Nakano

I loved her then. I love her now. 10 years later. How pathetic. I am a truly pathetic human being.

I slam my hands down onto my desk and sweep my hand across it, pushing everything off in a fit of rage.

I didn't just love her, I loved all of them. Mio, Ritsu, Tsumugi, Ui, Jun, Ms. Yamanaka, hell, even Nodoka. I just... What the fuck is wrong with me!? Pathetic. Why did I abandon them? When we were so close to our dream?

I ask myself this question frequently. I never actually can come up with a solid answer, though. I had narrowed it down to "I felt that they were better than me," "I felt like a fifth-wheel," and "I couldn't take the stress,". Idiotic reasons. Now I sit alone. With no one. I haven't had a real conversation with anyone in years. I walk down the street on the way to the convenience store once a week, only to be pointed at. Laughed at. Stared at. Quit staring, dammit! Yes, I am Azusa Nakano! Jesus fucking Christ... This is my fault. Not anyone else's. I can't blame it on those people who stare. Who gossip. It isn't their fault. It is mine, and mine alone.

My fault.

Mine.

I loved her then. I love her now. 10 years later.

Tainaka

I take a drag of a cigarette from a cheap pack I had gotten outta a vending machine. I let the smoke out slowly through my nose, then my mouth, savoring the flavor that many hated. The air around me is foggy, and chilled. It's around 19:00 and is already dark out, as it is late fall, maybe early winter. I don't keep track anymore. I don't keep track of anything. I barely even remember my own birthday. There was one thing I did remember though. Eyes. Faces. Deep chocolate eyes, sea blue eyes, ruby red eyes. Most of all, I remember eyes as cold as steel yet as soft and fluffy as... Well... a marshmallow. Eyes that could make anyone's heart go 'thump, thump'. Who could forget? Who could forget the eyes of their best friend? The eyes of their best friend, 10 years later?

Kotobuki

I let my fingers glide effortlessly over the keys of my grand piano, letting all of my sorrows drift somewhere far away, along with suppressed feelings and memories. My body does as it wants, playing a familiar tune that I love, and hate. So many that I love and hate! I let a sigh of melancholy escaped my lips and I begin playing with more passion than before. Letting my brain hear something it so hated yet my heart so loved. These songs. From then. And now, 10 years later.

Akiyama

Thunder claps outside my window. I scream and cower in a corner.

Why isn't she here? She was always here. I'm in denial. Of course she isn't here. Why would she be here? She left a long time ago. Why? How could someone I loved so much leave so easily? As though our years of friendship hadn't happened. What happened to that girl I once knew? That kind, childish, confident girl. My drummer. The girl who I had been so attracted to because she had what I didn't. Where did she go? I had last seen her 5 years ago, but I hadn't known the real her in 10. It's now 10 years later.