in which minami kotori, a fashion student at otonokizaka university, develops a strange fondness for sonoda umi, the girl who sits in the row in front of hers.
[this book is based on a comic strip of kotoumi that inspired me to transform it into an...
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the anthurium: the flower of hospitality.
— in which kotori finally befriends the girl who sits in the row in front of hers.
~
she didn't realise how pretty the girl who sat in the row behind hers was till she had accidentally dropped her eraser onto her table; a twist of fate that — if it had not happened — would have resulted in umi not approaching the drunken girl at elvira.
"that's enough," she says firmly, directing a ferocious gaze at the tall boy, who instantly retracts from the grey-haired girl in fear. umi smiles to herself. there were some benefits in coming off as threatening — especially in the way she dressed; she had no problem with getting people to avoid her.
she plucks the can of root beer out of his hand and gulped in down without pausing, flinching slightly at the prickling sensation that poured down her throat. man, she hated carbonated drinks. what did she even do that for?
shoving the tall dark-haired boy aside, she knelt down in front of the tipsy girl, and shifts her position till the girl was draped cozily over her back.
"wait–" the boy calls after her as umi gets her out of the party, but she ignores him and struggles to hold back a laugh when she sees eli, her childhood friend, with a tomato-red face as a drunken nozomi climbs onto her lap.
"hey, i said wait!"
umi ignores him again, and presses onward to the bus stop. but she figures that she'd just walk back to the dormitories instead — just for the exercise. the girl on her back wasn't as light as she had appeared to be, though she was about a head shorter than umi.
"do you not understand a thing i–"
"enough." she says coldly, turning, already sweating slightly in her pull-over and jeans. "eli told me to keep an eye out for you because you just don't understand the concept of personal space."
hachigoro appears taken aback, and his shoulders slump, dark eyes evidently guilt-stricken. but umi had no sympathy for him.
"leave." she orders, and readjusts the sleeping beauty on her back, not bothering to check if he had listened to her as she heads in the direction of the dormitories.
as she walks, the aching in her arms grows, causing her to grit her teeth and continue on. being in the kendō club had at least granted her a bit more strength and endurance. it didn't help that the girl was sleeping like a log, though.
"i'm scared,"
umi turns her head slightly, and she feels tears soak into the material of her top, emotions that shone in the glimmer of the girl's wet cheeks.
"i don't know what to do."
umi looks ahead, counting the rhythm of her steps as she approaches the dormitories. she had been all too familiar with the words the girl had just uttered, and it rekindled something in her. there had been a time when she was so lost, so alone. nobody heard her screams and nobody felt her agony. so she had dealt with it on her own. long nights spent crying into her pillow, letting her emotions run in places nobody would search, all to become the person she was today.
