Strawberries ~ Osaki Shotaro ✧
Authors note: I wrote this while Shotaro was still a member of NCT and wanted to post it for a while and then he left (T_T)
The cherry blossoms danced in the spring breeze, the children laughed, and their shoes hit the cobblestone pathway despite most of the day going so well. Others weren't having the best time on this 'marvellous' spring afternoon in the small neighbourhood, hidden from most people who lived in Kanagawa, Japan. A young teen stood breathless outside her small apartment building's hallway as her eyes were set upon the doorway of her home. The place didn't feel like home to her anymore after her father became an alcoholic, and her Mother worked long hours to fund her schooling. The place was rarely clean, and her father always invited his weird friends over for drinks, and their noise level could have been annoying. She hesitated before entering the apartment, and not to her surprise. Her father was on the couch. Beer bottle in hand, he occasionally took steady sips. She didn't bother disturbing the man, knowing it would do no good. He would end up mumbling about how she needed to work so he could drink more and how her Mother doesn't do enough work around the place.
Her room was exactly how she had left it, piles of clothes and textbooks on the ground and overfilled trash cans of tissues from her recent cold she caught. She collapsed onto her unmade bed as she woke up this morning, not feeling the need to make it. Combing the strands of hair, she caught with her fingers since she didn't feel like sitting up and finding another source of entertainment, the sound of the front door opening rang in her ears. Knowing it was just her father's friends, entering the main living area to enter the kitchen would be no easy task. The girl's Mother would be home at 10pm, giving the young Japanese girl's father 6 hours to drink with his middle-aged single friends. The girl hasn't eaten since lunchtime, and unfortunately, she tends to grow hungry very efficiently. Hayami sat up and thought for a second, blowing the random loose strands of her out of her face. Then, she walked towards the kitchen. "Hayami", one of her father's friends, Itsuki, called; she stopped and looked his way. "Hello", she greeted like the kind girl she was raised as her mind wasn't thinking so many nice things about the man like he smelt of alcohol even though he had arrived minutes ago. ."Go down to the store and buy us chips, will ya" Hayami's father demanded, and she Didn't want to go against him, so she nodded and headed back to her room, took her purse and set off for the convenience store nearby.
Entering the store and greeting the worker, Hayami scanned the shelves for the chips her father desired. The convenience store down the road was small, and the radio that was always on played soft Japanese folk music, which was always pleasant to listen to. Hayami liked it and even dreamt of working there, although many kids told her working there wasn't so lovely. She just told them that she didn't care about what they said, and they didn't go against it. As she was checking out, she looked up at the worker. It was a tall male with rich black hair and sweet chocolate eyes. "I'm Nakamoto Yuta," he said. After noticing Y/N's stare, she snapped back into reality. "I'm Ito Hayami", Y/N replied, feeling a hint of embarrassment throughout her body. Afterwards, she left in a rush since she didn't want to spend any more time in the same place as that cute worker as it would be too embarrassing for her. Walking home, she accidentally hit a stranger while carrying her strawberry container. "I'm sorry", the stranger spoke up after knocking the poor girl off her feet and helping her stand up. "It's fine", she replied politely and dusted the dirt off her jacket. "Here, you dropped your strawberry container" The person handed her the container, and they met eyes. His eyes were mesmerising, indeed. They were the colour of the afternoon sun hitting coffee or like freshly melted chocolate. With his smile, it was beaming and bright. They stared at each other, speechless. No words being able to form for the both of them, they fell into a deep pool of each other's eyes, and Y/N thought it was..love. "O-oh, I'm Osaki Shotaro." the boy finally spoke after he broke eye contact. "Ito Hayami", the words escaped her lips, but it came out more of a mumble which she didn't expect. "Thank you, I'll see you later" The girl rushed off with her items after not seeing 1 cute boy, but another one who looked extraordinary in her eyes.
Hayami approached the door of her apartment and pulled out the keys. She already could hear her father and his friends cheering about the game. The whole apartment level could listen to their yelling. Hayami wasn't surprised About the letters that piled all the noise complaints at their door, which was another thing the Mother had to deal with. The poor woman couldn't get a break. The men glanced at the door as it opened, "Ah, you got my chips? Pass it over," Her father demanded, and the girl dug in her bag and handed the pack of original flavoured chips for him and his friends, just want they wanted. She approached the kitchen, opened the fridge and unloaded the few things she bought as noise overflowed the apartment and hit the other rooms of the floor. She wanted to leave badly. And so she did.
The silence that's all the girl could hear as she stood in the middle of the park late at night. The moonlight provided the only light source for her, but she still stood there despite the time and the cold breeze. Her fists clenched tightly, and her bare feet were on the soft grass. There was no reason for her to be out this late. She just felt like it. Her mind was, in fact, filled with racing thoughts about a whole mix of different things. Her eyes were growing heavy as the urge to sleep still built up inside her, but she knew she couldn't fall asleep where she was. So, as much as she didn't want to, she began to walk home. Back to that tiny apartment she was stuck in before, but at least she carried her strawberry soda to sip on while making her journey back to where her parents were sleeping. "Are you alright?" her body froze when she heard a voice she had heard before. Looking behind her, the man picked up her strawberries when they bumped into each other earlier, the boy who looked beautiful in her eyes, Osaki Shotaro. "Yeah, just walking home", she replied with a slight tint of tiredness in her voice that was pretty noticeable. She looked at the path ahead of her and debated if she should end the conversation now and leave or see where he took it.
"You seem tired. Want me to walk you home?" Shotaro worriedly asked the poor tired girl who looked like she could sleep. She didn't know how to respond because the question didn't sit in her mind correctly, so she nodded. Shotaro ended up bringing her back home to her apartment. The noise died as her father's friends left about 3 hours ago when her Mother got home. The clock was close to 1 am. "Get some rest, ok?" Shotaro told the girl that she could only kiss his cheek and enter the apartment. The boy walked back home with a tint of blush on his cheeks.
