Nana Komatsu stared out at the expanse of water, glittering and shimmering, winking, rolling, laughing at the sky, reflecting its depths. She appeared to be deep in thought, but the glassy state of her eyes suggested something less welcome, something cold.
The water ebbed and flowed, sometimes tentatively reaching out to lap at her sand-dusted toes, and then inching back as though nervous, afraid of rejection. The girl seemed to come back from the trance that had put her on auto-pilot. She waded out into the water, not bothering to scrunch her dress up or keep her hat from flying away at the mercy of a gust of wind. Trailing her immaculate fingers along the rippling surface, disturbing its regular motions, the action symbolized many things in the life of the girl named Nana. Realizing this herself, her lips involuntarily turned down at the corners, eyebrows screwing together, brown eyes blinking rapidly. Memories slipped past the carefully constructed barrier that had been laborious and heart-wrenching to build.
Black hair and eyes flashed from a far-off place, laughter rushed to fill the spaces in between the crashing of the waves. A clenching of the girl's heart reminded her why she had pushed these memories back, blockaded them inside her mind; now that the first drops had fallen, though, there was no stopping the storm.
Hearing the news that Nana was missing.. Finding the broken strawberry glass on the kitchen floor.. Clapping and unadulterated joy filled the tiny kitchen as Nana O. and Nobu held an impromptu concert on the kitchen table, the black-haired girl belting out anything that came to mind.. Nana watching with a smirk on her face as her friend opened the door to find the man she could only have dreamed of meeting on her doorstep.. The happiness her music brought the world..
Nana found that, instead of the buckling pain she expected after letting such things grace her memory after being hidden for so long, she was smiling through the tears. They spilled out of her eyes, left salty tracks on her cheeks, and mixed in with the water swirling around her thighs, just as her emotions blended and merged. She gasped out a strangled sob, and with each body-wracking breath, felt the weight lift off of her chest.
Now staring defiantly at the horizon instead of dejectedly at the ocean, she knew that it would take a long time to accept that her friend was gone. Maybe someday, they'd meet again, and attempt to get their lives back on track. Someday.. the word rang in her head.
Nana Komatsu stared out at the expanse of water, no longer feeling as though it was mocking her. It blinked with the setting sun and reflected the knowledge that Nana Osaki would never be forgotten; she'd be carried on in her friend's head, heart, and soul. With that in her mind, Nana gave the sand cajoling her underneath her toes a kick, promised it that she would visit again, and put her soaking wet sun hat back on her head, despite the brilliant display of the sunset in front of her.
Walking backwards, she watched the sun converge with the blurring horizon, becoming one with the atmosphere, until her eyes burned and she had to blink away the black dots that appeared.