12 Roses

6 | Familiarity in Faces

"Realistically, the side burns are so out, but respectfully, they suit his face."

Your eyes travelled between Nanako and the magazine she had snatched from the magazine rack at Suguru's tattoo shop. The magazines hadn't been updated since 2006 and had grainy photos and questionable fashion choices, and while you tried to convince Suguru to get new ones, he didn't bother with it since no one ever actually read them.

Mimiko had been holed up in her room all day, trying to perfect her art techniques for school and Tsumiki had gone out with her mom... somewhere.

Normally, she'd tell you where she was going, but this time, her mom didn't tell her anything.

"Suguru, Y/N's saying to update your magazines again!" Nanako called.

"Tell her that they're really just there for decor," he responded, not taking his eyes off of the bicep that he was tattooing.

Nanako translated for you and you rolled your eyes before continuing to flip through the pages.

What a strange decision for decoration.

After a while, Nanako slipped the magazine back onto the magazine rack and you followed her upstairs to where the three of them lived. It had three bedrooms, a washroom, and a small kitchen that had a microwave that was rarely plugged in sitting on the little counterspace they had, but you found it quite charming.

Nanako opened her bedroom door and pointed on her bed, urging you to sit.

She had a huge bulletin board that covered nearly half her wall just filled with printed pictures and polaroid pictures and a coat rack with two cardigans and a polaroid camera hanging on it.

The rest of her room was full of bright colours and beauty supplies.

Mimiko was quite the opposite, with a room that would be fit for a vampire and a doll she crocheted a while back hanging from the ceiling by its neck in the corner. The brightest thing in her room was the photo of you, Tsumiki, Nanako, and her that the four of you all had.

Balling her hand into a fist, Nanako banged against the wall, calling Mimiko's name. "Turn that down!"

"I can't turn it down, it's a sewing machine!"

She groaned and opened her door, waving for you to follow. All the walls in the house were apparently soundproof except for the wall between their rooms, according to Nanako, so she went to the kitchen and opened the curtains to bring some light into it.

You glanced at the windowsill, noticing plants lined up in the sunlight.

Yellow roses, then daffodils, then gerbera daisies, then tulips.

Your eyes widened. They were the same plants as the ones in Gojo's classroom. Your mind went back to the first day when you had to hand in forms with information to contact any "important adults", with Gojo's eyes lingering on your paper with Suguru's name on it.

"Where did Suguru get those?" you asked.

Nanako glanced at them and shrugged. "They've been there forever. No idea where he got them. They don't look the same as anything else here, do they?"

You shook your head slowly, with no words in your throat to say.

•••

You walked into class like you normally did, save for the long stare at the row of flowers, and sat down, while Maki, Toge, and Panda followed behind you.

It was October and the sun hadn't quite made a comfortable place in the sky, so nature's first green was poking through the window and shining on the arrangement of flowers that caught your eye on the first day.