It was still a long shot, but there was one person I knew I could find. Whether or not it would be a success was another story. Rio nodded, satisfied with my answer.

"Do you think you could get to them in time today?"

I checked the clock on the wall, and mentally did the math.

"No I don't think so, I know where they will be but by now they could be anywhere. If I manage to find them, it would be too late to be effective today."

Sorry Sakura, please just be patient a little longer.

We stood up from the table, not wanting to hold the table as more customers had come into the restaurant. Paying the bill at the counter, we headed outside. Rio stopped just a few feet from the entrance. "I'll keep working at the lab to see if I can find any other solutions. What will you guys do?"

I looked over to Sakuta to see him looking over to me. He thought for a moment.

"I know a place we can go, unless you have somewhere else you wanted to go?"

I shook my head.

"If you think it's a good idea then I'll follow you."

Sakuta nodded, and looked to Rio.

"Will you be coming over to the apartment later on then?"

She nodded

"Even if I am unable to come up with anything more at the lab, we might make a breakthrough together."

We waved her off, and then it was just me and Sakuta.

"So where is this place you want to go?" We were headed toward the nearest station.

"It's a place that I met someone who changed my life when I was at a very low point. I hope you don't mind sand too much."

On the train, I could see the Shichirigahama beach in the distance. There didn't seem to be too many people there, though this wasn't one of the popular beaches to visit. Sakuta explained why he picked this spot as we rode.

"So that one event led you to take admission in Minegahara High and meeting Mai-san?"

He nodded.

"It didn't seem like it at the time, but one of the worst days of my life ended up being the catalyst to the best things that ever happened to me."

As we stepped off the train near the Enoshima railway line, I thought over what Sakuta had said. Because of his situation, he had ended up coming to this beach and meeting a stranger who had such an impact on him that he had picked what school to go to, hoping to meet that person again. Instead, he found the love of his life.

"It's like a fairy tale, isn't it?"

I looked over to Sakuta, staring out to the ocean.

"Someone meeting a stranger that impacted them so much that they end up meeting someone they fell in love with, though I guess that would make me the princess in the story."

He laughed, and I couldn't help but laugh with him.

“Also, these events led me to meet one of my best friends I made during the first year of college. And that’s such a long story I wish to tell you one day for sure.”

I smiled back at him. He took his gaze off the horizon and looked over to me.

"By the way, Haruki… What are the first words you'll say to her once this is all over?"

It caught me off guard, and I said the first thing that came to mind.

"I'm sorry, I suppose."

He shook his head.

"You may feel sorry, I get it. But I don't think that's what she wants to hear."

 He gestured to me, and I followed him to one of the benches close by.

"Someone once told me, the three favorite phrases of her life… which are Thank you, You did your best, and I love you."

I could tell by the look on his face that he was recalling a pleasant memory.

"If she really means that much to you, that you're willing to go through all of this to save her, I think she'd want to hear something else instead of just I'm sorry. What do you have to be sorry for? Most people might not be willing to go through such a trial, but you haven't given up yet. You're doing your best. Even if it takes longer than you'd like, as long as you don't give up, I'm sure she would be proud of you."

I looked away, not wanting to let him see the tears forming. If it was anyone else, I would have not believed them. But despite how Sakuta may appear to come off, I could sense the honesty behind his words. He believed whole heartedly in them, and I could see more of what Mai saw in him.

He was right. As long as I never let the circumstances pull me down, as long as I kept trying and fighting, Sakura would be proud of me. Even if I couldn't bring myself to say "I love you", I could still thank her for making me into the person I was today.

When she reached her low points and put up a front to pretend things were okay, I could tell her "You're doing your best, I'm proud of you."

I wiped away the tears, thankful that Sakuta never said a word. We sat silently together for a bit, watching the sunset slowly creep in. The sky filled with color, as though it was a private show for just the two of us. As the sun began to sink in the horizon, Sakuta stood up.

"We should probably start heading back, I'd hate to disappoint Mai-san by not being home when she gets there."

"Wait."

I managed to speak up before we wandered too far. Sakuta stopped and looked to me.

"Thank you for taking me here, and for everything you and everyone else have done to help me. If it wasn't for all of your help, I'd still be lost and trying to do things alone."

He smiled,

"Of course. Just try to remember what I said when this is all over and you get to see her. You've got this."

The wait for the next train was quick, Sakuta must have checked the time table before leaving the station earlier. After only a few minutes, we were seated once again.

By now, the sun had completely set, yet we could still admire the scenery thanks to all the streetlights. Looking across the train to the other side, I could see the buildings of the city lit up, banishing as much of the darkness as possible.

As we reached our stop, I thought back to what Sakuta had told me at the beach.

"Saying I'm sorry is easy, and a lot of times people say it without really meaning it, or think that by saying it somehow makes everything better. Anyone can apologize, but not everyone can show that they really mean it."

I wasn't sure how I could explain everything to her, I'm sure she'd probably think I needed to stop reading so many books after saying something as ridiculous as "I've repeated the same day countless times to save you."

Not to mention, how do you tell someone you saved them from dying without them knowing they would have died that day in the first place?

No, the first words out of my mouth to her wouldn't be "I'm sorry." I had so many things I wanted to say to her, but that flew to the bottom of the list.

"This is our stop."

Sakuta spoke up, interrupting my internal thoughts. I cleared my head, and we disembarked.

"So any ideas what else Futaba might come up with?"

Sakuta asked as we walked from the station to the apartment.

"I'm sure whatever it is, it won't be what I expected." He laughed nodding.

"Like I said, it may not always be what you expect but she's never let me down before."

I laughed with him, then a thought came to mind.

"Do you think that..."

Before I could finish, I heard someone grabbing my arm tightly from behind me to look at her.

"You are really laughing at a time like this?! How dare you!"

I turned around to see Kyoko, her face covered in tears. Too little too late, I realized what had caused her to be like this.

"She's dead, and you can walk around laughing just like that? I knew you were no good for her, don't ever come near me again!"

She shouted, tears still falling down her face. I tried to raise my hand to get her to stop, but she had already run off before giving a glare to Sakuta as well. I was stunned. I never imagined I would have run into her again today, and at such a bad time no less.

Beside me, Sakuta stood like nothing happened and whispered.

"I take it you know her then?"

I nodded, still too shocked to speak. I felt his hand on my shoulder, a reassuring touch.

"It's not your fault, she's just lashing out. I take it she was a close friend to Sakura?"

I nodded again.

He removed his hand from my shoulder,

"Come on, there's no point moping around here."

I followed, still in shock. I could understand how Kyoko felt, the numb cold feeling that started when I first saw the news. The feeling turning into anger, sadness, pain, it was overwhelming.

If that's how I felt, it only made sense that Kyoko would have been outraged seeing me laughing after finding out that her best friend was no longer alive. Our relationship was barely anything, always her trying to figure out what was going on between Sakura and I. To say we were anything more than people who knew each other was a huge stretch in my eyes.

"Don't worry too much about it, when you wake up next morning, it'll be a fresh slate anyway."

Sakuta continued to try and cheer me up, as difficult as it was. I nodded absent mindedly, replaying the words in my head over and over, Kyoko's face covered in tears.

How could I think of anything else? The anger and pain in her voice seared into me, making me feel as though her words had branded onto my soul.

Without realizing it, we had made it back to the apartment. I was so lost replaying the scene in my head, I didn't even realize we had rode the elevator up with Mai.

As though they were speaking far away, I faintly heard Sakuta explain what had happened as we were walking back from the station. I never even heard the sound of the doorbell as Rio had arrived, eager to share whatever she had come up with at the lab.

Sakuta had pulled me towards the bathroom, handing me a towel.

"Just go take some time, we'll be out here when you're ready to talk alright? If you want, I'll wait outside the bathroom if you feel like talking."

I nodded, unsure of what question I was actually answering.

I sank into the warm bath water, barely noticing the heat over the chill that had settled into my body. All along, I had been so focused on my pain, I had never spared a thought to how anyone else would feel after hearing the news. True, it had been replaced by the hope that I could turn things around, but the encounter with Kyoko had ripped off the cover I put into place, and now all those emotions had begun to rush back.

I closed my eyes, no longer wishing to see the world around me. Instead of the peaceful void of nothing that you would expect when you close your eyes, I saw Kyoko. She was walking by an electronics shop when the news had come on.

At first she kept walking, after all most young people have other things they are worried about, the news is just more problems that adults focus on.

It wasn't until she heard the name that she stopped walking, frozen in place. I saw the look on her face, one moment happy and content, the next moment there was nothing. She turned pale, the blood draining from her face as her brain processed the words and images. She had turned and ran aimlessly from the shop, and it was a familiar noise that made her stop.

I couldn't imagine what it felt like to be her, hearing the news and seeing the one person you couldn't bear to see walking about as though they didn't have a care in the world.

Did she know if I had even heard the news? I'm sure she didn't know, but her grief had overpowered her.

Before, when I had run into her at the hospital, she had said I was dead if I hurt Sakura. At the time, I brushed it off. But now, I felt that she really could do it. I shivered at the thought of Kyoko coming after me, nothing but revenge on her mind.

"Are you still there?"

I finally called out. I wasn't sure if Sakuta would really stick around, but from the other side of the door I could hear him.

"Yeah, I am."

Instead of spending time with his sister or fiancé, he had waited for someone he barely knew to be okay.

"Thank you, I think I'm doing a little better now. I'm sorry, the whole situation just completely overwhelmed me. I never thought I'd run into her again, at least not at so far here from Takaoka"

There was something off. How did Kyoko find me here in Fujisawa? Did she followed me? How could I see what she was doing and how she got to know about the news of Sakura?

I got up and dried off, pushing off the thoughts. No reason to keep everyone waiting on me even longer. Everything will get reset next morning anyway.

From the other side of the door, I could hear Sakuta getting up.

"No worries, we're just glad you're doing okay. We did kind of mess up dinner plans, so come out to the living room and we can order something."

I felt bad, now there was four people who had delayed their plans because of me.

But I remember what Sakuta had said to me. All things considered, I still had managed to get back here, I didn't break down in the street. Without Sakuta there to support me, I may have done just that. "I did my best."

What else could I have done in that situation?

Tell Kyoko it would be okay and that when I woke up the day would start over, meaning Sakura would be alive again?

No, that wouldn't have fixed anything. In fact, that might just make Kyoko want to kill me even more.

"I'll make it up to you Kyoko, just don't kill me before then."

I silently made a prayer, before getting dressed. It was time to see if Rio had any good news to balance the day back out.