The spring that I met you has arrived...


Vivid blue eyes, ones hidden behind rectangular framed glasses, looked up at the sky. The sky remained ever so as a mix of orange, red, and pink, as the day was ending. Kousei tried to imagine her bright smile, a smile so infectious it could light up an entire room, in the sky, but failed. Tears began to form at the corners of his eyes.

"Why?!" he screamed angrily at the world. "Why did you have to take her so goddamn soon?" Falling to his knees, the dark haired boy vented his frustration, dropping the piece of paper from his hand along with the accompanying envelope. Grabbing a fistful of his short locks, Kousei yanked at them, letting out another wail. Tears sprang out of his eyes, falling to the earth.

After a few moments of loud, angry sobs, the saddened pianist adjusted his position on the sidewalk, planting his bottom on the ground rather than his shaky knees (now covered in dirt specks). Kousei picked up the letter once more, rereading a specific part of it.

I love you.

"I love you too, Kaori Miyazono, so much more than you could ever imagine. I love you to the moon and back, perhaps to the next universe and back. I would take a bullet for you, would relieve you of your illness faster than a bullet train if I had the damn chance. My love for you is eternal, and I would do anything, anything to save you from your horrific, miserable fate. The gods can damn us and subject us to wherever and make us say never, but we are forever and will always be forever," Kousei sobbed into the paper. After a few salty tears, the words inscribed onto the paper started to fade away.

Just like Kaori, just how the Fates want it, right?

"Oh thank goodness," a feminine voice called out. "I was beginning to wonder if a man could really, truly, ever love me so wholeheartedly and deeply. If a man could fall emotionally for a weak, unstable girl that yearns to do what she loves and not just love him wholeheartedly, but the entire world as well. If a man could - "

Her singing voice, her scent, her breaths, her violin, all passionately drifting into the air. I can feel it, I can smell it, I can sense it all. Is she really here with me, or is it a figment of my imagination?

"Perhaps I am merely nothing but an image in your mind, but Arima Kousei, why can't it mean that it's real?" the angelic voice replied sweetly.

Kousei turned around, desperate to find the source of the voice. He longed to see her bright, shining smile again, the one that reflected the sunlight midday To see her mesmerizing eyes, to fall into a sea of blue and hazelnut brown again, yes. Her eyes, to Kousei, were like Mother Nature all blended together, where the land and sea crossed paths. To Kousei, her smile reminded him of the pearls deep down in the blue sea, hidden inside clams and seashells. Her plump pink lips was the shell, and the teeth was the reward, the prize, the pearl inside.

"Kaori," he unconsciously mumbled to no one. His insides were screaming, screaming so loudly for her.

After all, what could he ever become, if it wasn't for her? What could he do now, now that the two biggest motivators in his life disappeared?

A gentle touch of a hand slowly wrapped around Kousei's hand, the one holding the letter. The nails, Kousei noticed, were bitten into out of fear and anxiety. The wrinkly skin was still damp, so the nibbles had been recent. The only real, lasting feeling was the touch of silky skin holding his own dry, cracked skin that had been encased with tears only minute earlier.

Another hand, this one more warmer than the other, squeezed the side of the pianist. Kousei jumped, letting out a high pitched squeal at the same time.

Don't let this be a pedophile, don't let this be a pedophile, he chanted inside of his brain.

"You're so cute, Kousei-kun!" she giggled, pinching his cheeks from behind. Since she had placed Kousei in a position where he couldn't exactly turn around to see his "attacker", Kousei was more fidgety, wriggling around to be let free.

"Let go already!" he huffed, smacking the stranger in between their eyes. Dazed by the reaction, the stranger let go for a split second.

All Kousei saw before Kaori fell on the ground, smack hard in the butt, was the brightest smile in the world. This smile could only belong to one person in particular, and Kousei felt himself smiling along with her, with the tears falling out of the corners of his eyes like rain pouring from the sky.

Damn, I'm in love with an idiot, they both thought to themselves.


...and that spring, we'll dance in the moonlight, just me and you.