A Story: "Hey, Ene, could you tell me a story?" The curious albino boy asked. And so she did.

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Romance
Rating: K+
Characters: Ene, Konoha
Notes: Happy birthday, YukiEne-chan! You're so similar to me and you've watched so many of the same animes I've watched! Stay awesome, girl! (Sorry to give you an angsty story on you birthday, but hey, this is what I'm good at.)

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This is a forgotten story.

There once was a girl and a boy. Different personalities, different looks, different hobbies and talents... They lived their lives apart from each other, not knowing anything about each other until their first year of high school.

The girl was a bad-tempered girl who was always crabby because of certain reasons. She loved playing computer games, especially a game called 'Dead Bullet -1989-', which was actually pretty gory. She ranked 2nd in the country under the name 'Senkou no Maihime'. Although being slightly tomboyish, she was actually pretty weak under some circumstances, and kinda dumb.

The boy was a kind-hearted but air-headed dense idiot. He didn't seem to care much about his surroundings and what other people thought about him. He has a passion for drawing and always does so in an orange and black sketchbook. He was really good at drawing. However, he had a very serious illness that he may die from if he had an attack.

Due to some reasons, fate brought them together. Their lives crossed when they were put in the same class with a very infuriating teacher. He was a pretty bad example of what an adult and teacher should be like. Despite the girl being always annoyed at the teacher for pretty much everything about him and at the boy for being such a dense idiot, the three of them in the sunlit classroom got along very well and passed their days with much fun and laughter. To the girl, those cherished days were her favorite, although she never admitted it.

The girl and the boy had many fun times in school. However, she always doubted he was happy being with a girl like her. She always thought he would be much happier with a normal girl with normal girl-like hobbies and pretty looks, to which the boy always denied. He said he has always felt happy and she was the kindest girl he had ever met. To the girl, he was her only classmate and friend. He was her most important person.

The girl didn't realize it at first, but she was slowly falling in love with the boy. She loved every bit of him - his voice, his smell, his drawings, his airhead-ness, but most importantly... His smile. His smile was as warm as the sun, and he felt like the beautiful spring. She didn't understand the feeling, so she acted all cool around him and as if she was angry at everything he did, but inside she struggled with the want to be with him.

An important event to the girl was the cultural festival. Their stupid teacher told them they were to do something in 2 weeks when they've decided in their last homeroom they won't be doing anything. The girl was very annoyed at the teacher, like always but way more annoyed this time, but the boy was excited. Because of this, she decided to participate. They decided to a shooting booth, which was the boy's suggestion. The teacher made an impressive shooting video game, the boy drew all the pictures needed and the girl was in charge of playing against the visitors.

Because of complications, the girl's secret of being 'Senkou no Maihime' was revealed to the boy. She had thought he would cringe away and stop being friends with her because of her playing such a gory game that girls wouldn't play. But he didn't. He supported her and started playing the game himself. That moved the girl by a lot, and she couldn't help but start smiling like an idiot.

But their fun and normal high school days didn't continue for long. A few months after the festival, the boy had an attack. He was sent to the hospital immediately. The girl cried and cried. The person she loved had an attack and was on the brink of death, and she could only stand and watch. She couldn't do anything to help him. At that moment, she had been sighing about how boring things were, and she didn't notice how in pain he was. Just thinking about how she could have killed him made tears run out of her eyes. She went to their classroom, using the excuse of getting his things to calm herself down and think about what had happened.

At that moment, she realized it. The feeling she felt around him. The heart-pounding warm feeling when he was near, the true happiness when he praised her... She had finally realized it. It was such a simple thing. Quickly she picked up his bag and ran out of the classroom. She was going to tell him what was on her mind. I'm sorry about not being able to help you? No. That wasn't it. She wanted to tell him that she loved him. She wanted to tell him how much she wanted to be by his side, to support him, to always see his beautiful warm smile. But she never got the chance to.

She had thought about it day after day, wishing that time could reverse. If that happened, that sentence would have to be said.

However the chance never came.

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"...Mm? What happened, Ene?" the albino asked. The cyber girl inside the phone wiped away her tears with her long sleeves and smiled. He didn't realize it, the sadness belonging only to her.

"Nothing, nothing! I'm alright!" she said. He nodded.

"Oh... Thank you for the story, Ene." he said.

"Oh, no need to thank me! I'm happy to tell you a story!" she said, smiling a fake smile, the same one she put on most of the time.

So what happened to the girl afterwards?" Ene paused for a second, then, smiling, she put a finger in front of her lips.

"That's a secret~! Then, I'll be going back, see you around, Konoha!" she said, transporting herself back to Shintaro's computer. That was when she couldn't hold it in anymore. The tears flew freely, and she found that she can only say one name:

"Haruka..."