🌸Cherry Blossom Palette🎨
🌸Chapter 63: Off-the-Cuff Modeling, Part One🎨
Written by EmtenDew
Edited by P. serrulata
Author's note:
ED: This chapter and the next contain spoilers and references from some anime and manga series between five years and 20+ years old, so you've had ample time to take them in~.
Something unexpected has fallen into Naoto's lap. Whatever will he do?
YET AGAIN! My editor talked me into dividing this chapter into two parts. I really liked how it flowed and thought it was better like that, but it was way too long for his liking, given the 12K or so words and the "good spot for a break" he saw.
A reader left me a harsh-ish review of the story, and some of it was good advice, once we chatted. I didn't agree with parts of it, but a lot of it made sense, so it's just as well that we divided the chapter up because we had plenty of other work to do. PS and I will be thinking about the advice I was given.
Please do comment with your thoughts and feelings on the story. It helps. It won't change where the story goes, but it may help us present it in a more "user-friendly" way.
Changing gears…
I'm still in the middle of South Park's 20th season. I've slowed down a little bit. Kyle's dad trolling the world online as "Skank Hunt 42" is a scream. The montage of him typing on two keyboards to the band Boston's song "Smokin'" was one of the funniest things in the whole season. Then Butters begins a political movement amongst the boys even more pointless than the girls' movement AGAINST the boys. The next episode I get to watch is the one the day after Trump was elected president.
My editor thinks I might like to watch Rick and Morty next. Or The Venture Bros.
The new canon chapter accomplished nothing. I've seen numerous postings online complaining that Nanashi's work has begun to stink and saying that he's getting burned out. If that's true, it's because he's a badly informed pornographer who wasted a lot of time and energy not moving his story in a more productive direction when he had a bunch of great characters ripe with potential to do any number of things with.
It's nice to see people doing original Nagatoro art and promoting so much fan fiction on Reddit. But I don't see the point of some of the "colon cancerously lazy" stuff I've seen otherwise. Maybe I'm just jealous because a post by PS promoting my story could easily be outperformed by any meme and probably by a beheading video, and in the same place.
I know I'm just some Amazon who could bench-press my editor (and he could bench TWO of me) writing fan fiction, but c'mon.
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.
Friday, July 19, 2018
Hayase Nagatoro had become sick early in the day, and Naoto Hachioji was without his subject for a distinctly different sort of modeling session.
He was kind of pissed off, but he'd pretty much made peace with it, and he'd even resolved to try his craft on himself…
So, fast-forwarding to day's end, Naoto, embarrassed to be caught by Sakura Inori whilst sketching his own self, must've had holes drilled in his head or something, his brains seeping out like horrible gray toothpaste, because there was no way that his kohai had just said what he thought she'd said.
"…Huh?" Maybe his brains were leaking out of his ears too, his hearing all gummed up.
Sakura resaid, cheeks going the slightest pink, "I'll model for you."
She'd model for him?
"You'll model for me…?" Naoto asked stupidly.
She was steadfast, but eye contact became difficult. "Yes, model."
She'd model her hands and feet?
Naoto was a little foggy. "Model…"
"You can practice on me." She restlessly rocked on her heels, averting her gaze and flexing her indigo-painted toes.
"I can practice on you…?" This seemed awfully familiar to him, this type of exchange.
"Yeah," she propositioned, halting her oscillation, a tiny smirk turning up the corners of her mouth. "I could be, like, your practice girl."
Zoink! That broke the back-and-forth.
Naoto can't have heard that right. Practice girl?!
"Do you know how bad 'practice girl' sounds?!" he fissured, her offer itself taking a backseat.
Did she know what that meant?!
"I was trying to be funny…" she grumbled, her face now quite red.
Yikes! Naoto, having developed quite the blush himself, tried to wrap his mind around the whole thing.
Where was he?! Mars?!
No, you're still in the art room at Kazehaya High, you stupe! He was above such hyperbole.
"…" Once more, he tried to find center. Get ahold of yourself, Naoto!
As bad off as he was, it seemed to him that Sakura was no better.
"…"
"…"
Hey…
Naoto was struck by a notion.
It was like… something was missing…
Things had jumped, the in-between experiencing a skip!
Naoto's brain generated the apparent process:
…
No Hand/Foot Model ➡️ ? ➡️ New Hand/Foot Model
…
It seemed like something out of a cartoon, but underpants and profit were nowhere to be found in the equation!
And there were probably more steps in between than just the one unknown element!
"…!" Naoto didn't get it.
But that's what seemed to have happened!
One minute, he was spacing out, semi-silently rambling on about the fortunes and misfortunes of the last week, and the next, Sakura bared her legs and proceeded to offer herself up as a model.
It had surprised him more than anything else, seeing her materialize in front of him, shanks unadorned, but it didn't break him.
He'd seen it before.
Eight days past, in the park, she'd been quite casual about kicking off her loafers and peeling off her floppy socks, and Naoto had been treated to a level of strangeness more than was strictly healthy.
But it wasn't as strange as their whole time together, in and of itself! Strange and wonderful!
Naoto took in Sakura's demeanor, the gal cerise.
The coolness she'd displayed was gone, and poise had taken a powder from him too!
"…"
"…"
Since this all seemed real enough, Naoto realized that he needed to by hook or by crook navigate through this.
Being a little more comfortable with Sakura than any other girl he'd probably ever known in his life, his filter—though not nearly as shoddy as hers—didn't always operate at 100%.
There were literally a million things he could've come up with.
The first thing that popped into his head spilled out, "Are you sure you'd be okay with that?"
That's how you try to break the ice?! He was stunned at his impulsive words.
He could arguably have done much worse, but…!
Sakura's carmine countenance, nervous but level, soured.
"Whaddaya mean…?" she rumbled.
Hoo! Naoto dearly wished he had a different place to go, but the can of worms was open, so he might as well go fishing for a while.
"Thursday night…" he said to the scowling gal. "You told me a few times to, uh… not look at your legs and stuff…"
She'd all but instructed him once or twice to "look" at something she was showing him, but in most cases, the "leg embargo" had been posted loud and clear!
Sakura flinched. "That?"
What do YOU mean?! He thought she'd seemed quite adamant over it. "Yes, that."
"…That…" she murmured awkwardly. "Well…"
"…?" He waited.
"Well, it's because…" she dithered, focusing on anything visual not senpai-ish.
"Because why?" He didn't mean to sound impatient, but he found he wanted to know.
She grimaced. "I don't like people staring to begin with, really… and…"
"And?" He was compelled but more interested in the punchline.
A little sensitivity wouldn't have killed him!
She eyed him knowingly, giving him an apologetic "you-asked-for-it" face, and said rather directly, "You, uh… I know you kinda like legs…"
Bweh! Naoto wanted to phase through the floor, reemerging the next level down. Sure, she knows!
"We all know, Senpai-kun," she uttered grudgingly and with some unease. "Yep… and it's prolly more than 'kinda'…"
Not Sunomiya too?! He shuddered, wounded. "…!"
"Hana-chan as well…" Knowing where his thinking might lead, she reluctantly rubbed salted lemon into the grievous injury.
Fuck! He understood that she took no pleasure in this, but it didn't quite dampen the walloping sting of it. "…!"
None of this came as any great surprise though… not at all…
Thankfully (partially tongue-in-cheek), Sakura didn't leave it on such a note, "I mean, it's not like you're a pervert about it or anything… We can just tell that you do…"
Maybe the Prez—the OTHER Sunomiya—knew too, and she very likely did…
Oh, damn it all! Naoto wished to vanish.
"Hey, I'm sorry…" Sakura wanted to clarify. "It just kinda creeped me out a little bit, you looking, but it wasn't that big a deal, really."
Easy for you to say!
She pounded away, "I mean, it's not like you were ogling me or anything, so…"
He'd ogled rather INTENTLY her rather above-average form a couple of times!
"There's really nothing wrong with it, liking legs…" Sakura was just telling it as she saw it, still pink as socialism and slightly blathering. "I mean, it's not much different from someone liking boobs or butts. Just because you like boobs doesn't mean you're gonna pounce on every pair you see like a tiger."
"Stop…!" Naoto whined, disposed to die of discomfiture. "I get the point…!"
"…! Nearly oblivious to what she was saying, she caught herself a little too late (and only when her senpai had made a stink about it); she shrank. "Sorry…"
"…!"
"…" She fiddled with her hands.
He sighed, "It's alright…"
"I didn't mean to run with it…" she elaborated. "Really…"
"…"
"…"
"So…" Naoto cringed. "You all know…"
There was no need to ask; he'd gotten the picture…
"C'mon, Senpai-kun, it's okay," Sakura insisted.
"…" He wanted to think so. "…I'm sorry if it seemed like I was staring on Thursday. I really didn't mean to."
"It's not that big a deal, buddy."
"Okay…" If nothing else, he was able to appreciate the honesty that could exist between them.
It was comforting, MUCH of the time…
Sakura gave him an agreeable smile, the blush fading a little. "…~"
"I guess I just don't get it." Naoto felt secure enough to say it. "If it bugged you in the first place, I just don't know why you'd even bring it up…"
"…!" Sakura flinched.
"…?" Naoto's interest was had.
"…"
"…"
Shuffling her feet, Sakura frowned again, eyeing her toes and giving a sigh.
"Okay…" She felt secure enough to tell him. "I can see why this was so difficult for you. You have something you need to do for your art portfolio, but you were worried what Hayacchi would think… what everyone would think… I can't blame you."
Yowch! Naoto experienced that unpleasant truth right down to the pit of his stomach.
"Even so, you asked her!" Sakura piped. "I know that took some guts to do."
It took a lot… Naoto hadn't exactly enjoyed how stressful it had been. And he'd been pretty jazzed up about his initial success!
Just as quickly as she'd perked up, the gal took a dive. "And then she treated the whole thing like a joke…"
A lot happened in between! Don't forget it! He was—contradictorily—happy with not reliving all of that.
"That was really shitty of her to do… and I don't care why she did it," Sakura glowered, expelling her words. "I don't give two shits why she did it! I can't believe how cunty she was to you!"
There's the C-word again! Naoto appreciated that Sakura was on his side, but he could do without hearing some of the language the gal was capable of spitting out. Please, don't talk about Nagatoro that way…!
"And I know I didn't help anything, really… me and my stupid ideas…" she lamented. "You're the one that was able to forgive her… or give her a chance, if that's closer to the truth. You still wanted her to model for you… Then, even after all that, you couldn't do it because some asshole brought some flu virus to school."
It seemed like the gods had REALLY wanted him to have a lousy week, though most of it had been pretty good!
Sakura measured, "You looked just miserable, sitting there…"
Did she feel sorry for him?
I don't need your pity! Naoto happily said nothing that sounded this stupid and cliché.
"I wanna help you, if I can…" she finished.
"…"
"…"
Naoto said nothing of import, doubtfully mouthing something to himself, "…"
So, Sakura appealed to logic.
"C'mon, this is silly, Senpai-kun!" she reproached. "You don't need to put yourself through this! Practicing on yourself…! It's stupid…"
I know it's stupid… He wanted to kick his own ass.
"And if left alone, you'll prolly just try doing this again, sketching yourself, and you might even chicken out the next time you have a chance to work with Hayacchi…"
Snap! If words could break a man's dick in two, that might've done the job!
Naoto could've pissed around a corner, judging by how his plumbing felt. You're probably right…
"It's something you need to do for your portfolio," Sakura expressed, looking right at him. "You're not doing it for kicks… so it's okay…"
"…" He returned her gaze. Sakura-san…!
"…"
Her words hit about as hard as they'd ever hit him, but… Naoto knew she wasn't being awful for the sake of just being awful.
And she wasn't being awful, in reality, but HONEST…
She still appeared a little apprehensive, unable to calm a twitch, but her gaze remained.
You… you mean it, don't you…? It began to fall in place for him.
…
After Sunday's brunch, Naoto had told the girls he had something special in mind for his portfolio, and Hana had offered to model for him.
Whatever it is, Hachioji-senpai, I would be happy to help.
He was fortunate to have such a kohai, but Hana wasn't the only one to pledge her assistance.
Me too, Senpai-kun. You've done a lot for us, so if I can do anything, just ask.
Sakura had volunteered then, and here she was, volunteering now.
Really, asking either of these girls to model, as he'd resolved to ask Nagatoro, had barely flagged in his mind, even when they insisted that he rely on them, so bent was he on keeping the "weirdness" between Nagatoro and himself.
…
Weirdness…
…
Why didn't I just ask the Prez to do this?! Naoto exclaimed internally.
Because you didn't want to! He could answer his own question.
Recalling his conversation on the phone with Nagatoro, he'd said he'd only feel comfortable asking her to model in such a way.
It had been a "heat of the moment" sort of thing, and Naoto had fundamentally said he wouldn't ask anyone else, but that wasn't entirely true.
He could always ask the Prez.
He just didn't WANT to ask the Prez, but he could've!
He didn't want to, simple as that!
…
And now, after his plans had fallen through, his friend Sakura was submitting to model!
Despite her feelings about his "affliction" and knowing what was going on (at least he hoped she did), she was still willing to help him!
To reiterate, truly, in Naoto's wildest dreams, he hadn't been about to ask Sakura to help him.
He'd subconsciously mused about how asking anyone besides Nagatoro would be nigh impossible, but it scarcely even occurred to him as a tangible possibility.
It was odd, but that's how far out the thought was.
It had no bearing.
…
But…
If he did this…
Was he "cheating" on Nagatoro?
"…!" The thought was a heavy one for him.
…
Yes, he'd sketched Sakura and Hana a couple times in the last week, but… this was different.
Other than the Prez, he really didn't feel it was… right to ask anyone besides Nagatoro for this great favor.
…
Still…
A lot had happened in the last few weeks, and he couldn't help but think of all he'd done… and all he'd seen.
He'd done his best to patch up things between Sakura and Takata… and both had thanked him…
Gamo-chan had shown him a side of her a lot of people probably didn't even contemplate EXISTING…
He'd had SO much fun with Sakura and Hana, studying, sharing snacks, spending time together, and the girls—against whatever odds might possibly have existed—had become close friends.
Thanks—in part—to him, three girls—having worked hard—had mostly improved upon their subjects, doing very respectably in the final exams…
And…
A lovely girl… who was interesting, smart, uproariously funny, and made him feel like a MAN, had become an honest-to-goodness and true friend… whom he'd shared some pretty difficult stuff with, and mutually so.
Now, that very girl wanted to help him.
And she'd already helped him a lot!
…
Before him stood this friend, one that seemed to trust and respect him…
And he'd done his best to return these!
…
What she was willing to do for him…
There was nothing dirty about this!
Nagatoro's legs were the only pair for him! Sakura was his friend!
What was he dreading?!
…
Well, there was…
Naoto couldn't see past it. "You don't think it's weird, Sakura-san…?"
"Weird?" she echoed.
He gulped, saying, "Well, yeah… I think most people would…"
Nagatoro thought it was weird, and HE thought it was, no matter how he tried to spin it.
"Well… yeah…" she admitted. "Yeah, I think it's weird, and I know it is for you too, but…"
Naoto was all ears. "…?"
"It's art, isn't it?" she decided. "You've done a lot for me. If I can, I wanna help."
"Really?" He guessed she'd already said so, but it hadn't come correct to him.
"Yeah, I wanna help… Will you let me?"
Despite her bona fide offer, he struggled. "…!"
"…?!" Her scowl returning, more playful this time, she reached for one of his triceps.
Naoto immediately reacted, covering his upper arms.
Nope! He'd been through that a few times, the painful pinch, and it brought him back down to Earth. "Sakura-san?"
She presented a ruddy smirk. "C'mon, Asshole-kun, it's weird, but it's not that fucked up. Lemme help you…"
"…!" He heard that.
"Seriously, Senpai-kun, it's okay…" she pressed.
…
Naoto and Sakura had become pretty good friends the last month…
And there was something he needed to remember:
She WAS a weird girl…
But more importantly, she was his friend.
Honestly, what the Hell was he dreading?!
…
Naoto knew a confidence he seemed to only have when the gal was around.
He asked, "Do you have a pair of leggings or something?"
"Why?" She'd expected a simple "yes" or "no".
"It'd save on awkwardness…" he illuminated. "Just the skirt might be a… a problem, given that…"
She understood, chuckling, "Yeah, I guess we don't need you sketching a panty-shot~."
Ack! Naoto's vision blurred.
She'd gotten him!
"Yeah…" he submitted. "Exactly."
Sakura pulled a face. "I have my gym clothes with me, but they're dirty… I was taking them home; I don't like the school's laundry."
Naoto had noticed the plastic bag she'd brought with her school bag.
He put forward, "I have a clean pair of gym shorts stashed away in the prep room. Would those work?"
"Is that a 'yes'~?" she giggled coyly, red creeping back into her face.
He nodded, cheeks blazing. "I'd be glad for your help."
…
…
…
"You really keep the floor around here clean, don't you?" Standing by, Sakura admired the spotless tile.
Naoto groused, gathering his supplies, "I've had to clean a lot more than I ever did in my first year. Some of you aren't very tidy with your snacks… I'm still finding those shrimp-flavored corn chips in the sofa cushions…"
"Hey, I've never eaten snacks on your precious couch…" she protested.
He sated her, "I know… I'm just saying… You and Sunomiya are pretty good about not making a mess, which is more than I can say about certain people (Gamo-chan and Yoshi-san)."
He didn't even really like the couch. Nagatoro had stolen it from the Handicrafts Club, if memory served, but no one had ever come looking for it…
"I wish the floor at my house was this clean~," she mused. "We keep the place pretty tidy, but my brother Yoichi and his friends had an airsoft battle in the house last year, and I'm still stepping on plastic bb's… It's like there's no end to them. It was even worse in his room when he used to play with Legos. Those hurt."
Naoto, digging around in a drawer, could relate, "My buddy Shuu does target practice in his room with his airsoft pistol. That's why we never play games at his place… His room is a pigsty on top of that."
The gal prodded the tile with a toe, snickering. "You've seen that old movie, My Neighbor Totoro~? With all the charcoal you and Hana-chan go through, I figured my feet would wind up looking like the two sisters'… Y'know, after they got into the soot when they were cleaning their new house. I think I'm dirtier than your floor, and I just cleaned up."
She considered the soles of her feet, free of any detritus.
He'd seen the movie, years ago. "I'd be ashamed of myself if this place looked like that."
Sakura ruffled the gym shorts Naoto had leant her. "Boy, these are big on me; they reach my shins~."
You'll be glad you have 'em on later… He wasn't in the market for a panty-shot, which she'd alluded to.
"You about ready there?" she asked.
He bobbed his head. "We can start at the table with your hands."
The two of them had moved Hana's corner table to the middle of the room, giving them a square meter to work atop and the best lighting.
"Would it be cliché if I said, 'take care of me'~?" Sakura giggled, gliding to the table and pulling out a chair. "I've never done this before, but 'I'll do my best'~."
Naoto suppressed a laugh, saying, "Nah, you don't need to say it… And don't worry. It's easy…"
"Yeah, it doesn't seem like rocket science or anything." She settled in. "What do you want me to do?"
He set on the table a sketchbook, a few pencils, a few chunks of eraser, the room's box of tissues, and his butt in the opposite chair. "I guess we can just start with one of your hands. Just flat on the table, palm down."
"Easy-peasy~." She did just that.
He instructed, "Now, you don't have to pretend to be a stature or anything, but find a comfy position and try to keep still."
"Right-o~."
"Would you like to read your magazine? You have a free hand for now."
"I forgot about the magazine yet again~," Sakura broke into a cackle. "And that's why I came back in the first place… Isn't that funny~?"
And embarrassing for me! Naoto shuddered. "It happens…"
She gave answer on the perusal of her periodical, "I'm good for now. We can talk, if you like."
He would like. "What about?"
"Just get sketching, Senpai-kun~." She drummed her fingers. "We'll figure it out~."
…
…
…
"Man," Sakura whistled. "You went through all that?"
Having figured it out between them, Naoto found himself parroting a lot of what he'd learned in the latter half of the week.
"If I remember right, there are seven major lines in palmistry," he discoursed, eyes on his sketchpad. "I can only remember a couple though."
"Seven, huh…?" Sakura stared at her upturned palm. "I never knew that. That's kinda cool."
The two friends had been at it for a while, and a few sketches had been cranked out, none of them lasting long enough to worry about the late-in-the-day light shunting shadows.
Wowza, was it ever great to have a model interested in the subject matter!
Naoto was more used to mockery and being quasi-humored through the whole process.
He disclosed, "I kinda went overboard in my 'research', but it was definitely interesting. I meant to just go with hand and foot anatomy, but I wound up going down the rabbit hole, you might say."
"You'd think you'd done this before," Sakura marveled. "You seem to know what you're doing."
Without boasting, he could say, "It's pretty much the same process no matter what kind of model you have. But I've never concentrated on hands or feet, not as a standalone. I guess I've worked with a model hand, but only a bit…"
"So, a 'model hand' and not a 'hand model'~?" she joked.
Naoto got her friendly jibe. "Yeah, I've got one right over there."
He indicated the model on the shelf, opposable at all its joints.
"Oh, that wooden hand up there?" She looked. "I bet that's kinda 'handy'~."
(I'm sure that joke doesn't translate, so don't hate me.)
"You could say that," Naoto snorked, scratching away with his pencil.
"So, could you read my palm~?" The prospect delighted her.
He shook his head. "Nah… No way… But it was pretty neat. I've never looked into it before."
"I've always thought fortunetelling and astrology were kinda cool~," Sakura opined. "I've always wanted to visit a fortuneteller. Maybe I could go this summer to one."
"I sorta wanna go visit one too." Naoto said. "I don't think I buy any of it, but it was a lot of fun to learn about it."
"What's up with the 'heart line'?" she asked. "You remember that?"
He wished he could recall. "I read what the lines all meant, but I didn't pay that close of attention to the details. There was one unusual thing I remember though."
"Hmm?" She was all ears.
Naoto set down his pencil and indicated to his own palm as he explained. "Most people have their 'head' and 'heart' lines parallel to one another, neither crossing the whole palm, but a small percentage have something called a 'single transverse palmar crease', meaning those two lines are joined as one going straight across the hand."
"A 'single transverse palmar crease'…" she ho-hummed. "That's a mouthful… Neither of us have that. What's it mean?"
"Well… it can mean a couple of things…" he began. "In palmistry, it's called a 'Simian line'. The 'head' and 'heart' lines represent the thought and emotional processes, respectively. It means there's less of a distinction between more logical thoughts and feelings in decision-making for the person. Some people have it on only one hand, but I don't remember if that means anything or not. That's one thing."
"Huh…" Sakura considered. "That's neat… What else does it mean?"
"Well… it might mean nothing…" Naoto hesitated, choosing his words. "Some people just have it, whether on one or both hands. But it's common with certain medical or genetic conditions."
"What's there to be nervous about?" She picked up on it.
He shrugged. "Nothing, I guess… I just wasn't sure how to bring up the fact that a high percentage of people with trisomy-21 have a single crease; that's maybe the most common example of a genetic reason someone has one."
"What's trisomy-21?" She'd been through genetics in biology, but not much of it stuck.
Naoto had hoped she'd remember; if she did, he wouldn't have to say, "It means someone has Down Syndrome."
He'd almost expected an "Asshole-kun" and a pinch or a kick out of her, but she moved right along.
"I guess we talked about Down's when we covered chromosomes in science class…" She rested her chin on her free hand. "You remember anything else about palmistry?"
Thankful she hadn't taken the detour into genetics in a negative fashion, he recollected, "Nothing much else about palms or even astrology, but there's the shapes of hands: fire, earth, water, and air."
"Ooh~…" Sakura sat up straight. "What do they mean? Are they similar to what the other elements mean, or do they mean something different with hands?"
Naoto had thought it was neat enough, and he eagerly shared, "They correspond pretty well with the elements they represent overall, I think."
"What kind of hands do I have~?" She was enjoying this quite a bit.
He was happy to see it, and he counted them off, "'Fire' hands have long palms with short fingers. 'Earth' have square palms and short fingers. 'Water' is long palms with long fingers. 'Air' hands have square palms and long fingers."
Looking over hers, Sakura chirped, "I have 'air' hands~."
"Yes, you do…" He was really happy to see her happy.
The two had been productive enough, but Sakura elected to read her magazine for a bit, leaving Naoto to work in peace.
He gladly did just that. "…~"
…
…
…
"Could you turn the page for me, Senpai-kun?" Sakura asked.
"Definitely." Setting down his pencil, he reached over and flipped the gal's magazine, lying on the table, to the next page.
"Thanks~."
"No problem."
And there was quiet again, discounting the scritch-scratch of Naoto's pencil skimming across the sketchpad.
After briefly rendering Sakura's left hand, palm-down, palm-up, and in a fist, he'd elected for her to give him a few poses using both hands.
Having finished a couple of sketches of her hands, fingers loosely laced as if in thought and firmly laced as if in prayer, he'd gone ahead with a simple setup of one hand resting on the other.
The non-inconvenience raised to Naoto of occasionally needing to supply Sakura with fresh reading was a trifle, and he thought this was going great.
This minute courtesy reminded him of the previous week, Sakura having done Hana's nails.
He smiled inwardly at the apparition of the gal feeding her younger friend cookies and turning her pages, the latter's hands drying upon the table.
"Charming" was the word that stood out to him!
"…" This evoked other episodes in his memory.
He could visualize Nagatoro's face, feature-for-feature, as he'd seen her last year during the "stockings incident".
He knew she got off on that. And he did too… at least once a week.
All he could see in his mind's eye was a nastiness emanating from her entire being.
And when she became uncomfortable with her game, she came apart at the seams, throwing fresh but stale insults at him.
But that was what he registered when he let his senses wander.
When he concentrated—at least enough to not daydream of nightmares—he didn't need to visualize Sakura's face.
It was in front of him.
"…" Naoto absorbed the scene, his kohai serenely pouring over some article on some subject of which he had no idea.
She was the type to READ the articles; most just looked at the pictures!
Every time he was with Sakura, it seemed there was something new to commit to retention.
He got a real kick out of that!
He wondered in a semi-casual sort of way if whatever she was reading was interesting.
What "interesting" constituted, he knew her definition and his wouldn't line up the best, but it didn't matter.
She seemed to be having a pretty pleasant time, despite her present lack of hands.
Naoto couldn't even tell what she was reading, whether it was a fashion journal, some trashy tabloid, a popular entertainment magazine, or a Frankenstein's monster comprised of them all.
Whatever it was, she gave off the air of complete contentedness!
"…" Very nearly finished, he shaded the space underneath Sakura's right, resting atop the metacarpals of the left, casting a barely perceptible shadow upon her tanned skin.
Just a little more…
In some place between mindfulness and ignorance, he sensed the smile dimpling his appearance.
Really…
He was learning A LOT about the gal…
For someone that did so many things so loudly, it seemed odd that she'd have such an aversion to some attentions…
But he couldn't fault her—even though it was partly her fault—for losing her composure over some greasy lump clumsily stalking her.
Or wanting to cover up when the eyes of her senpai trespassed upon the "no-no" property of her body, the "no-no" property in HIS case being something other than boobs and butts.
Despite the latter, he liked boobs and butts—he liked them a lot!
But compared to—
"…?!" Naoto jumped.
Looking up from his little shadowing job, he'd caught a glimpse of Sakura.
She was looking right at him, a tiny smile gracing her lips.
He gulped. "…!"
What was she…?
"…~" The gal had a faraway aspect about her, her cheekbones glowing rosily.
"…!" His sphincter seemed a little loose.
"…~~" The hollows of her cheeks deepened.
"…!" Maybe he'd need to go truffle hunting in the boys' room.
"…~~~" Deeper yet the hollows sank.
C'mon, you asshole, don't just sit there! Naoto told himself; he regarded his friend. "…Uh… Yes…?"
He saw the lights come on in Sakura's eyes, and she was snapped out of her trance with a few deft blinks of her eyes.
"Sakura-san?" He wasn't worried; he just hadn't seen this before.
"Aw, sorry, Senpai-kun…" Sakura's blush deepened as the hollows filled. "I didn't mean to stare…"
He refuted, "Hey, it's alright…"
"…" She was on the verge of something.
He didn't think. "What's up?"
Recovering, she said in earnest, "It's just good to see you enjoying yourself~…"
Yikes! Naoto didn't want to go hunting for truffles!
"Y-yeah…?" he barely articulated.
"Well, sure…" she conjured. "Last Sunday, you were a mess… but you got better as the week went on…"
He supposed so…
"And you were doing great… until Monday of this week."
He KNEW so…
"Now, you seem to be yourself again, Senpai-kun~," she said. "I'm just happy about it."
"…!"
"…~"
Naoto didn't even know what was rising up in his psyche!
"…!" Scrambling on the inside, he stilled himself. "Let's… take a break… I don't wanna overdo the sketch."
It wasn't just an excuse; anything else would defeat the purpose of a quick sketch!
"Yeah, don't wanna do that…" Sakura contributed, shaking out her hands. "I remember Hana-chan saying something about that."
"Hmm…"
"…" She regarded him from across the table, now lounging. "Uh, sorry if I rattled you there… Guess I said too much…"
Forgiving her was no chore. "Hey, don't worry about it…"
"…~"
"…!" He didn't expect to come back down so quickly.
Sensing the opening, Sakura intruded, "But it is nice to see…"
Naoto reacted positively enough, "I… do feel a lot better."
"You do~!"
He let loose a nervous bark of laughter, "H-ha~…"
"But you should've seen yourself last Friday~…" Sakura jumped into the opening. "Was Thursday really that good~?"
"What do you mean?" He shook loose his uneasiness to a degree.
Thursday night had been pretty amazing, but that wasn't quite it!
Sakura took on a thoughtful air. "We got you wound up a few times, but otherwise, you were fluid… almost Zen-like~…"
I suppose… Naoto indeed supposed that.
"You just seemed pretty well-off that day…" she added. "What happened?"
"…!" Naoto was confronted with a thing he hadn't expected to resurface.
Should he tell her? What he did right before bed on Thursday?
"I… took your advice… what you told me last Thursday…" He'd mulled no further, his inhibitions doing nothing.
Shit! He knew he'd spilled the beans.
But Sakura lit up. "Hmm~?"
And he saw an opening. "…"
"…~?" Her big, soft, brown eyes were welcoming.
Open as she was, it took no small amount of faith to breach the entrance.
He exhaled, "You… suggested I… maybe do something."
"What did you do?" she inquired, tilting her head.
How could he just come out and say, "I forced myself to cry?"
He couldn't bring himself to overtly state what she'd recommended, but he was able to say, "I watched the last episode of Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket…"
"Hmm…?" She looked at him like… like she had no idea what he meant.
Naoto had doubted she might catch the reference. The series was from more than a decade before either of them was born.
He tried something else. "You said something along the lines of 'you always felt better when you got it all out.'"
"…!" Something registered within her, and she jerked.
It was immediately clear to him that she knew exactly what he meant. He didn't blame her for needing a proper hint; they'd talked about a lot that day.
"Oh… that." Her eyes widened, and her eyebrows raised a few millimeters.
"Yeah…"
"I see…" Sakura tried to still her hands, not realizing they'd begun darting around. "…Did it help?"
He probed, wanting confirmation, "You know what I mean, right?"
"I do…"
He nodded. "It helped."
"Good…" she accepted. "You don't need to say anymore if you don't want to."
"Thanks."
"…"
"…"
"Like I said… you don't have to say anymore, but if you'd allow me…" Sakura professed.
Naoto wasn't about to shut her up, mostly because the relays in his brain weren't firing too reliably. "Yeah?"
She gushed, "The last time I decided to do it, I watched the last two episodes of Your Lie in April… but I think just the part where Kosei reads Kaori's letter and the very end is plenty. When she says, 'I love you! I love you! I love you!', it wrecks me every time~…"
"…!" Naoto didn't need further confirmation, but it was a comfort; he more so knew that she knew what he'd meant.
He also didn't need further confirmation that she was PROBABLY an anime fan or at least could tolerate it.
He could scarcely believe it, though he'd suspected it.
Was this real?!
"…!" Sakura looked away, not sure it was best to have said that. "I'm sorry…"
Don't dwell on the whole "anime angle"!
Naoto's jaw tightened. "It's fine. I… I think we both understand."
"Right," she relaxed, sighing.
"…"
"…"
Naoto didn't want to make a big deal about it, but…
They were friends, and they weren't about to laugh at each other over such a thing.
And she'd been the one to open the door anyway.
He'd go for it…
For Naoto, it was one of the harder but more gratifying things he'd said for some time.
He allowed himself a little smile. "…By the way, I loved that series. Just the anime though. I couldn't even finish the manga, it was so bad artwise, but the anime was already out by then."
Sakura jolted as if faced with static electricity. "…!"
Fuck! For a few seconds, Naoto thought he'd made a mistake, but…!
"Me too~…" she reflected. "The manga sucked pretty hard. The faces creeped me out."
And the dam broke, the reservoir pouring into the valley!
"Remember how people who'd watched the series flooded music forums and video comment sections of Chopin's works?" Naoto gleamed.
Sakura shone. "I'd never heard of Chopin before that… but I liked what I heard when I started looking around for his stuff."
"I know I'd never heard of Chopin, but I guess I've heard a few of his pieces," Naoto coincided. "I guess it's like when you're familiar with something because you hear it in media, but you don't know where it came from."
The gal cited, "The people that could actually 'appreciate' classical music were all butthurt over so many commenters saying, 'Your Lie in April brought me here.' I know I was one of those commenters~."
Naoto didn't see a problem with it. "I think people sometimes worry too much about what brings people to something good and new to them. Can you imagine how many digital copies of Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 were sold (or illegally downloaded) after?"
"I hear ya~…" she approved. "What matters is that some people really get interested in something."
The rush of water took with it everything—great and small—along for the ride.
"…" Naoto squirmed.
"…~" Sakura wiggled.
And all the poor assholes in the valley drowned!
"I cried so hard over the scene on the hospital roof!" Naoto blurted. "And when they finally show the photo Kaori gave Kosei!"
Sakura attached, "And when the screen fades to 'Shigatsu wa Kimi no Aso' with the words—in English—'I met the girl under full-bloomed cherry blossoms, and my fate has begun to change'… and you hear that final note on the violin~… I ugly-cried."
"…Me too." He could almost feel the tears crossing his jawline.
This was otherworldly!
"…~" Sakura beamed.
"…~" Naoto liked this otherworld.
It took a moment to gather themselves, but gather they did.
Sakura put forth, "Hey, uh, I gotta question."
"Yes?"
"Where did you watch Gundam 0080?"
She's asking…? Naoto hadn't expected this. "I found it online, but I was only able to find it once before it got taken down. Supposedly, it's really hard to find on the internet."
She reasoned, "Well, that's okay. Now that I think about it, I think Daddy has Gundam 0080 on VHS."
"Really?" This was even more unexpected to him.
"Yeah, apparently, he was pretty into Gundam when he was younger," she imparted. "I'll watch it if I can."
"…!" He could scarcely believe this!
Sakura registered his astonishment. "What is it?"
Naoto had only met Mr. Inori once…
He saw no way around it. "I just never pictured your dad as a…"
"Oh, yeah, he was big into anime and manga when he was younger," she said. "It's where I got it from, I suppose…"
There was no repairing the dam, and it all became one big lake, never to be remedied.
Q&A Section
What inspired the name of the series?
ED: The following is a shameless copy/paste because I couldn't think of how to condense it in a way that I liked:
I was going to call the story one of several names. I considered When the Cherry Blossom Starts to Bloom, Dog Days Duet, The Sakura Puzzle, and The Pathos of a Gal. I didn't think any of them really stood out or had any "mystique" behind them, but all of these names became chapter titles. Two of them are yet to come.
My editor and I threw around a few other names. I decided I wanted to incorporate something about the two main characters, Naoto and Sakura. With Sakura, the obvious way seemed to be cherry blossoms. Naoto was harder, but he's an artist, so that opened a few options.
What's a palette? It's a surface used to carry multiple colors (usually of paint). You can mix the colors, isolate them, use them, not use them, save them for later, hit them with paint thinner or let them thicken up, create something wonderful or terrible, etc. That means to me that Naoto has options in his life and can do whatever he wants with it. He'll have to make decisions.
The title doesn't mean "cherry blossoms on a palette" or "a palette of cherry blossoms". It's just the two things together in a title.
I thought Sakura Palette sounded awkward, using her name in the title, but we agreed on 🌸Cherry Blossom Palette🎨. I just liked the way it sounded, and it had some cute emojis handy to use (that wasn't the deciding factor, it was just a nice touch).
Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading! Questions and comments are welcome!