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A sheet of pure white covers the ground coating the grass with inches of snow. The buildings on either side of the street have frost covering the windows, hiding the closed curtains behind a misty sheen. The windows of all the shops are showing the “CLOSED” sign that usually happens this time every year.
Riko shivers as she grips the handle of her shovel, continuing to dig a path from the door to her shop to the pavement outside. A light spray flies up with every dig of her shovel, covering her coat in small white flakes.
She reaches the pavement a few seconds later, standing up straight as the last shovel of snow is tossed to the side. The street is fairly busy, considering it’s Christmas morning, with a few people walking around, the majority of which are couples.
A particularly cold gust of wind blows past, causing her entire body to shiver. I should get inside. She starts to walk back toward the building behind her, looking at the partially covered name of Sakura Uchi. She opens the door, the closed sign swinging slightly. The warmth of the inside hits her and she quickly steps inside, kicking her boots against the wall next to the door to dislodge any snow that might be lingering there.
“Excuse me… there’s no chance I can come in is there?” A voice calls out from behind her, just before she has a chance to shut the door. She looks back to see a woman standing there in just a pair of blue jean shorts and a white short-sleeved shirt. Her hair is an ashen grey and comes down to her shoulders, but the thing that intrigues Riko the most is the bright blue eyes that the girl has.
“Why don’t you have a coat?” Riko’s eyebrows furrow as she watches the girl. She sure is a strange one. “You’ll freeze to death in this weather.”
“I lost it,” The ashen-haired girl calls back.
“Come in quick.” Riko opens the door wider, allowing the girl to enter. Once the strange girl is inside, Riko quickly closes the door. “Is there anything I can get you? I have some tea if you want it, or a spare coat?”
“No thank you… I’m already warming up.” The girl looks around the storefront.
The two of them are standing in a small but cluttered room. Flowers in vases line the walls of the room on tiered stands, the mix of colours ranging from pink and purple to blue and yellow making a beautiful swirl that easily draws one’s attention. At the end of the store is a small counter that is covered in pictures of small Sakura blossoms. A small electrical heater sits in the centre of the room, it’s warmth able to be felt throughout the room.
“So, why were you in the middle of the street in that dress?” Riko starts tending to the flowers on the stands, adjusting them where she feels necessary.
“Well… My other diving club members and I decided to spend the morning together, however, I ended up finding that the warmer clothes that I have are all in the wash, so I decided to risk just going out like this with my coat on.” She looks down at the clothes she’s wearing with a sheepish expression on her face. “And… well, I lost my coat while we were out so I ended up having to try and get home like this.”
“You must be freezing out there.” Riko looks back at the other girl, looking her up and down. “Come with me, you can borrow some of my clothes.” She walks toward a door out of the room that’s hidden behind the counter, taking this new girl’s hand and leading her as she does. “I’m Sakurauchi Riko, by the way.”
“You don’t have to give me anything… but it would be appreciated.” The girl gingerly looks around as they pass into Riko’s living room. “And I’m Watanabe You.”
The two head up to the bedroom with Riko leading the way the entire time. “Okay, just sit down on the bed, I’ll get some clothes for you.” She points to her bed before turning towards her closet.
Her bedroom is a small one, with a double bed taking up most of the space in the room. The large oak wood closet stands in one corner, next to a small window that looks out behind the building and onto the small playground of the nearby school. The walls are decorated and hung with beautifully drawn paintings of differently flowery meadows and other amazing sites of nature.
“How’s this?” Riko brings out a pair of dark blue jeans and a long-sleeved light blue top. “I can get you a jacket as well if you want.”
“They’re better than what I have at the moment, so I’ll take anything.” The girl stands up from the bed before reaching down and lifting her shirt over her head.
Riko immediately freezes up, unable to look away despite every sense of reason telling her to do so. Did she… She can feel her cheeks start to buzz as she can’t help but start at the girl’s chest that seems slightly larger than her own, and the defined muscles that she has on her stomach. “Um… wh-what are you doing?
“I’m getting changed?” You looks at her as if the situation is completely normal.
“Usually people wait until they’re alone in a room to start undressing.” Riko can feel her cheeks burning up, but she manages to avert her gaze. “H-Here… you take these and I’ll… leave you to it.”
“We’re both girls, what does it matter?” You’s voice makes her a little unsure if she’s going to have an excuse to leave, however, Riko feels the items being taken from her outstretched hands. “I’ll let you know when I’m done though.”
Riko lets out a small sigh of relief as she hears a belt being unbuckled and the sliding of fabric against skin. She can’t help but flick her eyes back towards You. The girl is currently standing there in just her underwear facing away from the store owner, allowing Riko to see her butt and long smooth legs. I need to get out of here… She quickly heads towards the door, closing it behind her and collapsing back against it. How can someone be okay with just undressing in front of someone? Does she not feel embarrassed? Riko takes a deep breath, however, she can’t remove the mental picture of the girl in her underwear from her mind. And what is wrong with me? I’m never usually like this.
The sounds of the door opening behind her shake Riko from her thoughts and she pushes herself to her feet, turning around to see what You needs. You’s now dressed in the clothes she’d provided.
They seem to fit her perfectly, the sleeves not coming too short and the jeans reaching her feet. However, there’s something different about seeing them on this other girl. She looks incredibly beautiful.
“Thank you for the clothes, they fit amazingly well.” You looks at herself again. “You said you had a jacket spare as well?”
“Yes… I did.” Riko takes a deep breath to compose herself. “I have them back in the bedroom.” You steps aside to let the red-haired girl back into the room.
Riko heads back over to her closet and starts looking through the jackets she has hanging up. She ends up picking out a soft pink cardigan that she loves to wear herself. I wonder what she’d look like with this on. “Here.”
“Thank you for being so kind.” Without warning, she throws her arms around Riko. “It was so cold out there before.”
Riko can feel her pulse beginning to race at the contact. What is wrong with this girl? She’s making me feel… so… She finds her lips starting to smile. “Watanabe-san… would you like a job?”
The girl looks up at her with a curious expression on her face. “Huh?”
“Well… I could really use a little more help around the store.” Riko breaks their embrace to look You in the eyes. “Of course you don’t have to, I just thought it might be nice to have some company.”
“I um… yes… of course I want to.” You’s cheeks darken a little, her face looking away. “I’m just curious why you’d let a random person work for you without checking an application or anything.”
“I don’t really bother with things like that. I’d be much happier with someone I can get on with and who has the ability to learn than someone I don’t know who they are, but they’re very skilled.” Riko hands You the cardigan and steps towards the door. “Do you want a quick tour of the place?”
“I um… sure.” The girl’s face is a mix of confusion and surprise, but she quickly follows after Riko.
“Okay, so you’ll probably only come upstairs if you need to use the bathroom, which is through that door.” She points to one across the hall from them. “You’re welcome to use the shower as well, as long as I’m not in there.”
The two go downstairs to the living room. “Through that door we have the store cupboard for general things, you’ll learn that later.” She points to another door. “But this is the basic staff room of the place. The computer over there is used for general tasks, drinks can be found in the kitchen section and I’ll make the lunches so you don’t need to worry about food.”
“Okay… I think I have most of that.”
“Right, so through this door is the main store room. It mostly just has the excess flowers that we don’t have space for out front, but every morning we’ll need to move things from in here to out there to replenish stock.” Riko opens the door for You to look into something that looks more than a greenhouse than an actual room of a house. The roof is entirely filled with glass, and more glass comes down the walls to waist height. “I think the only thing now is to look at the storefront.”
The two of them walk out to the front. “So, obviously you’ve seen this before, however, this is where we’ll be spending most of our time.” She goes out and picks up a light blue Hydrangea from one of the shelves. “The flowers are organised to try and keep flowers of the same colour as close together as possible. If you see customers moving them for some reason then, once they leave, we just have to move them back.”
“Okay… that seems pretty simple.” You nods her head and looks around the flowers. “I won’t be able to work every day… but I could come in at the weekends and on Mondays.”
“Okay, we open at eight-thirty every day, so if you can be here for seven thirty to make sure we can set up. We close at four thirty and I usually work till six, but you’ll be free to leave at four.” Riko spins the flower in her hands as she talks. “We’ll deal with payment at a later date for now as it would probably be a little awkward to set up now.”
“I still can’t believe you’re offering me this…” You looks around the shop with amazement.
“I hope you don’t disappoint.” Riko smiles and steps closer to You. “Here, you can have this.” She holds out the Hydrangea towards You. “Think of it as a welcome aboard present.”
You reaches out and accepts the flower. “Th-Thank you…”
“Oh… and I have one more thing…” Riko takes a deep breath before taking another step closer, closing the distance between them almost completely. “You can think of this as me just confirming something…” She reaches her hand out towards You’s cheek, cupping it, before leaning forward and pressing her lips up against You’s.