Chapter 1
# Chapter One: The Girl Who Smelled Like Rain
The rain began before the first bell.
It came in soft sheets, turning the windows of Hoshizora Academy into mirrors that reflected pale fluorescent lights and sleepy faces. Students hurried through the front gates beneath umbrellas of every color, their laughter swallowed by the weather.
Mina arrived without one.
Her uniform clung to her sleeves, darkened by the rain. Damp strands of black hair stuck to her cheeks as she slipped off her shoes at the entrance, ignoring the curious glances that followed her.
She preferred the rain.
Rain made everyone look away.
"You're soaked."
The voice was gentle.
Mina looked up.
A girl she'd never seen before held out a neatly folded white handkerchief.
She was impossibly clean.
Silver-blonde hair framed a face too elegant to belong in a crowded hallway. Her emerald eyes carried a warmth that felt practiced, almost rehearsed. Even her uniform looked untouched by the storm.
"I'm okay," Mina answered.
"You'll catch a cold."
"I don't usually."
The girl smiled anyway.
"Then... keep it. Just in case."
Without waiting for an answer, she tucked the handkerchief into Mina's hand and disappeared into the stream of students.
---
Everyone knew her.
By lunch, Mina had learned the girl's name without asking.
Akari Fujimoto.
Student council vice president.
Top of every exam.
Captain of the literature club.
Teachers adored her.
Students worshipped her.
She was the kind of person whose smile appeared naturally in yearbook photos.
Mina wondered if people like that ever got lonely.
"...You're staring."
Mina blinked.
Akari stood beside her table in the library, holding two books against her chest.
"I am?"
"A little."
"Sorry."
"It's alright."
Akari laughed quietly.
"I was hoping you'd come."
"You knew I would?"
"You checked out three novels yesterday."
"...So?"
"They all ended tragically."
Mina frowned.
"You noticed?"
"I notice what people read."
There was no accusation in her voice.
Only curiosity.
Akari sat across from her without asking permission.
"I don't think I've seen you smile."
"I do."
"When?"
"When no one's looking."
For a moment—
Akari's smile faltered.
Only for a heartbeat.
Then it returned.
"I'd like to see it someday."
---
The days blurred together after that.
Akari began appearing everywhere.
She sat beside Mina in the library.
Walked with her after school.
Brought her tea when she stayed late reading.
Never pushed.
Never demanded.
She simply existed beside her.
Like sunlight slowly warming frozen hands.
Mina hated how quickly she became accustomed to it.
---
"You know," Akari said one afternoon as they watched rain collect in puddles outside the library window, "I used to be afraid of storms."
"You?"
"I cried every time it thundered."
"I don't believe that."
"It's true."
"What changed?"
Akari rested her chin on her folded arms.
"My mother told me something."
"What?"
"She said storms aren't trying to hurt anyone."
She watched droplets race each other down the glass.
"They're just too full to hold everything inside."
Silence settled between them.
Mina finally whispered,
"...That's a sad way to think about rain."
"I know."
Akari smiled.
"But beautiful things often are."
---
That evening, as they parted at the station, Akari suddenly called out.
"Mina."
She turned.
"If one day..."
Akari hesitated.
"If one day everyone tells you I'm a terrible person..."
The sentence dissolved into the evening air.
She laughed it away.
"Never mind."
Mina tilted her head.
"I wouldn't believe them."
For the first time—
Akari's smile looked genuinely surprised.
Then something far more fragile appeared beneath it.
Hope.
"...Thank you."
The train doors slid shut between them.
As Mina watched the platform drift away, she saw Akari standing alone beneath the station lights.
Still smiling.
But crying.
Just enough that no one else would notice.
---
That night, Mina unfolded the handkerchief for the first time.
It was embroidered with tiny lilies along one corner.
Beneath them, stitched in nearly invisible silver thread, were six words.
> **Please forgive me when it happens.**
Mina stared at the message until dawn.
Outside, it began to rain again.
