That night, I returned home so flustered that made Mako suspect that I was having a fever. The revelation that Nori gave me did not make sense to me at first. She had to go through all of my feelings and explained why I felt that way. I was pretty much in a daze as I went through my daily schedule the next day that I accidentally brought the marguerite flower with me instead of my bag. By the time I realized it, I was already at my favorite spot in the mountain.
"What's wrong with me, Marguerite? I promised myself not to care about guys but now... It's not a bad thing probably but..." The sprout didn't answer nor gave me any advice so I placed it next to my mountain bud and, to my surprise, it had bloomed.
"You're...!" I bent my head low to examine it close. It was the most I could do since, without my bag, I didn't have my magnifying glass with me.
"Wow... so this is what you look like." I was in awe as I traced its yellow petal with my fingers. I'd seen flowers with plenty of petals but this one had -what seemed to be- hundreds of tiny petals that combined together to make a beautiful yellow fluff of a flower. I gently tugged on one of the petals to see how fragile it was. It stuck to the core pretty strongly.
With a newfound excitement, I rushed back to the house to get my notes. I gave a quick greet to Kana and the mayor's son, Rahi. People always commented on how mature he was for his age and I was those that agreed. I believed that Konohana would have another great mayor.
"Morning, Reina. What's the rush?" He asked with his warm smile.
"I found a new discovery!" I replied his smile back.
Once I reached my study room, I quickly grabbed all the equipments I considered useful. As I was about to leave, I saw my stack of lavender and after deciding to ignore the blush that began to show on my face, I grabbed the lavender and shoved it into my bag.
I was used to doing sketches. That was somewhat a requirement for my study, so it didn't take long for me to finish my first sketch of the flower. Soon my notebook was full of charts and diagrams. As usual I didn't notice that someone was next to me until a shadow covered my light.
"Lilian, didn't I tell you not to sneak up on me." I shifted aside to get better light without looking up so I wouldn't forget what I was writing about.
"Sorry, I just didn't want to bother you." Said a voice that was apparently not Lilian's. I knew that voice and suddenly all my thoughts were replaced by a name:
"...Cam?"
"Hi." He sat down beside me with his usual thin smile. "It's my day off today, and since you visited me on your day off..." He gave an unsure shrug. I, too, was unsure what to make of this gesture.
"I see you're doing sketches on the dandelion." He remarked as he peeked at my notebook.
"You know this flower?" I sat up straight and gave him a better view of the flower in front of me.
"I know most flowers. That's why I'm the florist." Cam, with a slight chuckle, scooted closer to the dandelion, which also meant closer to me. "Oh, you even brought the marguerite here today."
There was no way I would explain the real reason why I brought it here. "Yes. Since you mentioned about humidity yesterday, I figured the temperature here would be good."
"Perhaps you're right. May I?" Cam asked for the notebook and I gladly handed it to him; trying my best not to brush against his hands. There was a few seconds of silence between us while Cam read through my notes. Suddenly I became embarrassed with what I'd written.
"Wow! You figured out all of these with just observation?"
"Y-yes...?" I had to admit I was surprised.
"I could learn a thing or two from you. I've been studying plants all my life but this..." He flipped through the other pages in the notebook.
"Oh, not all of them are from my own observation. My uncle, he's also a botanist, gave a lot of good notes since he's been at it for years now. Perhaps you'd like to meet him?"
Cam looked up from my notebook and we stared at each other. I suddenly felt stupid for even suggesting the idea. Of course he wouldn't want to go to my place. He barely even knew me!
"One day... Perhaps you'd like to meet him one day..." I attempted to save myself, "...is what I meant to say." I wasn't sure how my face looked, but I tried my best not to look, well, foolish.
Cam cleared his throat, noticing the sudden awkwardness between us. "Sorry. I was just...It'll be my first time to visit Konohana. I was just a bit worried."
I was about to reply when Cam suddenly stood up and offered his hand to assist me.
"But I wouldn't be a man if I wasn't as brave as you and Lilian coming to Bluebell all by yourselves, huh?"
Right. Lilian. How could I had forgotten her? I took Cam's hand and—despite secretly wanting to keep holding it—began to stuff all my equipments into my bag when I noticed the lavender that I put there. Trying to act natural, I casually took the lavender and casually offered it to him after muttering an excuse about yesterday's herb salad topic. If Cam did see past my actual intention, he was being nice about not letting me know.
As we made our way to Mako's house, we met the two Konohana children talking together by the Tea House. Knowing that Cam wasn't a people person, I didn't bother introducing them properly.
"Those two seem to be close friends." He commented after I explained who they were.
"Probably because they're the only children in town. They don't really have a choice but to play with each other."
"Make sense. We only have 1 kid in Bluebell so her brother is forced to play with her." Cam put his hands in his pockets. "Of course, by forced, I meant happily obeys whatever the sister tells him to do."
I giggled at an image of Cam being dragged by a little girl popped in my head. He seemed the type that wouldn't know what to do around children.
"Seriously, sometimes he needs to realize that he's spoiling her."
We were in the middle of talking about Cam's interesting friend when we crossed the bridge near Mako's house. As usual, he was in his orchard tending his trees when I pointed to him for Cam.
"O-oh... I didn't expect him to be..."
"Scary? Intimidating? Un-botanist-like?" I assisted him in finding the right words.
"All of the above?"
"Don't worry," I chuckled, "my uncle may look scary but he has a kind heart especially towards children."
I heard Cam mutter something along the line of "I find it hard to believe" when I called out to Mako.
"Uncle! We have a visitor!" I shouted. Even though Mako had—putting it lightly—threatened me to call him by his name instead, I still refer to him as 'Uncle' in public. He was my uncle after all and I respected him. That, and the fact that he couldn't get mad at me in front of people was one of my ways of teasing him.
The second he turned around, Cam noticed the eye patch and I could see him flinch. As soon as Mako grinned and shook Cam's hand with all his might, only then did Cam relaxed. He explained how Mako reminded him of his adoptive father Howard that may seem intimidating at first but was, overall, a nice person.
I led Cam into the house and he was amazed by the amount of plants we had around the house. This academic year, my uncle had to work on this purple plant-eater sent from the city. Every time there was a new plant to study, Mako set up a few samples in my room for me to help give my own findings.
"Wow. So you have plants sent to you for studies?" Cam exclaimed. "I had to go to the city to get my plants."
"Hah! Here's the trick: I give them compliment on their grand advantage. I tell them that they have better transportation equipment to keep the plants safe during the travel." Mako grinned with his chest out, appearing proud of himself.
"In truth, he's just a lazy old man." I quietly added. I had busied myself with preparing tea while the two men chatted away.
"I heard that, Reina! You better watch your back once the guest is gone."
Cam's expression became bewildered at what he just heard. I smacked my forehead with my palm. That certainly did not help Cam believe what I had said about my uncle. Cam's eyes were still wide with fear as he looked back and forth between Mako and I. When he was looking at me, I shook my head and mouthed: "it's not what you think," and gave a smile to assure him.
Mako dragged Cam deeper into his room to talk more about his plant-eater that I personally named: Ou, Kou, No, Mi, Yao, Na, Ki. A silly joke really. I was currently cooking okonomiyaki when the plants arrived and since it was one plant too many, I had to improvise. Ou and Kou were both in my room while the rest were in my uncle's room. When I talked to plants, I named them too. That was proof of how serious I am about this.
When I brought in the tea to the room, Cam was no longer intimidated and instead, he was in full concentration while discussing plant humidity in our house.
"How do you manage to keep them alive here? There's not much sun but-"
"Ah, perhaps my dear Reina didn't brief you with my research specialty?" Mako put his arm around my shoulder. I never liked it when he did that since his hand alone was pretty heavy let alone when he leaned towards me like what he soon did.
"I am a fertilizer specialist. I try to come up with a good fertilizers that will allow plants to grow without ..." he paused for effect while I groaned inwardly, "... the sunlight."
"Y-You can do that?" Cam suddenly saw my uncle in a different, more respectful way, just like how I did when I realized what Mako's recognition by the city campus.
"Look around you, kid." He opened his arms wide almost knocking off the tea. "Proof of my greatness."
Mako flashes his infamous grin again—infamous for scaring children away—while Cam stared at him in awe. His face looked like a little kid that I couldn't help but giggle. He noticed my giggle and immediately pulled down his hat to try to cover his blush.
"That's really, um, wonderful." He cleared his throat. "How did you come across this?"
Suddenly Mako roared with laughter. Cam flinched again but this time I quickly went in to save him. With one hand holding the tea tray, I used my free hand to pull him away from my uncle to my room. Bold move? Perhaps. But I wasn't really thinking at the time.
"Sorry. Here drink some tea. Assuming that Uncle Mako has been causing your heart to jump a lot, this will help." I let him take the cup and put the tray on my research table.
"Thanks. This is really nice. What is this?"
"Oh, just green tea. Everyone has this in Konohana." I noticed how we were both awkwardly standing here so I pulled up a chair and we both sat across each other. After another minute of awkward silence, I noticed how Cam was looking at me as if waiting for something.
"W-what?" I blushed.
"Oh, sorry. I assumed that you were going to tell me how your uncle came up with the whole fertilizer idea." He straightened his seat.
"R-right. I... That would be... but, um, it's actually kind of embarrassing." I covered my face with my hands because I knew I was blushing. To my surprise, Cam was laughing.
"Now I'm even more intrigued. Come on, tell me." He rested his chin against his intertwined fingers with his elbows resting on the table.
"It's... a coincidence really..." I stared at Cam and he was still intently staring at me. "Ugh, okay. See, when I was younger, I was a horrible cook. At times I would try to make dinner for Uncle Mako as a way for saying thank you for taking care of me. Needless to say, I burnt things and to hide it I threw it on the potted plants nearby."
Upon hearing this, Cam snorted. I glared at him and he quieted down before showing his serious face again. "And then?"
"Well...it happened often and Mako began to notice how the plants seemed to grow differently. Eventually I confessed and he began his study on ... failed dish fertilizer."
Again, I heard the roar of laughter downstairs and soon Cam also joined the laughter. I was now completely embarrassed and slightly hurt by the two. "Alright. That's it. Mako I'm cooking eggs for dinner!" My declaration was met with a few complaints by Mako and once he stopped his shouting Cam's laughter was the only thing left heard.
I glared at Cam. He wiped the tears on his eyes before raising his hands defensively. "Hey, I have no hatred with eggs whatsoever."
"I'll find your horror food sooner or later." I threatened him. Of course, Cam didn't seem slightly scared by me.
"You won't get that out of me." He challenged.
"Then I'll just have to snoop around Bluebell for clues." I took on his challenge.
"Go ahead, I'll look forward for your unavailing visit at my flower shop." He leaned against the table to intimidate me.
"You will. Whether you like it or not." I met his eyes with confidence.
The two of us unknowingly had a staring battle. I was better at not blinking but Cam seemed to be doing this with ease. At least that's what I thought until he grinned and blinked. I won!
"You're really are something, Reina."
I felt my heart skipped a beat. "W-why?"
"I never expected you to be ... actually quite approachable."
"And I you." I nodded in response.
"Anyway, I should head back. Don't want to lose track of time like yesterday." Cam was making his way towards the stairs and I stood up following him. I didn't want us to part yet so I offered to accompany him to the gate. Cam kindly agreed.
After making promises with Mako to return—to my delight—we set foot towards the gate. When we arrived at there, I noticed Lilian exiting from Sheng's house with a hammer on her head. She thanked Sheng and, when she saw us, came running closer.
"Cam! Was Reina giving you tour of Konohana?"
"Something like that. What were you up to?"
Lilian showed off her new hammer to us. Apparently a girl named Eileen came by her house to inform her about farm expansions. The hammer was a necessary tool to make material stones for the expansions and Sheng happened to post a request providing one just this morning. Some things just seemed too suspicious to be called 'coincidence' but I wasn't one to ponder about them.
"Well, I'm off to smash some more rocks! I recalled Howard requesting some for his leakage problem or something. Wanna hitch a ride?" Lilian asked to Cam.
I knew she meant well and that it was for the convenience of Cam but for some reason I resented the offer. Lilian was smiling as cheerful as ever to Cam and affected by it, Cam smiled too.
"That's very sweet of you Lilian. I'll take you on that offer."
As Cam was contemplating on where to sit, I chimed in. "You should sit on the cart." It was too loud that it almost sounded like a shout than a normal suggestion. The two stared at me in shock.
"Your horse might feel better...than if the two of you rode it together." I finished, this time, in a calmer manner.
"I was thinking of that myself." Cam agreed and positioned himself on the cart. When I saw how close the two were, I couldn't stop myself from calling out to him.
"Yeah?" Cam asked.
"Um, will it really be okay...if I come visit you again...in your flower shop?" My hands were clutching part of my clothes so tight out of nervousness that it caused creases to appear.
"Sure. You and Lilian are welcome to visit me. We should visit each other more often."
Again, my heart felt heavy and my lips felt unwilling to smile back at Cam's kind smile. Not even after Cam said "see you tomorrow" to me. I was happy that he said that, meaning that he enjoyed my company, but the fact that Lilian was also invited balanced it out to a zero sum.
It took me a while before I finally found the energy to move away from the gate. I walked past the request board and turned right to the place I knew I could cry to: Nori's kimono. At this time, she was outside by her garden and upon seeing me, her knowing smile soon disappeared; replaced by a concerned look.
Quietly, she led me to Yun's Tea House and we sat at the balcony outside for better privacy.
"I saw you walking with Cam. I assumed you'd be happy." She commented while sipping the warm tea prepared by Yun.
I was gloomily looking down at my own tea cup wrapped around my fingers. "I was..." I mumbled. "Until Lilian came along."
Nori giggled. "Ah, another jealousy?"
"This time it's different. I could almost say that I hated her when Cam ... acknowledged her more than what I wanted him to." I pushed my tea aside and buried my face in my arms as I bent over the table.
"Love...changes people." I heard Nori say as she gently began to rub my head.
"And I'm turning into a horrible person." My voice was slightly muffled when I talked. My heart still ached and I felt like crying for many different reasons.
"It is tough. But you'll get over it." I could hear Nori smiling from her voice. I knew she was trying to console me but her cheery attitude was starting to bug me. I lifted my head to face her.
"What if I don't? What if I end up becoming this... this horrible ... hateful person, to a girl I barely know because of a guy I barely know?" The jumbled up feeling and fear within me made my eyes tear up. My voice was also becoming wobbly from trying to hold back the tears.
"Aw, don't worry Reina. You won't become like that. Trust me."
Even to this point, Nori was still smiling. I felt like such a horrible person yet there she was being the most graceful and kind person that it pained me to admit that I was steering my anger towards her. I slammed my hand on the table in frustration.
"You don't understand! I'm not as sweet as you that I can just... smile and say it's fine-you're not ME! So you don't know how I feel, Nori!" My breathing was heavy and shaky. I could just break down and cry right that moment if Nori hadn't done what she did then.
SLAP
She slapped me. With her kind smile attached to her face, she slapped me.
I was shocked, and as I put my hand over my stinging cheek, I stared at her. Nori sat back down from her half-standing position and cleared her throat. She seemed to contemplate something and when she noticed how intently I was staring at her, she smiled again.
"Sorry, I didn't know how else to stop you from shouting. Ying might hear, poor child. We can have Hiro ice it later. Speaking of Hiro..." Nori erased her smile and looked at me straight in the eye. After a few seconds, she finally exhaled and shrugged.
"Well, I guess there's no use pretending. You knew half of me anyway." She leaned back and, this time, smiled a different kind of smile. "Reina, as my closest friend, let me tell you something I've been keeping to myself this whole time."
I sat there dumbfounded, as Nori shared her own heartache.
Author's Note:
So there's chapter 4 :) Thanks for all the reviews Royal, waitin'on'a'white'horse98, Charlyatt, Lollipopdiego, HMWarriorsLife10, Iseki, Strikey-Chan, DuchessPinkcat, and Hatter. And those who put my story in the follow list: megnyan, Castor Black, and Madlib Hatter.
Yeah, just thought I should let you know I appreciate the attention you put on this story :)
I've had a few problems writing this chapter because I wasn't sure if the way Reina and Cam talks was still how they would talk. Also, I'm not sure if it's noticeable, but I sort of kept myself from writing too much dialog and tried to cut it short and describe things instead. I felt like if I kept going with dialog too long, it might get boring and felt unnecessary.
This chapter might feel like it has a fast change of emotion.. I kinda felt that, but.. I've been keeping things slow for the past chapter, and I wanted to speed things up a bit in regards to Nori and Reina's relationships. Was it too sudden? Was it okay? Let me know!
Also, I always intended to write Reina to be far from perfect to be more believable and/or relate-able. She's insecure, gets jealous and gets angry from time to time. I hope you guys like the way I interpret her. Despite that, I still love Reina and I want to hug her in hope it'll cheer her up when she gets worked up like that.
I'll be pairing up another couple on the next chapter, you can probably guess who..
Hope you enjoy this!