From complete black a blurred memory began to form inside her mind. The border was fuzzy yet everything inside it was so clear. Having no choice but to watch the events unfold she relived the memory in progress.

…

As she ran down the airport corridor gasping for breath, Seiyo Academy sixth grader Hinamori Amu exclaimed in exasperation, "Sheesh! This place is so confusing with all its different terminals I got lost!"

Only adding to her feeling of desperation were her Shugo Charas Ran, Miki, and Su with a, "Hurry!" yelled by Ran and a, "You're late!" by Miki.

As she continued running through the crowd the sight of two familiar blonde haired figures came into focus; those of her friends Hotori Tadase and Tsukiyomi, or Hoshino for her stage name, Utau caught her eye.

"Amu-chan!" yelled Tadase.

Amu ran towards her friends and stopped hunching over in an attempt to catch her breath. With obvious annoyance Utau began to reprimand Amu, "You're late! Ikuto left already!"

Shock overcame Amu's face, "No way." she said in disbelief.

Tadase attempting to comfort Amu urged, "If you go now, maybe you can catch him at the security gate."

With new found hope Amu began to run towards the security gate of the airport. Shoving and clawing her way through hoards of people.

Amu began thinking in desperation, "Ikuto! Wait, I still have… something to tell you!"

Expressing her frustration she exclaimed out loud, "There are too many people! I can't find him!"

Desperately with all her might Amu screamed at the top of her lungs in hopes that the one she wanted to see the most would hear her, "IKUTO!"

…

By the time she had gotten to the security gate there was no sign of Ikuto. She searched through the crowd in the hopes that perhaps he had yet to pass through the gates but to no avail, Ikuto was nowhere in sight. In order to confirm whether or not he had already gone Amu shoved her way through the crowd towards one of the guards at the security gates.

"Ex-excuse me." she said between gasps.

"Yes? What is it?" asked the guard.

With eyes seeking answers Amu asked the guard, "Do you remember seeing a tall blue haired boy come through here earlier? He's in his late teens and should have been carrying a violin case with him." Hoping the guard would deny ever seeing any one of that description pass through earlier; Amu's hopes were crushed when the guard confirmed her worst fear.

"Ah-, he began. Yes that young man came through here not too long ago actually. Although it took a while for him to go through since he had a lot of metal on him."

Amu's face sank with feelings of loss.

The guard continued, "It makes no sense why anyone would put on so much metal in the first place especially if they know they have to go through a metal detector before boarding a plane. It's almost as if he was trying to waste as much time here as possible. Ha ha. Maybe his girlfriend was late and he was trying to buy as much time as possible for her to come and say-"

The guard stopped aghast when he saw tears streaming down Amu's face.

"Wha- What's the matter?!" asked the guard in shock. "Why are you crying? Is everything alright?" Panicking he began to flail his arms slightly. "Do you need me to call someone for you?" Desperately attempting to calm the young girl down the confused guard fumbled in his attempts to calm Amu who had at this point lost all strength in her legs and sunk down to the floor in tears.

Feelings of sadness, embarrassment, and all around loss consumed Amu as she could no longer control her sobs. She wept in front of the security gate with the confused guard, a hoard of onlookers, and the sound of a plane taking off in the background. Whether or not the plane was Ikuto's Amu never found out, she just recalled how as soon as she heard those engines roar she had placed her tear covered face in her hands and hunched over completely devastated.

…

Feeling tears beginning to stream down her face outside of the fuzzy image; the scene playing in her mind began to become distorted and eventually turned completely black. A loud noise began to ring in the background. Eventually that noise began to grow louder losing its muddled sound forming words. It became louder and clearer.

"Up! Hi-ri! Wa- up! Hina-!" she heard.

Attempting to piece together what these words meant Amu was suddenly jerked awake by a loud shout.

"WAKE UP HINAMORI!"

Immediately following the yelling of that command Amu felt a sharp pain spreading from the top of her head that caused her to jolt up from her desk and break the spell of sleep she was under.

"Wha- what?" she asked shaken turning from side to side as eyes from her surrounding classmates brought her back to reality. Amu had fallen asleep during her History class and by the looks of her sensei whose eyes she had met almost immediately, he was not happy.

"Hinamori!" he exclaimed. "Is my lecture so boring that you find it appropriate to sleep in my classroom!?" he asked while waving his long wooden ruler in her face.

"Umm..." she paused as she was busy putting two and two together that what caused the pain to form on the top of her head was the sensei's ruler.

"WELL?!" losing patience the sensei yelled seeking a proper response.

Jolting out of fear Amu responded, "Eh? N- no sir. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to fall asleep during your lecture." Flailing her arms and stuttering out an apology was all she could do to calm her sensei's mad ranting.

"Well whether you meant to or not you did!" he reprimanded. "If you think the way I teach is so boring then why don't you-" He suddenly stopped yelling and looked at Amu with what could be described as a face of concern. "Did.. did I hit you that hard?"

"Eh?", Amu asked confused.

The sensei suddenly folded his arms with the ruler underneath one of them and tilted his head. "Well you're crying so…" he stated.

"Wha-?" Amu placed a hand on her cheek and found that it was wet. Her face suddenly flushed bright red out of embarrassment. "What? No!" She suddenly began to wipe her face with the sleeve of her uniform. "Umm..no.." she began. "This isn't what it looks like."

"Sensei~ you hit her too hard! Now she's crying." said a girl at the back of the classroom.

"Yeah come on sensei she wasn't sleeping that long give her a break." expressed another student.

Amu feeling flushed with embarrassment thought in her head, "I must have cried while having that dream. Oh gosh this is so embarrassing!"

With the whole class now reprimanding the sensei for his actions in order to regain control he struck his ruler on the top of an empty desk making a loud noise which resonated throughout the classroom silencing everyone. He cleared his throat and then stared back at Amu.

"Look Hinamori…" he began calmly yet sternly at the same time. "I'm sorry if I hit you too hard but falling asleep in class is still unacceptable. Why don't you go to the restroom and clean your face up. And once you're done doing that stand out in the hallway and wait until I call you back in to speak with you."

Amu stood up from her desk and walked out of the classroom. Once she shut the door behind her she made her way down the hall to the nearest girl's restroom and found that luckily it was empty. She stared at herself in the mirror and saw that her face really was a mess. Her eyes were red and puffy; face was all sticky and wet from her tears, what little eyeliner she decided to put on that day smeared on the side of her eyes, and even more embarrassing it seemed her nose had run a little. She grabbed paper from the nearest dispenser and began to wipe her face clean. As she did she began to think back on the dream she had had during class. She remembered the feelings of loss and anguish she had felt and just how helpless she was back then. Having been only a child there was nothing she could have done to stop Ikuto from leaving.

"Why did I have to dream about that day?" she asked herself out loud. "If I was the way I am now back then I probably could have had a better chance…"

She crumpled the paper and tossed it in the nearest trashcan and then stared at herself in the mirror. She compared herself to how she looked back then. She recalled how short her hair was, now it was long enough to pass her lower back and she didn't keep it in pigtails or in pony tails, now she just left it loose. She gained curves and a moderate bust and her wide round golden eyes had become slightly sharper but retained their shimmer. It had been five years since Ikuto had left in search of his father and along with Amu's appearance much had change since then.

A few months after Ikuto had left Amu's family had to move away from their family home making Amu start middle school away from her friends; although they did still keep in touch and meet up from time to time. She was currently living on campus in a dorm at her high school but whenever she had time she would go and visit her family. A lot had changed since that day in the airport. Since the day Ikuto left forever.

Amu began to feel sadness overwhelm her and tears form again in her eyes. When she realized her reminiscing was beginning to sadden her she slapped her cheeks with her hands and wiped the newly formed tears with her sleeves. Unsure with just how much time had passed Amu quickly walked out of the restroom and back towards the classroom in order to wait for the long lecture she was sure her sensei had prepared for her.

…

After the long lecture Amu walked outside of the school building and began walking towards the dorm rooms. She had gone through a roller coaster of emotions today and just wanted to rest. When she reached her dorm room and pulled her keys out of her bag she suddenly felt as if she just wanted to get away. She was overcome with all those memories earlier and that made her miss her family and friends. Then suddenly she got the idea to go back to her hometown to visit her old neighborhood. It was the last day of class for the week so she had the weekend free anyway.

This sudden burst of energy filled Amu leading her to put her keys back inside her schoolbag and just ask, "Why not?"

She walked down the stairs which led to her room and walked off campus. As she did she started forming plans in her mind of what she would and who she would go see. First she would quickly drop by her folk's home since they lived relatively close by if going by bus, then by train she would go back to her old neighborhood to see her friends and drop by her old house.

"Today was full of nostalgia so why not?" she said reaffirming her resolve.

Amu had never just walked off campus and gone on a trip without planning ahead first so she felt very adventurous. Maintaining her resolve Amu walked off campus in pursuit of walking down memory lane.

…

It was late at night and Amu had just finished visiting her parents and was currently walking down the street near her old neighborhood. When she left her parent's house it was already late, they had offered her a place to stay for the night but Amu told them that she was returning to the campus in order to not worry them. However, she soon began regretting rejecting their offer seeing how dark and empty the streets were. It was too late to visit any of her friends and the last train had left a while ago so Amu would have to hope that she had enough on her in order to rent a room for the night. Suddenly all that adventurous energy Amu had earlier began to wither.

"Oh man, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all." she mumbled.

As she walked down the street she recognized that the corner she was about to turn led straight to her old home. Seeing as she was nearby anyway Amu decided to end her trip down memory lane with at least the sight of her old home. As she turned the corner and walked down the street many sights became familiar to her and nostalgia began to overwhelm her. As she drew closer to her old home she noticed a figure standing in front of the house.

"Oh. Maybe it's the new owner?" she thought to herself.

She decided that instead of awkwardly walking back the way she came she would just nonchalantly walk past the figure and take a quick peek at her home before going off in search of a hotel. So she continued to walk down the street keeping a careful eye on the mysterious figure. As she got closer the flickering street light began to give the mystery person more of an image. She noticed that the person was just standing and staring at the home, she was unsure whether or not the person had noticed her closing in. Continuing to walk Amu clenched her school bag and was close enough to the person to get a good look at them despite the flickering light. The person was a tall man, well at least taller than her, with what looked like dark hair which just barely covered his eyes from her gaze, his hair was slightly long enough to have it tied in a small pony tail, he had one of his hands in his pocket, and with his other he was carrying a small case. Amu stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw that case. Her eyes widened when she noticed its shape, the shape of a violin.

"No way." she muttered.

She quickly covered her mouth when she realized she had said it out loud but it was too late. The figure who had been so focused on the home suddenly noticed her presence and turned his gaze towards her. Her heart began to beat uncontrollably with her hand still over her mouth she felt her breath quicken slightly. Her wide eyes began to water and her whole body began to quiver. Mad thoughts began to run through her mind.
"Is it really him? What should I say? Why now? Does he recognize me? What do I do?" Question after question ran through her mind panicking her more.

"C-calm down." she told herself. "It might not even be him! Stop freaking out. J-Just keep walking."

As if to confirm her suspicions before she had a chance to walk away the flickering street light suddenly blasted full light completely engulfing the man. Amu froze in place as the man gazing at her was engrossed in color. The dark hair she noticed earlier was now a definite hint of blue and the eyes staring at her hidden through the man's bangs were pierced through with the light revealing a stunning purplish-blue hue.

Amu felt her body go weak as the hand that tightly grasped her bag suddenly went limp and caused her bag to fall to the floor tossing all its contents out onto the ground. As she stood there shaking only one word managed to escape her lips, the name of the man she had loved, the one that got away, "Ikuto."