• The afternoon of December twenty-fifth has done nothing of purging a longing for what existed in his country. Past the seas of the world, the island of a country, Japan, was visible from the windows of the plane; however, he was only able to see part of the world that existed to his eyes since his birth. He was only able to see part of his heart and mind, a part was missing, his view on himself was as limited as his field of sight through the glass.


    The afternoon sky transitioned to night once the young man returned to his home in the destination. Blank walls were seen from place to place and the furniture was empty of any sign of life or activity. The lights were off, and the scenery was dim. A psychological coldness froze the shelter barren, while the very thought of the concept of boredom and loneliness of bachelorism snowed heavily upon concrete reality. The irises of his eyes raised in the direction of the window, focusing on the skies. Dark as it was, but a vibrant source of light radiated from the moon. Countless numbers of stars twinkled, adding to the radiance of the reflected light of the cosmos.

    The moon and stars were just like her: Tsukino, the child of the moon.

    Juvenile memories ran through his mind, from the very beginning where he was oblivious to the fact of this woman's existence, to the very day he realized that there was no one that would care for her and live as long for him. He tried to place himself within this virtual reality, listening to the many laughs escaping from their youth, to the bloodshed from accidents and misunderstandings. In summary of it all, he was glad that he chose to care about someone other than himself. Leaving the luggage packed since his return, the young man stood there dumb of what was to be done on the agenda for the rest of the night, simply drowning in what he was missing.

    The night passed quickly, in such a speed he was not able to grasp his mind onto the one cellphone call that was missed. "Where are you?" That was the only question and thought he emphasized boldly in his mind.

    By morning, the young man dialed the number in reply. He did not fail to realize that along with an eerie silence following the answering machine, she was not there.

    Hours later, walking around the city mindlessly caused his mind total unrest. Chaos seeped into his thoughts, continuing to search for his own answer to where the woman left for. "Did she leave forever?" He thought, shoving his hands into his pants pockets. "Was I gone for that long? Did she leave me for someone else?" Exhaling breaths from the mental pressure and unnecessary fear, his footsteps trampled over the concrete in a hastened pace, attempting to find what went wrong and retrieve what was missing. Realistically speaking, there was no hope. With a missing call, there was no method of seeing her again; he had no idea on where she ran off to.

    Continuing to recall past events, one of the last things he reminded himself of was summer. "A summer festival?" A smile formed on his lips, as he laughed slightly, reminding himself of how much of a moody character he was when he was younger. "Not able to smile? That was part of my character? I don't think so; I just refused to show happiness because I thought it was not "cool"."Gazing forwards blankly, the city scenery began to fade to a black, to be replaced with the view of the night sky from the roof of a building.


    The calming, cool breeze from the west ran past the air. He stood near the edge, observing the rest of the city from above, and she was there, nearby. Acting as if he was about to jump from the roof and commit a daredevil act, a bold, audacious expression formed on his face. Extending a hand to her, he tried to look as charming as possible, "I want to ask you again, if I jump from this rooftop, will you jump with me? As I said before, this is not a suicide attempt."

    A small pause was left between them as the female's glossy violet-colored irises shined from the city lights; she seemed to be thinking as she stared at his outstretched arm and his open palm. Then, the girl gave a nod and replied, "Okay. I trust you."

    Blinking, the male widened his eyes in surprise at her consent. "Alright," replied he, grasping onto her hand tightly, about to make a jumping motion. Feeling her supposed thoughts through the movements of her hand, he watched her from the corner of his eyes as he pretended his main gaze was towards the sky in the front. "Gotcha!" Suddenly jumping, he made a sudden turn away from the edge and leapt towards the direction of the metal door leading to the inside of the hospital. He thought that he had literally scared the girl with that move, but apparently, she was not. This made the young man want to smile, as he did, he gave a dark chuckle. "Ah, you. You already knew that I wasn't going to really jump like that." In his mind, he wondered why he didn't show his real smile when no one else was there as he held that fake, mature image painfully.

    He looked at her again, and she looked at him in return. After yet another moment of awkward silence, the girl spoke with a gentle stare. "Can you stay with me for awhile?" she asked him.

    "Sure."

    "Alright." Giggling, she flashed a smile. "Remember that you said, 'sure'." Without a warning, she advanced towards him, and hastened her pace.

    Caught in a moment of uncertainty of decision at the moment, the young man suddenly darted back towards the door, and into the building, while the girl was right behind him. Making his way down the many flight of stairs, he saw that it was no use trying to run away. As he finally admit his defeat in fleeing, the two gave each other smiles.


    "Kanpai!"

    His attention was flying to many directions as the sound of his fellow bachelors shouted in unison the phrase to express honor and goodwill. As his alcohol glass was lifted late, the male blinked thrice, unable to easily place how he seated himself at the table and how he met with his friends. Looking across the many other young men in suits with wine glasses in their hands, he met with their stares.

    "That was late. What are you thinking about?"

    "Nothing much that you should know about," answered the young man, deciding not to think so much about what has already been done.

    "Oh, I know what you're thinking about. It must be a girl. You lonely b*****d, you should visit a club or social gathering some time."

    "Maybe it's a girl," replied the male, placing his wine glass on the table. "I refuse to visit any of those places. It's not to my good interest that I should find a refined woman from those gatherings."

    "Thanks for answering." The friend sat back in his seat, continuing his long speech of the longevity of happiness if one decided on staying single.

    "I shouldn't stay here for too long. I've got better things to do," the young man thought, brushing his styled hair of a green color before giving an excuse to leave the party early. Once outside in the dark night within the city, he began to run down the sidewalks, past the intersections, and down the streets, while dodging other pedestrians. Back then, when he was in the private meeting room within the club, he felt his cellular phone buzz strongly, and he heard that familiar ringtone.

    She returned his call.

    His heart was beating like a drum matching with the prestissimo tempo of an extremely fast song. He never stopped panting, and never stopped running until he ran to the place where he thought he might surprise her. There was no proof to support the hypothesis of her being there, but he continued to run out of sheer blindness. He never repeated the truth to himself until now out of negligence. The truth was that he was missing her already.

    His vision began to fade once more, as he continued to pelt his mind with the memories of his younger years. The only memories showering upon him were remembrances of him and her. "Dammit, I can't stop running..."


    As if a rush of wind suddenly swallowed him into a vortex and spat him out into another dimension, he opened his eyes and there he was, trying to run up the stairs to the local shrine where they had once celebrated the summer festival along with the rest of their friends. His arms were scratched and bits of skin were peeling off because of the falls he had taken out of carelessness and rashness. He didn't want to miss another second of her, because he knew if he did, she would be gone forever the next time he wanted to talk to her. "Don't stop. If you faint and collapse, at least she will know that you tried hard to catch up to her. At least she will know," he continued repeating this to his tormented mind. Earlier, he had received a note that the girl he was running after would be leaving. The young male knew it was because he hadn't been paying any attention to her. It was his fault; he paid more attention to someone he just met rather than someone he knew a few years more.

    "And I hope you won't be sad even though I am gone, you probably haven't heard yet, though. Please be safe." The exact words he memorized from the note received rang through his ears along with his other thoughts of desperation to get to the top. The rest of the note continued playing through his mind as he imagined that it was her speaking telepathically through him. "I wasn't sure about leaving at first, but when I saw you play your song with him, I couldn't stand it anymore; I wanted to stop feeling so empty. I'm sorry he died. Please, don't worry about me."

    A final fall brought him to the top, as his knee scraped against the rock. He had no idea why he was brimming with rage, but he took it out on her as he met with the girl face-to-face. "What in the world do you think you're doing?! If you're thinking of committing suicide, I have all this to say to you. 'You are a moron.' Yeah, I could think of a lot of worse things to say, but you have no right to disappear!" he screamed at her. At the end of his lines of rage, he silenced himself with loud breathing and trying to gasp for air.

    He had expected the purple-haired girl to be even more upset, but instead, she raised herself up and went closer to him. "Are you hurt?!" were the first words of her reply. She then gazed downwards, and then looked up. "I wasn't running away or disappearing…I was going to come back. I just wanted to be useful to everyone." Examining his cuts, tears were held before her eyes as she looked at his right arm.

    Lowering his voice and tone, the green-haired male gave a quiet, gentle reply. "It didn't seem like you were going to return in your notes." He hoped that his current exterior would show her that he tried, and while he hoped, the girl stared.

    "Well, I was going to leave for some years, but you came for me. And that makes my mind change a little." she turned red, averting her gaze to the ground.

    In this moment of awkwardness, the young male knew that he should turn it into something useful. He asked himself why he cared if he told everyone else that he had no one to rely on. If he cared, then that meant he had strong feelings for that person he cared for. Suddenly embracing her out of the blue, he whispered, "I had no one else to love in the beginning. That was because I did not know that those feelings from me existed. You have been a supportive friend for me from the beginning, even now. There was something that Li taught me that touched my heart. It was how to love someone. And I'm beginning to think that I love you, Tsukino Okuwari."

    "Finally," she muttered in response, tightening her embrace in return. Grinning through tears, she revealed that she was no longer afraid or nervous to show her feelings too.

    The young man smiled, and leaned in for a kiss.


    As soon as the young man reviewed the kiss in the past, a strong collision took place that sent him falling forwards and slightly sideways. Sliding his skin across the concrete, a burn ran through his body, as he laid on the cold surface, absorbing the slight pain from the stinging. He had already ran hard enough, and his mental pressure was crushing down on him. He wanted to give up and fall asleep in the middle of the streets as a certain comfort took over his mind as he began to close his eyes and succumb to the warm comforting darkness that waited ahead. However, he felt a presence looming over him in what was reality. A small, feminine hand touched his back, with a womanly voice stating sentences of worry over the man that had just collapsed in front of her.

    Slowly looking up, he recognized the woman with straight purple hair and glossy violet-colored eyes. "Ts-Tsuki!" Suddenly jolting up, he fell on his bottom and slumped against the wall of a retail store behind him. He had no words to express other than a dumbfounded, "Are you really there?"

    "Yes," she replied, observing him curiously. "A-Are you hurt? What happened?"

    "Yeah. I can't really explain what happened. For anyone with a reasonable mind, they would have thought of it as stupid," he replied quickly, staring at her with wide eyes. Such a stupid decision, and a meeting as random as the day he had heard of her name.

    "I'm glad," Tsukino embraced him, and the young man pulled himself up for ease of being able to be embraced. "I'm glad that you've returned, Ryou. Welcome home." Smiling as she rested her head against his shoulder, she awaited for a response from him. However, similarly to the years before, there was the nostalgic awkward silence that was so repetitive. "Even if years have passed, my Ryou Samejima is still the same Ryou I love and know."

    Embracing the purple-haired young woman in return, the young male gave a nod. "Thanks." He then pulled away slightly and looked at her. "You still look the same," he said, giving a combination of a tease and compliment. Grinning, he added, "But you're still beautiful." Thinking over the recent statement made, he thought he said something rather odd for someone of his character. "Even if I'm the same person, an individual continues to grow and mature. They are always changing."

    "So," he replied, releasing his arms around her, "how did you know that I was here?"

    "How did I know that you were here?" she repeated, looking at him questioningly. "I did not have an idea. I knew you returned to Japan." Giving another smile out of pure glee, she looked at his expression that held thought. "How did you know I was waiting for you?"

    It wasn't before long that they were both smiling at each other under the night sky. All seemed well, with the shine of the moon illuminating the streets and shining hope upon the young couple. As if in synchronization, the two began to speak their mind.

    "It was that one missing call, huh?"