Author's Note (2/13/2017): So for those of you new readers coming in, this is my new fanfiction going into the Self-Insert OC genre. There may be a few mistakes going into the earlier chapters, but if you can bear with that and my time revising, then I think you're home free!

Thank you for at least trying out my story. Knowing that someone is at least enjoying Tomoko's beginnings is enjoyable for me.

Disclaimer (10/19/2016): …Well, this is my first fanfiction ever. Just posting something up based on some stray thoughts of mine. Note that I don't own anything except my character who has yet to be named here.

And putting this out here, I want to thank the creators of Dreaming of Sunshine, Inoue Shiori, Catch Your Breath, and Deja Vu no Jutsu for having inspired me in taking this step. Up until now, I thought I would only really be reviewing other people's stories, but they all inspired me into trying something of my own free will. I'll just go with the flow and see how this goes, so enjoy!

Prologue

...So I died.

I'm not really sure how to explain it to you without sounding really emotional and teary all at once, but I'll do my best. In fact, I'm not really sure how it happened myself. I was just going to college like all the other freshmen were, and one night, when waiting for my parents to pick me up, some random dude decided to drive recklessly around and caught me when I wasn't paying attention.

It's ironic considering that I had recently failed my 2nd behind-the-wheel driving test and was supposed to improve on 'scanning the traffic'.

But still. I had died. And it hurt—a lot.

When I had realized what had happened, it was already too late. The last thing I remember is seeing Mom's tearful face before I went away.

I wasn't even able to tell Leo, my wonderful, sweet boyfriend, "I love you" or even "Goodbye."

That's probably why it hurt so much, ascending to someplace else. Dying meant leaving all your loved ones behind, and honestly, a part of me kept blaming myself for ending up in that situation where the dude hit me. After somewhat of a traumatizing incident when I was 10, I had vowed then to do whatever I could so that my loved ones wouldn't have to cry anymore. All of my work would go into making them happy. That incident was my fault—and I didn't want to mess up again.

But here I was, ascending to a place where my loved ones couldn't reach me, leaving them alone. Mom and Dad, my big brother, Leo, Josh, all my friends—I had to leave them behind, and I just didn't want to.

To me, my death was far too early. I had just started maturing emotionally and bonding with everyone again after that incident and yet some dude just had to ruin everything.

…At this point, I'm not sure if my death was my fault or his. But I have a strange feeling that many of my loved ones will be after the guy later on.

Once I had left my old body behind, my spirit apparently continued to wander. Where? I'm not really sure what to tell you. I was never really religious aside from the shared Buddhist family background I got from my mom, and the last I checked there wasn't really a lot of talk on life after death. Sure, I've talked to some Buddhists who acknowledged the existence of ghosts, but just by looking around, I could tell I wasn't in the world I was born in.

Everything was white. Just, plain white. No sound, no color, no people.

It was just me.

Which is why when my surroundings changed that I did the only thing I could do.

Cry like a bitch.

…Excuse me for cursing, but that was kinda justified since I wasn't expecting to see new faces in front of me and for my hands to be so small.