🌸Cherry Blossom Palette🎨
🌸Chapter 16: 176 cm🎨
Written by EmtenDew
Edited by P. serrulata
Author's note:
PS: Hot on the heels of Sunomiya's artistic meltdown in the clubroom, our hero seeks out the Baroness of Bing for answers. This should prove fascinating.
Another short chapter. Next ones will be more substantial.
ED: Please look at the Q&A section I set up at the end of the chapter. Ask us anything, and we'll add another section in the next chapter. I would be happy if you ask questions.
Please enjoy what I wrote.
Wednesday, July 3, 2018
Naoto Hachioji wasn't exactly in a bad mood on this particular Wednesday, but he was on a mission.
The day before, after school, he'd learned a couple things.
His two kohai, Sakura Inori and Hana Sunomiya, had asked him to help them study in the last couple of weeks leading up to the end-of-term exams.
That wasn't strange, though it was a little late in the game for any necessary intervention. What was strange was that Sakura and Sunomiya had some gonzo bonding experience in the park on Monday afternoon, culminating in the two of them enjoying said occurrence to the point that they were—whether literately or figuratively—nearly filling their panties full of goop.
Well, that was a far as Sunomiya got in the story. Naoto didn't let her finish the account, and it took a while to calm her down, but any more racket out of the girl might've had other students, teachers, or even campus security showing up to the clubroom.
Another student walking in would be bad enough, but Naoto didn't feel like having to explain to any curious authority figures why his peculiar kohai was stripping off her clothes, creaming over the notion of interring her feet in cold, wet sand.
Yeah, try explaining that to those uninitiated in Sunomiya's practices!
For all he knew, things might've gotten even more "interesting" than what he'd heard, but he never knew with Sunomiya. She could take the most innocent, innocuous thing on Earth and turn it into something a "normal" person would view as insanity.
As was said, he'd cut off Sunomiya, somehow calming her down before anyone investigated the noise or she pulled off more than just her blouse.
Naoto's mission was to figure out what had happened between his two kohai on Monday. It had been bothering him, so he sought out Sakura at lunch.
He'd turned it over in his head for a long while, trying to decide how to approach the gal about it, if at all.
Maybe Sunomiya was just being herself, and Sakura found herself along for the ride…
Maybe Sakura was taking advantage of Sunomiya's… whatever her idiosyncrasies might be called, making a buffoon of the eccentric girl…
There were other situations falling in a spectrum between these two extremes, and he didn't feel too good about himself for suspecting the latter, but Sakura was in the slipstream of a very rough time she'd just been through, so he put aside nothing.
He prayed Sakura wasn't toying with Sunomiya, but the idea wouldn't leave his mind.
He had to know…
…
…
…
Naoto knew Sakura would be taking her lunch in one of several places:
She might head to the clubroom to eat with Sunomiya again. She may hunker down somewhere outside to enjoy eating her lunch in peace. Lastly, and still unlikely, given her isolation from them, she'd wind up with Nagatoro and/or their other friends.
His first thought was to check the clubroom, and sure enough, he caught her as she was rounding the corner that led to the art room.
Sakura yipped, nearly bumping into him, "Senpai-kun?"
"Hi, Sakura-san," he was definitely her "Senpai-kun". "Sorry for almost running into you there…"
"It's okay…" she quickly noticed the bento in his hands; she looked at him, her eyes lit up. "You're on your way to lunch? Can I join you?"
Whoa… Naoto wouldn't mind that at all.
But he was on a mission.
He squared himself, "Is Sunomiya expecting you for lunch?"
Glancing past him, the clubroom not 10 meters away, she said, "No, but I was gonna surprise her with some-"
"Come with me, please," Naoto hiked his thumb in the direction she'd come from. "I'd like to talk."
Her face betrayed a recognition that something was off, "We… can't just talk in the clubroom? Eat there with Hana-chan?"
"Please, Sakura-san, it's important."
That was enough for the gal; she nodded, not loving the expression Naoto was showing her, "…Where are we going?"
…
…
…
"…What, really?" Sakura hesitated, realizing where Naoto had brought her. "Back there?"
"Yes," he replied, not particularly enjoying the heat and humidity of the great outdoors.
"You know what this place is, don't you?" she actually sounded worried.
Yeah, you probably took a boy or two back there yourself…
But Naoto certainly didn't voice that thought; instead, he said, "Sure I know…"
He'd led her to the infamous back corner of the school where all sorts of illicit fun allegedly happened. It was where Gamo-chan had taken him when she wanted to talk in private. And of course, legend had it that members of the baseball team had gotten their knobs polished back there a few times.
Naoto knew he and Gamo-chan had been "lucky" the place wasn't occupied; it often was. Perhaps it was currently being occupied, but he wasn't overly concerned with that knowledge.
If there was already someone there, then… there were other places to chat. He just wanted to try there first.
Whatever reservations she held, Sakura followed him when he entered the winding corridor leading to that strange, little, obviously out-of-place bench beside the emergency exit.
Despite being a little wound up, Naoto almost immediately calmed down upon entering. Though it was noon, it was shady back there, and a cool breeze wound its way through the little passage.
It felt pretty good…
They'd almost reached the back, but…
Sakura and her senpai heard the noise before seeing its source, rounding the final corner.
Naoto's nostrils flared, his calmness leaving him.
Just his luck…
"Oh, some first-years have it, Senpai-kun…" Sakura murmured, clearly sounding relieved, tugging lightly on the short sleeve of his shirt. "We should just go."
How she knew they were first-years didn't matter to Naoto. It was just some scrawny-looking boy and a cute girl, giggling, their hands all over the other. The girl was feeling the guy's puny bicep muscles, and the whole scene immediately irritated him.
It wasn't jealously he was feeling—not at all—seeing the girl draping herself over some boy that wasn't him. Sometimes he felt that way about such sights, but this was different.
He simply had more important things on his mind than whatever "sweet nothings" these little turds were batting back and forth!
In addition to all this, he'd just found a small amount of relief from the hot weather, and he was loath to submissively make a U-turn…
"Senpai-kun," Sakura spoke again, a wavering sneaking its way up her throat. "Let's just go somewhere else.
At most any other time before this—and probably nearly any time—Naoto would've turned right around, and they'd have gone somewhere else.
This wasn't one of those days. He was in a mood, and his inhibitions went out to their own lunchbreak.
Taking Sakura by the hand, he began to walk forward.
"Eep!" Sakura squeaked. "What are you…?"
Undeterred, Naoto kept moving.
Currently, he freshman boy was lounging back, flexing, while the girl continued to titter and prod at his arms.
The two upperclassmen were almost on top of the freshmen by the time they were noticed.
The girl jumped, and the boy started, not hearing their senpai as they approached.
One might not be able to blame them for their annoyance and surprise, caught in the middle of their "sweet nothings".
The freshman girl, embarrassed as all get-out, straightened her uniform, distancing herself from her companion; she cried out, "What are you two doing, spying on us?!"
The freshman boy's face fell as the girl backed away, dismayed at losing whatever it was he may or may not have been getting, given a few more minutes of cajoling, and he got pissed.
The younger boy angrily turned his eyes up, scowling, "Hey, you assholes, can't you see there's somebody already… back… here…?"
His voice trailed off, and the high school tenderfoots quickly came to appreciate whom it was they were addressing.
The two kohai saw the unsmiling Naoto, not far off of 180 cm tall, staring down at them. They saw the beautiful, blushing little blonde he was hauling behind him, mirroring the same shock they were feeling.
Like deer in the headlights, they gawked at Naoto and Sakura.
Naoto, feeling Sakura shrink in his shadow, knew his friend wouldn't try to stop him. He also knew—in his brains, heart, guts, and balls—that these two hapless kids in front of him would disappear without further protest if he wanted it to happen.
Or maybe he just didn't care…
He said one word to them, and there was no mistaking it or the clout behind it.
"Scram…"
He didn't need to say it again.
The two fresh-fish grabbed their crap and vanished like morning dew on the hood of a hot car.
Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading!