They had written their names side by side in the sand at the beach, and it was so romantic at the time. They had sat by the shore, hand in hand, watching the sun set as the tide slowly washed away any trace that their names had ever been there. Perhaps it was some kind of cruel sign, the world trying to warn them that they were just a temporary thing. Some silly high school love, a couple years of their life that they would never get back, never forget, and never want to.

Maybe Yoshiko had forgotten. Maybe she had pushed it from her memory, refusing to acknowledge that it had happened. Maybe in her mind, she'd taken it all back when they'd split up. After all, it had been six years. Honestly, You had no idea. They hadn't talked in so long….

The reason they had decided to break up was because You was in college. Her first semester, they realized how hard it was to keep up a relationship with distance between them. They rarely got to spend time together because of how far You had to go and how busy she was with classes, and homework, and meeting new friends. And when they did spend time together, they just spent it fighting. Yoshiko had always been the jealous type, and You wasn't. She was a social butterfly, and it always led to some issues.

Maybe they just weren't ready to face the real world as a couple. That happens a lot for high school sweethearts. And who knew? Maybe Yoshiko /had/ forgotten. But You hadn't. You couldn't. Well, she didn't really know if she couldn't or if she wouldn't. She never really had gotten over it.

It still kept her up at night. When she was in college, it had distracted her from her classes, her mind wandering, wanting to call Yoshiko or go visit her, see how she was doing. She never did. She was too scared to be rejected. Eventually, she managed to at least get her focus back, so she could do her work in classes without an issue. And now, she almost never thought about it at work. It wasn't until her mind wasn't busy, when she was at ease and not thinking that the thoughts would occur to her.

"What's Yoshiko thinking about right now?" "Does she still call herself Yohane?" "Has she found someone new?" "Does she miss me like I miss her?" "I wonder if she moved on." "Does she still talk to Hanamaru and Ruby?"

Somehow, no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts always circled back around to Yoshiko. That was the big reason none of her relationships in the past six years had lasted very long. It would always be a couple dates, maybe it'd go a little further. Sleepovers and little kisses, but You always would lose interest. And she always felt awful about it, breaking up with girls because she was hung up on her ex, but she couldn't really help it.

You glanced over at the clock. 3:39 am. She sighed, rolling over onto her stomach and burying her face into her pillow. She shouldn't be awake right now. She had to work at 11. It had been hours of her lying there in the dark, in the silence, trying to fall asleep, but clearly, it hadn't worked. Giving up, at least for the moment, she blindly reached over to her night table and grabbed her phone, lifting her head and unlocking it. As expected, no notifications. No one was really up at nearly 4 am anyways. Why would they be? Chika and Riko had normal jobs that they had to get up for in the morning, and they were the only two people You talked to on a regular basis.

You needed to do something to get over Yoshiko. She couldn't just keep on going like this, dating without putting her heart into it, staying up all night, being miserable. She needed to kick into action and do something to move on. Where could she even begin? Deleting pictures off her phone hadn't worked. Getting rid of things that reminded her of Yoshiko hadn't worked. Maybe what she was lacking was closure. Somehow, perhaps she needed to get in a new way.

Picking up her phone again, she thought heavily about what to do. Should she look her up on social media? See what was going on in her life? No, that was kind of creepy. Maybe she should just… call her. It couldn't hurt, could it? What was the worst that could happen, Yoshiko could… not pick up? That wasn't so bad. Then again, it was 3:47 am, she probably was sleeping. If You was doing her math right, Yoshiko should have just graduated, and likely had a job now. She would probably have to be up early, so she wouldn't be up now.

Taking a deep breath, You went to her messages and typed in what she remembered to be Yoshiko's number. Sad that after six years, she still had it memorized. She paused. Why was this so hard? She was so nervous. Really though, what was the worst that could happen? Slowly, her fingers began to type an anxious message.

'Hey, how are you?'

Her fingers shaking, she pressed send, then immediately set her phone down and put her hands over her face. This was either going to help You get over her, or bring up old feelings and make everything worse. Maybe she should have talked to Chika and Riko about it first. They could've at least helped give her some pros and cons.

Filled to the very brim with anxiety, she put her phone back on her nightstand and rolled over. She really should get to sleep now. She would have to be up in about six hours to get ready for work.