BLOOM | NI-KI - Chapter 2: Chapter 2

THE NEXT DAY AT SCHOOL, whispers followed Saori down the hall. The feeling of everyone's eyes on her, watching her, studying her, waiting—calculated, sent a cold shiver down her spine, but the girl refused to show it. Instead, she kept walking, her strides wide, chin jutted upward in performative confidence, blowing past her admirers.
At least that's what she told herself they were.
As she approached her locker, the girl from yesterday, Sakura, stalked up behind her.
"Saori?" The taller girl paused, blood running cold at the sound of her name. She slowly turned, coming face to face with the shorter blonde girl, a look of concern painted on her small features.
"Yes..?" She asked, her voice tinged with confusion. Her hand was still on her locker when Sakura leaned in to whisper something to her.
"I wanted to talk to you–"
But she didn't get to finish her thought. A shrill scream came from down the hall, a herd of students rushing past the two, and toward the direction of the scream. From somewhere down the hall, someone had managed to shout that a fight was going on.
And somehow, deep down, Saori knew it must have involved Ni-ki. She didn't know whether to be scared, or excited. All she knew, was she needed to be there. Needed to see if the rumors about Ni-ki were true. Not that she cared if they were.
She shoved past students, slightly bowing in apology as she finally made her way near the front of the crowd of students. Once she got there, she realized she had lost Sakura in the sea of bodies, but it was too late for her to care.
Because Ni-ki was there. Right in the center of the circle of students, hands shoved in his pockets, a bored look on his face. Across from him was another student—much shorter, much less intimidating.
Something inside of Saori told her someone should stop the fight before it turned into a bloodbath. It was clear Ni-ki would do some serious damage to the boy, but another part of her told her to stay put. To watch and see what Nishimura Ni-ki was truly capable of.
So she listened.
Ni-ki still didn't say anything, unmoving, while the other boy spewed insults at him, cursing loudly. Saori watched Ni-ki, both expectant and slightly fearful. But she barely got the chance to process it when the shorter boy was suddenly right in front of Ni-ki, shoving the taller boy with full force.
Ni-ki lunged backward, clearly caught off guard. That was it.
Punches, left and right, from above and below. The poor boy could barely stand as Ni-ki hunched over him, fists moving a mile a minute. But nobody moved, nobody said anything.
They simply watched, phones in hands, mouths covered in a facade of horror. Deep down, they enjoyed this. They enjoyed seeing the boy they had villainized, play the role they created for him: a puppet for their entertainment.
But just as soon as it had started, it was over.
"Ni-ki!" A deep voice barked as a boy dressed in a neat uniform ran into the circle. His fists grabbed a handful of Ni-ki's collar, lifting him up and off the unmoving boy below him.
But he only had a hold of him for a short amount of time. Ni-ki's face twisted, not into a look of fear, but pure hatred. He nearly hit the boy as he pulled back, shrugging his hands off of him.
"Get off me, Jay." He snarled, squaring his shoulders.
"Try that again and you'll end up just like—" Jay stopped himself, the look on Ni-ki's face daring him to continue. Saori glanced between the two boys, her eyebrows knit together in confusion.
It was clear the two had history—bad history. The look on Ni-ki's face, the look of pure, unadulterated abhorrence, it felt like something real had just cracked through the surface he had so carefully curated.
She didn't know if she should be scared or intrigued. Maybe both.
"Saori!" The familiar voice of Sakura was heard behind her, prompting her to turn and face the shorter girl again. Her eyes were wide, pupils shaking as she forced herself to tear her eyes away from a now retreating Ni-ki. But not before catching the slow drops of blood leaking from his knuckles, a bright wine red.
"Are you okay?" Sakura pressed her hands to the girl's shoulders, her eyes inspecting her body. Saori lightly shook her hands off, confirming that she was okay.
"Just..stay away from him. I know you don't know me, but trust me. Ni-ki's not who you think." Sakura's eyes were pleading, begging her to heed her warning. But what she didn't realize, was that Saori was already in too deep.
The fight had only made her want to know the boy even more. There was no way she was turning back now.
Not before she got to see her flower bloom.
𓇢𓆸
That night, after school, Saori lay idly in her bed, her mind replaying the fight from earlier. The barrage of punches, the blood, the screams, the look of pure resentment on Ni-ki's face.
She felt a rush surge inside of her, one she had never felt before. It scared her.
"Ni-ki, Ni-ki," She whispered his name like it was a curse, her finger tracing her lips as she did. She would find out what he was really about. She would find out if he was truly as bad as everyone said he was.
Then she would decide for herself.
She sat at her desk, the click of her mouse reverberating through her room as she scrolled and scrolled for hours. She sifted through key words, social media accounts, school records, but she found nothing concrete.
That was until she stumbled upon a vague post from an anonymous account. The post was oddly cryptic, with hundreds of dislikes, comments cursing the poster claiming everything they said were lies.
The post read:
"He's not crazy. He's just the only one still mad about what they did to Sunoo."
Her hand shook against the mouse, her pulse heightening as she reread the words, engraving them in her memory. She would find out Ni-ki's story, no matter what it took.
𓇢𓆸
The next day at school, she found Sakura again. The girl was hanging around inside the library, a book nestled in her nose when Saori found her. She tapped her shoulder, slightly waving.
Sakura jumped, setting her book down to give her full attention. "Sakura, you wanted to talk the other day?"
Sakura nodded, though hesitant, she invited the girl to sit next to her.
Saori stayed silent, eyes downcast, her mind replaying the words of the post she had found the other day. She was determined to ask Sakura what it meant, to ask who Sunoo was, but she couldn't just bring it up unprovoked. So she waited. She would find a way to have Sakura bring it up herself.
"So, what did you want to tell me?" Saori questioned, fake innocence dripping from her voice. Sakura didn't notice, sighing in relief. She had wondered if Saori were too far gone to heed her warning, but it was obvious the girl was still willing to listen.
She still had time to save her.
"It's about Ni-ki," She started, her tone clipped and hushed. She looked around, making sure no one was watching before turning back to Saori. "He's seriously bad news. He's crazy—"
"Why?"
Sakura paused, taken aback. She had never really thought about why Ni-ki was the way he was, she hadn't had the time to. She was too busy worrying about what the erratic boy would do next, what damage he would bring upon the school next.
She shrugged the comment off. "That's not the point, the point is stay away from him. Seriously."
Saori gnawed on her bottom lip, her conscious itching her to bring up Sunoo, the post from yesterday. She couldn't help it, before she had the chance to realize it, she was already asking.
"Who's Sunoo?" She blurted, eyebrows knitting in suspicion when Sakura froze, her complexion growing paler by the second.
"Are you okay?"
"No one talks about him—that anymore." She corrects herself quickly, eyes darting around to make sure no one was listening. "Don't say that name again."
Saori just nods, her heartbeat quickening, this time in a strange sense of excitement. It was obvious whatever happened with Sunoo played a big part in who Ni-ki was, she just had to figure out how.
And what better way than to learn from the source?
Bloom.