Kagoshima - 2005

"It would be a journey full of loneliness, an absolute isolation beyond anyone's comprehension. Piercing through absolute darkness with the high possibility of never encountering another form of life, all for the sake of blindly searching for the secrets of the universe that must exist within the abyss of space.

I wonder how far we should go.

How far can we go?"

Within the cramp space of her room, Momo stared emptily at the paragraph she typed into her phone. The rocket launch brought back a resurgence of emotions that laid dormant inside of her. There was a time in her life that she recalled being so small and helpless, so eager to grow up because she believed if she was older, she would have the strength to fight against the cruelty of time. Yet even now, she was still searching for an answer.

Momo pressed BACK on her phone and a window prompt appeared onscreen.

    Save Draft?

⟶ Yes       No

    Save Draft?

 Yes      ⟶ No

Momo deleted the message without any hesitation and flipped her phone shut.

Momo felt hollow.

I wonder when I began writing messages to nobody?

Momo turned off the lights in her room and crawled under the covers before flipping open her phone to write another message.

"I don't remember which one of us stopped writing letters first. That wasn't the important part. Somewhere along the way, the letters we wrote to each other became meaningless rows of empty words. I could no longer sense your feelings. You were no longer there. To think that something as intangible as time would be the one thing that severed what was left of our fragile connection.

I wanted us to be together forever.

Even if we could never meet again, my feelings for you would never change.

That's what I believed.

That's what I wanted to believe."

Momo felt tighten.

    Save Draft?

⟶ Yes       No

    Save Draft?

 Yes      ⟶ No

Momo had a dream that night.

She was standing in a large field on what appeared to be another planet. In the distance was a planet that appeared to be the earth, rising higher and higher, and the sky was filled with greenish-blue nebulas swirling in the air. The sun began ascending above the horizon and project light and shadow all at once. The plane she was in felt like a different universe.

Then Momo realized there was a girl sitting on the grass beside her, wearing a school uniform different from her own, silently watching the sun rise. She couldn't make out the other girl's face, but parts of the girl felt familiar.

The curve of her nose.

The lingering smell of watermelon.

The shape of her lips.

They all felt nostalgic to Momo.

Then the girl stood up and slowly turned to face Momo with a smile. Momo saw a mole above the girl's upper lip. Again, it felt so familiar but Momo still couldn't make out her face.

The girl had a name. Momo knew she did.

But she could no longer remember what it was.

Momo whispered softly to the girl.

"Who are you?"