"Tris-ah! Let's get married when we grow up!" An eight year old Bryan exclaimed to a seven year old Tristan as they sat under the night sky, stargazing.
"Sure! Promise?" Tristan looked to his side, to the older boy and asked, a wide smile plastered on his face. The night sky was reflected in his eyes. They were beautiful. It was as if his eyes held the whole galaxy.
"Promise."
The two innocent boys intertwined their pinkies, making a pinky promise to each other.
One kept it to his heart and the other...
The two childhood friends were once inseparable. Despite having a year gap, both of them made sure to be with each other throughout their elementary school years. They were always seen together when they didn't have class. Everyone thought they were cute but tristan had one fear. And that was Bryan graduating earlier than him and going to a new level of education, which would be middle school. He was afraid that they would eventually grow apart. Unfortunately for him, it became true. When Bryan entered middle school, he changed slightly. He had new friends and would hang out with them more than he did with Tristan. Bryan had told Tristan that he needed more mature friends and Tristan was merely a grade schooler. Tristan was deeply hurt by it. Tristan thought everything would go back to normal by the time he entered middle school but that didn't happen. Bryan stuck with his own group of friends and didn't pay much attention to him. Tristan was disheartened. He craved for the older's attention. He wanted Bryan to look at him but it seemed like he could never catch up to him. When Bryan entered highschool, things became worse. He wouldn't even spare the middle schooler a glance, as if he had wanted to get rid of Tristan. The younger was heartbroken. When Tristan had finally caught up and entered highschool, things got slightly better. Bryan would greet him whenever they passed by each other but they never hung out. There were awkward moments between them too and that was where they were at right now.
They had a school festival that lasted til the night and they were both currently locked in the art classroom. How did that happen?
Tristan was tasked to bring back the art materials back into the art storeroom located in one of the art classrooms. He frowned as he approached the classroom, noticing how the switch to the lights was positioned outside of the classroom. Maybe they made a mistake when building it. He shrugged it off and turned on the lights before entering the classroom. He walked towards the storeroom situated at the back of the classroom where it could not be seen from the entrance of the classroom and opened the door to it. He jumped when he saw a figure in the dark storeroom which the light from the classroom shone dimly in, dropping the art materials that were in his hands.
"Tristan?" The figure turned around and spoke. It was Bryan.
"B-Bryan?" Tristan hurriedly picked up the dropped materials. "Why didn't you turn on the lights when you came in?"
"Wanted to just put my painting back, it was supposed to be quick" Bryan replied simply.
"I s-see..." Tristan looked around the storeroom, trying to look for the original compartments where the art supplies were from but got confused since he didn't do art. The older watched and sighed. He took the art supplies from Tristan and helped him to put them back. Tristn smiled softly to himself. Bryan was still kind and nice. He noticed a damaged painting. It seemed like someone had destroyed it with a cutter knife. It was a painting of an eye that held the galaxy and the night sky. Instead of an pupil, the iris was filled with stars in the night sky. It looked beautiful yet creepy but that was what made it extraordinary. Tristan felt a weird wave of emotions overcoming him when he saw the painting. He couldn't quite describe how he exactly felt though. He just felt weird. It was such a shame the creator had decided to destroy such a masterpiece. He reached his hand out to touch it but felt a strong grip on his wrist. He looked down to see the hand grabbing onto his wrist. His eyes then travelled up to the owner of the hand and met with Bryan's serious eyes.
"Don't touch." Bryan warned, his tone threatening. Tristan quickly pulled his hand away, feeling intimidated by Bryan's sharp gaze.
"Im sorry..." Tristan quickly apologised and took one last glance at the painting. With how Bryan had reacted, it must had been his.
Before both of them could say something again, the lights were suddenly switched off, causing Tristan to crouch down in fear and bury his head between his knees. Tristan was afraid of the dark. He had always been. Bryan instinctively kneeled down and pulled him into hug and rubbed his back softly. He always did this when they were kids. He knew how scared Tristan was.
"Hey, shhh... I'm here, you're not scared when you're not alone right?" Bryan said in a soothing voice and pat the younger's head softly. Tristan finally looked up and nodded his head. He was right. Bryan was with him. He wasn't alone in the dark. He immediately felt better. As long as someone was with him, he was fine.
"I will go check..." Bryan got up once he saw that Tristan was fine. He turned around to leave the storeroom when he felt a tug on his sleeve.
"I'm following" Tristan got up from the floor and followed the older to the door.
Bryan turned on the door knob multiple times but it wouldn't budge.
"Damn it..." Bryan cussed under his breath and turned to face the younger. "Looks like they locked us in... Do you have your phone with you?"
"No... I left it in my bag."
"Ah... how convenient. Mine died." Bryan sighed. "Don't worry though, my friends will probably come looking for me if I didn't return."
Tristan nodded his head, feeling better after hearing that.
An awkward silence filled the whole room. Even though Tristan missed the older so much and wanted to talk to him, he wasn't sure how to start a conversation with him anymore. They hadn't have a proper conversation in years. Tristan had so many questions for Bryan. Why did he distance himself from him? Why did he ignore him? Did he do something wrong to make him dislike him? Tristan was desperate for answers but he knew this wasn't the right time to ask them. So instead, he asked, "Why did you destroy that painting?"
"Because it's not perfect" Bryan sighed softly for the second time. "It's not what I wanted it to be like. It's not what I wanted to convey."
"I thought it was perfect. I think I managed to catch what you wanted to tell" Tristan watched as the older took a seat on one of the chairs.
"That's because it's you..." He could hear Bryan mumble but he didn't quite get it. What did it have to do with him? He shrugged it off and looked out of the window. The night sky today was just as beautiful as the one they saw when they made the promise.
"Do you remember how we would stargaze at night when we were young?" Tristan asked.
"Yeah."
"And sometimes we couldn't even spot any because it was cloudy" Tristan giggled, reminiscing the times they had spent together.
"Mhm."
Tristan glanced at the older and noticed how a smile had formed on his face. Tristan smiled even wider. He was happy to see Bryan comfortable and smiling with him again.
"I wish we can do that again... not in this classroom of course."
"..."
"Do you remember the promise we made? Why... why did you leave me?"
"Stop." Bryan said, frustrated. "Tristan. Stop."
"I-"
The door suddenly opened.
"Bryan-ah! Gosh! You're always getting into trouble, I really have to keep an eye on you 24/7!" Bryan's friend, Steve exclaimed.
"Ah, thanks for saving me like always" bryan smiled and walked towards the door, leaving tristan behind. Tristan was left all alone. The lights were on again. It was bright again, but he was alone. Tears streamed down his face and he bit his bottom lips as he sobbed. Bryan had left him once again. He wanted to reach out to bryan, but he never could.
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"Bryan it's time to go!" Steve waved from the side.
Bryan nodded at steve before finally placing a bouquet of carnations by the gravestone. A young boy watched quietly as he sat on the grass patch.
"Are you leaving me again? Why?"
"Because you're my hallucination."
One kept it to his heart and the other....
Kept it in his memories.
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Explanation: Tristan passed away when bryan just entered middle school. Bryan kept seeing Tristan in his dreams and in his visions. Tristan was his hallucination. When bryan had told Tristan that he was just a grade schooler, he was implying that Tristan was too childish for him, which meant that bryan thought that his imagination of Tristan was immature and he needed to get rid of him as soon as possible. He is also the reflection of Bryan. The emotions Tristan had felt, they were Bryan's. When Tristan had questioned why Bryan had left and ignored him, it was like how bryan questioned why Tristan had left him so early. Bryan tried his best to ignore him, to forget about him, but he just couldn't. He tried to embrace it in his second year of highschool, "bryan would greet him whenever they passed by each other" but it was too painful for him. Steve was the first friend bryan made after tristan had passed. He managed to keep bryan distracted from Tristan and thus, "saving" him multiple times before he could sink deeper into his hallucinations of Tristan. The young boy at the graveyard is Taehyun, Bryan's last hallucination of him. He had finally decided to let go, to accept the truth that Tristan was really gone and the one that he kept seeing wasn't real, thus he visited the gravesite to finally bid goodbye to tristan. Carnations symbolise eternal grief, love and loyalty. Tristan kept the promise to his heart and took it to the grave with him. Bryan kept the promise in his memories, since Tristan had became a memory.
A/n: if it's still confusing to you, feel free to ask and comment. I actually changed the original plot that I had in mind. I think this turned out pretty well in my opinion, better than the original plot that I thought of. Also go check out my new story Inhuxis :-) ( shamelessly doing self promo)
