Chapter 1: A Morning Far Too Ordinary to Be Real
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The shrill wail of my alarm tore through the fragile peace of my room like a banshee on a vendetta, ripping me from the comforting haze of sleep. Again.
The red digits on the clock glared at me with cold finality: 6:30 AM. Monday. School.
A groan rumbled from my throat as my arm flopped over the side of the bed, more dead weight than limb, desperately swatting at the infernal device. I missed.
Defeated, I sank deeper into the pillow, clinging to the last threads of warmth and quiet, as if burying my head could somehow silence the world.. make it forget I existed. But of course, it didn't. The seconds marched on, merciless and loud.
Another day had begun, and I was already tired of it.
"Reiji… good morning. Rise and shine, or you'll be late again," came a voice so gentle, it almost made the cruelty of morning feel merciful.
The door creaked open with a sigh, followed by the soft, deliberate rhythm of footsteps.. each step lighter than the one before, as if she were afraid to disturb even the dust in the air.
Yuzuki.
I didn't need to see her to know. Her voice carried that unmistakable warmth, like the first breath of spring after a long winter.. subtle, soothing… and just sharp enough to pierce through the fog of my indifference.
Somehow, even her presence had a way of making the world feel less unbearable.
She tiptoed to my bedside, her silhouette outlined by the soft glow bleeding in from the hallway. I didn't need to open my eyes, I could feel her presence in the room, warm and quiet, like sunlight slipping through curtains.
"You'll miss breakfast," she murmured, crouching beside me. A light giggle followed, the sound barely above a whisper, as she silenced the alarm with the gentlest press of her finger.. as if even machines obeyed her kindness.
"Five more minutes," I mumbled, my voice muffled and half-buried in the pillow.
"I made your favorite."
That… made one of my eyelids twitch.
She giggled again, soft and melodic, like wind chimes stirred by a passing breeze. "I'll leave the door open, okay? It's getting late, Reiji."
And just like that, she drifted out of the room, leaving behind the hush of her departure and the lingering scent of miso soup and grilled salmon. It floated in like a memory... familiar, nostalgic, and cruelly effective.
With a groan, I peeled myself out of bed, a sleep-deprived zombie lured by the twin forces of emotional guilt and soy sauce.
Even after all this time, she still did it, every single morning. No complaints. No lectures. Just that same quiet smile that somehow made the world feel less broken.
Ever since the accident... it's been just the two of us.
The thought settled deep in my chest, a weight soaked in memory and regret. I pulled a shirt over my head, the fabric sticking slightly to skin still clinging to sleep, and stepped out of the room.. each footfall heavier than it should've been.
Yuzuki never wavered. Not once.
While I shut myself away, drowning in silence and pretending numbness was healing, she carried everything on those small shoulders—school, part-time jobs, the house, the cooking… me.
I was her burden, and she never made me feel like one.
One day, I told myself. One day, I'll return everything she's given me.
Someday, I'll be the one taking care of her.
But for now, I followed the scent of breakfast and the echo of her kindness, trying to pretend I deserved it.
-----
"Whoa… what is all this?" I froze at the threshold of the kitchen, staring at the breakfast table like it had been conjured straight out of a Michelin-star kitchen.
Miso soup, grilled salmon glazed just right, golden tamagoyaki arranged like soft little clouds, perfectly shaped rice balls, and even a delicate cup of fresh strawberries.. each one glistening as if handpicked by the gods of breakfast.
My stomach growled in betrayal, louder than my surprise.
Yuzuki untied her apron and set it aside with a small, satisfied nod. "Eat before it gets cold."
"You didn't have to go through all this," I muttered, easing into my seat and picking up the chopsticks with a strange reluctance. "If you keep making meals like this, we'll burn through our budget. Toast and instant coffee would've been fine."
"But I wanted to," she said, that smile blooming across her face.. bright, sincere, and just a little shy. "Besides, what kind of housemate-slash-cousin would I be if I didn't give you something to smile about in the morning?"
I glanced up, just in time to catch the faint blush dusting her cheeks.
Her smile… it could've lit up the whole room.
Instead, it lit up something in me I usually keep locked behind doors.. quiet, forgotten, and afraid to hope.
But she reached it anyway, like she always did. Without even trying.
Yuzuki had always been like this.
Even when the world turned its back on us, when the phone stopped ringing, when distant relatives stopped pretending to care, when the house grew so quiet it felt haunted, she held on.
To me. To us.
She never let go.
She took on shifts at the local bookstore that left her too tired to stand, stayed up late folding laundry and scrubbing floors, juggling schoolwork between stolen hours of rest.
And still.. always.. she found time to ask me if I was okay.
Even when I wasn't.
Even when I had no words left to give.
And me?
I eat. I sleep. I sulk.
I let the days pass like they owe me something. While she gives everything without ever asking for a thing in return.
Sometimes, I wonder if I'm the one haunting this house now.
I took a bite of the salmon... tender, warm, perfectly seasoned. It tasted like comfort. Like home.
"Thanks… Yuzuki," I said quietly, my voice almost lost beneath the clink of chopsticks and morning light.
She blinked, clearly surprised. Her gaze lifted to mine, and for a moment, something unspoken lingered between us.
"You're welcome," she said, softer than before.. like the words themselves were fragile, something she didn't want to scare away.
-----
We were halfway out the door, shoes on, bags slung, the sun barely cresting the rooftops... when it hit me.
"My lunch!"
Before the panic could fully settle, Yuzuki's voice rang out from behind. "Wait! Reiji, you forgot this!"
She came jogging after me, arms outstretched, a neatly wrapped bento box in her hands. The cloth was patterned with tiny plum blossoms... her favorite. She was huffing like she'd just chased down a moving train.
"You didn't have to...."
"I wanted to!" she cut in between breaths, cheeks puffed, eyes wide with a mix of exasperation and pride.
I raised a brow, smirking. "Did you make one for yourself too?"
She hesitated. Her eyes flicked downward.
"Umm…"
I narrowed my eyes. "You forgot, didn't you?"
"I- uh- i- just wait here! I'll make something quick!" she blurted, spinning around and rushing back inside like a whirlwind of misplaced priorities and good intentions.
I watched her go, the corners of my mouth tugging upward despite myself.
"You're such a mess…" I murmured, shaking my head fondly.
-----
We were barely a block from the school gates when it happened.
The wind stilled. Birds scattered. A dramatic chord might have played in the distance.
And then.
"I AM NAGISA SHIROGANE! PROUD MEMBER OF Y.A.C... THE YUZUKI APPRECIATION CLUB! I'VE COME TO RECLAIM MY BELOVED'S HEART, EVEN IF IT COSTS ME MY LIFE!!"
There he stood.. tall, windswept, and utterly deranged.. at the end of the street. His worn-out baseball uniform fluttered like a hero's cape, and one arm was raised to the heavens, as if declaring war on gravity itself.
If Cupid had a fever dream, it would look like this.
I didn't even blink. Just let out a long, well-practiced sigh.
"Again?"
Yuzuki shrank behind me like I was a human shield, clutching my arm with all the drama of a damsel in a shoujo manga.
"I'm scared…" she whispered, voice trembling in a way that absolutely did not match the grin pressed into my sleeve.
"Don't be. Just let him tire himself out."
And then.
Nagisa moved.
Correction: charged.
Like a shonen protagonist sprinting into the final battle, or a dog chasing after a car it had no plan to catch. His legs pumped like piston engines, his eyes locked onto Yuzuki like she was the last onigiri on Earth.
"MY LOVE TRANSCENDS RESTRAINING ORDERS!!"
"…He's gotten louder," I muttered.
"Reiji, do something!"
"I am doing something. I'm observing the madness."
"YUZUKIIIIIIII.... MY LOVE!!"
"REIJI, PROTECT ME!!"
Time shattered into slow motion.
Nagisa ascended... yes, ascended.. like a tragic missile fueled by delusion and adolescent hormones. His form arced through the air, arms outstretched, eyes blazing with the fire of a hundred bad romance novels.
"YUZUKI, MY HEART AND BODY ARE YOURS!!"
And then, like divine lightning aimed straight at the plot..
"Sorry!" Yuzuki blurted. "But I've already given my body and soul to Reiji!!"
Everything stopped.
Even the wind gasped.
Midair, Nagisa froze.. suspended in time, in heartbreak, in existential dread. His pupils shrank. His will crumbled.
CRASH.
He collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut, sprawling across the sidewalk with a soft, wheezing "Oof…" Limbs twitching. Hope extinguished.
"I-I… I wasn't ready for that…" he whimpered, the sound of a broken dream trying to respawn.
I stood there, dumbfounded, then slowly turned to Yuzuki.
She stood stiff as a statue, her face the color of a ripe tomato. "…I-I panicked."
I blinked. Then scratched the back of my head. "Well… you did what needed to be done."
And we both lost it.
Laughter erupted between us.. loud, messy, and completely uncontrollable. The kind that bubbles out when everything's ridiculous and right in the world.
Ahead, the school gates loomed like the next arc of our day.
"We're gonna be late," I muttered, breath still half-lost in the laughter.
Without thinking, I reached for her hand and tugged.
She stumbled, just for a second, then caught up, her fingers curling into mine.
Her cheeks were still warm.
So were mine.
And somehow… I didn't let go.
When we finally stopped at the door to our classroom, breath caught and laughter fading, we were still holding hands.
Warm. Steady. Hers in mine.
Yuzuki noticed first. I felt the faintest twitch of her fingers... like her heart had just whispered something too soft for words.
Then.
"Ohhh.. Reiji-kun! Yuzuki-chan! Too early in the morning for that kind of PDA.."
I practically jumped out of my skin.
"Hinano!?"
Like some chaotic spirit summoned by adolescent embarrassment, a tiny figure emerged from behind us with the stealth of a gossip-loving ninja.
There she was.. .Hinano Hayashi.. the terror of teasing, queen of sarcasm, armed with twin braids and a devil's smirk.
"We weren't... !" I blurted, voice cracking like glass.
"-It's not like that!" Yuzuki added quickly, her hand vanishing from mine like it had caught fire. Her face, however, was already a blazing red.
Hinano just twirled past us with the satisfaction of someone who had just launched a nuke into a romcom. "Sure, sure. Don't be late now, you two lovebirds"
She vanished into the classroom, humming some annoyingly catchy anime theme.
Yuzuki looked anywhere but at me. I scratched my neck and avoided her eyes too.
But my hand still tingled where hers had been.
And somehow… even after the teasing, the chaos, and the embarrassment.. I didn't mind the feeling.
Not at all.
-----
After the accident, it really had been just the two of us.
No calls. No visits. Just silence... thick, suffocating, and final. Our families had turned away like shutting a door on a burning house, pretending it wasn't theirs to mourn.
Yuzuki never cried in front of me. Not once. But I heard her some nights... soft, buried sobs under a pillow, like she was trying not to wake the past.
She paused school for two whole years. Worked late at a dusty bookstore with flickering lights and a radio that only played sad jazz. She cooked. She cleaned. She paid the bills while I, traumatized, useless, broken.. just tried to remember how to breathe.
And yet somehow, here we were now.
Back in school.
Same uniforms. Same hallway.
Same class.
We reached the door. I held out an arm like a bodyguard about to take a bullet.
"Let me open it first."
Yuzuki blinked up at me. "Why?"
"Because I know what's coming."
I braced myself and slid the door open.
"YUZUKI-CHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!"
A screaming meteor of male affection came flying straight at us.
But Yuzuki, having learned the ways of trauma avoidance, gracefully stepped to the side with the poise of a ballerina.
Me?
I took the hit.
Full-on.
And then, smack... warm lips planted themselves on my cheek.
I froze. Time died.
"M-Morning… Reiji," came a dreamy voice, thick with delusion and unfiltered romance.
Hayato Arisawa.
I kneed him with the fury of suppressed dignity.
"OW! WHAT THE HELL, MAN!?"
"Hayato," I hissed, wiping my face like I'd been touched by radioactive slime. "You need therapy. And a restraining order."
He rolled on the floor, dramatically clutching his ribs like I'd just broken his heart instead of his ego. "I only wanted to greet my two favorite angels with morning love!"
Yuzuki crouched beside him with a sympathetic smile. "Hayato-kun, that was very brave. Very disturbing, but brave."
"See? She gets me."
"Yeah, in a 'lock him up before he multiplies' kind of way," I muttered.
Hayato Arisawa. Ever since Yuzuki re-enrolled, he'd become a walking soap opera.. a blend of heartfelt speeches, dramatic monologues, and unnecessary physical contact. Yuzuki called him a "comedic stalker."
I called him a public nuisance with too much upper body strength.
------
After school, the bell rang, echoing through the room like a gentle reminder that the day was over. Or maybe that my brain had reached max capacity. I slumped in my chair, mind half-melted from math and melodrama.
"Reiji…" Yuzuki's voice floated in, soft as always. I turned.
She stood there clutching her bag, fidgeting slightly. "I'm sorry, but I can't walk home with you today. I have an errand."
"You sure?" I asked, trying not to sound too disappointed.
She nodded, cheeks tinged a gentle pink.
Then.
"Ready for our cooking lessons, girl?"
Hinano's mischievous voice stabbed through the door like a dagger made of gossip and chaos.
Yuzuki's blush went nuclear. "Hinano!"
Hinano leaned in, all sly smiles and weaponized teasing. "Reiji, did you know? Yuzuki here's been practicing new recipes to impress someone~"
"Hinano!" Yuzuki gasped, mortified, gripping her arm like she might physically drag her away from the crime scene.
Hinano just winked. "See ya later, Reiji..!"
The two vanished into the hallway... one skipping, one steaming.
I sat there in stunned silence. Again.
The gears in my brain creaked to life, slowly processing.
Then
WHAM.
An arm yanked me into a headlock before I even had the chance to recover from emotional whiplash.
"Lucky bastard," Hayato growled, practically breathing down my neck as he ruffled my hair like a rabid fangirl. "You live with a goddess twenty-four seven. If that were me, I'd..."
"Please stop talking," I croaked, trying not to suffocate under his delusions and his biceps.
He didn't stop.
"Just imagine it! Morning cuddles! Evening foot massages! Brushing each other's teeth... "
"I SAID STOP."
Then, like an icy wind sweeping across a battlefield, a refined voice cut through the chaos.
"Gentlemen," came the smooth baritone of Aoi Tsukishima, our class president.. stoic, stylish, and perpetually sipping canned coffee like she was judging the world from a rooftop anime scene. "A hug and a kiss, huh? Is this BL or slice-of-life?"
I flailed. "IT WAS A MISUNDERSTANDING!!"
Hayato wiped a fake tear. "But it was beautiful…"
"Shut up!"
Aoi sipped his coffee again, eyes closed. "So dramatic. I approve."
I groaned into my desk.
This was my life.
And apparently, this was just Monday.
-----
Later that afternoon, I found myself wandering the fluorescent aisles of the supermarket, bag in hand, picking up things I thought Yuzuki might need... eggs, tofu, soy sauce… toothpaste? I didn't know. I just wanted to help her. Even just a little.
But her voice from the past kept playing in my head like a stubborn lullaby.
"You don't need to worry. I'll take care of everything."
The guilt clung to me like humidity.
Sunset spilled across the sky, a bleeding canvas of blood-orange and gold. I took the long way home, weaving through narrow streets and quiet parks, letting the silence press against me like static.
Then I heard it.
A voice. Fragile. Angelic.
-----
"I'll wait until the sky turns blue,
And time brings me back to you,
Through stars and tears and every scar,
My heart will know just where you are…"
-----
The sound floated through the air like a ghost's lullaby.
I turned.
There she was.. sitting on a rusty swing in the old neighborhood park. A girl, maybe my age. Blonde hair, luminous under the dying light, flowing like silk. Her pale skin glowed unnaturally, untouched by sun or time. Barefoot. Dressed in white, so pristine that not even the dust dared cling to her hem.
She looked like she'd stepped out of a dream.
Or a memory I didn't know I had.
She didn't belong here.
I stepped forward, as if pulled by some invisible thread.
SNAP.
A branch cracked beneath my foot.
She stopped singing.
She turned, slowly.
Our eyes met.
Everything stopped.
The breeze stilled. The world exhaled.
And in that moment, I felt something deep, terrifying, and beautiful stir in the pit of my soul.
Something that had been waiting.
Watching.
Remembering.
To be continued.