Pointing to a nearby shoppe, a smile grew on Yumeko’s face. “Let’s go eat there!” she shouted to Taiyo.

Taiyo looked at the place with a curious look. Having not been there before, he began to stare intently at the building which Yumeko already ran off towards.

The outside of the store was decorated with blue and white, and had a large white ‘K’ atop it. After running in, an action he committed when in pursuit of Yumeko, Taiyo also came to see that the inside of the place followed the same colour scheme.

“Hey, get out of your head, dreamer!” Yumeko said to Taiyo, nudging him at the same time, for she had seen him looking up at the roof - trying to take in every little detail.

Shaking his face to quit thinking, Taiyo looked in front of himself.

Now the two kids were standing before a front desk, where a short brown haired woman came to greet them.

“Welcome to K-Burger! How may I help you ma’am?” the lady asked Yumeko, who stood to the right of a once again dazing Taiyo.

“Can I have two burgers, two fry-packets, and a soft drink?” she asked.

Writing down what Yumeko had said on a notepad labelled ‘Kazami Office Essentials Kit - Notepad’ at the top of it, the lady then faced Taiyo.

“Is that order for the both of you, or would you like something as well?” she asked Taiyo.

Hiding his sword behind him, something which the girl did not pick up on at their entrance, Taiyo then stated his reply.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re sharing!” he responded, nervous of whether he sounded natural.

“Great,” the worker lady began, “You two can sit at table number 7 - expect the food quickly!”.

Shaking off his worries, Taiyo then followed Yumeko to sit down at their table, before starting up a conversation.

“First a Kazami restaurant, now using Kazami notepads, and customers wearing Kazami clothes, what’s next, Kazami cassettes!?” he cried.

Yumeko laughed a bit.

“First, quiet down, would you?” she asked - “And next, actually, yes, Kazami does produce cassettes!” she finished.

Taiyo dropped his head down to the table. “This is dystopia.” he groaned.

Yumeko stopped as she pulled a cassette out of her bag pocket.

Thinking for a second, she realised that Taiyo was more right than she had ever thought. Reflecting on it in her mind, for all of her life, almost everything major was owned by Kazami.

There were Kazami Movie Studios, all of which aired their films in Kazami Theatres - and even various Kazami Academies, and universities for students.

While all this flew through Yumeko’s mind, a waitress came to her table, scaring her.

From her fright, Yumeko had dropped her bag, leading the cassette to fall on the ground. Next to the cassette, lying on the dark floor, was also Tenya’s business card. “Kazami…” she read from its top line, before the waitress touched her head.

“Your food’s here, ma’am.” she said, before Yumeko raised her head.

“Eh… right, thanks!” she said, taking the plate which the waitress held into her hand, and placing it down on the table, where Taiyo lifted his spoon and fork in delight.

“Ma’am, the bill?” the waitress asked.

Yumeko jumped and shivered in her seat. “Yeah, that!” she cried, before pulling money out of her pocket. With a vexed attitude, she handed the cash over to the waitress, who bowed and thanked her.

Stuffing his mouth with food, Taiyo spoke whilst chewing - “So, can you play the cassette?” he asked Yumeko.

Yumeko exhaled a sigh of energy loss, as she pulled out a portable cassette player, and inserted the cassette into it.

In silence, for a few seconds, the pair sat staring at each other.

When the lyrics began, Taiyo started to pose questions. “What’s this song?” he asked Yumeko.

“Yoko Oginome’s Dancing Hero, or something like that.” Yumeko answered, as she looked down at the cassette through the player-window.

“Do you like it?” Taiyo then asked Yumeko.

“Huh?” Yumeko asked, not knowing where Taiyo’s newest demand came from. “Do you like it?” Taiyo then repeated to her to get himself across.

“Y-Yeah, I do. Do you?” Yumeko replied, giving her own demand as well.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Unlike how she had treated him, Taiyo was fast to speak back. “Yeah - good music, where’s it from?” he said.

Linking her eye’s with Taiyo, and seeing the fast-speech battle, Yumeko spoke too. “From here, idiot.”

“Awesome, that makes it native.”

“Yeah, do you like natives?”

“Of course, I do!”

“What about foreigners?”

“I like them too, how couldn’t I?”

“Ah, you’re right - you are not from here.”

“Mhm. Do you like foreigners?”

“No.”

“You’re a racist!”

“Eh, no!”

“Look behind you, tell him!”

Standing behind the couple of kids, was a familiar face whom Yumeko would recognise. With a pink-face, she would go on to yell “Tenya!”. Yumeko was right, the boy standing behind her was Tenya.

Giving a frown, Tenya would try to speak, “You know, my grandfather was a foreigner, he actually came from-” he opened, prior to Yumeko screaming “I know, I love him, I’m not a foreigner-hater!”.

Taiyo and Tenya blinked at Yumeko.

Yumeko’s face seemed redder than before.

“You like my grandfather?” Tenya asked, having a lower frown than before. Sighing, Yumeko shook her head. “No, I like you - I mean, I don’t like you, but you like me, or you can, or you don’t, but-”

“I get it, you don’t…!” Tenya yelled, watching Taiyo cover his ears in the back.

Yumeko sat back in her seat. “Great to see you get me.” she told Tenya, who dusted off his shirt.

Taiyo paid closer attention to Tenya’s shirt. “KAZAMI” it read of course.

Shaking his head, pushing his hands on to it, and stomping, Taiyo began to go mad. “What’s with all this Kazami stuff everywhere in this place!?” he cried.

Tenya tried to answer Taiyo, but stopped when a long beeping sound came.

“What’s that? Another Kazami invention!?” Taiyo wailed.

“Actually, it is!” Tenya replied whilst pulling something out of his pocket. “It’s my Pocket Bell.” he answered.

Taiyo fell backwards in his chair.

With a taken-aback face, Tenya examined his Pocket Bell’s screen. “Ah, well I’ve gotta go!” he shouted.

Yumeko frowned. “Already?” she asked.

“Yes…” Tenya responded hushedly - “I hate to leave you on your first date alone, but-”

“It’s not a date! We’re girls!” Yumeko declared.

Tenya took another look at his Pocket Bell which displayed ‘114’.

“It really is an emergency,” he told Yumeko.

Taking some bites from her food, Yumeko sighed. “Goodbye, Tenya.” she moaned.

Tenya smiled, and walked off to leave the store. Before he properly exited, he stood still at the door, and turned to Yumeko. There, he blew a kiss before completely leaving the premises.

Yumeko’s heart throbbed and pounded loudly in her chest, as she finally became happy. For a little bit longer, she viewed Tenya as he entered a big blue van from the back, and left - all before a waitress came to her table again.

“I’m sorry to inform you ma’am, but your time here has expired. If you would like to take the food with you, we offer a takeout container - but that requires 400 yen.” Still on the floor, Taiyo quotes from his fallen chair - “This is really a dystopia!”.

“That’s right, the expiration includes you too, sir.” the lady then spoke.

Taiyo got up from his seat.

“Sir?” Yumeko questioned, relating to the waitress’ statement. “It’s a girl!”.

Taiyo put his hands on the table, reaching for the last few fries. “Well, I’m not sure if I already said this, but-”

“Shut up, Taiyo.” Yumeko broke aloud.

The waitress touched the table. “So, would you two pack already?” she asked with a soft voice.

Taiyo picked up the blue napkin the food came on, and crumbled it up - then going to throw it away afterwards.

Stuffing her cassette-player into her pocket, and plugging her headphones in, Yumeko packed her bag, and slowly walked out of the store.

“Hold up!” Taiyo cried, chasing after Yumeko, before a small collision.

“Watch it, Taiyo!” Yumeko shouted to him.

Taiyo picked up the sword which he dropped, “I know, I know - won’t let it happen again!” he budged.

Yumeko paused her stepping.

“Not that, Taiyo.” she whispered. “At the restaurant, you hinted that you were male. Wouldn’t that allow them to see that you were something other than human - because your gender and appearance didn’t match?”.

Taiyo also froze. “Yumeko, how did you come to assume I was other than human?” he asked.

Yumeko continued walking, whilst Taiyo did behind her.

“I didn’t assume,” she corrected - “I knew, and I know.”

Taiyo looked closely at his sword. “Yeah, but how?” he asked.

Yumeko pulled her headphones off, and let them rest around her neck.

“Just before you came to me - right before you had descended, I had made a wish to God to remove me from my boring life, and then - well, you arrived.” she stated.

Taiyo continued following Yumeko, until she stopped at a playground.

“So, do you remember where you came from?” she asked.

Taiyo looked around the empty playground which surrounded him. “No, I don’t…” he told Yumeko.

Yumeko stomped.

“Well, I do recall one thing…” Taiyo added.

Yumeko dragged her foot around in the mulch. “What? What do you remember?” she asked.

Taiyo sat on the swings - “Earth… Earth bad… Something about Earth being bad, or the negativity of Earth…”

he grumbled.

Yumeko looked up at him - “So, is our meeting just a coincidence?” she asked.

Taiyo looked down. “I don’t know… I really don’t know much.” he told Yumeko.

Yumeko frowned, and reached down into her pocket, pulling out a blue Chinese Good-luck Knot Ribbon, and slowly approaching Taiyo.

“If we are truly just meeting on the short-time, and this is just something special, I at least want you to remember me…” she informed Taiyo.

Handing the ribbon to him, she looked sad.

“And, if you are an angel like I assume, then please Taiyo, pray for me - pray for my bullies to leave me, pray for my terrible life to go away, and please help me get through my struggle… life sucks…”.

Taiyo clenched the knot tightly in his hand before putting it in his hair, half in, half hanging off.

“I will, I sincerely promise you…” Taiyo responded to a now crying Yumeko.

Taiyo pulled Yumeko close and hugged her.

“Thanks Taiyo, and this too…” Yumeko quietly spoke, handing Taiyo her phone and address on a small paper slip.

Taiyo nodded, now noticing the dull grey sky.

“It’s getting late - you’ve ought to get a place to sleep. If you need, you can sneak into my house anytime.” Yumeko assured.

Taiyo smiled as he began to stand up.

“Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll be needing that.” he informed Yumeko, who appeared down once again.

“But, I’ll be sure to check on you sometime…” he noted, as he also began to now walk off, and away from the lonely looking playground where Yumeko stood.

As Yumeko glanced at Taiyo for what was probably the last time in her life, a small glimmer of light shone up in the dark sky.

Through all the clouds, she still seemed to recognise the star, for it was an important one. The star was Sirius - the brightest star in the sky. But, today, it shined bright enough to be seen through the grey clouds.

“Beautiful!” Yumeko said as the star began to dim again.

Then, she looked down, back in front of her.

Her newest friend, her only friend, was gone - and had left.

“Goodbye, goodbye Taiyo…” Yumeko whispered when the rain came.