Sun has been long down, but the lights of cities were still bright. Sometimes those artificial fireflies were pretty on its own way, but it always interrupts the magic of the skies.

That's why the trio was now in the forest far from city, where few lights shined except their own. When the ground clears, the sky begins to shimmer its magic.

"Zack, come gaze the stars with us!"

Milo shouted, lying wide on the mat. He only covered thin blue blancket on his stomach, since it was in the middle of burning summer. The deepest night in the forest offered them perfect temperature.

Next to him was Melissa, who was laying her hands under her head. Next to her was Zack, the only one who was not lying yet.

"Okay, just making sure mosquito repellents are working." said Zack. He turned on the fourth repellent each on the edge of their mat. Then, Zack lay down next to Melissa as well.

"Didn't know there were so many stars out there." Zack spoke, gasping. "Not a scene I'd see in city."

"It feels like... endless." said Melissa.

"Uh, first things first, we came here for astronomy project."

"Right0, guess we need to do it first."

Melissa pulled out a sketchbook, and a camera they brought. Then she passed the camera to Milo. Milo was quite good at finding stars, to everyone's surprise He said he often did it with his dad, since wide plain is where murphy's law is least likely to have effect.

Melissa and Zack also gazed at the stars, but couldn't quite get them. "That one!" "What?" They repeated this phrases constantly, pointing their fingers in the empty sky. But eventually, they began to slowly figure out. Melissa took pictures, compared them to the sketchbook and checked the list. Fortunately only three disposable cameras broke.

"Sagittarius, check. Scorpio, check. Now we just need to find Hercules."

"How does it look like?"

"Like this." She showed the sketchbook, and turned on the lights briefly.

"How did Greek people think this was Hercules?"

"I don't know, ask them." She said. "Milo, can you find it?"

No answers.

"Milo?" She got up, and looked next to her. "Milo? Are you sleeping?"

Milo just murmured in his sleep, with his body slightly curled. Melissa just smiled, and covered his chest with the blancket.

"Should we you wake him? We need to finish this project." Asked Zack.

"Nah. You know nothing can wake Milo. Besides, only one left. How hard it should be?"

"Yeah... Guess we need to search for it."

Zack stared at the dark blue sky, and the stars scattered on it. The Milky way that divided the sky into half. It was too fascinating that he forgot to blink sometimes. There was complete isolation, with the noise of bugs, and frogs only ringing the air.

But finding the specific stars from this wave of dots, was not easy as always. He began to feel a little dizzy. He also got a little creepy feeling of someone watching him. Still... watching?

He turned his head, to see the girl staring at him.

"Ah! How long have you been watching me?"

"Staring-? What- No. I was looking at the stars this whole time." Flinching, Melissa quickly moved her eyes to the stars again. "Just-just took a bit rest."

"Did you find it?"

"Nope. I-I don't think I'm good at this."

Zack shrugged, and also took his eyes to the stars... but after 10 seconds, all of a sudden, he turned his head again.

And there she was, her pupils meeting his directly again.

"Aha! I knew you were just staring at me!"

Melissa just froze. It was so non-reactive for her that Zack doubted if she was asleep opening her eyes. Though night was deep and they could barely see each other's face, Zack could see the strange expression, on the marvelous girl's face.

It felt almost surreal. Zack struck dumb for a moment, but he finally replied.

"Why are you not searching?"

"I said, I'm bad at this." She opened her mouth a little.

"You found scorpio. don't lie."

"I love you."

"What." Zack lost his words for a moment. "What kind of excuse is that?"

"I freaking love you. That's it. Are you satisfied?"

"No."

"What?!" She finally began to show reaction. Her face was going red like a strawberry. Zack just smiled smugly at this girl who sucks at lying.

"Come on, I know you're hiding something."

Though he didn't know what was going on, he felt in control. That's what he got from adventures with Milo. He gently tapped on Melissa's shoulders, and pulled himself a little closer.

"You can tell me." He said. "I won't tell anyone."

Melissa sighed deeply. It had to just a simple night of peaceful stargazing. What was with her?! She felt so stupid for going trouble with absolutely nothing.

But it was too late. The strings already tangled themselves. She had to untangle it. Sighing again, she finally decided to reveal herself.

"I just don't like staring at night. They're kind of... too deep." She opened her mouth. Lying almost zero meter away, the two were facing each other. The only thing visible were Zack's pupils, faintly reflecting the stars.

"You know how endless the universe is? The closest star other than sun is 4 light years away. 4 years with light. Can you imagine it?" Melissa continued. "There are billions, billions of them in galaxy, and billions of galaxies in this universe. It... just makes me feel weird."

Zack just listened, contacting her eyes all the while. Melissa unconsciously pushed herself bit closer to Zack, to the point their shoulders touched.

"I hate this kind of deep stuffs, philosophythey hurt my brain... And-and they don't let me go once I start thinking about them, is that enough explanation?!"

On the last sentence, Melissa suddenly raised her voice angrily. As if her embarrassment rushed in, realizing she might have overshared. Though everything was dark, Zack could feel her face getting heated like hot chocolate.

She stood up out of frustration. But in a moment, she just sighed and lay back down. Her watery eyes reflected the stars. Zack didn't know how to respond to this. But his heart got control. Like someone was controlling, words began to flow out smoothly on his mouth.

"Don't think to deeply. We're not going there anyways, they don't matter."

"We have. Remember when we went to Octalia." Melissa immediately replied, as if she was waiting for it.

"Oh, right. But still, it's not like we've been thrown outer space... Oh wait, Milo has. No, that octalian that looked like Milo has. But the point is, it doesn't matter. You don't need to care." said Zack, grabbing her hand. His heart started beating faster, but it wasn't something he cared now. "Billions of other people exists in the earth, but we don't care about them. Because they're not us. Same."

Melissa's pupil shook, but she remained silent. She pulled her arms closer, then just released a deep sigh.

"I know, okay? I know this is useless, dumb thing to think about... But they won't leave my head."

"Yeah, you cannot un-think things. You just need some distraction."

"Like what?"

"This."

Zack pulled Melissa in, to the point their stomaches were almost touching. They could feel each other's hand on their shoulders, the air released from each other's breath. Melissa smiled awkwardly, and just snuggled in his chest.

Zack felt like his face became volcano. He turned his head around, while still leaving Melissa in his cuddle. The absolute silence went in for a minute that felt like eternity, until Zack broke it.

"Hey, I think I found Hercules!"

"Where?"

Zack pointed over the sky. Though she couldn't still get what he's pointing at, she just nods her head. He grabbed the camera and takes picture of the endless sky, and put it on the field again.

"Good. That checks the last one..." Melissa said, yawning. She rubbed her eyes, and turned herself to see the sky. "Now let's just sleep."

"Good night..."

They both fell asleep, peacefully gazing at the endless universe.