Breath With In


Chapter 10 - Moving Along

Author's Note: OMG, GUYS, it JUST started to snow today! ❄️ Like, I'm literally losing my mind. I'm so excited, I could build a snowman, a snowcastle, and maybe a snow-kingdom if I'm feeling extra. I can't even—IT'S SNOWING! 😱 ️ This is the BEST thing to happen all year. I'm basically living my winter fantasy right now, and it's like magic. Can you believe this? SQUEE! 😂

Today is a snowy day. It was a weekend filled with something you could only describe as bitterness in the air, though it wasn't quite cold enough to make your teeth chatter, just enough to make you think about it. I walked outside to see the freshly fallen blanket of snow that lay across the ground. It was as white as Yuuki's hair, which is funny because Yuuki has the kind of hair that could never be described as just "white." It's more like "moonlight in winter, shimmering just a bit too much." I smiled as I felt a gentle cold breeze brush against my face, like the wind was trying to whisper some secrets I wasn't ready for. Even though it wasn't Christmas yet, it felt like the kind of day that should have had festive music playing in the background.

I walked through the town to the park on the other side, past the bakery with its stale bread that no one buys but everyone pretends to like. The only thing of note was the robbery, but he was shot dead by the police. It wasn't really the kind of robbery where anyone gets away, though I guess that's just life. I continued on, hoping to clear my mind of the incident and focus on something less... shooty.

When I made it to the park, I started walking through it, feeling the crunch of snow beneath my boots like a slow and constant reminder that I wasn't in an anime. The entire place, except the paths, was covered in white, like someone had thrown a big, messy snow blanket over everything. There were some children in the distance, their shrill laughter echoing through the trees as they pelted each other with snowballs. This brought back memories of my other life, the one I lived before this moment. The life where I never had friends but somehow liked the snow anyway, like an old dog that still has its charm.

It reminded me of a girl from elementary school who looked like Yuuki. She wasn't Yuuki, but she had Yuuki's hair and the same smile that made you think she was about to say something profound. One time, when the snow fell, we were allowed to play in it. I, being the socially awkward genius that I am, spent most of the time trying to avoid eye contact while also thinking about how much better this would be if I was climbing a mountain. So, naturally, I thought about climbing a mountain, and somehow she ended up there with me.

We had this huge snow mound we called "Mini Everest." It wasn't really Everest, obviously, but we were children and it felt big enough for our imaginations to wander. It took us a whole three recesses to climb that thing. And it wasn't even a straight climb. There were parts where we had to dig in the snow with our hands like we were treasure hunters, and other parts where we slid down and had to do it all over again, because life loves to repeat itself, especially in snowstorms.

When we finally reached the top, she lay next to me, and I was like, "Wow, this is probably the peak of my life." She asked, "Do you want to climb a mountain?"

"Yes," I said, without a single second of hesitation.

"Why?" she asked, like I was some mysterious figure whose thoughts were as deep as the snow drifts around us.

"I dono," I said, scratching my head. "I feel it's something my grandpa would have wanted."

This brought me back to my grandfather, the man who always had a story to tell, no matter how irrelevant it was. I started telling her one of his favorite stories, the one about how, when he was young, he wanted to climb a mountain—like, a really big one. But as fate would have it, he ended up meeting my grandmother, and then climbing the mountain seemed... well, less important. But that's not where the story ends.

You see, when my grandpa was younger, he met a famous explorer, the kind of person who would be in adventure books, the kind who had lived through so many perilous adventures that no one really knew what was true anymore. He had climbed all sorts of mountains, but there was one he never conquered—one so tall, it couldn't even be described in simple terms. So my grandpa asked him, "Can I climb a mountain like you did in episode 32 of that famous adventure book series?"

The explorer, with all his wisdom and wrinkles, nodded solemnly. And guess what? My grandpa never climbed that mountain. And my father, ever the practical man, never had any interest in climbing it either. So when my grandpa told me the story, I was like, "Well, somebody has to climb this mountain!" (alternate universe version of me, obviously).

Yuuki, or the girl who looked like Yuuki, giggled like she understood something that wasn't even a joke. We sat there, laughing in the snow until the recess bell rang, forcing us to return to the monotony of classroom life. But just before we left Mini Everest, she asked if she could go with me on the mountain. "Sure," I said. "Of course."

I was really sad when I had to move before middle school. Not because of the move itself—though it was inconvenient—but because I never got to say goodbye to her. If I were still in that world, I would've tried to find her, even though now I was in high school, and I was too busy studying. I was practically the embodiment of a nerd who couldn't enjoy life because there were equations to solve. But that's life for you, isn't it?

Anyway, I decided to continue walking through the park, though, honestly, I wasn't sure what I was doing anymore. The snow continued to fall gently, reminding me that everything in life, like my past, was just a fleeting moment.