Tokyo Art University, Painting Department Studio.
Open boxes, dyed canvases, paint all over the floor,
"Ha, it’s done, it’s done!" Kitagawa Sakisa placed the paintbrush down from her small stool, visibly relaxed, and kept assessing the barely passable portrait she just completed. "Not bad, time for dessert, time for dessert."
"Clean up your stuff." Kyujuu Rika tapped the back of her head with the end of a brush from behind, "Don’t make Hanabi help you again, the studio is already messy enough."
Sakisa covered her head and looked at her with a seemingly angry gaze, "Hmph~ You’re not my wife, so why do you care so much!"
"Your brother asked me to keep an eye on you, how can I not?" Kyujuu Rika glanced at Sakisa and turned back to tidy up her tools on her own easel.
Sakisa muttered under her breath about being bossed around by a siscon, but still obediently started organizing her art supplies.
Ayaka Rie came over from the balcony with two apples, munching on one and holding the other. Seeing Sakisa cleaning up so diligently, she was quite surprised.
She then came to her and offered her an apple:
"Wh—Apple? No, don’t want an apple!"
Sakisa avoided the bright red apple as if it were a rotten egg, instinctively shrinking back.
"What’s up with Sakisa?" Ayaka glanced at her and took a crunchy bite, asking Kyujuu Rika.
"She’s traumatized from painting too many apples."
"Now when I see an apple, all I can think of is light sources, environmental colors, reflective colors! I don’t want to see an apple." Sakisa was about to run away, but Rika held onto her shirt, requiring her to finish cleaning up first.
"If you don’t want to draw still lifes, don’t get caught slacking off by the teacher." Kyujuu Rika shook her head silently.
"I was just unlucky, you know I’m the class’s unlucky one."
Sakisa obediently cleaned up. It took some time before Rika allowed her to leave her seat.
As she looked around, she didn’t spot Hanamaru Hanabi at the workbench, paint area, rest area, or cooking area.
"Where’s Hanabi-chan? Where’s Hanabi-chan?"
Ayaka turned slightly and pointed towards the floor-to-ceiling door she came through, "Outside on the balcony, arranging the lilies she brought at noon."
"Why lilies again?" Sakisa furrowed her tiny brows.
"What’s wrong with lilies?"
Sakisa made the same face she did when seeing the apples earlier: "Lilies! Those are lilies! So many flowers piled into one vase, such complex lines! My brain is going to explode from drawing them!"
Ayaka took another crispy bite of her apple, chewing as she spoke, "You’ll get used to it. The teacher hasn’t even made you draw corn, baskets, and drapery yet, all those still lifes with their intersecting lines and shadows."
"Stop, you’re making me hate art."
Sakisa stood up quickly, patting down her black skirt, "I’m going to find Hanabi-chan."
The balcony of the studio, filled with green plants, flowers, and small tomatoes.
People often come out here to take a break when they’re tired of painting.
"Hanabi, who gave you the lilies?"
Hanamaru Hanabi, in a sea-blue dress, was trimming the stems and leaves off a few lilies and placing them in a clear vase.
"He actually gave you flowers? Never seen him do that before," Sakisa watched her busy movements and said, "But why not plant the flowers in soil so they can bloom multiple times?"
"These are cut flowers, sprayed with chemicals during transport. The survival rate in soil is less than ten percent."
Hanabi placed the vase with the lilies on a noticeable small wooden board, "This way, they can bloom for half a month."
"You’re amazing, Hanabi, you know everything," Sakisa said genuinely.
"Actually..." Hanabi tucked some hair behind her ear, feeling a bit embarrassed, "Sakura-kun told me that too."
"Him again?" Sakisa seemed a bit displeased, grabbing Hanabi’s hand, "Haven’t you heard that true love is between the same gender? You’re so cute, I really like you."
Hanabi was about to say something.
The sound of fingers tapping on the wooden board, a signal.
Kyujuu Rika peered out from inside the studio, with one hand on the door frame, speaking to the two on the green balcony with a voice full of exasperation, "That guy’s here again."
"He’s here again?" Sakisa glanced at Hanabi and tiptoed to look inside through a small window.
"He’s outside, Ayaka is blocking him, should I go chase him away?" Rika asked.
"Of course! Why leave him hanging around here? I’ll go, he won’t dare mess with me." As she said this, Sakisa strode towards the room inside, her dress flowing.
After a while, Hanabi and Rika returned inside the room.
Rika looked at the studio that now only had Kitagawa and Ayaka, and the firmly closed door,
Sakisa lay directly on the sofa in the rest area, arms crossed irritably, "I even threw his gift for Hanabi-chan back at him."
"You’re not very tactful,"
Rika noticed how she plopped onto the sofa and understood her character.
"What else could I do? Faced with someone unwilling to give up, you have to be a bit tougher, that’s something Rie taught me."
"But... after all, we’re still classmates," Hanabi said, "being friendly would be more appropriate."
Ayaka, munching on another apple, pointed out: "Hanabi, that guy’s a playboy, can’t trust a word he says, nor should you be friendly to him. Be friendly to him and he’ll only take advantage."