GARDENIA ver. White | Purity, Gentleness

By now, it is well past midnight as the group remains in Holly’s dorm. The room's owner is passed out drunk on her bed, and Sho is face-planted over the table in the same state.

Yuri and Tsubaki take to the corner of the room, where they play another game of UNO by themselves.

“Draw two!”

“There’s no such thing as friendship in this game,” Yuri sighs. “I wish Ren was here. At least he wouldn’t betray me.”

Tsubaki chuckles. “He would not want to be around to see this mess.” 

“True … Don’t be mad, but draw four.”

“Jokes on you. Draw eight!”

“Wait, what?! Are you fu—”

knock knock knock

It goes quiet as they look towards the front door.

“Hey, I’ve seen this happen during a scary movie once—”

“Shut up, Tsubaki,” Yuri says as he stands up and makes his way to the door. “I hope it’s not someone coming to complain.”

When he opens the door, his eyes lower themselves, and he stares, puzzled, at the person standing on the other side. Not only is it someone he doesn’t recognize, but someone who doesn’t even look old enough to be a university student.

“Uhm … can I help you…?”

The person, who stood a head shorter than Yuri, dressed in a black oversized hoodie, looked up at him with a matching puzzled expression.

Before another word could be spoken, Holly’s eyes groggily open from her deep drunken slumber, and when she turns to the open door and notices the individual outside of it, she immediately sobers up.

“Wh-what are you doing here?!” she yells while springing up from the bed, startling everyone else in the room. Sho awakens from the commotion and wipes at his heavy eyes as he glimpses at the doorway.

“Huh … is that Momo?”

The four friends sit around the wooden table, tense and quiet, as a fifth person sits among them. Holly puts her hand to her forehead as she knits her eyebrows together, exhaling a long, drawn-out sigh.

“This is my little brother, Momo. He’s a third-year in high school.”

She grabs the draped black hood over her brother’s head and pulls it down, showcasing the boy’s curly plum-colored hair.

“They have the same face....” Tsubaki thinks to himself as he looks at the siblings. “With how short he is, I thought he was, at most, a first-year student.”

Holly nudges the smaller one. “Momo, this is Yuri, and he’s Tsubaki. You already know Sho.” 

Yuri and Tsubaki both look at Momo, but the little brother doesn’t say a thing. 

“Awkward…” 

“He’s staring…”

Holly crosses her arms and turns her whole body toward her brother before scolding him. “You really took the bus all the way over here? Look how late it is. You’re lucky it’s the weekend. What were you thinking?!”

The other boys can only sit in the background as Holly berates Momo.

Tsubaki tries to look everywhere else in the room as he begins to sweat. “She sounds like a mom.”

Yuri follows suit and mentally adds, “She sounds like my mom.”

Sho just smiles blankly at the scene because he’s used to it.

Holly holds her head both from frustration and the alcohol. “Ugh, sorry everyone. I’m gonna have to call it a night.”

Yuri and Tsubaki get up simultaneously as if they were just waiting for the cue. 

“Don’t worry about us!” 

“Yeah, we’ll leave you guys be.” 

“See ya later!” The two waved, and just like that, they left out the door swiftly and smoothly, leaving Sho, Momo, and Holly in the dorm.

Sho was about to follow suit, a foot nearly out the door, when he looked back to see the little brother quietly sitting on the edge of his sister’s bed. His black hood came back over his head again as his gloomy gaze lay lowly to the floor where his feet shuffled.

Sho puts on a smile and closes the door, staying inside. 

“Hey, how about I sleep over, too?” he chimes. “It’s been forever since the three of us got to hang out.”

“No, Sho—” Holly was about to say but was stopped when a weight latched onto her arm.

“Pleeaassee, Holly?” Momo begged after springing off the bed. “Can Big Bro Sho stay the night with us?” 

Holly’s stunned as she looks back and forth between the two. Sho and Momo both give her puppy eyes, and her face scrunches up.

“AH! Fine! Ugh, I feel like I’m gonna puke.”

Holly walks her way to the bathroom, and behind her back, Sho and Momo give each other fist bumps. Holly then turns around, and Sho instinctively puts his hands up. She glares at him with her finger pointed.

“And you’re sleeping on the floor.”

“Copy that.”

And for the first time in a while, Momo puts on a big smile as he breaks into laughter.

✻ ✻ ✻

It’s later in the afternoon the next day when they take an hour's drive to the neighboring prefecture of Nara. Sho’s leaning on the side of his car and watches Holly and Momo stand at the front of the boy’s house.

“Mom’s not home, huh?” She feels a tug on her sleeve, and she looks over at her brother. 

He stared at the concrete ground underneath him and said in a shaking voice, “I don’t want you to go … I wish we could be one family again … like before…” His lips begin to quiver, and Holly looks at him softly, pulling him into a hug as he cries, “I don’t want to live with Mom anymore....” 

He trembles, weeping into his sister's chest, who gently strokes his head, her fingers unraveling through his curls. 

“I know you don’t,” she hushes. “I know it’s been hard....” 

What was said next could only be heard by the boy’s ears, but when Sho saw Momo’s face light up with a brimming smile on his face, Sho could only smile at the two softly.

Holly gets back in the car where Momo is seen waving cheerfully through the window. Sho puts the key in the ignition, starting the car, and he smiles. “You’re a good older sister.”

“Shut up,” she disregards as she waves one last time at her brother.

Sho lets out a laugh, and when the car begins to move, Holly’s expression melts into a warm smile.