Painting Blossoms
By: Mujonka
Chapter 1: One Small Difference
Hello everyone and welcome to my first ever attempt at writing pretty much anything, let alone a fanfic. I love 'Please don't bully me, Nagatoro-san' and am excited for the series to continue. I was inspired to write this by EmtenDew and her story 'Cherry Blossom Palette'. I can not recommend checking out her works enough they are a great read and I look forward to every update from her. So without further ado I hope you enjoy and I look forward to any and all feedback.
Naoto Hachiouji, a second-year student, sat distraught in the library of Kazehaya High trying to calm down and clean his face after having a terrifying first encounter with his newly self-minted kouhai. Naoto was someone who tried to avoid confrontation and people in general. He had a couple friends, but he mostly tried to stay to himself, preferring to practice his art or listen to music. He had come to the library today on a whim instead of going to his usual sanctuary of the art club room. When he had reached the library, he hesitated hearing a gaggle of girls causing a commotion from inside and yet, against his better judgement, he had still decided to enter the confines of the knowledge center. Naoto had come to have some peace and work on his manga he had been creating for the past year since he started at this school.
When he had opened the door the four girls immediately halted their conversation and snacking to watch him as he went to a table in the corner and took a seat. As he sat down and started to get his music playing and his sketchbook out, he took note that the girls had resumed their conversation, essentially ignoring him, which he was thankful for. As the soft classical music started playing in his ears Naoto breathed out a sigh and happily got to work on his manga, being absorbed into his work and trying to get the story and the art to come out perfectly. He was so absorbed in his work and music that he hadn't noticed one of the blonde girls had gotten up and was standing next to him trying to grab a book from a shelf. He took note that she seemed to be a fair bit shorter than he was and had trouble grabbing the book she was reaching for. Closing his sketchbook and pausing his music he decided to help her out.
"U-uhm excuse me, w-would you like me to grab the book for you" Naoto asked nervously, cursing his stutter in his mind.
"Ah I'm sorry I didn't mean to disturb you. I would appreciate the help if you wouldn't mind, it's that book there" The platinum blonde girl pointed to a book just out of her reach.
Naoto calmly stood trying to keep his nerves down as he looked at the book she was pointing at and carefully made to grab it for her. As he grabbed the book and went to hand it to the girl, he didn't realize his headphones had pulled his phone across the table and knocked his sketchbook onto the floor. Slightly panicking at the possibility of the gal seeing his work, he tried quickly to hand her the book she had wanted.
"A-ah h-here you go" Naoto stuttered out.
To Naoto's dismay he saw the girl already crouching down and reaching for his sketchbook which had popped open to a page of his manga. Naoto almost started hyperventilating as he saw the platinum gyaru grab his sketchbook and stand back up, all the while looking at his work on the pages of his book.
"Ah, did you draw all of this yourself? Or are you doing the story of it?" The gal asked as she inspected his notebook. Naoto noticed the other girls had stood up and were starting to make their way over to them. At this moment in time, he wanted nothing more than to be able to just go back in time and decide to go to the art club room instead. Alas he couldn't go back in time, nor could he stop the girl from looking at his work nor stop her friends from coming over and inevitably seeing it as well. So, deciding to just rip the proverbial bandage off and just get it over with Naoto decided to own up to it and retreat into his safe area like all the other times he had been bullied.
"U-u-uhm I d-draw it and w-write the story. I-I have been w-working on it for a year now" Naoto mumbled out as the other girls reached them and started looking at his work. He was already putting up his mental defenses and retreated into himself in order to not be subject to their teasing which he could hear, though muffled as it seemed while he was in his mind. Although he did notice that the blonde who he had helped and the shortest of the girls weren't saying anything about it, just silently observing his art.
After a few minutes he noticed that the platinum blonde, the girl with the twin tails, and the girl with the fiery orange hair were walking away and gathering up their stuff. Through the haze of his 'safety zone' he heard them mentioning meeting another friend at a diner, yet the tanned girl in front of him stayed behind, mentioning she would catch up to them shortly. Naoto sat heavily back in his chair and placed his sketchbook back in front of him, staring at it lifelessly. He noticed the short, raven-haired girl take the seat across from him and silently stare at him for a moment as he came back to reality. Naoto took a shuddering breath as he tried to release the nerves that were gripping him. After calming down a bit Naoto finally dared to look at the girl that plopped in the seat across from him and silently watched him.
"I'm a first year, Are you a second year?" The newly discovered freshman asked with a fairly blank face.
"A-a-ah y-y-yes I am a s-second year." Naoto spoke nervously, wondering what was going through the mind of the girl in front of him.
"So, that makes you my 'Senpai' than~" the girl practically purred with a cat-like smile on her face and a glint in her eye.
"U-uhm I suppose it does. S-shouldn't you be going to meet your friends?" Naoto asked nervously just wanting the girl to leave him be so that he can calm down and get back to working on his manga.
"So senpai, this main character 'Siegfried', a knight who is skilled in battle, yet clueless in most other aspects of life. He's your self-insert, isn't he?" The freshman exclaimed with a feral smile creeping onto her face. "Like take this part for example, 'The knight Siegfried and the battle mistress Elizabeth, on their way back to the kingdom from a quest are suddenly ambushed by knights from their kingdom. After the battle, Elizabeth, sheathing her blade states 'The battlefield is the only place I belong, long have I since abandoned my life as a woman.' Siegfried comes up next to her and brushes her hair behind her ear stating 'Nonsense, you are truly beautiful, and any man would be lucky to be by your side' making Elizabeth sport a full-face flush.' See, see, see this part here can only be pulled off by a hot guy, not some nervous virgin like you." Naoto's self-appointed kouhai claimed with a laugh, her eyes starting to get a demented glint to them with a maniacal smile on her face.
"You would never be able to pull off a move like this, so you must rely on your manga to live out this wild fantasy, am I correct Se~n~pai? Oooohh, I have an idea, how about this." The girl claimed while standing up and pushing the desks out of the way and taking up a pose with her hand outstretched in a fist towards Naoto. "I have never used a sword before, so I'll just do this." She claimed as she turned and took a breath.
"T-t-this? W-what do you mean?" Naoto asked as his kouhai seemed to become a different person.
The yet unnamed kouhai slowly let out a breath and steeled her features, starting from a standard boxing pose with her hands near her head she quickly threw out a trio of punches in front of her, her movements fluid like she has done this countless times before. After her flurry of jabs, she let out a beautifully executed spinning high kick and held the pose for a minute before bringing her leg down and releasing her breath. After she let out the breath, she gave him an expectant look out of the corner of her eye through her bangs of raven hair.
"The battlefield is the only place I belong, long have I since abandoned my life as a woman" The girl nearly yelled.
Naoto was struck by how effortlessly she pulled of the combo, while not a fighter or martial artist he could still that it would take a lot of practice to pull off something like that. Seeing the look she was giving him Naoto became very nervous and started sweating as he thought back to his manga and realized what she was waiting for. After what felt like an eternity of her staring at him but was truthfully not even two seconds Naoto steeled his nerves, wiped his palms on his pants to get rid of the sweat, and took a breath to calm himself. Without further hesitating he tried to personify Siegfried as best he could and calmly walked towards his new kouhai. Naoto could almost swear he saw her start blushing and get a nervous smile as he stopped slightly behind her and lifted his hand up to her. Before he could stop himself or let his nerves get the better of him, he slowly brushed her hair behind her ear with his fingertips and said with as much confidence as he could muster.
"N-nonsense, you are truly b-beautiful, and any man would be lucky to be by your side." Naoto spoke, very surprised at how little he stuttered during that. With his height advantage of almost 30 cm on the girl he could see that the raven-haired girl had gained quite a bit of color to her cheeks and seemed to have a very odd smile on her face. 'Huh, she actually seems to be nervous. I wonder if this is all new to her too?' Naoto thought to himself as they stood there for a moment before he realized his hand was still raised. Quickly, he dropped his arm and stepped back a few paces to give the girl room, hoping he didn't offend her.
"….." The girl seemed to have temporarily shut down.
"U-uhm are you o-ok?" Naoto asked cautiously. "Was I not supposed to do that?"
Seemingly coming out of her stupor, the girl quickly turned around with a maniacal grin on her face and a crazed look in her eyes, very much like a starving lion stalking an antelope. She stalked up to Naoto, closing the distance on him as he backed up into the bookshelf behind him, terrified of the look in her eyes. The girl stared at him as she watched him squirm, her wicked smile growing wider every moment. When Naoto hit the bookshelf behind him, he grew more terrified and saw the girl's smile grow two-fold as she realized he had nowhere to go, no way to escape. As he tried to avoid looking at his kouhai, said kouhai kept moving into his eyeline, still saying nothing.
"Why are you avoiding looking at me se~n~pai? Are you afraid of me? Even after pulling off a move like that?" The girl demanded of him. Naoto decided to just get it over with just like earlier, just go into his safe space and get it over with. As he looked down at the amber-eyed girl, only just realizing how deep her eyes were, he attempted to go into his safe space, but she beat him to it.
"So, pervert-pai did you like that? Did you enjoy touching an innocent girl's hair like that and saying those things to her? Did you think it would make me fall for you? How could you be so creepy and gross? Creepy, creepy, creepy, dirty, gross, pervert senpai. Didn't I say that only a hot guy could pull that off? Not a creepy, gross, virgin, pervert-pai like you." The girl before him rambled on. The malicious smile, and evil glint in her eyes becoming even more prominent, now also sporting a full-face blush. As she spoke, she also started cackling while jabbing at his sides and stomach, not hard but enough to bother him.
Naoto nervously moved his hands up to adjust his glasses, a tic he has tried to break for years, while he could feel the stinging sensation of tears welling up in his eyes. He just wanted her to stop bothering him so he could go about his day, he wouldn't have acted out that scene otherwise. Why did he have to give into this girl's taunting and insults? Why did he have to pretend that he could pull that off and everything would be ok? Why didn't he just go to the art club room like normal? When he heard this girl and her friends he could have just turned around and left but he decided to step out of his comfort zone for some reason.
All these thoughts and more were running through Naoto's head while the girl continued her onslaught of teasing and jabbing. As her insults started to slow down Naoto realized that the tears he had been holding back were now freely flowing down his face. Through his teary eyes he thought he could almost see a look of concern flit across her visage, but just as quickly as he saw it did it disappear. As Naoto stood there with his tear-stained face, he saw the girl reach into her skirt pocket and pull out a handkerchief, with which she reached up and started to gently wipe away at his cheeks and eyes, after which she placed it in his hand and closed his fingers around it and smiled at him.
"Sorry for teasing you so much senpai, you can keep that as an apology." His kouhai spoke while fixing the tables and grabbing her stuff, turning to head towards the door. "I'll see you around se~n~pai" the girl sauntered out of the library, flashing him a quick smile before she left.
Naoto sat on the floor against the bookcase, no longer having the strength to stay standing, tears still welling up in his eyes as the events that just transpired kept repeating in his mind. What did he do to deserve that girl treating him like that? Was he really that pathetic to let her get to him like that? Why did he go through with that scene instead of just telling her no? Was his manga really that bad? He knew it was kind of a cliché story, but he was working really hard on it. Why did she have to tear into it like that? Should he stop working on it?
The sound of the library door opening didn't register to Naoto, as lost in his thoughts as he was.
While the events in the library were unfolding the three girls that left the new kouhai-senpai duo were making their way towards the front of the school to change into their street shoes when the platinum blonde gyaru named Sakura Inori spoke up.
"Ah, whoops I forgot to put the library book back after Manga-san got it down for me, I'll see you girls' tomorrow I have to go put this back." The gal spoke to her friends as she turned and left heading towards the library, her friends saying their goodbyes as she turned down the hall.
As Sakura was walking, she was thinking back to what happened in the library. She knew her friends liked to tease and mess around but she thinks they took it too far. The poor guy in the library wasn't bothering them and even helped her get the book she needed when she couldn't reach it. He seemed nervous to be near them but still tried to be kind and help her out. She was wondering why her friend Toro-chan decided to stay behind with him. And she never even got a chance to tell him that she liked the manga he was working on. Sakura wasn't much of an artist, but she could tell he was a talented artist, and she did enjoy manga occasionally. As she was lost in thought she noticed her tanned-skinned friend coming from the direction of the library with a blush filling her cheeks. Growing worried for her friend the gal called out to her.
"Ah Toro-chan is everything ok? Why is your face so flushed?" The blonde asked of her friend, though it seemed she didn't hear her as the raven-haired girl walked right past her down the hall.
Growing worried that her self-dubbed 'Manga-san' may have acted inappropriately towards her friend, the gal continued her trek towards the library with a renewed vigor. Within moments she was standing in front of the door and with a steadying breath she opened the door and stepped inside. Not seeing anyone at first, she thought Manga-san may have left and she missed him, but then she heard something muffled behind the bookshelf they were sitting at. Cautiously making her way towards it she rounded the corner and felt her heart ache for the sight before her. There sitting on the floor was her self-appointed Manga-san, huddled up with his knees up to his chest, quietly shaking with an occasional sob escaping through his lips and tears staining his cheeks.
This was not anything like what Sakura had expected to find when she returned to the library, especially after seeing her friend leaving with a blush on her face and practically ignoring the world around her. Now Sakura may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but it doesn't take a genius to piece together this puzzle. Her friend had stayed behind for seemingly no reason, they had assumed she liked the boy's manga because she didn't join in on the teasing. But with what she saw it's obvious to Sakura that her friend Toro-chan stayed behind to tease the poor boy and had brought him to tears. As Sakura looked at the sobbing boy in front of her, she noticed a handkerchief in his hand, but what caught her attention was that she recognized it as her friend Toro-chans due to the cat decorations on it. So, it would seem Toro-chan started to feel bad after making him cry, so she gave him her handkerchief and took off.
This made Sakura's blood boil at her friend, but even more so it made her heart ache at the sight in front of her. Resolving to talk to her friend later Sakura decided on a course of action. Pulling out her phone she typed out a quick message to her co-worker that she wouldn't be able to make it in and would explain it later. If they wanted to be angry they could suck an egg. After that she silenced her phone and took a calming breath before slowly approaching the sobbing boy and kneeling in front of him.
"Hello, are you ok manga-san?" Sakura gently asked of the fluffy haired boy in front of her. At her voice Naoto flinched thinking the dark-haired girl had returned to continue her tormenting of him, but he calmed down realizing that the voice was different yet one that he recognized. After he calmed down a little, he hazarded a glance up at the girl in front of him and noticed it was the girl he had grabbed the book for, and the other girl who didn't openly mock his manga. She seemed genuinely curious about it when she noticed it, which was a nice surprise.
"A-ah h-hello. Didn't you already l-leave with your friends?" Naoto stuttered as he looked away, the proximity making him nervous. Sakura made sure to keep her voice calm as she spoke after seeing him flinch, the action all but confirming her suspicions.
"Well, I was on my way out to work but I forgot to put back the book that you grabbed for me, so I turned around to come return it and saw Toro-chan leaving. I tried talking to her, but she seemed to be in her own little world and just walked right past me, like how rude can you get humph. And then I come in here and see you like this, and everything clicked. It may not mean much but I am sorry for how I can assume she acted, she is a good person at heart but sometimes she doesn't know how to act or restrain her more wild side sometimes." Sakura ranted out barely taking a breath, slightly scowling at the mention of her friend and what she did.
Naoto looked at the blonde as she ranted and found himself calming down and even slightly blushing at her apologizing for her friend's actions. He was finally able to calm down enough to stop sobbing so, wiping away the final remnants of tears with the handkerchief, he cleared his throat to get the blondes attention as she continued her rant on how rude 'Toro-chan' could be.
"E-excuse me but is 'Toro-chan' the dark-haired girl that stayed behind? She did take it a little bit far, but I will be ok. She gave me her handkerchief and took off." Naoto spoke after he got the girls attention. "My name is Naoto Hachioji, by the way. Thank you for apologizing for her but you don't have to." Naoto reassured the kind girl in front of him, not liking that she was upset on his behalf.
"Ah, sorry I tend to ramble a bit, but yeah that was Toro-chan. Her name is Nagatoro Hayase, but I call her Toro-chan and our other friends call her Hayacchi. Oh, and my name is Inori Sakura. Its nice to officially meet you Manga-kun." The now named girl spoke while sticking her tongue out with a smile on her face. Naoto developed a deep blush at the nickname she gave him, liking it a lot more than the newly named Nagatoro had called him.
"And as for apologizing for her don't worry, I'm going to make her apologize properly to you after I get ahold of her. And you can just toss her handkerchief or wash it and return it to her. Do you mind if I sit next to you Manga-kun?" Sakura asked with a smile.
"Uh yeah you can, but do you mind if I ask why you call me that? Nagatoro-san seemed intent on just calling me senpai, amongst other things." Naoto questioned, adding the last part under his breath as he watched Sakura sit right next to him, shoulders practically touching. He flinched slightly at how close the girl was but calmed down quickly.
"Oh? You must be a second or third year than? The four of us are all first years. And as for why I call Manga-kun, it's simple really, you are making that cool manga, and by yourself at that. I was hoping I could ask you a bit about it, if that would be ok?" The blonde asked of her knowledge center companion. Noticing the surprise on his face at her question she took a guess at what happened. "I guess Hayacchi made fun of your manga? I'm sorry again for the three of them."
"You think my manga is cool? And yeah, I am a second year." Naoto questioned as he looked at her, gaining a slight brush as he looked into her deep brown eyes. "And what did you want to know about my manga? I'll answer what I can."
As they sat and talked, with Naoto answering the multitude of questions that Sakura had about his manga, they didn't realize how late it was getting until the room was getting darker due to the setting sun. As Naoto realized he brought it to Sakura's attention and apologized for taking up her time as he stood up. Brushing off his pants he looked to his companion as she spoke up.
"Don't worry about taking up my time, I'm really glad that I got a chance to talk to you." Sakura revealed as she held out her hand. "Would you mind giving me a hand?"
"Ah, yeah no problem." Naoto said as he grabbed the gal's hand and helped pull her to her feet, and as she stood up, she ended up bumping into his chest. Standing there with blushes on their faces, they quickly separated and looked away from each other. "I'm sorry, are you ok?" Naoto asked after a moment of silence.
"Yeah, thank you for the help. And thank you for telling me about your manga, I hope you let me see it when you get more done." Sakura said as she smiled at him.
Gathering their stuff and making their way out of the library and to the shoe lockers, Sakura found out that Naoto is indeed an artist and is in the art club. After changing their shoes, they headed out and realized they lived in the same direction, their paths diverging at the convenience store. Making their way to the convenience store the two said their goodbyes and went home, both with smiles on their faces.