Chapter Text
There was a flower shop.
It was a nice, little place, wedged in between two large buildings. Its insides always looked homely and sweet – the flowers seemed to burst from every corner of it.
Kiku always looked at it whenever he passed by.
It was such a sweet little place, overflowing with flowers. It reminded him of his summers spent in Okinawa.
Ah.
Shaking his head, the young man hurried along the street. He didn't want to be late for work. He never was late to work, but he knew that if he stood at that corner reminiscing about a childhood gone by, he would be standing there forever.
The work in a hospital never stops. You have to run from one corner of the wing to the other, all the while helping people who need you the most. By the time he was finished with work, he was exhausted beyond belief.
On his way home from work, the flower shop would be closed, the blinds would be drawn and all those lovely flowers he saw when he was coming in would be gone.
Still, when he got home that night he couldn't stop thinking about that flower shop and about that small village in Okinawa.
He was woken up from his thoughts by his phone ringing. Looking down, Kiku answered it, as he went to sit down by his table.
“Ah. Mom – I didn’t expect you to call.”
His mother’s replies were only soft sobs.
The next day he was on his plane to Okinawa.
Kiku was an only child. He was born into a family of hard workers – his mother worked as a teacher her whole life and his father worked in a company. They gave everything they earned into his education, but every summer, Kiku would go and stay at his grandmother’s place in Okinawa.
Those were always the very best days of the year.
He loved his parents, of course, he did, but he always knew that he was their project. But his grandmother never treated him like one. She was kind, welcoming, and would let him scrape his knees and go out playing.
She was the one that introduced him to her.
She lived a few houses away from his and her Japanese was very weak when he met her. She wasn’t Japanese, not really – her father was Chinese and they lived in Taiwan, but she would come every summer to Okinawa to spend time with her late mother’s parents.
She was everything Kiku was not.
As he settled in his plane seat, Kiku tried to remember how she looked like. They hadn’t seen each other in ten years now… She must have finished university by now. After all, she was just two and a half years younger than him. She was slender and short, with hair that went almost all the way to her waist.
Hui Fang really grew up to be a pretty girl.
Once his plane landed, Kiku rented a car to drive to his grandmother’s village. His mother was already there, nursing his… dying grandmother. She told him that she doesn’t have much time left and that her dying wish was to see her lovely grandson.
So, he drove there, remembering how he used to drive here as a child, sitting in his neighbor’s car with his grandmother holding his backpack so he could lean to the window and watch the scenery pass him by.
It was odd – being back here.
As he pulled up, he glanced back to the house where she used to stay in. The windows were open so… ah, he didn’t come here for her.
His mother came out of the house when he got out of the car. The woman that was never much for physical affection hurried over to him and hugged him tightly.
The room his grandmother was in was open and she was laying there, propped up on many pillows, making her look even smaller than she really was.
The old lady turned her head to look over to him, before smiling. “Ahh… If it isn’t my lovely grandson? Look – you’re all handsome now.”
Kiku swallowed a chuckle and went to sit down next to her bedside. “Hello.” He reached out and took her hand. “How are you doing, grandma?”
“Well, I’ve had better days.” The woman chuckled and patted his hand. “But seeing you makes me feel a lot better.”
Kiku smiled softly at the old woman and rubbed her hand.
“Now, now, I want to know all about your life. When are you bringing me a daughter-in-law? Hm? I always hoped it would be that dear girl from down the street…”
Kiku choked up in surprise, a nervous laugh escaping him as he looked to the side. “Grandma, no, I – I am very busy in the hospital.”
“Ah. Don’t be like your mother, my dear boy.” The woman said softly, watching her grandson with so much love that Kiku’s heart squeezed in his chest. “Work is great, and I am so proud of you, but love? Oh, we live for love. You know how much I loved your grandpa?”
Kiku smiled and tilted his head. “I never heard how you two met, grandma.”
“Us?” She laughed, and Kiku could see that she was looking somewhere, somewhere so far away, someplace where he could have never been. “We met at the beach, my boy. He came here with his family and well – he never left. He stayed here with me, left his banking job… He learned how to fish, built this house with my father… We raised your mother here, watched her stumble and grow.” She smiled and squeezed Kiku’s hand tightly. “My darling husband. Oh, he loved you too, so much – you know he did. He said that every summer you came here, watching you run around and be such a happy child… he said he wished we had enough money to have more kids. More darling boys like you and beautiful girls like your mother. But, you will have your kids and you will know how they get-“
Kiku smiled, watching her talk. He noticed she got tired with her talk and as if on cue, his mother stepped in, asking if the older woman would like some tea. In the end, Kiku volunteered to go and make the tea for his grandmother, but by the time he brought it up, the old lady was asleep.
His mother told him to leave it by her bedside, and the two went downstairs. His mother looked exhausted, yet she reached out to him, hugging her son tightly.
Kiku didn’t know what to do except that he should hold her back.
In the evening, he was going through some pictures. His mother was close to him, watching old pictures of her then young parents, her small self, and in the end pictures of her little boy.
“Oh, isn’t that little girl that old friend of yours? Ah, what was her name again? Hu..”
“Hui Fang.” Kiku quietly replied while looking at the picture of the two of them in this same living room. Her and her wide smile with him looking embarrassed to be on the picture.
“That’s right. What a sweet girl. Whatever happened with the two of you? Didn’t you two do that ah…”
“Pass it on diary.” He finished up her sentence, nodding. “I suggested it. She wanted to work on her written Japanese so we shared a diary. She would write in it for half a year, and then mail it to me.”
“That’s it! What a good girl. She lived in Taiwan, didn’t she?”
Kiku nodded and turned a page, seeing the last picture there. It was a picture of his grandparents, now old and grey, with him and her at the summer festival. Ah.
“Why did you two stop writing in it? I remember you always made sure to pick a pretty notebook because you knew how picky she could be.”
Kiku smiled weakly, despite not wanting to.
He was seventeen then and she was just about to turn fifteen. It would be her job to get a new notebook, and yet… on the last page, he confessed. He told her he likes her.
He remembered being that nervous teenager, staring at that final blank page. He remembered wiping it a few times because his handwriting was shaky. He didn’t want it to be shaky and look stupid.
He never received a reply.
That summer he was too embarrassed to go there. And the summer after that, he was working on his university applications. After that, grandpa died so his grandma was staying with them that summer.
He didn’t see her since then.
She must have really disliked him.
The next day, he helped his grandmother in a wheelchair and pushed her along the coast. The old lady was quiet, just enjoying the summer breeze.
As they walked, they ran into a familiar face.
Hui Fang’s grandfather.
“My, my-“ The old man spoke, in surprise. “Could it be our young Kiku, all grown up?” He said after greeting his grandmother warmly.
Kiku nodded and bowed his head slightly in respect. “Mister Saito. It is very nice to see you again.”
“Oh, it is so good to see you too- it’s been so long, hasn’t it? Tell me, how come you stopped visiting all of us? I thought you really enjoyed it. My darling girl always wondered why you never came around.”
Kiku was a bit surprised with that. Here he thought… ah, maybe the man was just being polite.
“Now, now, my dear Asahi – you know that my grandson was in the best university for medicine! Learning how to save lives, no less. Now he works in the best hospital in Tokyo! But he made time to see his old grandma.” His grandmother turned to gently pat her grandson’s hand, before looking back at the old man.
The man chuckled, shaking his head. “Yes, yes, must have slipped my mind. How long will you be staying, dear boy?”
“For two more days, I think. Most likely, yes.”
The man nodded slowly, before smiling to the two. “Well, I don’t want to keep you. And there’s a call I have to make.”
After the man left, Kiku leaned down to ask his grandmother something that weighed on him. “… Hui Fang kept coming here?”
His grandmother looked confused before sighing. “You know, I always asked you to come. Even just for a weekend.”
Kiku sighed before getting up and going back to pushing her along the coast.
“After all, that girl had something she wanted to give you in person.”