The sun was setting over a building-filled horizon, the last of golden rays shining over the treetops. Mirai Kuriyama stood at the edge of the school building, on the inside of the fence. Her feet were shuffling uncomfortably, and her eyes screamed her nervous emotion into the thick atmosphere. Her glasses were gone, and though it was one accessory she was missing, it meant everything to Akihito Kanbara.

When he spotted her, he couldn't believe his eyes and he thought he was dreaming. 'Is that her? Is that really her?' was the only thing going through his mind as he raced toward the school building, his fists clenched as his friends turned in confusion. Mirai Kuriyama wasn't supposed to exist anymore. She was gone, she had disappeared. Yet, he was racing up the stairs, his legs burning with the feeling of working muscles and his chest was cold with his intakes of breath. Nobody looked that much like her. It had to be her, but it made no sense. Standing at the top of the stairs, he stood for a moment, staring at the petite silhouette of Mirai. He couldn't believe it was her.

"Excuse me? Glasses! In short, I love it when you're wearing glasses... Kuriyama-san!" His voice was loud, frantic, and carried itself across the roof. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, and threatened to spill over as she turned around, her wide, golden eyes finding his face. She smiled, a genuine smile.

"You're unpleasant." The words smacked him in the face, looped around his head and caressed his ears ever so softly.

He found his feet moving, lifting them from the ground and making his way closer to her. She did the same, mirroring his actions and meeting him halfway. It really was her. He found his hands shuffling in his pockets, fingers clasping around the cool glass of lenses and the warmed plastic of the red frames. His eyes wandered down to look at his feet, and made their way up to look at the face of the girl in front of him.

"You forgot something." He held the frames out, and Mirai's eyes found them, a small gasp escaping her lips, "Would you do me the honor of wearing these glasses?"

With a ginger hand, she took the frames from him, her calloused fingertips brushing against his palm. Holding her glasses in her hands, she lifted the arms of the frames, and placed them on her face. Blinking a few times, she looked up at the blond. Tears welling up in her eyes, they began streaming down her pale face, leaving wet trails on her rosy cheeks.

Akihito was happy again. He had a hole in his heart when she'd left, but now she's back, and he wasn't going to lose her again. It was an involuntary movement, really, but he quickly found his hands reaching forward, grabbing at the soft pink knit of the small girl's cardigan and pulling her close. In that moment he held on to her, and it seemed like he had no intents on letting go. That was, until he realized her hesitation. The way her entire being stiffened and her posture became rigid, and she made a worrying noise. Then, he pulled away. He dropped his hands at his sides as her lips parted with an intake of air.

"Now then, who are you?" Her lips moved, her expression blank as her honey eyes found his citrine ones.

With that one question his tearfully happy expression crumbled as his eyebrows drew together and all of the breath he'd held in his lungs was released in one large huff, his cloud of breath puffing out in front of him. He'd finally gotten her back, and for what, her not remembering? This was one thing that would make him cry. This was one thing that would suck the happiness out of him. He'd have to fix everything. Mend everything. It won't ever be the same again, now would it?

With a heave of his chest, he placed his hands on his knees and fell. The tears quickly welled in his eyes and dripped, splashing against the concrete. Of course when something good happened, something horrible would happen. Just another obstacle in this race of a goddamned life. He sighed, his chest now a heavy weight as he tried his hardest to swallow the large lump of emotion in his throat. Cold hands tightened their grip on his pants as a choked sob escaped his mouth and his eyes found her face once again. No, no, no, no. Why this? Anything but this.

Her honeyed eyes looked at his face curiously as she watched him, heaving chest and all. She felt a pain, deep set in her emotions, when she looked at him in this state. But why? She didn't know this person kneeling in front of her, nor had she ever spoken to him. At least that's what she'd thought. She had a cloudy memory, something about his face looked familiar. The way his melted caramel eyes stared into hers with a familiar gleam that made her stomach churn.

-

It was months before she'd opened up to him in the slightest. She'd attend the literature club, tender hands turning crisp pages during those meetings as her wide eyes peeked over the top of her book to study his face. She'd find herself doing that often, observing the way his eyebrows were drawn together when he was immersed in one of the stories from the past members. She'd take in every frayed hair, every cowlick, every facial expression. And she wondered just what her relationship with himwas.

"Is there something you need, Kuriyama-san?" His voice was monotone as he flipped a page.

"N-No!" She retorted, practically spitting the words at him as she turned away from him, shoving her nose back in the pages she'd been "reading".

"Then stop staring. I can feel your eyes burning holes into my head." He glanced up at her, raising a brow.

It'd been three months since she'd come back, and the pain of her not remembering their shared time was simply a dull ache in his chest. Something he didn't dwell on so much as other things. The important thing was that they still got along, they still maintained a close relationship, though it wasn't what it was before. Of course, he missed the relationship they had before everything that had happened. But he couldn't change the past, and he just waited for what the future had in store.

"Senpai, you're being unpleasant. I-I wasn't staring, I-"

"You were staring." This time he dog eared the book, shut it, and faced her completely.

Mirai felt her face heat up, and she looked down, up, left, right, anywhere but at him. She found her hands snatching the red frames from her face, bringing them to meet the soft material of her sweater to wipe the lenses, "S-Staring is a strong word... Maybe observing would be a better word?"

A breathy laugh escaped his lips as he smiled at her, placing his hands on the table and pushing himself up. The feet of the chair scraped against the marble tiles of the room and bounced off of the walls. Then, another scrape carried itself across the room as he pushed his chair in, and picked his bag up. He cleared his throat before gesturing to the clock, trying to get the pale-haired girl's attention.

With a small gasp, she nodded. Closing the notebook she'd been hiding behind, she placed it on top of the stack with the rest and stood. Pushing her chair in, the noise it made a lot less obnoxious then Akihito's. She then gingerly picked her bag up and quickly threw the strap over her shoulder, scurrying out of the room's door in front of the blond.

"Kuriyama-san, wait up!" His words chased her as he stepped out of the room after her.

Mirai's feet slowly came to a halt, as she turned around in the hallway to face him as he approached her. Her naturally rosy cheeks a bit rosier than normal when he'd caught her staring at him once again. Of course, she quickly looked down, shuffling her feet nervously. He'd walked her home every day since she'd returned. Even when she'd insisted she could make her way herself, he still stuck next to her. And she couldn't shake him off. He would chatter idly as they walked down the street, and that's just what he did today. All the way to her apartment.

"Senpai?" She turned to face him before she walked into her apartment.

"Ah, yes, what is it?" His eyes looked sincere as they scanned over her face.

"Was our relationship... s-special, before?" She looked to her feet, teeth worrying at her bottom lip as her fingers toyed with the hem of her sweater.

"I'd like to say so." His brows furrowed before he shot a sickly saddening smile in her direction, "We... We were awfully close."

Fingers brushing against the cold metal of the doorknob, Mirai found it and grasped it before turning and opening her door. She turned to face him before she stepped in, her eyes settling on his face before she spoke again, "I'd like to get back to where we were before. I'd like to know you as well as I did." She smiled softly at him, "Goodnight, Senpai."

"Goodnight, Kuriyama-san."