My Best Friend's Brother

Chapter 1: The Past is the Past

The greatest person I have ever met is Saki Tenma.

She is always ill and in the hospital, yet she has a grin from ear to ear all the time. She's cheerful, sweet, hard working, and just an overall fantastic person. Grade school Y/n was a super shy girl who could not make a friend to save her life. Saki was the first person to ever speak to me, to ever ask me how I was, to ever ask to be my friend. She extended her hand to me when I needed her the most. Saki saved my life. Sure, I was in grade school and maybe saying, "saved my life" is a little dramatic. But that is what it felt like to little 6 year old me. 

My parents adore her and told me to never lose her as a friend. And if I ever were to not be friends with her, they would blame me for it. She is treasure to them I guess. 

Ichika, Honami, and Shiho were also my friends but Saki was always my number one. We are basically like sisters. Even though I saw her as my sister, I didn't see her brother as my brother. 

Saki has an older brother named Tsukasa who is crazy into theater. I had a huge crush on him back in grade school. The only person I had ever told was Honami. Well, I didn't tell her. She found out from reading my diary I left at her house one day. Rather her than Saki any day. Despite her being my best friend, I never told her. Her and Tsukasa are very close and since she called me her "sister", it always felt wrong. I was convinced she would hate me if I liked Tsukasa, so I never told her anything. Honami kept the secret too, thank goodness. I dont think I could eat dinner with the Tenmas if she let the cat out of the bag. The others have never found out either, to be fair, we were in grade school and maybe the ages of 9 or 10.

As the years have gone by, I have pushed my feelings away that I once had and focused on school and my friends. That was when Saki got sick. Really sick. Only Ichika and I visited her in the hospital. Tsukasa was worried for her, you can tell he really cares about her. I mean, who wouldn't. Even when in that hospital bed, when she felt like a drying out fish, she still was the same. There is no one truly like Saki Tenma. The doctors said she had a long time to recover. During that time, we started high school without her. And I watched our once tight knit friend group become strangers. Ichika and I stayed friends but Shiho and Honami went their separate ways.

Things have been hard. Saki and I have drifted a bit. As much as that isn't a huge deal, it still made every day feel like a drag. I wanted her to be better. I hoped for the day she came to school but.

It never came.

I often wondered if I had time to experience high school with my best friend. My heart shattered every time she said that today was a bad day. I felt so bad for her parents who could not wipe the worry off their faces. I felt bad for Tsukasa. 

I wanted my best friend back. She wasn't dying but I just wanted her to be better. 

One day, I was sitting next to Ichika in class. We were talking about Honami and Shiho and how to get back to being friends again. When,

"Good morning class, we have a new student joining our class".