My parents thought that since I went last year, I was obviously going to the flower viewing party again.

Ask me first! Say something at least!

I bet they kept it on the down-low on purpose!

I didn’t wanna go.

But neither did I have the courage to try getting food poisoning again.

Never again, Reika.

I seriously thought I would die.

I swear I saw a bright light at the end of a tunnel…

Okaasama was determined to pair me up this year so she enthusiastically dressed me in a furisode.

(In short this is what she wear.)

(Fan art by Moya)

Cherry blossoms at night, and a furisode.

Scary…

Please, no.

Maybe if it rained then all the sakura would be washed away, along with the party.

The skies were clear.

Oniisama was busy with work, so he’d be arriving later.

He was busy quite a lot, recently.

He still hadn’t taken me out to eat like he promised for White Day either.

“My! Reika-san! Thank you so much for coming!” greeted Mrs. Kaburagi, with literally open arms.

As usual, she was eye-catching and beautiful.

And Chairman Kaburagi still had that mature adult charm!

His legs were so much longer than Otousama’s!

And he wasn’t overweight, either!

Haah, so cool…

Anyway, after Madam Kaburagi gave me some truly ridiculous praise for my furisode, the topic changed to her son.

“I hear that that boy actually became the President of the Pivoine. Will that surly kid really be able to manage?”

“Masaya-sama is very popular, so I do not believe there is anything to worry about.”

“You think? He isn’t causing you any problems, Reika-san?”

“Heavens, no. Masaya-sama is competent and always has it together. And his grades are always at the top, and…”

Since we weren’t all that close I was struggling to find things to praise him for.

Hmmm…

Good points, good points… What are his good points…?

Too bad. Nothing comes to mind.

“Don’t hesitate to let me know if that stupid boy of mine causes you any trouble. I’ll really let him have it.”

“My… Ohohoho…”

He was causing me trouble right now, actually.

“Anyway, please look after Masaya, okay?”

“I am in his care…”

I really didn’t want to look after him though.

Uu, even my smile had gone stiff.

The Kaburagi pair gave me brilliant smiles before leaving to greet other guests.

After that, Otousama brought me around the venue to greet people.

It was exhausting keeping this act up…

After we were done greeting my parents’ closer acquaintances, I was finally given my freedom.

Recently a lot of people had been recommending their sons to me, so I was having a rough time dodging all the bullets.

Thanks to that I had no appetite, despite the feast before me.

I picked up some sakura jelly and helped myself to a few bites while I took a breather.

(In the picture above you can see Reika-chan holding a glass of sakura jelly.😊👆)

Oh. This was pretty good.

“Good evening, Kisshouin-san.”

“…Gokigen’yoh, Enjou-sama.”

Someone thoroughly unpleasant had come my way.

“So you’re wearing a furisode this time, in… deep scarlet, I think you call this? It suits you. You look lovely tonight.”

“Thank you very much…”

Haah, his smile was suspicious…

I wonder if he was holding a grudge after that White Day rumour.

I just wanted to make a break for it…

“Aren’t you going to look at the flowers?”

“I admired them up-close not too long ago. At any rate, I think that the night-time sakura should be enjoyed from a little further away.”

I could hear the guests praising the weeping sakura again. It had bloomed as gorgeously as last year.

And the yoshino cherries had bloomed just as well.

It almost looked like another world, which to be honest was a little scary.

“I think I know what you mean. Don’t the sakura seem a bit scary at night? It’s almost like they bloomed by using human lifeblood as fertiliser. Say, isn’t there a tale about burying-”

“A corpse under the roots of a sakura tree!”

Exactly! Exactly!

Sakura are scary at night, right!?

I mean I like sakura, and they’re beautiful at night, but it’s because they’re so beautiful that it creeps me out!

Why?

Why did anybody think it would be a good idea to have a night-time banquet under the sakura?

“You know, when I read Kajii Motojirou’s poem, I thought, ‘I know exactly what he means.’ There’s just this indescribable discomfort when you see them in the night like this, isn’t there?”

Yeah! Yeah!

I know what you mean!

“But they hardly seem so frightening in the daytime, do they?”

“It’s because of the way the flowers seem to float in the darkness. It feels like you’ll get pulled in too.”

“That makes sense.”

“The weeping sakura here isn’t too bad, since it’s just barely 50 years old. But as for those sakura that have lived for hundreds of years… I can only imagine how much human blood they’ve drunk.”

“You are scaring me, so please stop!”

(By the way I just copy the text above and paste it in the photo. That is the reason why they have the same text.)

You’re going to make me imagine it.

“How mysterious. Even though they are all flowers, neither the plum nor the peach blossoms feel at all scary at night, do they?

“Shhh. If Masaya’s mum hears you say that she’s going to plan something big, and all because ‘Reika-san likes peach and plum blossoms’ okay?”

Oh dear.

I quickly clamped my mouth shut.

Madam Kaburagi loved her events, so I could actually see her doing it.

Enjou smiled at me in amusement.

“But as scared as you seem to be of the sakura at night, you’re fond of sweets made from them, no? For example, sakuramochi.”

Why and how did he know this?

Flower-themed sweets from the West tasted a bit strange, and I wasn’t sure what I thought of them. Rose jam for example.

The Japanese equivalents on the other hand, I was quite fond of.

Sakuramochi for example, or umegaemochi.

Huh. It was all mochi.

“Yes. I enjoy eating them because of how festive they are. It really drives home that spring is here. I think this is the same for all the desserts of each season.”

I made very sure to emphasise that I wasn’t some glutton character.

Didn’t mean I wasn’t gulping down green tea at home as I nommed on sakuramochi though!

“I see. Wow, you’re so refined, Kisshouin-san.”

That’s right. I am refined. I’m not a glutton at all.

Damned Enjou.

I could see the laughter in his eyes.

He didn’t believe me in the slightest, did he?

“As expected of you, Kisshouin-san. No wonder you seem to be enjoying that sakura jelly so much.”

See? There he goes.

I had to get back at him somehow.

“Speaking of which, Masaya was looking for you.”

“Is that so?”

So Kaburagi was serious about talking about his love troubles in the middle of this huge crowd?

“Speaking of which, are you not together with Kaburagi-sama this evening? How novel.”

“Why does it feel like you think of us as a set?”

“Well, you two are famous for being awfully intimate…”

“Come on, you wouldn’t call that intimate, right? Kisshouin-san, did you just choose that wording to mess with me?”

Ah, did I go too far with my teasing?

This snake could show his true colours.

Oh dear.

Was he going to do it?

Was he going to attack!?

While I was looking at him guardedly, somebody else appeared.

“Here you are, Shuu.”

Coming in from my five was a white hand that softly took Enjou’s arm.

It was Yuiko-san.

So she was here too…

“Yuiko.”

“I was worried when you suddenly disappeared like that, you know?” she looked up at him, leaning into his shoulder.

Yuiko-san, beautiful and fragile, had drawn the attention of all the males around us.

“You seemed to be having fun with those guys, so I thought it would be fine to step away.”

“My, is somebody jealous?”

“Who knows.”

I looked around at all the men staring jealously at Yuiko-san and Enjou.

Apparently they had all been fussing over her until very recently.

Unfortunately they didn’t stand a chance against Enjou.

The two of them were picture perfect, after all.

Enjou gently tapped the hand on his arm.

“Yuiko, this is Kisshouin Reika-san. She’s in my grade at school.”

“Kisshouin… Reika-san?” she asked as she distractedly turned my way.

Big, dark eyes took me in.

I shivered a little.

“You know about Yuiko, don’t you? She’s a relative of mine. Uryuu Yuiko.”

“Gokigen’yoh. My name is Kisshouin Reika,” I smiled, as confidently as possible.

“Uryuu Yuiko. Have we… perhaps met before…?”

“Why, yes. At the Zui’ran School Festival.”

Languid eyes gazed at me for a while, before Yuiko smiled softly.

“Ah, I remember now. You were wearing a lovely china dress, no? I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Yes.”

“Huhu,” she laughed, seemingly pleased with hitting the mark.

That smile had entranced everyone around us.

“Hey, Shuu? I’m a bit thirsty.”

“Then shall we go get something for you to drink? Kisshouin-san, will…”

“I think I shall admire the sakura from a little closer. Please excuse me, Enjou-sama, Yuiko-san.”

Enjou frowned faintly.

Yuiko-san looked at me again with those jet-black eyes of hers, and smiled at me.

Good joke, Enjou. Who on earth would go anywhere with you two?

Scaryyy.

To escape as quickly as possible I busted out my ultimate skill, power-walking, but my furisode was making it impossible!

I messed up!

A penguin!

I looked like a penguin right now!

Ahh, and somehow I could feel Yuiko-san’s eyes on me from behind…

Happy thoughts, Reika, happy thoughts.

●~●~●~●~●~●~●~●~●~●~●~●~●~●~●

This is also another picture I found in google. A little bit the same to the picture above.🤩