Japan x Reader - Sakura Rain

    Kiku looked out the window with slight boredom. The teacher was droning on about the end of school year, and the massive break before everyone saw each other again. But it was even worse for Kiku. His closest friend and crush he was hopelessly in love with, (Y/N), is going to go. Move to another school far away, where he could never possibly see her in person again. He thanked his ability to not display emotion right now, so that he didn’t have a meltdown right in the middle of class. And especially not in front of (Y/N) who is right next to him.

    Regarding the outside window, he was thankful that class was on the second floor, in level with the cherry blossom trees. He watched as some petals fell off due to the wind and slowly floated down out of view. He felt as though he was one of the sakura petals that stayed on the tree, as (Y/N) will soon be one of the petals that falls off the branch, leaving him and floating away to another place.

    Turning his head to (Y/N), he took in her features as she regarded the teacher who was talking. He’s always wanted to stare into those (E/C) orbs for eternity, make those beautiful lips curve up into a smile. He would gladly break all his typical rules of personal space to be with her, to hold her hand, embrace her, and even kiss her if she would let him.

    Why was he such a nervous fool? Why didn’t he ever tell her how he felt? Why did he hardly show her any emotion? They’ve been friends for so long…probably the fear of destroying their relationship. Fearing that (Y/N) would hate him for his feelings for her, or painfully turn him down. But now, he realised that he made a mistake. (Y/N) will soon leave him, and he’ll spend months, possibly years, regretting the fact he never confessed.

    “Class dismissed,” The teacher stated and all students cheered, except for Kiku. Even (Y/N) joined in, but Kiku could tell it was just for blending in with the rest of the students and not looking too disappointed. The few students who knew that (Y/N) is leaving, all came up to her and hugged her tightly, before leaving the classroom. Kiku waited for all other students to be gone before he stood up from his desk and walked up to (Y/N).

    “Sharr we go outside, (Y/N)-chan?” Kiku asked.

    “Sure! But can we just have a little walk around the school buildings first? I have a few things I just want to take a picture of,” (Y/N) took out her phone and smiled brightly.

    “Of course,” Kiku gave a slight grin, the closest he was ever able to pull a smile. (Y/N) loved it though, she knew how difficult it was for the Japanese man to display any emotion, it made her appreciate the slight, little things that he did which showed that he had a sweet, happy personality.

    Walking out of the classroom and down the corridor, (Y/N) looked out the window and she stopped. Kiku obediently followed suit as (Y/N) took a picture out the view from the window. A picture of the sports track that the school proudly had. He remembered playing sports with (Y/N). Sports was a compulsory subject in school and he enjoyed every time he was on the same team as (Y/N). Both were rather good at sports, but they still made their mistakes. Like one time (Y/N) tripped over and accidentally fell over, knocking Kiku and bringing him down with her. Landing next to each other, (Y/N) burst into laughter as the first thing Kiku asked was, “Are you okay, (Y/N)-chan?”

    “Ah…good times,” (Y/N) sighed contently.

    “Yes, they were, (Y/N)-chan,” Kiku replied somewhat stiffly. (Y/N) frowned slightly and looked at Kiku. Her attention on him, he struggled to fight the stubborn blush that was aiming for his cheeks.

    “I know we won’t see each other for some time, but let’s try and ignore that, okay? For as long as we can,” (Y/N) smiled brightly, however there was a hint of sadness in her smile that made Kiku want to bring her close. And tell her that everything will be okay, but he knew that the truth was, it was never going to be okay after this.

    “Hey! I’ve got an idea, let’s go to our old classroom back when we were little five-year-olds!” (Y/N) laughed and took Kiku’s hand as she walked to another part of the school building. Kiku followed somewhat in a daze, as he felt the warmth emanating from (Y/N)’s hand.

    “Here we are!” (Y/N)’s eyes lit up at the nostalgic rush at the sight of the old classroom. Opening it, she what had become of her old classroom. The alphabet stuck on various places of the ceiling, pages of stick figures pinned onto the wall, and the numbers from one to thirty on a notice board. Some things never changed, even after all these years.

    (Y/N) watched as Kiku walked through the desks until he looked at one and stopped. Looking down at the table top, he gave a slight ‘hmph’ as his way of a laugh. He regarded (Y/N) with shining eyes, “You reft your mark here, (Y/N)-chan.”

    “Huh?” (Y/N) hurried to him and she looked down at the table. And there, undoubtedly, was an imprint of (Y/N)’s message scratched in scissors. In all its glory and in all its dodgy English, scratched on the table top, “(F/C) is my favorit colar!!!”

    “Kawaii, (Y/N)-chan,” Kiku murmured, blushing profusely. (Y/N) laughed and patted his shoulder.

    “You left something too…” (Y/N) walked over to a table on the other side of the classroom. Tilting his head in curiosity, Kiku followed her and looked down on that table. There, in slightly rubbed out permanent marker, was a terribly drawn picture that seemed to be a mix of a five-year-old drawing a stick figure and a five-year-old attempting to draw manga.

    (Y/N) took her phone out and took a photo of five-year-old Kiku’s little doodle, and her past proclamation of her favourite colour.

    There were other things that (Y/N) took pictures of. A picture of each of the classrooms she used to be taught in, a few pictures of Kiku, a picture of the locker area, where they ate. She even took a picture of the female bathroom for some laughs.

    When (Y/N) was finished with taking pictures, they slowly walked to the outside of the building. The sun is slowly going down, but it’ll still be an hour or two before sunset. Everyone else had left, the teachers all in the staff building.

    They looked up at the sakura trees that were signature to their school. It was a prized possession of the school, the ability to have sakura trees blooming throughout the entire year. And Kiku absolutely loved them, as well as (Y/N). They watched the trees sway in rhythm of the wind for a few minutes. (Y/N)’s hand in Kiku’s, frozen as they let their thoughts run wild.

    “We can still call, text, and video chat, you know,” (Y/N) broke the silence. Kiku blinked and looked at (Y/N).

    “But…it’s not the same, is it, (Y/N)-chan?”

    “I never said it would be…it just won’t be as bad as we initially thought, being away from each other.”

    “For me, it wourd,” Kiku said, confidence in his voice slowly draining away. He turned to (Y/N). He now started, there was no way he could stop and ignore his feelings for now.

    “Kiku…what do you mean?” (Y/N) asked.

    “I-I…there’s something I’ve been meaning to terr you for a rong time, (Y/N)-chan…” Kiku murmured. He nervously took both of (Y/N)’s hands in his. “I’m…I am very happy that out of arr the schoors we courd have gone to, we both came here, and met each other. You are my closest friend and you wirr stay rike that, even when you reave.”

    When Kiku stopped, (Y/N) nodded, and smiled. “You’ll always be my closest friend too, Kiku. I’ll tell you all about my day, and you tell me all about mine in our texts, video chats, whatever it may be.”

    There was silence for a few moments before (Y/N) took a step back, about to part her hands from Kiku’s but he held on, tightening his grip on her hands. She looked back at him, and noticed his face had completely changed. He was biting his bottom lip, a blush obvious on his face. The usual cold glaze in his eyes had melted, and it seemed that all of his emotions were pouring out of his shimmering, brown eyes.

    “I…don’t want you to go,” Kiku pulled her towards him. In a fluent motion, he wrapped his arms around her as she stumbled towards him, falling into a tight embrace. His head in the crook on (Y/N)’s neck, able to feel Kiku’s rushed breath, warm as it tickled her neck. And then, she felt his breath hitch as his body started to tremble. Shocked at Kiku’s sudden emotion, (Y/N) slowly put her arms around him as well, returning the first ever hug she had with Kiku.

    After a few seconds, (Y/N) caught a blur of pink blocking her view as she hugged Kiku. Looking up, she saw the cherry blossom trees dropping their petals. She sighed in content as sakura rained down, surrounding her and Kiku. Even Kiku seemed to notice, looking up at the magical moment. It seemed…so perfect…

    “(Y/N)-chan…” Kiku murmured her name. (Y/N)’s gaze switched from the falling petals to Kiku. He was looking into her eyes deeply. Now, Kiku couldn’t stop. Some little voice in his mind was telling him to stop before he destroyed the close friendship that he has with his love, but the rest of him went against that voice.

    “Yes?” (Y/N) asked. Her (E/C) eyes were wide with curiosity as they looked up at him. Kiku’s heart pounded against his chest. He felt the back of his eyes prick with tears.

    “Aishiteru… (I love you…)” Kiku confessed. He looked down at the ground. Looking at all the fallen cherry blossom petals. Fallen, and broken on the ground. It’ll only be a matter of time before they are stepped on, or rot on the pavement.

    “Kiku…I love you too.”

    Kiku stared at (Y/N) in disbelief. His lips slowly lifted into a sad smile. Genuine, bright, ecstatic about the way that she feels the same. But at the same time…learning about each other’s feelings was too late. (Y/N) started to get teary, furious for the reason why she had to leave the one she loved. Devastated that there was nothing she could do about it.

    Knowing that there would be no other chance to do so, (Y/N) cupped Kiku’s cheeks and brought his face down to hers, bringing him into a sweet kiss. Kiku’s eyes widened, unable to comprehend what was happening. But eventually, he was able to realise that (Y/N) was kissing him, he kissed back. (Y/N) wrapped her arms around his neck and he responded by tightening his arms that were around her waist. And soon, she felt a drop of water brush against her cheek. Opening her eyes that were closed in bliss, she only saw Kiku’s eyes, closed and crying.

    Eventually, the kiss was broken, and all Kiku could do was sob in (Y/N)’s arms. (Y/N) doing all she could to stay strong for the both of them, trying to stay happy and positive about the outcome of this.

    “Hey…Kiku?” (Y/N) tried to stop her voice from breaking as she held back tears.

    “H-Hai?”

    “We’re going to meet again. In person,” (Y/N) said firmly. Her eyes shone with confidence and determination. “We’ll meet here. Right here. The place where we spent our most important years of our life here. The place where we laughed, smiled…cried…”

    (Y/N) gently wiped Kiku’s tears away with the soft sleeve fabric of her school uniform. Kiku’s eyes were slightly red, as he looked at (Y/N)’s eyes which seemed extra watery.

    “This place where we confessed to each other. We’ll meet again, here. No matter how long. I know it. Because that’s what love does.”

    Despite how clichéd it sounded. Kiku liked the idea of it. And he had faith in that idea. (Y/N) smiled warmly and Kiku nodded. Here, they’ll meet. If it was next month, next year, or even a decade were to pass. They’ll see each other, here.

    “I need to go…” (Y/N) murmured, Kiku’s heart breaking at the mention of it.

    “I…yes, yes of course,” Kiku nodded. “You must go, you can’t miss your trip.”

    “Thank you,” (Y/N) gave her signature sweet smile that Kiku fell for all those years ago. “And not just now. For everything. For letting me sit next to you on the first day of school, for talking to me, for sticking with me when I’ve been a bother. I love you, for all of that, and for who you are.”

    “I love you too,” Kiku said, loud enough for (Y/N) to hear as she walked away with her school bag. He waved goodbye to her, putting on a grin to hide the fact he still needed to cry. She wouldn’t be able to hear, but he still murmured to himself, “I can wait, if it’s to see you again. No matter how long, we’ll see each other by these gates, under the sakura rain.”