Fandom: Mysterious Transfer Student
Mods please use the f: tv (category) tag
Rating: T
Length: 100 words
Content notes: canonical past character death
Author notes: The title is from The Sorrow Garden by Thomas McCarthy. The story is also inspired, in a small way, by Han Kang’s We Do Not Part and NCT Wish’s Ode to Love (which covers a sample of The Cranberries’ Ode to my Family).
Summary: Koichi dreams about his sister.


Standing on the bank of the river, Koichi watches his sister playing with a younger version of himself that he no longer remembers.

(A parallel universe version of her, of himself, that he, here in this body, never experienced.)

(A parallel universe version of her, visiting this self, here, who he no longer remembers.)

Koichi is dreaming. He knows this, here in the dream, like he knows this isn’t the only Asuka he’s ever known. Even if he no longer remembers. Even if he’ll forget this dream too.

(The obstacle isn’t death, but rather memory.)

Koichi wakes. Forgets. Keeps living.