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Curse these damn flowers.

Momo didn’t even know how she ended up here, in a seemingly never-ending field of violets, lilies, tulips, one-lips, three-four-five-lips whatever the hell these plants were called. She had just left her house without much reason, without a care to where she was going. An impulsive trip to nowhere, with riding a bus that way and taking a train another way.

Now she was walking, and had absentmindedly happened upon a random expanse of flowers. Momo hated flowers. They made her itch, and she didn’t understand why people gave them as gifts and made them out to be so special; why were they such symbols of love, purity, happiness? Food was obviously a better choice than flowers for anything.

Which reminded Momo that she hadn’t eaten much since the day started. Well, hadn’t eaten enough, in her book—despite the full breakfast she ate, she had also picked up various snacks from street vendors, lunched at a ramen shop, had at least one too many slices of cake at a café, and picked up even more street food. Hunger was catching up to her again, so maybe it was time to go home before the sun set so that she could have dinner. Her mom might worry, too.

But she was lost amongst these flowers. These damn flowers that Momo was almost certain would cause her to walk into her house covered in grass burrs and to wake up sneezing.

Momo spotted a tree and headed over to sit down against it. Being lost and hungry was tiring. Looking at all the flowers was tiring. She took out her phone to look up a map of where she was and the quickest way home.

Her eyes, however, wandered from the screen to a lone flower by her feet. In the small clearing surrounding the tree, there happened to be one flower separate from the countless bunches. For some reason, Momo found herself intrigued and bent forward to get a closer look.

It was a hibiscus (although Momo would never have been able to name it), its magenta-colored center fanning out into light pink petals. If it had been among the others, Momo might have missed it. Or would she have? Momo was no botanist but the flower did seem out of place, at least in terms of appearance. Well, if it was enough to get Momo to stop and look at it, it must have been more than pretty.

Momo felt begin to itch and she withdrew her gaze to hurriedly finish finding out her location. She successfully pulled up a map on her phone (turns out she wasn’t in the complete middle of nowhere, at the very least), and stood up to set about walking home.

Although she stopped, and turned around to eye the single flower once more.

“Aish...” she mumbled, and crouched down to take a picture of it. The light from the nearly setting sun cast a beautiful shadow and coloration on the flower, which made Momo smile in satisfaction.

She lowered her phone to get a better look at the flower, only to see that it was giving off some sort of powder? Glitter?

“What—!” Momo jumped up and backed away. Forget the thing, she didn’t have time to deal with more pollen.

She proceeded to continue on her way but then she saw the flower move. Not it-fluttered-mildly-in-the-wind moved, but move moved. As in, it looked like it was about to get up and run away on its own.

The plant squirmed and grew in size, still discharging the powdery substance. It was almost as big as Momo before there was a burst of dust and the flower was gone.

In its place was a girl.

A cute girl, Momo would add, in spite of being utterly mystified by what had transpired in front of her. So she turned into a bumbling mess trying to get any words out.

The girl giggled. “Hello there! Thank you for noticing me, I was getting lonely…”

“You… Um, you, flower…? Human?” Momo managed to ask.

“Of course I'm a person! Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to hold your hand,” the girl spoke. She extended an arm towards Momo, who glanced at it suspiciously before apprehensively laying her hand on the stranger’s.

The girl grinned and began walking, intertwining her fingers with Momo’s. “So, what’s your name? I’m Kei,” she said.

“…Momo. Wait, where are we going?”

“Nowhere, really. I just want to walk with you,” Kei replied. 

Momo couldn’t help but smile, looking at the soft expression on Kei's face. “Well… I was actually on my way home. I have to go eat dinner,” she stated.

“Oh!” Kei exclaimed. She suddenly paused, and let go of Momo’s hand to wander off, intently surveying the area around them. Momo watched as Kei bent down and grabbed some flowers from a short sapling, returning to the waiting girl.

“These are peach blossoms. One of my favorite flowers!” Kei held a small pile of them in her hands.

Momo was about to open to offer an “Um…thanks?” but without much warning the flowers poofed into a cloud of dust, much like Kei had earlier, and instead of flowers Kei now held a quivering yellow-orange blob.

"Here's some jelly if you're hungry!" The flower girl, with a wide grin, proudly held the jelly up to Momo's face.

“J-Jelly?” Momo asked, raising her eyebrow. She unconsciously her lips but eyed the other girl wearily. “Okay, I have no idea what sort of magic is going on but you don’t expect me to eat that, do you?”

The wishful expression on Kei’s face faltered. “You don’t believe in me?”

Now Momo felt bad for the girl, no matter how bizarre the circumstances were. “Er, you see, I mean…” she started, hesitating. “Fine, if you really want me to eat it, then I guess...I will.”

“Yay!” Kei’s smile returned and she lifted the blob to Momo’s mouth. “Say aah!” Momo slowly complied. Kei wiped a stray bit of jelly from the corner of the other’s lips.

Momo blushed. She didn’t even truly know why she was humoring this girl and going along with whatever she wanted. Take a stroll with a magical flower being? Consume some random treat that said being had materialized out of nowhere? This probably wasn’t a good idea, but…

“Mmm,” Momo hummed as she chewed. Wow, this jelly tasted pretty great. It was like a pack of peaches had decided to nestle in her taste buds and dance to sweet, moving ballads. Delectable. Best thing she had eaten all day.

Kei peered intently at Momo’s face. “Do you like it?” she asked.

Momo swallowed and gave a thumbs up. “Yeah, definitely,” she answered, earning a grin from the other girl.

Kei took hold of Momo’s hand once again and began walking off, though Momo’s steps were hesitant. “Look, Kei…” she started, and Kei stopped to turn around, a patiently curious expression on her face.

“Yes?”

“This has been great and all, but I really need to uh, get home.”

Momo thought Kei looked as if tears were about to spill out of her eyes, and her voice was low. "I understand," she whispered, but suddenly her expression brightened with an idea. “Wait, can I come with you?“

Hold up, Momo couldn’t just bring some random girl home. What would she do with her? What would her parents say? Kei might work some weird magic and turn Momo's entire family into flowers.

Nah, Momo decided to just use the she's-a-friend-from-school excuse, because why not? She'd figure out how to bring Kei back later.

“Yeah. Come on.” Momo unexpectedly took Kei's hand in hers. She pulled Kei along with her as they walked, neither saying anything although there was a huge smile on Kei’s face. Momo took out her phone to search for the way home.

“Thank you.”

Momo looked back at the other girl.

“Thank you, Momo, really. I have a friend now!” Kei stated, giving Momo’s hand a squeeze. Momo looked down at their joined hands.

“How long have you even been out here?” she asked.

Kei thought for a moment, brow furrowing. “Hmm, I don’t know,” she said. “But with all the other flowers here, I thought that I would never be noticed. People don’t really come by here often. There are always birds, squirrels, and insects, but even then I don’t get to make friends…”

She stared at the ground dejectedly, and Momo’s heart skipped a beat. It was some story for a flower to feel lonely, but she didn’t want the girl to be sad. No, Momo definitely didn’t think it was right for a precious girl like Kei to be unhappy.

Momo moved closer to Kei. “Hey, I’ll be your friend. Don’t worry.” Her voice came out gently and her gaze softened as she put her phone in her pocket and took hold of both of Kei’s hands to look directly at her. Momo’s heart continued to flutter when Kei’s eyes morphed into crescents and she let out a small giggle.

Yeah, Momo would certainly admit that Kei was very sweet and endearing.

Although, the inside of her nose tickled and she felt as though her eyes were becoming moist. Was Momo really feeling so much sympathy for this girl? And becoming weak to her charm? They’d known each other for all of five minutes, what was this?

Oh, allergies kicking in again. Probably.

“What’s wrong?” Kei asked, worried.

“N-Nothing,” Momo sniffed.

Kei paused, then linked her arm with Momo’s. “Well then, let’s go!”

Maybe Kei could spend the night at Momo's place. Or a few nights. Momo thought she'd have to get some flowers to decorate her room with, because it turned out that she liked flowers after all.

Questions, comments, concerns? Let me know~