Prologue: Before the Winter

The Spring of the Four

The spring that year felt eternal.

Cherry blossom petals fell like soft pink snow upon the courtyard of Nakamura Junior High. Hina Yamada dipped her brush into the pot of sky-blue paint and laughed.

"If you keep making the sky that color, Hina, people will think our festival is on another planet," said Kaito, frowning at the giant poster spread out on the ground.

"It's supposed to be a dreamy blue, Kaito," Hina replied, giving him a light shove. "It's a festival. It's supposed to be magical."

"The proportions of your clouds are wrong," he grumbled, returning his obsessive attention to the title's lettering. "And Mei's font is too... round."

"It's cute!" said Mei Watanabe, sitting cross-legged, meticulously painting a border of flowers. "You should be an abstract artist, Kaito. At least then no one could tell your proportions are wrong."

Kaito opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted by a soft thwack.

An orange basketball hit the center of the poster, leaving a perfectly round dust mark in Hina's dreamy-blue sky.

"Oops," said Ren Ishida, grinning. He was in his gym uniform, his hair shining with sweat, looking like the perfect image of a sports star.

"Ren!" Hina shouted, half-laughing, half-irritated.

"My bad, my bad," he said, grabbing the ball. He looked at the poster. "Seriously, Kaito? You still drawing the letters? If you were fast like me, we'd already be done."

"If you did the letters, Ren, they'd come out looking like drunken hieroglyphs," Kaito retorted without looking up.

"Ouch," Ren placed a hand on his chest, feigning offense. He bounced the ball once, twice. "You guys gonna stay here painting all day? The sun's out."

"We have a deadline, team captain," said Mei.

"Boring," Ren decided. He gave Kaito a friendly pat on the head, messing up his hair, and then winked at Hina. "See you later, nerds."

He ran off toward the court, his laughter echoing across the courtyard.

Hina watched him go. She looked at Mei, who was laughing quietly, and at Kaito, who was furiously trying to fix the mess Ren had made of his hair. The spring sun was warm on her shoulders. The air smelled of cut grass and fresh paint.

At that moment, standing under the cherry trees with her three best friends, Hina Yamada thought those days would last forever.

The First Shadows

Autumn arrived like a switch being flipped. The spring sunlight, which had seemed eternal, was replaced by a cold wind that blew the dry leaves into swirls across the schoolyard.

Hina started to feel tired.

At first, it was normal school-day tiredness. But soon it became something heavier, like she was walking underwater.

In gym class, during the warm-up run, she had to stop halfway, panting, a dry, irritating cough scratching at her throat. Mei stopped beside her, her face creased with worry.

"Hina? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just... swallowed wrong," Hina gasped, waving her on.

From the other end of the gym, she saw Ren and Kaito watching her. Ren hid his concern with a joke to his team friends, turning away. Kaito just stood in silence, watching her for a long time before looking away.

That afternoon, in Japanese class, Suzuki-sensei assigned an essay. The theme was "My Future in Ten Years."

Hina stared at the blank sheet of paper.

She thought of her brother, Haruto. He was in Tokyo, living his own future, working as a postman to pay the bills and studying like crazy to (again) try to get into university. He seemed so distant, an adult in a world of responsibilities.

Hina didn't want to think about universities or jobs.

She picked up her pencil and wrote the only thing that mattered. I don't know where I'll be in ten years. I just hope... She stopped, crossed out the sentence, and started again.

My future is to keep laughing with my friends. My future is seeing Kaito become a famous artist, seeing Mei become class president, and seeing Ren win the national championship. My future is for nothing to change.

As she wrote, that dry cough returned, a small but persistent weight in her chest. The leaves beat against the window glass, and the cold wind whistled through the crack.

The Discovery

Winter arrived early that year.

The smell of school was replaced by the smell of antiseptic. The sound of laughter was replaced by the constant beep of a heart monitor.

Hina looked at the plastic bracelet on her wrist. YAMADA, HINA. 12 YEARS OLD.

She had been in a local hospital for three days, undergoing tests. She didn't understand what was happening. She only knew she was tired. So tired.

She heard muffled voices from the other side of the curtain. Her mother and a doctor.

"...long-term..." "...aggressive treatment..." "...specialist in..." "...expensive treatment... "

Her mother's voice cracked, and Hina closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep when she entered.

The news spread through the school like a shockwave.

Kaito received the text message from Hina's mother in the middle of the hallway. He read it. Once. Twice. He said nothing. He just went to his locker, opened it, and punched the inside metal shelf so hard his knuckles bled. He closed the locker, leaned his forehead against the cold metal, and just stood there, shaking.

Mei was in the music room, practicing her flute, when her phone buzzed. She read the message, and the sound of the flute stopped abruptly. She hid behind the grand piano, hugged her knees, and cried silently, so no one could hear her.

Ren was leaving the gym, laughing with his team friends. He saw Kaito punch the locker. He saw Mei running into the music room, her face red. His phone buzzed. He read the same message.

"Hey, Ren, let's go," one of his friends called.

Ren stood still. He looked at Kaito, and then at the music room door. He wanted to go to them. He wanted to ask. He wanted to say something.

But what could he say?

He looked at his team friends, laughing and waiting for him. It was easy. It was normal. Ren fell silent. He put the phone in his pocket, pulled on his headphones, and turned away, walking away from his broken friends. His silence was the first brick in the wall he would build around himself.

That night, Hina lay in the hospital bed, unable to sleep. Snow was beginning to fall outside the window. She looked at the sterile white ceiling, and all she could think about was the smell of fresh paint and cut grass.

She remembered the warmth of the spring sun, Mei's laugh, Kaito's teasing, and Ren's arrogant grin.

She promised herself that no matter what happened.

She would be back before the cherry trees blossomed again.