Interlude 1

It must have started with a small misunderstanding. The fact that he couldn't bring himself to say he didn't like ginger cookies. And the fact that I didn't notice.

That was all it was.

The tiny fissure grew slowly but steadily; the more time passed, the larger it became. Neither I nor Ryuuichi-kun realized it.

Back then, I was so caught up in the excitement of my very first love that I wasn't really looking at Ryuuichi-kun at all.

『I don't think things are ever going to work out between us at this rate. Let's end it here.』

The day he told me that, my mind went blank.

In that moment, Ryuuichi-kun apologized for many things.

That he couldn't forget the girl he met during summer break in elementary school, the one he watched the lunar eclipse with and who knew so much about space. That he’d been using the campsite where they met for the Astronomy Club’s training camps. That his pursuit of a new comet was a promise he’d made to her.

What did I say in response? Did I accept the breakup gracefully, or did I get emotional and deny it? I don't even remember.

My memories only become clear during the walk home, when I was staring blankly up at the sky.

Ryuuichi-kun had told me before that a special star was coming to Earth today.

Apophis. An asteroid given the name of an evil god from Egyptian mythology was said to be passing right by Earth. Apparently, it couldn't be observed from Japan due to the timing, but I thought if I made a wish on such a special star, it might come true.

Because I was pinning my hopes on such a fairy tale, thinking about a star thirty thousand kilometers away, I’d neglected what was right in front of me.

Suddenly, heaven and earth flipped, and the sky was spread out directly beneath me. It was only after that happened that I realized my body had been sent flying by a massive impact and was now soaring through the air.

A car? A truck? Did they run a red light? Or was I the one who ignored it?

Amidst thoughts that felt like they belonged to someone else, I stared blankly at the sky and thought I saw a trail of a star. It might have been a hallucination, but even so, I clung to that star and made a wish.

I want to start over one more time.

After that, my soul must have rewound to the time I was a fertilized egg. But my past self was already there. The fertilized egg, housing two souls, couldn't maintain its original shape and split in two. One became Asada Miharu, and the other became who I am now: Asada Sayuki.

And so, I was reborn, and my second loop through life began.