Chapter Text
1. She's the girl that no one ever knows
September, 2016.
“That should be the last of it.” Nozomi’s mother puts down the cardboard box beside the other unpacked boxes in the living room, which isn’t quite “living” at the moment. It is an empty space, with exception of a couch, coffee table, dining table, and a television.
Nozomi stares at her mother, who is now checking her watch with a hasty expression on her face. She isn’t going to help her unpack.
“Hai, Non-chan, your dad’s waiting for me in the car downstairs. We have to catch our flight soon.” Nozomi’s mother returns her glance to her to speak.
Nozomi sucks in her bottom lip nervously as she knows that this is her mother’s cue to go. Again. Upon seeing her daughter looking so dejected, Nozomi’s mother proceeds to hug her.
“I know this is hard, but this will be the last time you’re moving. Once we are done with work, we will come back and stay with you.” She says while still in their embrace. Nozomi sighs as she reciprocates the hug. This will never happen… She thinks. She will always be alone.
“Have a safe flight mama.” Nozomi says softly. Her mother hugs her one more time before leaving the new apartment, and leaving Nozomi alone, again.
Nozomi sinks into the couch as she looks at the newly furnished 2-room apartment. She scans the dining table, with a slight look of disfavour in her face. What’s the point of a dining table with two chairs when no one is going to be here anyway?
Nozomi is 16, and for almost half of her life she has grown used to living on her own. She has grown used to being the new girl who has to introduce herself to her class, only to realise that a year later she would transfer school again. She has grown used to the silence, and the loneliness. She shifts her glance to the unpacked cupboard boxes by the side of the room. What’s the point of unpacking them anyway? It will only be a matter of time before she moves away again.
With another sigh, Nozomi pulls the straps of her bag on the couch to bring it closer to her. She unzips it and carefully takes out her deck of tarot cards. I wonder why I still bother to do my readings… The results are the same anyway… In spite of that, she asks to herself, “is this really my going to be my last time shifting houses?” She continues to shuffle her cards and cuts the deck into two, taking out the first card from the left deck. The card reveals to be “The Sun.”
This is weird…. Nozomi thinks. This is an unusually optimistic card. Things are going to go well for her, there could be a chance to fall in love, and she’s going to feel free and much happier. This is a mistake, it cannot be. This card is too good to be true. Nozomi puts it down and goes on to the next deck, taking out the card on the top.
The 9 of cups.
Another positive card. More so in the fact that it’s positive in the way that it steers towards her feelings about other people, and how it’s okay that she approaches them. Nozomi can’t possibly do that. She will probably know someone, and eventually drift apart from them when she moves away again. What’s wrong with her cards? She wonders. Did she not shuffle them properly? She draws the last card and much to her surprise, it is the “Lovers” card. Before even analysing it, she quickly puts the card back to the deck and stacks them up, placing them into her bag. She probably need to get a new deck of tarot cards.
After a quick shower, Nozomi settles into the bed in her bedroom. The room is dark, and the only source of light is coming from her phone that she is using. She reads a text from her mother 6 minutes ago.
- We have reached America, Non-Chan. Have fun in school tomorrow!
Nozomi sighs as she locks her phone and puts it by her bedside. What is with the sudden cheery motivation around her for? Maybe things are really looking up this time? No, no. She shakes her head. Can’t give myself too much false hopes. With that, Nozomi welcomes a restful slumber, unknowing as to what tomorrow may bring for her.
It's possible when this card appears that you are feeling ambivalent about a relationship or situation in your life. It could be that your heart is telling you one thing, and your head, another. In general, the thing to do is (within the bounds of your morality) to follow your heart. Some people say there are only two modes that any of us are operating under at any time; and that's "fear" or "love." When you can: choose love.
Nozomi stares back at her reflection in the mirror as she tightens the red bow on her uniform. She decides to put on the school’s blue blazer as well, since it’s close to fall and it will get pretty chilly. She runs her fingers through her long purple hair which stops at her bum and decides to put them into two twin tails, securing them with pink scrunchies. She opts for a pair of black thigh highs to complete her look. She takes a deep breath before hoisting her bag over her shoulder and walking out of her apartment.
First day of school it is again… She will be starting her second year into the second term at Otonokizaka High School, an all-girls school between Akihabara and Kanda. The school is a 15 minutes walk from her apartment, and since she is still early, she stops at the Kanda Shrine that she has researched about before moving here. Nozomi has always been a rather spiritual person, so coming her eases her mind a little. She inhales the subtle scent of incense combined with the fresh morning air, and clasps her hands together, praying that today will go by fast. With that, she bows and makes her way to the school.
As soon as she reaches the entrance of Otokizaka High school, Nozomi is enthralled by the sight of the purple trees lining the path to the main gate of the school. This school seems pleasant, she thinks. There are other girls making their way into the school, and she checks her timetable to get to her class.
Nozomi heaves a sigh of relief as she walks in to an almost empty class. The first class is an English class. She won’t have a problem with that as she has rather abundant knowledge on that language from one of her stays in America when she was 13. There are only five girls, two of whom are deeply engrossed in a conversation at the far side of the classroom, while another three are immersing themselves in a video on one of the girl’s phone. She didn’t have to make any interactions and she smiles to herself as she finds a seat beside the two girls in the middle of the classroom. It is a good thing she’s about 15 minutes early. She takes out a book, pretending to read it while waiting for the rest of the class to fill up, and possibly, ignore her existence.
After a while, few more girls enter the classroom, some of which stare at the new purple haired classmate in their class. Nozomi then buries her head deeper into her book as she feels a tinge of uneasiness gnaw on her. It is not only until she notices a beautiful tall, slim girl with bright blonde hair tied into a high ponytail enter the classroom. She has strands of hair pulled out at the sides of her face, and this is when Nozomi finally puts her book down. Is she fully Japanese….?
Eli Ayase sees the new girl sitting in front of her seat in class. She walks over slowly, clutching her textbooks in her hand to her seat. As she passes by the girl’s seat, she observes that the girl is looking at Eli too from the side of her eyes. The girl has droopy doll eyes that are in the shade of a beautiful turqouise….. Kawaii…
At this moment, Eli realises that she herself is staring too and quickly averts her glance as she settles down in her seat.
Nozomi catches the blonde-haired girl looking at her just now. She blushes a little. Usually she will take those stares as people’s curiosity on the new girl in class, but this time she has no idea why her face is starting to heat up when she sees the girl looking at her too. The girl has a certain cool air of authority which Nozomi thinks is very apprehensive, but at the same time, kind of attractive.
Eli arranges her textbooks neatly on the table, and pulls out a letter from her file. It is a letter she has received from her grandmother this morning from Russia. She has written to ask how Eli is doing, and whether Otonokizaka High School, her alma-matter is receiving enough applicants for the first years next year. As Student Council President, she is to be responsible for this and unfortunately, the number of applicants are scarce.
The sensei starts to walk in and as soon as she catches sight of Nozomi, she signals for her to stand up to introduce herself. Nozomi stands up shyly, and all eyes dart towards her. A sight she is extremely used to.
Eli is unaware of her surroundings, as she continues to read the letter and think of ways to tell her grandmother nicely that the situation is dire in the school and the lack of applicants might actually trigger the school’s closure. She knows how much the school means to her grandmother because she was a highly respected student as well as a student council president back then. She doesn’t want to repeatedly disappoint her oba-sama every now and then.
“…. And I’m excited to work with you! Please guide me through!”
A Kansai dialect…? Eli’s eyes shoot up to see the back view of the new girl who is now bowing her head before taking her seat. She missed her name. But she does know that she has distinct speaking accent.
“Please memorise your singular and plural tense, I will ask each of you about it in half an hour.” The bespectacled sensei announces.
Shit, Nozomi missed out the English textbook when she bought her other textbooks before school started.
Eli notices that the new girl doesn’t have the textbook required for class. She doesn’t really like to communicate with people, she’s more of a closed-off person and it’s a little ironic since she’s the student council president. But at the same time, it’s also her role as council president to make sure that everyone keeps up in their classes. Hence, she holds up her finger and leans in to her table to tap on the girl’s back. The girl turns back, her purple twin-tailed ponytail whipping around her as she did so. Eli can’t help but notice how adorably framed her face is, just like a doll.
“Do you want to share my textbook?” Eli asks, her other hand on the table pointing to the textbook on her table.
Blue….. Those eyes were so blue. Nozomi realises she’s staring again at the girl. She clears her throat and smiles.
“That is so nice.” She replies, shifting her chair behind to sit next to the blonde-haired girl.
“Sorry for the trouble.” She continues. She starts to feel her face heating up again, and she bites her lip to keep from feeling so obviously shy. Why is she feeling this way???? Nozomi catches sight of the girl shaking her head and smiling lightly to acknowledge her from the side of her eye.
The girl gently pushes the book closer in between them on the table so Nozomi can have a look. The both of them study the page on their book for a while, and Nozomi realises that she actually knows everything on this page. However, the girl on her left seems to be having a little bit of her trouble with the way she is tapping her fingers on the book while darting her eyes side to side.
“Ano…” Nozomi starts to speak in a hushed voice so as not to alert the sensei.
The blonde-haired girl snaps out of her thoughts, blue eyes widening.
“Do you need help with that?” Nozomi begins to ask.
“Oh, yes, I do actually..” Eli’s voice trails off towards the end. She can’t believe that the new girl is actually offering to teach her. It’s not that Eli really needed help, it’s just that she has been thinking a lot about her grandmother’s letter that she isn’t being focused on her work. But maybe having someone to teach her wouldn’t be that bad either because she tends to mix up her English grammars a lot.
“Hai, so “Me” is a singular tense, because it is just directing to myself, I’m just one person.” Nozomi explains. “And when its two people, in plural tense it is “We”.” Eli can’t help but notice how animated the girl beside her is being as she explains, and she suppresses a giggle in fear that the sensei would notice them and ask Nozomi to go back to seat. She retains her cool expression and gives a nod.
By the end of the half an hour to memorise the grammar, Nozomi has already written down a list of various singular and plural tenses on a piece of totoro-stylized piece of notepad for Eli.
“I hope you understand more, uh –“
“Elichika” Eli pipes up as Nozomi pauses mid-sentence to figure out her name.
Suddenly Eli realises she shouldn’t have said that as her name. She has been thinking about the letter and how her grandmother always calls her “cute and clever Elichika” that she actually said that nickname out loud. For once, her faces goes bright red and before she can even get a chance to correct herself, the purple-haired girl smiles so widely, as she says, “Thank you Elichika!” and moves back to her seat in front.
The feeling of embarrassment doesn’t seem to waver, and she hastily stuffs the letter back into her file, and tries to distract herself by reading the note the girl (she still hasn’t caught her name yet) has written for her. The girl has really cute handwriting, and she even ends off her sentences with a ( ´ ▽ ` )b emoticon.
Elichika…. Nozomi silently mouths the name of the blonde-haired girl. It’s such a cute name for a person who appears to be rather cool and collected. And strangely enough, she’s actually looking forward to make a friend out of this Elichika.