CHAPTER ONE
"I'm sorry, Miss Yoshida, but without the money, we can't save your father."
I couldn't even count how many times the doctors told my mom that Grandpa was a lost cause. There always seemed to be a different man or woman in a suit who seemed to have authority over his life. It just wasn't fair. My family had never been rich; we had always just barely scraped by. The Yoshida family was one of opportunists, but not optimists. My family was never happy with what it had, and its greed has left it penniless.
The doctor didn't even make an attempt to comfort or console my weeping mother. I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he quietly left, not even closing the door behind him. I guess consoling grieving patients wasn't part of the job description. My mother's eyes seemed dull, almost as though something had been drained from behind them. Those blue eyes lacked their usual shimmer, and I couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking.
Grandpa stirred under his sheets and propped himself up on an elbow to look at me. "Kura, you look more and more like your mother every day," he croaked, obviously struggling to steady his breathing. It was true. I was practically a carbon copy of my mother. I had inherited her brown hair and blue eyes, and sometimes the only way one could tell us apart was by the fact that my hair was much shorter than hers.
"Don't push yourself too hard, Gramps," I spoke, and he settled back down with a grunt of pain. The tension in that musty room was too much. It hung in the air like a toxic fog, poisoning me with every breath I took. I needed fresh air, and I needed it desperately.
I hopped up off my seat and instantly felt the nausea rising in my chest. The tension was making me sick. I raced past nurses and doctors alike before finally reaching the lobby of the hospital, where I keeled over and began to cough from all the running. In that moment, I heard the familiar chime of my phone as it received a new message. Who was texting me? I had very few contacts on my phone, but as I punched in my code, I knew who it was.
Matsuda Tomoko:
Hey, Kura-chan! Are you back from vacation yet?
It was my best friend, Tomoko. We had been friends for as long as I could remember. I quickly typed a response to her:
Hey, Toko. Yeah, I'm in the hospital w/ Gramps.
The screen loaded as she typed, and another message popped up on the screen with a ding.
Matsuda Tomoko:
Geez, I'm sorry about that. Do you wanna meet and maybe talk about it?
Yoshida Kura:
Yeah, sure, but it's your fault if I start crying.
Matsuda Tomoko:
Meet me in front of the school? I have all day, so we can meet whenever.
Yoshida Kura:
That sounds good. I'll be there in half an hour.
I figured meeting with Tomoko would get my mind off of things, and arranging a meetup felt oddly refreshing. Maybe it was because I would finally be around somebody who wasn't constantly sad for the first time in months. Taking my first step into the cool morning air, I started on my way to Nagakawa High.
"Hey, Kura-chan!" Tomoko called to me from across the street. I quickly bounded across to meet my best friend, and we came together in a warm embrace, arms locked tight around one another. I'll admit that seeing her again made me so happy I cried a little bit. My embarrassment faded when she appeared to be crying upon breaking our embrace. "I've missed you so much!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, I missed you too," I said, realizing she could hear exhaustion in my voice.
"Rough day, hm?" she asked with sympathy, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Let's talk about it." We sat ourselves down on the steps in front of our school, and Tomoko looked at my expectantly.
"I just wish there was something I could do for him!" I muttered after catching her up on my grandfather's condition. "There's no way we could make money that fast. It's too much, and he's gonna die!"
Tomoko sighed frustratedly. "I don't know what to tell you, honestly. I've never been in this situation," she admitted. Tomoko's family had always been extremely healthy. They never seemed to get sick like everybody else, and when they did, they overcame it very quickly. "You need to be there for your mother in his final days," she suggested.
"But I want to save him! I want him to live!" I wished with all my heart, knowing it would never come true. "It's not fair."
Tomoko shifted to look me in the face. "Kura, there's nothing you can do. It's out of your control."
I recoiled, shocked. How dare she suggest I just sit back and do nothing? There was an awkward tension as the autumn wind whipped through her long, russet hair. I looked away, but I felt those silvery gray eyes peering down at me. "Toko, what can I do to make it easier? Like, you know, for Mom." I carefully considered the question before asking it, and when I did, I felt Tomoko relax her gaze.
"You can take care of yourself and not beat yourself up over being unable to help him," she offered. There was a pause, and she inhaled sharply before speaking again, "I like to listen to music."
"M-music?" I murmured, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Everything, of course," she stated as though it were common sense. "It gets my mind off of things and helps me see situations from new perspectives." She pulled her phone out of her favorite yellow hoodie, and the screen flicked on. She sorted through her music before coming to a song called 'Aozora Jumping Heart.' She offered me one of her earbuds, and I took it gratefully.
The song was amazing. It felt as though the girls singing understood everything I was going through; like I didn't even have to say a word for the music to make me feel significantly better. "What is this?" I asked with impatience in my words.
"They're called Aqours. They're school idols." Tomoko said matter-of-factly. Pointing to a cute girl with long hair, she remarked, "That's Matsuura Kanan. I want to be just like her."
"School idols," I repeated, letting the words sink in. In that moment, an idea came to mind. This was the answer. "School idols!"
"Yeah, we established that already. What's with you?" Tomoko laughed.
"You've just given me the greatest idea I've ever had!"