User:Kjwkjw

"Hanako!!"

A girl with long, dark purple hair shouted as she made a dash towards the disaster that had transpired before her very eyes. Her name was Hibarigaoka Ruri, but Hanako simply called her Hibari. Hibari was embarrassed about the nickname at first, but eventually it had become a symbol of her friendship with Hanako. After all, Hanako was a nickname, too. One that Hibari herself came up with.

"Hanako!! Are you alright?!"

The disaster was as terrifying as Hibari imagined. A tree that seemed to be at least 5 meters tall had completely fallen over, turning the vicinity into ruins. Dangerously close to the grounded tree was a girl with a rather short stature. Her hair was a vibrant light orange, which was a stark contrast to the dark green and brown debris that was, quite literally, a step away. She remained in a crouching position, trying to catch her breath.

"I'm okay, Hibari!" the girl with the orange hair stated cheerfully, getting up only a while after Hibari had arrived at the scene. "Look! The tree didn't even crush me this time!"

That much was true. Knowing Hanako's luck, Hibari wouldn't have been surprised even if the tree had completely fractured all of her backbones. At situations like these, Hibari would often just let out an exasperated sigh which hid her sheer relief that her friend was still alive. "You really need to be more careful, Hanako," Hibari would say, looking at her friend whose smile seemed to be unconditional.

But for some reason, today was different. Of course, Hanako still had a wide, happy-go-lucky smile on her face, despite her entire body being covered with small bruises. But the look in her eyes seemed slightly unusual to Hibari. It was as if they were filled with some melancholy, sleeping deep inside Hanako's heart. By no means was it a well-grounded observation, but for some reason, Hibari was sure of it. It instilled the same kind of melancholy in Hibari -- one that she couldn't simply ignore and move on.

"No..." whispered Hibari. "No, you're not..."

"Hm?" Hanako replied, almost in a singsong voice. Like the shining sun, her radiant smile had still not fainted.

"No!! You're not!! You're not okay!!" Hibari shouted. It was a volume Hibari herself was surprised with.

"You're not okay, Hanako..." she continued, trying to hold back tears in vain. "This kind of thing always happens to you. These life-threatening moments.

"You're my friend, Hanako. A very precious friend. But if this kind of thing keeps happening, then one day... one day... I'm going to lose it all. Your cheerful energy. Your company on my way home. I'm going to lose you. And you'll lose me, too. How can you...? How can you possibly brush off every one of these moments that could've happened as "okay"?!"

At Hibari's resentful words, the wide smile on Hanako's face gradually fainted, as if a solar eclipse was happening. Soon after, it had completely disappeared, leaving only the distant and melancholic look in her eyes. She looked to be lost in thought all of a sudden. It was a look that even Hibari, one of Hanako's closest friends, had never seen before.

"... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled like that, Hanako. I'm glad you're alright..."

"... Hibari."

Hanako called her friend's name so quietly that she almost didn't catch it. She looked up from the ground to realize that her orange-haired companion had recovered a faint smile. The melancholic look in her eyes was still there.

"Hibari, I know a lot of bad things happen to me. And I know that every time they do, the smallest of differences could've meant the end of it all.

"... But I've made through every single one of them, and I'm still here with you, and Botan, and Ren and Hibiki, aren't I? Don't you think I'm extremely lucky for that?" Hanako continued after a brief moment of silence, giving out a gentle giggle.

"Hanako..." Hibari attempted to look for the right words but couldn't find them.

"Hibari," Hanako continued. As she wiped off some of the dirt that was on her shirt and skirt, Hibari noticed the countless number of new bruises on her hand.

"I wasn't always used to this bad luck. When I first started catching on to the fact that this was always happening, even I was sad and upset. "Why me? Why this often?" I thought. Do you know what I realized that suddenly made me able to face all this bad luck with a smile?"

Hibari, still recovering from her tears from earlier, remained silent. She patiently waited for Hanako to answer herself.

"It was when I realized that my friends will be so much more fortunate than I am, at least. That they don't have to suffer the same things as me. That I can be happy for them, and that I'm blessed to have friends who have it even better than I do. And in the grand scheme of things, aren't I doing well?"

Hanako gave another gentle giggle and followed it up by making a peace sign with her right hand. The solar eclipse on her face was clearly over. In stark contrast to the joy that Hanako was conveying, Hibari felt like she was going to burst into tears yet again. It was then when she saw her orange-haired friend extending her hand. On it were a few sheets of tissue.

"Come on, Hibari! There's too little time for us to be crying! Smile, smile!" Hanako cheered on, tilting her head slightly. Hibari accepted her friend's kind gesture, but she couldn't stop the tears from leaking out of her eyes once more. She stood still, wiping them away with the tissue in silence.

"I hear there's a great new dessert cafe on our way home! Let's check it out before it closes, Hibari!" Hanako exclaimed. Her eyes were already facing away from the debris of the fallen tree and the bushes, and towards the wide walkway ahead of them. The sun was beginning to set, dying the sky a reddish orange that complemented Hanako's hair like no other color could.

"Mhm." Hibari answered, after letting out a sniffle. Her voice still sounded teary, but it wasn't without a newly found sense of inexplicable happiness. "Mhm...!"