The Sun Rises and Sets With

Hina was not going to allow her world to crumble around her.

She had worked far too hard for far too long to let this happen.

There was no way of knowing why it had happened, but it all started back in elementary school. She had been forced to go to a business function with her father. It was the absolute last thing she wanted to do, but as a small child, she had no choice in the matter. But who would have guessed that night would dictate how she would live her life from that day forward.

The dinner event was rather boring for a child of her size, and the few other kids there weren’t much better. It was clear to even young Hina that these children had been told to be on their best behavior or else. The way they fidgeted in their seats, wondering what to even do that wouldn’t get them in trouble drove her to wanting to sleep the night off.

That was until he showed up. He had been about the event, she had seen him on occasions that night, mostly being shepherded around by his parents as they did their customary meet and greets. She didn’t really think much of him when she first saw him.

But then it was her father’s time to talk to the very large man. Hugging her father’s leg as the two men bowed and exchanged business cards, she timidly peaked out to see what was happening. And there, right beside the giant of a man, was a small boy with short trimmed hair that still stuck up in the back and a wide goofy grin on his face. His smile grew bigger, causing him to squint his eyes shut as he waved at Hina, who couldn’t stand to be seen a second longer. Ducking behind her father’s leg again, she slowly snuck her head out, just enough to see if he was still there.

He was gone. Leaning out further, she wondered where he could have run off too with his parents still standing there. Searching high and low, she couldn’t see a trace of him, filling her heart with confusion. That was until…

“Hey, whatcha hidin’ from?” An obnoxiously loud voice suddenly rose behind her right as a tap was felt on her shoulder. Hina nearly jumped out of her skin from the surprise and hesitantly turned to see the same boy with the same grin behind her now. Where he came didn’t matter as much as to why he was suddenly so close to her.

Desperately fleeing, she ran to hide behind the other side of her father’s legs while the adults continued to chat high above them. But before she could get too far, the boy grabbed her arm and began to tug her away as she clung tightly to her father’s pants leg.

“C’mon! Let’s go play!” he giggled and kept tugging on her arm. “What’s your name?”

The tugs were never enough to hurt her, but persistent enough for her to slowly be dragged away from her father as he laughed softly watching the children play. She struggled to get the words out, still very shy before the energetic boy. “H-Hina,” she mumbled, still resisting, but only just enough for her to feel alright to answer. “I am Hina. Who are you?”

The boy dropped her arm and brought a thumb to his nose, swiping at it and then striking a pose with a peace sign up high like some sort of costumed superhero. “I am Ichiro. And one day, I am going to be a Baseball hero!”

The little girl felt it inside her, but she couldn’t put the words to it as her eyes sparkled and a smile spread over her cheeks. “Cool!” she giggled and then followed behind the boy as they took off to a back corner of the party room.

There they played for hours, even coaxing a few of the other kids to join them. They let their imagination run wild as they pretended to be heroes. Though Hina allowed herself to be the damsel to be rescued from the bad guys, she had more fun watching Ichiro swing his arms around wildly and kick randomly as the kids all play fighting each other. And at the end of the fight, Ichiro would make a pose right before her, loudly claiming, “I am here for you!”

That night was incredibly special. Little did she know how important it would be for the rest of her life. The next day at breakfast, her father asked how last night was for her. And excitedly, she told him about how much fun she had playing with the other kids, especially Ichiro. Giving a soft smile, pleased with his daughter’s enjoyment, he told her a special secret.

“If things go well for me at work, we might have to move.” His words were soft, trying not to let his wife know too early, “And if we do move, you might be going to school with that boy. Does that sound like fun?”

Hina’s little heart began to beat rapidly as she was incapable of squealing at just the mere thought of playing more with him. Her excitement made her father laugh with her. “Who knows, maybe I will have to convince Ishii to have his son marry you, Hina.”

It was then the seed was planted. She didn’t think much of it at first, but it took little time after they had moved into their new house that she began daydreaming about the idea of marrying Ichiro.

Visions of her cooking and taking care of a baby and then Ichiro returning home dressed as a baseball hero continuously played in her head. She would even draw pictures of them together playing with her crayons on the living room floor.

And just like that, they were in classes together at the same school. Whenever she could, Hina would make sure she was in the same group with him for class activities, playing with him on the playground, or convincing him to play with her on the weekend. While they were young, Ichiro would gladly agree to join her each and every time. This filled Hina’s heart with joy.

But as they grew older, the eagerness to play with her slowly grew a little less. He still played with her, even putting up with her wild fantasies and played home with her when he wanted to go down to the river and play. But as time passed, he would offer to have his friends join along with them or suggest other games to play. Hina didn’t like those games as much, but just so she could be close to Ichiro, she would relent and let him lead the way to new adventures.

This was fine for her, she didn’t mind staying behind and watching. Ichiro could have the spotlight, he shone so brightly there, it was as if it was made for him. But Hina refused to be far from that goofy grin of his, even if as he got older and lost his crooked teeth for a more adult smile. She would be there by his side, as that spot was made for her.

As they made their way to middle school and the dynamics of boys and girls playing together seemed to fade, she did whatever she could to at least remain a friend of his. She showed up to all of his baseball games and rooted loudly for him as his own personal cheering section. Even when his new male friends would tell him that having a girl tagging along was gross, Ichiro would say she was fine and then continue on leading them on. Even the group of female friends would try to convince her that it was unbecoming to be so attached to a boy. She should be more concerned with other things, like her looks.

Looking into the mirror in her bedroom, she studied herself with a curious eye. She knew that Ichiro had said that he didn’t care if a girl wore makeup or not, but she also saw that some of the girls that had boyfriends all wore makeup to make them look more mature. Maybe it was time for her to ditch the glass and the braids for something different. That entire summer, she would study fashion magazines for the newest trends in clothing styles and makeup tutorials. She worked hard, and the results spoke for themselves.

On her first day of high school, she had put all that she had learned over a summer to the test. She had worked hard on picking the right haircut and makeup to accentuate her face and its natural beauty as much as possible. She had dieted and worked out the entire time to lose all of her baby fat and tone her body to the most attractive that all the models had looked in the magazines. She was just thankful that puberty had blessed, the shoulder and back pains meant nothing if she wasn’t the vision of the perfect woman.

Her heart pounded as she calmly walked into the school. Her eyes were laser focused on her target as she moved as gracefully as she had practiced hundreds of times in front of her mirror. Finally, she found him, surrounded by his friends from middle school, catching up over the summer. And from the corner of her eye’s she saw he paused and lifted his head up to see her. His face was blushed and eyes wide as his neck strained to keep up with her as she passed.

It worked! It worked like a charm. She had his eyes back on her again. And there was nothing that was going to separate them again.

She kept as close to him as she could in every way possible. She was at all of his game, bringing her friends to cheer louder for him, casting an even brighter light on him for all to see. She studied diligently and kept her grades as high as possible, staying right in line with his high marks. Whenever the class rankings were posted, Ichiro was consistently in the top ten, and just behind him was her name. Even on the weekends when he was free, she would try her best to hang out with him, having her friend group co-mingle with his friends as much as possible.

Even without trying, their fates were slowly becoming entangled. Every year they had all the same classes with each other, were sat near each other, and talked as much as possible. It quickly came up the grapevine that they were dating, and had been for a long time. It was official, they were a couple and everyone knew it. She didn’t have to embarrass herself with a confession, though she did regret not taking the opportunity at least once.

But that didn’t matter, their lives were set. They would continue in high school together. Him as the start pitcher and her as his perfect girlfriend who supported him in every way. They would go on to the same university, where he would play on the college team, while she would cheer for him on the sideline. Then one day they would get married, and she would be the proud mother of his child while he was a famous Baseball player. Their dreams were going to come true.

That's the way things were going to be. There was no changing that. That was until she saw him nearly breaking his neck to look over his shoulder in class one day. Usually he was a very studious boy even when he should be focusing more on his upcoming games, he had his head down in his books.

The only time recently that he hadn’t been as concentrated on his work as normal was shortly after he hurt his shoulder. He would let his eyes wander from their textbooks to the window outside and stare out it longingly. She wished she could do more to comfort that pained expression, but she knew that time was the best medicine at the moment.

How foolish she was. Shortly after he was completely healed and back to his normal self, she found him looking over his shoulder in class. At first, she thought he was staring at her, but it quickly became apparent it was something further back behind her. Following his gaze, she found the new girl. Izumi Nakagawa, a transfer student to their class who was wheelchair bound.

What was he doing looking at her for? He wasn’t the type to gawk at someone’s differences, that wasn’t his character at all. So what was he looking at? That’s when she waved at him and his cheeks blushed. She had seen that face before. That was the face she had made him make when she started high school with him. And this new random girl did that?

Glancing back between them, she wondered what was going on. “Are you sure you are OK?” Hina leaned in between them, her eyes watching him with great concern, “You’ve been acting weird all day. Is everything alright?”

“Uh, yeah,” his eyes went wide as he saw her and ducked away nervously, “Everything is… fine.”

Hina didn’t know what that was. It was something she had never seen him do before and it terrified her. Turning around once more, she studied the new girl.

What about her was making him act that way? It couldn’t be her looks. She was too plain and boring, with a boring haircut and absolutely no makeup. What self-respecting girl her age would dare go out in public without her makeup on? And if not that, it couldn’t be because she had an attractive body. In fact, she was so small that she almost looked childlike. She knew Ichiro wasn’t into children, he was only attracted to her, after all.

So what was with this new girl? What did she have that Hina didn’t? Nothing, is what she told herself. There was nothing that Hina didn’t have. She was perfect, and this new girl was imperfect and getting in the way of everything.

It frustrated Hina to no end, though. So much so she was even getting distracted while her friends sat around and chatted. They would talk about all the juicy things they had heard around the school, but she was busy trying to figure out what was going on between the new girl and Ichiro. But then the topic switched to the one she had been so focused on, without her saying anything.

“So you saw the new girl, right?” One of them started the topic.

“The one with the wheelchair?” Yeah, I saw her.” Another answered.

“Yeah, she’s a weird one, isn’t she?” Yet another added, snickering.

They began talking about how they felt about her, how they didn’t know why she would transfer like that in high school, how she had made such a strange way of introducing herself, and what her condition was for her to be in a wheelchair.

“I heard,” Hina started without even realizing her lips were moving, “That's all fake. That she’s doing it just for attention.”

Her friend’s all froze and stared at her with confused looks on their faces. “Is that true, Hina?”

The feeling of her heart stopping caught her completely off guard. She didn’t even know it was her who said it until all the eyes were on her. She knew it wasn’t true, but instead of dispelling the rumor, she nodded her head silently. The others looked between each other before bursting out in laughter.

“Oh yeah! I bet that’s totally the case. No way, she isn’t doing it for attention!”

And like that, the seed was sown. The vines of this rumor slowly began to spread throughout the school, finding new stories and growing further beyond her simple lie.

And this was perfect for Hina. Especially when some of those rumors started coming back with some very interesting information.

“There’s no way he is going on dates with her.” Hina shook her head, refusing to listen further.

“That’s what we were saying, but we saw the two of them together. They went to that one cat café downtown.” Some of her friends confided in her in the girl’s restroom while they were adjusting their makeup. “We thought you two had broken up or something. What’s happening?”

Anger flared up in Hina’s heart when her friends confirmed the worst rumor of all as true. She nearly crushed the tube of eyeliner in her hand as she clenched her fist in rage. “It’s it obvious? She is trying to steal him away from me. She’s a skank.”

Silence filled the restroom, before all the occupants turned to each other and nodded. It was the only logical explanation. And further the vines spread.

Once this came to light and the word spread, the entire school began to turn their backs on Izumi. Though they were not outright shunning her, the idea of being friends with such a social pariah scared away all who were still chatting with her. Slowly it became normal to see people walk past and almost forget she is there. The new daily sight was of Izumi staring out the window alone with no one to talk to.

And that was the way things should be. Though, Hina was not done fixing her life that had become so unsettled. From that day on, she made it her mission to cling to Ichiro as much as possible. Quell any rumor that they were broken up and keep him from looking elsewhere. She was his, and he would remain hers no matter what. It was their perfect future after all.

And things were becoming perfect again in her life. Ichiro was playing his hardest and their team was winning game after game. But something was still amiss, Hina could tell. Each time she would cheer for him, he would no longer wave at her and thank her for being there for him at every game. His eyes instead kept scanning the crowd as if he was looking for someone else. Though it seemed like he never found his target, Hina did find one outlier amongst the game’s spectators.

Moving quickly, her and her friends surrounded the wheelchair bound girl.

“What are you doing here?” Hina asked with her arms crossed under her chest, looking down at the pathetic girl who had a child suddenly trying to defend her with outstretched arms.

“I was just watching the game,” Izumi answered, confused. “I was about to go home, though.”

“I know what you were doing,” One of the other girls jumped in, “You were trying to get between Hina and Ichiro, weren’t you?”

“Huh?” the small girl gasped with wide eyes. She had obviously been found out.

“Yeah. You can’t just steal another girl’s man. He belongs to Hina.” The other girls began to call her out and tell her off. Hina just watched as they chided her while backing her up for having done nothing wrong.

Izumi tried to defend herself, but it was pointless, they knew better.

But that was until, some of the girl’s reacted with worry and turned Hina around, coming face to face with an examining stare. Hina’s heart nearly stopped when she saw him, and for some reason she knew she had to cover up what this looked like. Throwing on her most flirtatious voice and cutest smile, she tried to convince him to go with her, but he rejected. Feeling ashamed, she quickly moved away feeling utterly embarrassed for being seen like this.

She hated herself and wept bitterly into her pillow. She didn’t know why, but her future was shattering before her. Her happy life with Ichiro was fading, and the one to blame was Izumi.

Things weren’t going fast enough for Hina. With determination, she spread the word that Izumi was not worth being around, and everyone took up the torch without hesitation.

All except Ichiro, who for some strange reason invited the stupid girl on their date! How dare she have her fingers dug so deeply into him that he would even suggest such an idea.

But this was her chance. She was going to set things straight. And the Ferris wheel was the perfect place.

Hina sat peacefully in the gondola as it rose high in the sky. On the other hand, Izumi was bouncing around excitedly in her seat like a small child. What’s wrong with her? Had she never been on a Ferris wheel before? Whatever. It was now or never.

“Hey, I need to talk to you.” Hina started with a firm tone. It obviously was a shock to the other girl, who went wide-eyed and settled into her seat. Yes, you should be scared of me, Hina thought to herself before continuing.

“What’s your relationship with Ichiro?” She gave a fine point to her question, they were soft but sharp as needles at the tips.

“Uh, we are friends?” the other girl answered timidly, “We met at physical therapy.”

“Just friends?” Hina raised a brow as she questioned her further.

“Uh yeah?”

“Do friends go on dates with each other?”

Izumi froze. She had hit the nail on the head.

“I have been told you two have been going on dates with each other.”

“It’s not what it looks like.”

“Oh?” Hina toyed with her a bit. “Then what is it?”

Izumi bit her lip, trying to think up a good excuse.

“I… can’t explain it to you, but-”

“So they are dates.”

“We are not-!”

“Let me just make this clear to you.” Hina rose to her feet and moved directly in front of the other girl. She glared down at the girl who she towered over. “Ichiro is mine. So stop trying to steal him from me.”

“But I am not-”

“Look at yourself. You are damaged goods. No one would want you. So stop trying to steal other people’s boyfriends. Got it?”

Izumi’s eyes almost looked like they would explode out of her head. They began to shimmer around the edges as her lips quivered and turned downward.

“I am glad we could have this talk.” Hina calmly returned to her seat. “As long as it got through your thick head, I think we can call it even and move on.”

Right as she finished her statement, the Ferris wheel came to a halt and the attendants approached to open the door for them to leave. “But if you don’t keep this in mind, just know, I will make your life a living nightmare.”

Just as the door was unlatched, and they were free to leave, Izumi made her way quickly away from her. Hina knew this was for the best. She had saved her future, but she needed to be prepared just in case.