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The water was cold, but the quiet was calming. Dragged underwater by some girl that she didn't even know who blabbered about something she couldn’t hear. Riko wanted to jump in and forget about a past, but she stopped short in fear like she did with everything else. It was with the help of some loud and obnoxious girl that she ended up drenched.
She didn’t know a name. Riko reminded herself of that after being pulled out of the ocean and offered a small towel. There was a shame to it, only having the strength to take that leap because someone else pushed her forward. Even something so simple as a leap into the ocean couldn’t have been done alone. An inescapable fear held her back, preventing her from running forward, just as it always did with anything of importance.
That girl was weird, loud, a little cute, but someone Riko would have never imagined becoming close with. Even in her short time of knowing her, Riko knew they were opposites, but that could have been what made opening up so easy.
With so little words between them, Riko smiled. A genuine smile not hindered by expectations or backed by fears. A smile accompanied by a giggle that she herself hadn’t heard in months. What was it about this girl that made her so comfortable? She wasn’t altogether sure, but it felt okay to open up. Okay to tell someone she just met about problems that had long been held back as nothing but a burden to everyone but her mother.
It didn’t come out easily, but it did come out. About the want to compose, her reason for moving, and what she was doing in the first place. Riko wondered if she was being a burden again. Pushing insecurities on some girl she met minutes ago, whose name still wasn’t something she was privy to. An ear to lean on was nice, but did she even deserve something like that? It was her own problem to sort through. That was the whole point of the move.
The ramblings about something called school idols weren’t what she expected as an answer. Talk of groups that sang and shined bright on stage added to the confusion, and a picture of nine seemingly normal girls on a small phone’s screen didn’t help anything. What did any of it mean coming from a girl who harped on her own perceived normalcy?
Her name was Chika Takami.
Riko found hope in it. This girl’s acceptance and understanding of her own flaws and what they meant. A want to change oneself that Riko was dazzled by. There was no way Chika saw it in herself, the way she talked made that evident, but that fact made the message all the more tangible and touching. For the first time in ages Riko could look at the future she walked toward with determination instead of trepidation. None of it would be an immediate change, but something about this girl with stars in her eyes and thoughts full of idols made her believe that the change could come. It would take hard work and stumbles would be made, but Chika could be someone to look toward and follow.
What did Riko see that Chika so obviously couldn’t? As she stared at that exuberant smile and glittering eyes, the sparkle behind it all was on full display. At first, Riko downplayed it as the setting sun’s light outlining Chika’s frame, but as she was drawn in further, a realization hit that it was more than that. The girl that stood before Riko wasn’t some ordinary monster destined for a life of mediocrity. No. This was a girl with the power to make amazing things happen, and capable of bringing others with her as she went forward. Already special in making Riko open up, but there was more to her, and she couldn’t look away. The sparkle to enchanting, and that smile to gorgeous.
Things would be alright. Riko found that resolve in Chika’s starry-eyed speech, but that wasn’t enough. As Chika readied herself to leave, and as goodbyes were being said, Riko felt it. The way her palms started to sweat, how her throat tightened, and how impossible it was to look her in the eye were all telltale signs. Enough romances had been read to know what it was just as it formed.
Fear was the first instinctual response. Repress it just like she did everything else and move on. Don’t act on an emotion that could so obviously lead to heartbreak and unfulfilled dreams. Playing piano had already given enough of that, she didn’t need a second source.
She couldn’t let those thoughts win. Not if her talk with Chika meant anything. Shaky confidence was found in the words of a girl she’d met at most an hour ago, and the new feeling was formed in that confidence. If Riko did want to move forward, that twisting of her heart would have to have a name. Think it into existence to make it real, and not something she could so easily run away from.
Riko was in love with Chika Takami.