“Thanks, guys. That was awesome!”

“Was that her, in the white dress?” Touma asked.

“Yeah, that was her!” Kaito said, plucking the guitar strap from his neck.

“I couldn’t see much from down here, but she looked cute.”

“She’s perfect! Do you guys mind—”

“Go! What are you still doing here?” Touma urged him on.

“Okay,” Kaito let out a deep breath, “again, thank you guys so much!” he said and scooted toward the staircase.

Kaito bolted up the seven-story steel staircase and almost broke down the door when he dashed into the apartment.

“Kaito! Shoes!” Kanna yelled.

“Oh! Sorry!” Kaito jumped about on one leg, pulling at his shoe.

“Was that you that sang in the courtyard? That was beautiful!”

Kaito kicked his shoes to the side and headed toward the stairs. “Sorry, can’t talk!”

Utterly confused by what was going on, Kanna stared at her nephew, who ran up the stairs as fast as he could. “Who was it for?” she yelled after him.

“The girl next door!”

“Aha! All the talking to yourself, alone in the room, makes a lot more sense now,” Kanna said, but Kaito didn’t hear her.

He reached the second floor of the apartment and hastened his way toward his room, swung the door open, and called out to Miyu: “Miyu? Miyu!”

He walked over to the crack in his bedroom wall, waiting for his call to be answered.

“Miyu? Are you there?”

Come on! Just answer already!

“Miyu? I saw you standing in the window! Come on, say something!”

Nothing but cold silence answered Kaito’s call.

I felt like we had such a strong connection… Did I make all that up?

Oh my god, I’m an idiot!

She never even said anything to make me think that she likes me!

Argh, I’m so pathetic!

Kaito’s fist met the cold wall.

I can’t believe I forced this onto her!

Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!

“I… I’m sorry if you don’t feel the same way,” Kaito said. “I thought we had a connection… But I guess I felt like it was more than it actually was… I’m sorry I pushed this on you… I’ll see you around, I guess.”

Kaito grabbed a red hoodie from his closet and stormed off, slamming his bedroom door shut behind him. He raced downstairs; he couldn’t wait to get as far away from this place as possible.

Why would she even like you!

She’s never even seen you!

You’re just the creepy boy from next door!

The one that sang her a song about love, so loud that the entire neighborhood heard it!

When he reached the bottom of the staircase, he grabbed his shoes and put them back on.

“Oy! What happened?” Kanna asked.

“Nothing. I need to go for a walk.”

“This doesn’t look like nothing,” Kanna’s finger pointed in Kaito’s direction.

“It’s nothing,” Kaito said, walking out the front door.

Kaito spent hours walking the streets of Hakone. The happy faces of its citizens annoyed him so much; he felt like kicking something. Which he did. The first stone he could find, he kicked and watched it fly against a road sign.

Meh…

Ten points max…

Kaito felt a raindrop land on his nose, followed by another. He then looked up at the sky, and another one landed in his eye.

A dark, wet spot remained on the sleeve of his hoodie after he wiped his eyes dry, and for a moment, he stood still, staring at his sleeve, with Miyu’s voice replaying in his head.

“Kaito… ”

“Will you… take me there one day?”

“No!” he screamed at the dark sky, “I won’t take you there!”

Rain rushed down in volumes and soaked Kaito within an instant.

Perfect!

Kaito pulled his hood over his head and continued moping his way down the empty street.

Before long, he arrived at his school, which looked completely different now that it was covered with dark clouds, rain, and not a single living person on the grounds.

I’ll just sit down here for a bit…

Fortunately for Kaito, he found a roofed area where he could sit down, and soon his mind drifted off to a different place, which distracted him from his soaking-wet clothes and the freezing cold wind.

“There you are!”

“Huh?”

“You idiot!” Touma said. His red hair was discernible even on this gloomy afternoon.

“What are you doing here?” Kaito asked.

“What do you mean? I’ve been looking for you of course! I’ve been running all over Hakone!”

“Why?”

“Hold up, just letting Himari know I have found you,” his fingers punched the screen of his phone, after which he sat down next to Kaito. “Tell me what happened, buddy.”

“Nothing happened! Why are you here?!”

“Woah! Chill! Kanna was worried because you flounced out of the house, so she called Himari and me, and we went looking for you!”

“I don’t need your help, okay?!”

“You need to talk about it, Kaito! Get it out!” Touma pleaded.

Kaito got up in a rage. “No! You get out of here! Always forcing me into stuff I don’t wanna do! Just leave me the fuck alone!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Touma said, grabbing Kaito’s arm.

“Touma! I’m warning you! Let go of me, now!”

“No! I wo—”

Kaito had wound up his right arm, and with all his might, he forced it through the space between him and landed his fist on his friend’s face.

CRACK!

Oh shii—

“Touma!” Kaito screeched.

Touma folded over, with both hands on his cheek. “Ouch!”

What have I done?!

“Touma! Are you...”

Kaito was about to help his friend on his feet, but Touma did what Kaito hadn’t expected. Touma got up and wrapped his arms around him in an embrace. Kaito was shocked by his friend’s reaction.

“She didn’t feel the same way...” The words shook out of Kaito’s mouth, and at the same time, hot tears streamed out of his eyes and dripped on his friend’s shoulder.

“Why does it hurt so much?” Kaito cried.

His eyes were red, and Touma’s shoulder was soaked, but it didn’t matter at that moment, because the more Kaito cried, the tighter Touma hugged him.

The rain had since stopped, and the clouds had parted, but they remained—locked in an embrace under the moonlit sky.

When Kaito arrived home that evening, Kanna stood waiting for him by the door with a blanket in hand.

His lips parted into a slight smile. “Thank you… And I’m sorry I made you worry.”

She hugged him, wrapping the blanket tightly around him. “Can I warm some food for you?”

“No, thanks. I just want a quick shower, and then I’m gonna pass out.”

“Oh, okay… Um… Kaito.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you sure you’re okay? I’m here if you want to talk.”

“I’m fine, really! Touma already made me feel better,” he said, making his way upstairs.

“That’s a relieve!” Kanna replied. “Good night!”

“Good night!” Kaito called out.

The hot shower sent the freezing cold fleeing from his body and had him feeling better; he was nonetheless more exhausted than he had been in a long time. The silver lining was that he fell asleep immediately he got into bed, so there wasn’t time to mull over Miyu.

ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO!

“No, no, no!” were the only words that came from Touma’s mouth when the three of them met up at school the next day. “No, Kaito! No!”

“Wha—Achoo!”

“This cannot be happening!” Touma said with his hands flying into the air.

“Don’t be so hard on the poor guy!” Himari said.

“Our performance is in three days! The one night we’ve been working the entire year for, and our lead just happened to have a cold—now of all times? Of course, I’m gonna be hard on him!”

“You just don’t wanna sing with Sara, that’s why you’re freaking out! Do you still have feelings for her? Hmm?” Himari teased him.

“No! I don’t. I don’t mind singing the part. Kaito is just… way better than I am!”

“Naaw,” Kaito said with a blocked nose, opening his arms for a hug.

“Euw! Get away from me!” Touma squealed and recoiled from him in his usual, dramatic fashion.

“What? You didn’t mind hugging me last night!”

“You guys hugged?” Himari asked with a grin on her face.

“Yeah! For like ten minutes long!” Kaito answered.

“Okay, okay! That’s enough!” Touma said, pulling Kaito by his arm. “Come! I’m buying you as many orange juice boxes as I can afford.”

Touma made sure Kaito’s stomach was filled up with orange juice, and then he gave him a surgical mask to wear. “Wear this. I got it from the school nurse; I won’t have you infect the entire Music Club!”

Kaito just smiled, shook his head and then pulled the mask over his face. He wasn’t going to admit it, but he did like being taken care of, which is what Touma did, the entire day long.

At the Music Club practice that afternoon, Touma instructed Kaito to remain seated and told him that he would fill in for him for just one day.

Kaito took a seat and watched as his fellow club members prepared the stage before the afternoon’s practice session was underway.

This means so much to them…

When Kaito saw just how hard all the members of the Music Club were working, he knew he had to get better as soon as possible and decided he would take notes on the choreography so that he could practice some more at home.

My role doesn’t have that much choreography anyways…

Kaito was amazed at how so many kids could come together, then split up into groups—some playing the instruments, some rehearsing the dance routines, and others practicing the singing parts of the play—without adult supervision nor anyone charging them to do it.

When Kaito saw Touma on stage, singing one of the main duets with Sara, he felt sorry for his friend. He could see that Touma really didn’t want to be there, especially since the scene they were rehearsing required the male and female lead to dance very close to each other.

I know!

“ACHOO!” Kaito sent out a startling sneeze across the entire hall.

The music stopped instantly, and everyone looked at Kaito.

“S-sorry!”

Touma looked at him with a big grin on his face. He knew Kaito had sneezed on purpose.

“Let’s take it from the top!” Sara said.

“No! It’s okay…” Touma jumped off the stage. “We all know this part.”

“Okay, then what else do you want to practice, Mister Director?” Sara asked with her hands on her hips, clearly annoyed by Touma’s reaction.

“I think that was enough for today. I’ll see everyone here tomorrow straight after school! And those of you that don’t have a suit or dress, please, come and see me right away!”

Minutes later, a bunch of kids had surrounded Touma, so Kaito thought it best to make his way home without him.

The train ride to home was calming, but with no one to talk to, his thoughts drifted off to Miyu again, and his heart sank—deep into his chest.

Getting his homework over with seemed like a herculean task. He would pause to stare at the crack running down the wall after every sentence he wrote, wondering if she was there and if he should call her name.

No…

If she had anything to say to me, she could call me…

Notwithstanding, Kaito still made loud noises—like sneezing, coughing, or intentionally dropping his book on the floor to create a thumping sound—secretly hoping she would hear he was home and call out to him.

But there was no response, nothing but silence; the most distracting silence he had ever experienced in his life.

Dinner was even worse because Yui was away on school camp, which left him alone at home with Kanna. She was a really cool aunt, and Kaito always thought she made a great mother, but he could see she struggled to deal with an emotional teenager.

He felt bad for her, but at the same time, he felt like he was the one in pain and not the one that needed to comfort the other one.

Finally, after at least ten minutes of awkward soup-slurping—the only noise echoing throughout the kitchen—Kanna asked, “So, do you want to talk about it?”

Kaito swallowed a spoonful of Kanna’s delicious chicken soup. “Not really… I mean, I sang a song, bared my soul to a girl that I liked, and she completely ignored me after that. That’s pretty much it.”

Kanna smiled. “You know… That sounds very similar to the way your mom and dad met.”

“My dad? Mama never told me much about him.”

“Yeah, I can imagine. The two of them were constantly at each other’s throats! It wasn’t a healthy relationship… But it wasn’t always like that.”

“How did they meet then?”

“Well… Your mother actually dragged me down to this bar she loved going to, she was so excited that night. Some band she was crazy about was performing there.” Kanna took a sip of water, smiling as if there was some minor detail she remembered which she couldn’t share with Kaito. “So, the band arrived and all their groupies, including your mother, went completely insane! And there he was… Your father, lead vocalist for some low-quality rock band. I never liked him but he made my sister happy, so I figured why not, you know?”

Kaito’s face lit up. “My dad was in a rock band?”

“Yup! And after performing a couple of their songs, he was like, ‘I dedicate this song to the lovely young lady in front of me with the sexy little black number on.’”

Kaito laughed at his aunt as she put on the funniest British-Japanese accent he had ever heard. “Wait, he was British?”

“Ha! No, he was a fake! And sadly, your mom completely fell for it. Not at first though, the poor guy chased after her like a lost little puppy but eventually, she let him in, and then she became the lost little puppy.”

“What happened then?”

“Kaito, I think they fought so much because they were both really passionate people. When they were happy, they were really happy! And when they fought… Well, like I said, it wasn’t healthy. So, when your mother found out she was pregnant with you, she broke up with him and sent him away. She wanted something more stable, you know?”

My real dad doesn’t even know I exist…

And my stepfather is in jail…

Kaito didn’t feel a lot better after that, but he was grateful that Kanna was there to take care of him and his sister.

“Thank you so much for telling me that story. And thank you for everything you do for Yui and me.”

“No need to thank me; we’re family after all!” she said, and at least one of them smiled that evening.