Manic Pixie Precure

Chapter 1 Part 4: Maraschino Cherries

Haru and Fumihiro sat next to each other in the grassy terrain at the front of the school. Haru looked for something fun to do on her phone she can show him, but nothing really stood out. All Fumihiro was paying attention to was keeping himself and Haru safe.

She took out a small round container and poked Fumihiro. "Hey! Guess what's inside the box!" she smiled. He thought for a moment... "Those insanely good cookies you can only get from really cheap stores?" he answered. "Nope! You get two more guesses!" she grew more excited by the second. "A donut from one of those shops across the street?" he guessed. "One more!" she shook. "Rice balls?" he questioned. She shook her head and plopped open the lid...!

"A MINI CAKE!!" she exploded with joy. "Who brings a mini cake to school?!" he thought, but remembered something. "You can have it!" Haru handed him the cake, but something was missing from it. "First off, why are you giving me the whole cake? You're supposed to get some because it's yours. And second, wasn't there something on top?" he asked. "Well it's a plain and basic white cake and I already ate the chocolate one! So I saved this for you!" she replied. She tried sneaking the maraschino cherry that was on the cake away so that she could eat it, but the hummingbird from earlier took it.

Haru jumped in shock and her bright expression dimmed down. She sighed, "Now I don't get to do the bit..." Fumihiro looked in his pocket. He placed something in her hand. "Huh?" she looked. It was a small cookie with cherry jam on it! She quickly ate it, gone in less than half a minute. "Thank you!" she exclaimed. The hummingbird was in the corner, still eating that maraschino cherry.

Fumihiro felt bad to take the entire cake, so he didn't eat much of it. He tried changing the topic. "The other day, I was going home." he started, "I saw a person who looks like they're from those magical girl cartoons. They were on the rooftop" Haru's head was going multiple directions. What should she say? He saw her! He's not supposed to know anything... Does he know?

"OH MY GOSH DID THEY COMMIT SUICIDE?!" she shouted out of uncertainty of how to respond. "No, they kinda just sat there. I didn't see them for long." With that response, she let out a giant sigh in her head.

She thought for a moment about school. It's terrible alone, but it's great since she has a great best friend. He thought about it too. He found it odd having a friend to do group projects with and even just having a friend was odd. Group projects, or even just interactions with energetic and loud people were usually annoying. But Haru wasn't. She smiled and looked at him.

"Fumihiro, I wish this school year would last forever!" she told him. "It's so fun doing performances with you for drumline!" Fumihiro took a moment to reply... What can he say to this? "Yeah... I agree." he responded. Their time at school was great. Even with teachers who might just hate them. Even just this small time after drumline was fun. It'd be nice for it to last forever.

Fumihiro wanted to pay Haru back for the cake, but she tries her best to make it incredibly hard to gift her. A thought popped into his head. "That's right. She really likes black forest cake." he remembered. He briefly checked his lanyard pocket to see how much money he has at the moment. His inspection was interrupted.

"One day when we're in high school, we should come back to visit the drumline!" Haru brought up. Fumihiro agreed and said "Yeah. That idiot section leader would be gone then." Before they could further plan what they were going to do, Haru got a phone call. She answered it and put it on speaker. Her mom isn't too far from the school. She'll go home soon.

Haru made sure that she was ready to go. Her backpack was on and she had her flute and lunch bag. She looked at Fumihiro when the call ended. "Thank you for staying with me! Sorry you had to wait." He shook his head. "It's alright. I really don't mind." She wanted to hug him before she left but didn't know if it'd be weird. Hisato shook the bag in a forward direction so that she'd fall. Fumihiro, instinctively caught her, leaving them in something like a hug.

Not long after they let go, Haru's mom arrived. "Alright! Talk to you later!" she greeted. And so she left to her mom's car and he left to his dad's. On the way home, Haru told her mom about how she tried eating the cherry but a hummingbird took it.

When Fumihiro was going home, he kept his eyes on the stores he'd see when going home. If there are any bakeries or stores with any small black forest cakes or anything similar, he'd save to buy it. His thoughts wandered for a moment, away from giving Haru cakes. "It can't be what I'm thinking it is." he thought and denied. "Even if it is, there's no chance at all."

Haru was having a similar thought process on her way home. "I'm not going to give any signs." she told herself. "There's no chance at all. That's like reading a poorly written 'x reader' fanfiction." she said to herself. Hisato popped out of her bag to whisper to her. "Y'know, that interaction seemed very friendly. " Haru, who didn't understand his tone, whispered back "Of course! He's my best friend!" Hisato sighed and shook his head. He went back into the backpack. This was going absolutely positively nowhere.