Full Title: "Feelings That Blossom Like Blooming Flowers"

Prompt 2: White Day/Confessions

Chapter Summary: A lot of things change as time passes; either the world grows more boring or more interesting.

Surprisingly, even when you stay in the same place for a long time, things still manage to get more interesting.

A/N:This is meant to be treated as a continuation of Scattered Like Dead Leaves but it can be treated as a separate fic in itself. I still recommend you read my first prompt for greater effect.

I hinted at some seriously dark topics in this fic. I tried to make it as vague as possible so just proceed with a naïve mindset since it doesn't affect the overall story that much. Just a warning for all you people with wild imaginations out there...

This was the 120th time she visited, spending a grand total of 600 hours, 57 minutes and 46 seconds of her time in this forest - exactly 480 hours of those, approximately 79.87% of her grand total, were spent on playing video games, losing every time they played.

"One more game, Kamukura-kun!"

"I was so close..."

"Again, Kamukura-kun!"

This girl was hell-bent on beating him, and no matter how much and how hard she tried, the result was consistently and constantly the same.

Another pointless win for this fruitless game...

"I'll get you this time!"

"It's this round, for sure...!"

"I'll...win this time... Kamukura-kun..."

And another…

"C'mon…just one mo- awww…"

"This is super difficult…"

"Another…perfect victory? How?!"

And another…

"Again."

"One more."

There was even this one time where she never talked for the whole period and had her screen stuck on the character select menu until he selected his character. She wasn't normally like this, but that's what made it the more interesting.

Even with all these repetitive things they did, he never found a reason why he should deny this girl of her incessant request of playing video games with her. At the time, he chalked it off as a less boring way to pass time. It did keep his mind off of unnecessary thoughts. It kept his fingers moving, even though all he had to do was to input over a thousand strings of code and commands to pull off one victory. Admittedly, she has quite proven herself to be different from the rest, in more ways than one.

Often times, he would find himself gazing blankly at the girl's intense expression on her face as she was trying hard to beat him even though his eyes were off his screen. He could still see her screen from the corner of his eye but he only chose to sneak in quick glances before focusing a big chunk of his attention on the gamer beside her.

On some of those moments, her eyes would twitch to the left and their eyes would meet for a few milliseconds. Hers would instantly return to the screen and she would reprimand him for not taking their game seriously.

"I would still win regardless."

Her scorn intensified as she visibly glared at her console instead of him. With the girl approaching her boiling point, the Game Over screen was just the last push she needed for her to finally relent. He predicted that after her 11,037th loss against him, she would finally realize the futility of it all.

And just when he was starting to enjoy their time together too…

…Looks like it was just too much to hope that this girl would finally be his light to color this rather gray world painted by his nihilism.

"Have you finally given up on trying to attempt the impossible?" he decided to humor the forlorn gamer a little by gloating on one victory over his numerous others.

"No! I-" she tried to deny his trick question but the words died on her mouth before she could continue. "…I'm sorry, Kamukura-kun…" she said while bowing her head in between her legs as if she was trying to hide from him in embarrassment.

Now that was an unexpected response. "What are you apologizing for? All you did was lose against me multiple times. Except for the fact that you keep demanding me to play with me, you have committed no wrongdoing against me."

His face may have not shown any hint of emotion but something stirred inside his rigid soul. He quickly identified this stirring feeling inside him as "concern". By observing a lot of people, he could accurately assume how "being concerned for others" felt like. After all, this feeling "passed" every criteria he had as a rubric to identify whatever emotion he felt, no matter how minimal the impact was on him.

There was just one problem though.

He shouldn't be concerned for this girl. If he did, then he would nullify his role as an observer of this world. He was talented - too talented. Acting to change the balance of fate would render the fruits he would reap from his labor as boring.

A new and foreign emotion was birthed from inside him having realized that. The emotion grew even stronger as he saw the girl sitting beside him stand up and wander towards the exit of the place with her face shadowed by the bangs of her unkempt hair.

"…I have to go… I'm sorry again, Kamukura-kun… I just…" she stopped talking and just sighed before resuming to leave him all alone in this forest once more. "…Nevermind."

He watched her leave.

He heard her sob quietly and yet he did nothing about it.

Was it because he didn't know how to comfort her?

Was it because he deemed her as too boring?

Or was it because he was too scared to act upon it?

Izuru stood up and proceeded to snap a tree in half with one roundhouse kick, sending splinters of wood outwards like the pellets from a shotgun slug after firing it and creating a gust of wind with his kick that blew all the dead leaves around him away. The dislodged upper part of the tree flew deeper into the forest, scaring every avian creature within his vicinity. He noticed that his breathing was more erratic - more rushed than his normal heart rate.

The realm of logic shattered into utter impossibility. This girl was what caused him to feel this way? A boring girl who does nothing but play video games, affected him in such a way that he did something out of his predefined parameters of what is ordinary?

It was illogical.

No, it was…interesting.

Chiaki Nanami was…interesting.

Not a single person has ever made him feel more "frustrated" about revealing his "feelings" towards them.

After calming his nerves, he sat back down and perched himself on the newly-created stump that he just made. He decided to have a change of pace for tomorrow.

This time, he would be the aggressor and not the appeaser.

"Can I just sit here? I don't feel like playing games with you today…"

This…was not part of the plan. She looked even worse than her normal messy presentation; her jacket was more crumpled up, more strands of hair were poking up - a sign that she had neglected to brush her hair, but her eyes…

Dilated pupils, bloodshot and teary eyes, uncoordinated movements, nystagmus… Is she…?

No, it was an unlikely possibility. He knew for a fact that she wouldn't fall THAT far. In his diagnosis of her, he spotted no recurring mental illnesses and mental illnesses didn't happen to pop up unexpectedly after a day.

The scenario he had in mind was that this girl would get over her losses and be back to normal for today. He would seat by the base of the stump and wait for her expectantly and then he would tell her his feelings about her once she arrived, expecting to play with him the whole afternoon.

Nevertheless, this change of scenario wasn't enough to throw a wrench to his plans. She was here and that was all he needed.

"Nanami, there is something I must discuss with you."

He saw her tense up in trepidation and gulped while looking at him with weak pitiful eyes. "…G-Go on…"

He obeyed her command and continued. "I doubt that you noticed this, but I have developed some interest in you. Of all the people that I have observed, you are, by far, the most interesting out of all of them. The others, they were boring - unremarkable with no distinct qualities that pique me." He paused and waited for her reply. Since none came, he resumed talking. "I plan to explore these "feelings" I have for you in more detail; however, I need you as my partner. It is not necessary that you should be my romantic partner, but it would be better if you were. Do you understand what I am trying to say here, Nanami?"

She looked as if she was at a loss for words. "I…I…" was all she managed to blurt out.

"It appears that you do not. Very well," he said as he fought the urge to let out a sigh. "I shall explain it to you in one sentence."

This is the moment of truth.

No time for hesitation. No time for doubts.

All he has to say, are those six words and leave the rest to chance.

"Nanami Chiaki, I am in love with you."

After he said those words, the forest around them had seemed to have quieted down to the point that even he could not hear anything. He gauged her reaction to his confession. He analyzed every outcome to this and prepared himself for both the possibilities of rejection and acceptance. He shouldn't be "nervous" about the outcome and yet he "feels" that he is. The same can be said for the other as well. She seemed too nervous - afraid, even, to react to his confession.

After some moments of waiting in silence, he finally caught a glimpse of her reaction. Tears began to fall from her eyes and her fingers were itching to do something other than to grip the dirt on the ground. In one quick and sudden motion, she flew at him and wrapped her arms around the unaffected man.

"I…I love you too, Kamukura-kun…! I don't want to lose you! You make me happy just being here with me! I…I want to be…your partner…!"

Her words broke off into choked out sobs and jolted heaves as she let all her tears do the talking for her. Although, he could not see her face with the way she buried herself deeper into his body, he assumed that she was happy about his confession to her despite the fact that when people cry, it tended to be associated with grief, sadness, turmoil, etc.

So this…must be…"happiness"… he thought to himself. …Interesting…

His arm mindlessly moved on its own and wrapped itself around her clingy body, rubbing her back with his hand with one repeated up and down motion. As soon as his hand made contact with her back, a memory last September that he discarded flashed in his brain.

"…Since we didn't formally introduce ourselves yesterday, I'll start us off. My name is Nanami Chiaki and my birthday is at March 14. Nice to meet you! How about you?"

"I do not see the point of repeating what I said yesterday just for formalities' sake but fine. My name is Kamukura Izuru and my date of birth is what people celebrate as the start of a New Year, or in other words, January 1."

"Ah! We have another similarity, Kamukura-kun?!"

"Another? I fail to find anything worth noting that can even be remotely considered as a similarity between us."

"Our birthdays are both holidays!"

"Aren't you surprised at all, Kamukura-kun?"

"These facts do not matter to me in the slightest. They are boring. Why should something as superficial as a coincidence surprise you and, most especially, me?"

"Coincidences don't surprise you at all…? Well, I guess I can agree with you to a degree but it's not everyday you meet someone who celebrates their birthday and a holiday at the same time."

"And yet I do not find them surprising nor do I care at all."

"Sooner or later, you might regret not caring about these things, y'know…"

"Your foreboding words mean nothing to me. I do not see the purpose of remembering the boring intricacies that people consider important to themselves."

Having remembered that conversation during her 15th visit to this forest, he started to connect all the dots. Yesterday was March 14, her birthday and White Day, a holiday where men are supposed to give back chocolates to their significant other as a sign of gratitude for their gifts during Valentine's Day. Naturally, he knew how significant yesterday was for her but he never bothered to greet her since he still didn't care about what yesterday was…

…Until now, that is.

Having known her full situation and the circumstances she was in yesterday, that might have been the reason why she was frustrated and left with a sad note yesterday.

No one greeted her a happy birthday and no one returned her gifts of chocolate to her.

Surprisingly, she managed to surprise him yet again. Her foreboding words may have been nothing at the time, but now, it came back to bite him. This was a mistake he needed to rectify at once. If he said that he was, indeed, in love with her, then he would need irrefutable decisive proof of his love.

And in order to do that, he would need to bake her a chocolate cake.

Standing up, he pulled the girl who was still clinging on to him up to her feet. An expression of surprise colored her face from the abruptness of his actions. "Come with me, Nanami. There is something else we must do."

"Kamukura-kun…? I don't understand… We're leaving this forest now?"

"We are. Something important came to mind. You shall know everything once we arrive at our destination."

She nodded at his response and followed him out of the forest and towards the bright new world out there.

He already knows what's going to happen. The future was fairly obvious but if it was with Chiaki, Izuru didn't mind.

She truly is the most interesting person he's ever met in all his boring life.

A/N:Have ALL the angst!

I know I ended the fic prematurely but I'd rather leave it to your imagination instead. It's more interesting that way, don't you think?

Like you know... maybe Junko suddenly comes crashing in with a truck and runs over Izuru?

Or maybe Nagito somehow pops up unexpectedly and causes a fire?

Who knows?

By the way, I may have made Izuru a bit OOC in this fic but then again, things change as time passes, right?