Beginning of April, a Friday. As usual at school, the four girls were enjoying their lunch while talking about random topics, which were as meaningless as they could be, but always fun to talk about. Their conversation soon got stopped by Konata, who had, as so often, a random idea floating in her head that she had to voice out.
"Hey, I have an idea!"
"… I don't have a good feeling about that..." Kagami already wanted to stop her.
"Aww… come on, Kagamin~, you sound like you never have fun with my ideas…" Konata sounded as sad as possible while shedding a fake tear.
"Okay okay, I'm sorry... Especially lately, you really do occasionally have some decent ideas.
"Thank you, Kagamin, your tsundere trait sure isn't easy to handle sometimes…" Konata was perfectly happy again and slyly started to hug her in the confusion.
"You surely recover fast, don't you?"
"So… Kona-chan, what is your idea?" Tsukasa tried to get back to the topic.
"It's already pretty warm outside and the flowers and other stuff are already blooming pretty strong and so, let's go flower viewing!"
"I knew it would end up with something weird… Wait, what did you say?" Kagami snapped before realizing what Konata had actually said.
"Kagamin~... you know, flower viewing, looking at things like cherry blossoms and so on while having a picnic." Konata was slightly disappointed in Kagami's distrust.
"My, that sounds pretty nice, Izumi-san." Miyuki liked Konata's idea.
"Yes, Yuki-chan is right. It really sounds like fun, Kona-chan." Tsukasa agreed with her.
"I'm sorry… It really sounds good. Do you have a fever or something like that?" Kagami said so while touching Konata's forehead, pretending to check her temperature.
"I'm fine, Kagamin~..." Konata started pouting and genuinely looked a bit sad now.
"Stop making me feel bad already, okay? I like the idea." Hearing that, Konata immediately cheered up and started hugging Kagami even tighter. "But you really should let go of me now. It's getting slightly embarrassing, you know?"
"Please~, we both know you like it. Additionally, you were the one who just touched me after finding some weird excuse for it." She referred to the fever joke.
"N-No... T-That wasn't an excuse... Anyway, we should plan that flower viewing now, right?"
"That's probably a good idea." Miyuki and Tsukasa said at the same time.
"The best thing would be to split the preparations. Food, drinks, snacks and a good place. Everyone should choose one thing." Kagami suddenly sounded pretty eager.
"I know some good places and, no, Kagamin~, I mean, really good places and don't even think about taking over the food part!" Konata said while glancing over at her.
"… I didn't even say anything. No, I'll take the snack part. Feel free to tease me now." Kagami got slightly annoyed.
"Why should I? It's your specialty after all. Choosing this is the only logical thing to do." Konata's grin almost reached all the way to her ears.
"…" Her only answer was a sigh.
"I would like to take the drink part if that's okay?" Miyuki asked.
"Sure, Yuki-chan, after all, I like to cook. I wanted to take that part, anyway." Tsukasa happily answered.
"With the boring things done, how does Sunday sound? The weather report says it would be very warm there."
"Wow, it seems you really planned all that rather well, I'm impressed, Konata."
"Yeah, I guess, I have my moments, Kagamin~."
"Now I would wish it would already be weekend… even more than normal." Tsukasa wanted to go right now.
"Yes, I also look forward to it and I hope the weather really stays nice." Miyuki agreed with Tsukasa's answer.
"Well, I guess even I can't deny being a bit excited…" Kagami also looked forward to it, although, she still wasn't fully convinced by everything.
"You won't regret it, Kagamin~."
"If you say that, my doubts will only grow…"
…
Sunday morning in the Hiiragi house, the day of the flower viewing. Kagami was rather stressed out about something.
"Oh no, I forgot to buy the snacks... I don't even want to imagine Konata's teasing if I appear there without anything." She started to panic a little.
"Where are you going, onee-chan?" Tsukasa, who was in the kitchen, saw her sister wanting to leave the house.
"I just forgot something… Don't wait for me, I'm coming straight to Konata's place after I got it."
"Well, okay then." Tsukasa didn't understand a thing, but also didn't think too much about it.
"… Wait, did Konata even say where the place is?"
"Kona-chan wanted to mail the location of the place to us later."
"Oh… I have a bad feeling about that as well. Whatever, see you later, sis."
"Bye, onee-chan."
….
Meanwhile, at Konata's house.
"Damn, I totally forgot to check the places of the flower viewing yesterday… Stupid Kuroi-sensei, I shouldn't have accepted the invitation from her to the raid. Eight hours for almost nothing… I have never seen such a bad party since I started playing that game. I mean, sensei and I carried the complete group the entire time. We should have kicked them for being such useless idiots, but finding new ones, who aren't useless, is also hard… Stupid game…" Even for Konata's standards, the last night was a waste of time.
"I have to hurry now. If I don't find a good place, Kagami is so going to kill me. I'll never hear the end of it…"
"Where are you going, Konata?" When she was about to leave the house, her father had stopped her.
"To the flower viewing, dad. I'm pretty sure I told you."
"Yes, you did, but isn't it a bit early?" Ho pointed at the clocked that showed it was still morning.
"Well, I kind of forgot something pretty important and so, I'm a bit in a hurry."
"I see." Her father said to no one because his daughter was already gone.
"… Now what? I'm sure I can't visit all places I thought of... Yeah, not nearly enough of time." Konata was thinking aloud. "I guess, I'll go straight to my favorite place and hope that there is no one... Nah, even if there is someone, I'm sure I can find a way to get rid of them." She had a dangerous smile on her face.
…..
"Yes!" Konata shouted as she arrived at the place. "No one is here so, plan 'annihilate every human being in the area' can be saved for another time!" She thought while looking dead serious. "Hmm… Yep, this place really looks good." She emailed the others the information of where she is. However, because of the gaming from last night, she was extremely tired and so, she decided to take a quick nap under the huge cherry blossom tree where she was right now. After leaning against the tree, she fell asleep at once.
….
Meanwhile, on Kagamis side:
"Oh, a mail from Konata. Damn, she actually has a place... I wasn't expecting that. I was sure she would simply forget about everything. I really have to hurry now and find some snacks..." Kagami was slightly worried after she read the message from Konata. "Yes! I finally found an open store. Hmm… The selection of snacks is not very big here... Well, they have pocky, I guess that's fine enough." She picked several different flavored pockys and a few different packets of chocolate-related goods before leaving the store again. "That went better than expected." She sighed in relief. "Now there's one thing less Konata can tease me about and that's always a good thing. Although, now that I think about it… I guess her teasing somehow lessened anyway, a bit at least. I wonder why… It started right after the concert we went to, didn't it…? Well, whatever, let's find Konata and check out the place she found." Saying so, he went to the train station near the convenience store, she had just left behind and took the train towards the nearest station to where Konata's place is.
…..
"This place really is at the end of the world..." She complained to herself after walking 15 minutes from the station and another 10 minutes later, she finally reached the places Konata told her and was stunned by the sight.
"Wow...! This place is really beautiful!" She was looking at a small green meadow near a shallow river. In the middle of the field was a really huge cherry blossom tree. Its blossoms were already in full bloom. Because of that, the tree was completely wrapped in a beautiful shade of pink. Some of the petals had already started to fall down, which almost made it look like it was snowing on the meadow.
"I don't think I ever saw anything as beautiful as this before." Kagami was amazed by the sight. When she started to look for Konata, she a huge red blanket neatly laid out under the tree and some of the blossoms were already lying on the blanket. Then she saw Konata sleeping under the tree with her back leaning against it.
"Even she looks peacefully in a place like this, huh? Her sleeping face even looks a bit cute… Hmm..." She suddenly felt the urge to sit down beside Konata. She walked over to her and looked a couple seconds at the peaceful face of the girl in front of her with a gentle smile on her face. Kagami sat down next to Konata, leaned slightly against her and soon felt sleepy as well. "Konata sure feels warm." This was one of the last thoughts she had before falling asleep on her own.
…
At the same time near the train station not far from the Hiiragi home.
"Ah, Yuki-chan, thanks for meeting me here!" Tsukasa spotted Miyuki at the station and quickly ran over to her.
"Hello, Tsukasa-san, it was no problem at all, but why didn't you come with your sister?" She noticed that Tsukasa was waiting alone for her.
"Well, she said that she forgot something and sprinted out of the house a couple hours ago while saying that I shouldn't wait for her. This is the reason I asked you to come because I'll probably, no surely… only get lost if I search Kona-chan's place on my own."
"That's weird... However, Izumi-san's place really is in a rather secluded place, going together is probably a good thing."
Unfortunately, it took almost an hour before the two finally reached the flower-viewing place. Tsukasa didn't know that Miyuki's sense of direction is almost as bad as her own. Because of that, they needed almost 30 minutes more than they had initially thought.
"Wow, that was a long journey…" Both said in unison and were slightly exhausted, but the complaining stopped as soon as the two saw the stunning beauty of the place, which equally overwhelmed them as much as Kagami before.
"Wow!" Both said before seeing their two friends sleeping under the tree.
"Oh~, they sure look cute together…" Tsukasa giggled a bit. Kagami and Konata were both fast asleep and Konata's head was resting on Kagami's shoulder, while her head was pressed on the smaller girl's one. To complete the picture, both had a faint smile on their lips.
"Yes, it's a really peaceful sight." Miyuki added. "I wonder what is up with those two..." She added something inside her mind.
"Kona-chan is really clingy lately... I wonder if something happened."
"What do you mean, Tsukasa-san? Wasn't Izumi-san always like that?" Miyuki was a bit confused because she didn't see much of a difference.
"Sure, she always somehow was close to onee-chan, but after the concert we went to last month, she came very often to our place, almost daily actually, and playing with my sister. Somehow, it always ended with Kona-chan clinging to onee-chan for some reason all the time, I mean… like, way more often than she usually does..."
"I see..." Miyuki nodded. "Weird, and Kagami-san doesn't seem to dislike it as much as she used to, by looking at the two right now..."
"Hey, Yuki-chan, let's take a photo of the two. They look way too cute to not do it." Tsukasa said as she took out her phone.
"That's a nice idea, Tsukasa-san, but I have a camera with me. The quality should be better."
"Good, but let me take one with my phone first, so that I can send it to them."
"Okay." Miyuki agreed. "I wonder how the two will react." Tsukasa took their photo and sent it to the phones of Kagami and Konata. Miyuki, afterward, also took one with her camera.
"Oh, also let us do a group photo!" Tsukasa was having fun.
"Sounds good." Miyuki nodded. She placed her camera on a nearby stone and set up a timer. The two sat down next to their two sleeping friends and waited for the timer run out. "Well, let's set up the picnic for now. Let them sleep for a bit more."
"Good idea." The two opened their bags and began to spread out the food and the drinks on the blanket. Tsukasa also found the snacks Kagami bought and took them out while jiggling a bit to herself. "So that's what onee-chan forgot…"
10 minutes later, Konata and Kagami almost simultaneously woke up and looked at Tsukasa and Miyuki chatting about something.
"Good morning, sleepyheads." Tsukasa tried her best not to laugh.
"… Uhm… why didn't you wake us up, sis?" Kagami was still half asleep.
"You two were way too cute to look at." Tsukasa said. "We just couldn't do it."
"Yeah, sure... she and c-cute." Kagami said while looking at Konata and got slightly flustered because she remembered that she had said something similar before.
"I've just woken up and got already insulted… Kagamin~, you sure are mean." Konata complained while yawning at the same time.
"Just look at the picture, onee-chan."
"What picture?" Both asked simultaneously.
"Look at your phones, you two."
They took their phones out and opened the new message they got from Tsukasa. After a couple seconds of carefully investigating the picture, Kagami began to blush and moved a bit away from each Konata because they were still sitting under the tree just like they were in the picture. Konata wasn't that affected, but she as well looked slightly embarrassed. Despite the blushing, both still had their smile. Miyuki and Tsukasa were only quietly giggling at the sight of the two.
"W-Why did you take such a photo, T-Tsukasa?" Kagami tried to maintain her calm, but she was failing.
"Why? You two were cute together that I wanted a photo of it. Is it that bad?" Tsukasa looked with her irresistible puppy eyes at her sister.
"I like it." Konata was just being honest.
"Y-you do?" Kagami started blushing right again after just calming down a bit.
"Yeah... It's a nice photo..." Konata answered while putting away her phone, just after she made the picture her new wallpaper.
"Well… I suppose it's not that bad…" Kagami mumbled. She looked at the picture on her phone again and did the same Konata did before. It was clear that she also liked the picture after all.
"We also took one with all four of us with my camera." Miyuki added.
"Oh, okay..." Konata and Kagami answered together. However, the complete lack of enthusiasm was unable to ignore.
"I can send you the photos later when I get back home. I also took a better-quality version of the two of you."
"Sure, sounds good, Miyuki." Konata said, though, she only wanted one the photos.
"Let's eat something, I'm hungry." Kagami gave the cue and her stomach agreed with a growl, while her smile cramped up.
"Yeah, me too." Konata agreed to her suggestion. "The mood is too good for teasing... Save that for later." She restrained herself.
"Wow, she is really nice today." Kagami added in her mind, only because she didn't know what Konata was thinking. With that said, the four started eating.
"Ah~, Tsukasa, your cooking is really good after all!" Konata was really enjoying the food.
"Thanks, Kona-chan, but I think you can cook even better."
"I'm not sure about that..." She took another bite. "Well, let's just agree we're both better than Kagamin~."
"That's true." Tsukasa laughed a little.
"Oi, I heard that!" Kagami got annoyed. "So much for being nice..."
"You don't think so?" Konata grinned at and Tsukasa tried her best to stop laughing, but failed.
"I-I didn't say that..." Kagami mumbled. "… It's just not nice."
"I'm sorry, Kagamin~… Well, you have enough other good points in order to make up for it, so everything's okay."
"W-What did you say?" As indicated by her cheeks, she wasn't expecting such a compliment.
"You heard me." Konata simply answered. A couple seconds of silence later, Kagami had calmed down herself a little and changed the topic.
"Konata?"
"Yes?"
"How did you find this place here?"
"I would prefer not to answer this…" Konata was clearly hiding something. "You'll probably just get angry with me."
"You found the location in an anime, right?" It wasn't hard to take a guess for her.
"Well… yes."
"You know, I should get mad at something like that, but this place is way too nice to do that." Kagami only smiled at Konata.
"You think so?"
"This place is extremely beautiful!" Tsukasa and Miyuki backed her up.
"Yes, Konata, this is one of the, if not the most beautiful place I ever went to, for flower viewing."
"I'm glad to hear!" Konata was really happy about it.
After they finished eating, they stayed a couple more hours, looking at the scenery, talking and eating the snacks Kagami brought. At some point, Konata started clinging to Kagami again. She tried to protest in the beginning, but she gave up rather quickly. In fact, she never gave up that fast ever before. She actually almost looked as happy as Konata herself.
"Somehow, the two really are different than normal… Tsukasa-san was right." Miyuki thought about what Tsukasa has said earlier while watching Konata and Kagami.
"Man, pockys sure are the best." Kagami said so while she opened the last box she brought.
"You don't have to tell us that, Kagamin~." Konata's answer caused Tsukasa to giggle.
"…" Kagami tried to say something, but decided against it in the end because her chances didn't look good, judging by the two empty pocky boxes right next to her.
"But yes, they really are good." Konata admitted and stole one out of the box Kagami was holding.
…
Half an hour later, when the day had already progressed late into the afternoon.
"It's getting late, I think we should start thinking about heading home." Miyuki said after she looked at the time.
"Yes, it's also getting a little cold." Kagami added.
They started packing their belongings and headed towards the station. At the station, Miyuki said her good-bye because she had to take a different train. The remaining three girls took the same one toward their homes.
"It was a really nice trip, Kona-chan. Thanks for inviting us!"
"No problem, Tsukasa. I'm happy you had fun."
"Yes, I have to admit this was by far the best flower viewing I've ever been to." Kagami also had a good time.
"Praise from Kagamin~, I can't believe it!"
"…" Again, she decided against saying something to preserve the good mood.
"Kagamin~?"
"Yes?"
"Can I call you later?"
"Sure, why?"
"Homework."
"Should've seen that coming…" She was ashamed of herself that she even asked something so obvious.
"Kagamin~, please~-"
"Konata… I already said yes, didn't I? Just try to do a bit on your own before calling me, okay?"
"First, praise from Kagamin~ and now, homework..." She fell on her knees in a dramatic way and shouting that this was the best day ever. Kagami couldn't help laughing a little while looking at her.
"Sure… ehm, Konata, this is your stop." Kagami snapped her back to reality when the train stopped.
"Oh, thanks. Bye Kagamin~, Tsukasa!"
"Bye!" The twins said before Konata exited the train.
"Konata is sure something else..." Kagami let out another sigh, but this time, she didn't look exhausted while saying it.
"That's true." Tsukasa added. "But it's always fun with her."
"I wouldn't say always, but yes, especially lately, she has her moments." Kagami agreed with a little smile on her lips.
Later that day, Konata called Kagami for homework. She had done almost a fourth of it on her own, which was a new personal record. With that, and another 40 minutes chatting over the phone afterward, the day ended for the two.
…..
The following day at school and Konata was up to something again.
"Konata! Don't take my phone!" Kagami yelled when she saw that her phone was gone.
"Why? Some texts from boys, I shouldn't see, Kagamin~?" Konata teased with a grin on her face.
"No, no texts from boys. It's just private, okay?" Kagami tried to hide the fact that she also set the picture of the two from yesterday as her wallpaper.
"Not very convincing~." But Konata still, much to Kagamis surprise, handed the phone back to her without much resistance.
The four girls continued to chat like usual on their lunch break afterward. Their conversation was a bit about the event from the last day, but mostly about random stuff nobody normally cared about.
"Konata?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I come over today?"
"Sure. Wait, why?" She agreed without thinking. It was rare that Kagami wanted to come over to her place and so she was a bit surprised.
"No particular reason… I just thought that because you came over so often lately, I thought... you know..."
"Sure, less moving is always a nice thing."
"Okay." Kagami said right before the bell, signalizing the break was about to end, rang. With that, she said goodbye and returned to her own class.
.
With that, most of the story setting is done. Konata wants to get closer to Kagami since the concert and mow Kagami also wants to get closer to her after the flower viewing. The two will spend more quality time together in the next chapter and Konata will have to deal with an (over-) determined Kagami after making a suggestion she already regretted before she finished it.