"They blossomed, they did not talk about blossoming."
Dejan Stojanovic
"Hyodo, have you seen my phone?" Mei yelled through the apartment in the midst of flipping the couch's cushions.
Fyodor stared at her with widened eyes, tilting his head just slightly as Mei let out an exaggerated huff, throwing the cushion back down to the now disorganized couch.
She made a half-assed attempt of fixing the couch before stomping off to the kitchen, where she had been earlier, also searching for her phone.
Sure, she had woken up disheveled and went to the kitchen before checking her phone, but that was because she wanted water right away. She expected for her phone to be on the bedside table when she returned to bed, but it hadn't been.
"Hyodo, do you see it anywhere? Seriously, I feel lost without it!" Mei yelled once more, frantically searching in the most random places, hoping that maybe her phone slipped from the bedside table and ended up under the microwave.
Hyodo entered the kitchen with a smile, and Mei wanted to glare back at him and his apparent happiness while she was suffering, but she only ignored him.
"Mei, would you like to hang out today? I can get us tickets to that amusement park that opened up just recently."
Mei turned to face Hyodo, hoping that she didn't look too thrown off by his innocent question. Although, her eyes quickly moved on from him in relentless search for her phone.
"What are you talking about?" Mei let out in a harsher tone than expected, slapping a palm to her face before pushing past Hyodo to continue the search for her phone in her bathroom.
"Well, I know you started to get annoyed by us staying home and watching movies all weekend, so why don't we go to the amusement park today?"
"Hyodo, I have a meeting with Akaashi today." Mei explained plainly, not bothering to look at him as she rummaged through the bathroom cupboards. "Even if I were to cancel, I would need to give him a call. Which I can't do, because I can't find my freaking phone."
Hyodo moved forward to stand behind Mei, waiting for her to finish her search through the cupboards before wrapping her up in a hug.
She stiffened before holding a hand up to push him away, furrowing her brows and running a hand through her hair in frustration.
"Hyodo, stop. Please–"
"Mei, Mei, Mei," added a new voice, and Mei's eyebrows lowered even further as she strained her ears to listen to who had just entered their apartment.
Footsteps moved toward the bedroom, where the mystery guest stood in silence for a moment before cracking the door open.
"Mei, wake up and–"
"What are you doing?" Hyodo interrupted Akaashi mid-question, standing in the doorway to the bedroom and watching as Akaashi turned around guiltily.
"I'm sorry. I thought Mei was asleep."
Mei laughed quietly to herself before stepping out of the bathroom, making her way to the bedroom door to stand behind Hyodo and peer in at Akaashi.
"Akaashi, I've been up."
"How should I have known?" Akaashi forced out quickly, connecting his hands in front of torso so that he could rub the pad of his thumb over his knuckles nervously. "I called twice and texted even more. I wasn't sure if we were meeting somewhere or if I had to wake you up."
Listening to Akaashi ramble made Mei laugh loudly, lifting a hand to tap Hyodo's back, signaling for him to move out of the doorway and let Akaashi through.
"Well, I appreciate your willingness to wake me up anyway." She waved a hand through the air casually, sparing a glance up at Hyodo before giving him a smile. "I'm going to go with Akaashi, okay? See you later."
She turned and left toward the front of the apartment before Hyodo could attempt to hug or kiss her goodbye, instead finding Fyodor and giving him a kiss to the head.
After grabbing a key from the bowl, Mei turned her attention back toward the bedroom, suddenly realizing that Akaashi hadn't followed her out.
She narrowed her eyes at Hyodo and Akaashi as they stood in front of each other, Akaashi eventually giving him a smug smile and taking quick steps to join Mei at the door of the apartment.
"You ready or?" Mei asked with a tired expression, holding her hands on her hips and tapping her foot jokingly.
"Or what? Are you so excited to spend time with me?" Akaashi smiled back, and Mei did a double-take before shaking her head and opening the door for him.
"Shut up."
Akaashi let out a satisfied hum at her response, descending the stairs and waiting at the bottom for her to catch up.
Once on the street, the dynamic changed, and Mei and Akaashi both stayed silent as they walked side by side.
Mei wasn't even sure of where their destination was, but she walked with Akaashi anyway, looking down at her feet with every step.
"Sorry for missing your calls and texts. I couldn't find my phone this morning."
Akaashi turned to her, his face revealing slight surprise before he dismissed her apology with a wave. "It's alright. I don't mind going to your place. I'm just surprised about your phone. It usually never leaves your side."
"That's what I'm saying!" Mei shook her hands dramatically, laughing at herself afterward. "But seriously, I swear I fell asleep right beside it. Maybe karma is getting to me and a ghost is pranking me."
"Karma?"
Mei's smile dropped as she looked back down to her feet, keeping quiet until Akaashi leaned his shoulder toward her and bumped into her intentionally.
"If you're saying you have bad karma, I don't agree." He offered quietly, continuing to walk normally after Mei turned her head to look up at him.
She felt her mouth curl up slightly, and she shook her head before holding her head high, finally focusing her attention on her surroundings.
"Where are we going?"
Akaashi only gave a smile in response, lifting a hand and resting it against Mei's back, using it to lead her further forward.
Mei's mouth opened in preparation to protest, but her words didn't have the chance to left her throat as her eyes took in the sight of bright pink in front of her.
"We're here." Akaashi patted her back with the hand that rested there, keeping it there even as Mei stepped toward the pink in silence.
"Oh my gosh, it's beautiful."
"Yes, it really is." Akaashi nodded in agreement. "When's the last time you viewed the cherry blossoms blooming in Tokyo?"
"Jeez, I don't even know." Mei spoke amongst small laughter, her eyes darting all around her as she watched some of the pretty petals fly through the sky like pink snow. "It's absolutely gorgeous."
"Mhmm."
"So, am I expected to discuss my manuscript while looking at this view?" Mei finally tore her gaze away from the trees, turning to the smiling Akaashi beside her, who still held his hand against her back.
"Hmm, no." His smile widened, and he applied pressure at her back to make her move forward further into the small park. "This is a date."
Mei choked on air before stopping, standing in place and glaring up at Akaashi as she felt her face heat up at his words.
"Something wrong?" Akaashi asked as he stared back down at her with a smug grin, only making Mei huff out a big breath of air and sprint to be a few paces ahead of him.
"Nothing's wrong, but you don't have to be so... cool about it!" She yelled without looking back at him, forcefully waving her hand in front of her face before he could get a good look at it.
"C'mon, Mei," he whispered beside her ear, and Mei's eyes widened down at the ground as her hand stopped in its tracks. "I know someone is selling crepes around here. Let's go check them out."
Mei stayed silent as she followed Akaashi through the park, finding herself distracted by the pink all around her, as well as the different couples and families that were carrying picnic baskets excitedly.
Eventually Akaashi found the crepe stand that he had mentioned, and Mei watched in awe as he stood in line and gestured for her to enjoy the view around her instead of joining him.
She accepted his offer happily, keeping her eyes to the sky and smiling as the breeze blew more of the pink snow through the air. Out of habit, she reached for her pocket, hoping to snap a picture or two of the moment, frowning slightly as she realized that she had never found her phone.
"Here you go," Akaashi's voice regained her attention, and Mei swirled around to face him quickly, her eyes falling down to the crepes in his hands.
"I can pay you back. I imagine these were pricey and–"
"Mei, shut up." Akaashi gave a small smile, holding one of the crepes out to her and letting her take it into her hand before reaching into his pocket with his newly free hand. "First, no paying me back. I said this was a date. And second, here, you can take pictures on my phone."
"How'd you know I wanted pictures?" Mei asked quickly, taking Akaashi's phone from his hand and flinching just slightly as his thumb grazed her wrist.
"Well, I imagine everyone would like pictures in this situation. But, when you reached in your pocket, I watched your face fall from meters away, so I guessed."
Mei stared up at him in shock, struggling to find the proper words to either thank him or threaten him. She couldn't tell if she wanted to punch the smile off of his face or drop the crepe and phone so she could grab him by his cheeks and kiss him.
Instead, she moved her attention to the crepe he got her, looking into the conical container and furrowing her brows as she realized that it was chocolate.
"Chocolate?" She looked back to him, noticing that he had apparently grown nervous again due to how his fingers found their way to each other.
"I remember you saying you don't like chocolate much anymore... but they didn't have many options and I got the strawberry, so I figured if you wanted some of the strawberry you could try mine."
Mei laughed as he rambled for the second time that day, stopping to take a bite out of the chocolate crepe before glancing at his phone as she chewed.
The chocolate crepe was delicious, and she couldn't tell if it was just because of the crepe in general or if her tongue truly fell in love with chocolate all over again.
"Fuck, this is so good." She let out lowly, allowing Akaashi to laugh at her before taking a bite of his own. "Thank you, for all of this. I feel like I'm dreaming."
"Of course." Akaashi smiled down at her, moving forward to rest his palm against her cheek and use his thumb to swipe at the corner of her mouth.
Mei short-circuited at the gesture, feeling heat travel up her neck and reach her ears. She knew her face must've been the color of a tomato, but she stood her ground and glared back at Akaashi, tightening her hand around his phone.
"Would you like to try some of the strawberry?"
"Huh?" Mei asked dumbly, widening her eyes at herself before shaking her head quickly.
She was really going to punish herself for acting a fool in front of Akaashi later.
"Here," Akaashi continued anyway, laughing lightly as he held his crepe out for her to take a bite.
Mei rolled her eyes quickly before taking a small bite out of the strawberry crepe, chewing on it as she furiously stared down at the ground to hide her face.
"It's good." She admitted stubbornly, still not looking up as she finished chewing. "The chocolate is better."
"I'm glad I got it then. Although, I was under the impression you no longer like chocolate."
"Shut up."
Akaashi let out another laugh before stepping away from Mei, watching her warily as she kept her eyes on the ground stubbornly.
"Go on and take pictures before you snap my phone in half."
At this, Mei loosened the grip on Akaashi's phone, blinking a few times before looking back up and meeting his gaze. She turned away quickly, gluing her eyes to one of the cherry blossom trees to her right before holding up Akaashi's phone and swiping to the right to take pictures.
She snapped a few pictures of individual trees, moving around to get more of the scenery around the park as well before she peeked at Akaashi from behind the phone.
He was standing off to the side awkwardly, letting Mei do her thing as he watched a husband and wife point at the trees dramatically to make their daughter laugh.
Mei smiled to herself as she observed him, moving the phone camera onto him and secretly snapping a few pictures of him amongst the pink, almost dropping the phone entirely when she saw that Akaashi was now looking back at her.
She locked his phone quickly, clutching onto it as she walked back to him, shoving it at his chest before hurrying away, smiling to herself as he followed behind her.
• • •
Mei didn't know if she could call it a date, but whatever it was, it was the happiest she had found herself in the past few months.
Even if she refused to call it a date, Akaashi sure was calling it that. He had called it a date multiple times to her face, and Mei found her cheeks growing hot even as she thought back to it.
Now, it had reached the end of the day, and Mei removed her shoes and stood in the doorway of the apartment with a tingly sensation of satisfaction coursing through her.
Akaashi had even dropped her back off and hugged her goodbye at the door, like she was back in high school and had to hurry a kiss in before her mom could open the door and catch her.
Except now, instead of her mom, it was Hyodo.
He was nowhere to be found as Mei walked further into the apartment, but she kept her eyes peeled for him anyway. She hoped that he hadn't happened to catch the end of her "date" with Akaashi.
Of course, they weren't officially together anymore, but they still lived together and she didn't want to hurt him more than she already had.
Mei shuffled through the quiet apartment slowly, entering the living room to slump on the couch.
Her eyes caught sight of something halfway peeking out from under the couch, and she narrowed them at the object until she realized that it was her phone.
No way. I looked all over the living room this morning.
She crouched down to pick it up, furrowing her brows as she turned it over and tapped it awake. Her confusion only grew as she was met with her lockscreen, the notification menu clear of any missed calls or texts.
Mei had been out without her phone for more than half of the day. While she didn't expect to have thousands of texts, she hadn't expected no notifications.
Besides, she was supposed to have two missed calls and multiple missed texts from Akaashi.