Over the Mountain

CHAPTER 2: YOUNG

CHAPTER 2: YOUNG

“You are too young to enter the mountain alone,” he said and slowly let go of my hand when he already secured that I’m good. “Why are you here? Are you lost?”

I didn’t answer and I’m just staring at him. He realizes that I was staring at him intently that’s why he shifted his weight and straightened his back. He repeated his question and when I still didn’t answer, that’s when he pinches my arm. I groan and looks at him with daggers, but it didn’t shake him at all.

I caress the part where he pinches and rolls my eyes at him. He sincerely apologizes for pinching me and he stated his reason why he did it. I understand him but I didn’t say it aloud. I remained silent, letting my eyes examine him as well as the mountain behind him. I was busy looking around the green kingdom when he takes one step forward towards me, making my attention back on him again. He catches me off-guard when he lifted his hand and did something to my head. I only realized what he is doing when he finally takes one step backward, his hand handling a piece of dry leaves.

I breathe in when I felt my breath hitch. My brows went straight-line again when I realized what was just happened. I am too innocent to know what happened why I felt the hitch of my breath. I shook my head and just sigh to relax.

“Are you lost? Are you hiking? Where is your guardian?” he asks again.

“I’m not lost. No, I’m not hiking. My guardians are on our house,” I answered casually.

He looks at me like he is discounted about my answer, so I just show him my wry smile. He looks at the side and sighs before returning his gaze to me. “How old are you?”

His question jolted me. Usually, people who first time to meet me will ask for my name, but him? He asks my age than my name. I almost blurted a peal of laughter, but I restrained myself. I pinch my index so I can restrain myself from laughing. I clear my throat and think before answering him.

“Honest,” he immediately stated as if he reads what’s on my mind.

I pouted and rolled my eyes at him. “Nine. I’m nine,”

Silence fell between us after I answered him. He is looking on his side, on the horizon while I am just staring at him. He whistled and placed his both hands in his pocket before looking back at me. I don’t know if how many times I rolled my eyes at him especially when he started lecturing me about entering the mountain alone. He keeps on telling me that I’m still young to climb the mountain. He emphasizes my age and my tiny figure that I almost break into kicking him. Good thing I remembered that he resembles the boy my grandma is talking to yesterday.

When I ask him why he comes into our house yesterday, he unbelievably stared at me for a second. Then when he moves, he gently held my wrist and pulls me to follow him. I wanted to complain but then again, I felt something strange as I look at his hand holding my wrist.

Am I that young that I don’t know exactly what I am feeling right now that he is holding my wrist? Am I that tiny that my wrist perfectly fits his palm? From his hand on my wrist, my eyes travel up to his back. I don’t how old he is, but I am sure that he is just a year older than me. I can say that he is the same age as brother Lui—my cousin on my mother’s side which is twelve years old. But this boy is way manly for his age.

“Wait,” I said and pulled back my wrist back it remains inside his palm.

“What?” he asks as he turns around to face me.

“How old are you?” I bitchily ask.

Instead of answering me, he just curves his lips to form a small smile before continuing to walk. I stomp my feet and rant as he walks ahead of me, but he never gives any comment. He just let me rant, complain, and bubble. I look at him madly when I accidentally bump against his back when he suddenly stops walking.

Again, he gently let go of my hand and face me. We are already outside the starting point of the mountain. We are now on the road and from where I am standing, I could already see our house, our village.

“What?” I ask, raising my voice a bit.

His left brow raises, trying to hide his smirk. “You are your grandma’s carbon copy,”

The corner of my lips tugs up because of his statement. “I know. And we are both beautiful. Even my mom. She’s beautiful. No one is ugly in our family,”

Finally, his smirks show up which turns into a soft chuckle. “Yeah.” He agreed as he chuckle. “Let’s go,” he said and led the walk.

Stomping my feet, I followed him and walk on our village road. Not bad. In the city, there are tons of high buildings, coffee shops, and malls but here, all you can is the green mountain, simple houses, and small stalls but the atmosphere is way different from the city’s atmosphere. Here, you inhale and exhale the same air but in the city, the air is already polluted. In the city, tons of cars are on the road, their horn breaks your ear while here, you can only see a few vehicles but more people walking, just like us.

Out of nowhere, I started to tell my city life to this stranger boy. When I mentioned that I was from the city, he turns his head on me and I know that his full attention was already on mine. I continue talking while we continue walking and he just remained listening to me, but he also sometimes asks a follow-up question until we reach our house.

“Aish! I thought you are already lost in the village!” Mom worriedly said that made me cringe.

“I’m here now, Mom,” I answered.

“Is that Mochi already? Is she back?” grandma asks as she went to us.

“Mochi…” I heard the boy beside me murmur, so I just rolled my eyes.

My family went out of the house one by one after Mom announces that I’m back. It feels like I was in AWOL for a long time and just went home now. They were all worried, I know that. I am the only granddaughter, as of now so I understand them. But hey! There is someone, a stranger who is watching us. And I’m…shy?

All eyes suddenly diverted to the boy beside me who’s been silent ever since we arrive. My grandma squints her eyes to the boy beside me who suddenly laughs from nowhere. I was stunned to hear him laugh instantly. He’s been just smirking since I met him in the mountain and then he just instantly laughs now just because grandma squints her eyes? My brows meet in the middle again as I turn in his direction which stops him from laughing.

“Hay, so you two already met,” grandma said. “She was curious about you since yesterday—“

“Grandma!” I shouted in horror to stop her when the boy beside me burst out from laughing.