Things Lurking in Flowers "Weekly Short-Short Note [Hydrangea Boy]"

Taraha-san, thank you for the prompt. The article attached below follows.

(Body text: 479 characters)

I climb the stone steps one by one. After a while, the stairs curve, and with the rainy weather of the rainy season, I cannot see what lies ahead. Mindful of my footing, which feels like it could slip in the rain, I climb one step, then another.

Once I reach the top of the stone steps, a small shrine comes into view, looking overgrown with weeds. Along both sides of the approach are buried stones and hydrangeas. The rainy season flowers, growing in between the weeds, have been left untended and have grown wild.

Hey, you're late. I was tired of waiting; I thought I wouldn't see you again.

The voice that caught me was not a sound.
It was a voice that did not vibrate my eardrums but resonated within my brain.
It was a voice that sounded as if it had been coiled up after stretching out.

"I have my own errands to run, you know. I hurried as much as I could, but did I keep you waiting?"

There was no reply to my words, only a faint, small "hissing" sound.

Every year when the rainy season arrives and the hydrangeas bloom, I visit that desolate shrine early in the morning. People around me say I'm eccentric for going every day, as if I'm making a wish.

On the shrine's approach, a single white snake lifts its head from between the hydrangeas and looks at me. Because in his gaze, I see the shadow of the person I loved when I was a girl.
I go to see him.

Reference (as an image)

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