To The Stars | Tokito Muichiro x OC

93 • A Kinder Life

"Grandma! Grandma! Can we go to the playground?" A little girl with mismatched eyes bounded to her grandmother, eyes sparkling with eagerness. "The rain is gone now. We can go, right?"

"Well, the playground is close by but I'm really busy." Grandma Shizuku peered over the window. As hesitant as she was, the elder woman didn't want her grandchildren, who had just recently lost their parents, to stay cooped up inside. Especially not when this was the first time they tried to willingly go outside after weeks of tears. "Alright, I'll just ask the neighbors to accompany you."

"The neighbors?" Getsumei tilted his head to the side. "We have neighbors?"

"By definition, neighbors mean the people who live in the house next to us." Hizashi didn't lift his eyes from the book he was reading. "Grandma's house isn't the only one here, you know."

"Yes, dear smart brother of mine." Getsumei rolled his eyes, plopping down on Hizashi's lap and completely interrupting his reading session. "Put down the book and go outside, won't you? Inori is practically trying to be one with the window right now."

"Ah! Inori! Don't squish your face against the window!" Hizashi threw Getsumei off him, grabbing his sister from the window. "It's not like you can see them from here, right, Grandma?"

Grandma Shizuku chuckled. Weeks have passed since they moved into her house, but this was the first time the triplets bantered as normally as they would prior to the accident. "It's good to see you three being so excited. Actually, the neighbors have children your age too. They're twins."

"Really?" Now the three children had their cheeks squished together, each trying to get a glimpse of the neighbor's house.

It didn't take long for Grandma Shizuku to have an impromptu playdate ready. The Tokisaki couple were more than happy to let their sons play with the Hoshizawa triplets.

However, contrary to what the adults think, their first meeting didn't go as expected.

"Hizashi, Getsumei, Inori, they're here," Grandma Shizuku called out to her grandchildren from the door, smiling as she heard the sound of thumping feet and tumbling. She turned to smile at the Tokisaki matriarch. "Thank you for this."

"Ah, it's fine." The mother waved her concerns off. "Yuichiro and Muichiro don't really have many friends in kindergarten, so I hope they can be friends with Hizashi, Getsumei, and Inori, being multiples and all. By the way, are you going to enroll them in the same kindergarten?"

"Yes, I—"

"Grandma!" Inori was first to barrel through the hall, crashing into her grandmother's back. "Grandma! I can't find my hairpin! You know, the one with three stars connected by one line. I can't find it."

Muichiro, hidden behind his mother's back, widened his eyes at the sight of the girl. He didn't know why he felt such a strong sense of familiarity with her. Surely, he would remember if he ever met someone with silver-rainbow hair and mismatched eyes. He didn't even realize he was slowly making his way towards the girl.

Inori turned her head, coming face-to-face with a pair of mint-green eyes. Her own mismatched ones widened as they continued to stare at each other.

"I'm sure that no matter what life we meet in, we will find each other again."

"Inori! What's wrong?"

"Muichiro! What happened?"

"Huh?" Neither Inori nor Muichiro blinked, continuing to stare at each other even as tears streamed down their eyes like a waterfall.

"What's this?" Muichiro looked down at the droplets of tears that fell onto his palm. "Mom, what's wrong with me?"

"Grandma?" Inori touched her cheeks, feeling the wetness on her fingers and the saltiness on her tongue. "Why? I...why am I?"