Thanks for reading this story!
In this chapter reveals the meaning of the flower.
Disclaimers: I do not own Bleach and their characters (definitely); they are all masterpieces from Kubo-sensei~
CHAPTER 9: FLOWER OF UNSPOKEN WORDS
It wasn't written in the book.
The only thing he remembered was the meaning of the act "putting hibiscus on the hair behind the ear". Yet the meaning was a foreign word that he didn't understand.
"No. I don't."
"I know it."
He looked at her doubtfully.
She didn't know about the flower's shape or appearance, but she knew its meaning?
It seemed his odd look suggesting the question "How do you know?" to her.
"Ah, I have a friend who loves flowers. Although I haven't seen the real hibiscus flower before, she told me about its meaning. And I think it's somehow like you."
She kept talking with her most gentle expression.
Like me? In what way?
"What does it mean?" He asked.
"In my world, the hibiscus means 'gentle'. It's the flower of unspoken words because the flower name has already talked itself. And I think…"
She stopped in the middle of her sentence, somehow trying to say the word, but that word couldn't come out clearly.
"You think…?" He repeated.
"I think you are gentle." She was blushing.
Why did she feel embarrassed when she said that word to Ulquiorra?
She didn't feel anything like that before when she talked the same word about Kurosaki-kun.
Of course, Kurosaki-kun was always gentle in her mind. But somehow, when she thought how gentle Ulquiorra was, she couldn't believe herself that she thought about him like that.
And he was supposed to be her enemy at that time. In fairy tale, enemy was not supposed to be gentle to the captive.
"I see."
She heard him replying with his calm voice. So short. He might think that I'm an idiot.
"But the white hibiscus has another meaning. And I like it."
She tried to change the topic to another way, but she still kept talking about the flower.
"What's meaning?" He asked with a little curiosity sparkling in his eyes.
"It means 'forever', just like our relationship." She smiled and answered him.
JinxJen's note:
To you, Orihime in this chapter might be out of her character, but who knows.
To me, she was always acting out of character. She was still in the middle of growing up, you know.
I still believe that she has never or will never hate anyone because she always thinks of any good trait about people that she believes that they are good, especially people that she likes.
That why regardless that thought about Ulquiorra coming from her, she even didn't believe herself that she thought about him like that.
Making her contradicted was my intention at the begining, but in the end I decided for her to speak her true feeling after all.
Next chapter was Ulquiorra's POV for Orihime's speaking her thought like that about him.