Chapter Text
Another fight. I sat under one of the trees in the park. It was already late, so there weren’t many people around.
Hearing footsteps approaching, I pulled my hood lower on my face.
“Hi there, you alright?” I looked up to see who it was.
“Uh… yeah.” The stranger came closer and crouched down, studying my face intensely.
“You definitely aren’t alright.” I was taken aback.
Even in the dim light I could see their outfit radiating color, and their face seemed genuinely worried. Like what I looked like didn’t matter.
“Huh?” They started searching for something in their bag.
“Wait, I think I got something to patch you up.” I don’t need help, I can survive by myself.
“Wait, no, I don’t need help. I'm going to patch myself up when I get home.” They looked at me sceptically.
“And when will that be?”
I’m not going to tell some random stranger when I’m going home-that’s creepy. “In a couple of hours.”
I looked at them, confused. "Why?"
Why are they doing that?
Why aren’t they like everyone else?
They frowned at my answer. “It’s already late and you’re going to stay here alone for ‘a couple of hours’ with those bruises?! We can’t have that.” My face burned up.
“I don’t care what you think, I don’t need your pity!” I clenched my fists, bracing myself for the hits or screams.
But they never came. They looked like they were contemplating on what to do. “That’s okay, we can just stay here, I won’t let a kid alone in the park.”
The stranger sat on the grass next to me and took a small first aid kit out of their bag.
“I’m Tsubakino.” Their smile bright but still soft.
“So, what happened?” She took out some wipes and bandaids.
“Some idiots thought it would be funny to jump me.” A small, triumphant smirk crept on my face. “I did beat them all up in the end though.”
“You beat them all up? That's amazing!” They cheered happily before their face hardened.
”Some people can be real assholes here.” I looked at them with a questioning look.
“You’re not from here?”
They nodded. “I only came here for the holidays.”
They put disinfectant on one of the wipes. “It’s gonna sting a bit.”
And then they gently disinfected my wounds. It did sting a bit, but they did it so gently I barely felt it.
“There! Way better!” They smiled proudly as they smoothed out the last bandage on my wounds.
Then their face darkened, as worry crept in their expression. “What is a kid like you doing here so late at night?” They murmured under their breath, but I still heard it.
“Huh! I can take care of myself, you know!”
Their face shifted into an expression I didn’t quite understand. “That’s not the problem.” They said softly. “The problem is the people letting you stay here this late, alone.”
I whined, curling up into myself and pulling my knees closer to my chest.
“It’s not like they want me there.” I whispered softly, my voice barely audible.
But Tsubakino heard it. And when I looked up their eyes were filled with unshed tears. “No sweetie… Don’t ever say that.”
They said, voice thick with emotions as they reached out.”Don’t worry about them, you have no reason to think so low of yourself.
They took me in a big hug. At first I stiffened, my heart racing. It has been years since I felt this kind of physical touch.
My mind told me to push them away, fight back. But my body didn’t respond.
It was kind of nice, comfortable even. Against my own will I melted into the touch.
They cradled me in their arms, like I were something precious, like I needed to be kept safe.
I felt something wet slipping on my cheek, and before I could stop it, I started crying. I
couldn’t stop, the tears kept coming.
But Tsubakino didn’t pull away. They just stayed, holding me tightly.
“It’s alright sweetie. It’s going to be okay.” They whispered softly in my ears. "I'm sure of it.” Their words felt warm. But what could they do? They were just some stranger I met in the park.
Tsubakino POV
When I first approached the boy, I could already tell he was all bark and no bite. He tried his best to look though.
But now, while he sobbed uncontrollably in my arms,I felt a wave of helplessness wash over me. I didn’t know what to do.
He looked so small. So incredibly fragile. He could’ve been only three years younger than me, but he felt completely broken.
So lonely, like he accepted the world had given up on him. And that broke my heart. I couldn’t watch him fall apart like that in my arms.
I held him tightly, rubbing soothing circles on his back. I waited for his sobs to subdued before speaking again.
“Hey, sweetie” I cooed softly, brushing the hair out of his eyes. “Have you ever heard of Furin? It’s a school a few towns over.”
He stiffed but then nodded slightly. Everybody knew Furin as the school filled with violent delinquents.
“Right now, me and some friends are going to change that school. And when you’re old enough… I want you to come there.”
He looked up at me with his big mismatched eyes, choked. I smiled back at him, warm and reassuring.
“We’re going to change it, I promise. And when we’re done, that school will be perfect for you.” He looked back at me like a little kitten with his big eyes.
“Do you have a phone?” He nodded, searching his phone in his pocket. “Let’s keep in touch."
We exchanged nummers. He quickly muttered that his name wasSakura Haruka. When I asked him what he preferred to be called he murmured that he didn’t care what I called him.
“Is that so?” I giggled, bopping his nose.” Haru-chan it is! It suits a cutie like you.” When I told him this he flushed bright red and it made me realise I made the right choice.
I also saved my own name in Haru-chan’s phone since I knew he didn’t know how to change it. I set it as Tsubaki-oniisan<3 since I was going to be his big bro now.
Because I still have a few days left in the town, I ended up hanging out a bit with Haru-chan.
He’s textbook tsunderen, always putting up a tough front, but he’s slowly beginning to trust me.
Honestly, he was like a little stray cat, he would curl up and nap in warm sunbeams, he started hissing defensively whenever he got frustrated. And if you looked closely when he pouted, you could see his adorable little fangs peeking out.
He was too precious for his own good.
He was also surprisingly good at parcours, he liked being out of everyone’s reach.
But then the holidays were over and we would need to go back our own ways. It couldn’t be helped.
Atleast we could still text. That’s when I learned Haru-chan was really, really bad at texting. He texted like my grandparents, and that’s a compliment.
But at least he still answered, we could still talk.
When I came back to school I couldn’t stop talking about ‘the little Haru-chan’. I didn’t talk much about his appearance since he didn’t seem to like it.
I did talk a lot about how cute he was, even showed some texts.
We all poured our blood, sweat and tears into uniting Furin. Before we knew it, it worked, we were in our second years now.
Through it all, I still texted with Haruka-chan, and he was still a cutie. Now my friends knew practically everything about him since I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
And then, it stopped. Nothing. No replies. No read receipt.
I panicked, my heart dropping.
I tried calling him over and over, but the line just rang out. It didn’t work. Nothing worked.
A wave of fear passed through me as I remembered his past words. I still remember him whispering about how sometimes he didn’t want to live anymore, that it was too hard.
He was getting better. I talked him through those nights-or at least, I thought I had.
I couldn’t even force myself to go to school the next day. I stayed the whole day in my bed, cried the whole day.
When I went back to class everyone was worried about me. They crowded around me, asking what was wrong, but I couldn’t get myself to care about that.
I just wanted my Haru-chan back. You can’t bring dead people back. I tried to move on, pouring everything I had left into Bofurin. But no matter what I could never, ever forget him.