Chapter 1: 1. [She]

I got off the train at the furthest possible stop. Or at the very least, the northmost point of New Japan.

With Christmas on the horizon, snow was already covering most of the ground. The breeze stung my face as I left the train. I let out a breath, a cloud following after.

I hadn’t been in the north for a long time. I used to live around here when I was younger but moved south before entering middle school. I wasn’t used to the cold as I once was.

Although I’d spent a good five, almost six, years down south, I never felt at home there. It was like only a shell of me had left. My heart and soul were still in this town.

I traveled down the desolate suburban streets as I headed to a single location. It was a place that I always visited when I came to my hometown.

“Hey, Katsuto! Long time no see!” The guy behind the arcade’s prize counter waved. His usual careless smile was plastered on his face.

“Sup, Araki.”

This right here with the blonde hair parted to the side was one of my best friends, Araki Gatou. We knew each other from our first year of elementary and spent those six years together. I remember him crying when I suddenly had to move. We didn’t see each other again until my first year in high school when I finally was able to come back.

Now we saw each other about once every year.

“What’s the occasion? Don’t you usually spend Christmas with your family?” He asked.

I crossed my arms on top of the counter as I sighed. “My parents are still in mainland Japan. They said they probably won’t be back for another month.”

“Damn, sounds tough.”

Araki turned away from me and made a cup of hot chocolate from a machine behind him. As he turned back, I noticed he had a rectangular device on his temple. It was a small machine that was getting popular nowadays, especially for businesses.

Seeing as his father ran the Arcade, I wasn’t surprised to see him wear one.

“Did your dad get you one of those?” I pointed at the machine.

He placed the cup of hot chocolate on the counter before answering, “Yeah. I wouldn’t be able to afford something like this myself. It’s pretty cool though.” He looked off to the side and squinted.

His eyes snapped open as he turned back to me, “Oh, right!” he raised his hand and swiped midair. Although I couldn’t see it, I knew he was interacting with the device’s UI. A number of Holograms that could only be seen by the user, unless they choose otherwise. “I got a surprise for you!”

He pointed behind me with a smile.

I straightened my back as I turned around.

Even before seeing their full figure, the long reddish-brown hair immediately sparked my mind. Alongside Araki, I also had another friend I met the same year. The three of us were inseparable, but me and her were even closer.

I felt a breath get caught in my throat.

“Katsu?” I heard the soft voice say.

Without a moment of hesitation, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in close. I squeezed her tight as if she would disappear if I let go.

Her arms wrapped around my back soon after, “I-Is it really you, Katsu?”

I could only nod.

Iyo Fukunaga. That was the name of the girl who I hadn’t seen in six years. The last part of the trio that was formed on that first year in elementary. My best friend.

Her body shook gently with her light sobs. I could feel tears of my own dripping down my cheeks.

“And I am once again the third wheel,” I heard Araki say, but I was too distracted with the girl in my arms to care.

After we let go, we spent some time catching up. She kept her gaze locked on me like she still couldn’t believe I was there.

“We need to exchange information RIGHT NOW!” she demanded as she pulled out her phone.

“Took the words out of my mouth,” I replied as I did the same.

We had been young when we got separated, so we didn’t have phones to exchange numbers. It wasn’t too rare for kids our age to have phones back then, but it had more to do with the fact our parents never had the money to buy us phones. Even now, the phones we had weren’t the newest models.

Except for Araki of course, but his family didn’t own the arcade back then either so there’s that.

“You better not ignore my calls.”

“I would prefer if you just messaged, but something tells me you won’t do that,” I said as I recalled her aversion to writing anything at all.

“You know me so well.” She smiled.

As she said that, I looked down at her hands. Back then, her hands would inexplicably shake a lot. That was one of the main reasons she hated writing. She’d been made fun of plenty of times because of how her hands shook and how sloppy she wrote because of it.

Oddly enough, her hands weren’t shaking now.

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She clearly noticed I was looking and lifted her hands.

“Right, you don’t know about that. I was able to get the shaking fixed.” She opened and closed her hands. “It was apparently a neurological problem. I just had a quick operation and poof, gone.”

“Really? That’s good to hear.”

I had no idea how something neurological could affect someone’s hands like that, but I doubted she wanted to explain.

“Yeah. I’m still not messaging though.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re pretty bad at spelling too.”

“Hey!” she complained.

“Can you two love birds chill it out,” Araki said as he shot each of us with a small water gun. “You keep third-wheeling me and I’m going to kick you out from here. I’m not supposed to have customers back here anyway.”

“Aw, are you jealous?” Iyo asked in a weird voice.

“Jealous? Me? Never!” He dramatically slammed his fist to his chest.

“Don’t worry,” she stood from the chair and ruffled his hair, “I love both of you equally.” She turned to me and loudly whispered, “You’re my favorite.”

“Right, right, whatever,” Araki pulled his head away.

The three of us hung out for a little longer. With Araki having to tend the arcade, and Iyo having to go back home, we eventually all said goodbye and parted ways.

Iyo was staying with her dad for a while, which happened to be the same house she used to live in, so I decided to walk with her back home. The place I was staying at, my aunt’s house, wasn’t too far away from there anyway.

We talked as we walked until eventually, we got back to the topic of why she left.

“They divorced?” I let out in shock.

I would’ve never expected Iyo’s parents to have gotten divorced. The two of them were like the happiest couple out there. Whenever I came over to visit, her parents felt like the nicest people on the planet. What could’ve happened?

But apparently, she never got the full story either. All she knew was that there was some discourse between them, which wasn’t the most helpful information.

“I’ve been living with my mom for the past few years. I still don’t know why she didn’t want me to visit.”

“So did you come here without her knowing?”

“Of course not,” she shook her head, “She gave me permission to come.”

“Hm.”

Her situation was an odd one, but I couldn’t very well dig deeper than she could, and even then, she still didn’t know much either.

Finally, we reached her house.

It was still the same as it had been all those years ago. The front yard behind the black gate sent a wave of nostalgia rushing through my mind. All those days and nights the three of us spent playing were precious memories that I cherished even now.

We passed through the gate and eventually walked inside.

I couldn’t explain why, but I could feel my heart racing with every step I took.

“Oh, you’re back,” I heard her dad say as he walked out of his room. His eyes opened wide as he made eye contact with me, “Katsuto?”

“The one and only,” I joked around.

Her dad and I had been on good terms the last time I talked to him, so I didn’t feel the need to act nervous or formal around him. Obviously, it was the right choice as he cheerily walked up to me.

“I missed you so much my boy!” he gave me a tight hug then let go. “How’ve you been?”

Her dad and I chatted a bit before Iyo interrupted us. “Come up in my room once you’re done gossiping with my dad.”

“We’re not gossiping, we’re having a very manly meeting.” Her dad argued.

The three of us laughed as Iyo made her way upstairs.

Then that’s when it happened—

Once she was out of view, and we heard her door shut, her dad’s laugh became silent. He turned to me, grabbed me by the shoulders, and looked me dead in the eye.

He whispered, “For your own good, I beg of you to leave this town.”

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