Hello there! Welcome to this chapter two! I'll try to update this story as often as possible, but I can guarantee nothing! I own nothing outside the plot of this fanfic! Have an amazing day!


To her utmost surprise, Haru found herself going through all of her math assignment in less than three hours. She was so shocked with her achievement that she sent a picture of her textbook to Hiromi, adding a 'can you believe it?!' for form.

Stretching her arms high above her head, the teenage girl took the empty flask she always kept in her bedroom and went to the bathroom to refill it. A quick pause at the top of the stairs told her that her mother was most likely still in front of the TV while sewing some personal project she had and Haru went back into her room to continue her homework.

A small light blinked on her phone, and the teenage girl deduced that Hiromi had answered her.

So tomorrow's day out?

Haru chuckled before tipping back,

I'll try to be up before twelve so that we can go somewhere grab some food before whatever you'll want to do.

She waited a few seconds before receiving a gif with some famous guys showing a thumb up. With a smile, she turned her phone off, then took her next assignment.

Once the dreaded mathematics behind her, Haru quickly went through some more minors exercises, and one hour and a half later, she put her pen down. She only had some readings to do, and she decided to keep them for the long hours of insomnia that she was well acquainted with.

On cue, she heard her mother calling her from the down the stairs.

The rest of the night went on like usual, and Haru bid her mother goodnight before going up into her room to prepare herself for the night.

After a quick stop at the bathroom to brush her teeth and refill one last time her little flask of water, she was in pyjamas, under her bedsheet with her laptop on her knees.

As she began to lose herself on the internet, Haru noticed that she had received an email in one of her oldest address, one that she didn't use anymore. Frowning, she clicked on the notification and felt sick reading who was the sender.

Why do you ignore me? I want you to answer me. I promise it's just a big misunderstanding…! The mail read, and the young woman deleted it without opening it.

With a sigh, she dropped her head on her pillow. It seemed that her ex, Machida, still didn't want to leave her alone, even six months after their break-up.

Both of them had frequented the same middle school, and even with her extreme shyness, she had managed to ask him out during their last year before high school. They had stayed together until his jealous, almost violent behaviour, and infidelity had the better of Haru's nerve. She had put an end to their relationship the moment she realised how toxic he had been, almost separating her from her mother and her best friend in his possessiveness.

He hadn't taken it well, though, to the point she had to go to another high school for her last year just to be able to get away from him.

Hiromi, wonderful friend she was, had followed her, and Haru couldn't be more grateful to the other girl for that.

She had learnt quite a few lessons from this experience, and she was glad that she got the chance to know them sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, this experience had taken away from her all the naivety she had left.

A shame, as her mother had said, but it was for the best.

She knew that she had nothing to fear from her ex. Still, she put Machida on her blacklist on this unused address and decided to keep an eye open in case just in case he tried something rash.

Feeling herself falling into some dark thoughts, she put some silly-video playlist on Youtube. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep, her laptop still on her laps.

oOoOoOoOo

The chink of China brought the girl out of her reverie.

"Thank you." She murmured to her vis-à-vis, taking the cup of tea.

A gentle smile was her answer, added to a soft look into deep green eyes that the young woman had the feeling to know better than the back of her hand.

"Something is troubling you." asked her companion

Outside the window, a whale was swimming alongside hummingbirds in a forest.

Drinking her coffee, the girl shrugged, "The same as usual."

"I don't believe you, but I won't insist for the moment." Gently admonished the other one and the sun's rays on him made her think of an orange sunset.

Opening an umbrella to protect herself from the rain, she stood up. "I'll better be going." She said.

"Let me accompany you."

The next moment, they were running. Someone was chasing them, and she was scared.

"What's happening?" she asked, but all she could see was the back of her rescuer, his light grey suit and the stars.

Suddenly, she stumbled, missed a step, and the next thing she knew, she was falling from the sky.

With a gasp, Haru woke up. Still half asleep, she grabbed her pen and her diary and began to write in it like a madwoman. She didn't look twice at her laptop as it crashed on the ground.

Ten minutes later, she was done, and the last bit of her dream was fading away.

Blinking several times at the scrawled lines in front of her, she then registered that her laptop had fallen on the ground. She looked successively at both objects before she groaned and fall back into her mattress.

Thirty seconds later, her alarm rang, and Haru almost punched it.

Huffing, she stood up, telling herself that at least, she won't be late to meet Hiromi later that day.

Taking her computer from the ground, she turned it around, checking for any kind of damage and sighed in relief when founding nothing.

Putting it on her desk, Haru stretched then took her diary, rereading what she had written.

It had been an idea from her therapist. For a while, she had seen them when she was younger while dealing with her sleeping issues, like insomnia or recurring nightmares. They had told her to write down what she was dreaming about to understand the root of all her problems and move on from there.

As the years went by, she began to have fewer nightmares, but she had kept the habit. Maybe it was pointless to do so now, but Haru told herself that it could be a source of inspiration if she wanted to be a novelist in the future.

Opening it at a blank page, she began to review her last entries, writing down recurrent themes. The stranger with green eyes and the cup of tea was something that she had dreamt about for several years already. The escape with said stranger was something more recent.

For the blink of a second, there was the picture of cats dancing in front of her mind's eyes, and on a whim, she decided to add it on her list, a question mark along with it.

Closing it, Haru left her diary on her bed, stood up and went to the bathroom. Absentmindedly, she tried to figure out what her recurrent dreams, or at least their common themes, could mean as she washed her hands after doing her affairs, then her face.

Rubbing some last bit of sleep from her eyes, she almost jumped out of her skin as she saw her mother in the hallway as she exited the bathroom.

"Oh! Sorry, sweetie! Did I scare you?" asked her mother worriedly.

"A little, I didn't hear you…" answered eventually the teenager, one hand against her chest.

As a matter of fact, Haru rarely heard her mother's footstep, she never had, and she guessed she never will. It was one of the oddities that made her mom her mom.

"Well, it's unusual for you to be up so early."

"I'm going to meet Hiromi in town later in the morning. She wanted to eat somewhere before going to see some film." Explained Haru, kissing her mother on the cheek before heading downstairs.

"Sharing bento, going out together, are you sure you two are not dating?" teased Naoko, and Haru decided not to answer, only rolling her eyes in amusement.

Since they were eight years old, both girls were best friend, tied by the hips to each other. Their fusional relationship had led both of them to wonder about their orientations while entering teenagehood.

When they were thirteen years old, they had decided to try to see and kissed each other.

Both girls concluded that even if the experience weren't unpleasant (Hiromi discovered she might be pan while Haru concluded that she was straight, with a slight attraction for women), they clearly didn't have romantic feelings for each other. However, after the experience, they became even closer, leading people to be more confused about their relationship.

The young woman ate her breakfast listening with one ear to the news report broadcasted at the radio.

As the journalist spoke of wars and crises in foreign, poorer countries, Haru couldn't help herself feel disconnected from reality. She longed to be able to do something good for other people, to be able to make their lives a little less gloomy. If she could change one person's life for the better, she knew that she would be happy.

As usual, those kinds of thought led her toward darker paths. And for a second, she realised how much she was unhelpful in the bigger picture that was the world.

Shooking her head to chase her depressing thoughts away, she drank the last bit her hot milk before cleaning the table and running upstairs to get herself ready for the day.

It was sunny outside, after all, and soon enough, she was back to preoccupation that were more of a teenage girl of her age.


A comment is always appreciated! I hope you liked this chapter!