.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Riku said, shrugging it off and threw her empty ice cream cup into the nearby trash bin before running up to an unsuspecting Tomio and jumping on his back.

"You finished your ice cream already?" He said, struggling to hold his almost finished cone with his other hand holding his friend up so that they didn't fall, "Get off me!"

"Considering your height, you'd have thought you were strong enough to carry a 5'3 girl," she said, unbothered, making herself comfortable.

"Maybe if she wasn't so heavy,"

"Walk faster,"

They continued with their antics, Riku unaware of her abandoned phone ringing at the ice cream shop.

☆

word count: 434 words