Prologue

(A/N Notes: After some considerations with myself, I decided that I'll be resetting this story

Why? Well, it's because. The way it was originally made, I was having trouble coming with ideas because it was kinda too stiff and rigid for me to write chapters naturally, so this led me to reset the story and start in a way that feels more flexible for me to write chapters

Also, advanced apologies to any Italian reading this story since I'll be using some Italian stereotypes for cicilia, so if you feel offended, I apologize for offending any Italian out there)

It was a hot and sunny day of summer in Italy, the summer vacations were in full swing, so many families were visiting the many Italian touristic spots. And right now, Hirano Yasu was enjoying the beach as he made quite an impressive sandcastle

"..." *Feeling proud*

He looked at his creation with pride but his face didn't show any emotion, but he was giving a feeling of satisfaction

"Questo è un bel castello di sabbia"

"!"

He noticed a girly voice behind him, and when he turned he saw a beautiful girl the same age as him looking at his sandcastle with curiosity

"Ah! Arigatou... Ie, ie *hand gesturing a no* Hmm... Grazie?"

"Hm. Sei forse giapponese?"

"?"

Yasu inclined his head to the side as he put a hand on his chin at what the pink-haired girl said

"Ah! Non capisci quello che sto dicendo, vero?"

"?"

Yasu continued to give a confused feel, which made the girl's face turn slightly troubled as neither of them could understand the other

"Cicilia!"

"Yasu!"

" "!" "

Then they both heard their parents calling for them, so they just looked at each other and waved

"Sayonara"

"Ciao"

Some days later

Yasu was enjoying solo sightseeing of the places near the inn he and his family were staying a. His parents were visiting a winery. Since he was bored and craving some sweets, he decided to walk around and find a patisserie

"Found one"

He entered the patisserie, and looked at the sweets they had, and decided to get the ones he could guess what they were

"Allora cosa vuoi ordinare?"

"Ah! Sì, voglio questo, questo, e questo"

Yasu had looked earlier at how to say some words, but not knowing Italian his speech sounded quite weird, but still understandable since the words were simple. The staff picked the sweets he asked, and he went to sit a a table outside the shop

"... *Munching*" <This is good>

He ate with an expressionless face, but he was feeling delighted by the sweet he was eating

"Oh! Che coincidenza"

"Hm?"

When he looked to the side, he saw a neatly dressed pink-haired girl together with a younger-looking purple-haired girl, she was holding a tray with sweets on it

"Hmm. Ti dispiace se condividiamo i tavoli?"

The girl had a troubled face when she said so. Yasu noticed that all tables were occupied already, so he guessed that she was asking permission to sit at the same table as him

"..." *Nods*

"Grazie"

The two girls sat on the free chairs, with the pink-haired girl handing one of the two sweets to the purple-haired girl. Then the girl made an expression as if she remembered something

"Ah! Dove sono le mie buone maniere. Sono Cicilia Carcano, e questa è la mia sorellina Cina Carcano"

"...Huh?" <Ah! she should be introducing herself>

Yasu looked at his phone and search on how to introduce himself

"Etto... I, il mio... Nome... Hmm... è?... Hi... Ie... Yasu Hirano *mumbling something to himself while nodding*"

"..." <I'm sorry, I forgot to bring my phone. But how can you keep a face like that when you're struggling this much?>

Cicilia seeing Yasu struggle to speak in Italian apologized to him in her mind as she stayed quiet, as she wondered how he was able to keep that expressionless face of his

"Il mio nome è Yasu Hirano, sì"

"Yasu Hirano, vero? Piacere di conoscerti, Hirano"

"..." <Huh? Do they also call others by their surnames?>

Yasu didn't really understand what she said, but he could guess that she was probably greeting him

"Hm" *nods* "Carcano-san"

"sei in vacanza qui, vero?"

"Erm... Sì?"

"... Bene, per ora godiamoci i nostri dolci, va bene?"

"..." *nods*

Cicilia who was the one leading the conversation, decided it was better to just enjoy the sweets instead of troubling Yasu on conversations that he wouldn't understand. When they all finished eating their sweets, they all got up and went in different directions, not before giving each other a farewell

"Ciao. Cina, salutalo"

"... Ciao"

Cina felt like the complete opposite of Cicilia

"Hm" *nods* "Ciao"

Yasu said the same as the two, knowing what it meant since he searched how to say farewell in Italian. And they parted ways, Yasu returned to the inn room and laid on the bed enjoying the AC with the only difference in his expressionless face being his closed eyes

"*Sighs*... ... ... Cicilia... Carcano was it?... Yeah, she looks like a nice girl. Though I didn't understand anything that she said to me, aside from her name... Well, I'm bored"

Yasu enjoyed the small company he had with Cicilia and thought that she was a nice girl, but he didn't really think anything else

Meanwhile

Cicilia and Cina were returning home on foot

"Yasu Hirano... He looks like a nice person"

"Did you fall in love with him, sis?"

"Cina, please don't tease other people like that, it's disrespectful"

"..."

"Haa... Anyway, I should try learning some Japanese"

"So that you can marry that boy in the future"

"..."

Cicilia stopped walking and turned to her little sister, then she pinched her cheeks

"Owowowowowow!!! I'm sowwy!"

*Releases Cina's cheeks* "Why are you always lying and messing with other people, Cina?"

"It's who I am, it's not like I want to" *Rubbing her cheeks*

"Haa... What to do with you?"

Although she and Yasu only spent a little time together, they did thought well of each other to at least remember how they were called and looked like

3 years later

Today was the entrance ceremony, meaning that the school gymnasium was filled with students, and amidst them, there was a certain pink-haired girl sitting in one of the chairs

"..." <To think that I would be living here one day... I'm glad I took those Japanese lessons back then>

Cicilia was sitting on a chair inside a gymnasium, as she waited alongside many other students for the opening ceremony to start, and as she waited she was reminiscing about her time in her home country

<And speaking about that, I only took those lessons because of that boy... Yasu Hirano, yeah, I think that was his name, maybe I will meet him again during my time here... Nah, that's unlikely to happen>

"Excuse me... Sorry... Almost there..."

As Cicilia was deep in her thoughts someone was moving to the open seat right by her side, then the person sat down on that seat

"Good morning!"

"Hm? Good morning"

She noticed that someone sat down by her side, so she turned her face to greet the person, and the person greeted her back. And when they looked at each other they both stared at each other

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... Carcano-san?"

"... Hirano?"

The two were surprised of seeing each other again after three years apart

(A/N Notes: I feel like something is missing in this story, but I'm not quite sure of what it's missing)