apricate; enhypen imagines

nishimura riki - flowers

note: au?

a/n: inspired by @babaemochi who got inspired by @/shortstoriesasf on tiktok.

also inspired by that amazing photo i found of riki <3

tw: sad; angst

3340 words

- linden

"Hey, it's okay." Your best friend soothed you as she rubbed your back. A week after and your gaze was glassy and you were cold, numb like you couldn't feel.

"There are so many more people out there for you to love." She said to try and calm you. The wet prick of tears threatened at your lower lash line.

He had been special. He had been your first. He had been Nishimura Riki.

"You'll find someone new." She said.

So many things like that had been said to you. Again and again, over and over throughout the year after you last saw him. People said they understood. Grown people and young people. Single people and people in happy relationships.

"I had my first love too."

"My first love left me too."

"I've been in your boat before and it really wasn't worth it; the chasing."

"There are other fish in the sea."

"The hurting will stop one day and you'll find someone better that fulfills your heart better."

The last one had come from your mother, smiling and happily married to your father.

They said they understood, but did they really? You felt distant from them as they told you everything about their tragic first love stories, but didn't let you talk about yours. They didn't let you talk about the way you'd given him your entirely tender heart and let it feel it's first love, only for him to drop it and let it shatter.

Nishimura Riki was your first love.

He was your first kiss; he was your first boyfriend.

He was your first heartbreak.

————

For a long time, you had watched him from afar. His feather shaped eyes and his dark hair; his cute little beauty marks and soft looking lips.

He was your everything even when he didn't know your name, and he was your everything even when his name was a painful memory.

————

It was a chilly day in early spring. The fields around the school were filled with small purple, pink, and white flowers that swished around your feet when you walked through them. The school itself was huge and built of rough brown brick that looked chocolatey in the early light.

There was no school that day and you were instead there to pick a bouquet of flowers for your lovely mother with her habit of putting half dead flowers in jars of water to keep them alive.

You found the idea strange, but many people did it. What you didn't understand about it was why people would half-murder these flowers by clipping them only to stick them in water in hopes that they would survive. If they wanted decorations, they could just find a small pot to plant the flowers in.

As you thought that, you twirled a small white flower in your fingertips before depositing it into your basket. You bent down to gather a clump of stems bearing dainty pink flowers who's petals looked like ruffles.

As you straightened, you heard a familiar voice call out. Your heart flipped in excitement as soon as you recognized the person.

"Hey! You go to the high school, right?" Riki called with a slightly curious expression. You turned and smiled to see he was holding his own bunch of flowers but without a basket. You approached him with a tiny smile. "Everyone here goes to the high school if they're old enough." You pointed out.