Teddy Bear

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

TW: Mentions of cancer

9 years ago...

It's been a while since I last saw Rui. My parents were too busy to take me to the park–constantly working, being adults. This past month, dad has been frequently going to the hospital a few times a week. I never knew what it was for. Every time I'd ask, dad would always say, "I go to get stronger!". However, every week he lost more weight and recently had to shave his hair. My mom was always exhausted and stressed. She recently told me and dad about her going back to college. 

I noticed it all the time, but my parents try their best to hide it. Sometimes, either mom or Uncle Ken would join him at the hospital. At the house, usually, Auntie Cel and I would be together. She'd always take me to the park whenever I asked, well, annoyed her to go. Every time we went, I tried to look for the boy who helped me. I went to the tree where I met him, by the monkey bars, the swings, and the field. However, I never saw him again.  

Until one day... 

My parents drove me to a big house. Like a hugeeeee house. I gawked at the size of it as we drove closer to its entrance. It was white, had humongous windows, and pretty plants lined the front. Dad parked in the front of the house, just past its black metal gate. He came to open my door and helped me out of my car seat.  

He carried me with his strong arms and chuckled as he pats my hair, "Ara, we are about to meet a friend from college." He rests his forehead, hidden underneath a cap, against my tiny one, "I want you to be on your best behavior. Ok?"  

I nodded, "Ok, daddy." 

He smiles, bringing me back to the ground, and pecks my forehead, "Good." My mom came to our side and took my hand in hers. She seemed apprehensive–her palm was sweaty as I held it. I squeezed her hand, "Mommy, are you nervous?" My mom bends down to meet at eye level, and she bumps my nose with her finger, "Of course, not honey. With you, I could never be nervous." I smiled as she delivers a quick kiss on my cheek.

She stands back up again and makes eye contact with dad as he sends her a reassuring smile. I look towards the door before my dad knocks. The door opens immediately to reveal a man dressed in a suit. He motions for us to enter by saying, "Welcome Mr. and Mrs. Sasithorn, please come in, Madam Aira is expecting you." 

A woman walked into the foyer to meet us, and she immediately went to hug my mom. She was short, had a black pixie haircut, and wore a hot pink floor-length sundress. She turned to my father and hugged him as well. "You're looking well, Tan. How are you doing with...", she paused and my dad replies, "It's been going fine." She smiles sadly but, pats his shoulder. Then, she turns to me, "Hi munchkin." She bends down to meet me and softly pinches my cheek. The beautiful lady says to me, "My name is Naiyana Aira. You can call me Auntie Nai. What is your name?"   

I glance at my mom to get a signal if it's ok to give my name. She nods, "Go ahead, Ara." I faced the woman who wore a sweet smile and shyly said, "I'm Nova Chanthira Sasithorn," hiding behind my mother's legs. Auntie Nai claps her hands and exclaims, "You are so cute. Ugh, what a darling." My parents smile at me, and I suddenly felt more comfortable in her presence. 

"How old are you, Nova?", she asks as she cups her face with both hands. "I'm eight," I replied. 

My mom ruffles my hair, and the woman continues, "Wow! You're the same age as Ren! Do you know his birthday is coming up? Do you want to come to his party?" 

My dad says, "Sure, P'Nai, we'll be there." Nai claps her hands excitedly and asked me, "That's perfect. Do you want to meet Ren?"

"Ren?" I asked, wondering who that could be. She nods, "You can find him out in the backyard. He should be there." I glanced at my parents, and my dad bends down, "Why don't you meet him?" Auntie Nai nods, "Don't worry, darling, Ren is a nice boy. You go on ahead while your parents and I will talk."  

I looked between them, and suddenly mom's demeanor changed. Dad pats my back and says, "Go on now Ara, we'll be inside if you need anything."  I looked towards the outside, gaining sudden anxiety about getting lost. 

Auntie Nai noticed and walks towards me, offering her soft, manicured hand, "Here, come with me darling, I'll take you to the backyard. We have a set of swings, a slide, and a pool. Do you want to see it?" I hesitantly take her hand, and she smiled at me for trusting her.  

She turns to my parents, "Make yourselves comfortable, I've got to escort this pretty princess." Mom and dad wave at me as we leave. Despite the house being a bit chilly inside, it was refreshing on this hot summer day. We walked through the fancy hallway of the mansion, and I glimpsed at all the modern décor, splashes of neutral tones, and the magnificent chandeliers.  

"You have a big house." I aimlessly said. "It is really big huh? But I love it." she chuckled. We walk out into the vast backyard of the mansion. I saw a large white pool and, to the side of it, a play structure.

"Ren! Ren! Where are you?" Auntie Nai yelled.

"Mom! I'm over here!"

She lets go of my hand and tries to locate the sound of the voice. I watched as she yelled towards a tree, "Get down from there Rui! What did I tell you about climbing trees? Your father will be very upset." My ears perk up at the name she uttered, Rui

A small silhouette of a boy climbs down the tree as fast as he could. Auntie Nai turns around to look at me standing awkwardly on the steps. She motions for me to come towards her with her hand, "Come, Nova." Ren ran to his mother, holding a cute brown, teddy bear in his arm. He sees a young girl with pigtails, wearing blue overalls and a yellow striped shirt, make her way towards his mother. Who's this? he wonders. Auntie Nai grabs my hand and puts me in front of her, resting both hands on top of my shoulders, "Ren this is Nova. She is a family friend of ours." I look at the boy clearly and see that he is somehow familiar to me, despite this being our first-time meeting. Or so I thought.  He shyly stops in front of me and slightly waves his hand, "Hi Nova." I smile timidly at him.  

Auntie Nai smiled at us and says, "Great, play with each other, okay? Nova, I will be with your parents inside." I nodded to her as she turned to her son and asks, "Honey, are your friends still coming over later?"  

Ren nods, "They will be here in about an hour," Auntie Nai says, "All right." She waves at us as she leaves, "Don't hurt yourselves while playing. Ren, don't climb those trees."  

"Ok, I won't!" he yells back, and we watch as his mother disappears within the mansion. We awkwardly stood together on the grass. I peek at his face, and he peeks at mine, quickly looking away out of embarrassment. I cleared my throat while combing through my ponytail and asked, "Have we met before?"  

"That was what I was thinking!", he suddenly exclaimed. I jumped in surprise at his sudden burst of energy as he asked, "Are you the girl I met a year ago? At the park? Where you got lost?" I gasped, "Rui?!" 

He nods, showing a smile. I looked at his front teeth and saw that they grew in since the last time we met. I pointed at his teeth and said, "Wow! Your teeth grew too? Mine did too!" I showed him my toothy smile, and he laughed, "You are still as silly as I remembered." I blushed at his comment, as he asked, "Do you want to go on the swings?"  

I looked towards the play structure, at the red swings, and said, "Sure." We walked together and sat next to each other on the swings. We both idly swung on our seats as we listened to the chirping of the birds around us and enjoyed the slow breeze of this hot, summer afternoon. I glanced at him and saw he was still holding the bear while clutching the chains of the swing. I smiled at this and asked, "What's your bear's name?" He looked down at his bear and replied, "Bear is his name."  

I giggled, "Bear?"  

He smiled at me, "Why? Do you not like his name?" I shook my head, "It's funny you named him after what he is." He shrugs, "I'm not good at making names." I bobbed my head at his response, a smirk playing on my lips.  

I looked away and thought, should I ask him about the park? I played with my fingers and stopped swinging. Ren noticed and stopped as well. "What's wr-?" 

"Why did you stop going to the park?" I blurted out.  

He blinks at my sudden question, "The park?"  

I bobbed my head while biting my lip. He paused and thought about my question, though, his expression was different–more reserved.

I continued to listen until he answered, "My dad had this play structure built for me so, that I wouldn't have to go to the park anymore."  

"Why?" 

He shrugged and started to swing again, "I guess he didn't want me going out as much anymore. Told me to focus on my studies."  

I continue looking at his deflated form and hesitantly asked, "Where is your dad?"

He sighs, "At work, where he's always at."

"Don't you get lonely though?" I wondered. He smirks, "You were worried about me this whole time?" I widened my eyes and looked away from him. I stuttered, "N-no, I'm just curious."

"I'm just teasing." 

I felt my cheeks heat a couple of notches and my eyes avoided his gaze. He goes on to explain, "It does get lonely but, I have my friends from school, they come around a lot." 

"Your friends?"  

"Mhm, Thyme, P'MJ, Kavin, and P'Mira," he explained. I piqued interest when he said, Mira. It wasn't because I knew her, it was because I suddenly felt a little jealousy deep down. He continues, "Anyway, you'll meet them soon, except P'Mira. She's in France right now with her family." 

"Sir Ren!", a voice calls out. We both turn to the source and see a maid with three boys next to her. He turns to me and hands me Bear. I look at him surprisedly as he asks, "Hold him for me?" Before I can respond, Ren waves, "Come over here guys!" The boys run towards us while screaming and pushing each other. "Ren!", all three voices shout consecutively. Ren laughs as he runs towards them and jumps on them as they all fall–Ren on top, the three all beneath him. I chuckled as I watched the best friends all laugh and hug each other.  

"Why did you have to do that Ren?! Ugh, my back hurts." the boy with long hair expresses as he massages his back. A boy with glasses pushes Ren playfully, "Get off of us already!" Ren chuckles as he stands up and offers his hand to each of them one by one. The boy wearing a tiger-print shirt spots me, and points directly at me, causing all the boys to look at me, "Who is that?"  

I gulp nervously as Ren smiles and motions for me to walk to them. I clutch Bear tight to my chest and once I stood next to Ren, he introduced me, "Meet, Nova." He turns to me and points at the boys individually introducing them, "This guy with the glasses is Kavin, the guy with long hair is P'MJ, and this guy with the tiger shirt is Thyme."  

MJ and Kavin smile at me as I bow my head timidly, "Hi guys." However, Thyme had a sour expression on his face. "Nice to meet you, Nova, I didn't know Ren was friends with a cutie," Kavin teased. Ren pushes him, and they both wrestle on the grass. I was stunned, to say the least, and a bit embarrassed, but MJ draped his arm on my shoulder, "Don't mind them, Kavin's a natural tease." He winks and takes his arm off as he claps his hands, "Ok guys! Break it up."  

"No!" Kavin and Ren both say as they tackle MJ to the ground. I giggled aimlessly and hid my smile with Ren's teddy bear as I watched the boys play. I felt a heating stare next to me, and I turn to see Thyme looking at me with anger in his eyes. He asks, "Why do you have Bear?" 

I look at Bear, and back at him, I hugged it tighter, "P'Ren told me to hold on to it." Thyme narrowed his eyes at me, "Bull! He would never let a stranger hold Bear, that's the most important thing to him." I turned away from Thyme, ignoring him, "Hmph, well I'm not a stranger to P'Ren."  

Thyme huffs as he goes over to me and pulls on Bear's arm, "Give him to me!"  

I tug it towards me and yelled, "No! He gave this to me to protect!"  

"Give it to me! Stop being so difficult!" he tugs stronger but, I meet him with the same strength. I struggled as I tried with all my might to retrieve Bear, but a slow rip starts to grow on Bear's poor arm and we both fell backward, hearing a loud rip. I fell to the grass and I looked at Bear's tiny arm that rested on my hand. Tears start to well up in my eyes as I looked up in horror. Ren, MJ, and Kavin walk toward us as Thyme gets up and raises Bear in the sky, "Look what you did! You tore his arm off!" 

Ren looks at me and Thyme with a hurt expression on his face. I quickly stood up, clutching Bear's arm and tears flowed down my face. I shook my head, "I-I'm sor-s-sorry R-Rui." I looked at Thyme and the guys before running away, guilt-ridden in my heart. Thyme brushed away the grass on Bear while ticking his lips, "Psh, so reckless."  

"Thyme, you didn't have to make her cry like that," MJ said to his friend. Kavin nodded as Thyme shrugged, "Didn't you see what she did?" Ren takes Bear out of his grasp and Thyme looked at him shocked. Ren says, "And you are just as guilty Thyme. I saw you." Thyme began to say, "We-" but Ren ran off with Bear in his hand. Kavin put his hand on Thyme's shoulder, stopping him from doing anything stupid, and says, "Come on, let's do something else." 

... 

I didn't know where to go. I didn't want my mom and dad to see me like this. I ran to the other side of this gigantic yard and spotted a white gazebo. I look further, to see if anyone was around and once it was clear, I sprinted towards it. I went up the steps of the gazebo and caught my breath as I sat on the cold, black, metal bench. The warmth of Bear's hand comforted me in a way but, when I looked at it, I felt like crying again. I'm so stupid, why did I do that? 

"Can I sit?"  

I quickly looked up to see who asked and found Ren standing at the entrance, with a torn-up Bear in his left hand. I sniffed and wiped my nose with my forearm, "Aren't you mad at me?" He shook his head as he walked to sit next to me on the bench. When he sat, I looked away ashamed at what I had just done. He sighs, "I'm not mad at you. After all, it's just a toy."  

"But you love that toy. And I," I hiccupped. "I ruined it. I ruined it and I was supposed to protect hi-him."  

"Ara, look at me."  

I looked at his face for the first time and saw he truly wasn't mad. Instead, he had a grin on his face. The sun reflected at the back of his head, making him look like a prince or an angel. He grins at me, "I forgive you. Don't beat yourself up over it. I knew Thyme has a part to play in this as well."  

I could only answer him with a sniffle. I was speechless, looking at this mature boy who had so much forgiveness to give. He breaks our eye contact and looks away towards the view outside, past the gazebo. He held Bear in one hand and with his other, he offers to me. I look at him in confusion and he tilts his head towards the exit, "Let's join the rest."  

I blushed and looked at his hand before meeting his soft, brown eyes. I wiped the last of my tears as I grabbed his hand, feeling electrifying signals as soon as our hands touched.  I smiled, "Ok."  

... 

Ren and I meet the boys and they stopped playing catch as we walked toward them. Kavin pushes Thyme forward and Ren lets go of my hand as Thyme walked closer to us. Thyme rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and said, "I-uh." He looks back at the MJ and Kavin and they both motion for him to say something. I watched and waited for him as he says, "I'm sorry."  

He turns to Ren and says, "I'm sorry, Ren." A small grin lifts on my lips as I stuck my hand out, "Truce?" Thyme looks at my hand and enveloped his on mine, "Truce." Kavin and MJ celebrate by clapping, "Wooo! All right! Come on, let's play guys!" 

Thyme runs back to them and I turn to Ren. Ren says to me, "I don't know what to do with this now." He examined Bear, and I cleared my throat, "I can take him!"  

He raised an eyebrow, "You want to take a torn teddy bear?"  

"Sure, I think it's a waste if you threw him away."  

He chuckles as he hands me the bear, "All right. He's all yours." I smiled back at him, hugged the bear close to my heart, and say, "I'll make sure to take care of him this time."  

...

Note:

For future reference, as the story progresses, there will be harder topics and deeper topics. I will make sure to provide a TW before the chapter.

These childhood flashbacks won't be for the whole book since I only want to show glimpses/references for the story to flow cohesively. (This was a last-minute addition. 😬 I wasn't planning to write these scenes, but it wouldn't make sense for the relationship development of the MCs/characters if I didn't write these). I'd rather show you guys the scenes than just mention them randomly. I plan to post 2 chapters per post until I'm done with the "flashbacks" so, we could get through the story a little faster! 

Thank you so much for 450 reads and for voting! Your comments really boost my energy to continue writing for this project so, feel free to leave your thoughts. I really love reading your opinions!

Dani :)


You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net