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“I…I did it!” Minori cries out, gripping a sheet of stationery tightly, as though it would fly away if she let go, “I finally finished it!”
After weeks of painstaking work, writing and editing and rewriting and buying a new set of stationery after the first one ran out, she's finally done it. In her hands, written on thick blue paper with a delicate lacy pattern on the edges, the perfect love letter for Haruka!
…Well, maybe not perfect . Minori furrows her brow as she scans the letter’s second paragraph. Is comparing her eyes to the ocean too obvious? Or is it so obvious that it would be weird not to? Deep in thought, she taps her pen on the side of the desk in a steady rhythm.
“L-O-V-E Haruka!” her mind supplies a chant to go alongside the beat. The musing sends her thought process to a crashing halt as she groans in frustration, slamming her head down on her desk with a bit too much intensity.
“Argh! Okay, it’s done! It has to be done!” Minori springs up, hastily shoving the letter into an envelope and scribbling Haruka’s name on it, “It has to be done now, because if I have to look at it for even one more second, I’ll never be able to give it to her!”
She slows, making sure to place the envelope in her bag so she doesn’t forget it, a bit flustered by her own nervousness about all this. She has to have written dozens of fan letters for Haruka at this point, but none of them had evoked the restless desperation in her that this love letter did. Her room’s waste basket filled to the brim with crumpled up paper seems to taunt her, a monument to her own lack of confidence.
But…this really is different, isn’t it? Fan letters are one thing, but the letter tucked away in her bag is a representation of her true feelings. However wrapped in flowery prose or overly dramatic sentiment they may be, they’re something real, something that’s been built between them during all their time spent together. From that day on the rooftop…
Minori glances at the clock, hurling her pen across the room as she jumps up. “Oh no! Is it that late already?! If I don’t leave now, I won’t be able to deliver this on time!”
She hurriedly pulls on her shoes and retrieves her bike, but is interrupted by a big furry head nuzzling up against her.
“Ack- Samo-chan? I’m so sorry! I can’t take you on a wa- er, not right now, ok!” she says, attempting to usher her excited dog back inside the house, “I promise, as soon as I come back! I need to get going!”
Minori attempts to put Samo-chan’s forlorn expression out of her mind as she rides off towards the setting sun. She picks up speed, riding along sidewalks and over hills, trying to make up for lost time. She’s glad she had the foresight to put the letter in her bag so she doesn’t have to worry about it flying away.
…Her bag… which she left at home.
Minori’s anguished cries ring through the city streets.
-
Bag retrieved, placed in the basket of her bike, and Samo-chan reassured yet again, Minori sets off for her destination with renewed determination. She may have started off on the wrong foot, but now, with her blood pumping and the wind blowing in her hair, there’s absolutely nothing that can stop her!
She takes the next turn too sharply, and is sent careening into a nearby bush.
Her skinned knee, she guesses, will heal soon enough, but her bruised pride might take a little longer.
-
Finally, Minori arrives at her destination, panting from exhaustion. Although she feels like doing nothing more than passing out in the grass and becoming one with the Earth, she dismounts from her bike and approaches Haruka’s front door. Letter hidden behind her back, she rings the doorbell.
The few seconds of waiting are agonizing. She attempts to steady her breathing, scrunching her eyes shut as she hears the shuffling of feet behind the door.
“H-Haruka! I have something to give you!” Minori says a little too loudly as the door opens. However, when she opens her eyes, she’s met with the face of an older woman.
“Oh…Hanasato, right?” Haruka’s mother says, wearing a startled expression, “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid Haruka isn’t home right now. Her club activities ran late, and…”
“Whaaaaaaaaat?!” Minori cries out. She feels the exhaustion catch up with her all at once, creeping into every muscle in her body. She is unable to keep herself from going limp, falling to her knees on the Kiritani family’s porch.
“Um…it’s alright!” Haruka’s mom says, now looking completely bewildered, “You, er- that is, you’re welcome to come inside and wait for her, if you’d like.”
“No…that’s okay,” she rasps out, somehow managing to pry her listless body off the ground, “I…I’ll give it to her later. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
She trudges towards her bike, away from the concerned glances of Haruka’s mother at her back.
-
Minori takes her walk back home slowly, dragging her bike by her side.
“Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be…” she sighs, glancing at the love letter, still unable to stomach looking at it for more than a second.
Her phone suddenly buzzes in her pocket, nearly starling her into dropping the letter. She sees a notification from Haruka pop up and scrambles to open up her messaging app.
“Minori, my mother called me to say that you stopped by my house. She said that you came to deliver something?” Haruka’s first text reads.
“If you want to see me, why don’t we meet in SEKAI?”
“SEKAI! Of course! Why didn’t I think of that to begin with?” she exclaims, running her hands down her face.
“Ah, it doesn’t matter! I have to hurry!”
“ YES ” is the only thing Minori types in response, already opening up her library to look for the song to transport her to SEKAI. She presses play and watches the world around her fade while clutching the letter tightly to her chest.
-
The moment she arrives in the Stage SEKAI, Minori begins looking around wildly, now with her energy completely renewed. The same moment that she spots Haruka sitting on the edge of the stage looking out over a sea of blue glowsticks, Luka approaches her.
“Hi, Minori! I didn’t expect to see you here this late,” Luka says. “Have you come to see Haru-”
“I’m so sorry Luka, I can’t talk right now!” Minori yelps, already darting past her.
She feels a little bit bad brushing Luka off like that, but just being in the same place as Haruka has already brought her anxiety from earlier back in full force. The sooner she can deliver the letter to her, the better.
“Oh, don’t worry about me! Good luck, Minori!” Luka calls out with a wink that goes completely unnoticed.
She scrambles up the railing leading to the stage, coming to a stop when she reaches Haruka’s side. She doesn’t seem to have completely registered Minori’s presence, still mesmerized by the soft blue glow rising up from the audience.
“It’s strange. No matter how many times I see it, it always feels like the first time,” Haruka murmurs, gazing out with a gentle fondness in her eyes.
Minori takes the momentary distraction as an opportunity to calm herself down, taking a deep breath.
…What was she even so worried about? This is Haruka she’s talking about! No longer that far-off, distant dream, separated by an ocean of lights. She isn’t confessing to that idol Minori had admired from the crowd, but her best friend, a real person sitting right next to her.
And really, how is this any different from the many other times she’d professed her undying affection for Haruka?
“Oh, Minori, I’m sorry for getting so distracted!” Haruka says, lifting her gaze to Minori. “You wanted to talk about something, right?”
Her breath catches in her throat. No, this is-!
The lights of the glowsticks shift to a mixture of pinks and oranges, painting the stage in the colors of a sunset.
This is way different from all those other times!
Because, even though she’s turned towards Minori, that gentle fondness hasn’t left Haruka’s eyes.
And how is she supposed to do this if Haruka is looking at her in the same way she looks at that ocean of glowsticks, the sight she loves the most out of anything in the world?
Every shred of confidence leaves Minori’s body as she unceremoniously shoves the letter into Haruka’s arms.
“T-this is for you! From me! Ihavetogonow BYE!” No sooner do the words leave her mouth does she bolt off the stage, already pulling up the song to leave SEKAI.
“Minori…?”
-
Luka, really, truly, doesn’t intend to pry, but if she just so happens to catch whatever it was that Minori had wanted to say to Haruka, well, certainly no one would need to know.
Tucked away in a corner, she attempts to approach the stage covertly, but stops when she sees Haruka staring blankly at an envelope in her hands. Abandoning all attempts at subtlety, she walks up onto the stage. “What is it you have there, Haruka? Anything interesting?”
“It’s…” she lifts her head to glance at Luka with a somewhat bemused look. She angles the envelope towards her, tapping the center.
“It says ‘To Haruta.’”
Luka, really, truly , doesn’t intend to laugh, but…
“Poor Minori.”