Author's Note: I am only planning this as a one-off venture into non-Sailor Moon fan fiction unless encouraged otherwise by you, the readers. Hope you like it, though…
Also, let me put the disclaimer out now. I do not own any trademarks or characters related to Tokimeki Memorial, but I do own the characters of Carlo Santos, Olivier Sevin, Hampton Foushee, Josh Earp, Nick DeRose, and Brad Ralston. I'm Carlo, and Olivier, Hampton, Brad, and Josh were my real-life classmates at Reynolds, so this is also something of an alternate-universe story.

Picture this: Four teenagers sitting around in Gap and Brooks Brothers shirts and brands like that with phrases like "it's, like, okay" and "that was absolutely awesome" coming out of their mouths. Looks like some scene in New York or Chicago, right? Wrong. As a matter of fact, wrong side of the world. This was Yokohama, Japan, and we were hanging out over some lemonade in a large, futuristic-looking mall.

"First day back at school tomorrow…" Nick DeRose sighed.
"No kidding." Brad Ralston said, also sighing.
We were going through more than just your typical end-of-vacation blues. The four of us—Olivier Sevin, Nick, Brad, and me, Carlo Santos—all had one thing in common other than being classmates. All four of us were Americans with parents who had been called to Japan on lengthy assignments when we were quite young—about three or so. That meant that you could often find us hanging out together discussing sports back home, trying to help each other brush up on our developing Japanese, or else providing a welcome break from that by talking in English. The other thing was that even though the four of us had grown up in Japan, we were still homesick at times and there were numerous instances where we felt out of place.

The cool thing about our shared predicament was that it molded us into a quartet where everyone had everyone else's back. Hard test coming and the teacher's too hard to understand? Study session together in English. One of us broke and having trouble getting home? The rest of us would walk him home. That fact made me even more glad that we would also tackle the last thing standing between us and college back home—Kirameki High School—together.

"I hear Kirameki has some of the best girls in the city period." Nick said, a grin starting to reappear on his face. "Is that true?"
"I really hope so." Olivier said earnestly. "It would be cool to have someone like that to help get through this."
"I hear ya." Brad said. "Look at it this way: just three more years starting tomorrow until we get to head back home for college!"
"I guess that's one way to see it." I said, trying to grin but only managing to make my mouth twitch. "Are you guys actually planning to try and date anyone this year?"
"Maybe." Olivier replied.
"Yeah, maybe." Brad chimed in.
"Perhaps." Nick said. "What about you?"
"I really don't know." I said. I was (and therefore am) the youngest of the four of us, as I had done some grade-skipping and ended up a year ahead of my peers. So while my friends were 14, I was still just 13. As a result, I was extremely shy when it came to relationships and would rather study than date, something that made my life in Japan more stressful at times.

"Have you even had a female friend ever since you came here?" Olivier asked.
I suddenly glanced over to a nearby tree where I recognized two names inscribed on it both in Japanese and English—and one was my own. A host of memories suddenly flooded back into me as I recognized the other name and turned back to Olivier.
"As a matter of fact, yeah." I replied.
"Really?" Olivier asked, sounding incredulous. "Who was she?"
"Shiori Fujisaki." I answered. "We met each other during my first year in Japan."
"No kidding?" Nick asked. Brad was also looking interestedly at me by now.
"We really became good friends before she had to move out. Her family had to move to Osaka because of business just when my class difficulty was really starting to pick up." I explained. The four of us were also something of "preppies", if you could call it that, especially me, as we had just finished up three years together with flying colors in a particularly demanding class that is roughly the equivalent of honors-level middle school over here. Once or twice, we were even exposed to high school material. Even though it meant we had large expectations placed on us, it also helped take away some of the tension by ensuring that we were rarely picked on or teased because we'd proven ourselves.

"Do you think you'd meet again—before going back home, anyway?" Olivier asked.
"I really don't know." I said again. "I haven't heard much from her since then. But speaking of romance and Kirameki, I've heard about this legend related to love over there."
"What is it?" Nick and Brad asked almost simultaneously.
"Well, they've got this tree out here called the Legend Tree. The story goes that if a girl and a guy say they love each other under that tree on Graduation Day, then their relationship will be blessed and they'll live happily ever after."
"Wow." Olivier said. "And this is real?"
"I've heard quite a few who swear by it, now that I remember it." Nick said. "Man, it would be cool to have a girl telling me that she loves me under that tree on Graduation Day." A smile stretched over his face as he looked up somewhat dreamily, and I had no doubt he was imagining it and really liking the idea of it.
"That would be cool." I said, falling silent for a while as I imagined what it would be like if that guy was me. "I hope it happens to you because I think it's pretty much a long shot that I'll be one of those guys getting a confession that day."

"But it's not like you're totally down when Duke just won the national championship." Olivier quipped, looking at me and grinning.
"You got that right." I said fervently, grinning back.
Oh, and one more thing—the four of us were transplants from North Carolina. That meant that the four of us were especially attuned to the college basketball world, and with Duke—my favorite team and one of my preferred colleges—beating Arizona in the national title game at the Metrodome, I had a much-needed morale boost. There were even times where we'd be able to catch a game together on TV or radio, which was another welcome stress buster.
"I was glad Duke kicked Arizona's butt." Nick said. His favorite team, Michigan State, had been blown out by Arizona in the Final Four, so he had undoubtedly been looking for revenge. The conversation soon shifted, and Shiori Fujisaki was quickly shunted to my mind's sideline as I was all too happy to talk sports rather than relationships.

Little did I know how much it would come hurtling back in the next day…

In the next chapter—"The Epiphany":
Carlo, Olivier, Brad, and Nick go through that first day at Kirameki High. Translation: Enter Shiori, Saki, and company. How will the guys react? In particular, what does Shiori's reappearance drive Carlo to do?

Note dated June 19, 2005: If you are looking for "The Moon, Mercury, and Manchester," click the link on my pen name to get information.