Chapter—The beginning of a love story.
The morning was peaceful. On a telephone wire, two sparrows were quietly cleaning their feathers, enjoying the early sun.
"HEY! GIVE IT BACK, YOU THIEF!"
The birds screeched and took flight as the peace was shattered. Below them, Mio and Kaito were in the middle of a sidewalk standoff.
Between them was a paper bag containing the legendary "Third Donut."
"My mom gave them to me to share!" Kaito yelled, holding the bag high above his head. He looked his usual school-self—slouching, his long bangs messy, and his uniform untidy.
"Since I'm the one who carried them, I get the tie-breaker!"
"In what universe?!" Mio barked back, adjusting her thick glasses which were slipping down her nose. She looked like a grumpy librarian in her oversized sweater.
"I'm the one who had to walk at your slow pace! That donut belongs to me as compensation!"
In reality, both were thinking the same thing:
*I want the other one to have it, but if I just give it to them, it'll be awkward.*
Suddenly, a hand blurred past. Souta, their energetic classmate, snatched the bag mid-air.
"If you two are just going to stand here and get married over a pastry, I'll take the bullet!" Souta laughed, shoving the donut into his mouth.
"Now the war is over! Race you to school!"
"HEY! SOUTA! GET BACK HERE!" Kaito and Mio screamed in unison.
They began to sprint, bags thumping against their sides. Behind them, their friend Akane struggled to keep up.
"Wait for me! You guys are never going to be normal, are you?!Where is mine."
"OUR DONUT!" Mio and Kaito shouted one last time.
The camera pans up to the bright blue sky.
**Title Card: THE PERSON WE LOVED TWICE**
In classroom, lecture was going on.
All where writing notes we see Kaito.
**[Kaito's Narrative]**
My name is Kaito. I'm a second-year at Sakura High. My hobbies? Honestly, just playing my guitar in my room where nobody can judge me. People at school think I'm just a "shadow"—the quiet guy who sleeps in the back row. And that suits me fine. It's easier to hide when you don't want people to see how fast your heart beats when a certain "cactus" walks by.
The scene shifts to the classroom. Kaito leans over to pick up a dropped pencil. At the same time, Mio leans down.
**CRACK.**
"OW!" Mio shouts, clutching her forehead. "Kaito! You absolute idiot! My head is going to have a dent because of your thick skull!"
"My skull? You're the one who dove for it like a hawk!" Kaito groans, rubbing his forehead. "Why are you so aggressive over a 2B pencil?!"
"You are fool, I am for my head not for your pencil take it."Mio replied. His heart start to rang fast.
**[Mio's Narrative]**
And I'm Mio. As you can see, my life is a constant battle against this moron. At school, I keep my walls up. I wear these glasses and keep my hair tied back because if I looked "pretty," people might actually expect me to be nice. I'd rather bicker with Kaito than admit that I've been waiting for him to notice me for ten years.
By the second lecture, the sun was higher, but the mood was lower. Mio wasn't looking at the chalkboard; she was staring at the back of Kaito's messy head. To the class, he was a ghost. To her, he was a headache.
"Your chair is squeaking," Mio hissed, poking his blazer with her pen. "Move it forward. I can't concentrate on the lyrics I'm—I mean, on my math notes."
Kaito didn't turn around. He tilted his head back, eyes hidden by bangs. "Maybe if you weren't so grumpy, Mio-chan, you wouldn't notice the noise. You're like a cactus. All thorns."
"Don't call me 'Mio-chan'!" she snapped. "And sit up straight. You look like a shadow."
"A shadow is quiet," Kaito retorted, a smirk tugging at his lips. "You should try it. It might help that headache you have from scowling."
Mio went back to her notebook, scrawling lines over a melody in the margins. It felt familiar—a ghost of a song from a playground ten years ago. *There's no way it's him,* she told herself. *He's just a rude classmate now.
The final school bell echoed through the halls, signaling the end of the day—and the end of the ten-year countdown.
Mio locked herself in the back corner of the restroom. As she pulled the hair tie from her head, letting her dark hair fall in soft waves, she looked at her reflection. Without the thick glasses and the messy knot, she looked like the girl from the playground, only grown up.
But her hands were shaking as she smoothed out her light blue cardigan.
Mio speak to herself.
"Ten years… we were just kids then. Does he even remember? Or was that promise just a game we played in the sand? Maybe I'm the only one who stayed frozen in that moment while he moved on. What if I show up and I'm just waiting for a ghost?"
She bit her lip, her eyes reflecting a sudden fear.
"Do you really love me now, Kaito? Or was it all just a play?"
Across the school in the empty music room, Kaito stood by the window. He had pulled his bangs back, he put on his classes,revealing eyes that were no longer hidden or "shadowy." He looked at his guitar, then at the clock.
Kaito said to himself.
"I've practiced this song every day for a decade to sing with you. But standing here now, I feel like a fool. We bicker every day over donuts and desks… maybe the girl who made that promise is gone. Maybe she's changed so much she'll look right through me."
He gripped the strap of his guitar case, his knuckles turning white.
"Did those words actually mean anything to you, Mio? Or were we just children reciting a script? If I sing this song today… am I singing it to someone who doesn't exist anymore?"
He took a deep breath, hardening his resolve. He couldn't stay in the shadows forever. Even if it was just a play to her, he had to know the truth.
"Ten years," he whispered, his voice steadying. "I'm going. Even if I'm the only one who shows up."
Both stepped out of their thought at the same time, there head held high despite the knot in her stomach.
"I'm going. I won't let our story end as just a childhood game."
While the rest of the school was buzzing with the end of the second lecture, the music room was a tomb of silence. Kaito stood by the window, his mesy hair looks set and eyes with diligent shine without glasses, revealing a face that belonged on a movie poster.
The door creaked open. Shouta stepped in, leaning against the doorframe with a knowing smirk.
"I knew I'd find you here, looking like a different person."
Kaito didn't turn around.
"What do you want, Shouta?"
"Just wondering why you keep acting like a ghost," Shouta said, sitting on a desk and swinging his legs. "You're actually a good-looking guy, Kaito. If you walked down the hall like that, every girl in school would be at your feet. Why hide? Why play the 'Shadow'?"
Kaito finally looked at him, his expression pained.
"You know why. I like Mio. But look at how she acts at school—she's the 'Cactus.' She's quiet, she's grumpy, she keeps to herself. I don't want people whispering that 'a guy like Kaito' is hanging around 'a girl like Mio.' I don't want them judging her."
Shouta sighed.
"So you'd rather be a ghost so you can sit behind her? Why not just tell her you're still waiting for her? Tell her about the promise."
"I can't," Kaito's voice cracked. "What if she forgot everything? What if that playground promise was just a childhood game to her? If I confess and she says no, the tiny bit of friendship we have left—the bickering, the donut wars—it would all end. I couldn't bear to lose her completely. Her 'cactus' behavior... I've learned to love that, too. It's better than nothing."
Shouta shook his head.
"You're a hopeless case. Anyway, stop wasting time. Next class is starting."
As Shouta left, Kaito sighed and pulled his bangs back down over his eyes, slumping his shoulders. The handsome boy vanished. The Shadow returned.
At the same time, Mio stepped out of the washroom, her hair tied in its messy, low knot and her heavy glasses shielding her face. Akane was waiting for her, leaning against the lockers.
"You're out," Akane said softly. "Mio, why are you still doing this? Why do you live such a dull life? You're beautiful, but you hide under those oversized sweaters and that grumpy attitude."
Mio looked at the floor.
"You know why. It's Kaito."
"Same response as always," Akane countered. "Why not just tell him? Why not stop the quarreling and show him who you really are?"
"I can't!" Mio's eyes filled with sudden heat. "Every time I'm near him, my heart starts pounding so hard I think I'll explode. And when it does... I don't know how to handle it, so I start fighting. I start bickering because it's the only way to keep my feelings from leaking out."
Akane looked at her friend with pity.
"Well, it's your decision. But I'm warning you, Mio—be careful that this quarreling doesn't lead to the end of everything. One day, you might push him too far."
As Akane walked away, Mio stood frozen. The end? She couldn't imagine a world where Kaito wasn't there to annoy her.
Mio began walking toward her next class, lost in thought about Akane's warning. She turned the corner sharply, her mind miles away.
**CRASH.**
She slammed directly into someone. The impact was so hard they both went sprawling onto the floor.
"Ouch... watch where you're—" Mio started, but she stopped.
She was on top of Kaito. Because his bangs had shifted during the fall, she saw his eyes clearly for a split second—wide, warm, and beautiful. Kaito, caught in the embarrassment of the moment, stared up at her. For a heartbeat, the "Shadow" and the "Cactus" were gone.
But the embarrassment was too much. The panic rose in Mio's chest like a tidal wave.
**SLAP!**
The sound echoed through the hallway. Mio had slapped him across the face, her face bright red.
"You pervert! Watch where you're going!"
She scrambled to her feet, and bolted down the hall without looking back. Kaito stayed on the floor, his cheek stinging, his heart sinking into his stomach.
Back at their desks, the silence between them was heavy and toxic.
Mio with tears in her eye, thought.
"I blew it. I finally did it. I hit him. He probably hates me now. There's no way he loves me... and there's no way he remembers a ten-year-old promise after I just treated him like trash."
Kaito looking at Mio thought.
"She looked at me with such disgust. That slap... it felt like she was hitting the 'me' from ten years ago, too. It was a play. It had to be a play. She doesn't remember. She doesn't care."
They both looked down at their hands. They thought about the playground. They thought about the song.
"I think he forgot," Mio whispered to herself.
"I think she forgot," Kaito thought.
But then, a flicker of light.
Mio: "I'm done. I'm not going to be a 'Cactus' anymore. If he's going to reject me, he's going to reject the real me."
Kaito: "No more 'Shadow.' If this is the last time I see her, I'm going to show her the boy who made that promise."
The school bell rang. The countdown to the sunset had officially begun.
End of Chapter.