#hinaran

   Feelings that she no longer had but the fact remained: Eriko was her first crush and her first best friend. It would crush Hinata more to no longer be friends with her and Eriko agreed. It was difficult, tender in peculiar ways at times, but they were slowly patching their friendship. Chiming in with one another every couple of weeks to catch up and mending their bond via Curesta direct messages or other means, too. It wasn’t going to be the same but they both had high hopes that it was going to be better for the roughness they had experienced together. However, it seemed an entirely new and way too big step to Hinata if she started adding the friends and company that Eriko kept at Oishiina Town.

   It did hearten Hinata, though, that Chururin was an obvious pseudonym.

   She found the idea of friending one of Eriko’s friends to be a little bit too forward. Chururin, however, was anonymous save for the icon. Just an endless stream of gorgeous, gorgeous pictures of food and where such delicious meals could be bought. Hinata was hooked instantly.

   She was drooling as she could have just endlessly scrolled Chururin’s feed. She didn’t even care that she was liking literally every post that Chururin had ever made and Hinata had gone through months’ worth of content. She just let that red love-heart animation glow and pop over and over again before she finally hit that follow button.

   When Hinata finally made it to the bottom - to the very first post that Chururin had ever made - she hit the back button and revisited Chururin’s profile. It looked so incongruent in her follow suggestions after she had hit follow and then Hinata noticed the ratio Chururin had between her following and her followers. She had almost two thousand followers compared to the hundred or so following. Indicating that she was an extremely selective follow back and even then, most of her follows were for restaurants around Oishiina Town. There was no way that Chururin was going to follow back Xx_Sparkle_Cat_xX. 

   Nope, no way.

   And yet, a few hours later, in the morning, when Hinata checked her various notifications, she came across a delightful little blue bubble cheerily informing her: Chururin followed you back.

   Hinata felt her heart leap out of her chest as she read those four little words. Her hands trembled as she felt herself wake right up staring at the lit up screen of her phone. She unplugged it and pushed up her pillow behind so she could sit up straight in her bed. She nestled in against her pillow and the backboard and even though she knew if she dawdled too much, she would be late to breakfast and then, inevitably, late to school, she started to scroll. There were another couple notifications that made her feel as though she were about to explode from a heart attack, too.

   Chururin liked this post. Chururin left a comment on this post.

   Hinata’s index finger was trembling as she felt her head sink in against her neck. Her face was burning up but somehow, she managed to unlock her phone and started to scroll through her Curesta notifications more in depth and more inside the app. 

   The comment read, “Aww, this plushie is so cute! 🐱😺!”

   The comment had been placed under a Throwback Thursday tagged post that Hinata had made a couple days ago. It was a photograph of Nyatoran but he was pretending to be a good little stuffed animal and the heavy filter on the photograph that Hinata had taken on her phone disguised his nature as a Healing Animal, too. Seeing it made Hinata just a teensy bit bittersweet as she missed him sorely ever since he returned to the Healing Garden but that was swept to the wayside.

   The bottomline for Hinata was that Chururin found Nyatoran cute. She found Hinata cute by extension and found it worthwhile to comment on. Sure, having a quick scour of Chururin’s comment sections, it became blatantly obvious that she was pretty friendly and responded to a good handful of the many, many comments that she got but still. It was super over the moon incredibly exciting for Hinata - especially this early in the morning.

   Oh, Hinata could have died from happiness. This was the first time that huge creator had ever acknowledged her social media presence beyond a personal assistant approved pity like, probably. She was barely a small time creator, dabbling in a bit of sparkly, dreamy plushcore edits of her stuffed animals and jewellery and collages of her favourite magazine covers and even some sprinklings of creepypasta on top of her day to day almost photo journaling but it was still very exciting. And inspiring. Hinata had a feeling that this Monday was not going to suck at all. She couldn’t wait to get to school to gush about all this excitement to Nodoka and Chiyu.

   However, in the utter euphoria of it all, Hinata forgot something vital: both Nodoka and Chiyu were little old ladies when it came to social media. Despite both of them having Curesta profiles themselves. Profiles which were very rarely updated and only had a few tens of followers a piece. 

   “Likes aren’t everything, Hinata, be sure to remember that.” Even Nodoka was lecturing her but Hinata nodded, giving the pretence that she was listening and even taking it in as sage advice.

   “And not everyone is as they seem, either.” Chiyu added. “Especially faceless accounts. Just because you think this Chururin is a middle schooler like us does not mean it's true. You never know.”

   “Yes, yes, marm.” Hinata sighed.

   They totally didn’t get either. Nor did her Father. At least Youta and Mei at least sort of got it but they echoed the same sentiment as Nodoka and Chiyu but even more heavy handedly. Even going so far as using the word predator which gave Hinata the heebie-jeebies but she remained firm in just how utterly starstruck she was with Chururin.

   She was head over heels with just the smallest of attention from Chururin. Needless to say, it got worse when Chururin had curiously reached out to her. First.

   It happened a fortnight later after they had become mututals but Hinata couldn’t believe it. She thought the little pop up message would have been from Eriko or maybe one of her other IRLs but nope. It was from Chururin and the fact that Chururin had her DM’s closed to even mutual followers, this was huge. Hinata raced to read it and raced to reply.

   Chururin only seemed interested in exchanging light pleasantries but Hinata enjoyed it anyway. Small talk had never seemed so heart-stoppingly exciting. She could have talked about the weather all day long with Chururin. She was just so sweet and perky, her replies littered with happy-go-lucky emoji and the like. It was very cute and they kept in contact from there.

   Their messages were infrequent at first. Small talk scattered over a couple weeks and there but soon enough, they were doing it more frequently. They chatted about their favourite television shows and which teachers at school were being totally unfair to them and they learned things about one another. 

   Chururin, per the anonymity of her page, didn’t disclose much whereas Hinata was something of an open book. The most she learned about Chururin was that she did live in Oishiina Town but didn’t specify which school she went to. She was in second year, though, and that she was a cancer born on July 11th. Her favourite food was ramen and she liked sports over academics best.

   Honestly, even if Hinata didn’t know specific things about Chururin - like her actual name for example, or even a hint of what it was - she felt like she knew her deeply from other things. They had been talking a lot, after all. It was insane how their bond went from digital to sparse to quite close, actually. Hinata knew more about Chururin’s inner life than she knew about some of her classmates’ inner lives, actually.

   And their bond wasn’t even just between them. It had left a footprint on both their social media pages. Hinata’s had grown quite considerably with Chururin interacting here and there and she had given Hinata a lot of advice so her content’s quality had even increased. Her edits and photographs of the like were appearing at the top of the lot popularity ranks on the associated tags. Hinata couldn’t be more thankful. 

   Their online friendship’s benefits weren’t just one way either, with Chururin helping Hinata expand her online audience. Many of Hinata’s IRLs had followed Chururin, too. Even her Dad, from the veterinarian’s page. That was a little embarrassing but at least it had caused him to drop most suspicion that Chururin was secretly a bad person behind all her endless streams of foodie photography.

   But then one day, everything changed.

   Chururin stopped posting.

   No reason, no rhyme. She just stopped posting. Went silent. She didn’t put a warning up that she was going to be unavailable on her main feed. She didn’t even flick a message to Hinata, who was easily and visibly, her most important friend mutual. There was just nothing.

   At first Hinata thought nothing of it. She had also taken some unexpected hiatuses here and there. Things happened. Life was like that sometimes. Maybe she had gone on holidays or something, maybe there had been a power outage or maybe she just didn’t have any content for once. That last one seemed the most farfetched in Hinata’s opinion as that girl could eat but soon enough, it would be back to normal, yeah?

   No :/

   The hiatus began to expand. Slowly climbing over several days. Just pure nothingness no matter how often or infrequently Hinata refreshed Chururin’s profile. Her little biography never changed either to announce anything. It was really starting to worry Hinata.

   Internet friendships, she knew in theory, were tenuous things. She was only seeing one side of the screen, after all, but the creeping anxiety was the worst regardless. It curled and coiled around the bottom of her stomach. She really hoped there was nothing to worry about but… but what if? Those what ifs could have sent her crazy.

   Nodoka and Chiyu were comforting, though. They wanted it to be nothing at all as well but with the radio silence, there was reason for concern but they did caution Hinata about it. She tried to keep her chin up and her fingers crossed.

   It took another few days but surprisingly, everything did turn out fine and Hinata cheered up. There was no announcement or apology, no nothing in public, just another photograph to hail Chururin’s arrival once more. She had posted a glorious looking hamburger and some salty fries to take away. Hinata’s mouth watered as she hit like and tried not to leave an overly clingy comment in Chururin’s comment section.

   “Looks yummo-scrummo! 🍔🍟! I want some too, haha! Missed you🧡!” 

   And that was that. Hinata wanted to type out more but anything and everything she thought of, she back-tracked and deleted straight away. She couldn’t help but think of how bombarding she had inadvertently been with Eriko and that was a real life crush so she tried to keep a lid on it. Even though her heart was racing and relief was more than sweet.

   But the way the relief gave her jitters, it made Hinata realise. She very much had a crush on this very much online friend. The concern she had been crushing. There was no other way around it or to describe it. The butterflies in her stomach, good or bad, how they could talk endlessly and how Chururin’s conversations with her impacted her far beyond the screen. Especially in the seat of diners, restaurants, and cafes, how she pined to share the goods of Sukoyaka with Chururin. It was really, exceedingly, bleedingly obvious to Hinata now and she felt silly for it.

   Was it even logical for her to have a crush on Chururin? Hinata didn’t even know. She just knew the heart wanted what the heart wanted. Especially what it couldn’t have and was more tantalising than an online, long distance relationship with someone she had never met face to face?

   Hinata blushed and she stewed and she lit up like a lightbulb when she got a notification: a private message from Chururin.

   Hinata’s heart could have burst, she was so happy. She could have cried. No, wait, she actually was. Or at the very least, she was getting misty eyed. She had really been conjuring the worst possible outcomes for this entire week of radio silence from Chururin. So, she slid that notification across her phone’s touch screen and opened both it and the app.

   Chururin’s message read: “Sorry about the disappearance! I wanted to quit Curesta 😭”

   “What?!” Hinata texted back, gasping in legitimate shock. “Why?”

   There were a few minutes of just watching the little grey dots bounce in a row whilst Chururin wrote back. Those few minutes were excruciating but what followed was even worse. Hinata felt a tear slide down her face as Chururin explained her situation.

   “I don’t know to describe it,” she wrote, “but I think I the best way I can explain it is that I have a stalker. It's very complicated but some very bad people have been using my posts as a source of finding people to harass. In real life!!”

   “That’s awful!” Hinata replied.

   “I know. I felt awful too. I didn’t want to help them but I kinda… had been.” Chururin lamented.

   “I’m glad you’ve worked something out, yeah?” Hinata tentatively asked.

   “Yup. I’m really glad to have my friends, Yui-pyon and Koko-pi. I don’t know what I’d do without them.” Chururin was all but sobbing - or at least that’s how her message read.

   Hinata smiled to herself. She knew exactly what Chururin meant, though. She felt the same way about Nodoka and Chiyu. But before she could express that sentiment, another message from Chururin popped up.

   “I’m thankful to you, too, Sparkle-pika. I really missed you. I didn’t even realise how much it would hurt…” Chururin confessed. Then there was another message, in rapid fire. “In fact! I asked my parents if I could maybe host you for a day or so. Like a day trip, if you're allowed. My real name is Hanamichi Ran and I want to meet you in real life, Pika 💛💛💛!”

   Hinata felt her heart flutter and her palms sweat. Was… Was it possible? Should she dare imagine it but was it possible that Chururin - no, Ran, Ran-chi? - had a crush on her, too? She swallowed it all down and replied.

   “I’ll have to ask my Dad first but maybe this weekend we could take a train to Oishiina Town. Know anywhere good to eat? Hinata asked and she laughed at her own joke.

   “Yup. Let’s have lunch at my family’s store.” Ran replied.

   “I would love that so much, Chururin!! 🧡🧡!! 🍜!” Hinata eagerly texted back.

   Then there was another message, from Ran which followed. One that took a long time to load and then revealed a photo from Chururin that made Hinata’s jaw drop. It was of herself and she was adorable. Hinata’s eyes went wide as she tried to commit every detail of Ran’s face to memory - something which, honestly, was not going to be too hard.

   Hanamichi Ran had big, bright eyes of brown with shiny, orange-tinted brunette hair that she kept in a pair of artful loops. She had round cheeks which and somewhat sharp chin which made for a youthful appearance. She was holding up a panda-themed set of chopsticks, too, and a brown collar just peeked out at the bottom of her selfie.

   What followed from Hinata’s fingers was an incoherent, garbled mess which really went to prove just how scrambled she was with her faceless crush who now had a very cute face. Ran had seen selfies and other photographs of Hinata before, often leaving tactful praise in her comment sections about how good her hair looked or how she was rocking that outfit but it was nothing compared to the earnest word vomit that Hinata dumped into their direct messages in the wake of Ran’s selfie. But she ate it up with a smile.

   “Aww, thank you, Sparkle-pika, you are too sweet 🥰🥰🥰.” Ran replied. “Anyways, talk to you soon and here’s my family’s restaurant’s number! Ask your dad to ring and he can talk to my dad and hopefully we can have our IRL meet up 😆!!”

   “Sounds like a plan, Chururin-chi.” Hinata was way too excited to reply, she tripped over her own fingers to do so but she got there in the end. Thanks autocorrect (for once).

   With that, Hinata was quick to bound downstairs so she could tell her father about this development. She was bouncing on her heel, explaining way too quickly for his middle aged ears to keep up but she really wanted it so he sighed. He put aside dinner for the moment and he rang the number that Hinata had been forwarded from Ran.

   He spoke with Ran’s father and then Ran spoke with Hinata and both girls were giddy to hear each other’s voices for the first time. So giddy in fact, it made both households inhospitable to the ear with their screeching and gushing. Luckily for them, their cacophony was every bit endearing to their respective parents as it was to each other. Thus, with most issues ironed out through this phone call, they managed to arrange the best possible time for Hinata, with her father, to go visit her online friend in Oishiina Town.

   The best possible time, through a great stroke of luck, was this weekend. The news was nothing less than fantastic and neither girl could wait.

   It had to have been one of the worst waits that Hinata had ever had to endure. There was a sadness that seeped and turned time damp when she had to wait for correspondence - that would eventually never come - between her and Natasha as a child but this? This had an unrestrained joy that had Hinata on the edge of her seat all week until she could finally make it to Saturday.

   And even then, she was painful on the train ride to Oishiina Town, too. She kicked her legs as she sat on the train’s seating across from her father in the booth they had been given. She kept getting up and pacing, walking to and from the catering shuttle without ever buying anything. If only they weren’t in an area of poor internet connection, otherwise she could have been texting up a storm with Ran.

   But, a few hours later, and just in time for lunch, Hinata and her father had made it to Panda Hut.

   Ran and her parents were waiting outside. She waved Hinata down exuberant, on the tip of her toes, she was practically vibrating as she grinned ear to ear. Hinata beamed, too, as soon as she saw Ran and ran up to her, crash tackling into her with a bear hug and it was like they were old childhood friends. Their instantaneous in-real-life connection brought something of a smile to their parents’ faces.

   “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness,” Ran said, excitable and loud, “it's so good to finally meet you-meet you, Hinata.” She then giggled. “Or hm, should I call you Hina-pi? Because you’re so sparkly, even in real life!”

   Hinata laughed, “I would love that, if I can call you Ran-chi, in return?” she asked.

   “I’d love that too.” Ran replied.

   They babbled loud and quick, so quick their parents could hardly keep up with how they were just blurting out entire conversations in under two seconds flat. They probably could have let the sparks fly all day out in the street but their parents ushered inside soon enough.

   Koshinosuke, Ran’s father, and Tsurune, Ran’s mother, warmly welcomed Hinata and Teruhiko. They already had a special pot of soup for them both warming on the stove and plenty of toppings to pile high in their bowl which was great because both Hinata and her dad’s belly were growling and the cosy and crimson insides of Panda Hut smelt amazing.

   And tasted even better.

   Hinata slurped down the broth and noodles. It had a light, airy taste and the noodles were wiggling and fun to manoeuvre with her tongue. Ran laughed, beside her, her eyes all lit up as Hinata voraciously enjoyed her meal. It was warm and brewed with love, she could taste it in every drop of salt in the soup and in the fish cake.

   “Can you taste it?” Ran asked.

   “Taste what?” Hinata asked, she slammed down her now drained bowl of ramen that had no ramen left in it. 

   “The secret ingredient.” Ran snickered proudly.

   Hinata gawked, feeling very put on the spot with the question but she tried to answer it, “Er, beef stock?” Ran shook her head. “Chicken stock?” Ran shook her head again. “Oh, um, what about fish stock?”

   “Bum-bram.” Ran chirped. “But that was the closest. It’s seaweed stock!”

   “Ooh! No, I can totally taste it now that you’ve pointed it out.” Hinata replied, quick and rambling, eyes wide and the taste of seaweed languid on her tongue and her belly full. Her entirety was just full of warmth and gratitude at a meal well made and well eaten - and, of course, being in good company, too, as Ran talked her ear off about how the ramen was made.

   Ran’s passion engrossed all of Hinata’s attention and she paid it raptly, absorbing every word Ran spoke. She had all these huge hand gestures and smiles on her face, it was really fantastic and at the end of it, she asked, “Hey, Hina-pi, do you wanna go outside for a second? Just us? I wanna show you around town a little more, there’s a little park not too ar away, as well.”

   “Sounds great.” Hinaya chirped.

   Both girls were then in a huge scramble to get out of the stools by the bar before their parents could even ask where they were going but so long as they were back within a reasonable time, they would be fine. Oishiina was a good town and it was more than true that both Hinata and Ran were good girls. Their footsteps were a clamour down the path outside and they darted through the crowds, Ran leading the way and holding Hinata’s hand. Her heart raced as the scenic streets of Oishiina Town became a blur in the wake of all she could focus on: Ran.

   She just really hoped that Ran didn’t notice how sweaty her palms were getting. And when she turned back, she hoped that Ran didn’t notice how red her face was either. That it was just regular old exhaustion. Hinata panted as Ran let go and in the back of her mind, Hinata was really missing the super-athleticism that her being Cure Sparkle lended her but alas, that felt like a whole different life. Especially now, next to the bright, shining sun that Ran was.

   Hinata lifted her head and even though the actual sun was behind her, she felt more blinded by Ran in front of her as she feebly tried to take in the playground around her. The air was full of the smell of food, no matter how far away from the restaurants they were, rather than the freshness and floral aromas of home that Hinata was used to but she didn’t dislike it. It just made her mouth water. The playground itself was nice, play equipment and sandboxes dotted her surrounds yet there weren’t all that many people here. Maybe they were having lunch elsewhere.

   “I wanted to take a nice outdoor commemorative photo, if you like.” Ran said, cheerful. “Oh, um, I won’t post it to Curesta but you can if you want, just don’t tag me as Chururin.”

   “I’d like that.” Hinata said and she was once again pulled into Ran’s sunshiney orbit.

   She grabbed her hand and pulled her in close for a cuddle. All whilst she whipped out her phone and jutted out her other leg and Hinata felt her heart pound. The hug was just too much as photographs were taken candidly. The flash went off again and again as Ran tried different angles, orientations, and even filters.

   Hinata snuck a glance at Ran and she couldn’t help herself, she had to confess her burgeoning feelings. She felt as though she was going to explode if she didn’t. All her unsaid feelings welling up and welling up, just overflowing and crowding on her tongue.

   “I like you.” Hinata blurted out in a tiny voice. “I have a crush on you!”

   “I like you too. I’ve got a crush on you, too.” Ran replied, blithe and nonchalant. She turned her head. She pecked Hinata’s cheek and whispered, “Chu.” And then there was another flash from her phone’s camera.

   Hinata felt her face go bright red. The warmth of Ran’s lips, just briefly, on her cheek was nothing compared to the heat that Hinata felt because of it, underneath her own skin. Ran giggled impishly and kept taking selfies on them both, lips puckered and crush reciprocated.