==JAPAN: KM== [Love]

"Hello, is this Ogichan?" It was last Christmas Eve, and the call came from a girl who was a friend of mine. "I...I have been hiding something from you. He is my lover. We love each other. I'm sorry I have been keeping it from you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." All I could say was, "I see... I wish you happiness. Goodbye." I felt as if I were going to faint.
I had been falling in love with a certain boy. He looked cool and grown-up then. Now I presume that I thought him "cool" because he was a quiet boy and didn't speak much and "grown-up" because he already had a driver's license and drove his own car. He had a wide range of knowledge : sports, study, music, cars, cooking...etc. You, too, are often attracted by a person who is superior to you, aren't you? He was and is certainly kind. He used to take his friends and me on a drive, and would offer his house for us. His kindness was not only to me but to everyone, but I didn't see that. Then, I came to like him. Finally, I decided to give him a Christmas present and wrote a card to tell him my deepest feelings. That night, I was waiting for a call from him after I hung them on the door knob of his house. Then, the tragedy began. Not him but another girl who I knew well called me. She confessed that she had been keeping their relationship a secret from me.
I ran into my friend Yukako's house with tears in my eyes. I sobbed out the unexpected occurrence. She consoled and cheered me up through the night. Why didn't he call you himself? He should call you because much remains to be said about this affair by him." I was sobbing too hard to get angry, but she got angry at them in my place . "She should have told you before that they were in love, because she had known your feelings toward him. Her tenderness, that is, her not wanting to hurt you, hurt you most cruelly after all."
She continued to console me. "Don't worry about recovering from shock quickly. You may recover from it gradually." How warmhearted those words were! The warmth of the words brought some cheer back to my mind again. The tears in my eyes started drying gradually while she was consoling me in this way. They had dried up completely by the time I went home later that night.
"Love is blind".....I had been so crazy about him that I almost lost my most important friend. Though I had been neglecting her for months, she forgave that and consoled me. "A friend in need is a friend indeed" .....I found "A friend in need" was Yukako. She is an important person who cannot be replaced by anybody.
She is the first person who I call "a close friend". I have many friends, but I talk with them about study, fashion, hobbies...etc., but I haven't unburdened myself to most of them. Strange to say, I can't recollect how we became friends. All I can say is that we became friends very quickly. I think that I was attracted to her generous, kind, warmhearted and modest personality. If she hears such frank praise, she will definitely be embarrassed.
We have been to many places and done various things together. One day, relatively soon after the college entrance ceremony, we went to the Fukui Station area by bicycle. We didn't have cars then. Mostly I suggest plans and she says "Let's" without any reluctance. I said, "Shall we go? ", and she replied at once "Let's go." We pedaled and pedaled for about 50 minutes and finally arrived downtown. It was a simple day, but we became closer somehow.
The other day, our teacher said to me, "Close friends help each other when they face difficulties. Have you helped Yukako when she faced them? " I suddenly realized that I had not helped her. I worried and asked her, "I haven't helped you... Am I your close friend?" She replied with a smile, "Of course. I haven't faced difficulty yet. I am going to ask you for help when I do." Now I know I will surely help her when the time comes.
It has been 8 months since last Christmas. "You may recover from this shock gradually"...I think that the words suggested "Time heals all sorrows." Who is "he" and "she"? Who is his girlfriend? Are you curious about this affair? I regret to say it is a secret. But now they and I have become friends again. The lost love was a great shock to me, but I grew up a little through it, and I was glad to regain a real friend, Yukako. The Christmas present God gave me was the best I could have hoped for.

Comment I might not have qualification to comment about friendship. But I would like to mention what I think about the matter.
Everyone wants someone to believe in and desire to be needed by someone. But it's easy to lose trust, and it's difficult to get trust. We should need a good deal of time and make great efforts to build up trustful relationship with others. Therefore, warm friendship is so precious.
Their friendship is so great that they are sufficiently considerate of each other.

Nozomi Oda