Nozomi was Eli's first friend.

Well, no, that didn't tell the whole story.

In Russia, Eli had made friends. At school, in the neighborhood, in the park, and so on. She had been a lively and happy child—even after her failure as a ballerina—until Alisa came around. That isn't to say that she was to blame for making Eli into the stoic and socially awkward girl she became. Instead, it was due to a natural process known the world over: being an older sibling. Eli was asked to be a secondary caretaker, of lower authority only to her parents. Eli woke Alisa in the morning, combed her hair, made sure she ate the breakfast their mother prepared, helped her with her homework, held her hand as they crossed the street, walked her to school every morning and picked her up at its close every afternoon. Eli was, in many ways, a mother from a very young age. Unavoidably, this changed her and affected her deeply, particularly with friendships.

Without trying and without realizing it, Eli matured quickly, outpacing her peers. She became alien even to those who had grown up in the same neighborhood as her all their lives, seeming cold in her calm, distant in her concentration, haughty in her determination and ambition, and eventually, utterly unapproachable. Her group of friends shrunk throughout middle school, and although she tried not to let it bother her, it didn't mean it all went over her head. As someone who never outgrew her fear of the dark, it served only to increase her fear in being alone.

Still, staying alone seemed like a better approach rather than being abandoned again. That was the attitude Eli aimed to radiate and embody when she began her career at Otonokizaka. She had no intention of making friends. Her mother and grandmother, also ballerinas in their youth, had enrolled her without asking, but Eli didn't mind, as she saw it as a chance to succeed in following in their footsteps where she had artistically failed. Of course, the women insisted it was because of the quality of education and their need to soak in more Japanese culture, but Eli saw it as their way of saying, "Redeem yourself."

Eli had not, in any way, shape, or form, intended to befriend Nozomi. The shallow and fickle friendships of childhood were all she knew, and she so she did not see friendship as necessary or even completely desirable. Friends would distract her from reaching her goal of academic excellence, not aid her, and so making friends could even prove detrimental. Or at least, she tried to convince herself of that.

What's why, when she stood up to introduce herself on the first day of her first year at Otonokizaka, her words her cold and empty.

"My name is Ayase Eli. I hope we can be friends."

It was a lie, of course, but Eli was trying to be polite and introduce herself in the proper, expected way. As the day went on and her classmates started talking to her, Eli found it more and more difficult to continue being polite. Comments on her hair, skin and other foreign-looking features didn't catch her off guard, but to her they seemed intrusive and unnecessary. Even some brave underclassmen tried to talk to her. People tried to invite her to go out to eat or to karaoke, but Eli bluntly turned them down. In her mind, she wondered how badly her campaign to be president would go next year if she continued acting that way she was. Eli wasn't stupid; she could tell she was just making things more difficult for herself, but she didn't know how else to act. She didn't want to be fake; that seemed like dishonesty, like cheating.

She wasn't surprised when Nozomi called out to her, as people has been doing so all day. She calmly turned around, trying to keep her annoyance off her face and hardly succeeding. Her gaze fell on a classmate of hers.

"Who are you?"

The purple hair tied in a double low ponytail and her turquoise eyes rang a bell, and she quickly realized that she was a girl who sat behind her in some of her classes. The girl seem out of breath, cheek flushed and sporting a nervous demeanor. Eli had seen it all before, and half expected it to be another invitation, though she was surprised to see the girl had split off from whatever group of friends she belonged to. Eli waited patiently as the girl began to stutter.

"I-I…"

The purple haired girl looked down and off to the side, her cheeks growing redder, and it suddenly occurred to Eli that she had seen that expression before, in movies about teenage romance. For that reason, Eli was completely floored when Nozomi's expression changed suddenly, a simple smile adorning her face.

"I'm Tojo Nozomi!"

Eli remained where she was for what felt like hours, simply staring at the girl, expecting her to say more and not knowing how to respond to that. All the others had introduced themselves in a rush and plowed straight into invitations, questions, flattery or a combination of the three. Instead, the girl stood at the top of the stairs, smiling down at her with an almost knowing smile. Now that Eli thought about it, this was the girl someone had tried to warn her about. A group of three girls, all in the same class as she and Tojo-san, had approached her.

Hi, Ayase-san.

Hello.

We're in the same class as you.

I know.

Yes, well, um… you're sitting in front of Tojo-san, right? You're going to want to stay away from her. She's a real weirdo. I happened to have graduated from the same school as her, though in another prefecture, and she was always quiet and reading a book. Totally antisocial, like she thinks she's better than everyone.

Is there a reason you stopped me in the middle of the hallway?

Ah, yes, would you like to go-

No, I would not.

Eli had turned around and walked away without a single glance back. Now, the so-called antisocial bookworm stood before her, smiling cutely and—

"Um, uh..."

How could such a thought enter her head? Her smile was in no way cute.

Nozomi laughed—a short and amused sound that only brought the accursed word back to the quarter-Russian's mind—and slowly made her way down the stairs, hair and skirt moving as she did. Nozomi stopped in front of Eli, giving her another smile, though now it almost resembled a smirk, if Eli wasn't mistaken.

"Oh, is it possible the cool and confident Eli is flustered?"

Eli could not appreciate just how shocked Nozomi was at herself for her actions, which arose entirely from a place of comfort and familiarity whose existence the girl couldn't validate. Eli simply blinked, unaware of how her cheeks were growling noticeably warmer. Finally composing herself, Eli cleared her throat, giving the girl her best cool and confident look, which even her blush could hardly temper.

"Nice to meet you, Tojo-san. Is there something you want?"

Even Eli was surprised by how blunt that sounded, but Nozomi only allowed a brief amount of such an expression to flash across her features before she smiled once more.

"Not at all... Elichi."

As Nozomi walked past Eli, the gears in the blonde's brain ground to a halt and refused to move. No one outside her family had spoken to her in such a playful and cheeky manner in years, and as Eli's body automatically turned to watch the purple-haired girl walk by, her mind remained completely blank and the temperature of her cheeks continued to climb. Her body moved on its own as she watched Nozomi walk down the final flight of stairs. Upon reaching the floor, Nozomi turned around, and her eyes sparkled as if she knew she would catch Eli staring, the sight of which sent Eli's heart into overdrive.

"Did you want to walk home together?"

As the flow of thoughts finally resumed in Eli's mind, opposing sides of her personality duked it out. It wasn't a difficult decision, in the end.

"Yes... Nozomi."

Nozomi wasn't Eli's first friend.

Nozomi was Eli's first true friend.