This is again based on a song I'm listening to right now. I really love this movie, highly recommend you watch it. Unless you don't want the feels to hit again. But who doesn't want to hear Lea Michele sing? :) I'm not a huge fan of her but she's an amazing singer, I have to give her props for that.
Brace yourself for the feels.
This takes place a year later--Hiro's 15, and you and Tadashi are 19.
Guide:
(Y/N): Your Name
A long sigh escaped from your mouth as you packed your final sweater into your suitcase, closing the lid over the SFIT logo that sat innocently on top of your other clothes. You can't believe it. After spending practically your entire life in San Fransokyo, you're moving away, and even partway through your college years, because your mom had gotten herself a new internship opportunity somewhere across the world and she wanted you to come.
She did have a point when she told you that you weren't going out often enough, that you still need to see the world while you still can. And even though inside you didn't want to move away, you eventually agreed. In three days' time, you'll be saying goodbye to everything, to everyone. And it hurt.
"Just about done with the last--ahh, yes you have," your mom nodded. "Good."
You nodded solemnly, looking at your almost bare room. The only things that have remained were your textbooks, which you could give to your professors for future students to use (for free), your backpack, and a charm bracelet from your best friend and secret crush, Tadashi Hamada, as a gift for your last birthday.
"Mom, do we really have to do this?" you asked her sadly, a tear leaking from your eye.
"Oh honey. The opportunity was too good to refuse," your mom confessed. "It's for the best, (Y/N)."
You shook your head in shock upon hearing those words. "How could you say that?!" you cried. "How could you say that when we've lived here for so long, just to have my quiet and peaceful life in San Fransokyo ruined by your prospect to see the world? Mom. My life was normal before this! And now? What are you doing? Ruining my entire life? Disrupting all my dreams? Turning them into dust?" Tears brimmed in your eyes, and your vision was now swimming and blurring into a blend and clash of colours.
"(Y/N), please. Even you agreed to this," your mom told you.
"Yeah. A week before today," you said bitterly. "But now I change my mind. I can't leave here. Not when my best friend has finally gotten himself a girlfriend...who's not me."
This last bit was very much true. Just as you were going to pluck the courage to tell him about your moving and your crush on him, your friend, Honey Lemon, had taken the opportunity away from you. And now, everywhere you go, there they would be, holding hands and chatting as if...as if you were never there.
Who knows how long this would last?
Suddenly, you felt the urge to just run away from the house, just to clear your mind. Picking up your phone from your backpack, you ran out of the house, and your mom didn't even try to stop you. The vast expanse of blue sky greeted you, filled with fluffy white clouds and birds flying overhead as they chirped happily. You wished you shared that happiness, though. All you felt inside you was dread.
Sadly, you kicked the pebbles that lay innocently in your path and let out a random shout of anger and frustration, feeling the world crumble before you as you started to run away, your feet pounding hard on the sidewalk, not thinking of where you were going. How could the world suddenly be so evil, so cruel, so twisted? Life was never fair in its game. And you only realized this just too late. With you leaving your home in just three days, and with Tadashi already pretty much gone from your life...is there really any way for you to move on and forget?
Soon, you found yourself sitting on the pier, just by the harbour, overlooking the vast expanse of ocean that lay before you, stretching all the way to the horizon. Glancing down at the water surface into your reflection, you saw just how truly horrible you looked...how helpless you felt knowing that the world would never go the way you wished. In that moment, you truly started to break down, the tears flowing down your cheeks as you buried your face in your hands. Yes, you agreed a week ago to move with your mom, but now? You knew you couldn't leave here with a broken heart. But you didn't know who would heal it.
"(Y/N)? What are you doing here?"
You whipped your head around to see the younger Hamada brother, Hiro, approach you, and you made no attempt to wipe your tears away.
"H-Hiro..." you hiccuped, sniffling. "Hey."
"What are you doing here?" Hiro asked you again, sitting beside you with a concerned expression on his face.
You shook your head, squeezing your eyes shut. "Hiro...I know I haven't told anyone but..." You hiccuped again and wiped the tears away. "Hiro, I'm moving away. In three days. And I can't bear the thought of leaving here."
Now Hiro's eyes were wide. "You're--you're moving away?!"
You nodded. "Yes. I am. And it just makes it all the more worse because I'm not only leaving my only home for practically my entire life, but I'm leaving you, and my friends...and...and..." You couldn't go on. The sobs that racked your body eventually proved to be too powerful and too strong to hold in, and soon you were hugging Hiro so fiercely you thought that you would break him, but surprisingly, he managed to hold on.
"Tadashi?" he finished quietly.
Silence ensued between the both of you before you eventually nodded, your grip on Hiro growing tighter.
"He's...he was my everything, Hiro. Best friend, lab partner...everything anyone can wish for," you admitted. "But guess who he chose to be with instead? Honey Lemon." You pulled away, but Hiro still a hand gripping onto yours. "Not that I blame him. It's his choice. But what he probably didn't realize was that he left me with a broken heart. What am I going to do, Hiro? Not only am I leaving here, but my best friend left me too. It just feels...like...I'm already gone."
"No, you're not," Hiro assured you. "(Y/N), you mean something to me, and Tadashi, and everyone else you're leaving." He squeezed your hand, though you sensed nothing romantic in the gesture. "Tadashi's been talking quite a bit about you over the last few days. He'll be heartbroken when he finds out you're moving, though."
"Then...oh, what am I going to do?!" you cried. "Pretend nothing's wrong? Hiro, everything's wrong. And I can't seem to make it right anymore."
"You don't leave in another three days," Hiro reminded you. "You don't have to do anything. Just pretend nothing is wrong. Maybe one day he'll realize what he's done. Meanwhile, just go with your mom, and don't worry about him. Whatever your mom is doing, I'm sure she'll do great."
"What if it's too late for him to realize?"
Hiro shook his head. "Then I'll tell him."
That sounded like a good plan. You nodded and smiled, feeling a glimmer of hope in your chest. "Okay then. Let's cross our fingers and hope it works."
"That's it," Hiro grinned, helping you get up and walking with you all the way back home.
*****************************
Three days later, Tadashi was on his way to his lab, laughing along with Honey Lemon after hearing a funny joke he just heard. Being with her made his heart lift, as if she was like a ray of sunshine always ready to cheer him up.
"Well, I better be going," Honey Lemon said almost apologetically, looking at her watch. "I have another chemistry report to write. I'll be seeing you later, I guess."
"Yeah," Tadashi nodded, waving back as he watched her go. A faint smile decked on his face for a bit before he retreated into his own lab, surprised to see a piece of paper addressed to him on his desk. Curious, he picked it up and read it.
Dear Tadashi,
I'm pretty sure by this point I've become invisible to you, but hopefully you do recognize the handwriting to realize that yes, it's me, your best friend since forever. (Y/N).
If you're reading this, I'm already gone. No, I'm not dead or anything. But my mom has been presented with an internship opportunity and I agreed to go with her. Yes, that pretty much means I'm leaving San Fransokyo. Or rather, I'm already out of San Fransokyo. And I don't know how long I will be gone. A day? A week? A few months? Several years? Time is hard to tell anymore, Tadashi. I thought I had a lifetime ahead of me to spend in San Fransokyo, with you. But I guess I was wrong.
I saw you and Honey Lemon together over the last few days. Though it hurts me to say this, I'll say it anyway. You both make a wonderful couple, and I hope you two get along very well. I know, kinda weird for me to fall in love with my best friend after just a few years, huh? But it's okay. I fully support you. It hurts, like I said, but I'm letting you go. Writing down that I need you would sound too clingy, would it?
Life's cruel. I know. But eventually there will be a day when I can see a light ahead and reach for it. Something good would come out of this. Hope for the day when I come back...or not. Though let me just take the time to say...thank you for everything, Tadashi. You taught me to be a strong person, someone who would always be loyal to others and never give up on them. I'm grateful to have been your best friend through and through.
So, yeah. Thank you for not giving up on me over the last few years.
Sincerely,
(Y/N)
Tadashi's heart immediately went from whole and pure to shattered, as if his heart was nothing but a mirror and someone punched hard into the surface of it, causing it to crack and shatter into a million fragmented pieces. How could he have been so stupid to realize that you were in love with him? And to think that all you ever were was his best friend! He never really had a thing with Honey Lemon at all--nothing but just good times, hanging out with her as if...oh. Maybe you were right. If you saw everything he and Honey Lemon ever did...no wonder it left you broken. But what he didn't know was that Hiro already knew everything that ever happened. And now where were you? Halfway across the world?
What if it was too late to ask you for forgiveness?
Without another word, he put the letter down and started up his laptop, his fingers cold and his head swimming with the questions in his brain. You couldn't have been gone that quickly, can you? Somewhere within you, you must still have a bit of thought for him. The moving didn't just change your life--it changed him too. Realizing that he would never see you again hit him just as hard.
As soon as his computer was booted, he started to write an email to you.
Dear (Y/N)...
HEY YO! I'm cutting it here, sorry. Ugh, the story must have been so bad. :( I don't even know how the direction just changed. But whatever, I guess. I'm really sorry if I made you cry, but the idea just took hold of itself and took off in this direction! And I'm sorry if it's so short--I have to try and make stories more concise from now on, and all my ideas are coming in fragments now. So if this is crappy, I apologize right off the bat. Crappy and sad...who would have thought now, eh?
Yeah, so I've got quite a few assignments to do this weekend so I'll catch up with you all later.
-magic_mockingjay