Not-So High School Sweethearts

6: Near the Cherry Blossom Tree

*This part of the chapter belongs to Nezuko*

"Aoi," I told Muichiro who stood right next to me. I showed him my text message that Aoi sent me in which he let out a sigh.

"Kanae doesn't deserve it," he whispered. I agreed with him on that part. To us, she was always one of the sweetest people that we ever met.

"Wanna go after school?" I asked him.

"Yeah we should. Aoi would be going too if she already went during school. Knowing her, she'll go again."

We continued walking down the hallways to our next classes all day. They weren't much but then again, I wasn't expecting them to be all flashy.

Class after class after class. There weren't that many in the day but once school was over I suddenly felt exhausted.

"Nezuko! Nezukooooo!" After school while I was heading to the spot that we were going to meet up before we all walked to the hospital, I heard someone calling my name.

At first I thought Tanjiro had a bad sore throat and his voice changed, but as I saw him and the rest under the cherry blossom tree, I knew it was someone else.

"Nezuko?" I turned around and saw my brother's friend, Zenitsu, standing behind me once he caught up to me. "Hi Nezuko!" Yikes, I thought. I don't know how to speak to other people yet.

I grabbed out my notepad and my pencil and decided to write to him instead of attempting a fail at talking.

Hi. That was all I wrote.

"Your brother said you have selective mutism, right?" I nodded saying yes. "This will only take a minute so if you have somewhere to be, I won't be long," he said, somewhat nervously. Why is he nervous?

I'm going with my friends to somewhere important, I wrote down.

"The hospital," he replied. He really was a close friend of my brother if Tanjiro even told him that. "Tanjiro told me about it."

I tried to think of something to write down but nothing came to mind so I nodded instead.

"Umm... I'm sorry," he blurted out. "A-about your friend who's in t-the hospital a-and..." he stopped in his words again. "Did I ever upset you?"

Hm?

"I- Was it when I visited your house that one time? That's the only possible way I can think of meeting you."

Don't worry about it, I wrote. I was overreacting since it was early in the morning. And that was the truth.

My face gave a slight blush as I realized how big of a deal I made out of something so small and stupid. Sorry.

"D-don't be sorry!" He waved his hands in front of his face. "I- I was just afraid that, uhh, yeah. Umm-" he paused for a moment. "W-wanna be friends?" If there was anything that almost knocked me off my feet, it was that.

Friends?

"AHHHH I'M SORRY!! I DIDN'T-"

Sure.

Up to this day I still don't know why I said yes but I don't know if it was for the better or the worse.

"O-oh! Really?"

Yeah.

"Great- uhh thanks! I- I just don't know what to say aha-" He looked down at the floor for a moment until he looked back at me with a bright smile. "Nice to meet you, Nezuko," he finally said.

As he smiled at me I saw petals of cherry blossoms fly in front of our faces. Some flew into our hair and as a few flew into his face he gave a laugh.

Somehow this simple moment felt nice. In a way that was kind of hard to explain I guess. It made me smile and laugh with him as well. Calming, almost was the word.

It's nice to meet you too, was what I wrote before I headed back to meet with the rest of my friends under the tree.

*This short part belongs to Zenitsu*

Friends.

The only friends I really had was Tanjiro and Inosuke, if you count him as one but I do.

Crap! I just hope that Tanjiro doesn't get upset at me for getting close to his sister. But we were only going to be friends.

Still, I couldn't skate off the feeling of how she made me feel. It was different than how she treated me and made me feel and act. With Nezuko it was more... genuine?

Whatever it was it made me feel peaceful inside.

I looked up at the cherry blossom tree whose petals flew in front of our faces and onto our hair. Nezuko's smile was beautiful just like she, herself, was. Her gentle laugh was like clouds that floated in the sky.

Friends.

I can handle that, I thought as I walked away with that smile still stuck on my face.