Childhood Sweetheart

At thirteen, he and the other boy hooked their little fingers. For the first time, they were completely at ease with each other. The past faded away, and they became friends. At sixteen, he suddenly felt lost and confused about his own feelings. Looking back at who he had been, at them, their voices, their smiles, none of it could ever overlap with the present. Time flew by, the years slipped away. So much was stolen by time, and in the end, they were all scattered among the gears of memory. If I told you that even knowing it would end this way, I still wouldn't regret it? When we were young, innocent and childish, we often thought our feelings could last forever, from pity for a weed by the roadside to love for another person. Perhaps it was only trust, lasting forever. If the boy he was as a child had known that long, long afterward, their lives would take completely different paths, would he have regretted being so close back then? No. Even after everything that came later