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#otome flower life
aashiyancha · 28 days
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March of the Flowers Day 1: Daffodils (A new start!)
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Featuring Bakarina and Maria!
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beneaththetangles · 2 days
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It’s a big day for manga, manhwa light novel releases, and we’ve got reviews for you of a number of those hitting shelves today! Romance, slice-of-life, fantasy, and all manner of series crossing these borders are on the docket. Check out our thoughts below!
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The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life (Vol. 1) • The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom (Vol. 5) • Honey Lemon Soda (Vol. 5) • I Want a Gal Gamer to Praise Me (Vol. 1) • Maiden of the Needle (Light Novel, Vol. 2) • Maiden of the Needle (Manga, Vol. 2) • Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (Vol. 2) • Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon (Vol. 2) • The Remarried Empress (Vol. 6) • The Uncanny Counter (Vol. 1)
(Read More)
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annatateson · 2 years
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GREETINGS SIX... wait, one of those is just my main blog... FIVE ESTEEMED FOLLOWERS!
Some of you may remember my the hubristic claims I made earlier this year that I would participate in NaNoRenO on top of moving house...
Well, none of that happened BUT, depite STILL BEING IN THE PROCESS OF MOVING HOUSE OVER SIX MONTHS LATER (hmm... calm... cool grass... soft sheep), I have been slowly working on the project in between my games art job and last week finally stumbled on some delicious, unexpected free time to make an incredibly cursed meme and ALSO finally draw up a first draft of the main characters!
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YES, they are currently nude (I gave them some flowers to protect their modesty because some of them wouldn't want their genitals broadcast on the internet and I treat my characters with some DAMN RESPECT) but I shall give them clothes all in good time and also coif their hair into impeccable period accurate updos (well, somewhat accurate...).
I also want to do some fun experimenting with different art styles. I thought that this semi-realistic style would be a good starting point to branch out from, though (though I would add a load of shading and stuff since they're currently just block colours underneath a sketch...).
Anway, yeah, the game is called Flowers of Blood and I hope that it's everything my fourteen year old weeby babybat self could have dreamed of! It will be full of queerness, gothic tropes, sexy vampires, mystery and romance!
I want to keep a sort of devblog here to record this process and I love looking at this sort of thing myself so maybe someone else will enjoy watching me trying to scramble together a game on my ownsome! :D Maybe someone wants to come and watch me crash and burn! Free schadenfreude :D
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saeyoungchoismaid · 1 year
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Congrats on four years!!! 🎉🎉🎉
For your Otome Life game:
Chrysanthemum, Orchid, Dahlia
Purple for all the flowers
Fandoms: Genshin Impact & Obey Me
Any gender for the roles
Thanks!
your s/o is Beel!!
your rival is Leviathan!!
your bff is Fischl!!
your secret admirer is Diluc!!
Your Otome Life!
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englishotomegames · 2 months
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Aksys Games has announced three new otome game titles they will be localizing in 2024 / 2025 for the Nintendo Switch!
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Despera Drops (2025)
"In the summer of 2028, Mika Amamine, studying abroad at a university in Bologna, Italy, visits Rome for a short trip with friends to celebrate the end of exams. However, during that trip, she encounters a murder incident and is subsequently arrested as a suspect.
While being transported in a police vehicle, it suddenly overturns in an accident, freeing Mika along with six other criminals and they all become fugitives. Mysterious attackers appear, targeting the unique “power” that Mika possesses, and the group finds themselves pursued by both the police and the attackers.
The secret hidden within Mika’s power, the identity of the attackers, and the truth behind the murder incident that started it all… Can they unravel these mysteries and reclaim a normal life?"
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Virche Evermore -EpiC: Lycoris- (Fall 2024)
The fandisc for Virche Evermore: ErroR:salvation.
"Return to the island of Arpéchéle where, surrounded by the sea and black flowers of misfortune called Lycoris Noirge, humans are cursed to die by age 23. Five new tales further explore the world of Virche Evermore. Experience the new despair and salvation that awaits Ceres and her suitors."
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Radiant Tale -Fanfare- (Summer 2024)
The fandisc for Radiant Tale.
"Includes all-new stories, including sugary sweet after-stories that follow the happy endings with the five love interests in the original game, as well as new routes with two side characters following the normal ending of the common route. Additionally, the fandisk contains a collection of mini-episodes of events that occurred throughout the original main story, allowing fans to further enjoy its contents."
Aksys is also set to release Tengoku Struggle -strayside- on April 4th, 2024.
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ystrike1 · 3 months
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For My Adorable Fiance's Sake - By Yuhki (7.5/10)
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Sugar, NO spice, and everything NICE! This year I am reading the sweetest yandere offerings available. A boy and a girl in mutual love. They're wealthy, engaged, and smart for their age. We readers get to watch them grow and mature into capable adults. The girl is too sweet. The boy is mostly not.
Our protagonist is a doting groom to be who feels like the luckiest boy in the world. His heartless arranged marriage....is the best thing that ever happened to him! His fiance is his favorite thing in the world.
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His personality is a bit...bad...
His happy marriage is going to reform him into a BETTER ADULT. His yandere phase is portrayed as something he needs to grow out of.
How wholesome is that!!!!???
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Francine is The Cure. The solution to every problem. Elliot doesn't have to be sad or bitter about his position in life, or his responsibilities. He has to be the best man to have her, so that's what he will become.
Francine is a tiny bit boring and naive....but whatever she's a kid. A little cute kid. Her naive side is totally normal.
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Our protagonist, Elliot, doesn't know he's in an Otome Game. His marriage and his title are his main responsibilities. The first chapter is hilarious.
The main character from the game immediately gets kicked out of the protagonist position.
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Original Heroine-Chan says some cringe junk for one page....
....aaannnnnddd she's gone....
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Elliot slaps her with a one hit K.O
An elegant one.
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Francine doesn't know about his dark side. She thinks he's pure like her, because he's so happy around her.
He's been cutting a flower path for her.
All of her enemies.
All of the envy on her.
She never sees or hears anything about it.
Francine lives in a dream world, where nothing bad can happen to her.
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It's no accident.
Elliot wants her life to be that way.
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The parents in this world are very capable. They know Elliot wants to prove himself and become an excellent man for Francine's sake.
They encourage him AND Francine.
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Elliot and Francine are sent to an orphanage. When they grow up they will be in charge of funding the orphanages in their territory. The parents tell them to investigate a small orphanage.
Elliot quickly figures out that the director is corrupt.
Francine comes up with ideas that will help the children. She doesn't just want to throw money into charity. She wants reform.
They're both great in different ways.
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cowboahs · 1 year
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ways to love
feel free to adjust pronouns / names as needed ! quotes taken from random sources or otome games. i claim no ownership whatsoever.
❛   you are the first person i ever loved.  ❜  
❛   i think you will be the last person i will ever love.  ❜  
❛   i need you to be my forever.  ❜  
❛   i still can’t believe i get to take you home with me every night.  ❜  
❛   i am undeniably falling for you.  ❜  
❛   on our way to forever, together.  ❜  
❛   i just can’t believe how beautiful you are.  ❜  
❛   i have fallen deeply, madly in love with you.  ❜  
❛    even if it takes 500 years, i will prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that i loved you.  ❜  
❛   you vanished from my life before i ever told you my feelings. and i've chased your shadow ever since then.  ❜  
❛    if i can't have you, i have no reason to be alive  ❜  
❛   i've got so much more to lose without you by my side.  ❜  
❛   i never knew i could feel at ease just by someone holding me like this. ❜  
❛   i felt very comfortable walking with you. so much, that i, myself forgot to strike up conversation. ❜  
❛   surely your smile would make even the blossoming flowers blush.  ❜  
❛   in my heart, i have counted every time you have smiled at me, or spoken to me.  ❜  
❛   it doesn't matter to me who you are. right now, you are by my side. that is enough.  ❜  
❛   you make me hate myself a little less whenever i’m with you.  ❜  
❛   i will choose you, over and over again. i will always choose you.  ❜  
❛   if you remember me, then i don’t care if everyone else forgets. ❜  
❛   in case you ever foolishly forget: i am never not thinking of you.  ❜  
❛   i like myself better when i’m with you.  ❜  
❛   i love you more than i hate everyone else.  ❜  
❛   you pierce my soul. i am half agony, half hope... i have loved none but you. ❜  
❛   i wish i had done everything with you.  ❜  
❛   i wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul. ❜  
❛   you must allow me to tell you how ardently i admire and love you.  ❜  
❛   each time you happen to me all over again.  ❜  
❛   i could list a hundred things i like about you, and i still wouldn’t have said anything.  ❜  
❛   the minute i heard my first love story, i started looking for you.  ❜  
❛   i look at you and i would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world.  ❜  
❛   you are my heart, my life, my one and only thought.  ❜  
❛   you might not have been my first love, but you were the love that made all the other loves irrelevant.  ❜  
❛   i love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. ❜  
❛   they could offer me anything in the world, and i would ask for you.  ❜  
❛   you are the friend to whom my soul is attached as to its better half.  ❜  
❛   my affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.  ❜  
❛   if I were to live a thousand years, i would belong to you for all of them.  ❜  
❛   i do love nothing in the world so well as you — is that not strange?  ❜  
❛   if you ever have need of my life, come and take it. it is yours anyways.  ❜  
❛    i’ve never had a moment’s doubt. i love you. ❜  
❛   every second with you outweighs days of life before i met you. ❜  
❛   you weren’t doing a thing that i could see, except standing there, holding the universe together. ❜  
❛   i love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.  ❜  
❛   i want to know you moved and breathed in the same world as me. ❜  
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rainedragon · 8 months
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Mini Lolita Fashion History Lesson: MILK
Today, MILK is generally known as an 'otome' or 'girly' brand, and many of their modern items don't look like what modern lolita think of as lolita.
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A recent MILK collection However, in the late 80s and early 90s, MILK was considered to be one of the quintessential Lolita brands.
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1990s lolita wearing MILK In a 1994 zipper interview about the history of lolita fashion the brand representative for MILK states "I think what is now called lolita fashion is the fashion that milk has been making for a long time."
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MILK was founded in 1970 by Hitomi Okawa (大川ひとみ). When Hitomi Okawa started as a designer there were not many DC brands yet and ready to wear fashion was really just starting to become more widespread in Japan. Okawa attended an art university in Kyoto because of a love of drawing that started in elementary school. She used to draw illustrations of girls and make things like paper dolls. At the age of 11, she drew many pictures of the same clothes and changed the patterns (polka dots, checks, flowers). She grew up the daughter of a doctor, in an affluent home where her mother would read magazines like Harper's Bazaar with 1950s and 1960s American fashion. She also looked at American fashion catalogs as a child, and cites this study of clothing in magazines and catalogs as her earliest sort of "studying" of fashion. 
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50s/60s Harper's Bazaar In addition to drawing inspiration from the 50s & 60s Harper's Bazaar & American clothing catalogs, she also drew inspiration from military uniforms and how they have custom buttons and custom fabric and details like that, as well as current trends in London and Tokyo as the brand continued to develop. When she started however, she says that she was the only one making this sort of cute girly clothing in Japan and she felt like she had to make it because no one else was making what she wanted to wear.
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50s/60s Harper's Bazaar
After graduating from Seian College of Art and Design, Department of Design, she started MILK in Harajuku. She wanted to start in the coolest place possible, so she decided on Central Apartment.
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MILK Shop Front in the 70s, Central Apartment
She had come to Harajuku when she was either in High School or her first year of University and had stood in the middle of the pedestrian bridge right off Harajuku station, and she looked down at Omotesando and thought "Here is the coolest place, I want to be here!", and that's why she chose that location. The Bridge doesn't exist any more, it was torn down in 2011. She wasn't aware at the time that Central Apartment was a popular place for creators, she just thought that street was nice and that Central Apartment was modern and cool. In a 2021 interview she confessed that she sometimes still goes up to the pedestrian bridge on the Yoyogi Park side and looks at Omotesando, and when she does, she feels the same way she did when she was 20 years old.
Central Apartment (原宿セントラルアパート) was initially an apartment complex built in Harajuku in 1958 at the intersection of Meiji-dori. It was initially built for special international travelers like US military personnel. In the mid 1960s/early 1970s, the lower floors were converted into stores with offices in the upper apartment floors.
The Coffee shop Leon on the first floor was a popular spot with creative people. There were also shops like Mademoiselle Nonnon launched by designer Taro Aramaki which sold French style clothing and lots of horizontal stripes. Mademoiselle Nonnon is considered to be the source of the border (horizontal stripe) trend in Japan.
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Initially, "MILK", was expensive and unrealistic for everyday wear, so it was mainly used as a stage costume for idols, however, people started wearing Milk as everyday clothing as time went on.
MILK also experimented with a Bridal line in the 70s as well.
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While their runway looks were generally a bit more loud than the way the pieces would have been worn in real life, you can see some prairie revival influence their early 70s items as well as some silhouettes in the '76 collection that are starting to look more lolita-esque.
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Here are a few runway examples from the 1980s, note the border print of a carousel in the 1988 collection and the knee length ruffled skirt in the 1982 one.
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By the early 1990s, MILK was heavily featured in coordinates worn by young women who considered themselves lolita in magazines like Cutie and Zipper, and was also advertising in those magazines.
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1990-1992 Cutie advertisements for MILK
Early 1990s looks from MILK were fairly consistent with what was on offer from similar shops like PRETTY and Shirley Temple.
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MILK Coordinates from Nene magazine, 1995
Speaking of Shirley Temple, the founder of Shirley Temple, Rei Yanagawa (柳川れい), worked as a designer for MILK before starting the Shirley Temple children's brand in 1974.
As time went on, lolita fashion started to diverge from the MILK style, while MILK followed their own design concept and look more at current trends in girly fashion. Today, some iconic MILK items like their heart purse are still frequently used in lolita fashion, however, it would be difficult to walk into MILK today and put together a coordinate that would read the same as one made from items at Angelic Pretty.
While goth and punk brands typically have no issue relating themselves to goth or punk fashion, brands popular with lolita have sometimes resisted self-describing themselves as lolita, most likely in an attempt to not alienate non lolita customers, due to lolita fashion having a mixed reputation. MILK, like many other Japanese brands, especially DC brands, maintains that they make MILK style, even though their influence on what we call lolita fashion today, is unmistakable.
Past Posts: Olive Girls
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linkemon · 7 months
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Confession headcanons 1
Friendly reminder that English is not my first language. You can check my Masterlists both in English and Polish here.
Consider supporting me on Ko-fi.
Other headcanons from this series can be found here.
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Malleus Draconia
• Malleus' confession of feelings involved a number of obstacles and misunderstandings, although happily resolved.
• He wrote about you many times in letters to his grandmother. And although it made him realize the fragility of relationships with humans, grandma was also very happy knowing that her grandson had experienced such deep love. She really wanted to meet you, even though you didn't know it at the time.
• Draconia's biggest fear and block from telling you how he felt was the fear of loss. In various aspects of it. He was aware that he would certainly outlive you, and from time to time the thought of you returning to the world you came from floated in the back of his mind. In addition, you were his first real friend, not counting the people who were with him every day. Rejection could cost him the entire relationship.
One most ordinary night, he simply realized that the risk was worth trying to tell you how he felt.
• Malleus sprang into action with eager vigour. Unfortunately, these efforts were somewhat misdirected. It took Lilia to clearly explain to him that the customs adopted among fae do not necessarily translate to humans. He was forced to do this, as it were, because after you threw away his family generational necklace, the clouds over Diasomnia were darkening day by day and a disastrous downpour with lightning was brewing.
Meanwhile, you were simply afraid that Grim would destroy such a valuable and expensive gift. You had absolutely no idea of the additional meaning it carried.
• The second attempt was definitely more successful. Malleus gave you the rose seeds he grew in Briar Valley. Planted in Ramshackle, with his magic they turned into a field of red flowers. Combined with the moonlight and the fireflies dancing around you, it created a wonderful atmosphere that you will remember for a long time.
It was then that the fae confessed to you that he had been smitten with you from the very beginning but it was your friendship, so precious to him, that turned into something more. The fact that he knelt down in front of you and promised to give you everything you wanted made you think for a moment that he was going to propose to you. Initially, that's what he planned, but Lilia talked him out of it...
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Idia Shroud
• It's not that Idia didn't know what love was. He had played so many otome games that while he wasn't an expert, he certainly wasn't a noob. However, without Ortho's help, he would not have correctly recognized its signs in real life.
• He started by avoiding you. The rapid heartbeat and red tips of his hair were becoming more and more frequent and it was difficult for him to control them. So he found the best solution he could come up with, which was to lock himself in his room. He avoided you as much as he could all over campus.
• His brother, although he quickly understood through data analysis what was happening to him, did not think it was good to raise the topic too early. Initially, he wanted to give Idia time. Time was clearly running out because the robot, seeing you once again look sadly at the tablet and gave it a wide berth, decided to act. He prepared a series of tests to convince your older brother that you reciprocate his feelings. Of course, Shroud hid under the blanket, mumbled to be left alone. Although he pretended to be uninterested, the speech actually sparked hope in him.
Maybe this time he wasn't a total knight nerd and side hero? Maybe he could play the lead role for once?
• He did what he does best. He designed a program that allowed him to send a request if you wanted to be his girlfriend. At worst, he was going to pretend it was a mistake.
When he saw that instead of checking the tick box, you had come to Ignihyde, he immediately paled. You had to knock on the door, telling him that you wouldn't leave until he explained to you what was actually going on and how this confession related to his constant avoidance of you.
Idia just stuck his head out of the crack, stammered and said that he was like the worst NPC you've ever seen but if you let him have some time, maybe he'll become a main character worthy of you.
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Kalim Al-Asim
• Friendzone should be his middle name. From the beginning of your relationship, he sent you signals that you considered romantic. Until you started spending more time with him around others and you found out that Kalim treated them the same way he treated you. That's when everything started to get confusing for you.
• When you tried to tell him that you liked him very much, he replied that he liked you too. When you said more, he said more, more. And when you said he was more than a friend, he said you were his best friend. He did all this with such a wide smile on his face that you didn't have the heart to explain to him the true meaning of your statements. You knew the sincerity of his words. Few people in the NRC matched him in truthfulness. But it was incredibly frustrating for you.
• Grim knew exactly what was happening, seeing your hearty eyes every time you left the desert dormitory. He calculated in his head how many cans of tuna he would get if you got together with the prefect of Scarabia. This prompted him to not-so-subtly blurt out to Kalim that you were romantically interested in him. In return, he received a promise of a container of fish delicacies.
• The boy was in great shock but in a positive way. He didn't know what to do with all his joy, so he grabbed the first flowers in a vase he had at hand and ran towards the flying carpet. You weren't expecting him at all in the evening, dressed in your pajamas and ready to go to bed. He hugged you so tightly that he almost knocked you over and that was before he even remembered that he hadn't told you why he actually came...
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songsofadelaide · 1 month
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Invisible String
cw: female reader, fluff, slice of life, friends to lovers, time skips, no use of yn and instead follows my usual naming convention (I use Otome as a placeholder for yn since it means maiden, which pretty much means yn too), some inaccurate depictions of university life and inaccurate details about air travel between two countries. wc: 6k
Instead of finding a quiet place where he could lament his last days in junior high school in peace, Oikawa Tooru found you. 
Glimpses of your odd relationship with up-and-coming volleyball superstar Oikawa Tooru, starting from your accidental first meeting to defining the very thing that you have.
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Instead of finding a quiet place where he could lament his last days in junior high school in peace, Oikawa Tooru found you.
He entered the Literature Club room in a rush, noting it was probably the first one he reached without bursting into tears over the Kitagawa Daiichi Boys' Volleyball Club's recent loss to Shiratorizawa Junior High. The brunette expected the room to be empty, but there you were, startled by the rattling of the door after being so engrossed in your own writing.
You recognised him as the boys' volleyball club captain and the object of affection of many of your female classmates. However, he was hardly the image of grace and elegance on the court at the moment, especially since his face was all red trying to contain his tears. He was just as startled as you were when he realised he wasn't alone in the room.
Your mother once said it was rude to stare at people who were crying, especially if they were trying to hide their tears, so you lowered your head and returned to your scribbling. The door was shut close and you thought he had left, but he walked to the corner of the room and sat still for a few minutes before finally speaking.
"Please don't tell anyone you saw me here."
You fished for something in your bag and approached him, getting down on your knees so you were face-to-face with him.
"My mother told me it's rude to ask people why they're crying, but I figured there's nothing to lose for the both of us since we're on our last leg of junior high. Whatever it is you're weeping about, I'm pretty sure you did your best," you told him before handing him a pack of pocket tissues. "You have nothing to worry about. We won't be seeing each other afterwards, anyway."
He chuckled at you before finally taking the tissues in your hand. "I guess you're right."
You were right for the most part since your paths rarely crossed after that single encounter. Your last days of junior high school went by smoothly and peacefully. The romance anthology you wrote as part of the Literature Club was warmly received by members and readers, one of whom was the graduated captain of the boys' volleyball club.
After the graduation day ceremony, Oikawa approached you outside the gymnasium with his signature megawatt smile, diploma and flowers in hand and his gakuran swept off all its golden buttons.
"Writer-chan!"
"It's actually Otome," you replied with your name as you turned to face him. "But not that it matters now. Congratulations."
"Of course it does! Congratulations as well!"
He gently snipped the button on the left sleeve of his gakuran and handed it to you. "Thank you, friend, for reaching out to me back then."
Friend, he said. You were practically strangers with a shared secret, but you indulged him, seeing as you won't be seeing him again, after all. You took the single button from his palm with a smile. "You're welcome, friend."
You likened him to the ocean's waves— refreshing, but always coming and going. Waves weren't meant to stay in one place for so long, so you saw no point in needlessly wading in the cool waters.
I don't want to drown, after all, you thought to yourself.
Oikawa had the most bewildered look on his face when you bumped into each other on your first week of senior high school at Aoba Johsai and you knew you looked just as surprised by the encounter.
"It's writer-chan!" He greeted you with his most pleasant smile. "And here I thought we'd never see each other again!"
He made it a point for the two of you to exchange contact details, saying something about how the gods of fate must definitely want you to have something to do with each other. A brooding figure approached from behind him, brows knotted as he pushed the taller boy who still had your cell phone in his hands. You recognised him as Oikawa's wing spiker from Kitagawa Daichi as well as his closest friend.
"The hell are you doing picking up girls in the middle of the hallway, Trashykawa?" Iwaizumi Hajime barked at him, prompting him to hand back your phone to you.
"I'm not picking her up, Iwa-chan! She's from Kitaichi! My friend from the Literature Club!" The taller brunet whined. "Don't mind him, Otome-chan. He probably woke up on the wrong side of the— Ow!"
"You can talk later. We're gonna be late for our tryouts," Iwaizumi stated before nudging him forward on his feet.
"We'll see you around, Otome-chan!" Oikawa waved back at you as they made their way to the school gymnasium. Iwaizumi managed a small nod at you before turning to reprimand the setter for holding them up.
Throughout your high school life, you couldn't count how many times you sharply dismissed the gossip surrounding your odd friendship with the boys' volleyball club setter, who rose to become the team captain in your third year. Oikawa's keen-eyed watchers found him occasionally dropping by the Literature Club for no apparent reason other than to talk to you. Those rumours were quickly shut down when he was spotted with a different girl in his arm— a classmate of yours, the kind of girl you'd want to do things for because of her charming face and personality. You didn't find it that surprising at all. In fact, they looked really good together.
You paid no mind to the fact that he was purposely ignoring you now whenever you passed by each other in the hallways. Not that you ever made the initiative to greet him first, but there were times when you looked at him rather expectantly and he would just avert his gaze. Iwaizumi told you that it wasn't just you Oikawa was avoiding, but basically the whole female student body. You realised that the whole thing was probably orchestrated by his girlfriend.
Typical. He's not one to do things half-heartedly, you thought to yourself. So once again, I'm not surprised.
When you met each other outside of school for the first time in such a long time, you learned to finally grow indifferent to him that you didn't even know what to say to him when he greeted you with one of his dazzling smiles. Oikawa perked up when he spotted you picking up your little sibling, who was one of his students at the local Lil'Tykes Volleyball classes he taught at during his downtime.
"It's Otome-chan!" He called out rather happily, but you coolly turned away and took your younger sibling's hand to make way for home. You heard him choke at your reaction. "O-Otome-chan! Are you ignoring me?!"
"Oh, are we on speaking terms again?" You asked him, pausing on your tracks and merely looking over your shoulder. "Or is it just because we aren't at school?"
Oikawa's young nephew Takeru had dragged your sibling away to practice more tosses with his own volleyball when he realised that his uncle would be held up in a conversation. The tall boy looked rather apologetic before raking a hand through his dark hair. "Ugh. I'm so sorry. I've been a real jerk to you, I know. But there's nothing to worry about now. I—"
"I think the last thing you need right now is a distraction, Oikawa-san," you replied to him, his expression changing once again as you called him by his last name and not how you usually did. "And your girlfriend did a pretty good job clearing your way. It's all right, though. I'm not even a threat to her and yet—"
"We broke up."
"…What?"
Long arms were crossed over his chest now, his immaculately white track jacket crinkling underneath the motion. "W-Well, of course, I won't admit to just anyone that she was the one who ended things because she didn't like how much time I spent playing volleyball. But she should've known that the sport was part of…"
You really didn't pay any more attention to his explanation, but the incredulous look on your face completely gave away your thoughts, because, fuck, the audacity of that bitch—
"I know I should've decided things for myself and I should've listened to Iwa-chan, Mattsun and Makki when they were pointing out all the red flags. Gosh, I still feel so awful about it. I didn't like having to avoid you when there was so much I wanted to talk to you about."
The two of you stood there in silence, the children's laughter and the cool morning breeze filling in the void after he had finished talking.
"Is…" You had grabbed fistfuls of your skirt that was fluttering in the wind, hands shaking as you tried to think of the right words to say. "Is that all?"
"Y-Yeah…" he replied rather uneasily as he saw your fists shuddering rather angrily. He took a step forward toward you and reached out for your balled fists, gently soothing them to loosen your grip before placing one of your palms over his chest rather dramatically. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. And I have to admit, seeing you look at me so indifferently hurts my heart!"
"Wh— Tooru-kun, stop!" You snatched your hand away from his warm grip only for him to pull you closer.
"You called me Tooru-kun! Ah, I'm so happy!" He beamed at you, gently letting you go and finally beckoning his nephew to join him. "Anyway, I won't hold you and your sibling up any longer. Let's talk after club! Bye-bye!"
True to his word, Oikawa arrived at the Literature Club room days later, his boisterous entrance startling you so much that it could only mean he did it on purpose.
"Drama just loves me, doesn't it?" He chuckled, taking a vacant seat to sit across from you like he always does whenever he comes to see you. "And do you never run out of things to write about, Otome-chan?"
"There's always something interesting happening around me," you replied, not even bothering to look up at him after he surprised you just moments ago. He had brought out his cell phone, mindlessly scrolling through his social media since he couldn't think of anything else to ask you. The quiet was finally broken when he placed his phone on your desk, most likely bored stiff and stifled by the silence of the whole club room.
"If we had dated instead, you wouldn't mind me spending most of my time training, isn't that right, Otome-chan?"
You were both shocked by the snapping of your mechanical pencil's lead against your notebook. His eyes widened as you looked up him, red-faced and rendered speechless. You were sure you looked like a fucking doe in the headlights, even more so when you saw his lips quiver to a small delighted smile.
"Wh-What?! D-Don't talk about that kind of stuff, Trashykawa!"
"Did you just hear yourself?! You sound just like Iwa-chan now!" The smile melted into a pout. "Is dating me such a bad idea for you? I'm so hurt, Otome-chan!"
"You should hear yourself! Spouting all this nonsense about d-dating…" you slid your notebook away from you and accidentally nudged his phone off the desk, which you both hurriedly tried to catch, your hands and fingers tangling midair as you caught the object. A sigh left your lips as you straightened your back. "You can let go of me now, Tooru-kun."
"Let me hold you for a bit, Otome-chan," he told you, scooting over much closer to where you sat. "May I?"
"Wait, what do you mean hold—"
Oikawa was six feet tall and surprisingly sturdy despite his elegant, slender appearance. He rested part of his weight on you when he pulled you into an embrace, long arms gently coiling around your waist.
"T-Tooru-kun?" You squeaked at him, slipping your arms under his to return his embrace. "Is everything all right?…"
"Is it unpleasant?" He asked you, his voice reverberating through your chest. You shook your head, your hair brushing against his cheek. "Good. Because I'd like to do this again."
When he finally pulled away, he laughed at your burning face so much that he almost fell off his seat. It took every bit of your energy to kick him out of the Literature Club room, his laughter ringing throughout the school's empty halls.
From then on, you became each other's warm bodies, but nothing more than that. Commitment was something you couldn't ask from each other, too, especially from him, who had a future in the game in the long run. You would be nothing but a distraction. In turn, he worked to make sure your anthologies were well-received by the student body.
Holding onto even the smallest sliver of hope was emotional suicide, but you can't count how many times you had to save yourself from drowning in the coldness of the deep blue sea that was Oikawa Tooru. You didn't even know if you were still breathing after that.
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You couldn't help but find the whole thing nostalgic. The red-faced Oikawa finding you scribbling away in the Literature Club room in the wake of their loss to Shiratorizawa just mere months away from high school graduation. He had told you beforehand of his plans to migrate to South America following recommendations by the boys' volleyball club's elderly Coach Irihata and you had congratulated him for it.
Still in his club tracksuit, he made his way to where you were and wordlessly grabbed a seat, observing you in silence before finally speaking.
"I'm not coming back until I've finally become the player I want to be," he stated, sitting across you as you continued your writing. He changed his tone into a more playful one, the kind he used whenever he was teasing people. "Won't you feel even a bit sad that I'll be leaving, Otome-chan?"
The ocean waves once merely splashing at your feet had become a whole tidal wave and it threatened to drown you now.
You paused from your writing and looked up at him. "Shall we grab a drink?"
Most of the students had already left the campus at that time, so you had no trouble walking around school with him. The last thing you wanted was to be seen with him and have your entire relationship questioned when even you had no answers for yourself.
"I won't be sad when you leave, Tooru-kun," you told him, eyes on the setting sun as you sipped on your milk box. "You're pursuing your dreams and I am elated at the prospect of what kind of player you'll be in the future. The world is in your hands. You have only to grasp it now."
On your way back to the Literature Club room, he was chattering about his prospective successors to the volleyball club's captaincy. The two of you ended up leaning on the club window, figures drowned in the colours of dusk as your conversation slowly died out. You stood there in complete silence, a feeling of contentment washing over you as you turned to smile at him.
"I await the day I see you on the world's centre stage."
Oikawa smiled back at you tenderly— a small one he usually reserved for moments such as this. "And I await the day I finally get my hands on a real novel written by you."
"I'm not sure how we'll make that happen since you'll be moving far away," you replied with a chuckle. "I guess we'll figure something out when it's here."
"Thank you, dearest friend," he gave you a short bow, a hand on his chest as he met your gaze again once again. "Because of you, I never lost my heart."
You've seen different parts of him throughout the years you've been called his cherished friend, but you never really had a clue about what was going on in his head even as he laid his words bare. He leaned down and brushed a kiss on your cheek, surprised by the tears that fell from your eyes. You've both come to realise that your emotions betrayed your words and there was nothing you could do to take it back.
I swam too far from the shore, you told yourself that night. It's painful, but at least I know I'm alive.
When graduation day came once again, he had no golden button to give you, just a promise that he would keep in touch with you even as he left Japan. You barely had the chance to talk to him on that day since he was surrounded by his kouhais from the volleyball club, along with other wide-eyed admirers who were keen to get their final presents to him.
"Hey, Otome-chan! Get over here!" You heard him call out to you, beckoning you to come over to where he was. Iwaizumi was holding a mobile phone and was ready to do his best friend a favour. "We need a commemorative photo!"
That same photo sat at your desk in your little studio apartment for years to come.
Oikawa had kept his promise to you and his friends and kept in contact so frequently that you'd mistake him for having so much time in his hands. The calls were sparse, but the messages came nearly every day, even with a 12-hour time difference between the two of you.
When you told him about how you were unable to finish your college degree at Miyagi Gakuin Women's University after the vast collection of anthologies you wrote back in high school was discovered by a local publisher, he called you the soonest he could and asked how you felt.
"As long as you're doing what you love and pursuing what your heart's telling you," you recall him saying with a low voice, one you haven't heard in such a long time that it rendered you to tears. "I'll continue supporting you, Otome-chan. You have all of my support!"
The local publisher was so enamoured with your juvenile work that they asked you to write something completely new for them, assigning one of their best editors to you to keep you grounded as you worked. Somehow you couldn't quite point out if this was one great stroke of good luck or a damn honeytrap you can't walk away from anymore. Yes, you stopped college halfway to start writing novels, just like what you dreamed of before, writing alone in your high school club room. It was happening way too soon.
You were rarely asked to come by to the publishing house, but you were often in contact with your editor, whom you missed a call from since you were making coffee for yourself while working on a new story draft. The last one had just left your hands earlier this week and you didn't expect to hear anything about it for quite a while, so you called him back to confirm if everything was all right.
"Hello, Tatara-san. Is there something wrong?"
"Otome-san, I don't know what to say, to be honest. But, ah, anyway, now isn't the time to lose my composure. I have great news for you."
You nearly dropped your cup of coffee when you heard that your last draft would be published into a book. "Are you for real?!"
The poignant novel you slaved over for days and nights to years, Two Silver Moons, would be published by the end of the year, just in time for Christmas. You would have to be there during the whole process, but the publishing house guaranteed you a break afterwards, unexpectedly given but greatly welcomed. You thought of visiting your family in time for the new year, but you remembered that your parents were out on their own little cruise around the world.
The options you had were pretty close by until you received a reply from Oikawa, who was most likely in the middle of his club training.
[ O. Tooru-選手: I'm so happy for you, Otome-chan! Congratulations! (≧▽≦) ]
You never left Sendai for most of your life, but you took off at the first sign of a break, much to the chagrin of your editor, who helped you update your passport, book your flights and tickets, book the hotel where you would be staying and even mentally prepared you for the different kind of culture you'd experience. Two weeks was long enough, you recall him telling you. You both lamented the fact that you burned out nearly a quarter of what you earned from your first novel's publication for this little excursion of yours, but you figured it was something you could earn back with another book or two.
Your last message to Oikawa was back from the new year. Turning to your wristwatch, you estimated what time it would be in Argentina before determining that you'd receive a reply.
[ YN: Say, how long is a flight from Tokyo to San Juan? ]
[ O. Tooru-選手: You wouldn't want to know. ]
[ YN: But what if I do? ]
[ O. Tooru-選手: Otome-chan! Don't tell me you plan on coming here! (☉∀☉) ]
You laughed to yourself, pulling your luggage close to you as you stood in line at the Narita Airport boarding area, passport and boarding pass in the other hand.
[ YN: I'll see you soon, Tooru-kun. ]
[ O. Tooru-選手: Please, if you're just saying all of this, just stop. You're gonna disappoint me. (ᗒᗩᗕ) ]
[ YN: Have to check in my luggage. I'll message you when I'm in France. ]
[ O. Tooru-選手: Oh my gosh, Otome-chan! If I arrive at Ezeiza Airport and you're not there, you can forget that we're friends! ]
It was only when you got on the plane and had to sit for nearly 13 hours that you realised how far spread out the whole world really is. Sendai was but a speck of dust from your view above the clouds, but it will always be home to you. You brought out your tiny notepad and started scribbling about a flight situation you could incorporate in your next story as you passed the time.
The wait will be worth it, you convinced yourself. I've waited for so long to be able to swim in your presence again. What's another 34 hours in air?
There was a 7-hour layover which quickly passed by for you as you kept yourself engrossed in your writing. Something about Parisian coffee made your heart race a bit quicker than normal and it made all the wheels in your head turn non-stop until you realised you burned through nearly half of your notepad. You pocketed the coffee-stained paper napkins that held more of your writing and folded it neatly enough with shaking fingers to fit it on your tiny notepad. The last hour of the layover was spent freshening up and changing into a new blouse, as well as counting all the tiles your eyes could take in from where you sat. You decided against having coffee in Argentina because of the havoc it wrecked over your body.
[ O. Tooru-選手: Otome-chan, are you about to board your flight to here? Take care and don't forget to stretch around! ヽ(*・ω・)ノ ]
[ YN: You sent a photo. ]
It was a blurry, crazy, hair-in-face kind of selfie that you usually reserved for your parents and siblings. If there was such a thing as coffee-drunk, it was definitely happening to you. You were glad the caffeine finally died out mid-flight and you spent the remaining seven hours asleep. You practically had no sense of time when you boarded off the plane from France, but your entire being was shaken awake when you spotted the tall setter with a little placard that had your name on it in his hands. Oikawa, who was in a bright red shirt and khaki chino shorts, broke into a smile when he spotted you.
"Yohoo! Otome-chan!"
"T—" You stammered, far too excited to meet his embrace that you ended up slipping face first across the Ezeiza Airport terminal, eliciting shocked gasps from onlookers and people passing by. It took you a solid minute to get up before grumbling to yourself. "Ahh, what the fuck, self?"
Oikawa laughed and everything felt better all of a sudden. He was down on his left knee to check if you were all right. "You seem fine."
"I am!" You told him, finally raising your eyes to meet his gaze. "I'm totally fine."
"Ah, that's good!" He stated, a hand on his chest as he breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, let's go! We have another plane to catch, don't we?"
"Ack! I didn't know that you had to fly here!" You exclaimed apologetically, finally getting up on your feet as he pulled you up with him. "I'll, uh, pay for your next flight! Or something!"
"Don't worry about me, Otome-chan! It's been a while since I've had a visitor here, so I'm rather thrilled! I've been granted a tiny break by my club since you've gone through lengths to see me. For now, let's get some of your yen changed into pesos."
He chuckled to himself as you both stood before the money changer, hearing him comment about how it's been so long since he last saw and held yen in his hands. He looked rather shocked at the amount you brought with you, not entirely sure if he should return the money to you. "Otome-chan! You brought way too much! Are you planning to buy the whole province of San Juan or something?"
"Tatara-san— My editor told me it was better to bring extra than to find myself short on funds," you turned to him, wringing your fingers in worry. "Maybe keep it for me for the meantime?"
"Gladly! Consider me your tour guide, body guard, accountant— what else?" He said thoughtfully, slipping the rolls of Argentine pesos in his tiny body bag before taking your hand in his. "The next time you make a trip like this, at least tell me beforehand. We can always meet halfway instead of you just coming all the way here to see me."
"But it was me who wanted to see you," you replied, looking up at him. He was searching for the Aerolineas Argentinas ticket office.
"All right, so we book same-day flights, two hours to Mendoza Airport, and finally catch a bus to the city. Pretty sure I didn't miss anything," he counted with his fingers. "If my estimates are correct, we'll arrive at around 18:00 to 18:30, just in time to grab some dinner. Or maybe you want some coffee?"
"No coffee," you waved your hand over your face. "Parisian coffee drove me nuts while I was in France. I'd like to be able to sleep later, please."
You were able to sleep during your two-hour flight, your slumber abruptly interrupted when the captain announced your descent to San Juan. Of course you apologised profusely for accidentally drooling on Oikawa's sleeve.
"Ugh. I didn't know you had to travel so far to pick me up from Buenos Aires. I'm so sorry, Tooru-k—"
"Hush now, Otome-chan," he presented your bus tickets to the conductor before pulling you up with him. "If you're really sorry, just promise me we'll have a lot of fun while you're here. And besides, what's a little travelling when I get to spend time with you?"
The five-hour-long bus ride passed by in a flash as Oikawa pointed at every significant landmark he could identify on the road, while you had your tiny notepad in your hands again to jot down shaky phrases, listening closely to how he pronounced the foreign names and words.
You felt like you were floating in the middle of a calm ocean, the afternoon sun beating over your skin as you let yourself be carried away by the waves.
He chose to have dinner at a little place called Soychu, which specialised in vegetarian meals. It was also near the hotel your editor booked for you. Oikawa, who considered this place his home for the last two years, seemed rather amused at the way your head whipped around at every curious sound you heard.
"San Juan isn't as colourful as Buenos Aires, but it has its own charms," he told you, placing a serving of provoleta on your plate. "We'll have a lot of time to explore tomorrow, so you should rest up after such a long flight."
And you were indeed charmed by the city's nightlife— jet lag quickly replaced by sensory overload as you tried to take in everything you laid your eyes on and everything you heard— lights reflecting from the restaurant windows, a cool evening breeze and the odd stranger greeting a friend in a language you had no idea about. Even the restaurant you were in captured your heart in a way you can't put in to words.
"Departamento en San Juan?" You read the booking made by your editor a few weeks back as you stood outside the apartment premises. "Is that right?"
"Yeah, this is it. Wait a moment, I'll confirm your booking," he said as he entered the premises to greet the receptionist. "¡Buenas noche! Mi querida reservo una cuarto…"
You honestly had no idea what he was telling the middle-aged receptionist who gave you a short glance before turning to her log book. His Spanish was really good and you were sure he wasn't selling you out to a murderer, at least, seeing how the lady smiled at you. She turned around to grab the keys to your lodging for the next two weeks and threw out something that sounded like a question. "¿Te quedaras tambien?"
Oikawa chuckled, understanding what it meant. He turned to you with a smile as he was handed the keys. "Ya veremos."
The cream-coloured apartment room had a single king-sized bed in the only bedroom, a wide kitchen space, a clean bathroom with a heated shower and a tiny balcony that overlooked the lighted cobblestone street they walked earlier.
"All right, everything looks good to me," he walked out of the bathroom, which was the last place he checked after making his rounds in the space you'll be living in for the next two weeks. "I'll leave you to rest and unpack, Otome-chan. The Wi-fi password is on the refrigerator. And don't you worry about your money because I won't go running away with it! Message me tomorrow, all right?"
He was just about to take his leave, hand already on the door when you stopped him midway, gently pulling at the hem of his red shirt. "T-Tooru-kun, wait a moment. I… I, uh…"
The words didn't come out easily. You weren't just about ready to part ways with him just yet and you needed to let him know.
"Otome," he started, dropping the honorific from your name for the first time. He raised his hand and brushed cool knuckles over your warm cheek before finally tipping your chin so your eyes would meet. "I don't quite understand what it is you're trying to tell me."
He was teasing you.
I want to drown, your mind screamed at you. I want to drown in you.
"I'm… not really that ready to let you go. I, uh… C-Can you stay here? Just for tonight, i-if it's all right. I just—"
He caught your quivering lips in his as he leaned down to kiss you and you felt all of your resolve crumble so easily just as you did in his arms. You threw your arms around his neck and willed yourself not to shed a single tear now. There was no clumsy fumbling out of your clothes as you were swept away to the bedroom, only the rapid thumping of your heart against his chest and his warm hands all over you— touching you so softly, gently, kindly— making you cry even though you swore to yourself that you wouldn't.
"Don't cry, Otome," he breathed over you, brushing a kiss on your cheek as he coiled his arms around you. "I'm sorry—"
"Don't—" You raised your hands to cup his face, softly grazing your thumb over his lips. "…Don't apologise now."
He obliged and saved the apologies for tomorrow or another day. Now wasn't the time for any of that at all. Not when you've waited for him to hold you like this for so long.
You have nothing to be sorry for, Tooru. I wanted to swim so I dove in.
If there was one thing you were sure about, it was already morning. The light from your window said so, at least. You blinked away your bleary vision and tried to move, only to find an arm draped over your figure. Your back. Wait, am I naked? Don't tell me we—
A head of tousled dark hair was asleep beside you, the morning sun beating on his naked and toned back.
Oikawa Tooru.
He groaned in his sleep before moving closer and pulling you in his arms, your cheek gently colliding with his chest, the steady beating of his heart enough to pacify your thoughts. It didn't take long for him to stir and finally awaken, planting a tender kiss on the crown of your head.
"Look at you," he stated, eyes disappearing as he beamed at you. "You've grown much lovelier. Can't believe it took me this long to tell you."
"Good morning, Tooru," you smiled back at him, warm hands on his face. You brushed away the hair stuck on his forehead.
"Oh, right! Now that we're here, would you please do me the favour?"
You sat up with him, stretching your arms while he reached for his tiny body bag on the bedside table right next to him. He pulled out a copy of Two Silver Moons and handed it to you.
"You—" your fingers curled around the book, flipping through the pages in complete disbelief. "How?…"
"Come now! Did you really think I'd miss out on the golden opportunity of grabbing a copy of your first novel?" He waved a hand, an obviously pleased smile on his face. "I pulled a few strings here and there, but it's the real deal, isn't it? Will you sign it for me?"
"Tooru, I—" To both your surprise, you still had more tears to cry. "Y-You really went out of your way for this. You really care this much—"
"Why on earth would I not care about you, Otome?" He stated, moving in to kiss your forehead. "You're so precious to me."
He could sense the apprehension you were feeling and he couldn't blame you for it. The two of you danced around each other's feelings even since you were both young, neither having an idea of what the other truly was to them. He had an answer to that now.
"There's a thing they call people like us," he said, taking one of your hands in his. "We are lovers, are we not?"
Lovers.
Oh, the word felt absolutely foreign to you before because you had absolutely no idea what you were. It sounded so much pleasant to you both now. You smiled at him and his knotted brows disappeared.
"Yes, I believe we are."
"Ah, that's a relief. I thought you wouldn't agree with me," he sighed, obviously relieved by your reply. "So where do you want to go today, querida? What are you writing about? We can go to the Leoncito Astronomical Complex. Or the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Franklin Rawson. There's also the San Guillermo National Park. Ischigualasto Provincial Park. I can go on and on, you know."
"You lead the way, leaderman," you said with a chuckle as you reached for a pen on the bedside table. You jotted down a message on the front page of his book.
'To Oikawa Tooru-senshu. Thank you for your love and support! Likewise, you will always have mine. I love you. ♡'
Regardless of the time and distance you've spent apart, you find yourselves gravitating back towards each other, hearts bound by an unseen force you both finally had the right word for.
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The conversation Tooru had with the lady receptionist went pretty much like this:
T: Good evening! My darling (could also be dear, dearest) reserved a room... R: Will you stay too? T: *laughs* We'll see.
Author's Notes: This is from my older haikyuu series Dreams of Fire Trees and Silver Moons on AO3. I suddenly remembered this fic and how dramatic it was when I saw this on X. Oikawa is truly one of the prettiest boys in hq and you can quote me on that lol.
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starboyjun · 4 months
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inspired by how to get my husband on my side The wind wraps around me as I climb the hills of the forest. Nobody will know I was gone. Nobody cared for me. I was a parasite in my own household. It has been 4 months since I was transported into this body. The body of a girl I don't know. I don't even know if this is a novel, a parallel world, otome game, or what. I had no idea who this person was. Yet, according to my maid, the treatment was the same. Nobody came when I told my maid my memories were lost. Nobody came when I tried to jump off the rails, nobody came when the winter hit my room and I had a deadly cold. I had heard nothing from "my family" since I got here. I don't even know what they look like, I know nothing except their names. The birds around me chirp and lead me up the white covered mountains. I couldn’t feel my face anymore. The birds lead me up and up. I felt like I was walking for hours till my bare feet touched warm ground. I raise my head and my eyes widen. Paradise. Sunlight hit the lush trees and grass, blooming flowers all around me, I looked something one would imagine Neverland being. "Oh wow.... It's beautiful." my hoarse voice says. The birds chirp gleefully and fly away in the distance. I walked into this secret land deeper, i touch the trees, the flowers, the berry bushes. This felt too good to be true. "M'lady! M'lady! M'lady!!" says a distant voice. I wake up in the snow. It was all a dream. Somebody pulls me up from the snow with a worried face. "W-who are you?" I ask stuttering from the cold. I must have a deep confused look on my face. This person's attendant, preseumably whispered in their ear. "Y-you lost your memory?" they say with shock. "Why did nobody tell me while I was away? This person. Does anybody not remembered I married them six months ago? Why have I not heard one single update while I was gone?" Oh... that is the person I married. I have only heard whispers of the head of the household, my lover. This was only an arranged marriage, why do they act like we're in love. "My love, let's get you to a warm place." they put an extra cloak on me and carries me to their horse. "My love, I'll tell you everything again. How we met, how we fell in love, everything. I promise. We'll get your memories back again." I didn't meet their eyes, but I felt the raw emotion in their voice. The pain, the deep love they had for this body I am now in.
Maybe life won't be hard anymore. Maybe I could have a happy ending after all. I did.
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void-writing · 2 months
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"Leaving so soon...?"
"Queen of the Mountain" Chapter 8
My interpretation of what it looked like for Shanzha--queen of our hearts, though not the mountain--hunted down a yellow-bellied chicken for sport :)
@centuryberry
(a few little details:
The design I made for Shanzha's fancy fit includes a pink sheer sash that's draped over her arms. Here, she's used it to tie back the long sleeves of her outfit so they didn't get in the way of her draw :) I took archery classes when I was younger, and one of the principles they drilled into us was that if you have long hair, you either tie it back or resign yourself to the likelihood of getting a chunk of your hair yanked out by the bowstring. I figured this principle would also apply to fancy clothes with elegant, flowing sleeves (Shanzha's hair is pulled back enough that she decided it was worth the risk to take the singular shot she needed without binding it further).
You can't really see it, sadly, but on the little seals at the ends of Shanzha's bow, I wrote out the (simplified) Chinese character for "ice". It's a small detail that sadly didn't render well, but it's there.
The flowers in Shanzha's hair are hellebore (the pink one on the viewer's right)--representing peace, serenity, and tranquility, though also anxiety, stress and scandal, which I think encapsulates Shanzha's otome game route AND her present life pretty well--and glory of the snow (the two blue ones on the viewer's left)--meaning hop, renewal, and resilience in the face of adversity, which I think also fits Shanzha's character pretty well, with the added bonus of it being a winter flower as a nod to the frigid climate she lived in before.
She also has archery bracers on her arms! For that detail, I also was calling upon my experience in archery class with this because these guards are meant to protect the archer's forearm from getting smacked by the bowstring. I had put one on Shanzha's left arm because it was more central and easier to see before tricking myself into thinking it wouldn't make sense for her to have an arm guard on the arm holding the bow (which was a whoops on my part because that's where you're supposed to put it. I guess I was mixing it up with the finger guard tab that you have on your draw hand) and so Shanzha has one on both.
This has the fun implication that Shanzha is an ambidextrous archer (say that five times fast), meaning she can draw on either side (another fun archery fact is that the arm you hold the bow with is determined by what your dominant hand and eye is. In my case, it was my left eye, so despite me being right handed, I used a left-handed bow. However, it's possible to use any bow, especially if it doesn't have an arrow shelf--the little hook an arrow can rest in as you line up your shot, which is frequently what determines if a bow is right or left handed (the arrow shelf being on the opposite side of what the name would imply, meaning a left-handed bow is held in your left and drawn with your right and vise-versa). Shanzha's doesn't, so it's an ambidextrous bow! It just happens that in the case of this image, she's firing left-handed because her quiver--and thus her draw hand--is on her right.
Art process notes:
I ended up only using like...2/3 of the canvas lol and didn't realize until I had already done up my line art. So that's why there's a big empty blue space in the bottom 1/3.
Rim lighting, my beloved.
I used two of the color palettes from @fantasy-angelo 's Yue reference in coloring Shanzha (Dreamscape and Heather House). I mostly tried to stick with a cooler color palette which I think helped make those gold accents pop.
I did a little concept sketch on a sticky note before actually buckling down to do it, but when I started with the line art, I decided to push the perspective and line of action more, which led to the wonderful little detail of Shanzha having her foot planted on Peng's back and her resting her right hand on her quiver.
(The sketch in question)
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I kind of phoned it in a little with the ice and the metal armor highlights and used an airbrush to give it the glow effect, but I'm actually really happy with how it turned out regardless! Work smarter not harder lmao.
The waterfall behind Shanzha (aka, the entrance to Water Curtain Cave) was done with a watercolor brush. This was actually my first time painting a waterfall and I'm very pleased with how it looks! The foam at the base of the waterfall was, once again, an air brush (specifically a droplet one, which gave it that nice splattery particle effect). I liked how the waterfall looked spilling over the boarders, so I didn't erase it :3
And now, I leave you with a meme:
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(I was originally going to have her hold her bow, but I didn't like how it looked so I changed it to the big ass knife Shanzha cut the lion's head meatball with)
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aquagirl1978 · 11 months
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Motonari, feeling for the other in the dark 💜💜💜💜
Now that you're done grading, here's a little celebration gift 🎁
Dark and Stormy - Motonari Mouri x Reader (Ikemen Sengoku)
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A/N: Part of my New Year, New Celebration event
Pairing: Motonari Mouri x Reader
Prompt: feeling for the other in the dark
Tags: fluff
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"Ugh…" you muttered into your pillow as you tossed and turned in the bed, a storm raging outside, causing the ship to rock so much your sleep was disrupted. Cracking open an eye, you were unsure the hour, but certain it was rather late as it was still pitch black in the bedroom. Glancing over at the other side of the bed, you found your bedmate snoring loudly despite the loud sound of rain pelting against the windows. 
How could he sleep with all this racket? 
You put your pillow over your head in hopes it would help muffle the sounds outside. Groaning when you discovered it did nothing to help the noise or the rocking of the boat, you shifted in the bed, trying to find a comfortable position.
“Ya get used to it. Eventually,” a sleepy voice mumbled.
Tilting your face towards the voice, you found a pair of crimson eyes staring at you. Great, you woke him up. 
“What? I just had a bad dream, that’s all,” you replied quickly, not wanting to admit that a silly storm was keeping you up.
Motonari chuckled softly. “That’s the flowers in yer head talkin’ again.” He pulled down the covers and reached for you in the dark. “C’mere.”
You gasped softly as he pulled you towards his chest, his arms wrapping around your shoulders. His hand cupped the nape of your neck, guiding your head to rest against his broad chest.
You nestled your cheek against his chest, the thrum of his heartbeat steady and comforting. Maybe Motonari was right. Maybe you would get used to life on the boat.
But if the reward for waking up was being wrapped in Motonari's arms, maybe you didn't want to get used to waking up during the storms.
  
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Tagging: @violettduchess @alixennial @redheadkittys @lordsisterxotome @kissmetwicekissmedeadly @chaosangel767 @ikehoe @kpop-and-otome @kisara-16 @lucyw260 @bellerose-arcana @scorchieart @yarnnerdally @crypticbibliophile @tele86 @nightfoxqueen
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ilyuu · 9 months
Text
ft. xiao.
warnings : fluff, bits of angst, lots of pining, open ended, lmk if i missed anything! technically xiao is leaving a flower for you, a sign of his feelings <3
@mondaymelon i said headcanon and said headcanon turned to a drabble,,, oops
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just xiao sitting on the rail of the balcony for a while. the only company he has the wisps of the wind willing to drift, and the stars aloft and beyond his reach as much as anyone else’s. his legs sway at the edge, and the crispness touches his hair, breathing it into life.
that and you.
even if you are sleeping, the night’s hold, as much as any other, embracing you tightly yet soft all the while. close, in a way, yet also beyond his reach in all things considered - a way of life, perspective, the sense of time, and so on and so forth.
yet, even with these in mind, it did little to prevent the fall that followed. step by step, he’d think, but it’s been years that he’s felt this way. that is to say, the fall into these feelings that he comprehends only a bit more whenever he’s with you. a shortness of breath, a sudden spike of heat, a spiral of thoughts that dives deep into his senses whether you are near, or at the very least, whether you and the thought of you seep into the cracks of his mind (and heart.)
the silver coin of a moon keeps him afloat each and every night, but as of late, that seems to be you instead.
the puffs of clouds that casts shadows are wiped away with you alone.
the stars themselves don’t seem to compare either.
he sighs, lowering his head to the palm of his hand, fingers digging into his scalp as if the slight sting he feels would be enough of a distraction.
and so, he does the one thing he does whenever these bout of feelings becomes too much - not to tell you, for its forever locked within his chest and its crevices until time itself dies, not to speak of it, not even a word, to another, for it’ll bring that one dream to life should he - but to leave a remnant of it before you in a way you’ll never know but wonder.
a qingxin. pure, yet bitter, lost atop the winds and heights (in a way, it reminds him of himself.) he plucks one. amid covers of clouds, thin as it drifts amongst the peaks of mountains, his mind as wandered, as it started to do since seeing you, to what you’d look like if he’d ever brought you here.
would you like it? would it be a sweet memory that the two of you would look back on?
he huffs.
its stem stiff in his hand, he finds himself, yet once more, by the rails of the balcony. he leaves it there, tucked in a pot of plants that sits nearby - it stands out of the usual, and know that it’ll catch your eye as it done the other times. if anything, as the first streak of the sun paints the skies, it’ll be the first thing you’d go looking for.
(and the look of your face whenever you do see it there… his chest feels airy and almost fluttery.)
and he’s back to where he started. he sits on the edge of the balcony, feeling the crisp draft of air whipping from below, and he takes in a slow breath. it does little to cool the sudden warmth prickling along his skin.
it does little to keep his thoughts of you from brimming over.
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general taglist (open!) : @/zuyoo, @starz222, @haliyamori, @kazumist, @/tartaglia-apologist, @mikacynth, @angelkazusstuff, @doumalove, @kpop-and-otome, @emo-mess, @kissedbysilk . . .
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saeyoungchoismaid · 1 year
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Chloe! I absolutely love your event. Here are my choices ꒰⁠⑅⁠ᵕ⁠༚⁠ᵕ⁠꒱⁠˖⁠♡
Sweet Pea, Roses and Orchid.
If it's okay I'd like to specify Mysme, with male s/o.
Hi there! It's actually Chloe' by the way! I'm glad you like my event and I hope you life your results! <3
your s/o is Jumin!!
your rival is Saeyoung!!
your bff is Jaehee!!
your secret admirer is Zen!!
Your Otome Life!
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prettyboykatsuki · 7 months
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wot are ur fav shounen romances? :o
i like a lot of the classics !! kaguya sama love is war, blue flag, horimiya so i will not mention them here.
some more (imo) underrated ones
taisho otome otogobanashi my BELOVED. takes place in the taisho era between a disabled young heir of a wealthy family and the young girl assigned to be his bride. soooo fucking wholesome. very boy but in a very sweet way. really a beloved one for me. 9/10
three days of happiness (manga) - oh my GOD this manga makes me fucking CRY. touching story about a twenty year old guy who's down on his luck and finds out about a service that allows you to sell years of your life in exchange for money. the catch? the mc finds out the worth of his life is abysmally low and decides to sell all of it, save for three months so he can spend the money he earns. he meets with our mc and without spoiling they get to know each other and fall in love. SOOOOOO goddamn sad and sooo good. broke my heart 12/10
OREGAIRU. this anime is Deeply Personal to me for specific reasons irl but i also enjoy it. typical loserboy romance but there's a femboy as well. i love it soooo fucking much and i have forever okay... its so dear to me. it's about our mc who's a cringefail dweeb and his commentary on the myth of "youth" and how unrealistic that is.
the catch is that hachiman our mc actually has a fair bit of emotional intelligence and the story itself always points out that his loserish habits mostly stem from himself and call him on it all the time. i.e. it's not a shounen romance that overlooks those qualities nor romanticizes them and tends to be pretty subversive in it's own way.
the storyline revolves around him, the class president and another girl who have a club where they volunteer and offer advice. in that, hachiman gets to experience 'youth' inadvertently. it makes more sense if u watch but i just. love it So Goddamn Much. it's like peak for the shounen romance subgenre. its honestly not super romance heavy? but it also is. complicated it's 7.7/10 for me if i rate objectively. but a 10/10 if i rate on a personal level.
the fragrant flower blooms with dignity - a story about an intimidating male student and a very adorable young lady who have an interesting first encounter. it's a classic getting together story and its hard to describe what happens w out spoiling but GODDDDDD its soooo fucking cute. so cute i love it soooooo much. its ongoing !! 8/10
yankee kun and the white cane girl - crying screaming throwing up puking about them. a story about a deliquent and a blind girl. the story covers the struggles of disability with SO much nuance and character and the supporting cast have SOOOOOOOO much depth and the love story is so unbearably sweet. its ongoing and one of my faves forever and ever and ever. i love them sooo much. 9/10
im definitely missing a LOT but these are my favorites as of right now!!! the last two i follow very actively!!
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