Hello everyone,
I've always loved flowers they come in different colours and shapes and scents anyway you get the picture. I don't know anyone who wouldn't love them, well maybe not boys but still most girls do. Anyway since there are so many of them I thought let me make a story not about them but including them, and since I love Honomaki I could add both of them together
And this was the result, hope you like. And now the seed has been planted and now to see how it blossoms.
Hehe xd bad flower pun, anyway onwards with the chapter.
The scent of jasmines and all sorts of floral fragrance and the sound customers chatting and laughing softly filled the air. Anyone who entered the shop could see a rainbow of flowers arranged beautifully as bouquets or prearranged jars. Soft light illuminated the shop, although it felt more like the flowers were the ones which brightened up the place even though they couldn't glow.
The atmosphere was enough to make anyone entering the shop to smile; despite having many people it was still had enough silence but just enough voice to keep you at peace.
But still the good atmosphere wasn't enough to brighten up everyone's moods.
"So how much does that lily bouquet cost?" the girl elegantly asked or at least tried to. Another girl at the counter with orange hair tied with a pink ribbon looked away from the book she was reading or at least trying to; it's hard to concentrate on the book when people came every two minutes at the counter to purchase something.
As soon as she turned to speak to the person, a strong scent hit her square in the face, the ginger had a sudden urge to run to the fire extinguisher and spray her with it. She was pretty sure the girl had sprayed the entire perfume bottle on herself, now that she thinks about it how did the people surrounding her bear this scent did.
But still the fire extinguisher might be too much, and they girl won't be thanking her soon if ever tried to do that.
"Hello are you listening? I asked the price of the bouquet" the ginger stood up giving up on trying to read the book, what was the point anyway she definitely can't read here.
"8, 414 yen" she said.
The girl's jaw dropped and her eyes widened so much, the ginger wondered whether those red eyes would pop out.
She had trying to act like a mature lady ever since she stepped into the shop, but considering her height and the shocked expression on her face she clearly had failed at that.
"But they are so small" she retorted.
"So are you" the ginger wanted to retort back, but she kept it to herself. Despite her short stature the girl seemed quite intimidating and looked ready to get into a fight, and Honoka wasn't really interested in getting into one, in front of the other customers.
"Well they are not easy to grow at this time of the year-"
"But they are small" she stated crossing her arms across her chest, or lack off. The ginger let out a suffering sigh, wishing she was in her room watching her favourite show and munching on her favourite strawberry jam filled bread.
"Hey are you listening" her voice put an end to her peaceful thoughts, as she looked at her the girl's frown deepened.
"If you are so much against the price then don't buy them" the ginger muttered, she looked down at the pink and purple lily bouquet in a pink ribbon, the flowers weren't that big but it definitely wasn't as small as the girl was implying, someone might think that the girl was talking about jasmines or some other smaller flower.
Of course the ginger could go into an argument and tell the girl that she should know about flowers before entering into a flower shop, but she wasn't in any mood to do that. The last time she spoke rudely to a customer she had gotten a 2 hour lecture from her parents about being friendly to the customers, not that she was paying attention to the lecture but she'd rather not hear another one.
"Reduce the price"
"To what?" Honoka muttered, if the reduction was small maybe she could consider it and-
"4000 yen"
-or not.
"Are you insane?"
"Huh?"
"Onee-chan come here we have a problem" she yelled deciding to take help from higher authority seeing that she can't deal with this kid-looking-but-acting-like-adult girl herself.
They heard the sound of footsteps as if someone was running down the stairs, the door behind Honoka opened and blonde appeared a perplexed look on her face. She came and stood next to the ginger.
"What happened Honoka?" she asked.
"You see this person here-"
"Eli?" Honoka raised an eyebrow at that seems like the girl knew her sister.
"Nico?" well now wasn't this just perfect her sister knew her too. They stared at each other, Honoka didn't want to cut in but she had to ask.
"You know this kid?"
"Who's a kid?" she or rather Nico as her sister said growled. The perfume scent became stronger as she stepped closer to the counter.
Honoka staggered back pushing the chair she was sitting on away from Nico, not because she was intimated by her but because she felt her eyes water from the intense perfume smell. How was her sister able to stand there like that?
"Ok ok, let it go Nico my little sister has some socialising problems" she said.
"Wow that's the understatement of the year" Nico grumbled, shooting her a dark look which Honoka ignored, her novel was way more interesting maybe she could try to read again.
"Your younger sister huh?" she said again "she looks nothing like you"
Eli could only give a nervous laugh to that.
"Hmmp at least I don't look like a kid playing dress up" Honoka muttered.
"Say what?"
"Well looks like you both will get along great" Eli said sarcastically.
"I don't like kids" Honoka commented. Nico grumbled again.
"If at all, you're the kid here don't go and poke your nose into your seniors business"
"You're my senior? Yeah right and I'm Japan's prime minister".
"You little-"
"Ok ok that's enough already" Eli was fed up, 30 minutes since they met and they were already fighting like cats and dogs. If she hadn't showed up they probably would have thrown punches at each other, although that is highly impossible, Nico was smaller than many of the high school girls and she knew better than to pick a fight with her size.
Honoka also doesn't like to touch or be touched so she does not try to attack physically, but their words were enough to defeat an opponent.
"What did you want Nico?" Eli asked her. Honoka pointed to the lily bouquet not bothering to explain but Eli got the idea.
"She's telling it's more than 8,000 yen"
"Well it is"
"But-"
"It's out of season now Nico I assure you that you won't get it for a lesser rate now,"
"But growing lilies isn't hard"
"So why don't you grow one yourself and stop bickering with shopkeepers for their price" Honoka chimed in.
"Honoka!" that's enough" she turned to Nico "you could select some other-"
"You know what never mind, I'll take those" Nico sighed admitting defeat, it's already late and her mother would be worried by now. She spent far too much time arguing with Honoka.
"Oh really"
"Yeah, what was the exact price again?"
"8, 414 yen" she handed over the bouquet with a small teddy bear.
"For what?"
"For being a good customer"
"-in arguing" Honoka added, but Nico ignored her top priority was to reach home quickly now.
Although her comment, Honoka was amazed by how Eli was able to sell the flowers to Nico without even reducing a yen, but then again the girl probably was in a hurry to go home, it was already 9:00 pm anyway.
But her sister was always good at selling the flowers even the most expensive ones, one of the perks of being the student council president at a famous academy.
"You ok?"
"Huh?" she hadn't realised that all customers had left and Eli was turning the shop sign to closed.
"yeah"
"I heard a lot of yelling before you called me," Eli stated closing down the shutters of the shop "must be one tough customer".
"Yeah no kidding" Honoka muttered removing her apron and standing up from her chair. She stretched her hands and went to the mini fridge kept in the next room; her throat was parched from all that yelling.
She came back to see Eli sprinkling some water to the roses, in a pretty white vase.
"You know her?" she asked drinking from the orange juice can, it felt good to have some cool liquid flowing into her parched throat.
"Yeah my classmate" Eli had moved on to water the hibiscus and then lilies.
"Seriously how do deal with her?" Eli laughed at the comment watching the leaves of the touch-me-not plant closing immediately on contact.
"Well not yelling does the trick my dear". She smiled as the sweet scent of the chamomile reached her. Honoka scoffed as she looked at the latest flowers that had been brought in, some rainbow coloured roses. She ran her hands through the petals admiring their beauty only to pull back when her finger bumped into a rather sharp thorn.
Many flowers reminded her of certain people, they seem beautiful as the rose at first only when you get closer to them will you actually feel the thorns.
"If you helped out at the shop more often you would know how to deal with people like her" she said inspecting a rather dull plant, maybe it needs more sunlight.
"I doubt there would be more customers like her, besides isn't two hours enough?" Honoka say down on a tall stool near the tool shelf.
"Not really" Eli said refilling water into the watering can, it was a small one so she doesn't end up pouring extra water to the flowers "don't you love flowers? You could spend more time with them".
Honoka leaned against the shelf making sure not to shake it all the plastic pots were light enough to fall down even with the slightest movement.
"Are the flowers some person to spend time with?" Eli smiled carrying the watering can towards the flowers.
"Didn't you say you would marry the flowers?" Honoka coughed her cheeks red with embarrassment.
"Oh come on, that joke is really getting old I was 4 years back then, only 4 years I didn't know what I was telling" she heard her sister chuckling.
"I know just teasing you"
Honoka folded her arms across her stomach " may not be a bad idea actually, I can take the words 'married to my work' literally".
"So which flower are you planning to marry?" Honoka rubbed her forehead; Eli was taking this stupid joke a bit too far.
"Haven't decided, well I have years for that" thankfully her sister dropped the joke after that, more like dropped a ridiculous conversation if anyone would have heard their conversation they would have thought something is wrong with them.
"Hey don't pour that much water on those" Honoka said as she saw Eli trying to pour a lot of water into the Jasmine plant.
"Pour more water for those, it needs more moisture"
"Make sure to add water in drops for the flower on your left" as Honoka gave various methods of watering all the flowers, Eli was fed up and handed the watering to Honoka itself.
She sat down where Honoka had sat previously as she saw the ginger being extra careful in watering the plants the right away.
"Does it really matter how we water them" she asked resting her head on her hands.
"Of course it does, that's why some of these flowers grow only in certain places, because only that place has the conditions needed for it to grow" she said. "Like us we can't adjust to all weather conditions if we were to go the Alaska we will not be able to live there for a full day or even if we go to a hot place the same thing would happen if the people of some other weather condition come here".
Her eyes travelled to all the flowers and she placed down the watering can after she was satisfied that they had enough water.
"Just like that flowers need certain temperature, soil, and moisture to grow but since we don't have all sorts of weather here we need to build those conditions ourselves".
She stopped her lecture when she found Eli staring at her,
"What?"
"You really love flowers don't you?"
"It's nothing new, you already know about this"
"True, but you know more about them than anyone else you take care of them watering them, nurturing them, making sure they have sunlight and-"
"Ok ok stop" Honoka blushed rubbing her hands together it was chilly outside and the fact that she was touching cold water didn't help.
"The thing is you do care about something even though it's not a person, -"
"Hmmp flowers are better than people, if you show enough care and love they will bloom into beautiful blossoms; people only take advantage of you if you do the same to them."
"Not everyone is the same" Eli shook her head as Honoka ignored her and went out of the room "ok that's enough work for today, let's have lunch you must be starving".
She switched off the storage room's light.
"Yeah and I need to pack my bag for the first day of High school" Eli leaned against the wall.
"Yep, I'm so glad you and I will be going to the same school, it would be so much fun and-"
"Well not for me, I'm a transfer student there and I need to catch up on the 2 months I missed" Eli shook her head.
"You're smart you'll catch up in no time"
"How would you know?" Honoka switched on the TV while Eli heated up some curry to have dinner.
"I'm in my third year now, I have seen first and 2nd year, there's nothing you can't handle".
"And while I'm there please don't introduce me to any of your classmates-"
"Oh I can't wait to introduce to Nozomi" Eli exclaimed, placing some rice in front of Honoka and ignoring her groan.
"I said-"
"You always run away whenever I invite my friends here" Eli recalled "I don't even know how you manage to do that every time, I never tell you that someone is coming over".
How Honoka chewed her fried fish, the TV switched on to some channel about High school.
"Your way too obvious, you clean up the house and stay excited all day it's doesn't take a genius to figure it out".
"Oh really I need to keep it some secretive next time" Honoka rolled her eyes at that.
"Good luck with that". The show was something about how fun high school life was, was it really supposed to motivate people going to high school? She sure wasn't motivated seeing that.
"I just want a peaceful high school life so don't go introducing me to the whole class".
Eli grinned "since you asked so nicely I will make sure to introduce you to the whole school".
Honoka groaned someone save her from her sister.
"Honoka, Eli we're home" she heard their mother shout.
"About time" Eli said taking the heavy packets from her mother and planning them on the table "I thought you forgot about us" she joked.
"Well when the whole Tokyo know our girls, how could we ever forget our little florists" her dad replied, Honoka didn't stop having her rice, even though her parents arrived.
"And come leave the boring dinner, we brought the best food from this newly opened Chinese restaurant" her mother said.
"Wow really?" as Eli excitedly went to see what her mother had brought, Honoka stood up and carried her empty plates to the washroom basin and started washing them.
"Hono-"
"I had dinner already so I'm going to sleep now, goodnight" and she left without another word. Her mother didn't seem upset by that she simply turned to Eli.
"Don't worry I'll take some food later to her room".
"Thank you dear and be sure to help her tomorrow at her new school".
"You don't even need to ask". Her mother gazed at the door through which Honoka had abruptly left; maybe someday her daughter would smile again, like she did back them.
Some wounds just take a little longer to heal that others, she knew Honoka's wound was taking a long time but it would definitely heal someday.
"Well come then, I'm starving let's eat".
so you guys are used to Honoka being all sweet and energetic what if she was not, what if she was like Maki. That would be an interesting turn or so I thought. So here i thought let me try it out , Honoka does appear too OOC but there is a good reason for it, will be revealed later in the story.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter, Maki will appear in the next chapter.
Please review on your thoughts about the chapter.