in which minami kotori, a fashion student at otonokizaka university, develops a strange fondness for sonoda umi, the girl who sits in the row in front of hers.
[this book is based on a comic strip of kotoumi that inspired me to transform it into an...
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orchid. "exotic beauty"
— in which their hearts meet.
~
kotori sighs and slumps downinto her bed, completely disregarding her wet hair, and throws a hand over her face. after half an hour of wandering around the dōjō, she had failed to find even a hint of umi, and had eventually given up and chosen to head back to her dorm room.
but lying there, she wonders if she should have stayed there — stayed and kept searching. she doesn't know what to feel anymore: only a harrowing sensation remained in her chest.
"...why..." she closes her eyes, and the first thing she sees, as always, was the ghost of umi's smile. a ghost of something she had within her reach, but because of her selfishness, had pushed away.
why was she so afraid? was she that afraid to love someone? was that all? or was there something more?
the tears rose quicker than she expected them to. images of hachigoro's apparent disappointment as he revealed his true feelings flashed before her eyes, and she squeezes them shut again. she couldn't forgive herself for shooting him down so quickly, but there was an aching in her heart — a rhythm beating in her chest that reminded her painfully of the girl she had been ignoring for the past few months now.
an autumn gale whisks in through the window, and kotori frowns when several of her notepads and open books have their pages turned, slightly irked by the noise. groaning, she stands up and moves to snap her books closed, but she comes to a halt when her eyes catch the page.
the simple sketch she had done of umi's back when they talked for the first time, the usual glint of her deep-blue earrings and the dull shine in her copper eyes amounting to nothing on paper, the same downward tilt of her head as she analysed the book in front of her as long dark-blue hair fell softly over her eyes. kotori couldn't believe that she managed to capture her so accurately, but still — kotori knew — it was a mere shadow of her true beauty.
"is this yours?"
shame — the same feeling she had when she had even entertained the idea of dropping out of college — crept through her veins. how could she only have a sketch of the girl she used to spend entire days with? it was pathetic; she could have had more days of laughter, smiles, and nauseating warmth filling her chest with every second she spent staring into copper irises that stared down at her with unbridled affection.
but she had pushed it all away.
the tears were streaming down her cheeks now, and kotori hadn't bothered to stop them. the aching in her chest was crushing her now, and she stood there, shaking, allowing salty tears to roll down her face, as if it would help her deal with the agony that constantly plagued her.
