Picked Up A Strange Knight (MewGulf AU)

🌞Chapter 10🌻

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“The cherry blossom front has already reached the northeast, and by this weekend it will be in full bloom.”

Awkwardly holding chopsticks in his hand, Mew repeated the weather lady’s words while I slurped up miso soup next to him. Lately the dishes on the table had all turned Japanese because I’d mentioned that I liked traditional Japanese-style cuisine. Stuffing my cheeks with meat stew. I explained the coming cherry blossom front to Mew: “It’s only in our stupidly peaceful country that there’s a whole weather report on when the flowers bloom.”

“There’s that kind of forecast?” Mew fascinatedly looked at the TV screen.

The weather report showed a live broadcast of popular cherry blossom viewing spots in the city, and the lit-up cherry trees looked quite pretty. Is it really already that time of year… Yeah, now that I think about it, it’s getting warmer recently.

Unlike me who kept extending my chopsticks toward the other side dishes, Mew had completely stopped eating, too caught up in staring at the TV. This guy, he has a habit of stopping whatever he’s doing whenever something really interesting pops up in front of his eyes. I already understood this about him. It seems like the distance between us was shortening.

“You wanna go?”

“Eh…?”

“Tomorrow, let’s go flower viewing.” 

“Gulf…!!”

Mew’s entire aura overflowed with happiness. I laughed, and after dissuading him from exaggeratedly thanking me in the form of a bow, resumed my meal.

It was flower viewing season and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, plus it was also the weekend… I really should have guessed that there would be a huge crowd.

We got off the train station. As soon as we exited, we saw the park’s fully-bloomed cherry blossom trees. “Magnificent” was the only word you could say to describe them. But, all of the families, couples, tourists, and especially those freakin’ old men who threw picnic blankets on the ground using flower viewing as an excuse to drink… all of these people who had also come absolutely marred the atmosphere. To have to face this overwhelmingly crowded place by myself for this pain-in-the-ass holiday… yeah, the me from last year wouldn’t even consider it.

This guy over here, though, had gotten super hyped up for his first time. With sparkling eyes he glanced around the area, then looked at the cherry blossoms, then at the festival stalls. While he was happily busying himself, I had the unusual thought that I was glad to have brought him here.

“We should look while we walk around.”

I led the way and walked ahead, and like he’d been pulled, Mew also started walking. I recognized how to navigate the crowds and slowly advanced. At this time, you had to follow the stream of the people and walk along with them in order to stay safe.

I had only walked a little bit when I suddenly got worried over whether Mew was okay or not. When I turned back to check on him, my body swayed.

This is bad, I got caught up in the flow of the crowd. Even if I desperately try to stay in place, my body keeps getting steadily pushed in the opposite direction. Shit, if I get separated from that guy in a place like this…!