Chapter Text
“Ahh, nice, the vegetables we got are fresh!” Umemiya held up the bag of fresh veggies, “Kotoha is going to love this!” He squealed, his hands spread out to ‘flex’ his bought ingredients.
“Should we go to Pothos or her house? I'm sure the cafe's closed now.” Tsubaki asked, a finger on his chin as he thought about it for a while.
“Let's go to Pothos, I told her to wait until we arrive so I can give these to her!”, Umemiya replied.
“Alright. Pothos it is.” Tsubaki answered back with a smile, the two boys continued to walk down the path,
until they reached Pothos.
ting!
The wind chimes clicked against the door's edge, prompting that someone had entered, Kotoha, and Sakura came into view.
“Oh! Sakura? you're here?” Umemiya’s voice was somehow a pitch higher calling Sakura's name, however was cut off when Tsubaki shoved Umemiya aside.
“Sakura-chan!!” Tsubaki closed the distance and gave Sakura a tight embrace, the dual-colour haired boy couldn't even say a word.
“Hey hey! don't get too loud now. It's night, the neighbours might complain.” Kotoha added between Sakura's muffled attempts of getting Tsubaki's attention with a repeated slap to his shoulder.
“pwah!” Sakura gasped when Tsubaki let go,
“Ne.. Sakura, why are you here?” Umemiya asked as he gave Kotoha the bag of ingredients, but later looked in front to Sakura's plate of the supposed rice omelette that was finished.
“Ah! You're eating dinner, right? it's good that you came here but is rice omelette really enough?” Umemiya walked over to where Sakura and Tsubaki were.
“It—”, “It's nothing. You brought the veggies, right? Now go home, Sakura and I are having an important talk and you interrupted it.” Kotoha cut Sakura off and pointed a cucumber towards Umemiya, her eyes narrow with a glare.
“Huh? why—”, “Why what's wrong? Are you okay?” Tsubaki held Sakura's face with both hands and lifted it up to check,
“Sakura—”, “I'm fine! Dammit.” Sakura slapped Tsubaki's hands away, the sound clear to ears, yet— Tsubaki felt no pain.
“Sa—”, “Umemiya.” Kotoha’s voice called out, cutting Tsubaki off. “Can I talk to you for a sec? Tsubaki can talk to Sakura in the meantime.”
(poor ume, keeps getting cut off lol)
Sakura's eyes widened as he looked at Kotoha with unusual eyes.
“Sure.” Umemiya replied with a slight change of tone, both walked out, leaving the other two alone.
“Sakura-chan… How have you been?” Tsubaki sat beside Sakura, his voice softening to make the other boy at ease.
Yet he did not answer, his head low and his hair blocking his face from Tsubaki's view,
“Sakura-chan… “ Tsubaki held out his hand to move the stray hairs that blocked Sakura's eyes.
“I’m sorry..” Sakura whispered, his voice airy as he lowered his head deeper, “Im— fuck, Im so damn childish, I’m sorry I avoided you guys.” he added.
“Dont say that! You have every right to!” Tsubaki leaned in closer, wrapping an arm around Sakura, “If you're not ready, we won't force you to!”
Tsubaki held Sakura's face, and softly moved it to look at him. “Sakura-chan.. I know you're dealing with… what had happened these past few months, and that's fine! And if anything,
— ugh, it's Suo's fault.” Tsubaki pouted when he said Suo's name, in an attempt to humor the boy in front of him.
Although… “Sakura-chan. All I— we, want to know, is if you're okay.” Tsubaki smiled, Sakuras eyes started the glisten as he teared up.
Well, that was all it took for Sakura to break down, and Tsubaki didn't let go.
“That fucker! hic— He just comes back, like nothing happened!” Sakura gripped the arms that were holding him in a hug. “And he has the guts to smile at me and walk away! He doesn't even talk to me! He talks to Nirei! Nirei!”
Tsubaki patted his back, “Tsk, that bitch.” He whispered. “A..-and when I — hic , Fuck! and when I try to be along with him— to talk, he walks away!” the boy buried his head against Tsubaki's shoulder, crying harder.
The wind chimes sounded with a cling as both Umemiya and Kotoha went in with a slight panic. “Sakura!” the two called out, Umemiya going ahead.
“Is he—”, Tsubakino shot Umemiya a glare as he still patted Sakura's head. Umemiya later put his hand on Sakura's back.
The three watched in silence as Sakura cried, complained, and wailed his heart out.
and when he stopped, that's when they talked,
“Sakura, here.” He turned his head to see Kotoha handing out a tissue, in which he did take. Umemiya’s hands did not leave his back, instead, it either circled a spot, patted or caressed him.
“Sakura-chan, Can you go to school tomorrow? I'm very sure that the school is worried about you.” Tsubaki tilted his head as he reached out to hold Sakura's hands.
“Hes right, Sakura. We understand your situation but,” Umemiya sighed softly, “You've been going in and out of school, and now you haven't gone to school in the past 4 days. They think you're sick or worse, y’know?”
Umemiya patted Sakura's back once again, “Momijikawa's worried, Nirei too, and no doubt….” Suo too. “That everyone is too.” Umemiya smiled,
“And, the party for Suo's return is near, if you don't show up, I'm sure everyone is going to have a bad mood.”
Both Kotoha and Tsubaki looked at Umemiya with a sharp glare, “W-what? did I—” “Yes, yes you did.”, “You could've made the wording different. Ume.”
Sakura looked away, head down as he started to look sad, “Ack! I-im sorry Sakura!” Umemiya panicked. “I swear, I swear I didn't mean it like that!! I just— Ugh! I'm sorry! Please ignore what I just said! I'm really sorry!!”
“It's okay. I suppose you are right.” Sakura spoke out, and Umemiya panicked more, “No! No. I am not right— Please please don't think that.”
Umemiya looked at the other two for help, in the end, Tsubaki sighed, “Sakura-chan, let's ignore the very noisy man, alright? But I really want to see you tomorrow, can you do that?”
Sakura looked up, and seeing Tsubaki's expecting face, as well as Umemiya’s and Kotoha's, he did not refuse.
..”Okay.” Sakura mumbled, the other three smiled in unison. “Sakura-chan, how about I pick you up from the entrance, huh? You can stay with me for the whole day!” , “Huh? but doesnt he have clas—”,
“Yeah! with me too!” Umemiya smiled with a thumbs-up and a bloody nose.
“Ha.. now that's settled, why don't you guys go home huh? It's almost midnight.” Kotoha chimed in, taking off her apron and slowly closing the lights one by one.
“Ah, right.” Tsubaki replied, and looked at Sakura once again. “Sakura-chan, let's see each other tomorrow, okay?” He smiled.
Sakura nodded softly and hummed. “Mhm.”