(Amai ☝🏻☝🏻️)
(Authors POV)
Amai held a cherry blossom in her hand. It was the first blossom of the year, and they had not seen one so beautiful in many a year. Sighing heavily, she cast the blossom into the stream, as she did every year. There was something comforting about it.
She turned, wiped a tear away, and looked upon her beautiful home.
It was a round, softly shaped hill, surrounded by the sweet stream that gave it it's name; Heiwana Nagare. The stream flowed under the hill into caves that no one had ventured to explore in many a year. No one knew where it ended.
Though the hill was not very high, it was quite wide, and several families made their homes on it. This place was remote, very remote. Visitors were few and far between. So were leavers. Folk lived and died on that hill, never even wondering what was beyond.
Sighing once again, Amai walked back to her home. As she went to step over the threshold, she read the motto carved into the door frame: Hewai ni kite, yujin to shite nokoshi nasai. She hoped that was true.
Her sister Kibo dashed up to her. "Amai, where were you? Otosan is ranting, Haha is weeping, and your broth is cold!"
"Releasing the blossom." Amai softly whispered.
"Ahh."
By the time Amai walked into the dining room, her father was in a fit of unreleased rage. "Where were you Amai?! Your mother had to cook supper with only Kibo to help!" Her father paused, seemingly insensible with anger. Kibo saw her chance and seized it. "Please, Otosan, 'twas my fault. I know how much it means to Amai to release the first cherry blossom into Heiwana Nagare. I didn't want there to be any risk that she could not. I told her that you had said she could go!" There was a shocked silence. Kibo was normally so well behaved.
Her father stared. He slowly raised his arm, pointing towards the end of the house the bedrooms were in. "GO TO YOUR ROOMS! BOTH OF YOU!" he shouted. The baby boy, Tetsu, started crying.
Kibo walked to her room in meek silence. She had never been scolded so soundly. Neither had Amai. Perhaps she should go check that she was alright.
Kibo tiptoed down the hallway, holding a candle out in front of her. The door to Amai's room swung open. Kibo snuck in. She opened her mouth to speak, but cut herself off. Amai's bed was empty.
A figure walked towards the entrance of the caves, silent as a ghost. Amai looked ahead and muttered to herself "I wonder how the blossom fares on the stream." However, Amai's curiosity was quickly dispelled by disappointment. There was no one there. She sat down on a rock by the stream, and started weeping.
A dark, slight boy snuck up behind Amai and planted a kiss on the side of her neck. Amai sprang up, turned around, and her face melted with relief.
"Kenmeina! Don't sneak up on me!" she cried playfully, shoving him gently. Kenmeina replied, by way of slowly bending down, dipping his hand in the stream... and hurling a handful of water at Amai!
Amai's replied with mock severity "Oh look, you young rascal, look what you've done!"
"Who are you to call me young?" giggled Kenmeina. " You're barely going on sixteen, and I'm seventeen in two weeks!"
"Ha! I'll be sixteen before you're seventeen!"
"Then in one week it'll be seventeen years since your parents made their biggest mistake!"
"What?"
"Calling you Amai! They should have called you Kireina, or Gojasu-na, or Mirikiteki, or-"
"Oh, stop it, you big flatterer!"
"Well, flattery is one of my many talents!" Kenmeina replied, pretending to look hurt.
"Flattery is also one of my many talents. Some of the others include..." she whispered saucily, tapering of as she walked her fingers up Kenmeina's neck.
Kenmeina shivered with delight. He took a gentle hold of her waist, swung her round so she was facing him. She smiled. Their lips were about to meet when... "I hear voices! I must away!" She kissed him once on the forehead, then she was just a figure rushing off into the night. Kenmeina sighed. His neck still tingled where Amai's fingers had walked up it.
Kibo was dashing down the hillside, barefoot and hugging a quilted dressing gown around her. She hadn't told Otosan or Haha. Why should she? She had already lied once to cover for Amai. And, much as she hated to admit it, defying Otosan was, well, thrilling. For thirteen years Kibo had lived under her father's strict rule, meekly accepting that he was complete and utter ruler of her life. As a little girl, Kibo had been okay with that. Why shouldn't she be? But as she had grown, so had a sense of resentment towards her father. Who was he to say where she could go and who she could speak to? She was thirteen, not seven.
Kibo scolded herself. "Thinking like that will only lead to trouble. TROUBLE!"
Kibo was so caught up in telling herself to behave that she didn't notice where she was running... until she crashed into Amai!
"Kibo!"
"Amai!"
