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“You have to spend money to make money! The key is to spend as little as possible, while raking in the maximum possible profit.”
Haru’s father said that to her a lot as a child, but she never truly understood it. She didn’t love money. She had felt a need for it.
What Haru did love was flowers, which taught her the lessons of money.
To grow flowers, you first have to spend a seed. Young Haru loved the images on the packets of the seeds, but, once she had planted the seeds contained within, the houseworkers would throw the packets away, making her cry. However, after a couple weeks of sadness over the loss of the pictures, she saw that the flowers had bloomed. She got to smell and touch the flowers, which was worth far more then a 2D image of them.
Thus, Young Haru had learned about the rules of exchange in her own, Haru way.
…
Haru had never intended to come out as gay to her father. Well, she was gay - and had a girlfriend - but she had made it to her final year of High School. She could just wait until college, live with her "roomate," and quietly let her sexuality fade into the background. It was a need-to-know basis and her father certainly didn’t need to know.
In spite of this, her sexuality became tabloid front-page news.
It was at a party her father dragged her to (meeting a potential male suitor, of course) that it all went down. A young, and very attractive, woman of Haru’s age was there and was flirting. With Haru. Coming on real strong. She complimented Haru’s beauty like a magnet poetry set and touched her shoulders so often that you’d think she was trying to knead them as one would a dough.
And so Haru, without thinking - “drunk off the atmosphere” as they say, replied with six words that would change the course of her life forever.
“Sorry, I already have a girlfriend.”
The woman smiled and apologized, so Haru smiled and said it was already. Everything was fine. I mean, sure, she said the thing she had never planned on admitting out loud out loud, but it was to another queer woman. It was fine.
She didn’t learn that the woman was a journalist until the next day.
She had fucked up.
Her father was surprisingly curt and straightforward about it: She could either deny the story and “prove” its accuracy through a heterosexual marriage… or she could leave.
Leave her house. Leave her family. Leave her security.
Leave everything that kept her trapped.
It was a surprisingly easy choice.
…
Haru had reasonable expectations for her visit with the school therapist, Dr Maruki. He’d look at her with sympathetic eyes, offer her some snacks, and then give her a brochure with shelters and maybe a trip to career planning, as she no longer was going to have her life planned out for her.
What she didn’t expect was for him to make a phone call and ask how she felt about sleeping in a bunk bed.
With Maruki’s help, she had moved out within a week.
…
The Yoshizawas were very nice to Haru. She hadn’t kept up with the school’s gossip, but she didn’t need background information to figure out why they were able to take her in. Sumire’s room had two dressers, two closets, two desks to study on, and one bunk bed. The house was full of photos that showed Sumire with someone who appeared to be a second Sumire. She didn’t want to ask about it.
For the first few weeks, Sumire proved herself to be remarkably mature for her age… but weirdly distant. Sumire was always polite to her. She’d take public transit with her, wash dishes with her after dinner, and would offer to share anything and everything with her - hairbrushes, cosmetics, books, toys, pencils, and clothes (even though both knew nothing Yoshizawa wore would even vaguely fit Haru). However, she was clearly, on some level, uncomfortable. Haru had slotted into someone else’s routine, not found her own.
And one day, when it was raining, Sumire offered her an umbrella and began to cry.
Their relationshp began to open up on the day Haru decided to cook the Yoshizawas’ dinner. It seemed like the least she could do, given all they do for her. Sumire walked in on her, surprised.
“I didn’t know you could cook.”
“Oh, well, I just picked up a thing or two from my grandmother. I’m not a professional or anything.”
“Well, you could have fooled me… Are... are those truffles?”
“Yeah! Oh, you’re okay with that, right? I know they’re an acquired taste.”
“They’re good when prepared correctly… I just... didn't know you could cook.”
"I have a lot of hobbies. Cooking, plant care... I did ballet for a while."
"Oh! Of course! Sorry for assuming; I just... was thinking of someone else." Sumire adjusted her glasses awkwardly, before walkeing away muttering to herself.
After that day, Sumire treated Haru as more of her own person. She stopped asking if she’d like to borrow her clothes and started discussing her hobbies. They became friends for real, and gradually, become family.
When Haru received the first communication from her father in months, it was a Cease and Desist telling her to stop using the name “Haru Okumura” on her social media, claiming it was damaging to the Okumura Foods brand. While Mr. Yoshizawa told her that she could fight this, she figured it wasn’t worth the time and changed her name to Haru Yoshizawa without a second thought. Sumire gave her a hug. They were happy.
Haru had planted a seed - she lost her family name - and, in exchange, a sistership had bloomed.
...
She also had gained… “The Phantom Thieves.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t like the so-called “Thieves.” Individually, they were all kind and could be great friends for her. However, their group dynamic was… tiring sometimes.
Since year one of high school, Haru had known that Kamoshida was an awful man and someone had to be the one to call him out on it. And, when a transfer student, Ren Amamiya, arrived, he did. He - alongside “fellow delinquent” Ryuji Sakamoto and one of Kamoshida’s victims, Ann Takamaki - collected evidence and testimony about Kamoshida’s abuses and, mysteriously, an unknown force (presenting as a cat mascot, Morgana) made every computer in Shujin only display the complete list of crimes, promising to keep it that way until Kamoshida was fired.
After a week, Kamoshida had announced both his confession and his resignation. He should have been fired (possibly out of a cannon), but Haru hoped his guilty conscious would be punishment enough.
After she had left her house, these "Phantom Thieves" appeared to her, offering their services, which she declined. She did, however, take their friendship. The “unknown force” revealed herself as a young hacktivist who had until recently been locked up her in room, Futaba Sakura, and the mascot revealed himself as the Ren's cat as redesigned by an artist on the internet (who, bizarrely, requested to be paid in lobster).
The leader lived in a cafe, where he would sometimes prepare food for his friends. He was kind, confident, and his coffee was delicious. After some convincing, he even taught Haru and Sumire the basics of making curry - “but only the basics, as otherwise boss would kill me.” They had fun together. Moreover, Haru liked to sneak the cat some fish while cooking, much to Morgana’s excitement.
Ann, as it turned out, loved chocolate. This may not seem like a good start to a friendship, but when Haru decides to try and learn how to make mochas… It works out for their mutual benefit.
Ryuji was a good workout partner, with Haru meeting him weekly to train (and, by extension, to help get out her aggression). Sometimes after training, Ryuji would take her out for ramen and ask her questions. “How did you know you were gay?,” “What is it like being gay?,” “Aren’t there some people who are attracted to multiple genders? Tell me about that!”. Haru would smile and respond politely, quietly wondering to herself if he’d have something to share with her in the near future.
Futaba, meanwhile, became the first person Haru had personally met who was openly queer.
“My name is Futaba and it’s so great to finally meet you! Frankly, I’m more queer then Rita Morido and Chloe Pirce combined.”
Not getting the reference(s?), Haru simply replied with “I’m Haru and I’m confused?”
Futaba proudly put her arms on her hips and informatively declared “You’re not confused Haru! People are born queer and that’s okay! Even if it takes you a long time to release it, it was still always there and you aren’t ‘confused.’ You should be proud of it.”
Haru smiled politely. “Thanks for the reminder, Futaba. I agree wholeheartedly.”
“Speaking of queer, you live with Sumire now, right? Is she single? And into women? Cute ginger gamers, in particular?”
At that, Haru just laughed.
In spite of the rocky start, Haru and Futaba clicked pretty quickly. After Haru made an off-handed comment about her childhood SNES, her and Ren quickly gave her an old model from a local thrift shop, which was set up in her shared room with Sumire.
She virtually exclusively uses it for Harvest Moon, but that just allowed for more bonding.
“Why are you romancing Nina?” Futaba declared. “Nina’s so boring! Ann’s cute and she’s an inventor.”
“No no no, Ellen gave you a dog!” Ren countered. “She’s perfect.”
Sumire looked up from her homework and simply chimed in with “I’m with Futaba. Smart girls are cute.”
Haru thought she could audibly hear Futaba’s brain break due to too much excitement.
It was nice to have friends. Plants bloom in bunches, after all.
…
When living with her father, she only really felt truly “free” when at school. So, it wasn’t exactly a surprise that she met her girlfriend at a school festival.
Makoto Nijima stood around with a clipboard, attempting (and failing) to ask passerbys about their school festival experience.
Haru knew of Makoto - of course; who didn’t - but had never had the pleasure of talking to her herself… and, hey, what is a better chance than a school festival? So, Haru walked up to Makoto and said “Hello!”
“Oh, uh, hi! Would you be willing to take a brief survey about your enjoyment of the festival today?”
“Certainly!” Haru replied. As Makoto began to awkwardly search through the papers to find the survey, Haru decided the polite thing to do was make small talk. “You’re Makoto, right?” she said, knowing she was correct. “You’re running for Student Council President?”
“Yes! I am; that's me."
“That’s a pretty big responsibility.”
“Well, I kind of have to… My family, uh… You know, it’s a long story.” Makoto said, finally finding the right piece of paper. She sighed in relief. “You’re one to talk - you’re Haru Okumura, right? You’re very pretty.” Makoto paused, turning red and quickly course-correcting “I mean, I think you’d be good company! I mean having you as company would be responsible. I mean!” She drew a big breath and reset her mind. “I mean that you will be inheriting a company; that is a pretty big responsibility too.” Makoto looked away bashfully. “I’m, uh, sorry about all that.”
Whether it was all the greasy food she had eaten or the festival atmosphere, Haru will never know, but before she could think, the response that came out of her mouth was: “It’s okay. I think you’d be good company too. Want to get coffee sometime?”
“I… I think I’d like that, yes.”
…
“I can’t believe we’re in London!” Futaba excitedly declares.
“I can’t believe you’re in London.” Sojiro, Futaba’s guardian, countes. “A year ago you wouldn’t leave your room, but now we’re half-way around the world…”
“I can’t believe I made it here…” Sumire says, looking around excitedly. “An Olympic qualifier! Me!”
“Puh-lease,” Futaba rebuts. “You making into the Olympics is the least surprising thing here by far."
“She’s right, sis. You were always going to make it.” Haru adds.
“Oh, I couldn’t have made it here without all of your support.” Sumire turned to Haru, her face falling slightly. “You know, when you came into my life… I was going through a pretty rough time. My twin sister had… passed away. And when you first arrived… I think I was both worried about replacing her and… longing to do it. But I don’t need to run away any more. We’re here and I’m going to win this. For her and… for me.”
Haru smiles slightly. “Oh? I wouldn’t have ever known. You’re really strong, Sumire.”
Sumire smiles back, wiping away her tears, and pulls Haru in for a tight hug.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” a voice calls.
“Makoto!” Sumire cheers. “Glad you made it.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. My, uh, sister has been scoping out colleges here… Just in case I feel like transferring.”
“Ah, right…” Sojiro responds, thinking. “You and Makoto share a dorm room at UoT, right Haru?”
Haru lightly chuckles and begins with “Yes, we are -”
“WE’RE GIRLFRIENDS!” Makoto blurts out. “It’s been almost three years… We’re… we’re girlfriends.”
There’s a brief stunned silence. Makoto breaks it with the awkward addendum of “And we’re also roommates at university, yes.”
Sojiro pauses, thoughtfully. “Are you keeping this secret, or…”
“Well… We have been… I’ve been worried about how my sister will take it, but apparently one of the detectives she regularly works with came out recently and it’s provoked her to… rethink some deeply-held beliefs.”
“She stops by the cafe sometimes… I can scope things out for you, if you’d like.” Sojiro offers.
“It’s alright.” Makoto responds. “This is something I have to do myself… And I have the perfect person by my side to support me.”
She grabs Haru’s hand and squeezes it tightly.
“Sooooooooo” Futaba starts, “If you’re going to come out to your sister, then can she help us with securing a partnership certificate? As Haru and Sumi’ have been looking into one, and it seems really complicated. Like, too complicated."
Haru’s face burns read as Makoto’s brain struggles to catch up with the implications of Futaba’s statement.
“You w-want to get a certificate?”
“We were looking into it…”
“I… wouldn’t be opposed.”
The pair embraces and Futaba cheers.
“Did… did my sister just get engaged?”
“Not officially.” Makoto hurriedly clarifies. “I’ll definitely have to plan something more romantic and serious for this..."
“So… you are going to propose to her… just not yet.” Sumire extrapolates.
Haru laughs. “Come on! We should get to the hotel. Your parents are waiting.” She turns and gives Makoto a quick peck on the forehead. “See you soon, sweetheart.”
“See you~!” Makoto says.
“Don’t do tourist things without me! I want to go souvenir shopping with all of you!” Futaba declares.
“Bye you two!” Sojiro calls.
As Haru and Sumire walk to the hotel, they pass a Big Bang Burger. In the past, they made Haru feel happy. Later still, they made her feel uneasy. Now, she just feel satisfied.
Her father taught her to determine value and to accept risks. He just didn’t know she’d exchange her relationship with him for true happiness.
She planted the seed and is now in full bloom.