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The astronomy club room was a sacred spot.
At first, it had only been a short visit or two.
An abandoned room on the third floor with an old wooden door and dusty windows overlooking the courtyard. Students never came there anymore.
the lights had long since broken, and the projector only sometimes worked when kicked exactly three times on the right side.
Or so Hanako said. Nene on the other hand, was pretty sure that thing was a goner.
It all started on the way to the bathroom for Nene’s usual cleaning chores. She had been involved with supernaturals for quite some time by this point, so she had her usual routine that consisted of waking up, going to school, cleaning bathrooms, and changing school rumors.
It normally went that way. She never minded it, really. After all, meeting Hanako was something she would never regret!
Despite the difficulties of this new life, many good things have come from it! She had met two of her best friends, after all! (one of them being her secret probably-unrequited crush.)
However, that day was different.
Nene decided to take a different route to the girls bathroom for her chores that day.
She had seen her fair share of the abandoned part of Kamome Academy due to her daily tasks with Hanako, but she suddenly stopped before passing a strange-looking room.
She looked at the lettering on a poster on the wall next to the entrance reading, ‘Astronomy Club.’
“That’s strange,” she thought out loud, “I didn’t know we had an Astronomy Club.”
The door was certainly not in the best shape, but it was rather cutely decorated in half-peeled off planet stickers.
Her mind immediately went to Hanako.
Yashiro Nene knew very little about the pervy apparition. She tried to understand him, but he was stubborn and kept to himself no matter what.
He often changed any subject that was too dangerously personal to him with a dirty joke, usually resulting in Nene head-butting him.
What she did know however consisted of the following:
-His real name is Yugi Amane. (Tsuchigomori said ‘Amane’ is written with the first character of the word ‘normal.’ Ironic, right?)
-He loves plain donuts. (Extra points if homemade)
-He has a twin brother. (he’s a total nightmare!!)
-His favorite color is red. (It took thirty minutes to get him to say it aloud)
Out of all of these, Nene also noted his prominent love for astronomy. He was even supposed to be a teacher of this subject.
Supposed to…
Nene shivered at the thought.
Anyways, she continued walking to the girl’s bathroom for her duty, and decided to sate her curiosity by asking Hanako about it later.
Surely he would know…?
And oh boy, know he did.
After bringing it up to Hanako, he made a point to show her the room in all its glory.
It was… well?
Something.
You could very obviously tell it was in the abandoned part of the school. Hanako’s smile faltered a little when telling Nene to ignore the mess.
Seeing it in this condition made Nene’s heart sink. Maybe, just maybe, she could tidy it up a little?
Back to the present day, Nene (with some help from Hanako) made the Astronomy club feel a little more like itself, as well as a little hangout spot!
The pair (and sometimes Kou as well) had enjoyed their time in the club room when Nene finished her duty.
He even let her finish early sometimes.
To Nene, it was a win-win!
“Yashiro,” he announced dramatically one evening, lounging upside down from the ceiling, “welcome to the magnificent headquarters of the Seven Mysteries’ newest branch!”
Nene Yashiro blinked at him. “This is literally a storage closet with star stickers.”
“They glow in the dark.” He grinned.
“Hanako-kun, they’re falling off.” Nene said sympathetically.
“Adds personality.”
The closet smelled like old paper and cold night air. Stacked boxes lined the walls, filled with forgotten astronomy club journals and faded star maps.
A cracked model of the solar system hung crookedly in one corner, forever trapping Pluto in orbit despite humanity’s best efforts.
Nene has seen the club’s storage closet a few times, but after spotting a family of cockroaches during one of the first times she was there, she made a point to not go unless she absolutely needed to.
Hanako insisted on checking out the gadgets today, so naturally, Nene put her fear and disgust aside to look around better.
Hanako grinned, turning right-side-up again. He pointed to a couple boxes, and the pair headed over towards them.
Outside, she could hear the rain tapped softly against the windows. The room glowed gold beneath a single desk lamp while the rest remained washed in velvet darkness. Outside, thunder rumbled somewhere distant.
Hanako floated beside the Projector, fiddling and kicking it as an attempt to revive it.
“It’s dead,” Nene informed him.
“Rude. I’m standing right here,” he snickered.
“The projector, Hanako-kun!” She huffed.
He paused, looking back down at his foot on the projector.
“Well, that too.” He grinned.
Nene snorted before she could stop herself, while Hanako looked delighted by this achievement.
Nene dropped her school bag onto an old couch they found to decorate the room, before flopping onto it herself. “I’m exhausted.” She mumbled incoherently, as her face was buried into the leather bag.
“Mm?”
“The gardening club president made me repot thirty flowers.” She sat up slightly.
“Your tragic suffering moves me deeply.”
“She also said my watering technique lacks ‘spiritual understanding.’” She flailed her arms in the air. “What does that even mean?!”
Hanako gasped. “How cruel.”
“Hanako-kun, she made me apologize to a fern.”
“You should apologize to plants more often.”
“Ghosts don’t get opinions on horticulture!” She sat up and crossed her arms.
Hanako drifted closer until his face hovered inches from hers.
“Oh, Yashiro,” he whispered solemnly. “You know~”
She stared at him.
“the plants talk to me~”
“Oh, shut up!” She said, pushing his face away.
He burst into laughter, collapsing sideways onto the couch. The old cushions dipped strangely beneath his half-weightless body.
Nene huffed, and looked away, trying very hard not to smile. It would feed his ego too much!
Rain continued to patter softly against the windows.
Then Hanako’s voice came quieter and less suggestive than before.
“Hey.”
She glanced back. He was looking upward towards the ceiling.
She glanced up to see the faded glow-in-the-dark constellations stuck there decades ago.
“Do you know any stars?” he asked.
Nene blinked.
“That’s random.”
“Humor me.”
“I—.. don’t know much..”She followed his gaze. Most of the stickers had faded beyond recognition, but a few still glimmered faintly in the dark.
“There’s…” She squinted. “Uh. The Big Dipper?”
“Basic.”
“Oh, excuse me, your ghostliness.” She faked a bow with her hands.
“Hm?”
“I wasn’t aware I was speaking to the president of space.”
“I’d prefer a monarchy, actually.”
She rolled her eyes, and he pointed up at the ceiling with a laugh.
“That one’s Orion.”
“The hunter?” She recalled, almost surprised with herself.
Sometimes during their quiet moments, she would successfully get Hanako to ramble about the stars.
It didn’t happen often, as he would usually catch himself and turn away from embarrassment. When he did ramble though, she would listen carefully.
Even if she didn’t understand most of what he was saying, she felt fulfilled being next to him.
Like, she wouldn’t rather be anywhere else other than next to him almost under a trance as he talks about constellations.
“Ah! So you do know some things?”
She felt a pang in her chest seeing him suddenly excited.
“I guess just a little…” she said sheepishly. “I think you said something about that a while ago.”
There was a pause. Nene turned her head to look at Hanako, and he was staring at her.
He had a shimmer in his eyes, but his expression was hard to read. Before she could question further, he quickly turned his head away.
“I— um… suppose I did.”
She blinked before asking softly, “You really like stars, huh?”
Another pause.
“Yeah..” he replied. “I guess you could say they’re proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That light survives.”
The answer settled strangely inside her chest.
Outside, thunder rolled again.
“Some of those stars died ages ago,” he murmured. “But their light still reaches us anyway.”
She stared at him.
He looked like he wanted to explain more, but ultimately decided against it.
Nene watched him quietly. Ghosts rarely talked about death directly.
Hanako least of all.
He joked around it, danced around it, wrapped chains and smiled around every ugly thing until it looked harmless.
But sometimes—
sometimes—
she caught glimpses beneath it all.
Something lonely.
Something unbearably sad.
She can’t help but think back to when the trio visited Tsuchigomori’s boundary for the first time when she destroyed his Yorishiro.
The flashback to a hopeless boy.
Someone who looked mentally crushed drowning in hopelessness.
The boy who changed his fate because of a sole decision.
Hanako suddenly turned toward her with a grin sharp enough to break the moment.
“Anyway! No need to look so serious, Yashiro~” he floated over to her and poked her cheek.
Nene threw a pillow at his face. “Monster.”
“You wound me, Yashiro!” He placed a hand on his chest, and looked at her like a sad puppy.
“You deserve it.” She smiles playfully.
“Nuh-uh Yashiro! Violence against school mysteries is illegal.”
“What law??”
“…I’ll draft one later.”
Nene giggled quietly.
Suddenly, lightning flashed outside, and the room plunged into darkness.
Silence.
Rain.
Darkness.
“…Hanako-kun?”
Another flash of lightning illuminated the room in silver before the darkness returned.
Nene groaned. “Great.”
Hanako floated upward slightly.
“Wait here.”
“Wha— Where are you going?”
“Mischief.”
“Hanako-kun! That’s not reassuring!”
Too late.
He disappeared through the wall, and Nene sat alone in the dark astronomy room listening to rain drum against the windows.
The silence felt bigger, and certainly scarier without him in it. Which was ridiculous!
Hanako was annoying.
Infuriating.
A menace to society!
All of that, and yet somehow the room felt emptier whenever he left.
Nene curled deeper into the couch cushions.
Outside, the storm intensified.
Then—
The ceiling exploded with stars.
Nene gasped.
Tiny glowing lights shimmered across the room like spilled galaxies. Constellations stretched over the walls and ceiling in pale gold and silver.
The broken projector whirred weakly from the corner.
Hanako reappeared beside it looking unbearably smug.
“Tada~!”
“How did you—”
“Trade secret.”
“I thought that thing hasn’t worked in years!”
“I told you! If ya sock it right a couple times, it’ll work!”
Nene stared upward in awe.
The stars moved slowly across the ceiling, drifting in delicate spirals.
It wasn’t perfect. Some projections flickered unevenly, and several stars were clearly misplaced, but it was beautiful.
Soft light painted Hanako’s face in a faint glow as he looked at the projected constellations.
Nene lay back fully on the couch.
The ceiling became an endless sky above them.
“…Wow,” she whispered.
Hanako smiled faintly. “Pretty, right?”
“Mhm.”
Another pause settled between them.
Something warm.
Rain continued outside while constellations drifted lazily overhead. Then Hanako pointed upward.
“There.”
Nene followed his finger.
“What am I looking at?”
“Lyra.”
“…Which one is Lyra?”
“The little harp shape.” He grinned.
She squinted her eyes. “That looks nothing like a harp.”
“You just lack imagination.”
“You lack honesty.”
“Ouch!” He laughed.
Nene rolled her eyes with a smile. Hanako floated lower until he hovered beside the couch, his sleeve brushing hers.
“See that bright one?” he asked softly.
“The blueish one?”
“It’s Vega.”
She slowly took in the information he provided as stars drifted slowly overhead.
“Vega is the brightest star in the small northern constellation—which is the harp one.” He clarified.
“It’s also the fifth brightest star in the night sky! Vega is only about a tenth of the age of the Sun, but since it is 2.1 times as massive, its expected lifetime is also one tenth of that of the Sun!” He smiled before continuing, “Vega is also a variable star. That’s a star whose brightness fluctuates! It is rotating rapidly with a speed of 236 km/s at the equator. This causes the equator to bulge outward due to centrifugal effects, and—“
As he went on, Nene couldn’t help but smile. The glimmer in his eyes was shining so bright, her heart immediately warmed seeing him so genuinely excited.
Hanako suddenly pointed again, snapping her from her thoughts.
“Oh! There’s one you’d like.”
“Huh? Which one?”
“That cluster there.” He pointed at the ceiling.
Her eyes followed his hand. “The tiny sparkly one over there?”
“Mhm.”
“What about it?”
“It’s called Pleiades. It’s associated with devotion, spiritual guardianship, and unwavering love.” He smirked.
“Oh, that’s right! I forgot that stars have different meanings!”
“Mhm. It’s associated with mythology and astrology, after all.”
“Huh. so I guess you are a romantic after all! I would’ve never guessed.” She teased.
“I’ve always been an expert, Yashiro!” He lied.
Considering his performance on Nene’s original wish, she begged to differ.
He continued, “You wound me.”
“You’ll live.” She rolled her eyes.
“Debatable.”
“…Right. Um… S-Sorry.”
The joke slipped out before she could stop it.
Silence followed immediately, and Nene’s stomach dropped.
Idiot. How could she be so insensitive!
Idiot idiot idiot—
But Hanako only looked upward before chuckling.
“It’s okay.”
Rain softened outside, while the room glowed dimly with moving stars.
Hanako’s voice had gone soft again. Not teasing, but instead quiet.
Nene glanced at him carefully. The starlight drifting across the room caught against his cheeks and the edge of his smile.
He looked almost human like this.
Not the Seventh Mystery.
Not some terrifying supernatural whispered about in school rumors.
Just Amane.
Yugi Amane.
A boy sitting beneath fake stars during a rainstorm.
And somehow that felt far more dangerous to her heart. Nene curled her fingers tighter in her lap.
The projector flickered. A few stars blinked out before sputtering back to life.
Hanako sighed dramatically. “Ugh. Betrayed by technology once again.”
“Didn’t you literally say you kicked it?”
“Love requires violence sometimes.”
“Yikes… save that for the judge.” She mentally winced.
He laughed before reaching toward the old control panel again. The projector suddenly shifted, and the stars disappeared.
Then—
A new constellation, she supposed, lit the ceiling.
It was messy, crooked, and clearly handmade.
Nene squinted.
“…What is that supposed to be?”
Hanako looked unbearably proud of himself. “It’s you.”
“…Excuse me?”
“That one’s your radish ankles.” He pointed to the stars that made a circular blob.
“What part of that is an ankle?!” She looked almost horrified.
“And there’s your hair—”
“That looks like a dead squid!”
“You noticed! I worked very hard on the squid hair.” He winked while grabbing a piece of her hair, and twirled it.
Nene lunged for him with a pillow, while Hanako dodged by simply floating out of her reach.
“You’re horrible!”
“Yashiro, wait— violence is illegal—”
“You made me a root vegetable and a dead sea animal!” She said, restoring to throwing the pillow in the air.
The pillow smacked his shoulder, and Hanako laughed so hard he nearly phased through the floor. And just like that, the heavy feeling from earlier completely disappeared.
Warmth filled the room instead.
Nene eventually collapsed back onto the couch, breathless from laughing. Hanako floated and sat beside her again, quieter now.
The storm outside had softened to a drizzle.
Hanako just stared at her.
The teasing smile faded from his face little by little until something unbearably tender remained in its place.
Nene’s breath caught.
The stars reflected in his golden eyes.
Or maybe—
Maybe she was reflected there too.
She didn’t know what made her do it.
Maybe she was too tired from practically wrestling with Hanako.
Maybe she didn’t get enough sleep last night, and was therefore delirious.
Either way, with a yawn, something brought Nene to slowly rest her head against his shoulder.
Carefully.
Tentatively.
As if giving him the chance to pull away.
But Hanako only froze for half a second before relaxing completely beside her, even shyly putting an arm around her.
“…Cold,” she mumbled, with a smile.
“You say that like it’s new information.”
“Hey, I’m being brave for facing hypothermia.”
“How admirable.”
She smiled sleepily. Despite him being very dead and very cold, truthfully to her, he somehow felt like the warmest thing while in his arms.
Above them, constellations—Including the one that was supposedly Nene—drifted endlessly across the ceiling.
Old stars.
Dead stars.
Living stars.
Light surviving across impossible distances just to reach someone.
Hanako glanced down at the girl leaning against him.
Then very, very carefully—
like he was handling something precious—he rested his cheek against the top of her head.
The projector hummed softly, as the lightest rain whispered against the windows.
In the little astronomy club room forgotten by the rest of the school, the universe felt small enough to hold gently between the two of them.