Violet Roses | Saiki K

Chapter 25

After school, Akemi waited at the front for Teruhashi to walk home with her. Right before Teruhashi got surrounded by boys, she had asked Akemi if they could walk home together. But now, Akemi had been waiting a while and Teruhashi wasn't in sight. Akemi figured she was still dealing with her fan club, but she didn't know if she should wait or just leave. And after a short debate, Akemi remembered that she hadn't talked to Ren in a few days and decided to just leave, knowing Teruhashi would understand.

When Akemi arrived at the flower shop, she was a little surprised to see how busy it was. Outside, she noticed a woman she had never seen before talking to the people who had gathered around the front of the shop. Akemi stepped inside and saw that it wasn't as busy inside as it was outside, seeing as most of the bouquets people would buy for Valentine's day were outside. But there was still a decent amount of people inside the small shop.

"Oh, hey Akemi," Ren greeted after thanking a customer for their purchase. The man walked past Akemi and out of the shop carrying a bouquet of roses.

"Hey," Akemi replied, walking up to the counter. "It really busy here."

"Yeah, it usually gets like this on Valentine's day," Ren said. Then he sighed, "It can be really tiring. It's like this almost all day."

Akemi hummed before glancing out the window, "Who's the lady out there?"

"Oh, that's my mom," Ren answered, following her gaze then looking back at her. "Whenever it gets busy, one of my parents will go outside and just let people buy stuff without having to come in. It really helps since there's not a ton of room inside."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Akemi muttered before someone walked up behind her and she moved to let Ren help the person.

After a minute, the person left and Ren looked at her, "Hey, if you want, I can ask my dad to take over for a bit so we can talk. I need a break anyways."

"Ok, sure," Akemi replied.

"Ok, great. I'll be right back." Ren said before he disappeared through the door behind the counter. After just a few seconds, Ren came back with a brown-haired man who Akemi could tell was his father even if he hadn't told her a few minutes ago. Ren told Akemi to follow him and she lightly bowed when passing his father before following Ren through the door.

The room they walked into surprised Akemi. It was essentially a mini greenhouse, only with less windows. The room had windows on the ceiling and UV lights were over most of the plants and it was a little stuffy because of the humidity in the room.

"Not a lot of this stuff is in bloom just yet," Ren said, earning Akemi's attention. "Almost everything people are buying now we bought from other gardens. Anyways, follow me."

Akemi followed Ren through the room and over to another door, Akemi followed him through the door and up the stairs that were past it. At the top of the stairs, Akemi saw that it was like she had just stepped into a regular house.

"So, anything happen to you today?" Ren questioned as he lead her into a small living room. Ren sat down on the couch and Akemi sat down in the chair that was near the couch.

Akemi shrugged, "Not really. I did get a good amount of chocolate, so that was cool."

"Did people, like, confess to you?" Ren asked.

"Well, most people just gave me chocolate and stuff, but this one boy did tell me he likes me. It was really awkward because I've never met him before and I kinda felt bad turning him down." Akemi said, shifting in her seat a bit as she remembered the random boy who had cornered her during the time she was going from the lunch room back to her classroom. She had felt extremely uncomfortable the second the boy had told her he walked to talk to her. Akemi instantly got flashbacks to the time someone she didn't know at her old school had asked her out and it ended with the same uncomfortable silence.

"It's better to turn him down than to get into a relationship with someone you don't really like," Ren replied with a shrug.

"Yeah," Akemi agreed with a small sigh. "Has anything like that happened to you?"

Ren shook his head, "No. And I've never been in a relationship."

"Really?" Akemi questioned. She was actually a little surprised, Ren was a nice person and he seemed like someone who would've at least had someone ask him out.

"Really. I've had crushes before, but I just..." Ren trailed off and stared at the floor. Akemi gave him a confused look and he just shook his head and sighed. "I don't know, it's just never happened for me."

Akemi frowned and silence filled the room. She saw Ren shift, looking a little uncomfortable with the silence before he spoke, "Anyways, I have something I wanna tell you about."

"What?" Akemi asked.

"Remember a while back, when that one kid, Kuboyasu, joined your class and those boys started fighting or whatever in front of the shop?" Ren started, earning a nod from Akemi. "Yeah, so, the other day, I was walking home from the store and those same guys showed up and tried to shake me down for money. But then Kuboyasu just kinda showed up outta nowhere and beat them up. It was kinda crazy."

Akemi tilted her head slightly, "So Kuboyasu saved you from being robbed?"

"Yeah," Ren replied, seeming to be holding back a smile. "And then after, he ended up helping bring everything back home and stuff."

"So do you want me to bring him here after school so you two can chat?" Akemi asked, a teasing smile appearing on her face.

Ren's face turned red and he started waving his hands around in front of him, "What?! No! You don't have to- That's not what- I wasn't saying that!"

"Alright, alright, I get it," Akemi replied with a small laugh, putting her hands up defensively. Rem crossed his arms and let out a huff, earning a sigh from Akemi before she stood up. "Well, I'm gonna go. I feel like this day has lasted too long."

"Honestly, I feel the same," Ren agreed. Akemi nodded before Ren showed her to the exit and she started her walk home.

-Author Note-

So, I kinda don't really like this chapter. It seems like filler to me. But whatever, it's just a short chapter here for my Akemi and Ren stuff.

Anyways, I'm running into a slight issue. I have no more chapters written after this. I'm having the problem where I took such a long break from writing this that I've forgotten where it was going and what I was doing. Because of that and some other motivation issues, writing this story just hasn't happened. So, instead of putting this story on an official hold, I'm just going to switch it to super irregular updates. Basically, whenever I have a chapter and feel like posting it, I'm going to. I don't know how long this'll last, I really thought I'd be able to write more of this story before now, but that just hasn't happened.

But yeah, that's that. I don't know when this story will update again, hopefully it's soon and I get back into writing this story, but I wouldn't count on that. So I hope you have a good day and hopefully I'll get back to writing this story soon.

-Starlight