Under the Cherry Blossoms...

Pink petals drifted through the air similar to gentle snowflakes.

Anna Kanzaki sat beneath the old cherry blossom tree behind the school building, her back resting against the rough trunk. The afternoon sun filtered through the branches, turning the falling petals into flashes of pale light.

She closed her eyes and breathed in.

The scent of spring. 

Quiet. Safety.

This place had always been hers.

When the hallways became too loud…
When the classrooms felt too crowded…
When people expected conversations she didn’t know how to have—

Anna simply came here.

At seventeen, she had already earned a reputation at school.

Honor student.

Timid. Quiet. Distant. 

The girl who always sat alone.

It wasn’t exactly wrong.

She preferred books to conversations. Silence to laughter echoing in crowded corridors. 

Nature to people who always seemed to speak in a language she couldn’t quite understand.

Sometimes she wondered if something was wrong with her.

Most girls her age talked about crushes, love, relationships.

Anna? She felt none of these.

Or at least… she never believed she did.

A breeze stirred the branches above her.

Petals fluttered down onto the open philosophical book resting on her lap.

Then footsteps approached.

Anna opened her eyes.

She didn’t need to look up to know who it was.

Riku Reita.

Even if she had tried to ignore him, that would have been impossible.

Everyone knows him.

The kind person who would fill the space he walked into. Always smiling. Always surrounded by friends. The kind of boy teachers trusted and students admired for his kindness.

In every single possible way, he was her polar opposite.

And yet—

For reasons she couldn’t explain, he always seemed to notice her.

The footsteps stopped.

Anna slowly looked up.

Riku stood a few feet away, hands in his pockets, sunlight was chasing, cascading to his hair. 

He looked strangely hesitant—an expression she had never seen on him before.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Petals drifted between them.

Then Riku smiled.

"Hey, Anna!"

Her heart skipped.

No, not again...

She hated that it did that whenever he talked to her.

Always.

"Mind if I sit here?"

Anna hesitated.

This tree had always been her luxury. 

Her own sanctuary.

Her quiet place.

Her very own world.

Yet somehow… when Riku stood there asking, it didn’t feel like he was invading her personal space.

Instead, it almost felt like he was a welcomed guest.

She only shifted slightly, making enough room beside her.

Riku sat down.

For a while, neither of them spoke.

The silence wasn’t uncomfortable.

It was… strange.

Riku glanced up at the branches, breaking the silence.

"The cherry blossoms are beautiful today, aren't they?"

Anna nodded.

"I know."

No need to tell me something so obvious...

She brushed a petal off her book.

"That’s why I come here."

Reita looked at her.

Not the way people usually did. Neither curiosity nor confusion.

Yet rather, something else.

Something warmer.

For a second, Anna felt her chest tighten.

She quickly looked away from his face.

This feeling again.

The strange flutter in her chest.

The warmth in her face.

The nervousness in her hands.

She didn’t understand it.

No, she never wanted to understand it.

Because Anna had always believed something very simple about herself:

She is never the type of a girl who falls in love.

Yet sitting beside Riku beneath the falling cherry blossoms…

For the first time in her life—

She wondered if she might be wrong.

And without realizing it,

that quiet afternoon beneath the blossoms became the moment their story might begin.