Dream Star

He didn"t think she would dress up. Regardless of what Lila wore, she is beautiful in his eyes. With it being September, Lila wore a caramel-colored coat with light white fur on the top edges, underneath an autumn pale white off-shoulder dress. She"s wearing makeup too, "Cute" he thought.

His thoughts broke off when he felt her hand on his, and he exhaled deeply. She understands exactly what he is thinking, huh?

"When your sad, stupid stories help you know?" Lila paused, "Ah, I know on the first day of school you find out all the students in the schools are pandas except yourself and the world has been turned upside down without you changing. Geh actually that might end up as a horror movie."

Gee, what is she saying? But whenever she"s telling stories, she always seems to be having a lot of fun.

Lila continued, "Or the track and field senpai actually being secretly a girly girl and even cross-dresses. Or the chocolate takoyaki being a strawberry. Oh, there was another one a cla.s.sic summer example. Someone wants something exciting happening in the beach trip, and thus their friend helps them out and asks the guys to swim to the furthest ends, and she secretly takes off all their swimsuits - and then the person who wanted it all to be interesting finds the swimsuits and gives it back to them. But the method she used involved throwing it and thus the current blew it away."

Now she mentions this; this sounds a tad bit familiar.

" You being the only member of the literature club isn"t fair. You"ll get lonely, so I"ll join too."

Ah, so that"s what it was.

"Oh and," he cuts her off by squeezing her hand, "Haruka?"

"These stories you"ve been mentioning just now, their mine aren"t they?"

Lila smiled. " Do you remember?"

"The last one triggered it," Haruka admitted; it did sound like something he would come up with, he was such a brat back then after all, "I"m more surprised that you remember. It"s been a long time after all."

The girl beamed at him, "That"s because they"re your stories Haruka. Your stories for me, I"ll never forget them."

His eyes went wide as they stared directly into each other"s eyes, she"s...always like this. She"s always had this sort of effect on him, "Ar-," his sentence fell short when the girl"s phone rang.

"Oh, shoot. If I don"t get back soon, then we won"t be able to make it on time."

"For what?"

A grin made its way on to her face, " Actually since tomorrow is the last day of the festival. We were all planning on launching fireworks the second it stroked midnight".

Musy be Maons idea, either way, he had to admit it did a flare to the experience. However...that idea wasn"t anything knew; he could still recall it clearly when Atsuya was still around.

"Haruka?"

"Oh uh, what is it?"

Lila chuckled, "Its rare to see the all mighty judge s.p.a.ce out."

"Get off my case," he paused when he noticed her grip on his hand, tightening, " Ari?"

"Just now...just now it did seem like it you know? That you were drifting off and would leave again. That you"ll go somewhere far away again that I can"t reach. That you"ll leave me behind again," Lila mumbled, causing his gaze to soften. So she was worried about that, huh? Almost accurate on the mark, because staying in that company would mean leaving her behind. But that isn"t something he would do.

"You don"t have to worry about that. I don"t intend to leave you, Ari."

After rea.s.suring her for a few minutes, there was silence between them.

"Oh right Haruka, have you ever read any of Miyazawa Kenji"s works before?"

Haruka nodded, " Though I"ll admit not since elementary."

"I"ll tell you about one of my absolute favorites then... Giovanni is a boy from a low-income family, working hard to feed his sick Mother who has contracted an unnamed disease," Lila explained, "Because he has to spend time working and taking care of his Mother, he has no free time, and his peers make fun of him. His peers see him as a social outcast. But he is not entirely alone. He has a friend named Campanella, who cares deeply for him. Everything changes from the moment when the teacher asked Giovanni in Science cla.s.s what the Milky Way is.

Giovanni knows the answer and wants to say stars but cannot answer. So, the teacher asked Campanella, but his friend responded in the same manner - to save his friend from being made fun of. The local bully, a kid named Zanelli says that Giovanni is absent-minded because his father had yet to return from the northern expedition and claimed that Giovanni"s father was arrested since the trip was illegal. This angered Giovanni," Lila explained, but he interjected.

"What are you trying to get at?"

Lila smiled, "Continue to listen."

Haruka was hesitant but allowed her to continue.

"Before Giovanni could hit Zanelli, the bell rang, signaling the end of cla.s.s. The teacher said a few more encouraging words to the students to attend the star festival happening at night. Everybody leaves but Giovanni who stayed behind to talk to the teacher. The teacher knows Giovanni"s father and the two talk about the fossils that Giovanni"s father brought back from his expeditions.

The teacher inquires if his father is back yet, a question that gets frequently asked throughout the story. Giovanni apologizes and says no before she headed home to begin a night at work at the local paper. During the large festival, Giovanni b.u.mps into the bully Zanelli, who immediately made fun of him, and shows of. Giovanni cannot go to the festival since he has to take care of his Mother and do the ch.o.r.es that his sister didn"t do.

After a hard day"s work, Giovanni lies down on top of a hill. Once he hears a strange sound, he followed it and found himself on a pathway of a train. Luckily the train stopped, and he gets on board, as does Campanella. Giovanni notices that his friend is all soaked and inquires why to which Campanella replies saying he is unsure. But then there is a flashback shows Campanella drowning alongside some other kids."

As Lila continued to explain the story, Haruka was getting an odd sense of de-jvu. It feels like he has heard this tale before, but where? As Haruka wracked his hand thinking about it, he didn"t notice Lila edging closer to him.

"The train traveled through the Northern Cross and other stars in the MilkyWay. Along the way, the two continue seeing the beautiful sights and met various people. Even scholars who are excavating a fossil from white sands of crystal to a man who catches herons to make candies for them.

The children who were on the s.h.i.+p crashed into an iceberg, to get on the train at Aquila. The train itself is a transporter to the afterlife. When the train arrives at the Southern Cross and all the other pa.s.sengers get off the train, only Giovanni and Campanella are left. When the train arrived at the Southern Cross though, everybody but Giovanni and Campanella remains on the train. Giovanni promises Campanella to stay together forever. But when the train approaches the Coalsack, Campanella vanishes, leaving Giovanni behind.

Giovanni then woke up, but he"s alone on top of the hill, dazed he searches for people and finds that Zenelli fell into the river from the boat. On the other hand, he was alive. Giovanni realized that Campanella had saved him, but his friend had not come up. He headed towards the river, afraid and his concerns are made a reality. Since Campanella has been under the water for a long time, n.o.body can survive in the water that long, which meant his friend is dead.

Though he was on the verge of tears, he tried to stay strong. Campanella"s father didn"t notice Giovanni at first, and when he did, he asked Giovanni to inform his cla.s.smates to come over tomorrow. Giovanni a.s.sumed it was to be called in to make arrangements for a formal funeral. Giovanni made a vow to stay strong throughout his life, claiming that, no matter where he is, he and Campanella will always be together," Lila explained.

Is she...trying to say that even if he left that they"ll always be connected? Haruka didn"t want to jump to that conclusion, but it seemed like that to him.

"For me, I think that the story applies to us two."

So he was right.

"I"m not going anywhere, you know? I"m staying right here."

"Yes, but one day maybe you"ll," and it was then when he did it when he kissed her. Their scents were mixing in with each other once more. A taste with a mixture of different feelings and yet it worked. It seemed to be perfect.

"Haruka, don"t be an idiot,"

Haruka laughed, "I thought this would count as a romantic situation?"

"It is, I"m happy," Lila murmured.

...
But of course, a happy moment with Teras.h.i.+ma Lila does not last long. Whether they are in Light Town or not, it seems like they are always destined to get interrupted. Right by the bus stop, beside a convenient store was Austin Kiryu. He was standing around with a bunch of people. Haruka proceeded to lead Lila away, but his girlfriend called out to the man.

"Kiryu, Kiryu, what are you doing?"

Kiryu turned and smiled, "Just picking up some supplies for tomorrow"s cla.s.s. I"m in the piano school tomorrow."

"And um, then?" Lila referred to the group of people Austin Kiryu was with. They had been silently watching the exchange.

"Friends."

"Wow, is that her?"

"The picture on Kiryu"s phone."

"She"s prettier in person."

Haruka frowned, picture? The two aren"t dating anymore.

"Oi, quit it," Kiryu trailed off, "And you, don"t go along with them."

Lila laughed, "Sorry, sorry! But I"m just glad."

"Yeah."

After Austin Kiryu sent his friends away, Haruka thought he would leave too. But for some reason, he was staying.

When Austin Kiryu offered to get drinks, Haruka agreed so he could have some time alone with Lila. The moment he left, Haruka kissed the girl on the bench. Cheeks burned red as she lightly pulled away, "Haruka, what"s the matter?"

"I don"t like seeing you two all close."

"But we"re friends."

Friends? Friends? After the relations.h.i.+p they once had?

"What?"

"I want a longer kiss."

"..."

He stared at her completely speechless before he pulled away from her, "Idiot, the vending machines aren"t too far from here. He will be back soon," and as bold as she is. Haruka knew Lila didn"t want Austin Kiryu seeing them kiss. His thoughts broke off when he felt her lean into his arm.

"I don"t understand why your so uneasy Haruka. But, I do want you to know that I have no intention of letting you go."

"Even if you tell me that, you know my unease won"t vanish."

"Ah-huh, this won"t be easy."

"Austin Kiryu still loves you a lot, and you can"t tell me you feel nothing for him anymore."

"That"s true," he flinched at her words. While he knew it this whole time, hearing it personally come from her is a lot more painful than he thought, "But, the one I"m with now is you. The one I"m holding hands with is you; it"s not Kiryu. Even if something remains, that will fade over time. The one I chose is you," Lila laughed softly, "Well it was more like I forced my feelings on you, in the end, wasn"t it? I practically didn"t let you have another word and jumped on you."

"...Ari."

"Please don"t worry so much, Haruka, I love you."