bus rides | midoriya izuku

01 | hues of greens

HIS GREEN HAIR WAS THE ONLY NOTICEABLE COLOUR IN THE BUS

Flowers have always been colourful. Be it violets, tangerines, dandelions or roses. Imagine a field of flowers was called a field of rainbows instead, although the name would be ridiculous as to why a rainbow would be rooted in the soil and not the soaring blue sky. Everyone is a flower. And by that meaning is when each flower describes a person and their stories. Each flower has meaning the moment we see one. A rose? Love. A sunflower? Longevity. A lily? Purity.

There's always a day where we pass by a certain flower despite how big or small. Always. It could be the florist's shop in the street for all we know, but there's always a flower waiting to be plucked away into its bouquet, unknowingly wilting in its receiver's hands and vases. ( If one would care. ) Because people wouldn't really pay attention close enough if there isn't one that stands out.

He, however, was not a flower.

Sumire Aiko knows there aren't many green flowers in the entire globe. The only natural green she knows was what she sees, and what she sees were blurred trees and random pots of plants. They were the kind of plants that people normally won't take a glimpse at—because something too generic on its own was something that's what caught observant eyes like Aiko's.

His green strands looked like a field of grass, or perhaps from an obvious point of view from where she was sitting—the very last row of the bus seated by the window to the left—his green head is simply a shrub seating on the right side of the bus and two rows in front, swaying vaguely to the small bumps of the road home like a cat hiding in a bush.

Aiko admitted his green head became an eyesore ever since she noticed him boarding the same bus as her two stops after hers. Mind you, the bus she was in was a new bus that made her life easier than having to take two buses now. Despite having a comic to read every day during the bus ride home, trying to cover the distracting head out of her view, her arms would get tired of holding up her comic too long and she would eventually have to endure with it for the rest of the journey.

He was really that one random bush popping out of nowhere in the middle of the field full of flowers. Though the bus was barely crowded. It could be because it was a neighbourhood bus and not towards the station where most people would go. There were always about less than ten passengers including him and Aiko.

Did she mention they live in the same neighbourhood as well? Ah, yes. Meaning they dropped off at the same time, except that, the green boy was always the first one to leave his seat before her. Despite standing on the same stop for home, she didn't get a glimpse of his face because in the end, both of them walked in opposite paths.

But maybe, his obvious presence was what made her thoughts linger on for minutes until it's her stop. It became a part of her routine when she noticed the gakuran as his school uniform, figuring out he was the same age as her. The bulky, yellow bag reminds her of Bumble Bee for some odd reason. Of all trivial things. She noticed how small and short he was for his age. After all, he was a middle schooler and so was she. Perhaps both of them were entirely different. Both in their own world, despite one wondering about a stranger she'd come to be curious about.

But that's what made Aiko tired of being observant as well.

The green head wasn't just a tree, a shrub or a bush.

He was a gem.

And what green gems are there? More than any rare green flowers nor any plain trees and grass.

Emeralds and sapphires. Jades and chromes.

That's what made him an eyesore to the idle girl sitting in the corner of the bus—because even though she'd never seen his face, seen the colour of his eyes and features, despite having everyone else sitting in the bus tuning in their own world, the green boy was the gem shining in a field full of flowers.

And that's what made Aiko stop in her tracks to admire one that's hard to pass by unlike any other flower.