AN: I decided to revisit and change the plot I had initially created for "Best of Friends" six months ago. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to write anything since then. You see, I've been a very busy girl. I enrolled in a new school, put greater emphasis in my studies, "trimmed the fat" on my social life, and, of course, had to deal with another relationship that just didn't work out.

To be completely honest, my current state of mind doesn't exactly want to believe in anything romantic or love-related. Personally, I have, for the most part, given up on trying to find someone, and am beginning to believe (or hope) that love will come my way on its own. I'm a control freak, so it's usually a bit hard for me to accept such ideology. Nevertheless, it's really all I'm working with for now.

Anyway, I'm not quite sure what inspired me to try and write again. Maybe it's because I want to start believing again. Maybe I'm just procrastinating; I am a known procrastinator, after all. Or maybe it's the slight night breeze slinking its way into my room through the half open window that's got me nostalgic, reminiscing about the days when everything was much easier and my biggest concern was whether or not I'd be able to avoid staining my white school uniform blouse with the cheese popcorn that my nanny had told me to stop eating.

Random, I know.

Disclaimer: Last time I checked, I'm not rich. That should tell you (and me) something.

She believed in only a handful of things. That you don't need to be lucky if you're prepared, that hard work always pays off, that a good drink shouldn't taste like it belongs in a chemistry lab, and that one should always know that difference between taking advantage of an opportunity and abusing the privileges one is given. If she were honest, she would probably say that she wanted to believe that love could conquer any obstacle, but since "wants" aren't the same as "needs", and she didn't particularly see love as a necessity in her life, she decided to claim that love really only comes to a few instead.

Serena wasn't always this way, of course. Mixed in with the days of her adolescence were the events that eventually led her to this point in life. Those were the events that, in all honesty, had made her leave her homeland for another continent. Away from the only life she knew at eighteen, away from the people she had shared her childhood memories with, and of course, away from him.

Oh yeah, him.

She shook her head, reminding herself not to think of people that no longer mattered in her current life. She'd been gone for almost five years now, and has accomplished many things since they last met. The memories of the person who had caused her insurmountable grief no longer bring her to tears. A slight tug of emotion, maybe. But not tears.

There were more important things to think about, anyway. Like, what was it again? The thing she had initially been thinking about before her mind wandered off in the dark recesses of her past?

A brief glance at the table brought her back to the present. On the flat, tinted glass was the envelope that she had opened just a few minutes ago. Beside it was the note from Seiya.

Hope to see you soon.

She knew that, by all means, there was nothing keeping her from accepting Seiya and the college's invitation. After all, Tokyo University had always been her dream school, and she had always wanted to be a lawyer. So why was it that she wasn't jumping for joy at the acceptance letter and the full-ride scholarship award that had (almost literally) come knocking on her door that very morning?

Hi..—NOTHING.

'Come on!' she told herself. 'Just because we'd be in the same country doesn't mean we'd automatically see each other.'

Right?