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Minori was laying sloppily on her bed, sleeping and seemingly muttering from her snores. She was really making up the most of her break.
“Hah… Haruka… don’t say that… hah…” Minori seems to have another amazing dream. Of course, it’s about Haruka. But something seemed… a bit different than usual. It happened before, but it wasn’t just a dream about Haruka complimenting Minori. Haruka… was getting closer?
“E-eh…? Haruka what are you… are you…?” Minori's eyes have slightly opened, but not enough for her to realize it just yet.
Suddenly, a loud ringing sound blared from Minori’s phone.
“Wha!?” Minori’s eyes immediately widened, and she sprung out of bed in the same immediate response.
“Oh…” Minori’s face was as bright red as a tomato, and she was sweating to the point of her blanket being covered in all of it. She was as flustered as she was embarrassed.
“It’s the same dream again.. Oh my god, what was I thinking?! I can’t be….- ohhhh jeez. I’m a mess right now. Who’s calling me anyways?” Minori, ignoring the state of herself at the moment, picked up her phone. It was Airi.
“Oh, Airi? I wonder what’s going on…” Minori answered the phone, and tried fixing her hair as she did it.
“Hey Minori! How’s it going?” Airi was with Shizuku, and she was in her house? Apparently? Minori didn’t really question it all too much, but she knew that the two had something going on with each other for a long while now. Could it be similar to how she feels about Haruka? Many thoughts were already rushing through her head and it hasn’t even been a minute.
“Oh, hey Airi! Hey Shizuku! What’s going on, I thought we weren’t practicing today?” Despite still having a blushy face, she tried her best to act somewhat casual.
“Oh heyy Minori! We were actually going to ask if you wanted to go out with us!” Shizuku popped out from the side, a bit too close to the camera.
“Hey! Not too close!”
“Oops!”
“Haha…! What for though?” Minori started to get curious about what they were talking about.
“Well, the flowers here withered out, so we had to remove them from being on display unfortunately. So Airi thought it’d be a great idea if we could get some new ones from the mall!” Shizuku looked so proud to mention that it was Airi’s idea.
“H-hey! Did you have to mention that part!?” Airi, always getting flustered at Shizu’s aloofness.
“Haha, wait, all of us? As in, all of More More Jump? What about Haruka?”
“Oh, she said she had to do some family errands or something, but hey! We’re all gonna meet up at the rooftop anyway since we haven’t been there for awhile, sooo yeah!”
“The rooftop? Wait… so that means…” Minori got lost in her thoughts. Getting flowers at the mall? Then going to the place where they all started together?
“(If Haruka’s only going to come after we get flowers… then that means I can finally…!-)
“Uhhh, hello? Earth to Minori?” Airi proceeded to snap her fingers as Minori was in a daze, even more blushed than before.
“Eh!? Sorry, I got lost in thought for a second, what were we talking about?” Minori wasn’t even hiding her face at this point. It was to the point where the two couldn’t ignore it anymore.
“Oh, Minori! Your face is really red… are you sick?” Shizuku immediately asked out of concern.
“What!? No I’m not sick, what are you talking about!?”
“Minori, your face is as red as a tomato, come on now.” Airi gave Minori her usual look of disapproval.
“O-ok but I’m not lying! I’m not sick! I’m just uh…” Despite telling the truth, she was desperately trying to come up with a good excuse. She wasn’t really good at doing so though, as she side-eyed the other side of her room just so she didn’t make eye contact.
“...I was just thinking of something, haha!” She was hoping that both of them wouldn’t catch on to what she’s talking about, despite sweating. A lot.
“Thinking of something huh?” Airi got a bit curious and side-eyed Shizuku. Shizuku did the same back to her. Seemingly at the same time, they both giggled as they realized what Minori had been blushing about.
“Alright, alright, I see what’s going on.”
“Huh? You do?”
“You have a crush on someone, don’t you?”
“W-what!?” Minori was shocked, quite literally caught red handed almost immediately.
“N-no it’s not like that! Never was like that!”
“Minori, you don’t have to lie to us, y'know. And besides, nobody gets that blushy unless they’re sick or eating spicy food, and neither of those apply to you right now!”
“Eughh… you’re right… but…”
Airi and Shizuku glared at Minori as she tried to make up words along the way.
“…Can we talk about that after we’re done getting the flowers?”
“Ahh, alright. But you better be there!”
“Mhm…!”
“Oh, Minori.” Shizuku was still a little concerned for Minori, so she didn’t hesitate to get her attention before they got ready.
“Yeah Shizuku?”
“Just know again, we’re here to help you with anything. Whoever this crush is on, we’ll be here to support you no matter what.”
“Yeah, don’t just leave us hanging alright?” Airi and Shizuku gave their immediate support, which comforted Minori a lot despite still being embarrassed.
“Y-yeah. Alright.”
“Ok then, see you there!” The phone hung up, and Minori’s thoughts started rushing. She already got the support she needed, even though they didn’t know who it was about yet. All there was left to do now was make a decision.
“(If… they really believe in me then…)”
Minori proceeded to get off of her bed and start getting ready to go to the mall.
“(I must hurry now!)”
“Hm… they should be here by now.” Minori was fully dressed up, now just waiting for the other two to arrive.
“We’re here!” A soft and recognizable voice rings in Minori’s ear. It was Shizuku, and right next to her was Airi.
“Hey you two!” Minori was as bubbly as she usually was, a far cry to how she was back during the call. But it felt more nervous sounding than usual.
“The flower shop we’re heading to should be right nearby, so let’s get going already!” Airi exclaimed, however, her tone felt as if she was in a bit of a rush for some odd reason.
“Let’s go!” Minori and Shizuku exclaimed as well.
They all got to the flower shop pretty quickly, and in an instant, Minori went to check the other side of the place, which had different types of roses.
“I’m gonna check this side real quick, be right back!” As Minori dashed to the other side, Shizuku looked at Airi and noticed she had a suspicious look on her face.
“Huh, Airi?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s about Minori, she’s acting so strange ever since that call.”
“Well how about we talk about that while searching for the flowers? I think that’ll be better…”
“Ok, ok. Come on then.”
As Shizuku and Airi started searching for flowers, Minori was absolutely mesmerized by the amount of roses with different colors, all set together in one line.
“Oh my…! They’re so pretty! I wonder…” She looked through the rows of them, but then suddenly, found an array of blue roses. Exactly the same color as Haruka’s hair.
“Oh… these… these are perfect!”
Minori went up to one of the workers of the shop, blushing all over again.
“Excuse me! Sorry, can I get a bouquet of the blue roses? Just the blue roses, yes!”
Airi and Shizuku meanwhile, were looking at the arrays of tulips on display. Airi still had suspicion on her face.
“I think we should get these white tulips, they look pretty!” Shizuku tried to get Airi to focus on the reason they came to begin with.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. They actually do look really pretty.” Airi gave Shizuku her full attention for a second, before going back to her mumblings and suspicion.
“Airi, come on, I said we could talk about it while we searched…”
“O-oh, right. Sorry about that, it’s just…”
Shizuku looked at Airi as she tried to come up with words to explain her dilemma.
“...Am I doing too much?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Like, am I overthinking it right now? I feel like I was pushing it a bit too far with that crush thing, but at the same… come on, blushy face, she’s at the rose isle right now, I just wanna make sure I’m not getting anything wrong, y’know?”
Shizuku had a surprised look on her face, but it almost instantly turned into a cheeky smile. In what felt like an instant, Shizuku gave a soft quick smooch on Airi’s forehead.
“H-huh!?” Despite knowing she had been with Shizuku for a while now, she was still caught off guard.
“You’re always so sweet when you care for others, that’s what I always loved about you, haha.” As she giggled, Airi couldn’t help but blush embarrassingly.
“Hey! Is this really the time to be doing this…!?”
“Sorry, but, I believe you don’t have much to worry about.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“I think it’ll probably just be easier to ask her about it, than to stay curious.”
Airi paused for a second, and then became completely dumbfounded. It really was that simple wasn’t it?
“Aghhh! You’re right! Ugh… how did you get that before me!?”
“Hehehe! Well, let’s go and ask her.”
“Alrighttt.”
As Airi and Shizuku paid for the tulips, they searched for Minori. However, she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Not at the counter, right, or left side of the shop. They both looked outside too, but to no avail.
“Where could she have gone? Minori!” Shizuku was looking left and right, worried sick as she continued shouting Minori’s name.
“Not so loud! We’re still undercover y’know! But, hm…” Airi also looked left and right, and then started thinking of all the possible locations she could be. But then, she suddenly remembered what they said back in a while, and had a wide grin on her face.
“Shizuku.”
“Hm?”
“Let’s drop off the tulips at your house quickly, I may have an idea where she may be.”
Minori was walking around in circles, sweating a heavy amount and contemplating if this was even a good idea to begin with. She was right in front of the entrance to the Miya Girls rooftop. There were still some afterschool clubs going on, so the school was still open, yet, empty from the halls.
“Mmm… maybe I shouldn’t have ran… but…” She was staring at the blue roses again. There was a hint of embarrassment and unease to her face that she never actually had before.
“Minori!”
“Huh!?”
Airi and Shizuku made it to where Minori was, which was surprising to her since she ran off without saying a word.
“Airi!? Shizuku!? How did you…!?”
“Well, it was kinda easy after Airi told me…” Shizuku gave a gleaming look at Minori before Airi spilled what happened.
“...Thattt we were going to meet up here to begin with! It really wasn’t that hard when we remembered, haha!” Airi gave a smug smile, as she began to notice Minori’s rapid sweating and blushing happening all over again.
“Ah, right…”
Airi looked at Minori, and chuckled as she decided to finally confront Minori on what’s been going on.
“Alright, blue roses? Blushing? You’re even sweating a lot…”
“...Mhm.”
“...Look, whatever it is, a crush, something embarrassing, or a completely different thing entirely… you can tell us. We’re not gonna judge you, we never have done that, we never will.”
“Airi’s right. No matter what it is, we’ll always be by your side to help you out.” Shizuku came in to add onto Airi’s support, which made Minori’s heart feel… very warm.
“You guys…” Minori gave a genuine smile this time around. There wasn’t anything to fear, even if something bad were to happen. They’ll still be together.
“Ahaha… I feel so silly all of a sudden, for not telling you any of this.” Embarrassment ran down Minori’s face.
“It’s…”
Minori swallowed for a second, it’s going to sound embarrassing, maybe a bit shocking, but… it was time for her to tell her the truth.
“It’s Haruka. I.. I love her.”
Airi and Shizuku glared at Minori, but they didn’t even have a shocked look on their faces.
“Was that really it?” Airi looked confused, and so did Shizuku.
“Yeah, we’ve known you’ve loved Haruka for a long time.”
“Mmm… not… not idolizing… I just…” She stammered her words. Just a few more steps.
“…I love her. I genuinely love her. I want… I want to be with her! She’s genuinely… so amazing… I don’t know how else to describe my feelings for her…”
There it is. The shocked reaction she was expecting this time around was actually there.
“Oh… oh! Oh jeez!” Airi was completely dumbfounded. Years of admiration and praise and now this? How could she have not expected it to be an actual crush on Haruka?
“Aghh! I feel so stupid!”
“Airi! Don’t call yourself that!” Despite having the same shocked look on her face, Shizuku didn’t want Airi beating herself up over an obvious detail that she honestly thought she also should have caught.
“How can I not!? Minori has been praising Haruka for all of her life and I somehow didn’t think that she would be her number 1 crush!? I literally teased her about it just now and I still didn’t get it!”
“Eugh, sorry. I probably shouldn’t have-”
“No!” Airi put her hands on Minori’s shoulders, almost as if to reassure her for a moment.
“Huh!?”
“Minori… we might be a little shocked right now but…”
Shizuku knew exactly what Minori was going through, she went through the exact same thing with Airi. Whatever she was going to say next, it was going to be from the heart.
“...We’re so proud of you for telling us this. I don’t know what Haruka is going to say to you if you confess this to her but…”
Shizuku paused for a second, trying to find the right words, and then…
“If I learned anything from what we’ve been through, if there’s the slightest chance she’ll say yes, you should go for it.” She gave what was probably the most proudest smile Minori has ever seen Shizuku give.
“Yeah! I-I just feel stupid for not catching on earlier! You should go for it! You didn’t come here with those roses for nothing did you!?”
“...You’re right. Both of you, you’re right! I should… I should let Haruka know my true feelings! I’m not running away anymore!” She said it with such pride, that Airi and Shizuku went along with it.
“You’re not running away anymore!” Airi and Shizuku chanted.
“I’m not running away anymore!” Minori repeated.
They started laughing, and knew that this was something that was going to be worth all the trouble.
“Well, this is something that you have to do on your own, but we’ll be sure to look out what happens afterwards.” Airi was making sure she was reassuring in every way she could.
“Right!” Minori felt more confident now. No backing down, she was going to get up to that rooftop.
“Good luck!” Shizuku gave her a calm and proud smile.
Minori walked up the stairs, and after getting to the rooftop, she waited patiently for Haruka to arrive.
“Hm… Airi and Shizuku said they’ll be late because of some… inconvenient issues? Sigh... there's not even an actual reason... and I still haven’t heard back from Minori…” Haruka was walking down the hallway and reached the entrance to the rooftop.
“We didn’t exactly plan to do anything up there… I wonder what we’re even going to do.” As Haruka walked up the stairs, she started to get a bit suspicious. There was barely any explanation given for Airi and Shizuku’s absence, and it wasn’t like Minori to not say anything.
Meanwhile, the girl on the rooftop was making sure she was ready for this, gripping the bouquet of blue roses, and preparing her hair so it didn’t look messy. “Come on, you got this Minori!” she said to herself.
And then the door opened.
“Oh, Minori?”
“Ah! H-Haruka!” Minori immediately hid the bouquet behind her back. She was blushing and sweating all over again, but she did tell herself she wasn’t going to run anymore.
“I didn’t know you were here already, I’d thought you would send a message, haha.” Haruka had a concerned smile on her face, she seemed clueless of all the events that transpired today.
“Ehehe… I was in a bit of a rush. Me, Shizuku and Airi went to the flower shop at the mall to get flowers for Shizuku’s home. I’m pretty sure we got… tulips. Right, tulips!” Minori took a shot in the dark, unknowing to her that she was right.
“Ah, tulips? Hehe, so that’s what happened.”
“Yeah…!” Minori took one step in front of Haruka.
“C-can I say something… to you?”
“Yeah, sure what is it?” Haruka didn’t seem to notice the bouquet behind Minori, much to the convenience of her.
“I’ve… thought a lot… about how I should say this… but I wanna say how I truly feel… about us…!”
Haruka listened very closely. What could she be talking about?
“Haruka… I’ve always adored how much of a hardworking, amazing person you are! There’s never been a single day where I haven’t looked or thought about you without thinking about how much I absolutely love you! And that truly comes from my heart!”
Haruka was absolutely bewildered. She couldn’t help but blush by how much praise Minori was giving her, even if she still didn’t know to what extent Minori was truly taking this.
“That’s… so nice of you Minori. Although… where is this coming from, exactly?”
“This… this is coming from my true love! I love you Haruka, I genuinely mean it! And…!”
It wasn’t just idolizing anymore.
“...!”
Minori held up the bouquet of blue roses with both of her hands, and with one mighty shout…
“Haruka Kiritani! Will you be my girlfriend!?”
The sun was setting. So many emotions were running down inside Haruka and Minori. Joy, fear, passion, and who knows what else. It was silent, as Haruka’s hands were covering her mouth. Both of them were sweating and blushing so much that it was almost impossible to tell who was doing it more. Suddenly…
“...Look I know this may sound weird but I swear I- Mmmf!?”
Minori was interrupted. For a split second, she could only think. What was happening? What was stopping her from talking? Her body was held by two other arms as she barely held the bouquet of blue roses. It was…
It was Haruka. She was kissing Haruka. There was nothing more to think about. They both held a long kiss, both of their eyes closed as Haruka continued hugging Minori close to her arms. Finally, they let go.
“Of course I’ll be your girlfriend Minori, was that what this was about? Hehe.” Haruka couldn’t help but chuckle at what she just did. Whether it was instinct or not, she enjoyed every single thing that just happened.
Minori… tears of joy ran down her face. She did it. She really did it. “I… I think my entire dress is sweaty…” As red as she was, she still managed to keep her composure. Just barely.
“D-do you like the uh… blue roses I got… you?” She felt stupid for asking a question like this, as if there was going to be a conflicting answer. A face as red as tomato, and a heavy amount of sweat that could probably fill a big bucket at this point. Haruka held the bouquet.
“Of course I do! They’re… they’re even the same color as my hair. Heh, I don’t know how I just realized that. Probably was just in the moment…”
“There’s my two lovebirds!” A familiar voice suddenly breaks out from the door. It was Airi, along with Shizuku. They were watching and listening the entire time.
“Airi!? Shizuku!? Were you…!?” Haruka's face was also starting to get more red.
“Yep, we were just hiding behind a couple of walls, made a few silent steps up those stairs, and yep! You two nailed it!” Airi was making such a cheerful expression, which was a sharp contrast to the other two’s blushy faces.
“Indeed! We’re so proud of you! It reminds me of when-”
“Upupup! Not now! Tomorrow, remember?” Airi interrupted her, as to not immediately spoil their relationship during a moment like this.
“Oh, right! Hehehe.”
“Well, something tells me I missed a lot, haha! Although I’m not so sure about-”
Thump.
“Huh?”
Haruka was caught so off guard by the others' sudden appearance that she suddenly forgot how her love was feeling. She was curled up on her side, on the ground. Still drenched in sweat and all.
“M-Minori!? Are you ok!?”
“I think I need to be carried… b-b-by you preferably…” She felt exhausted, even if she had a silly way of showing that.
“Shizuku, could you hold the bouquet for me please!”
“Of course!”
As Shizuku held the bouquet for her, Haruka chuckled again. As she held Minori’s body and laid her arms on her shoulders, the group walked down the stairs and left the school building. Although… there was still something lingering in the new couple’s mind.
“Oh, by the way, Airi? Shizuku?”
“Yeah?”
“Yes?”
“What did you guys mean by telling us something tomorrow?”
“Wait, yeah! Do you two have something going as well?” Minori, despite being exhausted, was still able to speak, and instantly hit the nail on the head.
“Uhhhh…” They both paused, realizing that this was something that was going to be endlessly asked about until the next day.
“Come on now, what are you hiding from us?” Haruka said it so cheekily, as the other couple kept stammering and trying to find what words to say.
“S-shut up! Tomorrow as I said!” Airi was starting to grumble a bit, having as much of a blushy face as Minori did back in the call.
“Oh, is this what Mizuki was talking about when she mentioned tsunderes?”
“W-what!? How do you-!?”
“Ah yes, I remember that conversation as well. It sorta describes you well Airi!” Shizuku also had a red face, and unintentionally made Airi hide her own.
“Agh!!!”
Airi grumbled more and more, hiding her face under her shirt as the others chuckled on their way back to the More More House. There were absolutely no regrets here. As Minori stared at the bouquet, she felt at peace.