"Really?" I ask. "That's why the day Miyuki was here—"

"Seiko, you don't understand," he interrupts, and his voice is thin. Fragile. His hand is steady as ever as he continues to paint, but the tips of his fingers are white. "I'm going back to my birthplace. Okayama. It's been coming for a long time."

I freeze, feeling like someone's punched me in the gut. "What?" I manage, eyes wide. "You're leaving Tokyo?"

"Rinne's family and mine—we're all from Okayama," he tells me. "We planned to move back there at the end of the school year, but since Rinne's parents don't see a point in staying here until then..." he draws in a deep, shaky breath. "I don't understand why we have to go with them, but we are. I guess my parents want us to be there as, I don't know, emotional support to them. The point is, we're leaving tomorrow."

"Am I...am I ever going to see you again?" I ask quietly, feeling tears form. "Are you ever going to come back to Tokyo?"

"For university, I am," he answers, choosing a new color for the asters, a bright, more vivid red than the pictures. "Which is in a couple of years. But as for seeing you...I just don't know, Seiko. I'm not going to forget you, never, not when you've been such a good friend to me. I'll make sure to stop by here anytime I come here."

I wipe the tears from my eyes. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I don't know. At first it wouldn't have mattered to you, but then I guess it slipped my mind," he exhales. "The thing is, I'm so used to the fact we're moving that it just didn't register in my mind anymore. Just today, I packed up all my clothes except for a few. I realized that I need to tell you—I mean, I can't just disappear all of a sudden, right?"

"No, you can't," I agree, struggling to regulate my breathing. I don't want to accept this. I don't want to say good-bye to him. I don't want to be apart from him. "So you came all the way here to say so?"

"You're my only friend who doesn't treat me like I'm made of glass," he says. "I feel more relaxed around you these days, because you don't treat me any different from a normal person. You don't skirt around the subject of Rinne unlike others, who're afraid it'll set me off crying or something. You just...you're the only friend who's been really there for me, lately. So I wanted to spend the day with you. My last day."

"I'm not doing anything, Riki," I protest.

"No?" he doesn't look at me, but his voice is steady now. "Who gave me all the flowers, without me asking? Who doesn't tell me the usual crap they feed grieving people? True, you haven't done much physically. But you just being a good friend, treating me like a normal person, has helped me a hell lot more than anything else."

"Riki..." I swallow. "I don't know what to say."

"It's okay if you don't," he looks at me now, and his own eyes are glistening with tears. "All I want to say is thank you for everything. I don't want to leave you behind. I don't want to leave my whole life behind. But it's not as if I have a choice, so I'm just doing my best to appreciate what I have."

"You're welcome," I say, putting a hand on his free one. The touch makes me feel even worse, but better at the same time. "Let's get that painting done, yeah? I've got one last thing for you today before you go."

He smiles at me again, but it's sad and painful. I return it with one of my own and get up to get the flowers I want. This time, I'm not giving it to him for Rinne. It's a present from me to him and only him. Nobody else.

Wandering between the aisles, I wipe furiously at my tears. I shouldn't be crying over a boy I met a few weeks ago. But what can I do? I've discovered that I really care for him, and I've discovered that things like this—it can happen in the blink of an eye.

He just used to be the cute boy I saw taking pictures of a flower. How did we get here? How did I get here?

Sniffling, I reach up to the shelf. It's not that high, thankfully. I pluck as many flowers as I dare to pick without getting in trouble, and stand there for a while, staring at them. So small and delicate, like how my heart feels right now. Forget-me-nots...the name is something I often think of kind of silly, maybe cute, but right now, it feels horribly true.

I grab some more violets and head back after a while. It feels like it's been only mere seconds, but when I finally go back to Riki, having rubbed away all the tears and fixing a normal expression onto my face, he's finished his painting and is carefully wrapping up his used brushes in paper and sticking them into his pocket.

"Time to go already?" I ask.

"Yeah...need to help with packing, and all," he answers regretfully. "I'll miss you; you know. You've made an impact on me, Matsuki Seiko."

"As have you, Nishimura Riki," I respond, "so I want to give you this. Just for you."

"Just for me...?" he looks at me in confusion as I come to stand beside him and do the usual bouquet. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," I say, my voice cracking as I fold the paper over the flower stems, "that this bouquet here is intended for you. Not Rinne. It's a gift from me to you and only you. No one else."

"What are they?" he finally asks me after a few seconds of silence. "The ones besides the violets, I mean."

"Forget-me-nots," I say. I don't intend on hiding it anymore. I'm telling him the truth the best way I know how to. "One meaning is in the name. Another is that I, the giver, am never going to forget you. By giving these to you, I'm making a promise that I will always remember you and keep you in my thoughts. Another is true love."

He flinches. "True love?"

"I don't know if I love you," I say, my voice trembling, "but I know have strong romantic feelings for you, Riki. You used to be cute boy photographing a flower I just happened to leave by the school gates. But now, you mean so much more than to me."

"Seiko, I—"

I barrel on, desperate to get it all out before I lose my nerve. "Forget-me-nots as a gift is known as the sweetest gesture of love since they generally have to be picked from a garden by the giver—in this case, the flower shop here. And, pairing them with blue violets, which means faithfulness and that I'll always be there..." I take a breath. "You get the point. I didn't know how else to tell you this, and to think I'm telling you this right before you leave—"

"Hey, it's alright," he interrupts me. "Seiko, you know that I—"

"Don't feel the same way, yes."

"But still, I'm honestly flattered that you, someone I met in a flower shop, while I was losing it over someone else, has feelings for me in that way," he admits. "And although I don't think I can return your feelings, I'm not going to trample on them, either. Consider this a gentle rejection. But I will consider you one of the greatest friends I've ever had. It's why I made you this painting."

"For me?" my eyes widen as he hands me the torn-out page. "Really?"

"Really," he smiles again, and it's enough for my tears to start up again. "That was the point of me coming here for the flowers you gave me, this whole time."

"I don't know what to say," I whisper, staring at the painting with bright, vivid colors that are so different yet so similar to the original flowers. "Thank you so much, Riki..."

"You're welcome," he takes the drawing from me when my tears start rolling down my face and sets it down on the counter. "You've noticed the colors are somewhat changed, right?"

"Yeah, I've noticed. Why?"

"I call this one Everlasting Blossoms," he says. "It sounds kind of cringe, but that's the best one I could come up with. See that the background is all grey and ruined and all? That's supposed to mean that while everything around the flowers falls, dies, and turns into ruins, the flowers themselves prosper."

"Are they magic?"

"In a way, I suppose," he looks at me like he's never considered that one before. "But the point is, those flowers are supposed to symbolize everything I've known here in Tokyo, including you. No matter what changes are brought into my life, no matter how old I grow, all of that, you, will always stay with me in my memories."

I really start crying now. "You're impossibly incredible," I blurt. He flushes with color at that—he really doesn't know how to handle compliments, does he? It's adorable, but now, it's adorable in a way that makes my heart ache.

How long till I see that face again? That smile? It seems impossible that I ever will.

"I need to go now," Riki says, picking up his sketchbook, paint set and camera—and of course, the forget-me-nots and violets. "But just know that you'll always be in my thoughts, okay?"

He awkwardly hugs me with his things in his hands. "Bye, Seiko."

I hug him back as tightly as I dare. "Good-bye, Riki."

He waves and smiles at me one last time as he leaves—and as soon as he's gone, I sit down and start to cry.

***

"Seiko-chan, why do you look like you've cried?" my mother asks me, concerned, as soon as I arrive home that night. "Did something happen."

"I'm fine, Mom," I smile reassuringly at her. "Don't worry."

I ignore all other questions that are currently streaming from my worried grandmother, and go into my bedroom. I'm lucky that I'm the only girl with a room of my own in this large extended family of cousins and uncles and aunts in addition to my parents and siblings and grandmother.

The room is dark, so I flip on the overhead light and hunt through the drawers of my study table to find the tape. When I do find it, I snip off a few pieces with the scissor lying on the table, one I hadn't bothered to put away.

I climb onto my bed and use one hand to hold the painting Riki gave me steady while my other hand uses the tape to secure it in place to the wall. When I'm done, I lean back and stare at it, thinking of him.

Of his smile, the way his eyes crinkle up and how shy he looks. Of him in tears the first time we met. Of the look of concentration over his face as he painted for me. Of the hug he gave me before he left. I think of Nishimura Riki, the boy I can safely consider my first love, the one who taught me what it's like to feel such things.

I'll never forget him. Never.

✧✧✧

WORD COUNT: 1939

A/N: i think it's safe to assume i've achieved my goal lol