Toumb-stones where flowers should be

"How come you suddenly wanted to join?" I asked, but he must've noticed from my tone that I wasn't actually waiting for an answer. Yamato was a good guy, but he was very spontaneous, so it wasn't too unexpected for him to join a club so randomly.

"Well, Fujiwara-senpai seemed interesting to me." He said regardless. "Oh, by the way, our teacher was looking for you! Oh no, I totally forgot about that!"

"Me?" I asked distractedly. I had a lot to think about, so I didn't pay much attention to him. The teacher had been giving me sad glances while in class, and I'd been successfully ignoring him. "I'll just go talk to him, then. Don't worry, I won't get you in trouble." I placed an assuring hand on his shoulder and got up to leave the classroom. Homeroom was yet to start, and Hikari didn't come today in the morning. It worried me, after what happened yesterday.

I made eye contact with Kobayashi once, and she was doing her best to avoid me.

"Teacher," I called out from outside the staff room.

"Ayato, you need to be more specific." Our PE teacher laughed. "Which one are you looking for?" Our homeroom teacher, Mr. Sato was an old man with more than twenty years of teaching experience. He had a bad hearing, so I dreaded talking to him about anything serious. He was a good teacher... but he always heard your answers wrong.

"He's from my class, so of course he's here for me." He got up slowly, taking his glasses out of his pocket and guided me outside the staff room door.

"Teacher, you were looking for me?" I asked quickly.

He started talking at his usual sluggish pace. "Yes, well you see, I wasn't quite sure about what to tell you... My condolences to your family. Ayato- I mean Saeko Ayato was quite a favorite student of mine, you see? I felt very heartbroken over her passing." That was true, he was at the funeral too.

"Thank you, teacher. I'm glad to know that." I nodded my head and he placed his right hand on my shoulder.

"Yesterday, when Takahashi asked to join the club, I was suddenly reminded of your sister... she was a very good kid. I haven't done anything for my students except for teaching them, it makes me feel guilty. Back then too, I should have interrupted... or at least done something. Now, I can only take charge of the literature club she left behind... though I'm glad there's a first-year joining now. I don't want that club to die out." He sighed and looked at me. "Sorry, sorry, I'm talking too much... Do you want to do something she didn't finish?"

I nodded again. "Please tell me anything, teacher. I miss her very much."

He told me about the small patch of land behind the building. It was there to plant flowers, but no one grew anything there. It was an empty piece of gardening land. The school gardening club, for some reason, did not bother planting flowers behind the building, after all, the only ones seeing them would be the rough and crude soccer club students.

Saeko had planted flowers there. She had said, "Well, it's a waste to leave it empty." and filled the piece with flowers. She used to take her friends with her and have lunch with them there.

As soon as the bell for lunch rang, I ran to Hikari's classroom. It was exciting... to tell him about our next little adventure. This time, I found the idea first.

"Souma? I was just about to go over there." He said with a bashful expression. Even someone like him would feel embarrassed after crying on someone's shoulder. It was... funny.

"I have to show you something." As soon as he walked outside the classroom, I grabbed his hand and started walking very fast to the little garden area. It didn't seem weird when I first did it, but holding hands had become a pretty normal thing. Now though, every time I had to have his attention, I would hold his hand and enjoy the sight of him shyly glancing at the hold.

"Think we can fix this up?" I proudly told him the whole story. And he agreed excitedly. "I don't know anything about gardening though." And he responded with, "Me neither." We blankly stared at the soil and then at each other. Ugh.

"Why not ask your class president? She's in the gardening club." Hikari asked.

"Absolutely not. How can you even suggest that?" I folded my arms stubbornly.

"You're more mad about it than I am. I don't even mind anymore, it's over. She's not a bad person, you said it yourself. She must have heard something weird about me." He said with a neutral expression as if I was getting upset over no reason. But well, he forced me to go on and talk to her. His reasoning: "If I wasn't involved, you'd still be friends with her, right? So, don't break that off because of me, she's still doing all the things you respected her for before."

"If someone lied like that about me, I'd never forgive them," I told him.

There's a saying, that opposites attract. I don't consider it to be some magical aspect of personalities, but rather a symbiotic relationship that people form. They cover each other's weaknesses and bring out the best outcomes for both their traits combined.

Where I was rigid and reasonable like my father, Hikari balanced it out with forgiveness and his carefree attitude. He forgave people so easily. And that made me think... Whoever he was, Yuki must've hurt him so much that even Hikari couldn't forgive him.

We both entered my classroom and cornered Kobayashi at her desk. She made a face as if we were going to beat her up and hid behind a notebook. She muttered, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Class prez, why are you acting like that? We're not loan sharks!" Hikari smiled, knowing that would make her uncomfortable. I decided to join him.

"You haven't done anything wrong, why are you sorry?" I suggested with a sarcastic remark. She shrieked out a high-pitched call for help and Yamato stood behind her, blocking her from all sides. "Kobayashi, don't be like that! Help us out with something!"

"I'll do it! I'll do it, now get away from me!" She spoke and we knew the job was done.

I was still sort of upset with what she did, but Hikari acted like he didn't care. He told her about what we wanted her help with, so she started digging her fingers in the soil and checking it. After she was done, I offered her my handkerchief, and she reluctantly took it. "It can be done. I suggest Morning Glory. They look pretty and are easy to grow."

"We used to grow them back then in elementary school..." Yamato said awkwardly.

"With your skills, that much should be good enough. It's not like you can take care of any difficult plants by yourself. If we plant Morning Glory, you'll just have to water them. And this area is perfectly shady for them." She explained. Hikari complained that she was making fun of us.

"Anything is fine. It just has to be flowers." I said.

"Can I ask why?" She hesitantly asked. Hikari went quiet, Yamato didn't know what to say. She was anyways expectantly looking at me. "You can't be suddenly interested in gardening..." She understood that much about me.

I was about to say 'personal reasons' and move on. But Hikari gave me a look as if warning me to be gentle with my response. And so I did. "The teacher told me that my sister had planted flowers here. I don't like how empty it looks, now that I know."

She didn't ask anymore and gave us a list of things to gather. She offered for us to use tools from the club, but we'd have to buy our own seeds and fertilizers. "Senpai will get mad at me if I add those things to our yearly budget without asking."

"It's alright, I can buy that much. I had expected we'd have to buy a lot more things, so you're doing us a favour." I told her. She nodded quietly and after a few seconds, returned to class. Yamato went back with her.

I sat down with my back against the wall and Hikari copied me. "So, a shopping trip now?"

"You'll come with me right?" I asked.

"Of course." He said and rested his head against my shoulder.

"Don't fall asleep like that." I scolded. He hummed and rested his full weight on me.