Hello! It's yoursis-Artemis here! Sorry for the little delay, I didn't think I was going to be busy this week.
To reader NotAnnie: awww thank you! That means a lot :)
To reader Peristeria: I actually originally planned that he'd throw it away. But I changed it at the last minute and you'll see why in this chapter.
Without further ado, here you go! Please review :)
Sunday arrived in a blink of an eye. The fashion-savvy Ayano scanned herself in the mirror once again before she left her house. Her outfit consisted of: black, floral, halter top; light, denim jeans; an ivory cardigan; and chestnut-brown sandals, which were paired with a small black shoulder bag and a ponytail hairstyle. Before she left, her aunt Agatha made a bet that the "mischievous" boy would not show up, to which the young one responded with: "We'll see."
The teenager arrived an hour before the meet-up time. She wanted to check out some attractions in the park before she'd isolate herself with Hibari later on—if he decided to come. Upon arriving, the park had been transformed into a large wisteria world, manifesting a colorful sea of purple and pastel lavender. The entrance to the park was a short wisteria tunnel: it wasn't completely enclosed as the sun could partially get through the wisteria vines that were wrapped around the tunnel.
In the center of the park was a large hedge maze. Additionally, there were small wisteria gardens with mini ponds scattered around. There were also different booths set up in several different spots around the park. There was a face-paint booth for children. There was a horticulture store that was selling wisteria seeds and flowers. There were mini food trucks just outside the park. And there were so much more.
Ayano wasn't able to visit every single spot of the park as she ran out of time. She had half an hour left before her meet-up time with Hibari, so she started heading toward a hilly residential area away from the park. It was a twenty-minute easy hike before she reached her destination on time. Her destination was a small coffee shop that sat on a rocky hill. The shop had a mini backyard that had about five mini round tables. Of course, the backyard was safely surrounded by fences not tall enough to block the view of the town below. The teenager settled down on the table situated on the end of the hill so that she could oversee the entire wisteria park.
The boy she was expecting wasn't there yet. So she ordered a small, hot, cappuccino to keep her awake as well as to stay warm on an unusual chilly weather.
Wisteria. Sure this flower must symbolized something, right? Ayano used her smartphone to research what the flower could have symbolized. She wanted to see if she could find an importance as to why her mother was so attracted to this event every year. Google results yielded to wisteria symbolizing youth, devotion, mystery, beauty, birth, etc.
Apparently, wisteria could be a symbol of one's expression of affection toward a special person whom they've just recently met. How funny, chuckled the Nicolaou girl under her breath. Why does that sound familiar? Do I have a special someone that I just recently met?
She started listing those people. There's aunt Agatha, Mina-chan, anddd….
She then remembered Hibari.
"That can't be, Hibari-san is not a special person to me," she softly laughed at herself.
Half an hour passed. There was still no sign of Hibari. After an hour, the teenager already gave up on expecting him. She was not surprised. After all, he was a person who didn't like crowding, which Mina had warned about multiple times.
But the long-haired girl wasn't going to leave the place. I did say that I wasn't going to move until he shows up, she reminded herself. She already accepted that he was never going to show up. But she was also a little bit… prideful, whenever she made promises like that. Ayano decided to keep her words and started to mentally prepare herself to admit defeat to her aunt.
The teenager was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't notice the owner of the shop refilling her coffee.
"Little miss, you remind me a lot of a memorable customer from so many years ago," inquired the elder woman. "She would always come to my shop every year for the Wisteria festival… " she paused, then continued, "alone, by herself."
"Thank you for the refill. May I ask what about me reminded you of her?" Ayano was intrigued.
"You resemble her, young lady." The owner wiped the side of the kettle. "It's as if you're a perfect clone of her."
Ayano wondered if the elder was referring to her mother. She took a small sip of her coffee, and then continued with her conversation. "I look just like any other girls around here, I'm as Japanese as everyone else," she chuckled. "Or maybe you met a doppelganger of mine?" she joked.
"You might be Japanese but you definitely have an aura of a foreigner."
That surprised the Nicolaou girl. It was the first time she was given such a bizarre description. She then laughed which made the elder tilt her head in question.
"Maybe, m'am. I am actually a quarter Greek."
"No wonder! It might be your western blood that makes you exude such an elegant feature," The elder delightedly commented.
"That was such a lovely compliment. Thank you." Ayano bowed.
"You're welcome, little miss. Well, I'll head back inside. My shop closes at nine, so feel free to stay until then."
The elder went back inside her shop. At the same time, the teenager checked the time on her phone. It was 8:00 pm. It's been two hours, she sighed. Her disappointment quickly faded when something illuminated all of the sudden in the Wisteria park. The Wisteria night event, she mumbled. She deeply inhaled as she anticipated for the next thing that was going to occur, not knowing that the next hour definitely would go down as one of the best memories in her life.
"See? I told you," sneered Agatha as she picked up her niece from the coffee shop and was now driving home.
"I know. No need to rub it on my face."
"What did you expect was going to happen?" The aunt teased.
"Nothing really," eye-rolled the teenager.
"Nevertheless, how was the festival? Was the night event as 'magical' as what my sister claimed it to be?"
Ayano replayed the scene in her head. Her mother was right. No words could explain how beautiful the night was.
"It was."
"How?" Agatha wondered while still keeping her eyes on the road.
"You'd have to see it for yourself," grinned her niece.
It was unusually cloudy the next day. The Nicolaou girl was on her way to school when she encountered her bubbly friend at an intersection of a street. Mina was evidently exhausted from her volleyball boot camp during the weekend. The short-haired girl didn't even notice Ayano's greeting not until three minutes later when she finally realized that she wasn't walking alone.
"Yano-chan! I didn't notice you were around!" shrieked the fatigued girl.
"I said hi a few minutes ago," Ayano giggled. "You look like you're about to collapse. Are you alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine. My body is just worn out from the brutal conditioning and practice."
"Doesn't the volleyball season start in Fall? It's still April."
"Well, school-league wise, yes. But we also participate in summer tournaments. For several years, the volleyball team of Namimori high has been fluctuating from 2nd seed to 3rd seed of our division. This year, our ultimate goal is to claim first!" announced the determined Mina.
"You've been working so hard, I'm so proud of you,"Ayano grinned. "I will pray to the volleyball goddess to grant you the victory."
Mina's expression lightened up with her friend's silly encouragement. "You're such an angel Yano-chan," she gave her friend a back hug which made the latter almost lose her balance. "By the way, how was your date with Hibari-san?"
"It was not a date," the long-haired girl nonchalantly responded. "Besides, he never showed up."
"I told you. you should've asked Yamamoto instead, there's no way he would say no to a cute girl like you!"
"I'm not cute. Inviting an uninterested Hibari was not cute. That was probably creepy to him," Ayano ashamedly shrugged. "Anyway, I am deeply embarrassed that I even asked him. I hope not to see him in the next few days."
"Haha girl, you do know that you're supposed to take a picture of the disciplinary committee room today right?" Mina teased.
Oh no, the long-haired girl mentally squealed. I should have said no when the yearbook club asked me to take a picture of that room.
I should've let them do their job as a yearbook club.
The long-haired girl facepalmed herself which made the other burst into laughter.
"Do you need help with that, Yano-chan?"
Fujioka-san did not raise a coward. "No, it's fine. I can handle it, Mina-chan."
"You are a fearless girl I LOVE IT. Be careful, you're persistence might make me start to ship you two," Mina smirked.
"Ship? What do you mean?" It seemed that the countryside girl hasn't caught up with the modern slang.
"Nothing. Nevermind." Mina responded as the two reached the gate of the school.
Right after school, the long-haired girl decided to muster up all her strength and complete the yearbook club's request. "Good afternoon, Kusakabe-san," she bowed as the mentioned male opened the door of the disciplinary committee room. She let out a big sigh of relief when she saw no signs of Hibari in the room.
"Nicolaou-san, how have you been?" the kind vice-president asked.
"Still as actively involved in school as ever. "
"I can see that. I saw your photo request last Friday and talked to the chairman. He approved it."
"Thank you so much, Kusakabe-san," Ayano happily replied.
"You're very welcome. Do you need to talk to Kyoya-san?"
I actually don't want to for at least a week. "No, it's fine. I don't want to bother him in his duties."
"Oh really? Lately, you seem to want to get close to him fearlessly, and I applaud you for that."
The teenage girl successfully snapped three decent-quality pictures of the room not until the fourth one, which came up super blurry due to how Kusakabe's statement startled her.
"Did I really look clingy to him this past few days?"
Kusakabe looked at the perplexed Ayano. "I didn't mean to say it in that way. I'm sorry."
However, he thought that something little was going on between the two. First, Ayano was not fearful of Hibari, and the latter seemed not to care about how the girl was too comfortable with his authority. Second, she definitely would "crowd" herself with Hibari, yet he seemed not to be bothered by it. Third, the invitation to a date. Well, the skylark rejected it, so Kusakabe dismissed that from looking "fishy".
Suddenly, the two jolted when they heard a particular cold voice behind them.
"Why is the vice-president crowding with another student here?"
Ah. He's here. I'm already feeling embarrassed, Ayano mentally sweated. She turned around and to no one's surprise, it was the infamous Hibari.
"I was just about to go back to my patrolling, Kyoya-san. Well, will you excuse me," bowed Kusakabe as he walked away from the scene.
The Nicolaou girl subconsciously lifted her arm and almost grabbed the vice-chairman by his uniform to stop his movement. However, she was able to stop midway before that happened, therefore saving her from an awkward situation of having to explain why she grabbed Kusakabe's jacket like a shy child.
"You're blocking the door. Please leave if you are done with your task," Hibari nonchalantly uttered.
Ayano knew not to talk back since this was how she has been preventing herself from getting bitten to death. She moved to the side to allow the certain boy to enter the room.
"Also, next time… take the hint," continued the boy as he threw a crumpled ball small piece of paper at the girl. She caught it and unraveled it to be the piece of sticky note that had the date, time, and the messy drawing of a map of the Wisteria festival.
"I already did. But you really missed out yesterday," replied Ayano.
"I don't care. Why don't you go home and tell your parents about your fantasy narrative."
That statement left the parent-less girl stunned—in a bad way. She didn't know whether to take that as an offense or a joke. Not everyone knew that she was an orphan. She didn't even tell Mina yet about her orphanage status. She didn't think that such a insensitive comment would have such an impact on her. She felt the build up of tears in her eyes, which Hibari definitely noticed, but she closed her eyes to prevent a single tear from coming out, took a deep breath, and opened her mouth.
"I really wish I could, Hibari-san. Unfortunately, I don't have any parents," Ayano calmly answered before she bowed and left the room.
The head of the disciplinary committee was unexpectedly left surprised.
Why? Well, he was the type of guy who would enjoy the cries of the herbivores whenever he bit them to death. To him, a fearful crowd affirmed his power and dominance. He made Ayano—who was just an another herbivore to him—almost cry… and he shouldn't be bothered by it. She might be a female but no gender would prohibit him from being the dominant person.
However, the girl didn't tear up because of fear. Her eyes illustrated emotional pain. She was hurt.
So what? Hibari asserted to himself.
He walked toward a cabinet full of folders and pulled out the one that had the letter "N" in the cover. He sat back on his chair and started shuffling through the documents until he saw the word "Nicolaou", which was Ayano's student profile containing her personal information. He scrolled down until he read the word "parents". She had none.
Under the "guardians" section, there were two entries. First was Agatha Nicolaou, who was listed as a guardian/aunt, and resided in Namimori. The second was Tara Fujioka, who was also listed as a guardian and whose address was at a "House of Vesta" place somewhere in Toyama.
Next, he checked her birthplace. It was at the "House of Vesta". What is the House of Vesta? With a simple google search on the computer in the room, he finally connected the dots that Ayano was an orphan.
"Interesting. A featherless bird growing back her feathers," he muttered to himself.
This was difficult to proofread omg I was going crazy LOL
Sorry(not sorry) if you expected Hibari to go to the festival. I thought it would be, kind of, OOC, if he did go. Soooo…..
Please let me know if there are grammatical errors, I will fix them right away!
I will see you in 2 or 3 days! :)
Artemis out.