"Thank you for meeting up with me." Sakaki said quietly.
"No worries." Yomi replied. "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here for you."
"I know...spending time with someone else...was just as good."
Yomi smiled at hearing this. Sakaki kept a straight face. They both stopped at the top of her street, turning to say goodbye to one another. As Sakaki lifted her hand up to wave, Yomi charged at her and hugged her tightly. Sakaki was shocked. As she went to gently hug Yomi in return, the brown haired girl broke away. "You're not alone." Yomi told the tall girl, looking her sternly in the eye. Sakaki noticed she was tearing up a little. "Thank you... Yomi." She replied. Yomi turned around and began walking home, leaving Sakaki alone at the corner. She didn't linger for long, though. As Sakaki stepped through her front door, she took her shoes off and noticed her fathers shoes were missing. She didn't think much of it and carried on as normal. Upon stepping further into the house, she saw something on the table. As she walked over, she saw a deep blue Neko Coneko plush with little white stars embroidered all over the fur. Sakaki looked down and saw a note adjacent to the stuffed animal.
"Sakaki,
We still love you.
From your mother and father."
She knew it was her father's handwriting, but she also knew that she had only ever shown that plush to her mother, once in a store a few weeks ago. Sakaki picked up the plush and stared at it for a moment. "We still love you." continued to echo in her mind.
"If you still love me... then...then why couldn't you love eachother for a little longer."
Her eyes began to well up. She darted into her room, leaving the note on the table. She closed the door behind her and pulled all the blinds shut before collapsing onto her bed again. Looking at the stuffed animal, she became filled with a greater sadness. No more birthdays together, no more Christmasses...no more weekends, no more super market trips. All things she never thought she'd have to worry about losing. Sakaki cried again. And again, she held her plush tight next to her. And again, she fell asleep, suffering in her sorrow.
As dusk grew dimmer and the moon climbed the sky, and all the stars that decorated the night sky began to poke through the deep dark abyss and the scarcely placed clouds, Kagura closed the door behind her and ran off into the night. As her feet began to slap the ground and her speed began to rise, tears formed in her eyes that became stung by the breeze of her ever growing sprint. The faster she ran, the colder the breeze; The more she cried, the more it hurt inside. "Why didn't he show up?" She kept thinking to herself. "He said he'd be there...where was he?" Despite the countless scenarios beginning to fill her mind, her speed never dropped. Everytime she felt tired, she pushed harder and harder. Pushing through the pain, she darted across streets and through alleys, her soles slapping the concrete at full force every time. "Am I pretty?" She thought to herself. "Am I really pretty? Do I really look pretty?" Before she had a chance to pursue that line of thought any further, she came to a full stop and began to fall face forward onto the ground. She turned on her right side seconds before hitting the ground, causing part of her track suit to get torn up. Her body laid still on the ground for a moment, being moved only by her breathing. "Shoot." She thought to herself. She tried to sit up, quickly realizing her arm had been injured. Kagura looked down at her shoes. Her left shoelace had come undone. She looked at the arm of her track suit. It was torn and ripped in more than a few areas. She collapsed back down onto the ground and began to sob. She didn't care. She had been hurt too much to care.