A Firefly's Glow

Chapter One: Part Three

“Hotaru!” a cheerful voice echoed from behind, and I twirled around in reply. I held up an arm in greeting as a familiar figure ran eagerly towards me. She immediately grabbed my shoulders and grinned a wide smile. “You’ll never guess what happened! Can you tell what’s different about me today?”

“Sora, you’re hurting my arms . . .” I squeaked nervously as Sora loosened her grip. I glanced at Sora’s large azure eyes and I sighed. “You changed your mascara, didn’t you?”

“You noticed!” Sora cheered, throwing her arms up into the air as we approached the large school building ahead.

The cherry blossom petals scattered under our feet and above our heads, and the trees drew shadows onto the concrete we walked on. It seemed as if the rain from the day before hadn’t affected any of the cheerfulness awaiting the next day.

“So, why did you change your mascara—“

“Guess!” Sora chirped eagerly, twirling her gaze at mine. The strawberry blonde hair that gently sat upon her head in perfect barrel curls blew back over her shoulders in the gentle breeze.

“Um . . .” I began, glancing away from Sora and at the cloudless sky. “You met someone?”

“Yes! Yes!” Sora gleefully set a finger onto her nose. “I’ve fallen in love!”

“Ew,” was the first word to utter out of my mouth.

For as long as I knew her, Sora has “fallen in love” with many other guys before. Sora was much too casual about situations like this, but it wouldn’t feel the same if Sora changed in any way. Typical. Capricious. Those were the exact words I often used to describe Sora.

“It’s nothing to ‘ew’ about!” Sora nudged my shoulders without removing any delightfulness out of her voice. “You’ll fall in love, too, Hotaru!”

I played along with Sora’s assurance. But unlike Sora, I’ve never insisted on liking anyone before. I always seemed pessimistic about these kinds of situations, but this was because I grew to learn that love was that way.

Wouldn’t there be less pain in avoiding things like this?

Even though I tend to linger around minding my own business, I end up running into events of confession between two random people I've never met before. Most of the situations I ran into involved the person being confessed to saying “I’m sorry . . . I’m in love with someone else.” Then the one who had confessed either bursts into tears for maximum dramatic effect or they casually shrug and say “It doesn’t matter. I’m over it already.”

(There was one different situation where the person being confessed to said “I love you, too! Let’s make out!” I ran away before I could witness anymore of that event, but anyways—continuing with the story . . .) It really was useless to like someone and then have them reject you, so I never got involved with any kind of crushes before.

Wasn’t it a waste to create such a big fuss over something and then become rejected?

“Okay, so who is it?” I was curious who Sora had fallen for this time. Perhaps I knew the person.

Sora grasped onto my wrist and yanked me forward as she dashed into the school building. Following our clashing entrance into the hallway, she pulled me towards the first set of doors to be seen. She slid the door open a few inches and shoved my face against the opening so I could gather sight of what was in the classroom.

The desks were mostly empty—forlornly sitting in their places without many stirring students about. The classroom would have been completely deserted if it wasn’t for the two figures sitting on the desktops at the other end of the room. A distant laughter sounded through the classroom, and I heard Sora squeak with delight.