“What’s wrong with the ending?”
“I thought they would end up together.” He looks at me. “Didn’t you?”
I think about this for a second. “I definitely wanted them to. But you know what they say… Better to have loved and lost, right? And it’s not like they ended on bad terms. They can always look back and remember what they had. Even if they didn’t end up together.”
Haru shrugs. “They could have tried harder.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I admit. I slide my hands in my pockets as we keep walking. “But it’s still nice, what they had. Someone who loves you back the same way. Even if it was short. It doesn’t always work out that way, you know?” Ilet out a breath. “I’d take someone remembering my drink at a coffee shop, to be completely honest.”
“What’s your favorite drink?”
“It’s not the same if I justtellyou.”
“Then how is anyone supposed to know?” He laughs.
“By getting to know me,” I say. “I feel like I’m always the one who remembers, and never the other way around.”
Haru stops walking. He holds out a hand.
I turn around. “What?”
“Let’s go to the planetarium,” he says.
“The planetarium?”
“It’s your favorite scene from the movie, right? I figure it’s a good place to get to know you better.”
A breeze blows across the street, ruffling the dark waves of his hair. I don’t say anything else. I just smile as I take his hand. Because at this point, I would go anywhere with him.
Adler Planetarium is a copperdome at the edge of the lake. It’s a local gateway to the cosmos, only a few train stops from the Loop. Haru and I spend an hour walking beneath the solar system, looking through telescopes, playing with interactive exhibits about time and space. We missed the sky show that makes you feel as though you’re standing on the moon. But as we’re walking by the planetarium, Haru notices the doors have been left open. I’m not sure if it’s allowed, but we wander inside anyway.
A large projector stands in the center of the room. Rows of seats are circled around it. Haru walks up to the projectorand reaches out for a button. Before I can protest, the lights dim as the Milky Way takes shape in the dome above us. It’s like staring into a hole in the universe. The cosmos swirls in gorgeous colors over our heads. I wander to the center of the planetarium, gazing at the stars in awe. “It’s like the scene from the movie.”
“Except we’re not floating,” Haru adds.
“I never understood that part. Did they imagine it?”
Haru stares above us and says, “I think it’s meant to show what itfeelslike to fall in love.”
I take this in. “So none of it was real?”
Haru looks at me. “It was real to them.”
“Yeah. You’re right.”
We smile at each other. Then Haru glances around, a mischievous look on his face. He pulls a handkerchief from his pocket.
“Where did that come from?” I ask.
Haru doesn’t answer me. Instead, he holds out the handkerchief and lets go. But it doesn’t drop to the floor. It just hangs in the air, as if frozen in time. I stare at it, a little confused. Suddenly, it’s pulled into the sky by some invisible string and vanishes. We both look up and back at each other. A smirk appears on Haru’s face. He holds out a hand and says, “You said you wanted to float around.”
I narrow my eyes. “What are you…”
“You’re not making me do it alone, are you?”
When I don’t answer this, Haru steps up on the seat, reaching toward the ceiling. As his feet lift into the air, there’sa flutter of a flute, followed by an orchestra filling the planetarium with music. I don’t know if it’s coming from the speaker or my own head. And then he starts drifting away like a balloon. As I watch the distance grow between us, a sudden fear comes over me. The thought of losing him, too. I swallow my breath, following after him.
“Haru—please—come back here.”
