You're walking with Rise to Junes today. She wanted to get a new TV, since apparently she has some money left over from when she was an idol. "You must have a lot money huh?" you say to her. Although it's expected since it is really hard work. "I guess you could say so. Saving most of it though." she says. "What for?" you ask her, curiosity getting the better of you. "Well, in the future, I would love for us to get married and have a really nice house, so I'm working towards that." she says, looking at you and smiling. "That sounds like a wonderful thing to work for." you tell her, smiling back at her. As you continue walking towards Junes, you suddenly start hearing someone running behind you. You look behind you and notice that Kure is running towards you two. "Heeey! Wait up!" he says, slowing his pace down slightly when he sees you and Rise stop. "Kure? What are you doing here?" you ask him. "Well, remember when we met in Okina City earlier? I thought I should hang out with you two." he says, trying his best to catch his breath. "So does that mean you want to be friends with Senpai again?" Rise asks, looking pretty happy. "Well, not yet. But I'll give him a chance and decide later." he says. "That's fine by me. Well, since you're here, help us with something." you say, explaining the TV situation to him. He agrees to help you out, and you go ahead and help Rise look for a TV. She ended up getting a pretty good deal on a TV she was really happy with, and you and Kure helped carry the TV back to Rise's room. This was the first time that Kure entered Rise's room, so he sat around a lot, looking around the room, instead of helping you and Rise unbox the TV. "Well, that should be enough. I can set it up from here. After this, I'll go help grandma out, so you guys can go ahead and hang out." she says, smiling at me. "Oh, alright. See you later then, Rise!" you say, smiling back at her. You are sadly unable to give her your usual goodbye kiss due to Kure being here. You head downstairs with him and he suddenly stops you. "How about we grab something to eat here while we talk about some things?" he says. "That's a good idea actually." you say, going ahead and ordering some tofu from Rise's grandma and taking a seat along with Kure. "Well, what did you want to talk about?" you ask him. You're surprised at how calm he seems. "Well, I just wanna apologize first of all. I guess I had blind hatred for you since middle school, and I haven't realized it until recently." he says. "It's fine. All is forgiven. What made you change your mind though?" you ask him, curious about his reasons and his sudden change in personality. "Well, a lot of stuff actually. First of all, since Rise rejected me, I found a girl I like and I think I can actually get together with her. I don't know what I was thinking with Rise. She's way out of my league." he says. "I guess I was way too self-centered. It first hit me when Rise said she never heard about me, even though she went to the school for months. This was a huge reality check for me." he continues. "Then, because of what happened at Okina City, I actually started talking with my parents and I let them give me advice about what to do. I have never done that, so it surprised them, but their advice helped me fix a lot of my arrogance and made me realize a lot of things. Like how you don't hate me. They made me realize how great of a friend you really were back in the day and they convinced me to give you another chance." he finishes. That is quite unexpected. He really matured a lot ever since you had a proper chat with him. "Well, I'm glad we can put that behind us now." you say, extending your hand out to him, exchanging a handshake. After that, we continue eating in silence. "Huh? What are you guys doing here?" you suddenly hear Rise exclaim from behind you. "Oh, we were just having a chat." you say, smiling at her.

Couple months later, you are at the entrance of the shrine waiting for Rise. Since then, you and Kure have properly become friends again, and you've enjoyed spending time with him and Rise. But tonight, you're alone with Rise on New Year's eve and waiting for her to arrive in a kimono. You haven't really seen her in a kimono yet. There was that one show she did in which she was wearing one, but you weren't able to watch it. After a while of waiting, way longer than you thought it would take, you can see Rise slowly approaching you in the distance, wearing a violet kimono, with her hair in a ponytail. She looks absolutely stunning, which makes the wait more than worth it. "How do I look Senpai?" she asks, doing a little twirl. It takes you a little while to actually say something, due to being entranced by her. "It looks absolutely wonderful Rise." you tell her, blushing a little bit while smiling. "Well, this is one of a girl's best outfits you know, I wouldn't have accepted anything less than that." she says, giving me a smile. "It's the first time I'm going to be spending New Year's with someone! I can't wait!" she says, looking like she can't stop smiling. "Well, let's go. It should be time soon." you tell her, holding her hand and heading into the shrine. You can see that a lot of people showed up here, either with their partner or with a big group of friends. "What are you looking forward to Rise?" you ask her. "Well, I am going to be start being a idol again, so there's that, but I'm really looking forward to spending more time with you!" she says. "What about you Senpai?" she asks. "Well, I am really looking forward to spending more time with you as well, but I am also looking forward to catching up with Kure." you tell her. "That's some pretty great things to look forward to. Especially the first one!" she says, laughing softly. You briefly glance over at the clock, noticing it's 23:59. All the people start counting down from 10, so you and Rise do so as well. While doing so, Rise gets closer to you and points at her lips. You can kinda guess what she wants to do. As the countdown gets to about 2, you lean in to kiss Rise, your lips touching hers just as the countdown ends. After a couple more seconds, you break the kiss, looking around only to see people staring at you and then applauding. They must've been watching you the entire time. You glance over at Rise and notice that she is very flustered, rushing over and hiding her face in my chest. Slowly, the people leave and the shrine is practically empty except for you two. "T-That was quite embarrassing." Rise says, blushing. "Yeah. Caught me by surprise too." you say. "Well, since it's New Year's, my grandma has a special menu. If you're hungry, let's go there and try it out." she says. "That sounds great." you say, heading towards the shop with Rise.

It's time for the skiing trip you'll be going on with Rise and Kure. You've had this planned for a while, and have really been looking forward to it. Especially since Rise will be leaving once school is over. She spoke to her manager and talked about going back into showbiz, and she has her first comeback show in April so she needs to go back in March to prepare for it. You've been spending a lot of time with her since then, trying your best to make the best out of the little time you still have with her. You and Kure are practicing some skiing while waiting for Rise. "Have you done this before?" you ask him. "No. But seems I'm pretty good at it!" he says, speeding up. Not wanting to be undone, you speed up aswell. You haven't done this either, but after a little practice, it all seems really natural to you. The both of you quickly reach the bottom of the hill and decide to spend some time down there to relax. "How about that girl? You still working on her?" you ask him. He has known about your relationship with Rise for a while now and he's been really supportive about it. He kept saying stuff like he had no chance with her but you think that if his personality back then was the same as it is now, you might actually have been fighting to secure Rise for yourself. "It's going alright. Gonna ask her out to the movies soon." he says. "How about you? Have you and Rise done it yet?" he asks, getting a mischievous smile on his face. As he says that, you quickly look around, making sure that Rise is nowhere nearby. "The hell are you saying!" you exclaim, a little louder than you planned for. "She's going away soon right? You've gotta make sure you at least do that before she goes away and who knows when you'll see her again." he says. He does raise a good point. You've had plenty of chances up until now, but you just haven't had the courage yet. You make a mental note to yourself that you need to try and do that as soon as possible. "Scoring it with a idol? Dude, you're lucky as hell." he says, punching my arm slightly. "What's this about scoring?" you hear Rise's voice behind you, which startles you. You're too startled to even say anything. "Oh, don't worry about it. Have you went skiing before?" Kure asks, quickly changing the conversation and saving the situation. You owe him one. "Well, I have been to a ski resort a couple times, but I've never been too good at it." she says humbly. "Well, let's go practice then. Come on tomato face!" he says, motioning me to follow. His little remark makes Rise laugh a little, which I'm happy for. We climb up the hill again and Kure goes ahead and does some practice on his own, while I do some practice with Rise. You take things slow and make sure to explain everything to her in the best way you can. Before long, she seems to have no trouble skiing. "Wow Senpai! You're such a good teacher!" she says, looking very excited. "I guess. This all new to me too though." you reply. You keep on teaching her until she's more comfortable with it and decide to go and ski around with Kure.

It's the day that Rise is supposed to go back to the city for her career in showbiz. You've been dreading this day ever since you first heard about it. Apparently she'll come to visit every once in a while and try her best to have shows around this area, but you still can't help but feel sad. You're at the train station waiting for her. You got here a little bit earlier than you were supposed to, but you couldn't really sit still. Eventually, you can see Rise along with her grandma and a couple of luggage bags slowly make their way to the station. Once they are in front of you, her grandmother gives you a bow. "Thank you so much for taking care of Rise for the past couple months. She always talks about you and how supportive you have been with her." she says. "It was my pleasure." you say, smiling. "Well, I shall leave you two alone. I have already said my goodbyes to Rise." she says, going towards Rise and hugging her, before going back to her shop. This just leaves you and Rise all alone. "Well, this is it..." you say. After that, you and her sit there in silence for a while, until Rise runs up to you and hugs you really tightly, while sobbing. "I'll miss you so much Senpai! It'll be so boring without you!" she says, her sobbing becoming louder. "It's okay Rise. I'll be here whenever you come back. We can still talk on the phone. It won't be long until we see each other again." you say, trying your best to calm her down, also trying your best not to cry. "I'll never forget about you Senpai. You are the first person to ever love me for who I am. I will always be thinking of you." she says, still sobbing. "So will I, Rise. You'll forever be in my heart." you tell her. After a while, her sobbing stops and she lets go of you. "My debut will be in April. Make sure you'll watch it. I'll be trying my best for you!" she says, smiling and wiping her eyes. "Don't worry, I'll never miss any of your shows." you reassure her. "When you see me smiling, smile as well Senpai, because I'm doing it for you." she says. She glances at the time and goes back to get her luggage. "The train should be here any minute now." You help her with most of it, going inside the station to wait for the train. You and Rise sit down on a bench, and she rests her head on your lap. "I guess this is the last time I'll get to do this." she says, giggling. "Don't worry, when you're back, you can use my lap as much as you want." you say. "I'll make sure to monopolize it Senpai!" she says. "This is so comfortable. I feel like I can lay here forever." she says, smiling up at you. You smile back and gently rub her head. After a while, you can hear that the train is approaching. "It's time sweetheart." you tell her gently. She gets up and we head towards the train that just arrived. You help her load the luggage in the train. "Well, I guess this is goodbye for now." you tell her. "Take care Senpai." she says, going up to me and giving me a kiss on the lips. You want this moment to last forever, but sadly, it only lasts a couple seconds. She steps back and slowly gets on the train, and after a couple moments, you can see her waving at you from behind the train window. You stare at each other while smiling until the train slowly begins accelerating. You run after the train, while waving to Rise. She smiles throughout the whole thing and waves back. Eventually, you are unable to run after the train anymore so you stop. You stand there for a little longer, looking at the train until it's out of sight. As you walk home, you get a text from Rise. "I love you Senpai! 3" is what it says. "Love you too! 3" is what you reply with.

Thank you for reading my fanfiction! It's been a lot of fun writing this so I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making it! This is my first fanfiction that I released, so any feedback is useful, whether it's positive or negative. I know that this chapter was a little short compared to the other ones, but I didn't want to drag this story out longer than it needed to be, which I feel I have done regardless. I may do some more fanfictions in the future, so if you have any suggestions, you can tell me and I might write about it! Thank you again and see you all next time!