Chapter 1: Chapter 1: A Fortelling
When I was 15, I met an old woman who told me my fortune. She said I would only meet my true fate after my downfall. At that time I did not know what she meant so I paid no heed to her fortune. It would only be years later I would remember her words and how they came true.
One year after that fortune. my parents divorced and I moved with my mother to her old hometown. It was a small and friendly place but friendliness was uncommon for a city girl like me.
My grandma, however, wasn't so welcoming as the rest of the village. I'm sure she meant well but yelling and screaming, "I told you so!" It doesn't make my mother feel ant better.
My mother was a weak-willed woman of mind and body alike. She worked in the place of my loafer father to pay off our debts. She barely had any time to be my mother anymore. My father eventually becoming a drunkard yelled at my mother every day. She would not reply but only shed her tears silently. I felt suffocated in that place that I felt relieved when my mother left him. Only I would come to regret this thought later.
Two weeks before the first day of high school, my grandmother told me to go drop a package at the kitamuras place. As I walked down the snowy path on a cold December I suddenly heard a shout.
"Watch out!"
That shout followed by a crash and I felt all too soon pain, all over my body. The voice had been that of a boy, around the same age as me. He broke his bicycle chain and rammed right into me.
"I'm so sorry, are you ok?"
"Y-yeah, I'll be fine."
As he helped me get up we introduced ourselves.
"Hello, I'm Kitamura Fuji."
"Hello, I'm Yukino Asami, wait are you the son of the Kitamuras."
"Yes, we're the only Kitamuras in the whole town, by the way, are you new? I haven't seen you before." He asked curiously staring at the beauty that was rare in this village. She smiled politely caught off guard by his bright personality that seemed to intrude on her.
"I'm from Tokyo, I'm the granddaughter of the Mochizuki household." Realization dawned on his face and he snapped his fingers.
"Ooh, your grandma Michizukis granddaughter? Our mothers used to be classmates." She was suorised by this revelation. Her grandmother had mentioned the Kitamuras but her mother never talked about her classmates or friends. But then again these days her mother didn't talk about much at all. She snapped out of her thoughts and replied to the charming boy smiling at her.
"Oh really, by the way, my grandmother told me to drop this package at your house."
"Oh my house is right there, come in I'll serve you some hot tea."
"No, maybe next time my mother will be waiting for me." she declined politely because her past had led her to be wary of strangers. Her rejection didn't seem to faze him and his positivity.
"Really? Ok, maybe next time. It was nice meeting you, Yukino-san." He waved at her before grabbing his bike and riding home. "You too, Kitamura-san." She waved while walking back too.
As I walked back towards my house I smiled slightly thinking of the chestnut-haired boy. He was a pretty interesting fellow, maybe I'd like it here after all. As I walked up to my house I heard the sound of grandma crying and people surrounding our house.
"Grandma what's wrong?!?!" She anxiously looked at her grandmother and tried to figure out what was going on. Her grandmother looked up and Asami was suprised by her frail look marked with tears.
"Asami! It's your mother... She. S-"
"What happened to Mom, grandma what's wrong?" Asamis heartbeat picked up, she felt dread as the color drained from her face at the reply.
"She went to the mountain this morning, a-and she didn't come back." Asami couldn't control her panic and she lashed out. "What! Did you send people to look for her." The people around her tried to calm her but the strangers she was wary around didn't help ease her anxiety a bit. She had seen all too much at a young age so she wasn't as niave as other children her age. She knew the situation didn't look good. However it was human nature to be in denial as the first sign of grief.
"Yes but they... they found her body. Asami your mother left a suicide letter on her desk. She committed suicide!"
Asami and her grandmother cries resonated throughout the eerily quite villlage that night.
"No, that cant is, why would she do that to me, why?"
I screamed and cried and begged it to not be true. I could not change what had happened though. I remembered my last thought towards my mother. How I was glad father had left her, I thought she would be happy. How wrong I was about that. I hated and blamed myself repeatedly.
At the funeral, I saw the chestnut hair boy again. He silently stood next to me and even without saying anything his presence alone comforted me. It was like a silent promise to me, that he would be there. From now and forever I won't be alone again.
