The Spider Lily Turns into a Chrysanthemum

Prologue: Part 1

Tokyo Station was busy that morning.

Announcements sounded overhead as passengers moved between platforms, rolling suitcases behind them and checking departure boards. Yoshino Somei stood near the entrance to the Shinkansen platform with one hand resting on the handle of her maroon suitcase.

Her train to Shin-Osaka would be boarding soon.

It had been one year since she’d arrived in Tokyo

Now high school was over, and she was going home.

Yoshino had already decided what came next. She would eventually attend the same university as Shouma, but she was deferring her first year. Before school, she wanted to focus on starting a business with Tsubaki.

For once, she had a plan that felt entirely her own.

Kirishima stood in front of her.

They had been awake most of the night talking about her decision. At some point, talking had turned into arguing, and arguing had turned into long periods of silence. Neither of them had slept much.

Kirishima looked tired, though he was trying not to show it.

“So even after seeing me distraught,” he said, “you still think I’m a piece of shit?”

Yoshino looked at him.

“I think you have kindness,” she said. “But we’re just too different.”

His expression changed slightly, but he didn’t interrupt.

“If you were going to marry me, you’d have to stop the cheating. The lying. And you just can’t control me.”

Kirishima remained quiet.

Yoshino had spent enough time with him to know that silence didn’t necessarily mean agreement.

“Anyways,” she continued, “the goal was to make you fall for me and dump your ass.”

Kirishima’s eyes widened.

For a moment, he genuinely seemed surprised.

Then his familiar expression returned. His golden eyes sharpened slightly, and a grin slowly appeared.

“So, in the end you wanted to hurt me and manipulate me?”

He tilted his head.

“How… sweet.”

Yoshino rolled her eyes.

“You try to push me away, but then you say things like this,” he continued, “and I can’t help but love you more.”

“And see, there. That’s the fucking problem.”

His smile faded a little.

“You throw around the word love at me, but your actions don’t match your words.”

Kirishima watched her.

“You lie to me. You cheat. You do whatever you want and then tell me you love me like that’s supposed to make everything else okay.”

“I do love you.”

“I know you think you do.”

His expression shifted.

Yoshino looked away from him and toward the platform.

“I can’t, Kirishima. I want to go home, and I have a plan.”

Osaka was familiar. Her grandfather was there. Tsubaki was there. Shouma was there.

And she had something she wanted to build for herself.

She had spent the last year living according to circumstances other people had created for her. Going back to Osaka felt like an opportunity to decide what she wanted next.

When Yoshino looked at Kirishima again, his face had softened.

“That’s fine,” he said. “I’ll let you go.”

The wording immediately annoyed her. Before she could comment on it, he continued.

“But don’t think I’ll ever disappear.”

His eyes stayed on hers.

“I’m always where you are.”

Yoshino frowned. “Ew. I hate it when you say that.”

Kirishima smiled.

“Don’t matter though,” she continued. “Gramps already told me he has an extra layer of guards all around Osaka to Kyoto.”

The announcement for her train sounded overhead.

Yoshino reached for her suitcase, “Have fun trying though.”

She started toward the train.

Kirishima was still standing in her way, so Yoshino put her hand against his left shoulder and pushed him aside.

“Move.”

He stepped back.

Yoshino rolled her suitcase onto the train without turning around.

She had already said everything she needed to say.

“Yoshino!”

She kept walking.

“You’ll always be my favorite love!” Kirishima shouted after her.

Yoshino shook her head but didn’t respond.

She found her seat by the window and placed her suitcase nearby.

Outside, Kirishima remained on the platform.

The warning chime sounded.

As the doors began to close, his smile faded.

“And you’ll come back to me eventually,” he said quietly.

The doors shut.

Yoshino hadn’t heard him.

A few moments later, the train began pulling away from the station.

She looked through the window as the platform passed from view, then settled back into her seat.

Tokyo had been one year of her life.

A complicated one.

There had been things she hated about it and things she knew she would miss, even if she wasn’t ready to admit that yet.

But she had made her decision. She was going home. Back to Osaka. Back to her family.

Back to Tsubaki and the business they intended to build.

And back to Shouma.

Yoshino closed her eyes and smiled slightly as the train continued south.

For now, that was enough.