Dreams Upon A Silver Pine Branch

Chapter 17: Kaoru Hitomi

It was a strangely hot day in the middle of an otherwise wintry month, hot enough to melt candle wax in under thirty seconds. Despite the heat, Kenta and Akira still came to the Hinotori playground upon Ezekiel's insistence that Aiden had something important to say to them. The Kinoya cousins did question the younger Swenson brother's motivation at first. After all, what could be so urgent that Aiden could not have waited for a cooler day? And why did it have to be the playground out of any other places they could meet at? And what was it with this odd summer-in-the-middle-of-winter weather? Was Silver Pine undergoing a climate change?

"He said that the playground was where everything had started going downhill," Ezekiel had explained through a quick phone call, "and it's also where he wants to see things start going the other direction for the better. I promise he's not up to some shenanigan. Just come, okay? It would also answer your curiosity about what we were up to the night we were supposed to go shopping."

Sitting on a swing with a half-empty can of ginger ale on one hand and a messily wrapped box on the other hand, Aiden gave Kenta a curt nod when he saw the dark-haired boy approaching.

"This is the last ginger ale in the vending machine," he held the can up without directly looking at his former rival. "But there's plenty of milk tea and apple juice left. I can treat you to either."

"What a strange way to say hello," Akira remarked. "And you know we can buy our own drink."

"Y-yeah, of course you can!" the surly teenager stammered at the girl's comment. "But I thought I could try being nice for once. Speaking of being nice, here!" he hurriedly handed Kenta the box on his lap. "Ezie helped me with this. I don't know what kind of flowers you like best but—"

"Any flower is good with me," Kenta laughed. "May I open your gift right now?"

"Before you do," Ezekiel cut in, "please understand he does his best with the art and craft supplies we have at the boarding school. So, if you would excuse the lack of craftsmanship—"

"You're supposed to butter me up and not say a backhanded statement!" Aiden frowned after hearing his older step-sibling. "Anyway, just open it before this idiot ruins the moment."

Kenta unwrapped the gift box carefully, slowly revealing a cluster of fake white hydrangeas and tiny purple hyacinths made from cheap origami paper glued to a cream-colored elastic band.

"This is beautiful!" Kenta squealed. "Too bad my hair isn't long enough for elastics."

"Ugh, it's not for your hair, silly!" Aiden scoffed. "I wanted to make a giant kaleidoscope but it was tedious trying to handmade all the patterns from scratch, so I settled on a boutonniere."

"Bouto--?"

"The fancy thing you attached to your even fancier shirt when you go to formal events," Aiden replied impatiently. "Seriously, isn't your family a socialite? I thought you've gone to parties or a debutante before. Are you pulling my legs, rich boy?"

"Um, listen Aiden, I don't think boutonnieres and the like are a common staple of Japanese dances," Ezie attempted to break the tension. "It's normal for him to be confused, chill out."

"No, no, I've seen those things before but I didn't have a vocabulary for them," Kenta rubbed the back of his neck. "Thank you. Am I right in assuming there's one for Akira too, then?"

"You bet!" Ezekiel showed his girlfriend a box similar to the one already opened and winked with a glint in his eyes. "For the prettiest girl in our metropolitan area. Be my date to the prom?"