"Minami-senpai, congratulations on graduating!"

"Tha-thank you..."

As I made my way to the cooking clubroom, I was greeted by the warm smile of my underclassmen. The room, which usually plain and simple, was decorated beautifully, it's hard to recognise. A cute ornament attached to the wall, colourful balloon every here and there, and food and drink served on the table in front of the room. I never really expected something like this, so I was lost for words.

"Senpai, congratulations on graduating!"

I heard a greeting that wasn't meant for me.

"Who-whoaaah! You girls made this?"

Another club member entered the room. When I shifted my gaze to her, I could see that she was just as surprised as I was.

"We just wanted to have a little farewell party." The new club president explained to us.

Today was our graduation day. We were no longer a middle school student. After the ceremony ended, I decided to walk around the school one last time. I wanted to treasure every memory I made in this school for these past three years. It really felt like it was yesterday when I attended the opening ceremony. Now, I must say goodbye to the school I've come to love and to the people I've come to know.

"Still, we were really surprised! We never thought you girls would do something like this. Right, Kotori-chan?" Ayumi-chan, the ex-president turned her face to me. I could see that her eyes were a little moist. I bet she was touched like I did.

Looking at her who's trying her best not to cry in front of our underclassmen, I smiled and wiped a few tears gathered in my eyes. "Yes, thank you so much for everything, we'll never forget this!"

"Senpai, you have to visit us every now and then, okay?" One of our underclassmen talked to Ayumi-chan with tears on her face. All Ayumi-chan's effort to look strong in front of our underclassmen failed. She broke into tears and answered 'Of course we will!'

I was really glad that we have such a great underclassmen and I was pretty sure this club would do just fine even though we're not here anymore.

After spending some time chatting in the clubroom, I decided to explore the school one more time. This time, I went together with Kousaka Honoka-chan and Sonoda Umi-chan, my childhood friends. They were a member of the Kendo club and were caught up with their own club before. We decided to meet up after we finished our business with our own club. Our meeting point was the big cherry blossom tree behind the schoolyard. The place where we always spent our lunchtime together now was dyed in the colour of pink. The cherry blossom was in a full bloom. The pink petals were floating in the air, got carried away by the wind. It was really beautiful scenery. Like something that came out of a painting. I wonder if it was because it's spring? I felt that today I was a bit more melancholic than usual.

From there, we went to the roof, classroom, gym, library, and even the nurse's office. We explored every part of this school while recalling some memory we made together. Good things that made us laugh, bad things that made us cry, the memory we want to cherish, and even maybe memory we want to forget, we experienced all that in this very school.

"It's good that the three of us got accepted into the same high school, but it's still lonely, isn't it?" Honoka-chan stopped her feet and looked afar outside the window.

The blue spring sky was almost turned completely orange, accompanied by some clouds that passed by occasionally.

"I kind of understand how you feel, Honoka." Umi-chan too followed after Honoka-chan. There's somehow an unexplainable loneliness on her face.

I shifted my eyes to the both of them and unconsciously let out a smile. It's really fortunate that the three of us managed to get to the same high school. Truth be told, I was really worried that Honoka-chan wouldn't get accepted, because well...her grade was...unique. With so many study sessions with Umi-chan and me she managed to pass the entrance exam and now was a first-year student at Otonokizaka High School. I was looking forward to our new school life as a high school student, but at the same time, I didn't want to leave this daily life I've got comfortable with behind. Yet I couldn't do anything about that. Life goes on. Eventually, I must leave my comfort zone and set out on a new journey. And that new journey, began when I leave this school.

We ended our little tour in the shoe locker. Honoka-chan and Umi-chan already changed their indoor shoes and made their way outside the school building. I put my hand on the knob and looked back to the corridor before opening the locker. I let out a sigh.

I didn't get to see her today...

Another important person I managed to know at this school. An underclassman who likes to stay in the library to read a book. An underclassman who seems like she didn't have that many friends because everyone feared her sharp and cold glance. We met in the spring two years ago, where she lost her way to the library. Since she was a freshman, I offered my help to her and hesitantly, she accepted it. I often went to the library to read some books about cooking or sometimes did some designs for my personal hobby. Every now and then, we would meet in the library and eventually got acquainted with each other. I didn't know since when, but we always met at least once a week in the library, talking about the book we were reading, or simply reading a book, enjoying each other's presence.

She had a 'hard to approach aura' around her all the time and it's true that she was kind of scary at first. But, if you managed to break her defense and know her better, she was really a good girl at heart. She was just a little awkward in expressing her feeling. Now, she was a member of the library committee since I recommended her to be one. But when I visited the library earlier, she wasn't there. Somehow, I had a feeling that I really wanted to see her today. I guess not everything just went the way I wanted to. Maybe I'll just have to give her a text later. Listlessly, I opened my shoe locker and there I found something I didn't recognise. Above my shoe, a white envelope was there. Carefully, I took it with my hand.

'To Minami Kotori' was written on it. I flipped it back to search for the sender, but it wasn't mentioned on the envelope surface. Inside the envelope was a scratch of paper.

A letter?

I unfolded the paper and read it slowly, word by word, sentence by sentence. As my eyes traced every single word on the letter, my hands started trembling. I knew that I'm not the expert when it came to something like this, but I'm not a fool either. I've watched countless movies and read countless books to at least get the grip of it. After I finished reading the letter, my bag slipped down from my grip. The sound of it meeting with the solid ground didn't affect me. My hands were still trembling. That letter was a love letter. There's no mistake about it. The very first love letter I had ever received in my life...was sent by no one other than my own friend. Moreover, that very friend...was a girl.