Author Notes : 

I do want to apologize for the delay. I've been busy with University and i haven't had the chance to continue writing as much as i did back then in Pandemic. So expect following chapters to get posted with a considerable amount of delay. I hope i can still finish this project though! :)

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~~~ Nobita Nobi ~~~

The day we were planning to go to the ski resort in Sendai had finally arrived. I woke up earlier than usual, which I managed to do after setting three consecutive early alarms, all five minutes apart.

As I put on my glasses, I took one last look behind me. The room was dimly lit from the faint morning light penetrating through the thin layer of green curtain. I wouldn't be seeing this room for a while, at least for the next couple of days.

I was fully prepared to go to the resort today. Everything I needed had been put into my blue mountain bag that had lost most of its vibrant colours after being used so many times.

I stood up from my bed, stretching both of my arms. Usually, I don't get to do something like this. Instead, Doraemon would tell me to get to the bathroom immediately.

It's not going to happen today, frankly enough.

I walked towards the window, opening it once I was there. Immediately, the frigid morning air blew softly into my face.

Instead of the sounds of hard footsteps of my mom and/or Doraemon yelling (and someone falling down the stairs), the sounds of birds chirping, the rustling sounds of the tree branches, and the sound of distant traffic activities greeted me.

This was something that I really enjoyed, hearing all the sounds that I don't get to hear every day.

It's nice to wake up early, eh?

Just then, something came across my head:

I wondered if any of the gang was awake right now...

~~~ Shizuka Minamoto ~~~

Phew...

I panted as I leaned towards one of my neighbour's concrete walls.

It was quite tiring to say the least...

I was having a morning exercise today just like my usual routine. Today, however, was quite different from the other day.

I thought to myself that I should try running the whole route that I usually took, which was around 3-ish kilometres. Nonko-san said to me that I should try running to burn excess fat a lot more efficiently.

Honestly, I thought that it was going to be like a walk in the park, knowing that it was always the route that I took to do morning jogs.

But it was not...

Here I am, leaning against a wall of my neighbour—or rather Nobita-san's wall, feeling extremely weak, tired, thirsty, and yet; it was still around half the distance away from my 3 km target.

I knew I shouldn't have forced myself that much to do this kind of thing!

So, I decided to just walk myself home and take a rest.

Today, as you might have known, is the day that the gang and I will be going to the place/resort that Suneo-san had told us about back in June. It was the day that weren't exactly anticipating.

It's not that I'm not happy though, I was quite intrigued to see a completely dry ski resort and observe the stars from there, away from the threats of light pollution here in the city.

Still, at this point... Our homeroom teacher could have given us a better kind of assignments for middle schoolers like us. To be fair, he did give us better assignments to do, like experimenting with stuff, exploring, writing a little report about wildlife.

It's Nobita-san's fault, out of many better assignments that he could have chosen, he chose to do astronomy. I started to question the fact that he might have some sort of interest in astronomy or some sort.

I would be really surprised if he did, though...

Anyways, I headed home right away after taking a 'unnecessarily quick jog' around the neighbourhood.

As I was just about to enter the front yard, I caught up to my dad that was going to head to work.

"Morning, papa!" I greeted him.

He smiled to me as he fixed his tie a bit, "Oh hi, Shizuka!"

Honestly, I was still quite suprised after he enrolled me into the violin school that Nobita-san and I happened to come across on our journey back in May.

2 months have passed since then. Things had been going well, but it's a bit of a long story.

After he left the house for work, I met my mom standing near the doorway, wearing her red apron.

"Oh, Shizuka! Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Nonko-san suggested me to run the whole route that I always went during morning jogs, and I honestly reget making that decision."

My mom chuckled a bit. "All that for just 2 kilograms of weight that you've gained, right?"

Wow, my mom really understands my motives of doing so...

"Y-yeah..."

"Well, why don't you take a bath and then have some breakfast. You are going to the resort today, right?"

"Yeah mom, I'm going to the resort today." I said as I headed upstairs,

"Have you prepared everything?"

"Yeah, mostly... But I will check my belongings again to make sure that I didn't miss anything."

"Alright!"

In my room, I took a breath of fresh air (again) in the balcony, taking my phone with me.

I turned the phone on, and glanced to the messaging app. There, I noticed something quite interesting.

It was Nobita-san, online at this hour.

Huh, it's still what... like 6.30 AM and he's already awake?

Out of pure instinct, I decided to message him as I rested my hands on the railing of the balcony.

Nobita-san... morning!

I added a few interesting stickers along the way.

He responded shortly after.

"Oh hi, Shizuka-chan! What's up?"

Already awake, eh?

Ah, yeah!

You that excited?

I can hardly give any respond to that... honestly

Well, if I wanted to be honest too Nobita-san... I'm actually excited to go to the resort...

There's a little truth to that, but well...

Have you prepared everything, though?

Of course, I have. It's sitting right next to me right now.

Huh, alright

I wanted to check up on my belongings, but I'm afraid to do so because Doraemon is still asleep now.

Yea, you'd wake him up if you get too loud.

When will we meet up? And where?

Hmm, Suneo told me to gather up in the Kawaguchi station at 9am

Ah okay... Wanna walk there together?

I paused for a second after he sent that message. I then typed my response as I bit my lip.

Sure!

After that, I'm not sure why did I feel so excited about going. He is Nobita-san after all, a person who doesn't sound too interesting to begin with.

He is the kind of person that would be slacking off even when there was a tiny amount of time that I could have spent to do something useful...

He would never study and just couldn't learn from his mistakes and would think that the world revolves around him...

He is weak and lazy kid that would be the ones who sits on the corner when all their friends were playing softballs in the field...

That's what made me angry towards him, as of late.

That's the reason why I was a little more aggressive towards him.

I just find that the trait that he has was annoying to deal with...

Despite my hate towards him, I have something about him...

I feel like something triggered some kind of feeling whenever I see his face...

But putting that thought aside for a moment, I then immediately took a quick bath and prepared myself to go on a journey with my best friend, Nobita-san.

After my bath and breakfast, I took my remaining spare time to carefully check my belongings I packed to bring to the resort while also taking my time to dress up.

I took my white blouse and a long pink skirt with me and tied my hair to the same twin pigtail style I've always had since I was five. I like this hairstyle because it suited my short hair.

Although as I grew older, I noticed that this hairstyle started to show some of its shortcomings which makes ponytail a better option sometimes.

After finishing all the dressing up stuff, I took my white floppy hat with black ribbon tied around the 'top' part of the hat. It was my favourite hat to wear in summer vacations that I bought in Osaka a year ago.

Now, it's just the matter of waiting for Nobita-san's arrival...

~~~ Nobita Nobi ~~~

"Alright, everything's in my bag." I muttered after I've done the final checks on my belongings.

"Okay then, I suppose that you're fully prepared to go to the resort, Nobita-kun."

My blue cat robotic friend has been quite a huge help to me when I was preparing the stuff that I need for the trip.

"Oh yeah, I'm also meeting up with Shizuka-chan at her place before going to the station."

"Oh, she's coming with you?"

"She said so..."

I mean, she didn't really say that she wanted to go with me. I was the one who asked her to do it first.

"Alright then, make sure you keep your eye on her."

"Eh? What for?"

"It's common sense, Nobita-kun... You're a guy walking alone with a girl. It's just a common sense that a man will protect any woman at all costs."

"Hmmm... yeah that makes sense."

Carrying the weight of the mountain bag behind my back and some other things that I carry on my left hand, I walked towards the genkan and put my white sneakers down in the middle of the step.

As I was putting on my shoes, I heard my mom coming out from the kitchen.

"Nobi-chan, are you going now?"

"Yeah mom!" I exclaimed as I stood up after finished tying my shoelaces. "I'm going now, I guess..."

"Alright then. Goodbye Nobi-chan!"

"Bye, Nobita-kun! Good luck on your assignments!"

Leaving my home behind, I headed my way to the girl that I was always tried to attach myself onto, Shizuka Minamoto.

However, as of late... Our relationship has strained for some reasons. She has become much more aggressive towards me and would truly get angry every time I did the thing that I had always done when we're in elementary school.

Does she hate me right now?

I don't think that's the case, though. She accepted my invitation just now, and if she did hate me, she wouldn't have accepted my invitation in the first place.

But, what if she did?

And she accepted my invitation out of pity?

Those thoughts truly killed my motivation as I stood right in front of the tale-coloured Minamoto household.

I gave myself a quick pep-talk as I pressed the doorbell. Come on, try to think positively, Nobita Nobi!!

"Konichiwa, Shizuka-chan!" I shouted.

I waited for any response from inside afterwards... which didn't take that long.

"I'm coming!"

Someone that sounds like Shizuka—no it's actually Shizuka-chan, responded to the doorbell.

As the door opened, Shizuka-chan peered her head out from the door opening. I can see her fully prepared for the journey, wearing a white blouse and a pink coloured medium (not long, and not too short) kind of skirt.

Her hair was tied with a small red flower knot ribbon into a twin-pigtails that she had used to do ever since we're 6.

Again, we're going to a resort, right?

"Oh hey, Nobita-san... Wait a minute."

"Oh sure."

"You can come in if you want to, I will get my stuff real quick!" Shizuka invited me inside.

"You need some help?" I offered.

"No no, I'm good."

She returned a few minutes later, walking downstairs with a thick pink backpack that was a little larger than just a normal backpack. I think it's those kinds of backpacks that outdoorsmen or travellers would use when they were travelling across the world.

It was smaller than my mountain bag though, which would make more sense for other people to see rather than carrying around a mountain backpack to an overnight stay at a resort.

"Have you heard anything from the others?" Shizuka-chan asked as she was sitting at the floor, putting on a pair of pink sneakers.

"Not yet..."

"Huh alright... Then we should go there and wait for them."

Once she had finished putting on her shoes, we set off to the train station.

We walked along the neighbourhood, just like what we've been doing for the past 6 years or so. Going along the same road we took many times before.

And yet...

The atmosphere was different.

She didn't even try to spark any form of conversation with me!

Usually, Shizuka-chan would try to spark any form of conversation, no matter the topic, the mood, and the situation that we've going through before.

This time though, she just looked straight up with her mouth completely zipped close...

I mean, she didn't do anything wrong. People must see where they were going when they walk. You don't want to have a serious conversation while not paying attention to if Truck-kun might have an opinion.

But that's not the point.

Of course, many questions appeared in my head.

Is she mad at me?

Is it because our 'deteriorating' relationship?

Does she have something in mind?

What if she doesn't have anything to talk about in general? I choose to believe that one, though.

As I tried to keep my positivity forward, suddenly Shizuka-chan started to speak.

"Nobita-san...."

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever felt like you have to ask someone something...."

"Hmm?"

She stopped in the middle of her question.

"Ah no, nevermind..."

What just happened?

She did have something on her mind, after all...

But what was it?

I was tempted to ask her what's wrong, but I just felt that it would invade her personal space.

So, I put my temptation behind, temporarily.

Anyways, we were now arriving at the nearest bus station. It was the best mode of transportation to get to the Akabane Train Station as quickly as possible (taking the possible delays out of the account).

After a fairly uneventful bus ride, we finally arrived at the train station. It was not too crowded with people, but the place wasn't so empty either. What was there mainly consisted of tourists, and people looking to get a ride out of the city.

"Nobody's here at the moment..." I remarked.

"Yeah, it looks like we have to wait for them a little while."

"Let's take a seat under that small tree!"

"Good idea."

We took a seat in the small round bench under a tree. It was small but was enough to give us a good shade from the unobstructed attacks from the blazing sun above our heads.

I looked around, to find something to do as we wait for the others.

"Want something to drink?" I offered her, noticing a vending machine not too far from where we were sitting.

"Sure."

"What do you want?"

"I'll take some orange juice... But if there isn't any juice, then you can bring me anything it's not coffee."

"You don't like coffee?"

"No, I like it... But I've already drank a little this morning. I just don't feel like drinking it again."

"Alright..."

Then off I went to the vending machine.

As I was buying our drinks from the vending machine, I was pondering over something. Something which was the exact same thing that I have been thinking ever since we started walking here.

"Did she have the same dream as me?"

It was a reckless hypothesis to a complicated mystery. But it does explain her shyness, or silence.

She might just be asking the same thing as I did a few months ago. Perhaps, she felt something triggering inside her head when she was around me.

Those thoughts do make me happy, but I can't be sure with it. It's going to be reckless for me to come to a conclusion this quickly.

So, I must commit to something...

I must ask her about it when we're alone!

Maybe, I can ask her about this once I returned to that bench as we wait for the others to arrive.

Or... maybe later...

After getting my hands on two cold orange juices, I turned around. This was when I found out that Non-chan had finally arrived.

Not going to lie, I was a little disappointed when I noticed that Shizuka-chan has got a little company. But I think I must be patient with it.

"Oh Nobita-kun! Hey!" Non-chan greeted.

I glanced towards the girl that I call 'childhood friend' that sits right next to Shizuka-chan. She was wearing a blue themed dress with her prominent red shoes on her feet.

Well at least Non-chan looked quite cute in that outfit.

Umm... did I just think that way?

"Oh hey, Non-chan!" I said as I came over.

"What did ya bring?"

"Some canned orange juice..."

"You didn't bring your childhood friend any?" pouted Nonko.

"Hmm... that's not true."

"How come?"

"Well, the whole gang including her are also my childhood friends..."

"..."

"..."

"Well, you're not wrong... Nobita-kun..."

She looked a little disappointed there.

I glanced towards Shizuka-chan, who was calmly putting down her half-full can of orange juice right by her side.

"You're as dense as a block of tungsten, you know that..."

What's a block of tungsten again?

Is it some sort of magic element?

"What does that mean?"

"Nevermind... You wouldn't understand what I said anyways."

Shizuka-chan continued sipping her orange juice in frugal manner as Non-chan gave her remark a little nod in response. This made me a little confused.

Right after our exchange, I caught glimpse of the two boys that I used to call bullies: the dynamic duo of Suneo and Gian. The two of them came approaching from the other side, each carrying what looked to be black duffle bags.

"Yo!" Suneo waved to us.

"Good morning, Suneo-kun! And you too, Takeshi-kun!!" Shizuka-chan and Non-chan waved back in reply.

"Mornin', you guys!" Gian replied.

"You guys ready?" Suneo asked, taking out 5 pre-booked Shinkansen tickets to Sendai.

"We are!" We said in unison, each of us throwing our hands up in excitement.

Suneo started to count all the gang, to make sure if all is here. All of us were accounted for, minus Suzy-chan. She said earlier that she was going to do a hiking activity together with her hiking groups on a mountain not far from where our resort was located. She would be joining us once she had finished.

We took our luggage and headed straight to the station apron.

We went to board the train at precisely 10 AM local time, taking the bullet train (Shinkansen) to head straight to our next stop, the Sendai Train Station. From there, we were planning to take a ride to the mountains west of the city using the van that Suneo's family had rented out.

I know Suneo's a rich kid, but he doesn't need to show off that much...

On the train, we took each of the seats already pre-booked by Suneo when he bought the tickets. I sat behind Suneo and Gian together with a stranger, while the girls took the seat across our seats.

The guy that sat right next to me was a nice guy after all. We talked about a lot of things, with the usual privacies respected.

I learned that he was a 3rd year university student, studying liberal arts at the University of Tokyo. He was going to Sendai because he wanted to visit his family for the holidays.

Besides that, I spent most of the 3 hours journey asleep, not knowing that we were blasting across the Japanese countryside at speeds of 250 km/h. The view outside would be blurry mess, but it's cool enough just to see me going the speeds that average budget cars couldn't even sniff at.

As we exited the final tunnel at Tohoku Shinkansen before the city of Sendai, I caught glimpse of the city's countryside, more specifically the town of Natori.

There, I could see that the city had mostly recovered from the damage that happened due to a major earthquake and tsunami that happened a year ago. It was an awful tragedy, that kept reminding us that we live in a geologically active region.

Aside from all the view, I noticed a peculiar dark cloud sitting in the west. Its formation vaguely resembles that of a wave that shaped sort of like a shelf. Under it, was a bright grey area...

The person next to me remarked. "Oh, a storm is coming..."

"Storm?"

"Yeah, that shelf cloud is a sign that a severe thunderstorm is coming to our way. So, you better be ready..."

Sure enough, just as the announcer announced that we are 15 minutes away from the station, our train got hit by an intense torrential rain that reduces the visibility significantly.

I saw my friends exchanging concerns about the stargazing stuff that we were going to do tonight. I mean, it was understandable that they were concerned about such things.

I was hoping that the rain would recede as soon as possible and come to a stop before we went to gaze upon the sky tonight.

We ended up arriving at Sendai Train Station exactly at the scheduled 1 PM local time.

I could feel the strong and moist wind soon after we disembarked the train. It felt rather refreshing, to be honest.

As we left the apron for the passenger pick up point, we met with Suneo's (or rather, his father's) acquaintance that would be our driver today. He led us to his silver Mercedes van parked right outside the exit and helped us put our luggage in.

Suneo took the front passenger seat, Shizuka-chan and Non-chan took the first passenger row while Gian and I took the back row. Honestly, the van was quite an overkill transportation option, as there was one row of empty seats.

"It's quite a downpour, isn't it..." Shizuka-chan remarked.

Non-chan seemed to agree. "Yeah, I'm not sure if it's going to stop by tonight."

"It's going to be a problem if it doesn't" Gian stated the obvious.

I'm not actually sure if we had a backup plan for the stargazing night. If it was cancelled, then it would surely be a waste of money and our precious time.

"Suneo, do we have a backup plan?"

Suneo looked back, his worried face telling everything before he could even say anything.

Yeah, he was as concerned as all of us did.

And the fact that in this weather, it would hinder Suzy-chan's hiking activity. She might not even make it in time to join us in the resort!

"L-let's wait and see..."

As we climbed the western mountains, the rain had calmed down a bit. It wasn't as intense as the windy torrential thunderstorm that we experienced back in the city, but it was still quite intense.

We climbed higher and higher, going around the lengthy twists of wet tarmac in the hump of the mountainous region of western Sendai. The clouds that were once high in the sky, were now floating on the same height as the road that we were going through.

I could feel the window slowly getting colder and colder the more we climbed up the mountains. It was not because of the van's air conditioner, but rather, from outside.

The visibility of the trees started to diminish a little. A thick layer of wet fog engulfed our vehicle alongside the drenching rainfall. It didn't look good at all, and it started to look a bit eerie as fog causes cars from the opposite directions to look as if they appeared out of thin air.

After some time though, I noticed that most of the passengers were doing their usual businesses. Non-chan and Shizuka-chan were having some sort of conversation. The same goes with Suneo-san and his father's acquaintance. Gian on the other hand, was fast asleep.

"Ah, we're here!"

As Suneo said that, our van took a left turn into sort of a driveway that led to the resort itself.

Seeing through the drenched window and the thick fog, stood before my eyes was a 4-storey modern Japanese style building. Many cars were parked along its parking lot, a signal that the resort was still packed, despite it being in the middle of summer.

I assume that the most visitors were just tourists both local and international, who were looking for a decent place to stay for a while. There were some tourist spots in the mountains, so that should explain things.

We pulled right in front of the resort's lobby. I could see a guy standing there, ready to help oncoming guests to bring their luggage into their room.

As I stepped out of the van, I felt the frigid and moist wind blowing against my face. I didn't expect living in the mountains to be this cold. I should have brought my winter jacket with me.

We waited in the lobby for Suneo to return with the keys to our room.

He returned shortly after, albeit with not the news I was hoping for.

"So, I have booked 3 rooms for us to stay in."

"3?" Non-chan said.

"Yeah, It's the greatest number of rooms I can book. This resort is jam packed with tourists as we speak."

"Okay, let's split the rooms up then. I'm staying with Suzume-san tonight." Nonko replied.

"I'm staying with Gian...."

I can't say anything at this point. And for the looks of it, the same goes with Shizuka-chan.

"Which means that... You two must stay together in one room...." Suneo said.

Sounds good, I thought. Maybe. Wait, with Shizuka? In a room? Together?

This is not right!

A boy and a girl staying alone in a hotel room is a recipe for social disaster. Even though we did absolutely nothing, it would still create some sort of misunderstanding that we wouldn't have any control of.

"Suneo, this isn't right..." I spoke.

He seemed to have known the implications of us staying alone in a hotel room.

"Erm... I can't just unbook a hotel room easily like that because I've already paid for it." Suneo said, "T-there are two separate rooms in your hotel room that you can use."

Shizuka, I'm so sorry!

"Well, if you want... You can join Non-chan and that blonde haired brat that I won't bother calling her name of..."

"Yeah, you can join us, Shizuka-san!" Nonko agreed.

With Non-chan's tempting invitation to be in her room together with Suzy-chan, Shizuka-chan's option would surely be staying with them over me. I'm fine with staying alone in a hotel room as lo-

"No, I will stay with Nobita-san."

What!!?

What did I just hear!?

She decided to stay overnight in a hotel room alone with me???!!!

Did she lose her mind too?! Can someone please punch me, preferably in the face?

This not only shocked me, but also the rest of the gang, who were equally worried and baffled towards her.

"Y-you sure? You're going to stay alone with Nobita-kun overnight, you know." Non-chan asked.

"It's fine. No need to worry about me."

That face of hers, it seems like she was holding something all along. I was hoping she kept her guard up all the time.

However, it still bugged me that she wouldn't object to Suneo's idiotic decision to put us in one room. She should have done it if she knew the repercussions of us being alone in a hotel room.

It's not a love hotel, I know... But a hotel room is a hotel room. Someone could have done something that people usually do in a love hotel in any hotel rooms!

Was she planning this all along?

Why me?