Note: This story is based off the ending of the manga series, so do not proceed further if you don't want spoilers!

Haku and Sasa

The boy's name was Ichijou Haku.

An energetic and friendly young man, with a straightforward, but slightly dense personality. While he had inherited his father's lanky frame, his physical features took more after his mother, giving him the silky-smooth blonde hair and clear blue eyes that made him look more like a foreign model than a normal Japanese student.

But despite his foreign looks, it seemed like life was going well for Haku as a first-year in Bonyari High School. Like his mother, he was blessed with excellent athleticism and was effortlessly able to get top scores in all of his classes. Like his father, he was kind and gracious to his fellow students and teachers, never seeming arrogant or cold when approached.

He was the perfect picture of a model student, one that brought out enthusiastic cheers from all of his peers.

"He's a monster that rules over others with fear and an iron fist. Did you know that he took over all of Bonyari Junior High in just his first year? Think about all the pocket change he took, he must have enough for an iPhone X now..."

"I-Isn't he some kind of pervert? I think I heard something like that...he's always chasing after cute little animals and doing weird stuff to them..."

"You know that blonde hair of his...it's Bieber, right? He must be a...what do you call them...Beliebers? Bieber Fever! Wow, so there really are hardcore fans like him out there, huh?"

"I heard that he was an idiot."

"WAIT A MINUTE! What is this? Just what kind of cheering is this supposed to be? Isn't it all just a bunch of bad-mouthing!?"

"Well...yeah. I guess it is."

"Why!? Who are all these people that are trying to ruin my reputation!?"

"Umm...I think it's pretty much everyone at school. Ah, well maybe except the teachers. I've never heard our homeroom teacher badmouth you, Ichijou-kun. I've only heard him say something like—"

Haah...I've got that crazy problem child Ichijou in my class? Maybe I should just give up on teaching and become a farmer...

"—That's not too bad, right?"

"What...even the teachers think that way about me? I can't believe this...Even though I tried so hard to start a new leaf, why did it end up like this already..."

It was a lazy spring Saturday in the town of Bonyari and the boy named Ichijou Haku was currently working at his part-time job in the traditional sweets store, Onodera. He was in the kitchen with his fellow classmate, Miyanagi Sasa, helping to prepare some fresh ingredients for the upcoming afternoon orders.

Although at the moment, rather than being in the middle of shaping delicate Japanese sweets, Haku was instead bent over the steel counter he had been working on and weeping in frustration. The middle-aged owner of the store, Onodera Haru, couldn't help herself from giving him a look of sympathy as she rolled a ball of sweet mochi dough between her palms.

"You definitely take after your father's side, don't you? I remember that he had a lot of misunderstandings happen to him while he was in high school as well."

"Really? Ichijou-kun's dad had rumors like those about him too?"

Miyanagi Sasa asked her aunt curiously as she reached over Haku's depressed body to take over his share of mochi dough.

"Yeah, there were tons of them," Haru said, now shaping the mochi with the speed and finesse of a practiced master. "Like how he was a sleazy womanizer that was triple-timing on his girlfriend and deceiving all of his partners. Or how he used his family's influence to control the school so he could do all sorts of lecherous stuff without any resistance. There was even a rumor that he had some sort of fanatical fascination with bear-print panties."

"Wait, wait, wait!"

Hearing rumors that seemed ten times worse than his own, Haku's head suddenly snapped back up in response to those revelations.

"Those were all just misunderstandings, right? It wasn't like my old man was actually some kind of dangerous pervert back when he was in high school, right?"

"Of course they were," Haru said with a laugh. "They really were awful misunderstandings. I actually feel bad since I started some of those rumors myself."

"What? You started them!?"

"Just a few. Like I said, it really was a terrible misunderstanding. Although thinking back on it, maybe that was more or less what your father deserved for being such a tactless, dense, wishy-washy moron~"

"..."

Perhaps it was just Haku's imagination, but it seemed like Haru had started pounding the mochi dough with more force than before.

"Um...Onodera-san. You and my old man were friends back in high school, right? You guys weren't on actually on bad terms or anything, were you?"

"No, not at all. Your dad and I had a very good relationship. We even worked together in this store sometimes with Sasa's mother. Ahaha yeah...those really were some unforgettable times. There are just so many memories about your dad that are seared into my mind still, ahahahahaha~"

...

Just what kind of memories could bring out such a dark and unnatural smile...?

"A-Anyways...those misunderstandings eventually got cleared up, right Aunt Haru? So I'm sure you'll be fine too, Ichijou-kun," Sasa said, trying to help clear the air with some words of encouragement.

"That's right, don't beat yourself up too much about it, Haku-kun. Even with those misunderstandings, your dad still ended up having a fun and exciting high school life. Though, I guess that'd be a given considering how his life was at risk almost every single day."

"Huh!? Wait a minute, what do you mean by his life being at risk? That doesn't sound fun or exciting!? Does this have to do with the yakuza part of my family?"

"Well, I suppose it did to some extent. It's true that there were things like gun violence, gang wars, and kidnappings happening regularly—"

"This is sounding worse than my own life somehow!? Just what the heck was going on with my old man back in high school!"

"—but, I guess the greatest danger for your dad was probably your mom."

"Eh? Ichijou-kun's mom?"

Sasa's exclamation was filled with surprise. Haku's mother was a super-famous individual, known as a pioneer in the global fashion industry. Sasa had only seen her a few times on TV, but Haku's mother had always seemed to possess a refined elegance in the way she acted. It was strange to hear that someone like her had somehow been more dangerous than yakuza members or gun fights back in high school.

"There's no way...Aunt Haru's joking around a little too much, isn't she Ichijou-kun?" Sasa said, laughing a little and looking to Haku for reassurance.

"Oh...I see. So that's how it was."

However, Haku suddenly dropped all objections about his family and simply went back to sculpting more sweets.

"Huh!? Wait, Ichijou-kun!?" Sasa said, confused at his tame response. "What's with that reaction? Don't you think what Aunt Haru said is a bit out there?"

"Not really. Actually after hearing that, everything makes more sense to me now..."

"What? Why...?"

"Because sometimes my mom can be..." Haku started, his voice trembling a bit as he spoke. "...really scary. Like really, really scary. It's almost like...like—"

"Ichijou-kun, it's your mom. Sure, my mom can be scary too, but that doesn't mean she's some kind of monster or something—"

"—like facing off against an enraged, bloodthirsty King Kong..."

"ICHIJOU-KUN!? WE'RE TALKING ABOUT YOUR OWN MOTHER, RIGHT!? YOUR WORLD-RENOWNED FASHION DESIGNER MOTHER?"

"Okaay! I think that's all we'll need to make for now. Here Sasa, why don't you take these out to the front while Haku-kun and I clean up?"

Despite being interrupted by the tray of sweets being shoved into her hands, Sasa had no intention of letting the discussion end like this. She persisted in her questioning as Haru started gathering up the dirty equipment for Haku to clean.

"Aunt Haru, Ichijou-kun is mistaken, right? You didn't mean something like that when you were talking about Ichijou-kun's mom, did you?"

"Of course not. Haku-kun is way off the mark. In fact, he should be ashamed talking about his mother like that."

"R-Right...? Yeah, that's what I thought..."

"Nowadays, she's more like Shin Godzilla, you know?"

She's upgraded into an even scarier beast!?

"Ah yeah...I guess you're right. My old man says my mom's becoming more and more like my grandma every day."

"Your grandma is even worse? What's with the females in your family, Ichijou-kun!?"

"Hey now, Sasa! Don't you think you're being a little rude?" Haru said in a stern tone. "Haku-kun's life is also at risk everyday just like his father, you know? Shouldn't you be a little more sympathetic to him?"

"That's the part you have a problem with...?"

Sasa was starting to feel a strange sense of exhaustion. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take...in fact, she wasn't even sure if she could manage to carry these sweets in her current state...

"Oh, Miyanagi-san! Let me take that instead!" Haku said, hurrying over and lifting the tray of sweets from her hands. "It seems a little heavy...I can take care of it for you."

"Ah...thanks, Ichijou-kun," Sasa said, gratefully handing over the tray. "And...about your mom..."

"...Yeah? What about her?"

"...I don't think I really understand since I've never met her before. But Aunt Haru's right, I shouldn't be judging you and your family matters."

"No...it's okay. It's really not that serious anyways, Miyanagi-san..."

"No, I mean it," Sasa said, shaking her head. "I can't understand it, but I can still sympathize with you. Since after all...I also sometimes get that feeling...of Aunt Haru being like Mothra on a wave of destructio—"

THWACK!

Sasa's sentence was cut-off by the deafening sound of a metal pot colliding with the back of her head.

A few moments later, she was up at the front counter with Haku, wincing pitifully to herself as she touched the throbbing bump that had grown on her head.

"Sorry about that, Sasa. It just kind of happened by instinct..."

"No, it's okay...I kind of deserved it anyways."

"Still, I'm really sorry," Haru said, feeling guilty about what she had done to her niece. "How about I make it up to you by letting you guys out early today?"

"What? Really? But then it'll just be you by yourself at the shop—"

"Don't worry about it," Haru said, waving her hand casually. "Fuu-chan is supposed to come down later, so I won't be alone. Besides, today's been kind of slow anyways."

"But still...we also have some custom orders that need to be made for pick-up, don't we?" Haku said.

"Well...those will work themselves out somehow," Haru said, glancing casually at the kitchen. "To be honest, all this talk about mothers made me think about my own mom just now..."

"Granny? So then...Granny was also physically abusive?"

"No, she wasn't. You guys are starting to develop a pretty twisted image of your elders."

Heaving a sigh at Sasa's comment, Haru came up behind the two part-timers and clapped her hands onto their shoulders.

"It reminded me that even though your grandmother made us work a lot for the sake of the store, she still tried to make sure that we had enough time for ourselves to do the things we wanted to do. So—that's—why—"

Haru stressed her last few words as she began pushing Haku and Sasa out towards the back door.

"When the store's not busy, you should take the chance you're given and go enjoy yourselves!"

"But, Aunt Haru—"

"Onodera-san—"

"It's fine, it's fine!" Haru said firmly, giving them one last push to propel them out of the store. "I'll be sure to work you guys down to the bone when it is busy, so just go out and have some fun while you can."

"O...Okay. But Aunt Haru—"

"Onodera-san—"

"No buts. Now, go on. Get out of here, you two rascals."

Sensing another protest, Haru quickly brought an end to the conversation with a sharp slam of the sliding door.

Honestly, those two kids...They really had too big a sense of responsibility. There was nothing wrong with going out and having some fun at their age. It looked like as the adult, Haru still had to help them figure out how to properly balance work and pleasure.

"Haah...I'm really way too nice of a boss. Mom would never have been this lenient with me."

Humming in satisfaction to herself, Haru sauntered back towards the kitchen to begin the prep work for her custom orders.

But a moment later, she had to return to open the back door after hearing some incessant knocking—

—and had to wait as Haku and Sasa went to go change out of their store uniforms.

"Mmmm! Haaah! The weather is really good today!"

Having changed back into a simple t-shirt and some jeans, Ichijou Haku sucked in a big breath and stretched his hands up into the sky.

"It really is. And the cherry blossoms are beautiful too."

Beside him, dressed in a more comfortable sundress and cardigan set, Miyanagi Sasa also took the chance to bask in the refreshing nature outside.

Yep, yep. It was a blessing to have their shift ended early on such a wonderful, perfect day like this.

It was like looking at a scene right out of a drama.

The snow-white petals that were drifting lazily down from the branches and piling into soft mounds—

The clean spring sky that was warmed by the gentle sun and dotted with playful wisps of cloud—

The sight of a boy and a girl, standing within a hand's breadth of each other, connected for a single moment by the feelings that echoed inside both of their hearts—

—And of course, the yakuza members hiding in the background with razor-sharp swords and spiked bats at the ready.

"It's such a perfect sight, isn't it Ichijou-kun?"

"Yeah, it is...it really was...supposed to be, damn it!"

Ichijou Haku fell onto his knees and started weeping again.

"Amazing! To think that the Young Master appreciates the beauty of nature so deeply that he'd be moved to tears..."

"As expected of the Third...he's just as benevolent and sensitive as his father was. Bringing his girlfriend out to see such a scene and even having the guts to cry in front of her...Your manliness is indescribable, Young Master!"

"THE ONLY REASON I'M CRYING IS BECAUSE OF YOU GUYS AND YOUR CRAP!"

Ichijou Haku shouted with tears of frustration in his eyes. He should've known from the moment he stepped out of that store. Even if life had given him a break during this miraculous weather, there was still the curse of his lineage.

"Ah geez! What's with these guys everytime? Why are they always hanging around me, shouldn't they be harassing my old man? Actually now that I think about it, every time they try to follow my old man somewhere, he always tells them to not to worry about him and keep an eye on me instead. Has he been doing this on purpose, that shitty geezer..."

A dark cloud began to form over Ichijou Haku's head as he started mumbling conspiracy thoughts about his father under his breath. Feeling like Haku was going down a bad road, Sasa spoke out in a reasonable tone to try and calm him down.

"Now, now. I'm sure he's just concerned about you, Ichijou-kun. And your family members seem to feel the same way. It's so nice out today, but they're spending the whole day trying to protect you instead. They must really care a lot about you."

"Ahhh, it really is the best looking out for the Young Master! I don't get to see sights like this when I'm on missions, you know?"

"Oh yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I'd definitely pick relaxing outside under the cherry blossoms over being cramped up in some dingy old room while I'm **** a guy's **** off with a couple of **** and **** to make a lesson out of him."

"SCARY! Holy shit, the guys from my family sound like they're doing some seriously scary stuff when they're not around me!"

"Hey, you guys! Remember to keep your distance from the Young Master! Don't forget what we learned during our time with the Boss in the past! The Young Master's a growing high school boy, he needs his personal space. It should be like we're invisible when we're out looking after him!"

"DON'T TELL THEM SOMETHING LIKE THAT AFTER YOU'VE ALREADY BLOWN YOUR COVER!"

"Ah wait, Ichijou-kun—! Hold on!"

"Huh? Young Master, where are you running off to all of a sudde—YOUNG MASTER! PLEASE WAAAAIITTT!"

It was a beautiful spring Saturday in the town of Bonyari.

And like usual, the daily life of Ichijou Haku ended up with him breaking into a mad dash as he—once again—tried to escape from the crowd of yelling yakuza members that chased after him persistently like hungry dogs.

Needless to say, the reputation that he had hoped to rebuild with his new high school life hadn't improved a bit since the year had started.

"It's hopeless...I'm done for, Miyanagi-san..."

"There, there...it's okay, Ichijou-kun. Here, have some more oolong tea."

Miyanagi Sasa nudged her cup over to the depressed figure that was hunched over a counter for the second time today.

It had taken them over an hour to finally shake off the yakuza members, and that was only after an elaborate trick involving a revolving door. Tired and hungry after running through the whole town, the two of them had decided to stop by Haku's regular ramen spot and take some time to eat and rest.

"Here ya go kid, your usual. Extra-large ramen with thick-cut pork belly, corn, beansprouts, spinach, bok choy, bamboo shoots, green onion, extra boiled eggs, and extra noodles!"

A massive bowl, towering with so many toppings that they were taller than the bowl itself, was put down in front of Haku. The sheer weight of the bowl made Sasa's chopsticks bounce into the air as it made contact with the counter.

"Thanks, mister. Can I also get a side of pan-fried dumplings too today?"

"Yeah, you got it."

"Wow...as usual, you really eat a lot, Ichijou-kun."

Even though she had already seen this sight multiple times now, Sasa still couldn't believe how much food someone as thin and slender as Haku could fit into his stomach. Seeing how fast he dug into the behemoth ramen, packing away food at an impossible pace, was really a wonder of its own.

"You think so? My mom usually eats three of these when she comes here, so I don't think it's really that much."

The more she heard about Haku's mother, the more Sasa was starting to believe that she really was Shin Godzilla in the flesh.

"Here ya go, one regular ramen for the young lady. And two orders of pan-fried dumplings for ya, kid. Special service today."

"Really!? Thanks, you're the best, mister!"

His favorite ramen combo and a bonus serving of dumplings. Even though his day-off wasn't exactly going as well as he had hoped it to be, being able to eat good food always helped to improve his mood. He gave an appreciative smile to the chef before digging back into his ramen with renewed enthusiasm.

"Ichijou-kun, is it alright if I have a dumpling?"

"Hom? Heah, ho hourse, ho hight hahead Hiyanahi-han. Hachuahi hah hawahwa hmm huurr—"

"Huh? Sorry, I can't make out what you're saying."

Sasa replied to him with a small smile. Haku's mouth was bursting full with noodles and pork, bloating his cheeks out so that they looked like two water balloons attached to his face. Becoming aware of his poor manners, Haku hastily chewed down the food and somehow managed to swallow it all in one gulp before speaking again.

"M-My bad. Um, feel free to take as many as you want. Actually, I was asking if there's anything else you wanted to eat...I feel bad that I got you involved in my problems again, so I was hoping I could make it up to you by treating you to something..."

"Eh? Oh no! It's fine, Ichijou-kun. You don't have to worry about something like that."

"There's no way I can't...You wasted all that time helping me run away when you had a rare day off...and more importantly, hanging around someone like me is probably hurting your reputation too, Miyanagi-san."

"I mean it, Ichijou-kun, you really don't have to worry about it. I've gotten used to it already. And besides, it's actually been kind of fun."

"Fun!?" Haku said, coughing and spluttering as Sasa's baffling statement interrupted his vacuum-like progress on his ramen. "How is this fun for you, Miyanagi-san...?"

"Well...do you remember what you told me the first time we met? You said you'd show me around Bonyari and help me get familiar with things, right? Well you know, since we've had to run away and hide all over town so many times, I've actually seen pretty much every nook and cranny of Bonyari now, haha."

"That's not exactly what I meant when I said I'd 'show you around' though..."

Haku heaved a little sigh as he chewed mechanically on a dumpling. No matter what she said, Haku couldn't imagine that anyone would actually enjoy trying to evade a small army of yakuza members all the time. He knew that he didn't. Sasa was definitely saying these things so that he wouldn't feel bad, but he couldn't really accept that when he thought about all the trouble he was getting her into.

But at the same time...Haku couldn't help but feel a bit happy too. Even after all this, Sasa didn't really have any hard feelings and was even concerned enough about him to try and take it in stride. It made him feel warm inside, despite his negative thoughts, and that warmth was starting to spread throughout the rest of his body.

In fact...if he was being honest with himself, he hadn't ever felt like this before around Sasa...

He could feel heat in the pit of his stomach and his head was growing light—

His heart rate was speeding up and a nervous sweat was breaking out on his skin—

It was almost as if—

As if all this time—

"The dumplings were expired...?"

"What was that? Did you just say expired? This brat, saying something like that after I was nice enough to give him a free meal—!"

"Wawawa, I said nothing, I said nothing! I didn't say anything like that, really mister! Don't take the dumplings away, pleasee!"

The total came out to 5000 yen. The dumplings had still been free, but Haku had been forced to purchase another bowl of ramen to make up for his thoughtless comment.

"Haah...there goes the rest of my paycheck. The demands of real life can be pretty harsh sometimes, huh..."

"Yeah...though in your case, it's more like the demands of your stomach."

With their stomachs full and their wallets lighter, Haku and Sasa had changed venues once more, taking Bonyari's back alleys to make sure they didn't run into the yakuza members again.

The days had started getting longer, so the sun was still shining innocently in the sky as they walked past neighborhoods and alleyways. The dapples of trees, power lines, and clouds cast cool shadows on the narrow streets, growing in size and merging together as time passed.

Their day-off had been unexpected, so neither Haku nor Sasa had anything planned to use their free time on. Normally, this would've been the perfect time for them to call up their friends and classmates. Perhaps play a friendly game of soccer or hang out at the arcade. Maybe even go to karaoke or relax at a cafe.

"It'd be great if we had friends..."

But unfortunately, they were missing the main ingredient for making such an event happen. Especially for Haku, it was almost heartbreaking for him to realize this fact. He had lived in Bonyari all his life and yet he was in high school now without a single friend to speak of.

But well, maybe it was understandable for someone with his background. However, Sasa was different. She was cute, nice, and harmless. Even from a glance, Miyanagi Sasa had this kind of gentle aura that made her seem easily approachable and friendly.

The only reason Sasa was suffering the same friendless fate as Haku now was because she had bad luck. Bad luck that had gotten her to associate with Haku on her first day here.

And now, there was no turning back. He couldn't undo the damage that he had done to Sasa's one and only high school life. It was probably going to be the greatest regret of his life, being unable to help her even though he was the source of all of her problems.

All he could do now was stick with her to the end. Give her that small bit of consolation in knowing that he wasn't going to just leave her to suffer by herself in loneliness.

"Hm? What are you talking about, Ichijou-kun? I do have friends here, you know?"

"Huh!? What was that? Since when? How!?"

Haku clapped a hand over his mouth as he shouted a particularly rude exclamation to Sasa out of pure shock.

"Since the first day of school, I guess? You know—from our class there's Haruka-chan...and Michiru-chan...and Moriyama-kun..."

Sasa began listing off a bunch of names while counting them slowly with her fingers.

Having enough friends that she even had to count in the first place...

Haku didn't want to admit it, but he felt another wave of depression and jealousy run through him.

"I heard girls made friends with each other a lot more easily, but there's even a guy in there—I mean, hold on! Y-You were able to make friends with them okay? Just like that? They didn't have any problems with accepting you into their group?"

"Yeah. They were really nice. It didn't seem like there were any problems."

"R-Really? I see...so that's how it is. So wait...maybe that means...that means those guys don't really think that badly of me after all—"

"Ah no, I'm pretty sure everyone's still wary about you, Ichijou-kun."

"SERIOUSLY, WHHHHHHY!?"

Ahaha...

Of course...of course things wouldn't change so easily like that...

It looked like in the end, Ichijou Haku was the one that was going to be left behind in a life of loneliness...

"Well...at least you were able to make friends. I still feel pretty sorry for myself, but I'm happy for you, Miyanagi-san. It's great, isn't it? You were able to fit right in with everyone without any problems..."

Haku was able to show her a genuine smile easily. It wasn't like he was bitter or anything about Sasa's good fortune. Having gotten to know her better after working and spending time with her these past few weeks, he knew that Miyanagi Sasa was someone that deserved this kind of happiness.

"I guess I'll have to keep working hard to make friends like you did, Miyanagi-san," Haku said, rubbing his nose a bit churlishly. "I don't know when it'll happen, but I should keep trying my best, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah. You can definitely do it, Ichijou-kun," Sasa said, returning his smile with an encouraging one.

Yeah, that was right...

He couldn't just wallow in self-pity forever...

Even Sasa was cheering him on now...it'd be uncool of him to just stay depressed and give up!

Yeah...he'd keep trying. He'd make a friend and join Sasa in having a fun, fulfilling high school life too!

"Well, you already made a friend though, Ichijou-kun."

"Huh? Hahaha, what are you saying, Miyanagi-san? There's no way I've made a friend, I'd know if I did. No one wants to hang around me at school and I haven't even gotten to talk to anyone but the teachers, you know? Ah, maybe you're thinking about the little kids from the park...I'll have you know, those guys will get along with anybody, they just use people for free snacks—"

"No, you did make a friend," Sasa said firmly, her brows knitting a bit and her expression looking a bit upset. "One that's your age. And who talks with you and hangs around with you a lot."

"Eh...? Who's that?"

"Me."

Sasa answered without any hesitation in her voice. She pointed a finger resolutely at herself, the upset expression on her face growing a bit deeper as she did so.

The muscles on Haku's face completely froze up as he stared blankly at Sasa's finger. The gears in his head had ground to a halt and were having a hard time starting up again.

"When you say 'me'...you mean...you...?"

"Yeah. Me. I'm your friend."

"Miyanagi-san is..."

"Yes."

"...my friend."

"Yes."

"..."

"We're friends."

Haku swallowed to moisten the dry interiors of his throat.

He and Sasa were friends...

Since when...?

It was true that they did talk a lot with each other since they had ended up being in the same homeroom class...

And they did help each other with their homework and even study together sometimes in the library after school...

And once they were finished, they usually walked home together or to the shop if they were working that day...

And on their days-off, they often met together to go shopping for groceries or to grab a bite to eat at some restaurant...

Even their parents were pretty familiar with each other...being close enough that he had started to recognize them in some of the group photos that were scattered throughout his house—

"HOLY CRAP! WE'RE LIKE SUPER CLOSE FRIENDS ALREADY!?"

"You realized that just now...?"

Sasa sighed and felt the slightly bothered feeling she'd been having start to fade away. No...forget slightly bothered...she had actually become pretty mad at Haku by the time she had been forced to spell things out for him.

She couldn't exactly pinpoint why...maybe it was because she had expected Haku to have felt the same way this whole time. Or maybe it was because she had felt a bit arrogant for assuming that they were friends when he hadn't even been thinking about it...

But whatever the reason, one thing had become clear from their conversation.

Haku was dense.

Incredibly dense.

Dense enough that he could be a harem lead who didn't notice the feelings of his unrequited love for over ten years.

But after seeing the delighted expression blooming on his face once the revelation sank in, Sasa couldn't really bring herself to stay mad at him for long.

"I see...hehehehe, I see now! We were friends this whole time...ehehehe..."

Haku couldn't contain the moving feeling of boundless joy that had just ballooned inside his chest. It all seemed so silly now, all the worrying and sighing he had been doing earlier.

He had thought he'd been wasting away his high school life, but all this time, he'd been doing so many friend-like things with Sasa without even realizing it!

"Ahhh! This is such a relief! I was wondering how I should refer to you in my journal entries. I guess I can use 'friend' now instead of 'someone I know that also has an unusual hair accessory'! "

"Eh? Wait...you were using something like that to describe me when you wrote about me in your journal!?"

"N-No—! I mean...I wasn't always referring to you like that! Sometimes, I used 'girl good with cats' too since it was a lot shorter."

"Ichijou-kun, what about my name? My name?"

"N-No way...that would've been the first time I put a girl's name in my journal. It felt so embarrassing, I couldn't bring myself to do it..."

"Why are you acting like a delicate maiden over something stupid like that!? Hold on a second...where's your phone? What did you put me as under in your contacts list?"

"W-Woah! Wait a minute, Miyanagi-san! You can't just look in a young boy's smartphone like that, it's inappropriate—!"

It was a quiet spring Saturday in the town of Bonyari. The sun was setting into a soft glow and there were two first-year Bonyari students running through the streets, fighting over a phone and shouting carelessly into the cool evening air.

For a regular high school student, this would be a normal, perhaps even everyday occurrence. There was nothing special about the meaningless chatter between the two, about the physical contact that held no deeper meaning besides achieving dominance over an electronic device.

There was nothing special about the girl that had just wrestled the phone out of the boy's grasp and was now laughing as she danced away with the phone clutched to her chest—

This girl was named Miyanagi Sasa and she was just a regular high school girl. Just a normal person, not someone that was a genius in academics, or someone that was popular and well-known at school, and not even a yakuza heir that was chased around daily by an army of devoted followers—

She was just a girl that he had met for the first time just a few weeks ago—

A girl that didn't really have any special features, nothing that would catch your eye upon first glance—

A girl that was just his classmate, just his partner at work, just an acquaintance of his family—

Who was good with animals, a pretty good cook, and fairly sociable as well—

Who couldn't really handle spicy foods, who didn't have a whole lot of stamina, who could be a bit airheaded at times and directionally-challenged—

She was such a normal, unremarkable person that perhaps it was understandable why Ichijou Haku hadn't noticed until now—

—that the special thing about her was that she had been his friend all along.

Afterword

Hello everyone, it has been a while. I hope you have all been doing well. The story this time is a small piece about Haku and Sasa, the children of the main protagonists in Nisekoi.

I started writing this a bit after Nisekoi had ended (can you believe it's been over 2 years!) alongside a number of other stories that were never completed. There were numerous iterations on a Haku and Sasa story, and I eventually settled on this. I had a larger plot arc planned that I found very promising and I told myself that I would come back and write it out, perhaps even having future arcs with hypothetical characters like Tsugumi or Marika's children. But like the other Nisekoi stories and arcs that I never finished, it was left sitting on a drive to gather dust. If anyone is interested in where the plot would've gone, I will update with a small summary chapter later as it's unlikely that I'll work on this more in the future.

I decided to take the story and complete it as more of a oneshot because while not much happens yet, I liked that it provided a small glimpse of what Sasa and Haku's daily life might've been like. The bonus chapter was very short, so I did end up taking some liberties with the characters, but it was fun trying to imagine what their worries would've been about and how their lives might've been affected by their families.

One thing I cut out of this iteration, but wanted to cover later, was the future relationship between the original Nisekoi characters. From a glance, the canon ending was pretty somber and grounded, it was implied that everyone pretty much drifted apart from each other and moved on with their own lives. Since Haku and Sasa didn't know about each other at all, it even seems like the parents didn't keep in contact.

But I like to think that there's a more optimistic interpretation, based off what we saw of Raku and the others' parents. There's not much direct interaction between Marika, Chitoge, Kosaki, and Raku's mothers, but we are shown that they were very close in high school. While they might've all gone their separate ways, they did keep in touch it seems since that was how Nisekoi started; all of the families brought their children together for a summer.

I like to think that the Nisekoi characters did treasure their relationships with each other in the future, that they perhaps even reunited occasionally like their own parents had. And that Haku and Sasa being unaware of each other was just like Raku not knowing about the girls; just a result of them not having spent much time together until high school. While the childhood love is a major plot device in Nisekoi, it should be noted that their time together as children was actually very brief and I think it's understandable that some of them would've forgotten each other. Both Yui and Marika remembered, but their unique family situations probably made it so that their childhood memories were a lot more important to them.

Anyways, that's enough of my rambling. As always, thank you for taking the time to read my works and I hope, that at the very least, it's been an enjoyable distraction. I don't want to say that this is the last you'll see of me, but I guess this being the first activity I've had on FF in over 2 years makes it hard to believe that! So the best I can say is that hopefully, there'll be a time when we can meet again in the future.

Until the next time!