Title: The Start of a Sentence

Characters: Nodoka and Yui (in spirit?)

Nodoka Manabe shut the door to her college dorm room and sat down at her desk chair. It was too cold outside to go back out, but she didn't have any other classes today; one of her teachers had come down with a cold and class had been put off until next week. And although she usually had piles and piles of homework now that she was in college, she found herself with all of it finished and nothing to do.

Pulling out her cell phone, she checked to see if she had any messages. Yui always sent her all sorts of random texts, only some of which she replied to. She hadn't actually seen her since the summer, when they'd both been at the Hirasawas' house and talked with Ui and Ms. Hirasawa for a while. But even though it was just after New Year's, there were no messages for her.

Nodoka wasn't the type of girl that stayed glued to her phone; actually, she sometimes turned it off and forgot to check it for a few days on end. She'd always figured it was better to communicate with people in person, instead of over texts or emails, but now that she and Yui were in different colleges, the only way they could talk was through pixilated words or sentences interrupted by emoticons (in Yui's case, not hers. Nodoka rarely used emoticons in her texts, because she tried conveying what she wanted to say clearly). It was sad, because they'd once been so close they hadn't even needed words to communicate like Nodoka was trying to do now.

She wondered about Yui sometimes-okay, a lot. If Nodoka was the one trying to text her, not the other way around, then Yui must be having fun at her college. It was relieving to know that she had her Light Music Club friends with her, because, unlike Nodoka, Yui wouldn't be able to survive on her own. Still, being a freshman in college all on her own was sometimes challenging for Nodoka. That was why it had been so relieving to go back to her old town and see the Hirasawas again over the summer. She wondered if Yui's mother had told Yui how she'd come back on her own, to see if Yui was there, and Nodoka's thoughts of studying abroad. Though she'd applied for that a bit late, after school resumed in the fall, she'd probably get the opportunity to go next year. It was nice to have plans like that, because it was what got Nodoka to keep going.

Nodoka smiled a bit, remembering when she'd seen Yui talk about what college was like, and Yui showing her the picture of her new Light Music Club friends. Yui was just like that, making friends left and right. Nodoka was more withdrawn, though with Yui, she'd definitely opened up. Yui had relied on her so much over the years, and Nodoka was coming to realize she'd been leaning on Yui a bit too, and things were so different not having her around.

Without knowing it, Nodoka was suddenly looking at the texts she and Yui had exchanged, going past the ones from her most recent birthday and even farther than that. There was a bunch from Yui's college cultural festival, where she'd gushed about losing a competition-why would she gush about that?-to her friends' band. Then there were the ones from when Yui was moving her things to her dorm room, trying to return all the things she'd borrowed from Nodoka and get the things she'd left at Nodoka's house back. That afternoon had been a fun and chaotic one, and Nodoka had been sorry when it ended. There were lots about the Light Music Club's trip to London, with goofy photos attached to almost every one. Nodoka had been lonely when Yui had been gone, as well as worried about her, but was glad she'd had such a good time.

Going back further, there were ones encouraging Yui that she'd passed her entrance exams for college, as well as a few study tips (and loads of texts where Yui freaked out about the exams to Nodoka, both before and after she'd taken them). Then came last year's New Year's greetings and ones from Nodoka's birthday and Christmas. Between all the random comments were texts full of genuine worry and congratulations and kindness. Nodoka made it all the way to texts from the music festival that had been the Light Music Club's summer retreat before she ran out of them and ended up right back at the beginning. Even though she'd had the same phone since late middle school, it periodically deleted old texts, which Nodoka was sometimes annoyed with. This included today. There had been so many more messages passed between her and Yui, but time hadn't preserved them ("time" really meant " her cell phone" in this case).

Nodoka looked down at the text displayed on the screen in front of her: the most recent text Yui had sent her. It read, "Happy New Year, Nodoka-chan! Hope you're happy this year, and get whatever you deserve. Oops, gotta go, the whole Light Music Club's taking a trip to visit a temple. And that's a whole bunch of bands crammed into a bus, LOL. Text me sometime, 'kay?" After that was a line of emoticons. Nodoka had received and read it, but had been too busy to respond right away. Now it was the middle of January and she still hadn't answered. Nodoka felt guilty, but was positive Yui hadn't even noticed. Small things like this didn't bother her, but it bothered Nodoka. She made up her mind to write a response for Yui.

Pressing the "reply" button but not typing anything, Nodoka thought more carefully than when she had to take her exams in high school. What could she say to Yui? Her brown-haired best friend wouldn't really pay attention if she said anything about studying or even school, really. It was funny, because the few people Nodoka knew in college were the ones she talked only about studies with. Maybe she could mention that she was going into town over the weekend, and maybe she'd get Yui something from a candy store, so what would she like? She could go with that, but it wouldn't be enough to trigger a conversation. She should say something more interesting, maybe a joke to make Yui laugh or something? But Nodoka wasn't that great with jokes either. She inhaled and then exhaled. She'd just have to take a leap of faith and hope Yui would reply back to what she was going to say.

Nodoka talked quietly as she typed out a message to her best friend. "Happy New Year, Yui! Hope you're well. Remember that time I visited you at your house? We should get together like that sometime again. It would be great to come over to your college or even over to your house again and just catch up. What do you think?" Sure, it sounded a bit stiff, but Yui would know that she was genuinely being cheerful and friendly. Nodoka pressed "send" and only had to wait a couple of minutes before Yui's reply. As soon as her phone buzzed, Nodoka leapt a little too overenthusiastically for it. Flipping it open, her brown eyes reflected the light of the small screen, making them look like they were glowing.

"Nodoka-chan! Man, I've missed you so much. Studying for finals and doing homework here is so hard! Tell me what you've been up to. It's so boring here now that we're back from winter break, and everyone else has classes. How are you, Nodoka-chan? I bet you're doing okay, totally better than me. I always knew you'd be a perfect fit for college. What's up?!" There were more emoticons following it, but that was Yui through and through, and that was completely fine.

Nodoka looked around to make sure no girls with brown hair held with yellow hair clips were around, because it felt like Yui was right there, speaking jovial words right in her ear. Just like Yui, she smiled, feeling as if she'd jumped right across the big gap dividing her and her best friend. She spread out across her bed and started typing, the huge smile on her face lasting for a long, long time.