River of Stars

Chapter 1 - To Lose You

It was the last night of Summer Vacation, Nishikata was lying in his bed, trying to sleep, he had never been in a worse mood. He had a complicated conversation with his parents a few days before. Apparently, the contract with a client from the company his father worked on would be ending in the spring after the next year. Another contract had already been signed with the client demanding their services, and it was scheduled to start when the previous one ended. However, that would require them to move out to Akita.

After hearing what his parents said, Nishikata felt like his entire world was being ripped in front of him. It was a nightmare, being separated from his friends... from Takagi... It just couldn't be real.

Nishikata had gone to his room initially, and he stayed there for the entire next two days, despite his parents' efforts to convince him to get out. He was angry at his parents at first, but after calming down a bit, he realized that there was really nothing they could do about it, and he finally left his room, but it didn't really feel like an improvement. For the next few days, Nishikata tried hard to think of something he could do, anything to prevent his seemingly inevitable leaving, but no matter how much he thought about it, no ideas came to his mind, at least no ideas that weren't blatantly absurd. At this point, he felt empty inside, it was now the last day of Summer and he just couldn't bring himself to do anything. His parents had tried to improve his mood in the last days but nothing worked.

Nishikata always knew that, upon entering High School, he'd probably not see many of his friends as often, and that had always bothered him, especially when he thought he could grow distant from Takagi. But this was completely different. Being so far away would make it practically impossible for him to see them, and his first year and a half of middle school had passed by so fast that his departure now seemed to be just around the corner.

That night, he almost couldn't bring himself to sleep, and when he finally did, he had nightmares waking him up multiple times. The next day, he didn't remember these dreams quite well, but they didn't fail to make him feel bad from the moment he woke up. The boy had to run to get ready for school since he went to sleep late last night. After having a quick breakfast, he started to make his way quickly towards school.

Nishikata walked in haste until he reached the intersection where he'd usually meet Takagi, but to his surprise, she wasn't there when he arrived. 'She must have already gone', he thought since it was already so late, and so he continued his way towards the school. He was nearly running, which was effective, because he arrived at the exact moment classes were supposed to start. In fact, he got to the classroom just as Tanabe was about to enter.

After receiving a not-so-friendly look from his teacher, Nishikata walked to his desk, which was, as always, beside Takagi's. The girl was already at her desk, smiling at him. The rush to school had kept Nishikata's mind away from all the moving away thing, but seeing Takagi like that instantly made all the feelings from last week hit him at once. Nishikata felt an unbearable ache in his heart as he sat at his desk, not facing the girl.

"Good Morning Nishikata, stayed up too late watching 100% Unrequited Love?" Takagi asked teasingly.

Nishikata paused for a second, but he didn't even faze. In fact, she had just reminded him of the existence of the show, he'd probably lost several episodes "No, not actually" he said, actually indifferent to her tease.

Takagi was taken aback, she examined his face, he wasn't blushing, not even a little. Nishikata didn't look at her, and she didn't hide the worry in her face. For the rest of that day she didn't tease him, and, even though he noticed it, he was too deep in his own mind to draw any conclusions.

On his way to lunch, Nishikata saw some posters of high schools that the third years often pursued. One of them, in particular, caught his eyes: Sekai Eda High, the only full time high school in their town. In his last week of summer break, while he was trying to find a way not to leave, he found this high school and a glimpse of hope appeared to him, if he went to that high school, he would live there, and he would be able to still see all of his friends, he would still be able to see her. However, these hopes soon shattered apart as he convinced himself that even if he could ever convince his parents to let him go to a full time high school in a far away city from them, their standards were way too high and he would never be able to pass their admission test. Nishikata stared sadly at the poster before continuing his way to lunch.