Next chapter! I know I skipped a lot and I'm sorry but I just didn't know what to say. So enjoy!

"Mio?" Mio stared at the girl.

"Who…are you?"

"Eh?" The girl looked shocked. She grabbed Mio's shoulders.

"Don't you know me? Come on, Mio. If this is a game, it's not funny!" The girl shook her a little.

"I'm sorry, I really don't know you!" Mio pushed her away. The girl looked like she had just slapped her.

"You know me. I'm Rio! Don't scare me, Mio, please!" Tears were forming in her eyes.

"I'm really sorry. I really don't know you, Rio." Mio felt bad for making Rio cry but she really didn't like telling lies, especially when she's suddenly turned back into a child after an accident. Rio"s shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Rio?" Rio looked up and forced a smile.

"It's ok. We'll start over. Nice to meet you, my name is Keion Rio. What is your name?" Guilt ate away at her heart but Mio smiled sadly.

"My name is Akiyama Mio. Nice to meet you too, Keion-san." Rio shook her head.

"Rio is fine!" Rio smiled, a little more naturally.

"Then you can call me Mio too!" Mio smiled, feeling a little more relieved. It already seems like they were best friends. They talked a little more about themselves, finding out that they had a lot in common. They were always together since. Naptime, meals, playtime, you can always find one next to the other. Only once, can you not find them together. That was when they fought.

"I hate you, Mio!"

"You're the worst, Rio!" Both girls started bawling. One of the teachers immediately ran over.

"What's wrong, Mio-chan? Did something happen?"

"Rina-sensei, Rio hit me!" Mio cried, pointing to Rio.

"I didn't! You were the one who kicked me!" Rio cried, pointing back to Mio.

"I didn't kick you! You hit me! And then, last time, you went to play with others and ignored me!"

"I didn't hit you! And I already apologised for forgetting about you! I even explained to you that I was only with them because they took the toy we were about to play with!"

"I see, Mio-chan, you shouldn't have kicked Rio-chan. Rio-chan, you shouldn't have hit Mio-chan. Both of you, apologise to each other and let's play together, ok?" Rina-sensei smiled worriedly. Both girls turned away from each other.

"No, Rio's in the wrong! Rio should apologise!"

"I didn't do anything wrong! Mio should apologise! I won't talk to you anymore!"

"Fine! I won't talk to Rio anymore either!" Both girls walked away in opposite directions. For a week, they were like that. Avoiding each other as much as possible and ignoring each other each time they met. But they soon got lonely, yet their pride wouldn't allow them to go to each other and apologise. On Friday, during their naptime, Rio started to toss and turn around on her bed. She woke up but held back her cries in fear of waking others up. She suddenly felt really afraid and alone…

…and in need of a friend. So with these emotions becoming unbearable, she crawled to Mio's bed and started shaking her. Feeling something wet on her face, Mio woke up to be greeted with the sight of Rio with wiping her tears away, trying to hold them back. Mio checked that no teachers were present and that no children were awake before grabbing Rio's hand and running outside to the top of the hill to a really larger tree. The tree was really huge and had a lot of leaves and branches, which provided a good view of the entire city. There was an empty space in the middle of the leaves, like the branches were surrounding and protecting that huge space that was big enough for the two children to enter and even build a tree house inside. The tree house was the size of a single bedroom in an apartment, which they built using resources they bought with money that they had asked from their parents. They had worked together and read about building tree houses to build it. The tree house rested on some huge branches that conveniently grew there horizontally, as if it had purposely grew the branches in that way for them to build a tree house. A branch grew out from behind the tree house, over it, out of the barrier of leaves and reached out to the left of the tree house. It had grew vertically out of the barrier of leaves and then horizontally to the left. It was really sturdy and strong too, and wouldn't bend even with a heavy weight on it. The girls had made a swing out of ropes and a big piece of wood that was big enough to fit 2 adults. To be able to sit on it with as much support as possible so as to not fall off, both girls must hold the rope on their side of the swing and hold each other's hand, which they were fine with. Once inside the tree house, Rio burst into tears and hugged Mio. Mio was caught off guard and looked at the crying girl burying her face in her shoulder.

"Rio?"

"Don't forget about me! I'm sorry! Please don't go anywhere! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, so please don't leave me alone!" Mio, unsure of what to do, just ran her fingers through Rio's hair, until she let out a soft sigh of relief.

"Don't worry, I won't go anywhere without you. I'll always be with you. I'm sorry too, Rio. I' sorry for making you feel like this." Rio sobbed and her sobs soon reduced to sniffles.

"I had a nightmare." That was the sign that Rio had calmed down.

"What happened?"

"You met some other friend and forgot about me. You didn't remember me even when we entered high school. I was afraid that you forgot about me forever. In my dream…"

Rio's Dream (somewhat Rio's POV)

I moved at the end of elementary school. We're already in high school. But Mio still don't remember me. I know, because she didn't contact me about me moving. Yes, she still doesn't know I had moved. How could she? She had already forgotten about me. I bet that if I were to meet her now, she would be all "Who are you?" and… and that scares me. She's the only person whom I don't want to hear that from, after all that we've been through. We were just like twins. We shared our looks, our likes, our dislikes and even our personalities. The only difference? I guess that would be the colours of our eyes. Hers are black, while mine are red. I wonder what Mio is doing. Last I saw her, which was at the end of elementary school, she was with a girl called Ritsu. I'm all alone. I stopped visiting our secret base since she forgot me. I wanted her to remember me so badly, so badly that I refused to make new friends. I didn't want to forget her. Not her. Anyone but Mio. I really hope she remembers me soon. I don't want to keep feeling so…so…

lonely.

End of Rio's dream

"Ritsu?" Why is Ritsu in Rio's dream? Her dream…it sounds like someone's thoughts. Why? And a secret base?

"Yes. And then, the voice speaking sounded like me all grown up."

"I won't forget you, Rio. I promise!" Suddenly, Mio felt very upset and guilty. That's right… I think I promised someone like this when I was younger. Did I forget her?

"Ok! Thank you, Mio!" Mio jumped down after climbing to the lowest branch while Rio just leaped down straight from their secret base's balcony.

"I'm still amazed with your jumping abilities. You can jump all the way up there from the ground and jump down from so high without any wounds. Rina-sensei should be looking for us. We should go back." Mio said.

"Yeah. I still wonder about that myself. Let's go back to Rina-sensei!" Both girls ran back to the kindergarten and into their frantic teacher's arms.

"Oh my gosh, please don't scare me like that again!"

"We won't! Sorry for worrying you, Rina-sensei!" Time flew with the twin-like friends back together again, back to the always-together routine. In their kindergarten, children going to elementary school the next year will start to be seated like an elementary school to prepare them for it.

"Hey, hey, Akiyama-san's really awesome! She's left-handed!" Ritsu, a girl who just transferred to their kindergarten and saw her left-handed, shouted to the entire class, gaining their attentions. While Mio shyly looked down, the entire class was filled with 'ooh's and 'ahh's. Rio, who was sitting in the back corner of the class near the window, which was quite far to Mio who was sitting near the front near the door, wanted to do something but didn't dare to. During their lunchtime, Mio and Rio were together as always and Mio was complaining about the same Ritsu girl drawing attention to her.

"Hey, Akiyama-san! Follow me! I want to show you something!" Just like that, Ritsu grabbed her hand and Mio disappeared from Rio's sight. After that, it seemed to be like this every day. Mio complained at first but soon got used to Ritsu pushing her around. But she forgot about Rio because of that. When they went to elementary school, Mio still hasn't remembered Rio. At the end of elementary school, there were still no signs of Mio remembering. Feeling her heart break, Rio went home right after school and asked her parents the question that she used to dread the most.

"Papa, can we move somewhere else? I don't want to stay here anymore." Her parents agreed after seeing their daughter in such a broken state.

"Mio! Mio!" Mio sighed and turned around. I thought so, Ritsu again. I remember how she used to be so annoying, calling me for some stupid reason. It hasn't been peaceful for me since she kept pulling me away from… from… from who? Huh? Who was my friend before this again?

"Come on, Mio! This way!" As they were running, Mio saw a girl looking exactly like her sitting sadly under a tree. Wait, that girl! Mio stopped and pulled her hand away from Ritsu's grip. She ran to the girl as she stood up. She opened her mouth. And called out the one word that her friend had always wanted to hear.

"Rio!" Rio froze. She turned around and Mio hugged her. I remember everything now. Back then, my forgetfulness caused our broken bond. Not this time. I won't let history repeat itself. I'm going to make things right. For Rio. And for me. For the sake of both of us.

"I'm sorry I forgot, Rio! I'm sorry I broke our promise!" Rio was crying and she hugged Mio back.

"It's ok. I forgive you. You remembered after all. Finally, after all these years." Mio started sobbing.

"I'll make things right. I'll make thing right for both of us, Rio. I promise you, and this time, I'll keep it!" Rio shook her head.

"It's too late, Mio." Mio looked up at her as she gently pushed Mio away.

"Why?" Rio looked down.

"I'm moving today."

"No way! I didn't know about this!"

"That's because you forgot. But it's ok. I believe that we'll meet again. Somewhere in the future, maybe in August again. Until then, we'll call each other and write letters so that we won't forget each other!"

"Of course!" Mio smiled despite the tears sliding down her cheeks. Rio grinned before jumping up to the highest branch of the tree and over the wall of the school.

"Rio…" Mio fell to her knees with her face sobbing into her hands.

"There you are! I was wondering where you went and- What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Mio shook her head.

"It's nothing, Ritsu." Ritsu sat down beside her for a few moments before Mio spoke again.

"Hey, Ritsu?"

"Hm?"

"I want to go back to my world. I want to go back, and tell Rio everything. Most of all, I want to go back and apologise to Rio." She thought Ritsu would say something like 'What are you talking about? This is your world!' but she didn't. Instead, she said something that shocked Mio.

"I was waiting."

"Eh?" Mio looked at Ritsu, who grinned at her.

"I've been waiting all this time, for you to say those five words, 'I want to go back'. I know, Mio, this isn't your real world. This world is created from your memories, from your thoughts of our conversation and your desire to know and remember about the friend you forgot."

"That means, you knew from the start, even Rina-sensei and Rio?" Ritsu nodded.

"How could we all not? We were created by you. You don't belong here, Mio. Go back to your real world. And don't make Rio sad again. I'll come and haunt you, I swear." That caused Mio to giggle a little.

"I won't. Thank you, Ritsu." Ritsu shook her head.

"No, I should be thanking you, Mio. And let me say this for all of us in this world. Thanks for remembering, Mio."

"You're welcome!" Mio smiled and there was a bright flash. A voice in the midst of the darkness that greeted her after the bright flashed sounded before the constant beeping of a heart monitor filled her ears. You finally remembered. Thank you, Mio. Mio smiled. I won't forget again. Thank you, Rio, for believing in me all this time.

Yes, secret base part sounded familiar because I just love Anohana and the song seemed to fit the story too. (The song will appear in later chapters.) You'll know if you had searched up the lyrics. Updates might be coming at a slow rate until the end of May because it's my exam period but I'll try to make swift ones after that. Anyway, please Read&Review and thanks for your support!