Love and hate are predestined. Not anything as unglamorous as luck or chance. At least that's what Onoda Sakamichi thought all his life. The naïve prince thought this for the majority of his teenage years until an encounter makes him rethink chance. And, as with most things, an over eager friend set this chain of events into motion.
"Hey, Sakamichi!" a familiar voice bellows from down the large hallway of the castle.
Sakamichi turns toward the origin of the voice only to be tackled by a hug from one of his closest friends, Naruko Shoukichi.
"Naruko!" he gasped.
"No need for formalities. Call me Shoukichi."
"Cut it out dummy, it's only been two weeks since we've seen him. No need to act like it's been ten years," another familiar voice scolds and pulls Naruko off him "Hey, how have you been fairing, Onoda?" another one of his closest childhood friends, Imaizumi Shunsuke greets.
"Shunsuke!" he gasps.
"Now, now, Shun."
"Don't call me by my first name, Naruko."
"Shunsuke, Shoukichi, how long have you been back?"
"Less than an hour. We just got back from a council meeting," Imaizumi answers.
"It was awful. Kinjo has a sick sense of humor. He assigned me and Imaizumi a room together."
"Well it's good that you got to help improve this country's wellbeing by being at the council meeting. I wish I was there," Onoda meekly says while giving a nervous laugh.
"The old man, Kinjo, and Lord Makishima still haven't given you permission to leave the castle yet?"
"No…they say that I'm not mature enough and would probably hurt myself."
"Well, it shows how much your mentors care about you. And, to be fair, you probably would. You're lucky that you have people that care about you. We're just orphaned fledgling advisors."
"Don't say that! We've grown up together and my mentors and I think of you as family!" Onoda pauses, not noticing the pained look on his friend's faces before continuing "I'm envious of you two sometimes because you can go off on adventures."
Naruko chuckles and says, "Well unless you can categorize adventures as rooming with this stick in the mud and having stuff fly over your head then you'd be sorely disappointed," he leans toward and shares a secretive smile with Onoda and continues "buuut, if you want I can take you on a real adventure."
"What are you suggesting, weasel?" Imaizumi interjects.
"Oh, just a little trip outside of the kingdom."
"Outside of the kingdom?!" Onoda and Imaizumi say at the same time and the latter continues with saying, "Do you know what Kinjo would do to us if we took Onoda out of the castle, let alone out of the kingdom?"
"Relax, it's only to the kingdom next door. It's less than a half a day's trip. An hour at most."
"Please don't tell me you're suggesting we go to Hakone. You KNOW how high tensions are high."
"What did I tell you? Relax. It's only one day and we have business there anyway to survey the population's opinion on Sohoku in secret so it'll be like killing two stones with one bird."
"It's two birds with one stone you, idiot." The two continued bickering until Onoda thought it over and decided to interject.
"I want to go," he says boldly with determined eyes. Imaizumu released his death grip on Naruko's shirt.
"Are you sure?" he delicately asks.
"Yes. Please, Shunsuke. I want to explore the outside world," he grips Imaizumi's hand earnestly.
He looks away and sighs.
"Fine."
With his hood pulled up, Manami Sangaku shuffled through the streets on Hakone. He carefully shields his face from any prying eyes so no one recognizes him as next crowned prince of Hakone. While the chances that he would be recognized are very slim, he doesn't want to risk exposer.
What possessed him to leave the castle still with puzzles him. He's been holed up in that stuffy castle ever since he was 7 years old and never had a problem with it until today.
He looks over his shoulder to see if anyone is following him and smiles triumphantly when he sees no one is. Shops, scenery, and people flash right before his eyes at rapid speeds. Unlike the royal palace, the town was very dull. It wasn't bad, just different. He wanted to soak up this change in environment as quickly as he can. His exploration is cut short before he knows it when he's standing face-to-face with Arakita Yatsutomo, right hand man of the King.
"The jig is up you little snot. Honestly, how far did you think you would get?" Akakita snarls. The guards behind Arakita tense and get ready to apprehend Manami.
"What are you talking about Yatsu?" he sweetly asks.
"Don't call me that. You know about your delicate constitution but you choose to do crap like this anyway! You know how hard it is-" he lectures. Manami stops paying attention to him and slips away with the oncoming flow of people.
"Lord Arakita!" he can hear a guard shouting "Prince Manami is getting away!"
"Whaaa? Sangaku!" He maintains anonymity on account of his hood so he's not too worried about the slim chances the lagging guards will pick him out of the crowd.
"Sorry Yatsu, I have to do this," he whispers.
The town is bustling and the different types of smells and sounds waft through the air. It's like a sensory overload for Manami. He eagerly stops at every stall he can see. He doesn't have any money so it makes him sad to see the bread vendor's disappointed face.
Even still, he saunters up to the next stand like he does have money.
A guy the same age as him is standing in front of the stand looking flustered and incredibly lost. He's much shorter than him and has black hair and giant glasses. At this moment it looks like he's having a dispute with the shopkeeper.
"N-no, I don't want to buy this. I'm sorry…" he timidly tries to say.
"Oh, my product isn't good enough for the likes of you, noble scum!?" the shop keeper growls "What, do you think we commoners are all too stupid to recognize noble clothes when we see them?"
"No, you don't understand!"
"What have you people ever done for me?!"
"Forgive my friend," Manami says without thinking. He puts his hand on his waist and pulls him closer. "I had our money on my person so he was unable to buy the item he was interested in." He reaches toward a glistening silver locket and points at it "I'll buy this one. Let's see how this looks on you," he says as he puts the locket on the stranger "It's perfect!"
"That's my most expensive item!" the shopkeeper says in disbelief.
"I don't have the money with me right now but I think this will suffice," he says before he pulls out his royal coat of arms and silences any further objection. The shopkeeper looks like he wants to bow and make a scene but Manami stops him with a wink. "I'll have someone bring you the money later. Maybe I'll even give you extra for your trouble," he deviously says.
"Come on, you. Let's go," he says with his hand still protectively placed on his side. He directs them both to the opposite direction of the cart. Only after a while does he sigh and swipe his forehead with the back of the hand.
"Thank you very much for saving me back there!" the stranger says.
"Anytime."
"My name is Onoda Sakamichi, nice to meet you."
"Mine is Manami Sangaku, likewise!"
"Um, sir?"
"Yeah?"
"Is it still necessary to have your hand on my waist?" Manami didn't even notice that his hand still remained on his side.
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that."
"No, no, I should be apologizing to you! You had to buy an expensive locket because of my blunder," he apologizes.
"It's fine. As you can tell from my appearance, I am filthy rich," he says jokingly, running his hands through his hair. He switches from joking to concerned in no time at all "No offense but why are you here without an escort? You don't strike me as the type that is very street savvy."
"You can tell?" he says with a nervous laugh "My escorts and I got separated and I've been trying to find them."
"I'll help!"
"You will?"
"Anything for an attractive face, Sakamichi," he instinctively flirts. Sakamichi's face immediately starts reddening and he mutters out a hasty thank you. Manami was so endeared to this boy in such a small amount of time and he doesn't know quite what to do about it. "So you're a noble? Are you from around here?"
He visibly swallowed and says, "I'm not from around here. I'm actually from Sohoku."
"Sohoku? That's strange." He'd never met someone from Sohoku. "You know, I was taught to hate anyone from Sohoku growing up."
"Same for me. I was taught that everyone from Hakone was rude and uncultured but this place doesn't seem half bad. Will you tell anyone where I'm from?"
"My lips are sealed." Manami notes that he avoided the question about his heritage.
"So what coat of arms do you belong to that you could walk away with a silver locket with only a promise of payment?"
"Okay, it's obvious that we both don't want to talk about the specifics of where we come from so let's change the subject."
"Agreed," he replies with a smile. A flirtatious silence stretches between them and only remotely broken with secret smiles from both of the teenagers.
"I don't know if this counts as prying but why are you walking around town today?" Onoda asks.
"It's a little bit prying…"
"S-sorry."
"It's fine," he reassures and smiles "I was feeling a little...how do I put it? I needed to get out of the house." He looks up at the sky, wondering if he should continue talking to this near stranger. It's weird that he made a friend on his own and he doesn't know if it's normal that he wants to tell this person everything. "I have a condition that makes it so my constitution is fragile. That was when I was a kid but I'm still not supposed to be out of the house."
"That's awful that you have a condition!"
"What's awful is that I'm always cooped up in the house."
They ended up roaming a good 3 hours before they saw Naruko and Imaizumi looking very frantic. Manami ran off before he met them. They agreed to try and meet the next day at the same spot, the same time.
"Sakamichi! I am so sorry! We we're busy interviewing this guy and we weren't paying attention," Naruko profusely apologizes as he helps Onoda onto the carriage.
"It's fine!"
"Onoda," Imaizumi blurts out "Are you hurt?"
"No."
"What's this?" he asks, cupping to the locket that still remains from the jewelry shopkeeper debacle.
"Someone gave it to me."
"A sugar-daddy perhaps?" Imaizumi coolly observes with a raised eyebrow.
"W-what? No!"
"Hmm. I wonder…"
"About?" Onoda encourages.
"It's nothing. Get some sleep," he suggest and before waiting for an answer he throws a blanket over his face and goes up to the front to sit with Naruko.
As Naruko and Imaizumi finished dragging Onoda back to the confinements of the castle, he felt a steady blush on his face when he thought of the events of that day.
The next day he snuck out to meet him, this time on his own. Sure enough, Manami was there where they had promised. He commented on the locket that remained around Onoda's neck but when he tried to return it, Manami declined saying it was a gift. They day was relaxing and gradually they got to know more and more about each other. The next day they promised to meet, and the day after that, and the day after that.
"Where are you taking me Manami?" Onoda says with laughter in his voice.
"Call me Sangaku and ask me the question again," he responds playfully and tightens his grip on Onoda's hand as they run through town.
"Where are you taking me….Sangaku?" he asks hesitantly.
"Some place I love very much. Trust me," he suddenly halts "Cover your eyes and no peaking." Manami carefully places one of Onoda's hands on his eyes and he holds the other in his hand.
They walk a good thirty minutes at a fast pace before he finally lets Onoda look.
"You can open your eyes now."
The sight that greets him is a field with an expanse of flowers. Only a few people are in sight but they're far off into the distance.
"I used to go here as a kid, before I fell ill," he plops down on the ground on his back with a sigh "I love it," he stretches "IloveitIloveitIloveit!"
Onoda's heart does a tiny flip when he hears Manami say that he loves something. He silently sits cross legged next to his head.
"You still wear have that thing?" Manami asks, craning his neck to look at the locket.
"Yeah I keep hoping that I can give it to you someday Manami."
"Call me Sangaku."
"I want to do something for you, Sangaku."
"You've already done enough by existing. I'm happy you're alive."
"No one has ever said that before. I'm happy you're alive too!" Manami slightly blushes but still keeps looking at him "I know what I'll do for you! My friend taught me how to make flower jewelry. I'll make one for you."
"That's so cool!" he responds with genuine excitement "I want matching bracelets!"
While he's making them they lightly talk about mundane topics.
"So who are this Naruko and Imaizumi I keep hearing about?" Manami curiously asks.
"They're two of my best friends from childhood. They've been there for me ever since we were little. Naruko is a bit rambunctious and Imaizumi is gruff but they mean well."
"It's nice to have people you can trust like that."
"Yeah it is! Do you have anyone like that?"
"Well, Toudou has always taken me under his wing and taken care of me and Arakita is really mean on the surface but I can tell he cares about me. He and Toudou looked after me when I was really sick so I naturally have this bond with them. As much as I care about them, I wish that I had someone my age to play with. I only had Miyahara but she didn't want to play half of the time."
"A childhood friend I assume?"
"Yeah."
"It's finished!" Onoda finishes his intricate handiwork and hands it to him to whom Manami takes his gratefully and delicately.
He inspects it awhile before saying, "Beautiful."
"Thanks! I worked really hard on this!"
"Huh? Yeah the bracelet is pretty too."
Onoda pauses a beat before he understands what Manami is implying. He sputters and feels his face get that icky blush that he's gotten so acquainted with while Manami sits there, cool as a glass of water.
"You want to know something Sakamichi?" he interrupts Onoda's pathetic stuttering and Onoda nods "I was really lucky."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, if you think about it, how appalling it is that we are where we are now because of a chain of events. If I would've left my house 10 minutes earlier, if you wouldn't have stopped at that stall, if I would've gone left instead of right, we wouldn't have met. It's a delicate string of choices that leads to something amazing."
"I never thought about that. It's scary to think where I'd be now if you would have not seen me at that shop."
"The scariest," he confirms "I love my bracelet. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
It was the strangest thing. In a field of flowers, Manami and Onoda were staring at each other like they were the only flower worth looking at. Onoda couldn't stop. He was just too angelic and lovely.
Manami reaches out his hand and holds Onoda's. His smooth hands caress the back of his palm as he says, "You could make a career out of this."
"You think?"
"I do."
