3.1 — POV: Minato Tachibana
Kindergarten was fun.
There were blocks, snacks, drawing time, and nap time (which Minato rarely used because naps were boring). He preferred climbing things he shouldn't be climbing, building suspicious-looking structures with toy bricks, and declaring "war" on the slide for "eating his sock."
He didn't know why, but there was always this warm feeling in his chest when he saw Chii-chan sitting quietly by the corner, watching him with her usual puffed cheeks. Like a hamster with secrets.
> "Chii-chan!" he called out one morning, racing toward her with a cardboard crown on his head. "We're making a fortress today. Wanna be my general again?"
> "...O-Okay," she mumbled, already blushing and hiding her notebook behind her back.
She always had a notebook. It was full of strange diagrams and heart shapes. Sometimes when she thought he wasn't looking, she'd draw little chibi versions of him… with hearts. Not that he minded. Probably meant she thought he was cool.
She was smart. Really smart. He liked that.
But lately, she'd been weird. Flustered. Red all the time. Acting like he was some kind of walking embarrassment machine. Which he wasn't. Probably.
Girls were strange.
---
3.2 — POV: Chiharu Aizawa
Kindergarten was a battlefield.
The moment she walked through the school gates, she activated full emotional defenses. Because there was always a risk.
The risk of him saying something completely normal that would melt her brain.
> "Chii-chan, your braids look nice today!" he once said.
> What do you mean nice? Nice as in friend-nice? Or nice as in girl-nice?! Were you looking at my hair?! HOW LONG?!
> "You smell like sweet stuff," he once told her after lunch.
> That's it. I'm dead. This is how I die. Reincarnation complete. Next stop: Heaven.
She overanalyzed everything. His expressions, his words, even the way he ate crackers. She couldn't help it—Minato was everything she liked. Kind, brave, weirdly confident, and he had a weird laugh that she hated loving.
Sometimes she wished she could be a little more normal. A little more like the girls who just laughed and played tag without collapsing into a puddle when he smiled.
But then... when he pulled her by the hand and shouted "Let's go on an adventure!" she always followed.
> Even if I don't remember who you really are, my heart still finds you.
She didn't know why. But she believed that with all her heart.
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3.3 — POV: Homeroom Teacher (Miss Mayumi)
Miss Mayumi was 28, bright, patient, and had a degree in early childhood education.
But nothing in her academic training prepared her for Minato Tachibana and Chiharu Aizawa.
She often referred to them as "The Overpowered Duo."
Minato was a walking contradiction. Incredibly smart—once memorized the entire hiragana chart in one day—but had the attention span of a squirrel on coffee. He flirted with all the girls by accident and convinced half the boys they were pirates last week.
Chiharu, on the other hand, was terrifyingly mature. She didn't just answer questions—she dissected them. She had a better vocabulary than some of the staff. And yet, every time Minato so much as breathed in her direction, she'd freeze up and mumble something about flowers and doom.
> "They're like an anime pairing that doesn't realize they're an anime pairing," Mayumi muttered to herself while grading drawings. "I swear, if he calls her cute one more time without realizing it, I'll lose it—"
She watched them during art class:
Minato: finger painting a dragon with six wings and naming it "Sir Nugget."
Chiharu: drawing him fighting said dragon and winning with a glowing sword.
It was adorable. Maddening, but adorable.
---
3.4 — POV: Assistant Teacher (Mr. Sakamoto)
Mr. Sakamoto liked to keep things quiet. A nice quiet class where kids listened and no one taped forks to their fingers to become "fork ninjas."
Which is exactly what Minato did last week.
> "Tachibana-kun," he said gently. "Why are you wearing a trash can lid on your head?"
> "It's armor," Minato said proudly. "Chii-chan said I might get hit with paint again during art class."
> "So she... enabled this?"
He turned to Chiharu, who was blushing furiously and refusing to make eye contact.
> "I just wanted to make sure he didn't fall over again…" she whispered.
They were five.
They acted like a married couple half the time. Sakamoto wrote in his notes:
"Possible reincarnated couple. Investigate further."
---
3.5 — A Memory Neither Can Explain
One day, during nap time, Chiharu lay beside Minato under the soft sunbeams streaming through the curtain.
> "Hey... Minato?" she whispered.
> "Hmm?" he peeked open one eye.
> "Do you... ever feel like you've done all this before?"
Minato blinked. "What, like naptime?"
> "No… like you and me. Like we've... lived another life?"
He stared up at the ceiling for a long time.
Then he smiled and reached out to flick her forehead.
> "I don't know. But if we did, I bet we were still best friends."
She covered her face and squeaked.
> That's not fair, you idiot. I'm falling again and again, and you don't even know.