At the Finish Line [Haiji Kiyose] - Run With the Wind

twenty-two - "the stars"

Stood outside with cups of hot milk, leaning against the balcony, Haiji and Kakeru stand looking up at the stars.

Kakeru pushes his lips into a thin line. "When I was in high school... It happened in my third year, everything Sakaki was talking about... It's difficult--"

"Kakeru," Haiji interrupts, sending him an encouraging nod. "If you want to explain, why don't you tell the whole team? After this afternoon, I think it's safe to say that they're worried about you. If you let us all know, then we'll get a deeper understanding."

Nodding, Kakeru looks back down into his mug. "You're right..."

The door to the balcony opens and Chiyo steps outside, her eyebrows raised. "Oh, sorry, am I interrupting something?"

Haiji opens his mouth to answer when Kakeru steps forward. "Don't worry, I was about to go back inside. Do you want warm milk, Chiyo-san?"

"I'm alright, thank you, Kakeru." She smiles.

He nods, grabbing Haiji's mug as well as his and taking them back inside the lodge.

Crossing her arms over her chest and walking over to Haiji, Chiyo smiles. "Hey, I was looking for you."

"Here I am." He chuckles, a hand resting on the balcony.

She leans her elbows on the edge of the balcony, letting out a sigh.

"Something on your mind?" He asks. "You won't be able to sleep if you've got things going on in that head of yours."

She laughs. "There's more going on in my brain than you'll ever know."

The two stand in silence, listening to the sounds of the evening as the moon shines brightly.

"Have you spoken to your parents? Since you got your results?" Haiji questions.

Chiyo shakes her head, placing her chin on her forearms. "They'll have gotten an email from my professor and found out I passed by now. There's no reception here so I couldn't phone them even if I wanted to."

"You're going to wait it out and see?" He nods. "I can understand that."

She stands up, gazing at the stars in the sky. "They're so bright out here, it's amazing."

He smiles, observing as she stares up, eyes sparkling almost as bright as the stars themselves. "Yeah, they're beautiful. You forget how many there are in the sky, just like how many people are in the world. Puts everything into perspective when you think about it that way."

Chiyo nods in response, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

Haiji continues. "Back in Yasugi, you could see them when the sky wasn't cloudy."

"Hmm, that's right," She agrees. "We went to the New Year festival together our last year of junior high and stayed out till the morning of the 1st to see the stars, didn't we? My dad wasn't happy we'd stayed out so long."

Haiji laughs. "It was fun, wasn't it? What about back in Lille? Can you see the stars there?"

She shakes her head. "Too much light pollution. If you went to the South of France you could see them easier but Lille's too busy."

He crosses his arms, nodding in response.

"I thought about you all the time, you know?"

Eyebrows furrowed, he turns to Chiyo as she looks on in the distance and he's surprised by her sudden comment.

"What?"

"When I left Japan --I thought about you a lot." She tells him. "I didn't leave how I wanted to, not saying goodbye and everything. I felt awful about how I left things with you."