With the Stars and Us

Chapter One

Kobayashi Yui is currently, strangely attracted to stars. Enthralled by the billions of burning gas light years away from her windowsill, it was simple, yet something-- different. It was nothing like Hailey's Comet orbiting around the system or what Galileo Galilei would've seen with his scope; it was an entirely different concept.

"Pon!" That same, bashful voice was enough to snap her out of her senses, bento untouched and the same, bland atmosphere around her. "Pon, you haven't touched your food yet."

"...Sorry. I'm not really in the mood to eat." Pon bitterly shakes her head. "I'm still caught up in this, aren't I?"

Manaka snatches an egg from Pon's bento, before continuing. "Well, it's late at night and we're sneaking food at the rooftop, I'd find it more unusual if you wouldn't be requesting something like this."

"It's just.." Pon inhales deeply, "Whenever it's night and this whole, chilly air comes around, it somehow feels like it's consuming me in its thick blanket, and before I knew it I'm already immersed in this strange feeling of space wrapping around me, like pulling me towards the stars."

Science wasn't Manaka's forte, but she gets the point. That's the best thing about her; she may be a dumbass in class but she's still rational enough to understand Pon's tendency of falling in love with the sky. "Maybe it's trying to tell something?"

Pon's eyes seemed to brighten up in delight, enlightened about Manaka's statement. "Something like?"

Manaka shrugs, but she still smiles anyway. "Maybe it's trying to tell you that someone would come around and give the same, warm blanket in this cold, something that will pull you with the same amount of force it's trying to pull you."

Kobayashi never thought of it. The sky telling her to interpret something in this weird phenomenon that seems to happen specifically to her; feeling like it's something more nuanced than whatever's usual.

"Do you think they'd love the stars?"

"Who?"

"The someone you're talking about."

"I don't know, maybe?"

Kobayashi knew that was the answer she'll receive, but she didn't mind. It would be selfish to know more than what a human brain capacity could receive, anyway.

The night goes on as usual, and there's not much talking after that. The only thing standing out was when Manaka unusually didn't finish her food, and Manaka's view of Pon looking at the sky with this expression on her face that she couldn't seem to understand.

The look of someone who only wishes but to understand the mysteries of the space and the universe itself.

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She always wondered if Music and Astronomy were almost of the same wavelength. Both are endlessly continued to explore, even a tiny bit of specimen found would've been a great discovery. It looks shallow on the surface but there's much more than meets the eye.

It's like a nebula, a demanding slew of notes waiting to burst, and suddenly it just-- combusts. It's far more unimaginable unlike the solo piano pieces usually memorized that were only stuck at what was taught. It's like a star searching for another star, and together it's an explosion of colors, vastly different and way past outside the boundaries of their capacities.

It's a lot more than just sentimental value to Yui, rather, it's what always been inside her mind ever since she first stepped into that room.

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