After The Divorce || Nanami Kento || JJK

The Human Faced Plant

CHAPTER 6

You stared at the plant and it stared back at you.  Well, it might as well have been.  Just it's presence filled you with a negative vibe.

The plant… the flower was more like a bush.  Vines and leaves clumped and twisted together to form a clump.  On its own it looked fine.  Like a normal desk plant except it was as big as a football, but the longer you looked at it the more it looked like a face whrithing in agony.  It was definitely the most fucked up plant you had ever seen.  You hadn't even imagined taht it was possible for a plant to have a human appearance, let alone an entire specie of plant.  Inwardly you wondered if there were more less creepy faces.  A human faced plant would be a wonderful decoration on any desk, if it were a smiling face, or if it grew into the shape of a cute child-like face.  Not this… atrocity.

You wanted to turn it away from you, maybe to face the opposite direction but were caught in a dilema. 

Turn it to face the potential customers who looked in through the window?  Absolutely not.

Turn it sideways? The little mirror that lined the wall stylishly would reflect the image back into your eyes.  This would, arguably, make it worse as with the mirror in place you would be able to see both the plant's screaming face and your own.

Turn it to the other side and the unsuspecting couple that walked in would have an unexpected morbid surprise.

As delightful as that seemed, to see their faces light up in shock, the aftereffects would be less than desirable.  You worked at a reputable little store, a prank like that would go against the reputation that Gran had worked so hard to achieve.

Under the dull lulling breeze of the ceiling fan the little leaves on the human faced plant shuddered in unison.  Giving off the feeling that the face was begging for mercy or for someone to spare it from it's eternal damnation. The features were just so lifelike it was uncanny. 

You reach a finger over to touch the pot, the same chill embracing your finger.  Yet this time it felt more gentle, less intrusive than before.  You weren't sure exactly why.

You shift your finger to another spot and to your surprise the area lacked the chill that you had grown accustomed to.  Had your casual touches broken the flower? If it were to die you'd feel horrible. You retreat as if stung. Geto must've worked hard to get his hands on such a rare plant. You had looked up the name only to have come up without any available images, the only explanation for this was that the plant was so rare the media hadn't even gotten their hands on information on it. 
Speaking of Geto your eyes land on a card he had slid you earlier, it was an invite to a party happening somewhere, he was to be the bartender there too.  Truthfully, you were tempted, an opportunity to try the love curse was too good to pass up.  With that in mind you slid the invite into your bag.

Casting worried glances towards the plant you turn your attention to the letter you had been penning. 

Dear Gran,
…

That's as far as you'd gone. 
You weren't exactly sure how to say it.

"Hey, two guys showed up at the bakery and they left a plant for you.  Also they knew you on formal name basis.  Why did you never tell me your name was Zenin? Though it doesn't really matter anyways.  This plant is really freaky. It looks like a whole human head. Totally your speed right?"

You crumpled the letter into a ball.  Looking at the thick stack of pink envelopes beside you.  Gran had ordered the wrong color envelopes again.

NANAMI POV

I found myself walking a but more than usual in recent times.  Sometimes I'd just get up with the sudden inspiration to take a walk. 
I never usually have a clear goal in mind, yet somehow I keep walking by a very specific building every single time.

I felt like a stalker.  Everytime my walks unconsciously led me to walking by the little bakery I couldn't help but take a few glances in.  I wouldn't attempt to force my way back into her life.  No matter how much I wished I could.  I had made the right choice.  I had left for the best, something I should have done much sooner than I had, but my selfishness stopped me from doing what I knew was right.  Finally, I had managed to steel myself and make the right call but deep inside my emotions couldn't come to terms with what I had done.  What i did was unforgivable, I had left her.  Broken qll the promises I had made.  Surely, she would come to forgive me right?
A selfish will, but I couldn't help myself.

The weather was getting warmer, but somehow I couldnt help but feel cold.

My eyes travelled over to her figure.  Taking in everything I could while I tried to keep my pace even.  The urge to slow down and stop, maybe even walk over and talk to her was strong.  It was cowardly, but I didn't want her to notice me.

A small plant by her side catches my eye.  My footsteps pause for a second.  Even from a distance I could sense the cursed energy dissipating from it.  The energy was strong, but it was dwindling. 

I heaved a small sigh.  Us sorcerers couldnt possibly expect to exorcize every curse that existed.  Small weak curses were born every day just from being in the presence of negative emotions.  We tended to focus on the larger more malicious curses so we could ensure the safety of people's lives rather than focus on the little things and run ourself dry.  My footsteps resumed.  The curse inside was dying anyways.  Curses didn't have any way to retrieve lost cursed energy, unlike us sorcerers, retrieving lost cursed energy was an arduous task of absorbing negative energy.  At the rate which the plant was losing cursed energy it wouldn't last until the next day.

My attention returned to her, Y/N.  She was seated by her desk hurling little pink envelopes into a bin.  The pink searing itself deeply into my eyeballs, highlighting the little ring of lighter untanned skin at the base of her ring finger.

A/N
Two chapters in a row?  Unheard of right?
Idk it's a slow day at work today and I just got the motivation to write.  Hopefully this continues into the near future.

The last chapter and this one are majorly unedited (because they were written on mobile) so please forgive me if there a more issues than normal.  Please leave a comment if there's any issues so I can fix them when I have any spare time before I do a thorough edit.

Much Love,
Jae