🌸Cherry Blossom Palette🎨
🌸Chapter 33: The Sakura Puzzle, Part Three🎨
Written by EmtenDew
Edited by P. serrulata
Author's note:
ED: After learning a few things he didn't really need to know about his two study buddies and women in general, Naoto later finds himself alone with one of them. The chapter's title might just give it away which one it is.
I hope the last chapter wasn't too gross, but it was SO much fun to write. There's a story behind almost every bit of vulgarity written. The girls' volleyball team at my school was really gross. It was fun, but we got nasty.
I still think Nanashi hates his audience. Like, a lot. Even tumorously so. My editor says "tumorous" is a word, and I trust him, the wordsmith that he seems to be. I didn't know "podiatrically" was a word either, but PS is more worldly than Microsoft Word and half of the internet, I guess.
The last chapter was awful. Nanashi either needs to cash in on the "nipple ticket" he's sitting on or stop wasting time and panels with teasing us. There's nothing sexy or healthy about tatas that big, but the nip tic could at least give us a few cheap laughs. When you see a girlfriend slam one of her G-cup knockers in a car door, you never look at novelty size the same way again. Seeing that had me glad to be a C (C-cup, not the C-word), and I'm 5' 11" (181 cm), so I think I look "balanced" enough. Nothing of value is being accomplished, and Nanashi has reduced his own work to petty fan service.
That's just what I think.
Sorry for being so crude. Maybe it carried over from Chapter 32.
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.
Thursday, July 11, 2018
The end of the school day had finally come, and Naoto Hachioji was headed to the art room to study with his kohai, Sakura Inori and Hana Sunomiya.
He'd been looking forward to the end of the day, not only because he and the two girls could study again—and they were getting near the end of their materials—but because Sakura had promised Hana and himself at lunch that she was having an acquaintance drop off a special treat for them that day. The gal had insisted on the delivery's contents being a surprise.
Speaking of lunch, Naoto's had been interesting to say the least:
He'd been snooping, listening in on Sakura and Hana, to hear just what the two females talked about when he wasn't participating in their goings-on.
After taking in the subject matter the ladies had casually exchanged, he'd regretted his choice to tap their conversation with almost every fiber of his being.
He'd managed to "escape", yes, but he had an awful feeling in his gut that the girls suspected him of what he knew he'd been up to, though there was no reason to believe that.
It was just him assuming the worst and being a little paranoid.
He knew that Sakura would never pull Hana into such a nasty game, knowing their senpai could hear. The two had been whispering, he'd been intruding, and it was his own fault his mind was swimming with filth.
Now, Naoto never talked about such "male equivalent" things with his buddies Shuu and Tohru. One of them might brag about the size of a recent turd or cut a bad fart and laugh about what he ate, but they never jawed about much beyond that. And Naoto rarely did even those things! He rather liked his privacy in such matters, and he went to great lengths to not fart around others.
As far as what he'd heard from Sakura and Hana, he wasn't overly revulsed. He knew women—with a few different/additional bodily functions—went through the same things that men did, and that was just life.
After all, everybody poops.
And Men had their own issues many women didn't consider, though it was sensible to believe that foreskin, a vulnerable, dangling ball-sack, and chest/back/facial hair were probably a cakewalk compared to the women's laundry list of things Naoto didn't want to think or know about.
Nevertheless…
Where's your filter sometimes, Sakura?! Naoto contorted. I was right there! Same with YOU, Sunomiya!
He'd never even grasped that a couple of the things he'd heard in fact happened, much less even existed!
But it certainly could've been worse.
For instance—
The two of them might've argued the merits and demerits of a vibrator with a rechargeable, internalized battery versus one that used throwaway cell-batteries… or one may champion the electric-operated giggle-stick, while the other would stand firm on a good, old-fashioned, hand-operated dil—
…
WTF is the matter with me?!
Naoto figured he could be locked up for some of the depravedness that had been surging through the Godforsaken sewer he so audaciously called his forebrain.
It was bad enough to insert Sakura into such imagined filth, but involving Hana…!
Thinking about it made him want to be buried alive… or at least run headfirst into a wall until he forgot why he was doing it.
But he decided against massive head-trauma and shifted to the cleaner side of this conundrum.
He thought about Sakura and how often her guard seemed to be down. She'd started doing that more lately, not watching what she said around him so closely.
Admittedly, he'd never become involved with any girl as he had become involved with Sakura, so this was still new to him.
Maybe it was normal for a girl to relax this way around a guy friend, but he had his reasonable doubts.
It was the level of her nonchalance that got him the most! Returning to the concept of a mental-filter, he was sure the sieve wasn't fine enough to catch much, given how (seemingly) unconcernedly Sakura dropped bombshells right through the mesh.
Nagatoro—though he was trying to not think about her so much—wasn't like that. To get even a little earnestness out of her, she almost had to be cornered.
Unless Nagatoro was desperate or trapped—and he didn't like seeing her like that—he didn't trust much what she said or did. She'd proven herself phenomenally weak of character to him too many times for him to blindly follow.
It was kind of sick to think that he could have faith in someone only when they were at the end of their rope, seeing few options but the truth.
That was Nagatoro.
But Sakura?
He trusted her and believed in her. She'd never given him any reason to not do so.
Back to the blatant casualness she often showed him, there were two reasons he could think of for this:
Either Sakura didn't view him as a threat or she was relatively comfortable around him.
Being of the mind he typically was, he was tempted to go with the former, but…
He knew he should doubt himself and others less. He was trying, and he'd been educated in this more than once.
Oh, yes…
You don't see it as a weakness, Paisen… No matter who it is, I knew you'd understand… If more guys thought like you do… I don't think I'd feel so afraid…
Naoto would never forget the time he'd spent with Gamo-chan, in the back corner known only by Sakura as the "shame corner". Gamo-chan, to her credit, called it the "BJ grotto", and Naoto hadn't been able to decide which was funnier.
But in all seriousness—
Yes, the most formidable female in his ken, Maki Gamou, broke in a way she was adamant—even frantic —to never show another one of her peers.
Yet, for reasons he was still trying to process, she'd shown him.
There was no way around the fact that Gamo-chan was just a normal girl, but Naoto still had never expected to see that.
He'd never expected that she'd even viewed him as much of a man before that, much less one she trusted with her sorrows.
And just the day before, she'd been so upset, realizing she'd upset him.
He'd been painfully aware that his occasionally being afraid of her troubled her, but he couldn't help himself. The week before, she'd given him such a reaming at lunchtime on Friday, and as funny as it was, it rattled him. When she accosted him later in the day, he could initially show her nothing but distress.
Yes, the fact she scared him dismayed her, but it wasn't fully on him!
Even so, and as he kept finding, he needed to remember that things didn't always seem as they appeared… to not jump to conclusions so readily.
His problem was that he often needed to see it before he gave the benefit of the doubt. Gamo-chan had given him plenty of reason to doubt her in the past, and she'd gained his confidence only recently; that's one reason he had trouble.
She'd even admitted to him that she was jealous of girls other than Nagatoro—which she'd readily handed over—specifically Sakura, whose "ease" with bagging the opposite sex was a thing envied. He'd still never let Gamo-chan know how not "ease" things were for the gal, but that was another thing.
And Nagatoro…? What she was made of? Yeah.
In Sakura's case, however, he didn't need to see it, again, because she'd never shown him anything else.
He knew she trusted him too. And he'd been choosing to trust her in return more and more.
Ah… Naoto's ruminations on all this could wait until later; he'd reached the art room.
He could already hear the girls inside, and he smiled.
Sakura was gabbling and Hana was shooting back monosyllabic responses, but they could surely cover a lot of ground regardless!
Naoto caught a whiff of cardamom as he crossed the threshold, and it smelled mightily good. What kind of goodies has Sakura graced us with?
…
…
…
By around 5:45 p.m., the little group of Naoto, Sakura, and Hana had called it a day.
Final exams were creeping inevitably and ever closer, but things had gone well that day. The three of them hadn't come in with any new questions to "share with the class", so they'd contented themselves studying privately or continuing in the supplementary workbooks Naoto had printed out the week before.
It was unlikely that any of them would be finishing the extra English, science, or math in said books the next day, but they were likely on task to finish them on Saturday. While Hana had progressed very quickly in her own books, she'd run into difficulties near the end, the material slightly more difficult than anything she'd ever seen at their school, but she was chugging on through it, and Naoto and Sakura were in the same shape.
Entering the Art Club's room, the delicious aroma that had esteemed Naoto's nostrils turned out to be scones and masala chai tea! Sakura had really come through with their daily snack. She'd recently taken care of a neighboring family's plants while they were out of town for two weeks, and calling in a favor she was promised, she'd had the scones and tea delivered right to the school. It seemed like a lot, ¥25,000 for watering plants, but when old Mrs. Masuda had a literal greenhouse full of them…
Naoto and Hana found it humbling that Sakura would spend as much hard-earned money for their benefit as she'd just done, but the gal revealed she'd treated herself first, hence the slightly-used Prada bag (seen in pictures on her phone; she'd never bring it to school) she'd picked up a few days earlier.
The blonde had been electrified to boast of her haggling skills, obtaining the purse from a little junk shop she liked to visit. She'd been positively gleeful.
I got it for ¥6,300! HA! These things in worse shape can go online for more than ¥17,500! But no one was buying it, so I convinced 'em!
Naoto wasn't interested in designer purses, and neither was Hana, particularly, but they loved seeing Sakura happy, and who didn't love a good bargain?!
And Sakura, after the scones and chai, was happy that she still had ¥16,000 left! That was no paltry sum of change!
That happy gal was at present strolling through the school's gate in the balmy, afternoon heat, Naoto alongside her.
The two were continuing their talk they'd begun indoors at the shoe lockers.
"I've never even tried that little café, but I'm glad I took the gamble!" Sakura chaunted. "The scones were pretty good, but that was maybe the best chai I've ever had!"
Her senpai fully endorsed this, "I love a good chai… I've tried making it, but I can never get the spice blend right…"
"I've made it a few times…" she considered. "For me, the spice blend isn't the issue. The issue is the milk. That café didn't use milk; they used cream… or at least half-and-half. Most people that don't go for dairy alternatives have no idea how much fat can be in some of those milk-teas and fancy coffees they buy at shops and restaurants."
"The stuff was pretty rich," Naoto reasoned. "Makes sense."
"It's almost impossible to replicate anything from a restaurant." The gal shielded her eyes, the Sun in the west. "People at home just aren't willing to throw all that fat and salt and sugar they'd need into stuff they make themselves, but they'll eat or drink down worse, no questions asked, when they buy it out. Like the Korean beef bowls Hana-chan and I bought on Saturday? There was more salt in each of those than I'd dare put in a whole pan of noodles—to feed four people. There are plenty of alternatives to using that much salt, but it's easier for them to just dump it in."
Naoto was well-acquainted, knowing a thing or three about cooking. "The teriyaki chicken was like that too. But it tastes so good, even though it's just salty, processed junk."
"You sure ate it up though~," she recalled.
"Hmm." He shrugged. And you managed to polish off yours too!
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Uh… Sakura-san?" Naoto asked.
She answered his question with a question, "What's up, Senpai-kun?"
Tentatively, he alluded, a little shaky, "I'm not sure how to put it, but…"
Sakura smirked, not jeeringly, "You think Hana-chan took off early on purpose so the two of us could be alone, right?"
"…!" He wasn't even so terribly stunned they were on the same wavelength. "Exactly!"
Indeed, it was just the two of them. The little group had finished by 5:45 p.m., but not all of them had been present at the end. Hana had split a half-hour prior.
Naoto hoped like Hell that Hana wasn't spying on them from somewhere. Why she'd do that, he couldn't imagine, but he wouldn't put it past her. All the same, he strove to not bother trying to figure it out.
Unrelatedly, he was struck by Sakura's response. He realized he'd been overeager, and he probably looked and sounded like the inexperienced young man he was.
He hesitantly speculated, primed for some mockery, "Did you just read my mind? Or are you actually thinking that?"
His words had dripped out weaker than he'd liked, and he could take an educated guess as to her answer. Surely, Sakura would—
"Both, actually, Senpai-kun," she revealed. "Not that I can read minds. I just figured you were thinking about it too."
Awright! Naoto figuratively patted himself on the back. I didn't sound TOO much like an oblivious virgin!
Sakura had diagnosed his aura, expectant of ridicule, not that his visible relief didn't tell her plenty when she'd countered him.
She glanced his way. "You don't need to feel weird about it, Senpai-kun. I mean, she wasn't exactly subtle about it."
"She did keep encouraging us to sit together." Naoto hadn't forgotten Hana's behavior, doing everything she could to keep the two of them close.
Sakura said, "Yup."
Even to Naoto, it had been obvious their peculiar kohai was up to something, but he wasn't for the life of him sure what it might've been. "What's she up to? It's not the first time she's done it, but even I picked up on it… Really, what's she doing?"
He hadn't really been asking his friend; he'd merely been thinking aloud.
Plausibly, she gave reply, "You're saying nothing comes to mind?"
"Huh?" He hadn't been paying much heed to much of anything.
"Nothing comes to mind?" she crooned. "Why she'd do it~?"
…
"No." He had nothing.
The gal chuckled gutturally, "Figures… Not that it's the reason she's doing it."
"What reason?" he asked.
"Don't worry about it," she urged. "It's not something that Hana-chan would do."
For whatever reason, Naoto decided to accept Sakura's guidance. Maybe it was because he trusted her.
It was delightful what a little sincerity towards a friend could accomplish!
Still, he didn't have an answer. "So… why do you think she's doing it?"
Though she had an idea, seeing things from a different point-of-view than him, Sakura had no reason to give him grief over the matter.
She hypothesized, "I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it's that she knows we've become pretty okay friends. I mean you and me. I think that she thinks she's been hogging me."
Naoto felt a dagger run through his chest, and it wasn't because Sakura had referred to the two of them as "pretty okay friends"; that was no insult or booby prize!
More than that, he wanted to refute her statement about Hana. How could Sunomiya think that? She's not hogging you! You two are having a blast together, but nobody's hogging anybody!
He wanted to say something like that, but he couldn't.
It was because his heart hurt. His greatest misgiving at present rose up with the energy of a submarine resurfacing, and that was the knowledge that the trio's time together was soon to end.
"Oh…" his voice came out as a wavering rasp, and he began to blush. "I think I see…"
"…" She had no doubt he did.
"She wanted us to have a little time together…" Naoto realized. "I never expected her to do something like that… That's a little…"
Clumsy?! he scolded himself, unable to find a better word, not that he'd said it out loud.
Maybe AWKWARD was a better word!
As it happened, Sakura didn't think it was awkward at all.
She expressed, "Senpai-kun, it's okay~."
Naoto jarred. That hadn't been Sakura's "wheedling voice".
He'd picked up a little sorrow on her end. "What?"
Turning to him, she gave a sad half-smile, pinkening around her cheekbones. "You're not the only one that's gonna miss this, Senpai-kun~."
"…!" He squirmed, unable to look away.
She gazed knowingly at him, that gentle expression speaking volumes.
Naoto wasn't dumbfounded. Of course, she knows…
"That escalated quickly…" He surrendered himself to this, flushing all the more. "I bet I wasn't hiding it well."
"…"
"…"
Sakura informed, "The thing is, Senpai-kun, it wasn't me that picked up on that. It was Hana-chan."
"Seriously?"
She confessed, "I mean, I knew you weren't looking forward to the end of our triumvirate or whatever you wanna call it, but I didn't think you were that sore about it. Somehow, she saw it. I'm pretty good at reading people, but I don't know everything."
Despite his gloom over it, Naoto found it pretty easy to talk about it. "I guess it's kinda lame… being that hurt over it."
"Please, Senpai-kun, don't look at it that way." She wouldn't put up with it. "There's nothing wrong with it. I'm gonna miss this—a lot!"
"You are?" Again, he didn't want to seem so eager, aware she wasn't looking forward to the end either, but it came out like that anyway.
Grinning, she espoused, "I've really been having a great time, Senpai-kun~."
Naoto's heart fluttered. "I see…"
He hadn't doubted it, but… it was liberating to hear.
Sakura jostled his shoulder, giggling.
"Plus… I can't imagine I need to tell you how much Hana-chan has loved this," she hummed. "Do I~?"
That she most certainly didn't.
Naoto sighed, "No."
"I didn't think so."
"I guess you really do understand Sunomiya pretty well." He wished he did.
"Not really, Senpai-kun," she chuckled. "I can't make heads or tails of her half the time. I pretty much told you that. It's just that it's that obvious."
"I guess I was just thinking of myself…" he lamented. "I wasn't even thinking about how you two might feel about it…"
"I don't think that. Not at all."
"What?"
"You've done virtually nothing but think of Hana-chan and me over the last week," Sakura reasoned. "It seems to me you've been bending over backwards for us. You could really, really do with looking after yourself first more often. It's okay to do that sometimes. You're not a selfish person, you know. I just think that… you're not used to it, putting yourself first."
Naoto wouldn't go as far to say he was unselfish; he didn't even think he was "not a selfish person". He thought he was just terrible sometimes. Before making friends with the girls, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that he thought of almost nothing but himself.
Be that as it may, he had nothing, unsure of plenty. "…"
"No matter, you don't need to overthink all this, Senpai-kun; I told you that on Sunday, so don't," Sakura reminded him.
"I'm trying…" He was trying. "I'll try harder."
She tittered, "There you go~… Just know that I'm having fun, and I'm gonna miss it."
"I'll miss it too…" he said with a heavy exhalation, redundant as it might've been.
"And we both love our kohai~."
He gulped, giving a strangled whisper, "…Yeah…"
"…" Sakura didn't need his words or her above-average "people reading" skills to know his heart.
"…" Naoto was simply trying to keep his eyes dry.
Sakura had yet to see an opening, so she just made one.
She said, "I dunno what I was thinking, not telling you earlier, but I was hoping to hang out in the art room with you and Hana-chan this summer."
Urk! Her senpai nearly stumbled over his own feet.
"Wha…?" He'd nearly faceplanted.
"Well… we're gonna have all that stupid summer homework to do…" she grinned. "We've been doing so well together with getting ready for finals and crap, Hana-chan and I thought we could… kinda keep it going. I mean, we won't be at it every day, but what better place would there be for us three to plug away at all that make-work~?"
Naoto could scarcely grasp this. "You mean it?!"
Sakura balked at his eagerness. "…Yes."
"Really?" This boon beggared his imagination.
The blonde smoldered, aghast at his copious lack of faith.
She motioned as if to pinch the skin on the back of his upper-arm, "Of course, Asshole-kun! Get a clue, man~!"
"Eep!" He flinched (getting pinched in that spot sucked), backing away. "Sorry, Sakura-san."
She only slightly regretted barking at him. "Oh, don't be… I tell ya, I was sure you'd be fine with it, but Hana-chan wanted to run it by you first… to make sure you were okay with it."
That foolish girl! Naoto wanted to cry out. Was there any doubt?!
He did cry out, "Yeah, it's fine!"
He covered his mouth, quite mortified at his repeated enthusiastic outbursts and his failure to quell them.
Sakura just giggled, "Good. Also, I still want to learn some about sketching. It's so cool, and it looks fun! I think you and Hana-chan could find the time~."
"You got it!" He was mentally kicking himself, yet again unable to contain his excitement.
Sakura could only laugh harder, but she reeled it in.
She commended him, "I think you've done a really good job with this, Senpai-kun. I think we'll be prepared. I'm feeling good about my exams for the first time in a few years, and that's mostly thanks to you."
"You're the one that put the work in, but I'm glad I could help." He couldn't take too much credit. "Guess I was good for something…"
"You're good for a lot of things~," she corrected him, beaming. "Please don't forget that."
"…" He blew out a lungful, nodding, his joy mounting.
"…~~" She burbled with good humor, trying hard to not bust a gut.
Abruptly, Naoto's voice broke, and he chortled loudly, "This has just been so much fun…!"
"Oh, please don't cry, Senpai-kun…" Sakura couldn't hold it back any longer and guffawed. "You'll get me going too~."
"I don't want that…" he responded to her half-joke, dropping a couple of tears, the corners of his mouth turning up. "I'd feel like a real dick if that happened."
Did I just say "dick" in front of a girl?! He mentally reeled.
"Pfft~!" Sakura laughed so hard that she needed to stop walking and take a breath.
Yeah, I sure did. Naoto began to laugh right along with her. But it's not like she hasn't said worse!
Soon calming down, the two friends found themselves facing one another.
Sakura exhaled, "Sorry for laughing like that…"
He shook his head, giving a great sniffle and wiping at his eyes. "It's okay. I get it. I'm just happy it's turned out fine."
The gal still hiccupped with the occasional bit of cheer, giving him a jokey, little bow. "You done good, Asshole-kun~…"
"Thank you." He returned the bow, flattered, a reluctant, shit-eating grin plastered across his face.
Straightening themselves, they continued west, stifling giggles and savoring the mere fact that they were together at the end of another pleasant, productive day.
Walls existed between all people. And the one between Naoto and Sakura, already far from impregnable, saw another giant hole punched in it that afternoon.
And Naoto took great satisfaction in this.
Q&A Section
In writing, do you have a plan or schematic you follow from point A to point B, or do you write "by the hem of (your) pants?
ED: I have a big timeline/outline written out, all the way to the end of the story. I know what's going to happen at all points. Events and major character interactions are set, so it's a matter of fleshing out the story.
What is the most complex thing about writing characters of the opposite sex?
ED: The hardest part is keeping the characters convincing to someone with more intimate knowledge of said character's sex. I'm a woman, so I don't know all there is to know about what men experience as men, just as my editor doesn't know everything about the female experience. He's knowledgeable, surprisingly so, and he contributed a few twisted ideas to the previous chapter, but he can't know what it's like in a woman's skin.
Like it or not, men and women, boys and girls, males and females are different. Down to the chromosomal level. Everyone one person is different, but men and women are figuratively different creatures entirely. Similarities are shared with one's own sex, so it needs to "check out" for the reader.
This story will still fall into the men's camp and male perspective side of things, only seeing occasional glimpses into the women's camp. Besides seeing my story fit to show the denizens of the internet, a male perspective is what I rely on the most from my editor.
Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading! Questions and comments are welcome!