In a cotton-candy castle in the sky composed of all-too familiar chord progressions, a guitarist lost herself in the fuwa fuwa reverie of her band's signature song. The sounds, though reverberating loudly enough for those nearby to enjoy, were played solely for the players themselves. A blissful production where the cymbals clanged in bursts of energy between the continuous snare hits, where the bass lulled deep yet perpetual tones, where the keyboard blended colorful hums beneath the melody, and where the rhythm guitar accented higher-pitched notes above the jaka-jan's of their beloved lead guitarist.

Yui Hirasawa pursed her lips before breaking into a toothy smile as she uttered the final lyrics of the song.

"Fuwa Fuwa Time!"

"Fuwa Fuwa Time!" Mio echoed the lyric with that vivid timbre her voice had. Yui's smile only grew bigger as she responded in kind.

"Fuwa Fuwa Time!"

"Fuwa Fuwa Time!" The brunette's eyes widened slightly as she heard their keyboardist echo the phrase alongside the bassist.

"Fuwa Fuwa Time!"

"Fuwa Fuwa Time!" The final utterance of this silly yet catchy phrase, and this time everyone had joined in for the finale, albeit in a less-than-graceful manner since Ritsu was off-tempo, Mugi played the wrong note, and Mio began laughing at the silliness of their sound. The masterful showcase of each girl that came at the end of the song devolved into nonsensical snare hits, key strokes, and guitar strums. It was utter cacophony but the beauty came not from the harmony (or lack thereof) of their instruments but from the laughs that filled the clubroom one last time.

After remembering they had to end the song one way or another, Yui took initiative by holding up two fingers and mouthing out "One, two..." before jumping in the air for one last chord. Naturally, everyone came in off-beat, resulting in more uproarious laughter.

Yui's vision soon blurred from tears due to laughing so much, leading her to wipe them away with her blazer's sleeve. She gazed back at her fellow band-mates. It seemed the giggles had cracked the dam that was Mio's normally-reserved nature, resulting in an outpouring of snickers and snorts from her as she leaned on the drummer for support. Ritsu wrapped her arm around the bassist and smiled as brightly as the lens flare would on her forehead.

Aww, I'm going to miss Mio-chan and Ricchan's forehead!

Tsumugi clutched her belly while holding her hand to her mouth in some futile attempt to retain her ojou-sama persona.

Hehe, even Mugi-chan has a silly side! I'll miss that too!

Even the usually strict Azusa grinned in pure mirth at her senpai, widening her arms to welcome Yui in a hug for the first time ever.

Azu-nyan...wants me to hug her?! The guitarist took no time in thrusting herself forward, uncaring of the fact that Gitah would likely collide unlovingly with Muttan.

The hug never came, however.

As the brunette took great strides forward, she noticed the scene of her dear friends growing further and further away. They retreated faster than her legs could carry her, their faces becoming indistinguishable and blank.

Stricken by surprise, shock, and grief, she rubbed her sleeve on her eyes again to wipe the tears away, only this time, the tears weren't from laughter.

"Ricchan...? Mio-chan?" Yui's voice was quiet and faded into oblivion almost immediately after the names were uttered. Eager to be heard by her friends, she yelled.

"Mugi-chan! Azu-nyan!"

...No response.

Sudden feelings of loneliness and longing clouted Yui's mind without her friends by her side. Gazing absentmindedly downward, she noticed the After School Tea Time logo she drew on her hand a long time ago. The tea cup and steam lines looked freshly drawn for a moment, yet abruptly began to fade away.

"What? No, After School Tea Time is still together!" The logo ignored her words as it continued to fade. "I mean, Azu-nyan won't be with us anymore, but we'll see her again! And Mio-chan, Mugi-chan, and Ricchan; we're all going to the same university!"

The logo faded to nothingness.

"No...everyone...I-I..."

Before anymore tears could flow, a muddy sound reverberated around the guitarist.

"...ee...cha..."

Yui looked around at gray blankness around her. "Wh-Who's there?!"

"Onee-chan! Onee-chan!"


"Ehh?!" Yui woke with a start, throwing off her blanket from the bed from the shock. "Ui?"

A sigh escaped the younger sister's lips before she settled with her hands on her hips. "Onee-chan, it's 1:00 in the afternoon. You should be awake by now."

"O-Oh...hehe, sorry…" The accompanying sheepish grin that followed the apology sat wrong with the younger Hirasawa. The fact that Yui hadn't tried to fall asleep once more was further distressing.

"Onee-cha, are you…crying?"

"Eh?" Yui didn't even notice. It seemed her tears in her dreams were real tears. She had been crying throughout the whole dream in the real world. She quickly wiped them away and tried to hide them beneath an excessively wide smile, one that Ui could easily see through.

The now-senior sat herself on the rim of Yui's bed, reaching her hand to rest on her shoulders. Their eyes met one another, one set puffy from crying and the other brimming with chocolate compassion. "Onee-chan…I'm proud of you…Mom and Dad are proud that you graduated and moved on to college. And I'm sure your friends are just as proud of you too."

"I know…b-but I'm just going to miss them all so much!" And again, she started to cry. Realizing words of comfort wouldn't suffice at the moment, she simply let her sister cry into her shoulder. The warmth of the tears seeped through Ui's thin long-sleeve as the younger sister slowly rubbed Yui's back in a rhythmic pattern.

Suddenly, Yui ceased her mourning, and looked up. Ui was caught off guard by it, briefly marveling at how quickly she ceased her mourning before wondering what was up.

Yui left her sister's shoulder and began to move about her room, seeming to be searching for something.

"Uhh, Onee-chan, what are you-"

"Ui!" Yui stared straight at her younger sister.

"I forgot Giita at school!"


A/N: A sort of reboot of the original "Graduation" fic that I wrote...oh dear god, almost SEVEN YEARS AGO. And funnily enough, despite me reworking that chapter from the ground up (since the way I wrote their graduation was entirely different from how Japanese graduations are :) ) ended up being two words less than the original! ...I think I regressed as a writer LOL. Either way, I originally wrote that story to have multiple chapters so that's what I'm going to do here. I could delete that story so this one could take its place but there's something nostalgic about looking at my old writings, just as there's something nostalgic about revisiting these old characters. I am very unfamiliar with them compared to how I was before, yet I do I want to finish this story this time. So anyway though, thank you very much for reading!~