The sun has begun its descent toward the horizon. The bell rings, signaling the end of the day for Shujin Academy. Students are either heading directly home, doing after school activities or standing in the hallways gossiping the usual rumors being spread. As most rumors are, they were more exaggerated.
A soft grunt is heard in the small garden of the rooftop at Shujin Academy. Then, a loud thud of heavy bags hitting the ground. A yelp of intense pain echoed in the air. Haru Okumura pushed the bag of soil off her feet, bending down to rub her injury. This wasn't the first time this happened to her, never making a big deal of it.
But, it doesn't mean she isn't slightly agitated of her clumsiness. Maybe I should lay the bags on the floor to prevent this from happening again, she thought, glancing up at the closet.
"You alright Haru?" a quiet voice ask, startling her, despite knowing who the voice belongs to.
The auburn-haired girl turns to see Akira Kurusu standing behind her. The tall young man has his hand in his pocket, his dark gray eyes hide behind glasses that bore into hers. The way his eyes appear half lidded tells her he's tired, but a warm smile comes across his face when he saw her.
Her attention set on a ravishing milky pink camellia in a container in Akira's other hand. Haru quickly stands up in front of him, snapping out of her thoughts. She bows and replies, "My apologies Akira-kun! Unfortunately, I pulled two bags of soil from the top shelf and one of them landed on my foot. Nothing was spilled thankfully."
A chuckle escapes from Akira, walking around her to set the flowerpot down. "Be careful next time and wait for me. I didn't think you were this clumsy," he says, giving her a teasing wink, lifting one of the soil bags.
"N-not purposefully. My upper body strength does need improvement I suppose." she sheepishly answers with a slight chuckle, offering him help as she grabs the other soil bag.
"Nah, you're good the way you are. It's kind of cute actually."
"I don't think so. Clumsiness is a poor habit of mine..." she differs, taking another glance at the flower with a smile, "What's the beautiful camellia for? Adding it to the garden?"
Akira picks up the camellia and raises it to her. "For you."
"F-for me...? You grew this for me?" Haru stuttered, feeling her heart pound in excitement.
Akira rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, "Yes. Remember back in April I said I wanted to plant the camellia?" Haru nodded in confirmation as he continues, "Well, after learning how to grow one while working in the flower shop in Shibuya, I decided to grow one for you, as kind of a surprise."
"K-Kurusu-kun..." Haru happily gasps, grabbing the flower. "How thoughtful of you! Thank you so much, I promise to take special care of it."
"You're welcome," Akira smiles, looking at his watch. "Since I don't have nothing to do, I'll help you for the time being if that's okay with you Okumura."
Haru beams, "Oh, I don't mind at all! I appreciate it. I tried planting vegetables last time I was here but only managed to do half. Hopefully, we'll get it done today." she says, grabbing her apron.
When she turns around she finds Akira's face dangerously close to her own. Before Haru has a chance to react, she blinks several times before he simply plants a kiss on her lips, making her cheeks practically glow with how intensely she blushed. Her eyes flutter shut, feeling him wrap his arms around her waist.
Notes: There aren't many Akira/Haru fics on this site and decided, 'why not?'. Haru feels overlooked out of all females in Persona 5 series. Also, this is my first Persona fic and I love the series so far. I imagine Akira, by default, an aloof person, not really caring about much, but when he does care, he cares a lot but as Joker he gets very mad confident. I hope you all enjoyed and I hope to at least put a smile on your faces. Thanks to my beta Darth Azareal for checking over this chapter!