Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away
Chapter 18: Decision
It's not easy making decisions, especially those that could change your life forever.
Decision-making is never fun. It can give you sleepless nights. It can make you restless, emotional, and tired. It can keep you occupied, with millions of thoughts running through your head.
Procrastination seems to be the best way to temporarily escape the dread of decisions. However, Chihiro learned that this is not true – the hard way.
It was already in the afternoon. Chihiro only had a few hours left of sunlight, but a few hours was not enough. She felt like she needed a century before she could finally decide.
She really wondered why she could not find herself leaving her life in the human world. She thought of her school. She had not made deep connections with her fellow students, and she began to wonder how they would react when they found that she suddenly disappeared. She then thought of her future. She never really thought about that. She never had any definite plans; where she wanted to go to high school or even college, what she wanted to be when she was old enough to work. She then began to think of her parents; they may not have nurtured her with as much love as she may have wanted, but they were still her parents. She was an only child; they were the only family she had, and she was the only family they had. Could she really just walk away from them?
She tried to think of what held her to the human world.
Then she thought of what held her to this world.
Here, she felt like she belonged. Here, she felt herself. Here, she felt happy.
This world had her friends. This world had Haku.
But could she give up her home for this world?
The human world may not have been her ideal home, but it was still her home.
It was almost late in the afternoon. She had so little time left, yet she still has not come to a decision.
She looked out onto the rolling hills and sighed.
Haku walked to the boundary of the Spirit World; he did not fly.
He wanted to prepare himself for the image of the top of those cold stone steps empty; no Chihiro.
He knew she left. After all, she did say goodbye. When you say goodbye, it means you are leaving.
However, Haku was still on his way to the boundary. He still left himself with a sliver of hope. That maybe, their love was truly that powerful; enough to defy all logic.
He sighed. Hoping too much would lead to more pain, and he already had too much pain to deal with.
He could see the large stone frog ahead. The streetlights were already lit, and the ferry full of spirits was already glistening on the river.
There was no Chihiro.
"She probably left after that kiss," Haku whispered.
He sat on the steps. He let the pain of loss overcome him. Tears began to sting his eyes.
Then, slender arms wrapped around his neck. His eyes widened in shock, and he quickly turned to the person behind him.
"I was waiting for you, you know."
Haku smiled. She stayed.
He hugged her tightly, as she laughed at him.
"What took you so long? I didn't want to attract any spirits, so I hid," Chihiro said as looked at Haku as she laughed in his arms.
"I… I thought you left as soon as you said goodbye," Haku admitted.
Chihiro laughed once more and gazed straight into his beautiful deep green eyes saying, "Why would I leave? I love you Kohaku."
THE END.
woohoo! my first ever completed fanfic!!
thank you so much for all those who reviewed and alerted!! :) (is that even right? alerted?)
i had a bit of a hard time trying to finish this story, since people asked it to end happy....
my original plan was to end it all tragic... oh well... it's done. and it's happy. and they kissed.
:) thank you!