The cherry blossoms in front of the station were in full bloom. They had come early this year, so my class got to graduate yesterday under a rainfall of petals. As of next month, this girl was going to college!
Right now, the rest of my classmates were meeting up in their uniforms and going to karaoke. Well, now that I thought of it, they were “uniforms” yesterday, but from today they were more like cosplay. Though I did get an invite, I passed so I could come here. My friends who went had been sending me a ton of photos, and it looked like they were having a great time. I also had messages like this:
There are guys from another school here! One of them said he’s been wanting to talk to you for ages. You really can’t make it? You don’t have to stay, just show up to say hi!
I couldn’t go because I wanted to meet Kengo at the station. And even though yesterday was graduation, most of my friends were going to the same college as me—the one that was affiliated with our high school. There wasn’t anywhere I wanted to be more than here. I had Kengo, and I would always choose Kengo.
I clutched the fabric on his back. “I missed you!” I cried, my voice squeaking. “I missed you so, so, so, so much! You’re really gonna be around for the whole of spring break? There’s so much I wanna talk to you about and a ton of places I want us to go! Mom wants you to come to our place for dinner too!” I babbled.
“Wrong,” came the response in my ear.
“Huh?”
Confused, I took a step back. Did my makeup rub off on his clothes? I wasn’t wearing any foundation—just a bit of color on my eyes. What did he mean by “wrong,” anyway? I looked up to ask him—and then I jumped back with a cry. The guy in front of me wasn’t Kengo.
“Alien!”
It was a glowing blue alien. He wore a mask on his face and a tank top on his back.
“Rara…”
“Ew! Stay away from me! Kengo? Kengo!”
Kengo was gone. I looked around as I backed away, but the alien came straight for me.
“Listen to me. This. Is. Pointless. Your friends were having a blast with a bunch of boys, right? You might have met someone new. Someone you were supposed to be with. That might have been what fate wanted for you. So why did you come to the station again? Are you gonna forget every single time you get a do-over? Well?”
His eyes were probing me. They were shifting slightly from left to right like they were telling me off for something. There was something unsettling about the way he was speaking and the way he was walking.
“I dunno what you’re talking about! Look, just stay away from me! Seriously, what the hell is going on?!”
“Please. You have to remember what you need to do. I know you know. The way things are going, nothing’s going to change. Please, make a different choice! You have to change things, Rara. We have to aim for a different outcome. You can’t go on like this.”
He went to grab my shoulders, which was when I screamed and ran away. I was running as hard as I could, but his voice was following me.
“Rara! I’m not giving up! I’ll do this over and over till you make a different choice! Wait for me at the next one!”
I was dreaming. It had to be a dream, because this wasn’t what actually happened. Instead…
X
“I THINK I’M GONNA GO TO BED.”
“Sure. Sleep well.”
“When are you going to come join me, Kengo?”
“I’m stayin’ up tonight. I’ve got too much stuff to do.”
“Seriously? Trainee teachers have it tough. Sorry ’bout that.”
“It’s not just tough; I’m actually gonna die at this rate. Today sucked. The kids wanted me to play tag with them while giving them a quiz, and, of course, I was it. So I did it—even though it was super hot out—and by the time I got to the thirtieth question, I felt like I was blind, and I was shaking all over. I couldn’t even eat the school lunch ’cause my hands were trembling so bad, but then my supervising teacher got so mad at me for leaving food. Like, why?”
“Yikes. You got your Pocari Sweat?”
“Always got my flask on me. Also been told that I suck at writing on a blackboard. Apparently, that’s a skill? You ever had a teacher who you’ve been like: ‘Wow, they sure have a talent for writing on the blackboard!’? I mean, what am I s’posed to do? Art’s never been my thing.”
“Doesn’t that just mean your handwriting sucks?”
“Huh, maybe.”
“Kids in elementary school don’t read the board properly anyway. Just go with the flow, y’know?”
“Yeah, the flow. Anyway, g’night. My eyes are killin’ me…”
“Wait, your eyes hurt?”
“I think it’s eye strain? Or I’ve got those ‘floater’ things? Either way, they’re stinging, and everything’s kinda blurry. But I gotta keep working on this lesson plan.”
“Wait, you said before that you were gonna eat something. What happened to that? Go check the kitchen.”
“I already di—waah!”
“What happened?!”
“Oh man, that was close! I forgot I was cooking udon! I left the heat on, and now all the water’s gone… I’ve turned it off now, but it’s all burnt black!”
“Ew! What the heck are you doing over there?”
“I woulda burned the place down if it wasn’t for you!”
“Oh my god, really?! You gotta be more careful!”
“Wrong.”
“Huh?”
“Moving on.”
“Hold up! What did you do to your profile picture? Why’s it blue? Wait, are you—”
“Moving on.”
“Alien!”
X