Forever Blossoms

I held our gifts while she unlocked the gate and walked to her front door. I didn’t feel the need to hesitate on taking my first steps, since I didn’t want to keep her waiting. Her front yard hadn’t changed since I first saw it, but it was still beautiful nonetheless.

She opened the door with her key and ushered me inside. The lights turned on and illuminated the interior of the house.

Despite being empty, she announced her arrival with an excited, "Tadaima!"

Nerves finally filled my entire body, my muscles tensed as I gripped the handles of the Christmas bag. I felt the need to request a pardon, even though there was no one to give it.
"S-Sorry for the intrusion…" I said softly.

"What do you think?"

She left an opening for me to say something like, "This place is amazing!" I almost did, but I decided to take the opportunity to stray away from the norm to relax myself.
"I don’t think I could ever be stressed if I lived in a house like this."

"It gets old after the first week of staying here. Fufu."

I was glad she knew where I was headed. I took off my shoes while she got us slippers. She turned on the lights to the living room, and sure enough, life was brought back to the house.

I set the items by the couch and requested to use her bathroom to wash my hands and rinse my mouth, also to calm myself down. When I returned, they were gone.

I called out, "Rossi-chan?"

"Up here!"

I followed her voice back to the hallway and saw her coming down from the second floor.

"My bedroom is to the left. Feel free to head up there while I get some drinks. Tea?"

"U-Uh, yeah, thank you."
I placed my foot on the first step, and took a deep breath.
C’mon now, there’s no point overthinkin’ this. She trusts me enough to invite me without her parents here. Of course I’m not goin’ to do anythin’ weird, so why bother thinkin’ about it?

Upon entering her room, I felt like I had entered an entirely different house: It was massive. I couldn’t confidently say what color the walls were, because of the amount of decorations and awards that sheeted over them. Her television, drawers, closet, bed, and bookcases all managed to fit in the room with space to spare. She had bean bags and a kotatsu in the center of the area, where our gifts were placed.

For a split second, I was jealous, but then I realized she wasn’t given these items, she earned them through her struggles in studies. Something I never had, luckily. My ignorant feeling dissipated.

"You’re the first boy ever in my room. The first girl, excluding me of course, was Hanamaru-chan. Should I tell her you’re here?"

"You know she’ll kill me, right?"

We shared a corner of the kotatsu and she powered it on. Her room’s flooring was wood, but she had cushions for us to sit on while underneath the table. Our respective gifts were by our sides and we drank the tea as we conversed.

"What color light do you want?"
She reached for her phone and began changing the lights of the room.
"What’s your favorite color?"

"Red. No relation."

"Fufu. How’d you know I was going to ask a follow up?"

"What’s yours?" I asked.

She didn’t give a verbal response, but changed the lights to a mint green.
"No relation...or maybe there is. Fufu."

The lights reverted back to white in order for our eyes to meet again, then she had all the colors fade within each other.

I gazed upon the twinkling shine on her face. The many colors that shone down from above made her brighter from my perspective – the only one that mattered. The light even reflected onto her lips, which lifted into a smile that captured my eyes.

Her voice was soft, as if she was in a library.
"Verano-kun?"

"Hmm?"

"M-May I…with your permission…call you by your first name?"
She brought the kotatsu’s blanket to shield her face. If we were in a cartoon, I’m certain she’d be steaming from embarrassment. Little did she know how perfect her request was to my following statement.

"I think now is a good time to open your present."

"E-Eeh? Now?"
She was caught off-guard.

"Yeah, please."
I picked up the Christmas bag, and handed it to her.

On the outside, I gave her an encouraging smile as she hesitantly opened the gift, but on the inside, I was tearing apart my mind like a paper shredder.
I hope she likes it. I hope she likes it. I hope she likes it!

Cold chills ran down my spine, and yet, I felt myself sweating up a sizzling river. I clenched my hands under the blanket and the warmth aided in my sweat. My breathing was short and quiet through my nose.

She placed her unlocked phone to my side and took her first peek into the bag. She’d see four different items inside, and became overwhelmed.

"O-Oh my… There’s so many?!" she squealed in a high pitched voice.

"Hehaha…"
I scratched the back of my head.
"Don’t worry, it’s all a single gift."

"I-I see."

She took out the four rectangular boxes and laid them out on the kotatsu’s tabletop. Before she picked one up to open, I hastily rearranged them into a specific order: Green, Yellow, Red, Blue.

She picked the grass-colored wrapping paper. It was a plain design, with small white dots scattered throughout the surface. After an interesting examination, she carefully undid the tape and unwrapped the item.

She's very delicate about it. I would’ve ripped the entire thing in one swoop. Guess that’s just how she is… Cute.

"W-W-Wow.. Is this a…wall painting?"

Indeed it was. The item was a wooden frame roughly eight inches wide and sixteen in length. The frame covered a painted canvas.

"Are these brown lines…branches?" she muttered. "They are! The way they go from the center to the right side makes me think this is the outer part of a singular painting! These green, white, and pink dots on the tips must be, leaves? No…cherry blossoms!"

"You're really gettin’ into this."
I hunched over and held my head in hands as I happily spectated her unboxing.

"So that means…"

She set down the first canvas with care and picked up the other three. They were unwrapped with the same cautious fashion as the first, and then lined up all the pieces as if they were parts of a puzzle.

The other three canvases also had gradient colors, with the green substituted for a sunlight yellow, ocean blue, and crimson red. Each canvas had the background colored dots along with the white and pink blossoms.

From right to left, green-yellow-red-blue, the four paintings formed one giant cherry blossom tree. The middle pieces formed a broad and thick trunk, with the branches extending to the outermost canvases.

Rossi-chan stood up and took a step back. Seeing the entire work of art, she cupped her hands over her mouth, and tears began to form.
"Th-This is so…lovely!" She exclaimed, unable to hold her excitement. "The gradient art represents the four seasons, I’m sure of it!"
She took a tiny leap into the air and shook her fists about happily.

I only watched as her innocent and sweet smile captivated my eyes. To me, that smile had made every worry I had in the world simply disappear.

"I call it the ‘Forever Blossoms’. Since…y’know…it spans all four seasons, so forever?"
Looking down, I saw her phone and sparked an idea.

"Dis is sho amaxing!!" she cried aloud. She was too happy to care about the way she spoke.

Thirty seconds should do it.
I secretly tapped her phone screen and sent a video to a certain little sister.
She’ll love it. I’m sure Rossi-chan will be ecstatic to find out I did this.
Before she could open her eyes, I returned her phone to its original spot.

"Sh-Sheriously, th-thank you so much for this…"
She twiddled the tips of her index fingers together and slowly looked up towards me.

"You should really thank Muku, she painted it. I just came up with the idea and made the frames. No big deal. Look at the back of the green one."

She did so, and read what I had written:

Like the tree at the center of the garden.
The minutes we shared with the green as our walls, I’ve seen your love for flowers and how you answer their calls. I couldn’t give you a butterfly weed, for that is what you want to be. Like the purity of a white lily, I humbly request you call me Kiyoshi.

In the blink of an eye, she went from her side of the kotatsu to nuzzling into my chest with her arms around me. My arms did the same, because I wanted to hear just how much she made my heart race.

"Ki-Kiyoshi...kun."

She cried, and I nearly did too.