A/N: Welcome to the first of many chapters my girlfriend will be writing for our fanfic. My girlfriend has been deeply involved with our collaborative effort, pitching story ideas and acting as my editor. Now I have given her the chance to shine. I will provide a brief author's note for every chapter my girlfriend writes. Note that for these chapters, I act as editor. I hope you enjoy!
The torrential rains bore down on Tonosho Town well past lunch period. In between afternoon classes, the students murmured their complaints about staying in the school even with the swaying trees and thundering rumbles outside. When the end of the school day arrived, the darkened clouds closed their spouts from where the rain fell. Even so, fierce stormy winds continued to cut through the town's side streets. The winds beckoned the rains to follow suit, but the absence of rain provided a welcome respite for the students who were eager to head home.
At the call of the Westminster chimes, two clusters of students formed. The first group of students took shelter underneath the school's awnings. They paced back and forth across the concrete walkway to the school, their feet tiptoeing at the possibility of their parents arriving late. Other students travelled home from school by foot, quickening their pace. Their eyes darted towards the clouds for a sign of more incoming rain.
The air around the school grew weary, with chills filling the atmosphere. Only one student remained impervious to the heavy air. Her mind forecasted an impending love storm that electrified her heart. The short-haired brunette who sported reading glasses twirled her arms and outstretched her legs. She captured the rising beats of a swan as she leapt on the jagged sidewalk. Her shoes struck the sidewalk like fingers tapping on piano keys. With each staccato from her shoes, she envisioned the music and choreography of her brewing love storm.
Yukari held her head up high. Her cheeks were emblazoned with a soft, pink hue that coloured her face like a glowing sunset. Her smooth prances mirrored the jumps she envisioned across cotton candy clouds amid the background of a pink sky. The sky permeated her psyche with images of a single couple kissing and hugging each other.
As she continued to prance across the sidewalk, her arms swaying to and fro across her chest. She clasped her hands together, refusing to separate their intimate bond. Having memorized her path home from school, her feet acted as the lone limbs frolicking with any semblance of direction. Her eyes shone with the glimmer of floating embers, as if she witnessed a most dazzling fireworks display. As the lights within her imagination shone bright red and pink, the royal ensemble of love emerged, dancing within her mind. The regal procession floated on their toes with their arms leaning back and forth. They twirled on their feet, synchronizing with one another. At procession's end, she could picture the Queen of Love in her pink silk robes and shiny garments descending from her throne. She pictured herself bowing down and paying homage to the Queen. She outstretched her arms, declaring with a shout that she would serve her queen and pay her due respects forever. In return, Yukari imagined the queen bending down with poise and dubbing her as a dame of love with her magical heart sceptre.
Yukari's mind snapped back to reality as her legs gave way beneath her. With no warning, her body gave way and her head jolted backwards. Like a falling cat, her arms lurched forward trying to protect her stance. However, her arms faltered beneath her as she came crashing down on the pavement below.
"Yukari-chan are you okay?!" Mina called out from behind, dashing to her side with her black schoolbag in tow.
"Ugh, I'm fine Mina," Yukari groaned as she massaged her side. "I just tripped on a pothole, that's all," she stammered, massaging her temple. She turned away from Mina's gaze and shielded her face with the palms of her hands.
"Oh, is it an imaginary pothole?" Mina questioned. She bent her legs down and turned her head towards the sidewalk, squinting her eyes. Her index finger pointed towards the sidewalk, searching for any cracks in the surface. "I don't see any potholes, Yukari-chan," Mina concluded as she scratched her head.
Yukari pulled up her shirt sleeve and pressed her eyes against it. She steadied herself onto her feet from where she fell. "Huh, I guess there wasn't a pothole after all," she stuttered, crouching her knees towards the ground. She narrowed her eyes, giving off a sigh. A frown formed on her face as she grimaced at the thought of her clumsiness causing her to tumble.
"The sidewalk surface is spotless," Sanae remarked, pointing with her right hand at the section of the sidewalk Yukari fell upon. "You must have been super distracted this time," she continued. Her words pierced Yukari's heart like a dagger.
Yukari gasped in response. She formed a defensive stance by bending her legs apart and putting her right foot forward. Pointing her finger at Sanae's chest, she cried out, "I won't take your bitter remarks against my newfound couple any longer!" She let out a huff, snatching her school bag away from Sanae and tucking it into her right arm.
"I didn't say anything about a couple," Sanae corrected.
"Oh, well, I think you have a mega-powerful vision, Yukari-chan!" Mina interrupted, forming a wide grin as she held her school bag between her fingers. However, Yukari turned on the proverbial love switch again, recreating the royal chambers from which she was dragged out. She turned away from the pair, clasping her hands together towards her chest again.
"C'mon girls, how can you not tune in to the love in the air around you?!" Yukari sang at the top of her lungs. "We're going to celebrate love at this sleepover whether you like it or not!" she took off like a dragonfly in the air and skipped in stride. Meanwhile Mina and Sanae followed behind as the trio made their way to the front door of Yukari's home.
"Welcome back ladies!" Yukari greeted with a cheer, planting herself at the left side of the doorway to her room. Her room's walls were painted a creamy colour. Her bed was located at the back of the room, covered with blue bed sheets. To the left of her bed was her closet, filled with T-shirts and shorts suspended by hangers. Her work desk was located beside her bed at the right side of the room. At the room's centre sat a small, plastic table and a puffy, green bean bag.
While Yukari reserved her desk for study, her extensive collection of manga comics distracted her every chance they got. Her room was filled with shoujou love mangas, growing larger with each passing day. Her collection grew so large she installed multiple bookshelves across the room's walls to hold them all together. Each manga was organized in alphabetic order and sorted by volume in each of the shelves.
Yukari extended her left hand and waved towards her friends, inviting them to enter her room. "Come inside and sit!" she beamed with a bright smile plastered on her face. Her eyes shone like the first sun rays breaking through the sky after the rain storm ended. As she waltzed into her room in front of her friends, she turned around to meet their gazes.
Mina's eyes gleamed as she formed a wide smile on her face. She bent her knees and sprinted straight into Yukari's room. Once inside, her gaze honed in on Yukari's bed. With a great leap forward, Mina bounced on Yukari's fluffy bed. "Whee! I love how bouncy your bed is, Yukari-chan!" Mina cried out, shouting each word in time with her jumps.
Sanae straightened her posture and strode forward into Yukari's room. In her room, Sanae bent her back forward and set her school bag underneath Yukari's table. She looked up towards Yukari and maintained a blank stare at her face. Yukari's wide grin did little to change Sanae's facial expression.
With everyone inside the bedroom, Yukari hunched forward. She rubbed her hands together like an old, scheming miser holding the keys to unlimited wealth. "Hehe, do you notice anything different?" Yukari chuckled, raising her left hand into the air as if she was their personal tour guide.
"Did you buy a new notebook, Yukari-chan?" Mina asked. She surveyed Yukari's room with eagle eyes and scratched her chin with her right hand.
"Did you spill bubble tea on your bean bag chair again?" Sanae questioned with a quip.
Yukari placed her left hand on her hip and took in a deep breath of air, "No, and no," Yukari answered. She gave a brief pause. The room grew silent. She took the silence as her cue. "I finally bought the last two volumes of 100% Unrequited Love!" She exclaimed with a smirk. Her chests puffed forward as she held her chin up high and turned her gaze towards the now-full bookshelf to the left of the door.
Sanae scanned the shelves, but Yukari's announcement did little to alter her facial expression. "That's not a surprising change whatsoever," Sanae remarked as Mina nodded in agreement.
Yukari turned her head back toward Sanae. Her puffed chests loosened and her shoulders collapsed at the sound of Sanae's monotonous declaration. "What's that supposed to mean?!" she stammered as her eyes narrowed towards Sanae.
Sanae shrugged her shoulders and cocked her head back at Yukari. "I don't know, I figured you get to this manga eventually," Sanae shrugged.
Yukari expelled a sigh as a blush crept upon her cheeks. "Ah yes, but I mentioned this at the perfect moment," she stuttered with pursed lips. At the next moment, her frown turned into another bright smile and her narrow eyes popped wide open once again. "You see, now that we're all here, we get to talk about love!" Yukari exclaimed, composing herself. She performed a dainty tap dance with her feet, performing a small pirouette and lifting her arms in the air like a ballerina.
"Ohh!" Mina exclaimed, joining Yukari in her dance. She alternated her dances between a ski and a hop along an imaginary line across the right side of her room. She twirled around to face her friends. "Oh, I also brought instant ramen for the sleepover today!" Mina declared, pointing to her unzipped duffel bag with ramen containers sticking out.
"Uh, I thought we were going to finish our assignment today," Sanae objected as she undid the straps to her school bag and took out her English notebook.
Mina stopped her dance upon hearing Sanae's objection, removing the smile on her face. With a gentle groan she walked up to Yukari's plastic table. She crouched to the ground and retrieved her school bag with her right hand. Seeing that Yukari was still entranced in her dance, she looked up, gasping as she stared at Yukari. Her lips trembled as she explained, "Oh, yeah that's right. I forgot to remind you because I didn't want to burst your love bubble."
Yukari stopped mid-pose and looked at her friends like a deer in headlights. "Oh yeah, I was definitely prepared to do the assignment tonight," Yukari chuckled. She shuffled her feet and cast her eyes downward at the floor. In reality, her open notebook on her writing desk instead revealed the schemes and concoctions of a girl obsessed with her favourite couple's most recent antics.
Sanae turned her gaze towards Yukari's writing desk, her English notebook filled with hearts and drawings of two people from her class. She walked up to her notebook and picked it up for the other girls to see. "It doesn't look like you're prepared, so we should probably spend tonight finishing up everything for tomorrow," Sanae concluded with a light grunt. She strode over to Yukari's bed and grabbed a pink cushion. Walking back to the table, she placed the cushion on the floor and sat on it.
Mina giggled at the pages of drawings and hearts filling Yukari's English notebook. She walked up to Yukari's bean bag and sat in it. Moving her feet around, she readjusted her position to face the table in front of her.
Mina's giggles caused Yukari to form a light blush and a sheepish moan. Seeing that Mina and Sanae then opened their notebooks, she joined them on the floor, her blush still stuck on her face. "Sure, why not?" she sighed. She walked over to the corner of her room where she kept her school bag. She walked between Mina and Sanae and sat down with them on the floor.
Yukari took her soft-cover textbook and notebook out of her school bag and placed them face up on the plastic table. She opened her textbook and gazed at the page where her assignment lay. Her textbook's instructions were bolded in black. "Keep your sentence writing clean and complete, avoid double negatives, and always use correct punctuation," the instructions declared. She adjusted her glasses, cracked her knuckles, and crossed her legs into a comfortable sitting position.
Alright, I've got this! Yukari grinned, forming a fist with her left hand and picking up her pencil in her right. The soft ticking of the clock from the right side of her room signalled her to begin her English homework. However, another voice rang from the crevices of her mind. The voice was that of a squealing girl who wore a dark blue school uniform. The voice began to sing a love song Yukari heard from long ago, one of the goddess Orihime and Hikoboshi the cow-herder.
Her mind soon formed stars that populated her pupils, filling its depths like an expansive galaxy. With each lyric, her 100% Unrequited Love collection sang its siren-like songs. The songs reverberated through her beating heart, causing Yukari to pivot her head and stare at the shelf. The sirens drew her into a trance, pulling her mind into the depths of the love ocean.
"Achoo!" Mina sneezed, breaking the sirens' chants and causing Yukari to jump out of her skin. "Sorry, Yukari-chan, it's my spring allergies," Mina sniffled as she tossed her wad of tissue into the garbage by Yukari's desk. Sanae rotated her body towards Mina and gave her head a gentle pat with her left hand before returning to her work.
Yukari let out a grateful sigh for Mina's sneeze which pulled her out of her thoughts. Her work remained her first priority, however, and Yukari intended to keep it that way. As class president, I have to set an example for everyone else and get my work done no matter the obstacle! she declared. Yukari pounded her right fist into her open palm. Her brows furrowed as she opened her hand to pick up her pencil and clench it in her right hand.
But the love sirens weren't finished yet. Even as Yukari worked on her assignment, sprinkles of love permeated the sentences she wrote as she reminisced about her favourite couple. The signs of love became apparent by the fifteenth sentence which read, Takagi teased Nishikata underneath the starry night.
It mattered little to her. She imagined Tanabe-sensei scowling at her overuse of love quotes in her homework. The picture of her teacher caused her to roll her eyes. She then skimmed through her sentences for flow, conciseness, and grammar. With her hawk-like eyes, she ensured that her sentences spoke like poetry, for that was her top priority.
Satisfied with her now-completed homework, she closed her notebook and stared at her shelf once more. Now was the time for her to focus on her true passion once and for all!
Yukari angled her body towards the shelf in front of her. The manga book that rested on the shelf was just out of her reach. Each strand of thought yearned for the tales of the starry night sky. The sirens of love that plagued her earlier returned, refusing to stop their songs until she opened the book. She extended her hand as far as she could, but the rolling desk chair underneath her feet wobbled left and right.
"Careful Yukari-chan, or else you'll fall!" Mina shouted. She raced from the open bedroom door to the teetering Yukari. She crouched to the floor, holding the chair in place with her hands.
"Hah, thank you, Mina," Yukari breathed a sigh of relief, her pounding heart retreating to a normal level inside her chest. While Mina held the backrest of the chair in place with her hands, Yukari balanced on one leg. With her arms, she extended her height just enough to grasp the book between her outstretched hands. Stepping down from the chair with her right foot forward, she planted her feet softly on the ground below with her arms outstretched.
"That's pretty dangerous Yukari; maybe you should find a safer way to access your books," Sanae muttered under her breath.
Yukari sighed as she straightened her posture, "I know, I've been begging my parents to let me keep the step ladder in my room, but they said no," she pouted, forming fists with her hands beside her waist.
"Maybe you should get rid of some of your books then," Sanae suggested, walking over to the numerous bookcases lined with shoujou manga by her bed.
"Never! These books are the sole reason I love to talk about love!" Yukari snapped while clutching the book to her chest as if it was her long-lost pet dog. "I don't mind standing on a rolling chair as long as I can get to my precious Kyunko!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands beside her face and sighing in delight.
"Fair enough. 100% Unrequited Love is pretty good, so I doubt getting rid of those would be a good idea," Sanae concluded as she turned back around to face Yukari.
"Let's curl up and read the chapter together then!" Mina suggested, smiling and grabbing her blanket from the bed. The other two nodded as they prepared for the reading fest soon to commence.
As the trio of girls opened their 100% Unrequited Love with giggles and squeals of excitement, a flurry of dark blue filled the pages. White dots interspersed throughout the pages filled the dark blue background. When the girls arrived at the point where they left off in their mangas, they all knew one thing: the long-awaited stargazing chapter had finally arrived.
At the bottom sides of each of the panels, two characters stood on a grassy ground surrounded by evergreen trees. One of them, Ikeo, was a tall, skinny boy with red hair. Donning a white shirt and black pants, his smiles exuded a ray of light that pierced the hearts of all those who read the stories within. The other, Kyunko, was a girl with long, blonde hair wearing her iconic dark blue school uniform. Her pupils formed stars of her own as she took in the splendour of the starry night sky.
As the panels proceeded, Ikeo and Kyunko took their seats on the ground beneath them, with Ikeo sitting to Kyunko's left. Kyunko's mouth grew slack and her eyes widened as far as they could as she stared at the night sky. "Wow..." was the only word she could utter at the millions of stars around her.
On the other hand, Ikeo stared at the night sky with a confident smirk. Turning his head towards Kyunko, the next set of panels transitioned into images of Japanese art as he waved at the night sky. There, he told a tale of two star-crossed lovers, as if he were reciting a poem:
"Every time I look at the night sky, I think of Tanabata, the day when we commemorate the tale of two star-crossed lovers. It is a tale of woe, yet one tinged with hope. For you see, a long time ago Orihime, the daughter of the King of Heaven, fell in love with Hikoboshi, a lowly cattle herder. However, their love distracted them from their daily tasks, angering The King of Heaven. Incensed, The King of Heaven placed our galaxy between the two lovers to separate them forever. With tearful pleas, Orihime convinced her father to let her see her lover once a year. When the time came for her to see him, however, she found the Milky Way too difficult to cross. Her tears moved a flock of magpies, who built a bridge for her so she could cross the Milky Way Galaxy to reunite with her lover."
The manga panels returned to Ikeo, who stretched his hands to the night sky as he finished the poetic tale. "We celebrate Tanabata every July 7th to give Orihime and Hikoboshi a chance to reunite in the night sky," he reiterated, turning his head to Kyunko. "The stars of the universe weave their tales for us all to enjoy and celebrate. And that's why I love stargazing," he smiled as he gauged Kyunko's response with his gazing eyes.
Kyunko scrunched her cheeks and narrowed her eyes. Turning her gaze to Ikeo, she let out a humph and crossed her arms. "Well, it isn't July 7th, so you can't see the two stars tonight. Why did you tell me this story now?" she uttered with a frown, her puffs of air turning into blue clouds under the night sky.
"Ah, but dear Kyunko, our love is not defined by just two stars. Our love spans a galaxy large, brighter than all the stars put together!" Ikeo replied with a swoon, caressing her right cheek.
"Kyuuun!" Kyunko cried out. Her passionate squeals for Ikeo's love echoed through the night sky as the chapter came to a close.
"Kyuuun!" Yukari echoed. "Oh, that was amazing!" she swooned, mirroring Kyunko's characteristic call of love. "Girls, wasn't that incredible?! The flawless telling of the story plucked Kyunko's heart so effortlessly!" beamed Yukari, who clutched the book to her chest and swayed back and forth on her bed.
"It was amazing, Yukari-chan!" Mina exclaimed with her mouthful of ramen. "I wish we could scream out to the earth and time travel to July 7th so we could see the stars!" Mina made a stiff swiping motion with her left hand in the air.
Sanae swallowed her mouthful of ramen and patted Mina's head before glancing at Yukari's blissful expression. "I liked it a lot," Sanae stated before grabbing the book and looking through its contents. "You know, it's too bad that this didn't come out during the summer when the Lyra stars were out," she added, turning to the window. She squinted her eyes and shielded her hand above her eyes to try to make out the stars outside.
Yukari's eyes widened as she saw Sanae gazing out the window. "Why don't we grab our blankets and coats and go stargazing before bed?! That sounds like a wonderful way to wrap up our sleepover!" Yukari's eyes glimmered as she sat up from her bed and rested her elbows on the window sill, cocking her head to the left and staring into the sky.
"Yay! let's go stargazing!" Mina exclaimed, jumping on Yukari's bed and flapping her arms in the air like a bird.
"Do you have a telescope?" Sanae asked while scanning Yukari's room for any implements they could use.
"I do, actually! It's in the downstairs closet!" Yukari piped up pointing her left index finger in the air.
"Aahh Yukari-chan, I can't wait to shoot some stars in the sky!" Mina bounced down the steps to Yukari's front door, carrying two open cups of ramen in her hands.
The three girls brought their blankets downstairs and stepped out of the front door, heading towards the front yard. Yukari jumped on the grassy area by her driveway, scattering small water droplets that shimmered under the moonlight.
The three girls curled up together in their oversized sweaters. Mina huddled in the middle of Yukari and Sanae, putting her arms around them and hugging them both.
"I think I can see Jupiter!" Mina called out, squeezing her friends into a tighter embrace.
"I can see Canis Major, the fleet-footed dog." Sanae lectured, attempting to adjust the telescope's dial with her right hand to get a better picture. "I'm sure I can run faster than Canis Major if I wanted," she pointed her finger at the constellation, outlining its trajectory.
"Really?! Ooh I wanna see the puppy!" Mina called out looking at the telescope while still holding onto both of her friends.
Yukari did not feel Mina's warm embrace, nor did she notice the stars above. Instead, her mind sprouted seedling thoughts of love that grew into epiphanies like a blooming bouquet of roses.
Nishikata-kun and Takagi-chan are already a couple. They already have each other and know what to do in their love, Yukari mulled over the thoughts. She placed her hand to her temple and focused her gaze on the grass below her feet.
I can't let go of their love, but maybe I can also help people find love in each other in situations of unrequited love. Yukari's revelation dawned on her like the first sunrise of Spring. Her eyes sparked to life as she realized her call to love, her destiny!
Yukari's smile beamed like the bright light emanating from Sirius, the brightest star in Canis Major. She had to act on it soon, lest her self-defined reputation as a matchmaker become irrelevant.
Yukari's star of hope dimmed the moment another thought crept into her psyche, Everyone after White Day probably confessed already. Even if there are couples out there at the school, no one would know about them enough to spread information. Yukari's dimming love star seemed to swirl clockwise back into the black hole of her mind. It's no use, maybe I wouldn't be a good enough matchmaker anyway, Yukari sobbed quietly to herself, whimpering and tugging at the blankets below her feet for security.
Mina pointed her right finger outward towards the expansive night sky, her body trembling and quaking. Mina let out an audible gasp, and, towards the sky, shouted at the top of her lungs, "What are those two stars over there?!" As she spoke, she almost lost her footing.
Yukari looked up towards the western expanse of the sky to discover two glowing bright stars. They were so close in proximity they were almost touching each other.
"Do you know what those two stars are Yukari-chan?" Mina quipped her body bending over towards Yukari.
"I don't know." Yukari whispered as she transfixed her eyes on the gleaming pair of orbs above. "I have never seen these stars before," she pondered. She twitched her hand into her pockets, scrambling to find her camera. However, her efforts ended in vain, forcing her to engrave a mental picture of the two stars in her mind.
"Well, these must be special stars then," Sanae breathed. Her voice drifted off into the void of silence surrounding them, save for the crickets chirping in the thickets.
Mina looked at her wrist watch and gasped, putting her hand on her cheek. "Girls, it's already 10:15 pm! We need to head to bed for school tomorrow!" Mina pleaded, scrambling her things together.
Sanae rose up from the dewy grass below her feet and started packing up the ramen cups strewn on the blankets below. "We should get going, Yukari," she stated, bunching her blanket collection in her arms.
"I'll be coming soon girls. Don't wait up for me," Yukari's voice trailed off as the world around her blurred. Only the stars retained their clarity for her eyes to behold. Her gaze remained focused on the two stars twinkling in the sky.
Behind Yukari's frozen stature, Sanae and Mina were waiting by the front door with their blankets gathered in their arms. Mina was tapping her foot, her cheeks puffing up as she turned her head back towards Yukari's shadowy form.
"Hey Sanae-chan, have you seen Houjou-san recently?" Mina questioned as she tilted her head.
"No, I haven't seen her, why?" Sanae responded, her hand leaning towards her hip.
"I haven't seen Houjou-san and Hamaguchi-kun together. They're usually hanging out together, aren't they?" Mina quipped, scratching her chin with her hand. Her gaze casted downward lips tightened. "Now, I always see them away from each other. I wonder if something happened between them," Mina whined as she began fidgeting with her fingers.
Yukari broke out of her transfixed gaze. She blinked her eyes multiple times before the realization hit her psyche like an oncoming asteroid.
"Hamaguchi-kun and Houjou-san," Yukari's voice trailed off like a distant tailing comet exiting the horizon. "It seems that there is unrequited love in the air after all,"she nodded her head, giving out a small breath as she seized her blankets in her arms and re-entered her home through the front door.
As Yukari entered her dreams sound asleep, the two shining stars grew even brighter. The celestial beings encircled each other in their orbiting paths, as if they were intertwined as one.