— · —
Haganezuka Hotaru was born into a long line of swordsmiths from the Haganezuka clan. He got his first name from the village chief after the latter took him under his care. However, he did not like it and often complained that it sounded too cute and dainty for his taste. It was told that Hotaru has always had a temper ever since he was a child, and that he would often throw tantrums which were so intense that it left the adults helpless and unable to calm him down, no matter how hard they tried to.
Just like the rest of the inhabitants of the swordsmith village, he wore a mask which completely covered his face as well as a headscarf around his head whenever he was in public. When he was younger, the village chief would often take Hotaru with him whenever he had to travel outside of the village. The rude and impudent people that they came across would often comment on his strange looks and scoffed at him for wearing a mask. Once while they were out in the city, he was unfortunately caught by a group of mischievous children who forcibly took his mask off, uncovering his face which they then proceeded to make fun of. That left a huge impact onto him as a child, and to this day still he is extremely self-conscious about his appearance.
More than just a rule that the villagers had to follow, he thought of the hyottoko mask as a camouflage that protected him from the other people. The very first person that he had met who didn't seem to be weirded out by his image was you, back when you were both still children. And, unlike the rest of them, you greeted him with a smile and did not make any comment on the way he looked.
He built his workshop in a remote location on the outer skirts of the village, a simple wooden cabin just like many others you'd see around the area. Nothing much, but it had everything that one would need to live in.
Up until this day, he had never succeeded to muster the courage to speak to you. Not that he didn't have much to say, but rather that he did not know how to properly put it into words. So he wrote you poems. Anonymously, that is, for that he somehow thought of himself as undeserving of someone like you and didn't want you to find out about who he was.
In spite of that, something snapped inside of him when you said that you were going to step back into the forest. A while ago, a small group of swordsmiths were reported missing and, as people began searching for them in the forest, they came across the remnants of their lifeless bodies hanging on the branches of a tree, their flesh and bones torn apart and shredded in inhumane ways. It was believed that a demon was at the cause of this. Ever since then, venturing into the woods at night became strictly prohibited. He was too scared to lose you and his body reacted on its own before he could even realize.
— · —
He plunged his body into the water as he tried to calm himself down, his head submerged under the surface.
"What the fuck am I doing..." he thought to himself as he looked back on all the things that have just happened.
The way that he acted in front of you embarrassed him and he felt extremely frustrated by it. He was angry at himself for not being able to look at you in the eyes and hold a proper conversation without feeling like he was going to break down the next second. He hated the fact that you had to see him in such a state, but he couldn't help it no matter how hard he tried.
Many times he had imagined himself walking up to you and return the smile that you had offered him, or even simply exchanging a few words while you chatted with him about how your day was. He wanted to ask you out and hold your hand, just like those couples walking around in the city's streets... and yet all he could do was hide behind that stupid mask like a damned coward.
He pulled himself out of the water. The dim daylight that shone through the window indicated that the sun was about to set.
He took a deep breath in.
— · —
"H- Haganezuka-san...?"
The man stopped right in his tracks as you called him by his name.
"So it was you...?" you said as you looked at him, your eyes still wet with tears. "It was you who came to the shop and left all those poems...?"
No words came out of his mouth as he stood there frozen. The look on his face slowly shifted from shock to confusion, which then finally turned into defeat as he spotted the hyottoko mask that you were holding in your hands. He realized that you must have recognized it.
A thousand thoughts crossed his mind.
At first, he wanted to deny it, but there was no way that he could make you believe such a lie when all the evidences were pointing towards himself. But how could he admit to you that he was the one who had been lurking around the shop and leaving cheesy poems at your name for years like a total creep? The mere thought of it was already too much to handle. He didn't want to lie to you, but being honest and telling the truth was just too hard.
"I..."
"From the day I first landed my eyes on you..."
He felt his heart drop in his chest as you began to recite the poem from memory.
"You were like the flower, and I was the butterfly. Uncontrollably attracted to your sweet scent I come, day after day and week after week, just to see the beauty of you..."
"...that makes my world seem bright."
You stared at him as he completed the last line of the poem. He turned his head away.
To others, he had always been the exasperating and overall displeasing guy with a hellish attitude. One may have thought that it was just the way he was born, and that there wasn't anything that could be done about it. But the truth was that he held up this somewhat hostile image of himself in order to protect the part of him that had been deeply hurt, to shield it from the pain that others had inflicted upon him when he was a child. That's what he believed he did best. Pushing people away from him. Just like how he pushed his parents to the point where they chose to give up on their own son.
Yet, at that very moment, a voice coming from the depths of his heart was telling him that he didn't need to do that anymore, that he didn't need to protect himself from you. It deeply confused him. After all these years of pretending to be someone that he was not, it was as if he had forgotten who his true self was. In that very moment, he felt completely and utterly helpless.
He hated the idea of appearing so vulnerable in front of you, and he despised how easy it was for him to lose his control whenever you were around. He wanted to be angry at you because of it, but he couldn't. It was him who started it, after all. He was the one who saw the little girl across the street and fell in love with her. He was the one who went to the dango store just to catch a glimpse of her smile, and he was the one who slid those poems into the change when he paid for his purchases. Everything that was happening at that moment, he made it happen. And no-one else was to blame for it.
"I'm sorry that you had to find out this way... You must be disappointed."
"What... do you mean?"
"Please forget about everything that has happened. I didn't think that you would remember... that silly little poem... I was a fool for behaving the way that I did. You deserve to be with someone better... I-"
You took a leap forward and, without giving him the time to finish, you placed your hand on his cheek and leaned in for a kiss.
Your sudden initiative completely overwhelmed him. His mind went blank. You felt his lips twitching against yours as he looked at you with a bewildered expression on his face.
"Sorry, I..." you apologized as you hurriedly stepped back. "I just- "
It made your heart ache hearing him talk about himself as if he were undeserving of any love or attention. He seemed to genuinely ignore how much his "silly little poems" meant to you and how deeply you truly appreciated them. It frustrated you. You wanted him to see himself the way you saw him and, although you weren't usually the kind of person to be so straightforward with your feelings, something just seemed to have taken over you at that moment.
"Those poems... They're precious to me. You are precious to me, Haganezuka-san, so please don't speak of yourself that way."
His eyes were shaking as he looked at you. His mouth opened as if he was about to say something but nothing could come out of it.
"I often wondered what kind of person could have written those poems," you carried on as he stood there silent, "and I thought to myself that, whoever they were, they must have been someone who is very kind-hearted and sensitive... Which was confusing, though, because you always seemed to be in a bad mood whenever you came to the shop... And since you always wore a mask and never really talked much, I had a hard time trying to figure out what was going on. I did find it strange that someone who appeared so intimidating would be the type to write poems, so I thought that maybe you were just timid... Then I tried to find opportunities to make the first step and talk with you, but you always left so hurriedly... So I just... I didn't want to- "
He took you into his arms and kissed you back.
For the first time, he decided to let his feelings take control and let himself do what he had always wanted to. It was a scenario that he had dreamt of many times, holding you in his arms while expressing the fondness that he had always felt for you. Just for a moment, he was able to leave all of his fears and worries behind. He was deeply moved by what you had just told him and, although he was still in disbelief of the fact that his feelings for you were somehow reciprocated, there was no time for him to think about it. All that he wanted at that instant was you.
The moment was magical. He kissed you passionately, his hands on your waist as pulled you in. You were the first and only love in his life and, now that he finally found himself standing there with you in his embrace, he didn't want to let you go.
As if the wall of ice that was separating the both of you had finally broken down, you closed your eyes as you let yourself sink into the sensation of his lips gently brushing against yours. You ran your fingers through his damp hair as you held him closer to you.
"Haganezuka-san..."
"Please... just call me Hotaru."
· — · — · — · — ·— · — ·— · — ·— · — ·— · — · — ·
"The sun slowly set behind the mountains,
But the flames that burns for you in my heart
Never faded away.
It shone through the darkness of the night
and the coldness of the winter,
Never fading away,
My feelings for you that burn like the flame."
· — · — · — · — ·— · — ·— · — ·— · — ·— · — · — ·
[A/N : Was lowkey rolling around and kicking my feet while writing chapter ngl... I hope it wasn't too cheesy... I really just wanted him to find someone who loves him for he is and not judge him for it. He deserves to have a beautiful love story too :<
Hope you enjoyed x
— cherry 🍒]