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“You said that your name is Ichika-san…?”
“Uh… yeah that’s right…”
Honami seemed to have faltered a bit before cracking a small smile at the girl in front of her. “I don’t think that I’ve seen you around campus before, are you new?”
Ichika rocked on her feet as she looked away. She couldn’t bear to keep eye contact with the brunette. “Sort of? I’m just an exchange student from another department.”
Honami tilted her head. “Oh, is it just for this semester?”
Ichika bit down on her lip hard and nodded. Although the charm she deployed was able to create a believable enough story to keep the girl under the radar, it didn’t feel particularly good to lie to her friend. In fact, she felt like she could become sick by seeing Honami like this.
Especially since this was the first time they’ve seen each other in three years.
Ichika finally glanced up at her childhood friend to get a proper look at her. She surely grew up since high school. The now college student’s caramel colored hair was longer and the brunette decided to let it down in loose curls. Her red cardigan paired with a white collared shirt was similar to her style back during high school yet it also created a mature vibe around her. In her arms, she was carrying physics and astronomy textbooks. So that’s what she's studying in college. With how smart she is and how passionate she was about the stars, it was the only detail that came as no surprise to Ichika. Looking at the college student in front of her really made Ichika realize that despite the time had passed in a blink of an eye for her, three years really did go by in the world.
Honami furrowed her eyebrows worriedly and waved her hand in front of Ichika’s eyes. “Uh… Ichika-san? Are you alright?”
Ichika blinked and nearly stumbled back. It was then that she also realized that she had been staring. She immediately coughed and bowed in apology. “I-I’m sorry! It’s just that I felt like I’ve seen you somewhere before!”
A smile was still plastered on Honami’s face. “...Is that so?”
“Y-yeah!” Ichika raised her head and scratched her cheek as she looked away again. “You look like someone I’ve seen on TV? Like in a band…?”
Honami froze. The expression that was on her face almost made Ichika’s heart stop.
The girl quickly waved her hands around as if she could dismiss everything she just said. “S-sorry! That sounded weird… didn’t it?”
“No no, it wasn’t.” Honami lowered her head and gripped her textbooks. “You’re right. I used to be in a band.”
The college student looked like she was going to say more but instead, she let the dead air hang between them for a while. Ichika leaned forward a bit to find a distant look on Honami’s face. As much as Ichika felt like she shouldn’t pry anymore into this. She just can’t help but want Honami to continue. So she would know. She had to know what had happened to her friends over the past three years.
“Used to…?”
Honami tensed up and stared at Ichika with a small sad smile. “Well… one of our… members passed away too soon and we couldn’t bring ourselves to continue our band.”
The moment those words came out of her mouth, Ichika gripped the jacket she was wearing. Under the wing design on the back of the clothing was her real wings tucked inside. It’s the reason why she was able to talk to Honami face to face in this college campus walkway. The way Honami said Ichika-san with an air of unfamiliarity and lack of warmth made Ichika want to fall down on the pavement below her. To her friend, she was not the childhood friend who formed a band with her but instead, she was just an exchange student from a different college. A stranger that she just met a few minutes ago.
Actually what Ichika really was, was a modern day cupid. A cupid tasked by her senpais to pick a suitable romantic partner for her dear childhood friend. Her first mission in order to gather enough karma and enjoy a normal human life again. Where her white red hair would be back to nightshade locks.
But… should she really be the one to decide who Honami gets to love?
After being close friends for so long, Ichika was sure that she could read Honami well. But she also always found herself learning more about Honami everyday whenever she was by her side. Some details were more surprising than others.
Especially when she learned that she was the one who Honami loved back then.
~~~
The sun was starting to set between the Shibuya buildings as the Miyajo High School student made her way down the blocks to head to band practice. Ichika’s nose was practically in her notebook as she swerved around the other pedestrians on the walkway. She bit her lip as she anxiously tapped her pen against the pages.
Was there a better word to convey this? How’s the pacing? Is she being too vague with this verse? Too straightforward?
“Ichika-chan!”
Ichika felt a strong tug on her arm and she shot her head up to have her nose meet just inches away from a street pole. She stumbled backwards and was immediately pulled into a tight warm embrace. Ichika raised her head higher to find sparkling oceanic eyes meeting hers. Honami was staring down at her with a gentle smile on her face.
“Making any progress with your lyrics?” she asked. There was a hint of playfulness in her voice in the means to tease the guitarist.
“Uhm…” Ichika quickly got up and dusted herself. She could feel herself heat up in embarrassment. “Kind of…?”
Honami nodded and started to walk again, causing Ichika to run up and catch up to her. “Do you think that it would be ready for us to try out at practice today?” Honami asked.
Ichika winced at the question. “No… I don’t think so. I know that it’s been a few days but nothing I wrote seemed to have sat right with me so far…”
Honami frowned and leaned closer towards Ichika’s face, making the guitarist tense up. “You’ve been losing sleep over it, haven’t you?”
Ichika raised her hands in the air to surrender and let out a nervous chuckle. “Nothing really slips by you, Honami.”
Honami creased her eyebrows and Ichika not so subtly darted her eyes away. She had promised the drummer that she would be more careful with her sleep. But after Leo/need finally shot up in popularity, Ichika found herself forgetting about it little by little.
“W-well…” Ichika stammered as her last line of defense. Her eyes stayed on the sidewalk, watching their steps fall in sync as she fiddled with her loose dark hair. “Leo/need is starting to be exposed to a lot of people so I want to be extra careful with my lyrics…”
From the corner of her eyes, she was able to notice Honami’s muscles relaxing a bit. It’s near impossible to make the drummer mad. Really, the last time she ever saw Honami angry was when they were little where Shiho and Saki could never remember the constellations no matter how many times the little brunette recited them. A small grin crept up Ichika’s cheeks at the memory. Still, it’s no good to make Honami worry about her all the time.
Ichika looked back at Honami and gave her a reassuring smile. “I just want to be able to try to connect as many people as possible with each song we play.”
Honami blinked and stared at her for a while. Ichika watched as the brunette seemed to try to come up with possible things to say to her overworked friend. It was something that the guitarist got to see often ever since Honami decided to step up to become the leader of the band.
Finally, Honami sighed and returned Ichika’s smile with a teasing one. “Still, it would be easier for you to come up with lyrics if you just got more sleep, right?”
Ichika flinched at her words. There really is no use arguing with her leader.
Honami immediately laughed at Ichika’s reaction. She reached out to tug on Ichika’s sleeve, causing the guitarist to look up at her properly. “Still, I’m sure that you’re gonna find the perfect lyrics for our song. You’re a natural at reaching out to people, after all.”
Ichika could practically see her reflection as she looked at Honami’s confident oceanic eyes. “You… think so?”
Honami hummed and she tightened her grip on Ichika’s sleeve. She tilted her head up to look at the orange tinted light that reflected off the Shibuya buildings around them. “Of course. After all, you were able to reach out to me last year even when I thought everything was hopeless.”
Honami had a distant look in her eyes. Almost as if she wasn’t in the busy Shibuya streets with Ichika right now. It was something that the guitarist had never seen before.
“Honami…?” Ichika found herself saying. That was a little shocking to her. The drummer’s name just slipped out naturally from her mouth.
Honami tilted her head back down but kept her eyes at the streets in front of her. “You’re really persistent when it comes to other people’s feelings, you know? And…”
The brunette let go of Ichika’s sleeve and stopped in her tracks. Ichika immediately stopped as well and turned around to find Honami looking right at her.
“And I think… that’s one of the many reasons why I’ve come to love you so much…” Honami breathed.
Her voice was so soft that it almost got drowned out by the busy people around them. But as Ichika was able to catch it, the crowd soon disappeared from her vision and was left with Honami glowing in the center. The guitarist stood frozen in her steps. Honami was staring at Ichika with such a soft gaze that it almost made the girl want to topple over.
Did she hear that right? Was she just confessed to…? By Honami? Honami likes her? Since when? For how long? Why?
Someone like Honami… loves a girl like Ichika…?
Ichika felt her cheeks flare up. She opened her mouth but she couldn’t get any words to spill out. But if she could, what would she even say? For someone like Honami… a strong dependable leader, her childhood friend who she holds dearly… how is she going to respond to someone like her…?
Ichika’s eyes fell back onto the girl in front of her. Her childhood friend was just standing there patiently with a kind smile on her face. The light that danced on her blue eyes showed a bit of amusement to Ichika’s flustered state and it only made the guitarist blush harder. Honami’s gaze… it’s all on her…
She should answer her.
She should.
Ichika gripped on her sleeve that Honami held just moments earlier and looked off to the side. But before she could try to open her mouth again, her eyes caught a sight of a car barrelling down the street followed by a loud blare that pierced the girl’s ears.
The crowd appeared in Ichika’s vision again and they screamed as they scrambled away. Honami immediately whipped her head around but Ichika found that she was in the line of the car and instantly dove towards her.
“HONAMI!!!”
Ichika pushed the brunette away and was harshly met with a large sheet of metal plowing into her. She crashed onto the floor and smashed against a store wall. She clenched her teeth in pain and tried to sit up. Her head was thumping rapidly and blood dripped on her eyes, causing her world to be tinted red. She looked up to find that the car crashed onto a street pole with its hood blown off.
“Honami…?” Ichika croaked, “Where’s Honami…?”
As if on cue, she heard the voice of her childhood friend screaming her name.
“ICHIKA-CHAN!!” Honami ran up to Ichika and grabbed her face. Her thumbs were trying to wipe off the blood on her cheeks that kept dripping from her head. Her cries came out as muffled noises. Honami's eyes then fell down and they widened in horror.
Ichika tried to say that she was okay but everything that came out was a hoarse whisper. A crowd began to gather and their faces held the same expression of horror. Ichika followed their eyes to find that the missing car’s hood that had been blown off was pierced into her stomach. After seeing that sight, the adrenaline wore off and the pain spiked up to her neck. Her head started to throb harder.
Oh.
Her vision grew faint and the last thing she remembered was her head falling onto Honami’s shoulder before her world turned dark.
~~~
Before setting off to her first mission, Ichika had opened a file of Honami’s profile to find a gist of her friend’s type so she could find a romantic partner suitable for her.
But once she opened the pages of her past crushes, the only person that appeared on that section was Ichika’s picture followed by a date of when the girls were just in elementary school to the year of today. Three years after she died. The cupid had her jaw clenched tightly as she stared at the years. Her tears had threatened to ruin the files as they dropped onto the paper.
So Honami liked her since they were children. And she had only thought about and loved Ichika after all this time…?
She hadn’t been able to answer Honami’s confession back then. But even now, with all the time in the world, the cupid still wasn’t able to come up with anything to say. She wasn’t sure if she ever would be able to. Though, it’s not like she would be able to say something to Honami as Hoshino Ichika, her childhood friend and bandmate, anyway.
But that doesn’t matter anymore.
Ichika looked back up at the college student before her. The girl in question tilted her head at Ichika’s sullen demeanor. The sad atmosphere that Ichika brought in earlier still lingered in the air and it made Ichika clench her fists.
The cupid must find Honami a suitable partner today. So she can finally move on and be happy.
Without Ichika.
But…
“Honami-chan!”
The girls turned their head towards the direction of the voice and Minori came running towards them. She greeted Ichika with the same polite smile and bow as Ichika had always remembered back then and turned to Honami.
“Everybody is having an End of the Semester dinner party later tonight. You’re still coming, right?” Minori said. Her eyes sparkled, excited to meet up with their mutual friends later.
Ichika wondered who they could be. New college friends? Their old friends from high school? How many friends had Honami made since that day? Ichika quickly shook her head to dismiss her thoughts. She… shouldn’t be thinking about that anymore. The cupid jacket she was wearing started to feel heavy over her shoulders and she could feel her wings start to ache. Ichika looked up at Honami as the girl was chatting with Minori. Right now, the cupid should think about whether the people Honami talks with would be potential suitors.
“Yeah,” Honami said. She reached up and played with her brown curls. “I’ll see you later with everybody tonight, Minori-chan.”
“Okay! I’ll see you!” Minori then trotted away before stopping midway and turned around again and waved her arms dramatically. “Be sure to keep an empty stomach before then! We’re gonna eat lots!”
Honami nodded and laughed as she waved back and they watched the ecstatic girl disappear around the corner. After she was gone, Honami turned back to Ichika and the cupid flinched.
“Ichika-san.”
“Y-yes!?” Ichika squeaked. The honorific next to her name and the formal tone of Honami’s voice was still foreign to her.
The student fiddled with her textbooks as she looked off to the side. “I know we just met but…”
Ichika tilted her head at Honami’s unusual shy demeanor. Then, she saw something she thought she never would’ve seen again.
Honami let out a breath and gave her former friend a beautiful gentle smile. “Would you like to join us for dinner later tonight?”