The Lion's Fang and the White Flower: A Secret Love of Missed Confessions
The summer before their second year of high school. Botan, a member of the literature club, is called out by her classmate, Raiga Shishio, who she secretly has feelings for. With a serious face, Raiga says, "There's something I've always wanted to tell you." Botan's heart races.
But his shocking confession is: "I have a crush on your best friend, Suzume. I need your help." Hiding her heartbreak, Botan forces a smile and agrees. Thus begins a week-long slapstick romantic comedy filled with tangl
The Lion's Fang and the White Flower: A Secret Love of Missed Confessions - The Promise at Confession Hill After the Final Performance, and a New Reply at Dusk
The curtain rises.
It should have been just that, yet Botan's hands trembled faintly.
In the wings of the gymnasium stage. She touched the cold steel frame, and the chill spread from her fingertips. Botan gently closed her eyes at the sensation.
*(It's beginning.)*
When she thought about it, it had been an unbelievable week. The rooftop where Raiga had called her out. Suzume's tears. Reiji's quiet eyes. In that classroom turned upside down, she had let everything spill out.
She had stopped forcing herself to smile. She had stopped killing her own feelings for someone else's sake.
*(That was my first step.)*
So this is the story that follows.
Botan opened her clenched fist. In her palm, the mark of a small scratch she'd gotten without noticing. That, too, was a part of that night.
" ...It's okay now."
She murmured it quietly, as if telling herself.
The audience was wrapped in a quiet heat. The murmuring had vanished, and over five hundred people, as if a single living creature, held their breath and gazed at the stage.
The lights illuminated Suzume and Raiga.
It was a stillness so perfect, like a painting.
Suzume clenched her trembling fingers tightly. Her eyelids, swollen from crying the night before, were still a little red, and the ends of her fluffy bob were just slightly more unruly than usual. But her hazel eyes looked straight ahead.
Raiga stood with his back straight. His hands hung awkwardly at his sides, more uncertain than she had ever seen them. But from his dark eyes, one trace of hesitation seemed to have vanished.
Suzume took one step forward.
The first words to break the silence.
" I've been hiding something, all this time."
Her voice wasn't its usual bright, bell-like tone.
It was thin and trembling, like the wings of a newly hatched chick.
" I loved him. Ever since middle school. But that person... he only ever looked at my most precious friend."
In the wings, she sensed Reiji quietly catch his breath.
He was leaning against the wall next to Botan. His eyes weren't their usual sleepy ones. His narrow gray eyes were fixed intently on the two on stage.
" And so, I... used someone else. Someone who told me they liked me. Without even understanding their feelings, just to cover up my own jealousy and sadness."
Large tears spilled from Suzume's eyes.
They weren't sharp like blades, as they had been last night. They were just warm, bitter tears of regret.
" I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Raiga."
Those words were completely improvised, not in the script.
Raiga's shoulders trembled slightly.
He slowly turned his body toward Suzume. On his face, there was no more anger, no more sadness. There was only a serious expression, ready to accept her heart directly.
" ...I was wrong, too."
Raiga's voice echoed through the quiet gymnasium.
" I was just running on my own feelings. I didn't even have the right to like anyone. I wasn't really looking at you, either. And the guy who helped me... I hadn't really been looking at him, all this time."
Those words were directed straight at Suzume, and at Botan in the wings.
" I won't make that mistake again. I won't turn away from someone's feelings. I'll face this feeling of love properly. That's my first step."
From all around the venue, the sound of sniffling began to rise.
Everyone already understood that these weren't just lines from a play.
Suzume took one step closer to Raiga.
And then, as if handling something fragile, she gently took his hand.
" ...Thank you."
" ...Yeah."
In that moment, something that had been stretched taut softly unraveled.
In the wings. Botan gripped her microphone.
No good; tears blurred her vision.
*(This is our story.)*
At first, it was just one-way feelings, a mess, no one looking straight at anyone else.
Even so, they hurt each other, got hurt, and still tried to stand up again.
This is the story of those four people's first step.
Botan opened her trembling lips.
" This is... the story of our first step."
Her voice, strangely, did not waver.
Through the microphone, it reached every corner of the gymnasium, quiet but clear.
" It's not over yet. But it has begun. Properly looking at each other's faces, hearing each other's voices... even if it hurts, we won't stop telling each other. That's how we grow up, just a little."
She spun the final words.
" ...So, this is the story of our first step."
The curtain slowly falls.
A moment of silence.
—The next instant, thunderous applause shook the gymnasium.
It wasn't just applause celebrating a success.
Everyone clapped desperately, as if trying to confirm something. The waves of applause mixed with cheers and sobs, becoming one great swell that enveloped the four of them.
Suzume, having returned to the wings, was already crying out loud. Raiga, without a word, gently put his arm around her shoulders.
Reiji pushed himself off the wall.
And then, standing before the tear-streaked Botan, he placed a large hand on her head with a soft *pat*.
" ...You did good."
His voice, unlike its usual lackadaisical tone, trembled just a little.
When she looked up, a single tear was quietly falling from his narrow eyes. It was the first time she had ever seen him cry.
Botan couldn't say anything, just nodded silently.
The four of them, without words, just huddled close together.
At the end of that big day called the culture festival.
All the performances were over, and quiet returned to the once-bustling school.
As if the earlier excitement had been a lie, only a few boys and girls in uniform remained in the hallways. Outside the window, the late afternoon sun was beginning to dye the school building orange.
Botan was alone, leaning against the fence on the rooftop.
Everyone was gathered in the schoolyard preparing for the after-party. From a distance, the crackling sound of the campfire being lit and cheerful laughter drifted on the wind.
*(It's over.)*
So many things had happened.
It all felt like a dream, but the small scar left on her left palm told Botan it was real.
The sky was shifting from blue to orange, and then faintly to purple. It's beautiful, she thought.
That beautiful air gently seeped into the small but warm thing in the center of her chest.
" ...So you were here."
A familiar, low voice.
When she turned around, Raiga was standing at the rooftop entrance.
With the sunset at his back, his expression was shadowed and hard to see. But his presence felt somehow different than before.
" I thought you might be crying."
Botan shook her head slightly.
" ...I won't cry anymore."
She had already cried so much today.
Suzume, Raiga, Reiji—they had all cried together, and then, finally, they could smile.
" ...I see."
Raiga lined up next to her and leaned against the fence.
Close enough that their shoulders almost touched.
" Those lines on stage today. They were true."
Botan caught her breath.
" I think, maybe from the very beginning... I was looking at you, too."
Raiga's words were halting, as if he was desperately trying to confirm what he was saying.
" The way you tried your best for Suzume. The times you forced yourself to smile. On sports day, when you were carrying the tent poles and looked like you were about to cry... I remember all of it."
The sunset illuminated Raiga's profile.
His eyes were fixed straight ahead on the distant, glowing sky.
" I think I mistook that feeling for love for Suzume. I never knew what to call this feeling of wanting to help, wanting to be someone's strength."
He scratched the back of his neck, looking troubled. That gesture was so like him, always too serious, and Botan felt a small warmth in her chest.
" So, I..."
Raiga turned toward Botan.
A serious gaze. Her heart pounded.
" Botan! Raiga! Are you he—"
" Idiot, you're too loud."
With a loud clang, the steel door to the rooftop burst open.
Suzume, who had rushed in with great momentum, stopped dead at the sight of Botan and Raiga. Behind her, Reiji followed at his usual, unhurried pace.
" ...Huh? Could it be you two..."
Suzume blinked rapidly, then grinned mischievously. That face wasn't the one that had seemed crushed by guilt until yesterday. It was the innocent, bright face of the best friend Botan loved.
" Did we interrupt a good part?"
Reiji peered at Botan's face, his mouth relaxing just a little.
" N-No!"
" Wh-What are you saying, Reiji!"
Their voices rang out in unison.
Seeing that, Suzume burst out laughing.
" Ahahaha! What's that, you're totally in sync!"
The twilight rooftop suddenly became lively.
Botan laughed.
This time, it was a truly natural smile.
" ...Hey, everyone."
Botan looked around at the three of them.
" Should we all go somewhere during summer break? There's still... so much we haven't talked about properly."
She couldn't choose someone yet.
She still hadn't sorted out the mess.
But that was okay.
The four of them would face that mess together. They would rebuild their relationships from scratch.
That was her answer, for now.
Suzume said, " That's great! The sea! I want to go to the sea!"
Raiga said, " No, first, do something about that energy of yours."
Reiji said, " ...I don't care either way. But somewhere Botan can enjoy herself would be good."
The conversation bubbled up noisily, as if it had always been this way from the start.
The sun set, and stars began to appear, one by one.
That night.
Lying on her bed at home, Botan stared at the ceiling.
The events of the day replayed like a flashback.
She held up her palm. The wound was already starting to scab over.
*(I'm glad.)*
She truly felt that way.
Just then, the smartphone by her pillow vibrated briefly.
She checked the notification.
It was a message from Raiga.
*'Can we meet up, just the two of us, before summer break starts?'*
For a moment, she thought her heart had stopped.
Only the light of the screen faintly illuminated Botan's face in the dark room.
Even though they had all just been talking together.
That's not fair, Raiga.
But.
Botan hugged the phone tightly to her chest.
She knew the most natural smile she'd ever had was spreading across her face.
" ...Okay."
She moved her finger toward the screen.
The finger pressing the send button no longer trembled.
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