Hanami

References: 

Hanami: Japan cherry blossom festival (it translates to “The viewing of flowers”)

Mankai: When the cherries hit full bloom 

A pink soft petal made its way slowly until it reached the top of Haru’s black wavy hair. Arata smiled with that bright and warm smile of his that resembled the sun of that day, and carefully picked the petal, putting it on the palm of his hand. 

“It seems like spring has already arrived,” he said, making his friend show his smile too, one that, although shy, was refreshing and gentle, just as the shadow under a tree or the cold water of a small stream when the weather is warm. 

“It’s about time,” Haru replied, putting a hand on his forehead to block the sun and looking up to the pink flowers that were starting to bloom in the branches over their heads. They had to take the smallest detour on their way home to walk by the park they were crossing now, but they hadn’t had to say anything to agree on taking this more beautiful path, words were often unnecessary for them, even in the times they use them they would perfectly understand each other without them, what probably made them such good friends.

They continued walking without saying anything else, looking around with a mild expression and seeing another couple of petals leave their trees and fall to the ground, which in a couple of weeks would be entirely pink. 

Each of them thought of a different thing. Haru was mesmerized by the beauty of the delicate flowers, that now were only starting to bloom but that would dye Japan pink to then leave their trees at the end of their short lifespan, and he also thought happily about the few days left until his birthday. 

The thought that filled Arata’s mind, though, was slightly more disquiet; the first days of April were but the reminder that the cherry blossom festival would be soon, and this year it was making him uneasy. At their age, few people went to see mankai with their families, it was more usual to go with a group of friends or on a date, but, of course, none of their classmates had offered them to join them nor would in the next days, both knew it well enough for they weren’t really liked at school for some reason they didn’t understand nor bother to. But what made Arata nervous was that he wanted to invite Haru to the festival this year. It can seem something useless though because he knew that they would go together anyway, even if they hadn’t talked about it he was sure, but he didn’t want that, he didn’t want them to meet at the gate of the park just because they knew the other would be there, and he didn’t want them to silently sit beside each other to admire the cherries and then return to their lives, he wanted to ask him to go with him, and he wanted the other to answer yes, letting him know that he really wants to spend that day with him, and he even wanted, at least if he was bold enough, to hold his hand as they commented how beautiful mankai is. 

He daydreamed about how it could happen, letting his wooden eyes turn sparkly as he always did when he got lost in his imagination. “Yes, I’ll definitely invite him,” he thought; the truth is that there wasn’t anything to be nervous about in it, at least not in the part of asking him to go together if it was done casually, but Arata was of the type that overthinks things even if they have nothing to overthink, even so, this time he had made up his mind. 

Taking a breath of the light air, he turned to his friend, his mouth ready to talk. But when he looked at him, at his sunny and distracted expression, he quickly looked away, his heart beating faster than it should. 

“Arata,” the other’s call interrupted his panicking. 

“Y-Yes?”.

“We are already at your house,” Haru answered, pointing at the house. Arata’s was slightly closer to school so they walked together until there. 

“O-Oh, sure,” Arata replied, a bit embarrassed, before heading to it. 

“See you tomorrow,” Haru said, right before he was going to close the door. 

“Uh, yeah,” the other answered, his attention in something else again.

Haru twisted his mouth to the side at the strange behavior, but it wasn’t unusual for his friend, so he just rolled his eyes and resumed his way. 

“Gah, I’m an idiot,” Arata thought out loud, leaning on the door. 

“What for dear?” his mother, a woman of hellebore black hair and gentle features peeked from another room. 

“A-Ah, nothing,” he replied, straightening up in surprise. He trusted his mother with many of his problems but this was something he was too embarrassed to talk about. 

He took advantage of his mother not asking further to run to his room and flop in the bed with a sigh. 

“Idioooot.” He sighed again, getting up and going to open the window for the room was hot. 

The soft wind entered presto through the vent, cooling his face and wiping off it the last hints of red. “It doesn’t matter, there’s much time left, I’ll ask him tomorrow,” he thought, breathing in fresh confidence. 

But, fleeting bird is time, that flew by letting him only glimpse its amorphous shape, and he, as you may guess, didn’t ask his friend at all. 

In fact, it was already the morning of the seventh day of the month, and all journeys and locals talked about the cherries hitting fool bloom on the eighth, so, once more, he exited his house with a well made up mind and a good bunch of treacherous, disloyal confidence, and started walking under the liar sun, that told everyone that it was a nice day when it was not. 

He let his brown eyes travel over all the people that he found on his way, most of whom were making good use of the happy mood that bloomed with the cherries, until he got to his hot tidy classroom. 

His sun smile set when he spotted Haru, who sat at his usual spot doodling in some notebook.

“Good morning Haru!” he greeted, jauntily heading to the other. 

The raven-haired boy looked up, kind of amused for his friend’s strangely lively behavior, “Good morning indeed, but is there another reason for you to be so happy?” he asked, watching him sit on the chair beside his. 

“Ah, no, nothing special,” he smirked, making Haru, who didn’t believe his words, make a discreet head shake before returning to his drawing, not asking further because he knew Arata would tell him the reason in a few seconds.

“By the way,” Arata started again, taking just one second longer than what the other had predicted. “I wanted to ask you if you-”, but, I don’t know if thanks to a merciful God avoiding a catastrophe or because of some playful angels messing around with the mortals, his words were interrupted by the startling school bell.

“Tell me later,” Haru got to whisper before the teacher yelled them quiet. 

Later, latest, too late. 

For the next time Arata had an opportunity to talk to his friend his confidence had gotten bored and left to mess with another one, and Haru, who had already forgotten about it, didn’t ask either. 

The day seemed cloudier when they walked back home since the sun rays didn’t light up Arata. 

The two boys arrived at his place, and he was as always lost in thought when they separated, but as he entered his house he was surprised a “see you tomorrow” didn’t snap him back to reality, it was, in fact, the lack of it that did. 

Arata peeked back out the door and watched Haru walking away. “We’ll… meet tomorrow, right?” he started thinking anxiously as he closed the door again. “right?”.

Right...? 

The question wouldn’t leave his mind for the rest of the afternoon, what drove him to the situation he was in now, scaredly dialing his friend’s number in the middle of a chilly night. “What am I doing, he’ll be asleep,” he thought nervously, regretting the idea, but it was too late, for his finger was already pressing the call button. The first beep startled him, and he dropped his phone, then not daring to pick it up and just keeping to watch it beep on the floor from his bed. Nothing. 

He sighed and left the phone on the side table, it was natural that the other hadn’t picked it up at this hour, so there was nothing else he could do. 

He got under the airy cool sheets and snuggled in them, cursing himself and his insecurity once more. 

It was the next morning when light yellow light seeped through the window drop by drop until it filled the whole room, waking Arata on the process. He hadn’t slept that well but the fresh air and his busy mind made him not be tired. 

After a quick warm shower, he put on some t-shirt and jeans and fixed his hair as well as he could, then rapidly having breakfast to exit his house as soon as possible. Although… giving it a second thought, there was no reason for him to hurry. 

Realizing this, he debated whether to go back to his house or not, but as he was already out, he thought he would rather head to the place early, also to be able to enjoy the life and freshness in the air of a spring morning and to take a good spot to view the cherries. 

A few people like him filled the ambient with silent conversations and about half an hour later more started coming. You could start seeing some families and couples arrange their blanket to sit on, and later groups of young friends and families with smaller kids started arriving too, each at their own time, although the calm of the place never got lost. 

It was after another thirty minutes when Arata started worrying, realizing that, with no hour or meeting place, they were leaving it all to chance, which, by the way, didn’t use to play on his side. Besides, at this point he didn’t even know if the other was expecting to go with him or if he was going to just stay home, or show up with a cute girl, or go with some friends he didn’t know about. The anxiety of his thoughts didn’t let him see all the pink flowers above his head as he walked around, having left a blanket and his backpack on the good spot he had found to reserve it while he looked for his friend. 

The more time passed, the more people seemed to arrive, but none of them Haru. At least not until another hour after, when chance seemed to finally show some pity for the desperate boy. 

“Arata,” a voice from behind made the student jump startled, before identifying who it was. 

“Haru!” he felt the urge to hug him but he held back, just showing his happiness with a sunny smile instead.

“Hello. Have you been here for long? I was looking for you,” the shorter boy asked.

“Well I’ve been here for a while… uh, anyways, I found a good spot over there,” he answered awkwardly, pointing in its direction. 

“Oh, good, I was afraid we made it both too late, let's go,” Haru said breezy, starting to walk in the indicated direction. 

“Y-Yes,” Arata replied, catching up to him.  

As they walked, he looked over his friend from behind. He was neatly dressed but too snug for the warm weather, as always, and even prettier than normally. In Arata’s opinion, he was just like a flower, beautiful, precious, and delicate, and that is even lovelier at spring than at any other time of the year. 

Haru reacted pleasedly to the good place the other had chosen for the viewing, and sat carefully on the blanket, having Arata sit beside. 

His blue eyes sparkled as two clear lagoons under the sun when looking at the pink flowers that decorated the cherries and eventually fell over their heads, and Arata’s eyes sparkled, as walnut wood after it rains, seeing his friend like this. 

“I’m glad I can be here with him after all,” he thought, smiling fondly, “although it isn’t as I wanted… wasn’t spring a time of rebirth and improvement? I had promised myself I’d change and I’d do this… how come I let the opportunity get wasted?”. Guilt and self-consciousness started creeping in. “But hanami hasn’t passed yet, right?” 

He gulped, knowing what his stupid brain would make him do.

“Haru,” he closed his eyes and clenched his fists tightly, his voice sounding louder than he thought it would. 

“Yes?” the raven-haired turned, confused. 

“Do you- Do you want to go to Hanami with me?” he said, not opening his eyes.

Haru looked at his face, red and nervous, and his question, it almost made him chuckle. 

“We are already here,” he replied.

“I-,” all of Arata seemed to relax and he opened his eyes to see his friend’s amused expression. “I know that but… do you want to go… with me?” he said, pointing to himself, his words sounded casual although he didn’t understand them well himself. 

Haru blinked confused, but he then couldn’t help smiling, although he wasn’t sure why. “Of course,” he answered genuinely, letting go a balmy chuckle and returning to what he was doing.

Arata’s blushing face lit up, he couldn’t believe that the line between fantasy and reality had been so fragile, so, after he had enjoyed this for a few minutes, he gave a bold second step. 

His hand slid over the blanket and took a sudden but gentle hold of Haru’s, who turned, surprised, first looking at their hands, and then raising his gaze to Arata as his cheeks turned pink, just as the cherry trees had, and it was, as well, a sight worth seeing for its beauty and unusualness. 

Arata snickered, for the roles had for once changed, being the smaller boy the one getting flustered. 

“Mankai is really beautiful this year, isn’t it?” he said, giving Haru another spring smile.