It was a sunny March day. A feeling of familiarity embraced my body as I walked down the road surrounded by cherry blossoms.

The graduation ceremony had just finished. In other words, the very last day of middle school was now over.

Walking right next to me, was the girl who grew to be the most precious person to me, something I thought I would never find—Himawari, who had exceptionally long blonde hair and an unusual addition of an eyepatch on her left eye.

It was probably our last time going back from school together. That school… I didn’t really like it. I made no friends there, and all good things that happened there were only thanks to Himawari.

Yet, I still felt that I was going to miss it. After all, I had spent those three years there, and I was able to meet her only because of that school.

“It’s finally that day, huh?” I stared into the sky.

“Right...” she said in a slightly melancholic voice.

She was going to take it off today. The eyepatch. The only thing that connected her to Lumiya, a self-proclaimed alien. Over the last few months, she managed to do away with her peculiar behavior. I never saw her black dress after the odd Christmas date, but I did kind of miss it as well. She wore it when we first met, so it was only to be expected, I guess.

“I’m really grateful that I met you…” she lifted her gaze down as she spoke, all of a sudden.

“Err… me too, I guess…” awkwardness made me unwittingly scratch at the back of my neck.

Still, I couldn’t believe it. It was the end already? If I had a choice… I wouldn’t change the way things were. Why hadn’t we met in the second year? Or even the first year? That way, middle school would have been way more enjoyable. We weren’t going to end up in the same high school. No way. There was no way I would be that lucky. We could, and we were going to keep meeting after school, but… it wasn’t the same.

We met on the staircase. Later, I found her on the rooftop. Then, we spent time together in the grove behind the club building. We shared a lot of time together at this very school, and it wasn’t going to be like that anymore...

But… there was no point worrying about it. It wasn’t like I could do anything.

“So, you’re going to take it off today?” I took a glance at her.

“Y-yeah…” she covered it with her hand as she looked down and said in a low voice.

“I see. So it’s my last chance to look at it…”

“I-if you want, I don’t mind wearing my old clothes for you sometimes. I didn’t throw them away”, she shyly suggested.

“Oh… I guess that’s fair. But you won’t be wearing that eyepatch outside from now on, right?”

“T-that’s right…”

“How are you feeling about that? Are you still nervous?” even though she managed to put her act to a stop, I wasn’t certain if taking that eyepatch off wouldn’t be too much of a shock to her. I had no idea how it worked, but she’d been wearing it for over a year, so she had gotten used to it.

“I think I may be able to do it…”

“I see. That’s good”, I stared at the road beautifully colored by cherry blossoms. We walked on it along with other people that I had somehow spent three years with, yet just barely recognized their faces. There was something charming in that scenery, and it was my first and last time ever seeing it.

“By the way, T-Takao…” she spoke to me, calling my name. She still had problems with it.

“Yes?”

“You’re… not going anywhere, right?”

“Yeah, I’m staying here. And… you?”

“M-me too. It doesn’t seem that we’ll be moving from here anytime soon…”

“I see”, I uttered a sigh of relief.

At that moment, I wasn’t sure of anything. Would I get into my high school of choice? Would I end up in the same school with her? How well did I do on my entrance exams?

I would learn everything in just a few days. I just had to wait. For some reason, I was just as nervous as before the exams. I was worried about too many things at once, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

Before I knew it, we reached the intersection we usually parted at. Even though it was graduation ceremony today, nothing changed in that matter. Again, it was our last time walking this road… I was going to miss it for sure.

“Well then, T-Takao. We’ll be parting now. My parents are home today…”

“I see. Then, see you again, right?”

“Y-yes. I’m going to message you today. And tomorrow. Every day. I won’t forget about you…” she started talking in hurry all of a sudden.

“Haha, don’t overdramatize. We live close to each other, and I would never forget about someone like you. I mean, you’re my… girlfriend, and I don’t want to change that…” I laughed.

“T-that’s right. Fufu.”

“We’ll see each other again soon. Maybe even tomorrow. I won’t forget about you, I promise”, I hoped that our relationship wouldn’t die over time. I was going to made sure it didn’t happen, but… I never knew how stupid the future me would be.

“I hope you’re honest.”

“If I’m not, you have to set me straight. I will always… love…” I found it too difficult to complete my sentence, but fortunately, she came to rescue me quickly.

“I know.”

“I… I see. Then, I’ll be on my way now…”

“Mmh. I love you too”, suddenly, she approached me and took me in a tight embrace, catching me unawares.

With my eyes, I saw her face that had never been so close to mine before. She wasn’t letting me go, and more importantly, her right eye closed at some point.

“Huh?” I uttered as I noticed that she was waiting for something.

“Just… kidding!” suddenly startling me, she let go of me and said in a cutely amused voice. She looked so happy I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Oh…”

“Then, I’ll be on my way for real now. Remember to message me later, okay?” she quickly walked away and turned around to shout.

“O-okay… Bye…” quite befuddled by her actions, I slowly waved as she left. Her figure vigorously walked forward, slowly disappearing from my vision. I looked at it for a while without apparent reason.

That thing just now… what was it supposed to mean?

Was she perhaps waiting… for a kiss?

•

A few days later, I came over to her house. Her parents were, obviously, out.

“Hey.”

I had yet to wait a few days before I learned whether I got into my school of choice, and also, if she ended up in the same school as me, although chances were poor.

I was standing at the entrance, taking my shoes off. She came downstairs to welcome me, wearing a slightly unusual outfit—which was completely ordinary for her. The eyepatch on her left eye… was nowhere to be seen. Instead, her blue eye was there. It should have been there from the beginning, yet I still couldn’t get used to seeing it.

More importantly, what she was wearing was the magical girl suit I had already seen a few times on her.

Her pink dress featured white accents, and her tiny chest was embraced by a large heart-shaped pink ribbon. Her arms were covered by white gloves, and she wore white knee socks on her legs. In other words, it wasn’t something a normal girl would wear—it was basically a cosplay. That quirk was one of the numerous things I liked about her.

“T-Takao. Welcome…” she welcomed me as she cast her head down.

“Do you always wear that magical girl outfit at home, or did you put it on just for me…?” come to think of it, she wore it almost every time I came over to her house. I wouldn’t be that surprised if that was what she normally wore at home.

“B-both…”

“I see. That’s a very clear response.”

“B-but it’s true…”

Despite having given up on the peculiar act, she still couldn’t let go of some peculiar habits. I mean, there was nothing wrong in it, especially since she was doing it only at home.

“Yeah, makes sense.”

Shortly, she led me upstairs to her room, sometimes called “base” by her. It hadn’t changed at all—the shelf full of manga and other things you wouldn’t expect in a girl’s room was still there. Overall, the room had always been clean, probably more than mine. The sheets were arranged neatly on her bed, there was nothing lying around on the floor, and the curtains were open (which was quite unusual for her).

“Err… Do you want to play something?” suddenly, she came out with an offer.

“By something, you mean…?”

“I have quite a lot of games lying around…”

Yeah, it was true. She had a lot of those things there. Sometimes, I wondered how much money she had to spend on all of it.

“Well… I don’t really play games, so as long as it’s something easy…”

“I know some friendly for beginners. You can go wait for me downstairs, there’s a huge screen in the living room.”

“Okay…”

As she told me, I left her room and headed downstairs. Since her parents weren’t home, the entire house could be used by her.

I sat down on the large yellow sofa, and for a moment stared at the huge black screen while thinking about nothing in particular.

It was silent. To be honest, I didn’t like being alone in her house. What if her parents came back right now? In fact, it would be pretty much a terrible situation even if I was with her in her room, but then at least I would have her by my side to support me.

And now, I was just an unfamiliar guy in their living room. As timid as I was, it would definitely leave me with a scar.

Also, come to think of it, I had to introduce her to my parents at some point—and vice versa. She was my girlfriend, after all, and I was not going to change it anytime soon. Maybe it was foolish, but I wished to remain in this relationship for as long as possible, preferably forever.

The truth was that middle, or even high school romances didn’t last long in most cases. Then again, we were quite different. By a miracle, two loners met and came together. Personally, I doubted that I could find a person more suitable for me than her.

But, in the perfect world… we would get married at some point. And then, have children. Make a family. Buy a house. See our children go to school, find love, and then make families… and then I would die together with her. I found those thoughts overly surreal. Just impossible, unachievable. There was simply no way it would happen. 

No, a middle schooler… no, I had already graduated, so I was more like a high schooler now… either way, a kid like me shouldn’t be thinking about those things. It wasn’t surprising that I couldn’t accept those thoughts. I just wondered what my future self would do.

All I could do was lay the groundwork for that.

Soon, steps reached my ears. They became louder and louder, and there was no mistake that they belonged to her.

“I’m here, T-Takao”, she still struggled saying my name.

“Great.”

She approached the screen and turned the console standing next to it on. Somehow, I hadn’t noticed it earlier even though I’d been looking at it all along.

“Here”, she handed me a controller.

“So, what are we going to play?”

“It’s an RPG… I played it a few months ago, but in singleplayer. I wonder how it is to play with someone…”

At times, she still appeared lonely to me, and such moment was now. I knew that she had no friends other than me, which was… not necessarily good. I was kinda glad that I had her all to myself… but at the same moment, I felt bad with it.

Either way, I couldn’t really help her find friends. Perhaps now that she had been socializing more than ever before, she gained enough confidence to make some in high school, but all I could do was cheer on her.

“I see.”

“Haha. I’m annoying, aren’t I?” she said in a slightly melancholic voice.

“Absolutely not. Don’t worry about it, really.”

Why was she saying that all of a sudden? I thought she was done with that…

“Anyway, let’s start the game already”, I hastened her.

“Sure…”

Something appeared on the screen.

“Here, you can name your character.”

“Huh… I think I’ll just go with my name. Takao…”

The name she chose for her character was… Lumiya. Yeah, I saw that coming.

Either way, we soon started the game. Since I knew nothing about it and she had already played it, she eagerly explained things to me… although sometimes I didn’t understand her since she used too advanced words.

“You have to use that item on this chest. Hey, don’t open it!”

Before I knew it, I had already pressed the button on the controller. Something came out of the chest and decapitated my character… I didn’t see that coming.

“Now we have to clear this whole level again…” she sighed.

“I’m sorry, okay?”

As I played the game with her, I noticed that she was exceptionally enthusiastic. She often forgot about being embarrassed and called my name without hesitation, especially when she was scolding me.

•

“This music playing in the background is quite good…”

“It’s the boss music.”

“Really? Already? How long have we been playing for?”

I turned around to take a glance at the clock. I couldn’t believe it myself, but it’d already been… four hours since I came here. Honestly, I felt like it wasn’t even an hour. I was having so much fun that I forgot about time… this happened only when I was with her.

“Aren’t your parents coming back soon, by the way?” I became worried since it was almost evening already. I had no idea if they were going to come back today or not.

“True enough…” she said, although her eyes were still glued to the screen, giving off that she wasn’t thinking about it.

“Wait, they are going to come back soon??” I raised my voice, nervous.

She didn’t know what time it was, because she hadn’t looked at the clock.

“Err… Himawari. You don’t want them to catch us like that, right?”

Finally, she paused the game and took a look at the clock.

“…” she said nothing but kept staring at it.

“…?”

“Well, you have to run”, shortly, she looked at me with a small smirk and announced in a voice that completely didn’t match the gravity of current situation.

“Should have said that earlier!!!”

“I’m sorry… I’ll look around for them”, she stood up from the sofa and headed for the entrance.

“…” I followed her.

“There’s no sight of them yet, so it’s your chance to go”, having peeked out of the door, she announced.

“…” I put my shoes on and changed my clothes quickly. There was nothing I left in her room, so I could leave like that. “By the way, what if your parents see you in this outfit?” I asked since she was dressed as a magical girl all along.

“Nothing much. They have already seen it.”

Okay, that was surprising.

“So, I’ll be on my way now.”

“Yeah. See you soon, Takao.”

I left through the door and hurriedly ran to the fence. I couldn’t hide that I was incredibly nervous right now. I looked around on the street, and there were no people or cars oncoming, so I guess I was safe.

But… what if I hadn’t looked at the clock at that moment? The game was about to be finished, but there still was a few minutes left. That girl was really unorganized at times…

Or, what if… she was doing it on purpose? Maybe she wanted me to meet her parents already?

No, I was just thinking too much into it.

Either way, everything was going well for now. In a few days, high school entrance exams results would be out… I couldn’t wait for that day.