Beautiful Wilting Flowers

Onsen

Just a disclaimer, this part does contain nudity, but not in a gross way, they're just in a bath; but feel free to skip it if you don't feel comfortable! - K

Greigh POV:

RESEARCH IS HARD. 

Every time we think we have a lead; boom. Disproving counter argument. (I know, I sound ridiculous)

"I can't do this any more." Dean abruptly slams his laptop closed, making the rest of us jump, but why are we surprised Dean's the first one? "I'm going to enjoy more fun Japanese customs."

"C'mon Dean," Ina frowns. "We haven't gotten anything yet."

"Nope," He pushes the laptop further from where he can see it, and it falls off the bed. Heyden makes a hasty effort to catch it, but Dean shrugs.

"I've had that old thing forever. Let it break. They're probably tracking us with it anyways." He shrugs nonchalantly like it's not a big deal, but all of our heads swerve towards him.

"Oh, my, gosh," He doubles over, seeing our expressions. "You should see the look on your faces!"

"Shut up and get back to work, pea brain." Liana throws a pillow at him, blushing. Their love language concerns me sometimes. It's like banter, be aggressive, compliment each other, flirt, back to banter, then the whole process all over again. It concerns me for their sake.

Yes, as her brother, I recognize it. Of course I do; my sister is an expert flirt, and she's been doing it since she could sashay (That started at a very early age).

"A'right." I've had enough of their useless bater-aggressive-compliment-flirt-banter endless loop. Maybe if I get them some time, they'll make a move. I know Dean'll make a move. He's just built like that. I know; what kind of brother am I?! "Since the two of you can't figure out how to not hate each other, Heyden, Ina, and I are going to find something fun to do downstairs. The two of you are going to sit here, keep an eye on both of the rooms, and maybe do some more research. Or something else. But if this room is a battle field when we get back, you guys are in trouble, understand?"

"What?!" They exclaim, sharing a glance that looks like 'Greigh thinks this is a good idea? Is he okay?'.

"No- we wanted to go and explore too!" Liana says.

"You just dragged Heyden around the city to shop for who knows what that we both know you don't need. And you," I point at Dean, "Dragged Ina and I around the city, looking for food, that we both know you didn't need, and could've waited a minute to stop and smell the flowers."

"Flow-"

"It's a metaphor Dean, for crying out loud." I throw my arms up, and grab Heyden and Ina, stomping dramatically out the door and slamming it for extra measure. They will get the idea now, I hope.

"You just wanted them to get together,- am I wrong?" Heyden raises an eyebrow.

"It's distracting to all of us here trying to accomplish something." I hedge, avoiding his question.

"So that's a yes." Ina laughs.

"Yep, basically," I shrug. "Now, what do you guys want to do?"

Heyden and Ina share an evil grin.

"Ice cream!" They give me puppy dog eyes that don't exactly work on Ina, but it suits Heyden well.

"What?" I laugh mostly confused. "We can do that in London and Canada too though."

"Look at this," Heyden hands me a brochure, "They have some great onsens here, so we can clean ourselves, and then tarnish our teeth with ice cream to cool off!" He jumps up for a minute excitedly, but in a laughable kind of way. It's concerning me a little.

"Okay; sure. Lets go grab our stuff and-"

Ina and Heyden hold up some stuff, and Ina laughs.

"Waiting on you, dude."

💚💚💚

We approach the doors, and it's all outdoors. There's a door to the female onsens and a door to the male ones.

"See you later," Heyden and I wave to Ina as she waves back and ducks through the doors and out of sight.

A few minutes later, we've washed ourselves down and are already in the pools.

Let me explain; an onsen is a hot spring. They're everywhere in Kagoshima; try looking up photos, and you'll understand. But they're basically like giant tubs that you go in with other people (naked, but of the same gender), and all of the tubs are extremely hot besides the one ice cold tub to cool you off.

Heyden and I step outside to the outdoor pool, and Heyden gasps.

"Oh my goooooooo-" He stumbles with his words. The onsen here is on the 23rd level of the hotel building, and the outdoor onsen looks over the rest of the city. We are so high up.

"Pretty, huh?" Ina's voice comes through a wooden wall made to divide the boy's and girl's sectors, but the wall is pretty thin, so even if we can't see her (thank gosh), we can still hear her soft voice clearly.

"It's breathtaking." I grimace, feeling a headache come on. "How did you know we were here?"

"I heard Heyden gawking, and immediately recognized it. It's pretty hard to miss the only people speaking English around here." I can hear the calming look in her face.

My stomach swirls around, and I feel light headed- I am not a huge fan of heights.

"I-I'm going back indoors." I grab my head as it pounds, beads of sweat forming on my forehead.

"You okay?" Heyden asks, and without answering him, I nod. If I talk, I'll throw up.

Okay, so maybe not a fan of heights at all.

But Heyden looks ready to call an ambulance (that's just Heyden for you), and I can't leave him worried, so I try my best to get out,

"Not- a fan o-of heights. Y-you can stay here, I'll be f-fine." I turn my back on Heyden, and make my way over to the doors leading inside. That view was breathtaking, but in all of the wrong ways.

When we all meet after finishing up with bathing, I see an ice cream vending machine. That's another thing I've noticed; there are vending machines everywhere in Japan.

"Ready for that ice cream?" I ask 

And their glittering eyes answer everything.