A Pure and Innocent Fleeting Flower ~ Isolated Blossom

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«Everyone has a right to pursue a happy life. The difficult part is to be given that right.»

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It was an unusual meeting for both of them. They had not seen each other for many years, and what they least expected was to meet in the middle of Masaru and Alouette's wedding dinner party. They were, for some particular reason, sharing a table in the middle of the rented place waiting for their food to be served by the chefs that Hinari had specifically hired together with Masaru to make it an unforgettable moment. Mano and Minato had decided to dance a little, leaving them alone.

Konori Kawada was uncomfortable. It wasn’t because Ouka Kouzaki's presence was bad for her, but simply because years had passed without them exchanging words. It was not as if they had quarrelled or argued but simply lost communication over the years, besides being united by a particular individual due to different consequences.

“Ouka-san, everything turned out wonderful, don't you think?” The caramel coloured-haired girl mumbled, not knowing where exactly to look. “Everyone was lining up to greet the newlyweds. They make a cute couple.”

“I would never have imagined seeing such a scene, especially with Masaru being the first of us all to tie the knot," laughed Ouka. “Everything looks divine, just as you'd expect from Hinari and him joining hands in what they do best.”

“Although I do find it a bit odd to fuse French, American and Japanese cuisine together.” Konori placed a hand under her chin.

“Let's take it as an opportunity to broaden our horizons.”

“I guess…”

Once again, silence reigned even though there was a beautiful waltz playing in the background. Konori didn't know the reason why Oukai made her feel so uncomfortable. As much as the situation that tied them all together was the same individual, things never ended on bad terms or in deceit. Simply things come to die one day, and the next day they revive with another. Like an unusual cycle of reincarnation.

“Oukai-san…” she swallowed, her oxygen running out. “Is this really okay?”

“What do you mean?” Ouka didn't have much makeup on, her light blue dress highlighting her cinnamon eyes as she blinked after every word.

“I mean…” Konori felt exposed unlike the other girl, she's not one to wear dresses, let alone short ones and she felt that the champagne colour looked terrible on her. “I mean... I don't know where to begin.”

“I think I understand.” She placed her right hand on the table, squeezing Konori's, making her blush. “You're so sweet. Life gives us unexpected gifts. Look at it this way; we got to the happy ending despite so much pain.”

“I feel I have no right to live a happy life.”

For Konori, Ouka was a pure and innocent flower that filled her life with emotions she had never known in her childhood. She was a pure and gentle heart that illuminated every corner of the darkness she had so much trouble leaving behind. Many times, he wondered how Minato Ichinose had made it out and Konori believed the solution had been friendships and love.

Her gaze wandered to the couple who would eventually get married, only no one knew why they were taking so long. Perhaps they wanted to build their careers further or live together for a long time to prepare for what lay ahead. Mano was blissfully smiling while Minato followed her dancing lead.

“I know what you're thinking, Konori. It wasn't as easy for Minato as you think.”

“But then... how is he able to look forward without thinking about... all that?”

Konori Kawada never had any real friends. Neither before nor after the seeds of darkness incident. In the beginning, she was a girl who devoted herself to studying because it was what she had to do, her only responsibility. She went to class just to pay attention and do her homework, never making deep friendships. She only believed that her only purpose in life was to study, get into a good university and get a good job, but, seeing that her performance was not adequate when that mysterious man appeared, she believed that her life would change forever in a positive way.

Ouka knew very well what happened after the incident: the affected children became a focus of attention.

The media would not leave them alone, scientists wanted data from the seed and to analyze its properties, electronic engineers the same way only for different purposes. They had all forgotten that Minato Ichinose had been the initial seed carrier of the Arcadia Project failure and that theirs were mere copies. However, there were many, many copies with different developments, the queen bee, so to speak, was not developed until the end. Of course, the most harassed ended up being Konori for having those seeds bloom into a flower of despair.

She became an isolated flower that went nowhere. She felt she didn't deserve anything, not even the second chance the Original Chosen Ones granted her. It caused her disgust and pain to see others living their ordinary lives, such as Kaede Tsuruwa who was now Hinari's right-hand woman as her official bread supplier.

“You're thinking again that you have no right to be happy. I know that because I can read your face.”

Ouka hit the target when Konori pressed her grip harder to say her last words of the night before everything went crazy with Masaru Motoori's fantastic witticisms.

“It's hard to get that right. Everyone has it but me.”

The meeting between both girls had definitely been unusual.

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«Everyone has a right to pursue a happy life. The difficult part is to fulfil that right.»

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Years ago, when she was in high school, Knori wanted to know what love was like.

She thought that imitating patterns she saw in her classmates would be ideal, except she didn't count that she would develop a kind of stalker disorder toward Masaru Motoori, the person she admired. The boy pulled her out of her locked room when he found out she wasn't attending classes in elementary school and caused her to graduate and move on to the next level of compulsory education.

However, there was something that didn't fit with how she felt. She did not consider herself sincere.

Even so, Masaru, after so much trouble, decided to accept her confession and go out as an official couple.

That didn’t last long.

Konori was very dependent on Masaru, so much so that, if he was not there, her reason for existing ceased.

Couldn't she have a happy life?

“You're not going to be an isolated flower all your life, are you?” Masaru said to her one day.

“What do you mean?”

“You have to live life, open up your world a little more. I dread to think that one day I won't find you if I'm not there.”

And yes she was right because when his disappearance, along with that of Kotoha, Mano and Minato was announced, Konori almost took her own life in despair and was hospitalized for her mental health during the events of 2005.

When Masaru woke up and found out everything that had transpired, as well as confessing to Riku the reason why the four of them alone decided to go against that Arcadia Remnant, Masaru brought red spider lilies to Konori.

Masaru definitely chose the worst flowers for the final farewell between them.

“He has no finesse," said Mano when she came in later in the afternoon and looked at the vase.

Ouka was with her and sat down, keeping silent.

When Mano left, Konori started to cry non-stop.

But she didn't cry because she lost her first love. She cried because there was never love in the first place, and she couldn't fulfil her right to have a happy life like in fairy tales.

Although, she never took notice that Ouka had accompanied her in her sadness by not leaving with her friend and her presence going unnoticed in her silence.

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«Everyone has a right to pursue a happy life. The difficult part is to work out a compromise for that right.»

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Internet.

Maybe that was the answer.

Online friends.

Or maybe not.

Konori relied heavily on this circle of friends whom she believed were the ones who understood her the most when it came to feelings and mental problems. After all, each of them had some illness and supported each other.

However, they were hard to please and every time she made a mistake, she was cruelly judged as if they had never been friends.

One day, she was about to throw her cell phone into the ocean in Odaiba Bay, until a helping hand stopped her.

It was Ouka and Masaru.

Right. They were both in a relationship now, so Knori felt she couldn't trust anyone, although, there was no reason to hate either Ouka or Masaru. Thanks to her, he learned to be a little more gentle and less crude with words and expressions.

He apologized for the flowers from years ago and Ouka just hugged her.

At that moment, something welled up in her. The isolated flower that she was, was opening up in that warmth, and she didn't like that feeling. She wanted to break the world, to get rid of everything, to scream and kick for the injustice she felt had surrounded her all her life.

She knows she has a right to a happy life, yet she was unable to compromise for that right through her actions.

The toxic relationship with people whose faces she had never seen before was getting worse. You see, Knori had started writing a story, Shinobu recommended it to her as therapy. One of her online friends was a writer as well.

It got to a certain point where the two of them were talking more about their creations, the toxic relationship almost disappearing until she was accused of saying something she spoke without thinking. Noriko said something she shouldn't have said. And that person left her overnight. Like dawn that doesn't warn the night it's coming.

Where were those years of friendship they had? The conversations? The mutual support? For apparently saying something was enough to throw you out of their life like garbage as if none of it mattered, then, Konori meditated: Are my feelings not valid?

“Yes they are, and we are here to prove you otherwise," Ouka told her one day when she invited her for ice cream when she didn't see her well. “Your feelings are as valid as anyone else's. They don't have the right to trample on you. They have no right to walk all over you like that. We are here for you.”

“Ouka-san…”

That's when she noticed that Masaru wasn't at the table, sitting next to her.

“Ah, if you're wondering about Masaru, we broke up a few days ago. Don't worry, we ended up as good friends. I realized that he wasn't what I was looking for. That there was no love there other than his and not mine. But since he was so sad, I recommended that he should accompany Shinobu to France, who is going to visit his grandfather. Maybe a change of scenery would do him some good.”

Konori's heart shrank, she began to sweat and her hands were shaking.

Ouka felt the same as her, and her words lifted her out of her own abyss.

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«That's because I'm gonna become much much more happy from now on.»

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“Now that I think about it, we are interesting cupids," Oukasaid when she returned to the table after getting something to drink. “I saw that the line to greet them has gone down. Shall we go?”

Konori let Ouka hold her hand. It felt good. It felt right.

Her pure innocence had saved her before and she wanted to thank her. But she didn't know how.

When they made it to the bride and groom, Masaru hugged them both very tightly, both feeling the implied pain and the deep friendship that would remain there.

“Konori, Ouka, if it wasn't for you two this wouldn't be happening," he said cheerfully in his white tuxedo.

“Masacchi never stops talking to me about you two as if you were his guardian angels” added Alouette, smiling in her pearly wedding dress.

“It's true! If Ouka hadn't thrown me on that plane with stupid Shinobu I would never be here by your side! And if I hadn't met Konori either!”

“But how did I help...?” the girl was confused.

Ouka winked at her.

“You taught me not to give up, to be strong and not to isolate myself in the face of pain. To be strong and seek my own happiness.”

“But I don't…”

“I think your happiness is closer than you think,” Alouette gave a small laugh. “Ah, here comes my parents. Remember Masaru, what I taught you.”

“Yes, yes, French, even if it’s just a little bit.”

That's when his eyes met the joined hands of both girls.

“Let's go back to the table,” Ouka took her away.

Konori just pondered what she had been told. She knew that this was not an unusual encounter anymore. That all this was fated to happen. That's why she said it once they sat at the table when Ouka was wondering how much longer could Mano stand the high-heels because she kept dancing and thought if she should go save Shinobu.

“What did you say?” Apparently, Konori had said something while she mused, making the brunette blink in surprise.

“Ouka-san, I want to be happy. With you.”

“Konori…”

The fleeting flower held her hand again, except that a different meaning could be felt.

“I will become much happier from now on because you were always there in my worst moments. I have the right to be happy, and I want to be happy by your side. Since I was a child... I never felt that being with Masaru was right, but... but with you... when you said after breaking up with him the feelings that were born in you... they were so similar to mine at that time. Excuse me if I'm getting ahead of myself, for starters, I don't even know if you…”

“You’re such an overthinker, Konori.”

Ouka Kouzaki kissed the tip of the girl’s index finger.

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«I'm not gonna compromise with just this. We are gonna take back all of our happiness that we lost..»

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Konori Kawada knew very well that Ouka had lost part of her happiness as well. Therefore, when they started living together, she dedicated herself to making up for all that lost time so that both of them could heal. Ouka and her post-traumatic stress from Riku's near death, and hers.

The house was identical to their neighbours' down to the shade of paint on the iron balconies, but everyone knew which one they lived in right away. While every other dwelling was simply the imposing black brick, theirs was a whirlwind of flowers in every shade. Along the rail hung boxes and underneath were hanging baskets. Cherry blossoms were a favourite of both of them and they grew them even though they would not grow as a tree.

Being so open with each other, this emotional vulnerability was difficult enough at first with themselves, but there was mutual trust. They were the only ones in each other's hearts and souls.

Ouka closed a book she was reading in the courtyard, only to turn to Konori who was watering the cherry blossoms.

“I'll stay as long as you love me and not a day longer because even if I still love you, it has to go both ways. So, even if you don't feel alive without you, even if you've become the air I breathe... I think Shinobu's poetry has rubbed off on me, but, what I'm getting at is…”

Ouka knelt down, pulling out a ring.

“Konori Kawada, will you marry me?”

At that precise moment, she knew that happiness really did exist and she had every right to obtain it and share it next to Ouka.

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«For me, that's about a hundred years' worth. For you, a thousand year's worth.»

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Sakurako was looking at some photographs of long ago, from time to time throwing questions towards both girls.

“Why did you two adopt me…?” She asked one day, as the three of them lay in bed, watching a children's movie.

The answer was simple, and both gave it: because everyone deserves to be happy, and their happiness, which will be around a hundred; for their daughter will be worth a thousand in the future.

A gentle and kind heart that used to be an isolated flower, joined with a fleeting, pure and innocent one to create a world in which everyone can be loved with happiness in between. To be the beginning of a new stage, just as the cherry blossoms announce that spring has arrived.

This brief period served in their lives as a reminder to live with their best intentions, being aware of the gentle and ephemeral nature of life, for indeed it is brief. So they knew not to be selfish, and the answer they arrived at had to be shared.

A frame of a family of three illustrated that principle of the cherry tree by its brilliant short-lived blooming season

“For the power of love brings hope, but sometimes the steps towards love cause pain and those towards a life of loneliness are comfortable in their familiarity. We are born to love and with all the courage necessary to walk the path to it, no matter the roughness, no matter the hardship.”

Konori loved how deep Ouka was.

“That is what we have learned and we want to teach you. Your happiness is worth more than ours now," the caramel-haired woman added.

With true love, you feel that the other is the reason why your life is beautiful. It's when you are lost in those eyes, those thoughts and you think about them all the time. Loving someone is the best because when you feel sad and you talk to that person, and all they say is, "Everything will be okay; I'm right next to you."

That was Ouka to Konori.

That was Konori to Hikari.

No matter how much they were saddened, their happiness would not go away, realizing how meaningful their presence was to each other.

Two flowers blooming either in an eternal or transient spring.