Chapter Text
“Bye Rin-Chan.” The words tasted bitter as they left Hanayo’s mouth, an aching unhappiness punctuating every step, it pulsed in time with her heartbeat. Taking one last glance back, she hopped up onto the train.
Although she planned to not look back, she still did, watching Rin as the cold metal doors shut in front of her, separating them. Taking a seat, she sighed, the world outside of her window blurring and getting left behind, Rin along with it.
It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, Rin going one place, her going another. But it never usually felt that bad. She should have been happy, after all, she had a Printemps meeting with Honoka and Kotori waiting for her. Yet all she could focus on was Rin walking away, and the door shutting between them.
With a heavy sigh, she fogged up the window. For a few seconds, she stared at it, before tracing her finger to write a simple, single name. Hoshizora. It was the one thing tormenting her, and truthfully, it had been for a long while. Lately though, it had only gotten worse. Yet she couldn’t quite pinpoint why, she racked her brain for answers but kept struggling to find them. Ultimately it grew too frustrating, and with a single tear, she gave up, sitting back in her seat and waiting for the train to arrive.
As she approached the door, she could already hear Honoka, ranting about something passionately (And loudly) about something to Kotori, she smiled a little, she wasn’t sure what else she expected. Softly knocking on the door she awaited an answer, hoping they had more of an idea of what to write about than her. So far all she had was a bunch of sad, confusing thoughts about Rin.
“Hey Hanayo-Chan, come in.” Kotori said, smiling warmly as she opened the door. Once Hanayo entered, she turned and stepped into the living room, where Honoka was distraughtly and overdramatically lay on the floor.
“Oh, hi Hanayo-Chan!” she said, breaking her distressed appearance for only a second. “Anyway, Kotori-Chan. It’s not fair” she complained.
“Um, what isn’t Honoka-Chan?” Hanayo inquired, realising she had walked into quite the scene.
“Tsubasa-Chan, she’s spending so much time with A-Rise, she hasn’t spoken to me for ages!” she grumbled, sitting up.
“Um, Tsubasa-Chan? When did you get on such good terms with her?” Hanayo inquired, she’d hardly heard Honoka talking about her prior to then, and when she did she always called her Tsubasa-San.
“W-well…” she began, nervously looking at the ground. “We haven’t really gotten that close, but uh. We are talking a lot!”
“Honoka-Chan just has a crush on her.” Kotori clarified, giggling and taking a seat, gesturing for Hanayo to sit beside her.
She found the sofa rather unusual, she didn’t have one in her house, so it was rare for her to sit on one. It was a welcome and comforting change though. From her position on the carpet Honoka perked up. “Kotori-Chan!” she opened her mouth as if she was going to say more, only to back down. “I mean, it’s true, but you didn’t have to say it so blatantly!”
“A-anyway, aren’t we supposed to come up with a song?” she changed the topic in protest, looking to Hanayo. “Hanayo-Chan, you have something, right?”
“W-well, no…” she mumbled in response. “I don’t even have a concept.” she sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Maybe you should write about how you’re feeling Honoka-Chan, you seem to be passionate about it.” Kotori chirped, saving Hanayo from the pressure of attention.
“No, I’m no good with lyrics.” she sighed, “What about you Kotori-Chan, hasn’t something been bothering you lately?”
Kotori hummed in thought, taking a couple of seconds to think before clearly coming to a conclusion. “Umm, no, not really.” she blatantly lied. Both Hanayo and Honoka looked at her skeptically, she broke in an instant. “Okay, well. I’m the same as Honoka-Chan. Umi-Chan’s been spending so much time with the archery club, it’s making me jealous…”
“U-umi-Chan?” Hanayo squeaked, unlike the second years she was completely unaware of Kotori’s interest in Umi.
“Yeah, Kotori’s got a crush on her.” Honoka said, smiling. “But they never ask eachother out! I don’t get it! You two stuck to eachother like glue when you were kids!” she ranted, hints of frustration in her voice, betraying the fact that she was the biggest supporter of their relationship.
With a reddened face, Kotori concluded it was time to make everyone tea, and left the room. As Honoka and Hanayo sat together in silence, everything began to come together. Why she had been feeling the way she did on the train, why she was so focused on being apart from Rin, and what she could write a song about. Once she reached her conclusion, she let out an audible gasp.
“Hanayo-Chan? What is it?” Honoka questioned, absentmindedly waving to Kotori as she entered the room and placed tea on the table at the centre of the room.
“W-well, I think I have a song idea…” she mumbled, suddenly growing hesitant and unsure due to the attention she was receiving. “I thought of it just now, when you were talking about Umi-Chan and Kotori-Chan, when they were younger and stuff.”
“Yeah? And?” Honoka pressed excitedly, eagrely leaning forward to hear more. Kotori showed a similar level of curiousity, but didn’t express it nearly as dramatically.
“W-well, I-I just. You talking about Kotori-Chan and Umi-Chan reminded me of Rin-Chan and I. A-and then the idea of being less open with your feelings when you’re older. L-like, with Rin-Chan, when we were younger we’d be so open to eachother, but now there’s stuff I don’t tell her! A-and sometimes I wish I could go back to being like that and just tell her how I feel…” she went on and on, pouring her heart out, continuing to talk out of nervousness and a desire to express the feelings she had been struggling to comprehend for a while now.
“On the train here, I felt really sad, but I couldn’t tell why. But now I think I know. I-I love Rin-Chan, but I don’t know how to say it. I don’t think I should even say it, she’s my friend, I-I feel guilty for loving her. I can’t be her friend when I’m like this!” her speech brought her near to tears, wet droplets threatening to fall and sink into the carpet. After a few seconds of staring downward, she finally looked up, finding two fond smiles meeting her.
“That settles it, Hanayo-Chan, you’re in charge of the lyrics.” Honoka stated with certainty, grinning at her supportively.
“Wh-what? K-kotori-Chan?” Hanayo pleaded, looking to the grey haired girl in hopes of her bailing her out of the difficult task.
“I agree with Honoka-Chan.” she chirped, smiling broadly at her. “The way you spoke, it reminded me so much of how I feel…” she confessed. “That’s why you should write the lyrics.”
“I-I…” she breathed out heavily, realising she had no choice in the matter, whether she liked it or not, she was best for the job. “Okay.” she whispered softly, reaching for the tea and sipping at it slowly.
“Okay, so how about we all meet at my house next time? Hanayo-Chan, you can bring the lyrics. And Kotori-Chan, you can bring some outfit designs.” she ordered.
“What are you going to do Honoka-Chan?” Kotori asked, noticing that Honoka had left herself without any work to do.
“Ummm, provide leadership!” she began, however once she noticed the unimpressed looks the other girls were giving her, she made an attempt to sweeten the deal. “Stuff from my family’s shop!” They remained dissatisfied. “F-fine, I’ll do dance steps.” she said, finalising their plan.
With the three of them prepared for the next meeting, the mood of the room relaxed and Hanayo found some of the stress had left her. Despite the towering task looming over her, she managed to keep it out of her mind.
“So, Hanayo-Chan. About Rin-Chan…” Honoka began, a dark hint of amusement in her voice, it was clear some form of interrogation was about to begin.
“Someone help me…” she whimpered under her breath.