"Are you making new friends, hm?"

I looked to my right where the voice came from. Sakura looked back at me, the corners of her mouth curled slightly upward in a smile.

"I think so."

I tentatively reached out my hand, but no matter how much I reached, I just couldn't touch her.

"There's still more work to be done though, can't keep your hands to yourself huh?"

She gave a small laugh, but underneath there was a hint of sadness in that laugh.

"This is just a dream, isn't it?"

I looked down, even in my head Sakura was still just out of reach.

"So what if it is? I know if you work hard, you can make it a reality."

Sakura stood up and got in front of me.

"You've done so much already, but you need to keep going a little longer."

Her tone was more and more filled with that hint of sadness. I couldn’t bear to look back up at her.

"What if this all ends up being for nothing? What if nothing really changes?"

I expected her to have a quick reply, but moments passed and there was simply silence. I looked up to see tears in her eyes.

"You Silly! It's okay."

As she spoke, a teardrop slowly ran down her cheek.

"No matter what, even if things don't work out, you would have done everything you could have."

As she spoke, the world around us began to fade to black, the dream was ending. Her words became softer and quieter, and as the dream came closer to it's end, I couldn't hear her final words.

"Sakura come back!"

I cried out, but it was too late.

"Who’s Sakura? Did you mean Sakuta? He's just in the bathroom."

A voice called out from in front of me. Opening my eyes, I saw Mai standing close to the bed, a look of concern on her face.

"Are you a friend of Kaede? I wasn't aware she had a guy friend staying over."

Suddenly everything clicked in my now awake mind. I reached into my bag, and pulled out the three letters from the night before. Finding the one that I had written for Mai, I handed it over to her.

"This is probably all really strange, but this letter is for you. It should hopefully clear things up."

She took the letter, skeptical about the situation. Opening it, her eyes scanned back and forth, before finally settling back on me.

"So you met us but because of the syndrome?"

I nodded.

"Well you're either a very accomplished liar, or what is in this letter is true, and you don't look like someone who’s good at lying."

She held out her hand.

"The other two letters, am I correct in assuming that one of them is for Sakuta as well?"

I nodded again, holding out his letter.

"You're handling everything very well, all things considered."

She raised an eyebrow after I spoke up.

"Well if you were an intruder, most of them wouldn't go to sleep inside someone’s bedroom. Besides, you had this look of sadness on your face for a while before you woke up."

A sad smile came across her face.

"I couldn't bring myself to be angry or upset after seeing that."

Folding her letter, she placed it with Sakuta’s.

"Plus I don’t remember when did I decide to stay overnight at Sakuta’s place and sleep in the living room with him, so I believe you. I'll go bring this over to him. There's some coffee in the kitchen if you'd like some."

I thanked her, and she headed towards the bathroom. Stretching out, I cleared out the last remnants of sleep in my body.

"I should have asked if she could contact Rio."

I thought to myself, heading towards the kitchen for the promised coffee. The aroma grew stronger as I got closer, and by the time I pulled down a coffee cup from the cupboard, I was craving it. The rich flavor of the coffee was yet another reminder of the perks that Mai had.

"I'll have to ask where she got it, maybe I'll be able to get some one day."

As I savored the coffee, the sound of footsteps grew louder until Mai and Sakuta came into the kitchen.

"Well good morning, this was a bit of a shocker."

Sakuta said, holding up his letter.

"I'm guessing there's more to the story here than what was written in our letters?"

I nodded.

"The third one is for Rio-san, I was hoping you guys could contact her."

Sakuta smiled widely at that.

"Oh don't worry, she's already on the way. Wasn't too pleased but she seemed less reluctant once I told her it was helping someone else."

Recalling how Rio behaved yesterday when she contacted Sakuta for help, I gave a small laugh.

Before long, Rio had arrived. While she read over her letter, the rest of us sat at the table drinking the rest of the coffee. When Rio finally spoke, my second cup of coffee was nearly empty.

"I get the gist of it. You've probably done this a few times now, but can you give us a rundown of everything so far?"

Mentally sighing, though I knew this was coming. I'd have to start taking notes myself if this continued. I started from the beginning, as I spoke I could see the wheels in Rios mind begin turning, working on a solution.

After wrapping up with the events of the previous night, I grabbed the coffee cup and finished it, not wanting to let it get too cool and wasting what was still left.

"So what are you planning to do today?"

Sakuta spoke up. I placed the cup down on the table, and placed my hands together.

"I can't talk or meet my other self, I can't rely on my parents’ help either. I thought I might try and go to the hospital before she leaves."

The memory of her running away crying came back to mind as a spoke, but I squashed it as fast as I can.

"Are you sure you can handle that? What if that just ends up leading to what you saw?"

Rio asked, looking over her glasses at me. Could I handle that? No, but it didn't matter.

"Even if it goes badly, if she ends up safe and I end up back to normal then I'd be okay with it."

Rio nodded, and looked over to Sakuta.

"Can you go with him then? If things don't change then he'll still need a place to stay for the night, and I have some things I want to look into at the lab."

Sakuta looked over to Mai, and she nodded.

"I have to go to a shoot today, besides you're better at the field work anyway."

She gave him a smile before reaching out and messing with his hair.

"Do you know what time she's supposed to leave the hospital?"

Sakuta asked me, finally getting Mai to stop messing up his bed head. I looked over to the clock on the wall, trying to recall what time she had originally told me that she was finally home.

"I think around noon, all she said in the text before was that she was just getting home, nothing about when she left the hospital though."

Beside him, Mai stood up.

"I'm sorry to leave so soon, but I have to get ready for the shoot. I'll leave you three to it."

Kissing Sakuta on the cheek, she left the kitchen. Rio stood up as well.

"I'll talk to you guys later, hopefully I'll have some good news."

"I'll give you a call at the lab with how things go, say hi to Toranosuke for me too."

Sakuta spoke up as Rio headed towards the front door. She rolled her eyes, and gave a small wave before leaving. Now just the two of us, Sakuta looked over to me.

"When you're ready to head out, just let me know. We also need to hurry up a bit since Takaoka is pretty much far from here."

I still wanted to change and get cleaned up, so I nodded and headed towards the bathroom quickly.

Would this work? I knew that there was a risk that it could go sideways, but I was determined to stick with the plan. The thought of making Sakura cry hurt, and it was something I was going to avoid as best as I could. If I could just save her, then there would be plenty of time to explain everything.

I turned on the sink, and began brushing my teeth. I tried to think of what I was going to say once I saw her, mentally crossing out ideas as I went. There was no way I could tell her the whole truth right away.

She'd probably turn around and try to check me into a room at the hospital.

As I pondered, a knock on the doorframe alerted me to see Mai standing there.

"Good luck today, I'll be rooting for you."

She smiled and walked away into the van driven by her manager, heading for her shoot.

"Sakura would really like these people."

I thought to myself, finishing up in the bathroom. In the living room, Sakuta and Kaede were watching the TV together, a nature documentary playing this time.

Looking over to me, Sakuta nodded.

"Kaede, I'll be heading out for a bit. We'll be meeting Rio later if you need to reach me."

Kaede nodded, clearly engrossed in the documentary. Standing up, Sakuta grabbed his keys from the table in front of him.

"Shall we go?"

We boarded the train just in time. After reaching Takaoka, the walk to the hospital was pleasant, there weren't many people on the sidewalks so we made decent time.

Along the way, Sakuta told me all his stories of his experiences with the syndrome throughout the train journey and walk. As he finished up a story involving Mai and her sister, I could see the entrance to the hospital. Once inside, Sakuta grabbed a seat while I waited in line to get a visitor badge.

Ahead of me in line, I noticed someone that looked familiar. It wasn't until she looked around that I could see that it was Kyoko. I wasn't sure if she'd notice me, but she looked back for a moment before turning back around. She moved towards me, already an upset look was forming on her face.

"You really are determined to keep seeing her all the time, aren't you?"

Her hands on her hips, she looked at me clearly upset but trying to avoid a scene around all the strangers in line. I wasn't expecting to run into her of all people today, and already my plan was being derailed.

"I know we don't get along, but I'm just here for Sakura. I don't want to fight with you, out of respect for her."

I meant what I said, all the conversations with Sakura coming to mind whenever she'd mention wanting to see Kyoko and me get along. In front of me, Kyoko looked moments stunned before losing some of the emotions that had been building up.

She relaxed, and her arms hung freely at her side.

"I can't stop you, and I don't want to make Sakura upset. But if you hurt her at all, just know that I'll be coming for you."

She turned back around, not waiting for my response. Thanking my luck, I waited in line behind her. My only priority was to save Sakura, I couldn't afford any delays.

As we moved up the line, I could see Kyoko tapping her foot on the ground, clearly still agitated.

"Why you?"

 I heard her say, softly as if she was talking to herself. She turned back around.

"Why you? She's always spending time with you, but you both say you're just people who get along well. I've had to cover for her when you two went on your little trip in Hakata, I always see you two together going out, why you?"

I opened my mouth, but she wasn't finished.

"She's been in and out of the hospital for her appendix, but you're the one that always seems to be here. I've seen the visitor sheet. She's my closest friend but I've never felt so left in the dark. So what is she to you really? What are you to her? Are you her secret lover or something? Because let me tell you that it's not so secret you know?"

As she finished, her eyes began to water. Kyoko rubbed at her eyes furiously, seemingly determined to not cry in front of me.

"I wish I could give you the answers you want. I'm sorry if I've upset you, and I know Sakura doesn't want to make you upset either."

Kyoko stopped rubbing her eyes, her hand falling back to her side.

"I know what you're feeling, but there's some promises that I made to Sakura and I can't break them. You'll have to ask her yourself, I can't betray her trust. I hope you can understand and forgive me."

I finished, and bowed my head. Even if every interaction we had ever had was never positive, Kyoko was Sakura's best friend. For her sake, I had to try and mend things.

I felt a tap on my arm, and looked up. Kyoko looked pained for a moment, then relaxed.

"Okay, I will. But I meant what I said. If you step out of line even an inch, I'll be right there."

She stuck her tongue out, before turning back around. We had finally made it up to the front. The person at the counter called out "next in line" and Kyoko headed towards the counter.

But a few steps forward, she stopped and turned around.

"If you're coming to see her, you might as well come to the counter with me. No point in wasting any time."

She held out her hand and waved me forward. I was surprised but managed to keep myself from showing it too much.

"We're here to see Sakura Yamauchi."

Kyoko told the employee sitting behind the counter. They typed in the name, but then looked back to us.

"I'm sorry, but that person has been already discharged from the hospital. If you don't have anything you need, I'll have to take the next person in line."

I was too late.