Scene 1: The Girl Who Made Me Stay

It had been two weeks since I met her.

In those two weeks, I started to forget how quiet my life used to be.

Not because things were suddenly loud, but because… she was there. And when she was there, the silence didn’t feel so empty.

Hikari didn’t just show up at school—she became part of my days. She doodled in the margins of her notebooks, laughed at things only she understood, and asked questions no one else would think to ask.

“Do you think trees remember us if we climb them?”

“Would you rather lose all your memories or live someone else’s life for a day?”

“Do you think people can leave parts of their soul in places?”

She made the ordinary feel like a story waiting to be uncovered.

And for once, I didn’t mind staying after school. Or walking slowly. Or just… being near someone.

Scene 2: Lost Places and Long Walks

Most days after class, we went somewhere—nowhere special, not really. An abandoned shrine. A hill with a half-broken swing set. A beach so far out no buses ran there anymore.

Sometimes we said a lot. Sometimes we said nothing.

But those quiet moments with her… they didn’t feel awkward. The felt like air.

One day, we found an overgrown field behind a shuttered factory. Wildflowers grew unchecked, and rusted playground equipment leaned like forgotten skeletons. Hikari gasped like she’d found treasure.

She ran ahead, arms out, hair catching the wind.

“Look at this!” she shouted, spinning once before falling back into the grass. “It’s perfect!”

I sat down beside her, knees up, arms resting on them.

“It’s falling apart,” I said.

“Yeah,” she said, breathless. “But so am I.”

I turned to look at her, but she just smiled and closed her eyes.

Scene 3: Hikari’s Sketchbook

It was raining lightly when we found an old train tunnel, deep in the woods, blocked off by rusted fencing.

We ducked inside anyway. The air was cool and smelled like moss and iron.

Hikari opened her sketchbook and began drawing again.

This time, she handed the book to me without a word.

The drawing was of me—leaning against the tunnel wall, a faint smile on my lips I didn’t even realize I had.

“…Why do you keep drawing me?” I asked.

She looked up.

“Because you're changing.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means... you're starting to show up in the world. Not just pass through it.”

I looked down at the sketch again.

“I don’t feel that different.”

“You don’t have to,” she said softly. “Sometimes change happens quietly.”

Scene 4: The Wind Carries Things

One afternoon, while walking along a narrow road lined with cherry trees, Hikari stopped suddenly and leaned against a railing, one hand pressed to her side.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said quickly, too quickly. “Just... dizzy for a sec.”

I looked at her. The color had drained a little from her face.

“Did you eat today?”

She nodded, then shook her head. “Not really.”

We sat down under the trees, and I pulled a small drink from the vending machine behind us. I handed it to her. She took it without argument.

“Thanks,” she said quietly.

There was a long pause.

Then, for the first time, her voice cracked.

“I wish I could pause time.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.

“I keep thinking,” she continued, “if I could just... hold this moment, exactly like this, maybe everything would be okay.”

She looked up at me. Her eyes weren’t sparkling this time. They were tired. Still beautiful, but softer. Realer.

“Haruki,” she said, “what would you do if someone you cared about was running out of time?”

I looked at her for a long moment.

“I’d spend every minute I had left with them.”

Her lip trembled, just barely.

And then she smiled again. Not the wide, playful grin she always wore—but a small, broken one.

“…Good answer.”

Scene 5: The Sound of Her Laughter

That weekend, she dragged me to a dilapidated seaside observatory.

It was falling apart—floorboards warped, stairs missing rails—but the view at the top was unreal. Waves crashed far below. The sky was streaked with orange and gold, and seagulls circled like kites in the wind.

Hikari stood at the edge of the railing, hair whipping around her face.

She let out a sudden laugh—loud, full, real.

It echoed.

I’d never heard her laugh like that before.

And something about it made my chest ache.

She turned to me, flushed from the wind.

“Do you ever feel like you’re alive and dreaming at the same time?”

I nodded.

“Right now,” I said.

She smiled and leaned on the railing beside me.

“Let’s never forget this.”

Scene 6: Her Shoes in the Grass

That night, I walked her home for the first time.

It wasn’t far, but the streets were quiet and her pace was slow.

When we reached the corner where we always split, she paused.

She took off her shoes and stepped barefoot into the grass lining the sidewalk.

“It feels realer like this,” she said.

I didn’t know what she meant, but I didn’t stop her.

We stood there, under the streetlight, not speaking.

Then she looked at me.

“If I disappear one day,” she said, “will you remember me?”

The words hit like wind knocking the breath out of me.

“Don’t say that.”

She nodded, like she expected that answer.

“Okay.”

But she never said she wouldn’t disappear.

Scene 7: Another Promise

The next day, I found a note in my locker.

It was from her. A drawing of the sea, with two small figures standing at the edge.

On the back, in small handwriting:

 “Let’s make our next adventure the biggest one yet.”

“— by Hikari"

And beneath that, in tiny, almost-faded letters:

"Before the wind takes me away."

[To be continued in chapter 5, releasing on 10th August, 2025]