Hydrangeas and the Transfer Student | Short Story

On my way home from school, there was someone grinning while taking pictures of hydrangeas with a massive camera. They were standing in the rain, without even an umbrella.
—They really go all out.
June. The rainy season. A season where the world is covered in a gray film. The humid, lukewarm wind clings to my skin, making even my lungs feel damp. Every day is depressing, and everything feels like a chore. To me, hydrangeas were just flowers that got wet in the rain, and I certainly wouldn't think to go out of my way to photograph them.
No matter how beautiful hydrangeas might be, the world as seen by a second-year middle schooler like me is monochrome, devoid of any special colors. Moreover, everything I look at is out of focus, and all my classmates' faces look the same.
Then, a person who would bring color to my life suddenly arrived as a transfer student.

"I'm Izumi Makino. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Her voice was clear, as if it were vibrating the air after the rain. Dressed in her uniform, she stood with her back perfectly straight. Her glossy black hair was straight and smooth, unaffected by the humidity of the rainy season, flowing down to her shoulder blades.
What caught my eye most of all were her large eyes. They were as transparent as if she had captured the sky after the rain, and she looked straight ahead. And when she began to speak, her crisp, bright voice echoed through the classroom.
"The transfer student is cute."
"Man, she's totally my type."
I could hear the boys sitting in the back whispering to each other, trying to be the first to comment. I couldn't take my eyes off her either.
The air she carried felt somewhat otherworldly, or perhaps just a little mysterious. She often sat by the window, just staring at the falling rain, and it was hard to tell what she was thinking. The boys in the class, who had been excited at first, seemed to be gradually intimidated by her unapproachable aura; now, they would watch her from a distance, occasionally whispering to each other.
As for me, while I wanted to talk to her, I couldn't find a way to start a conversation, and like the other boys, I could only watch from afar.
It was at the school entrance after school, with rain pouring down so hard that even going home felt like a hassle, that she finally spoke to me while I was standing there blankly.
"Hydrangeas are beautiful, aren't they?"
"Huh...?"
It was so sudden that my thoughts came to a complete halt. Following her gaze, I looked toward the flowerbed next to the entrance.
—Oh, those hydrangeas.
It seemed she thought I was looking at the hydrangeas.
"Yeah, they are beautiful."
I said something I didn't really mean, just trying to go along with the conversation.
"Did you know that hydrangeas change color when it rains?"
"Huh? Oh... is that so?"
"Yeah. In the town where I was born, there's a legend that hydrangeas are flowers where rain fairies dwell. They say that every time it rains, the fairies change the color of the hydrangeas."
"Huh."
—Rain fairies.
I couldn't believe such a fairy-tale story existed in this real world. But her profile was serious, and she didn't look like she was joking.
"Oh, you don't believe me!"
"No, it's not that I don't believe you... it's just that I learned in science class that it's determined by the pH level of the soil."
"Oh, you're such a killjoy."
Izumi laughed mischievously.
"Then, Yu. Let's go see them together tomorrow. If it rains, they should be a different color than they are today."
Hearing my name called so naturally made my heart skip a beat. When I looked into her eyes, I felt as if my world, which had been out of focus, was suddenly gaining sharp resolution.

From the next day on, our secret walks to visit the hydrangeas began.
After school, we would go around looking at the hydrangeas blooming behind the school building or in the corners of our commute. Rain or shine, cloudy or clear. Every day, Izumi would show me a different color of hydrangea. She'd say things like, 'The flower that was blue yesterday is a little purple today,' or 'The flower that was a bud this morning has turned a vibrant pale purple after the rain.'
Various colored hydrangeas sparkled as they repelled the raindrops. Looking at those colorful hydrangeas, I really felt like rain fairies were dwelling in them.
Through her eyes, the hydrangeas seemed to change their expressions moment by moment, as if they were alive.
Through Izumi, I learned for the first time about the delicate gradations the world possesses. Until then, my world had been a binary choice of 'rain' or 'shine,' but after meeting her, even the scent of the air after a drizzle, a passing shower, or light rain began to have meaning.

"Hey, Yu. Do you know the flower language of hydrangeas?"
One day, she asked me while looking slightly downward. When I shook my head, she gently touched a flower.
"They're often called 'fickle' or 'unfaithful,' but they actually also mean 'patient love' or 'energetic woman,' you know?"
After a brief pause, she continued.
"But my favorite is 'devoted love.'"
"Is that... so?"
That was all I could manage to say. I didn't know why she had suddenly brought up the flower language of hydrangeas. But as I watched her profile, I felt the colors of my world changing vividly. I had hated the rainy season and the rain, and I had absolutely no interest in hydrangeas or flower language, but now I found myself drawn to them.
I found myself following Izumi with my eyes as she took light steps while getting wet in the rain.
"Look at that hydrangea. I'm sure the fairies will give it a new color tonight."
Izumi, smiling as she said that, always gave me color. When I was with her, even rainy days felt special and turned into colorful days.
It felt like we were sharing a secret that belonged only to the two of us.

"What kind of place is the town where you were born, Izumi?"
I asked her that once. Her expression clouded for a moment.
"It's a place with a lot of rain. And the color of the hydrangeas was the most important thing there."
Her hometown was a famous spot for hydrangeas, known as a tourist destination. It seems there was an old custom where, every year during the rainy season, the town's fortune and even that year's harvest were predicted based on the color of those hydrangeas. I didn't know at the time that Izumi's family was a special lineage that managed those hydrangeas, and that she herself was struggling to escape that tradition.
Neither of us touched on that topic any further. But I felt that deep in Izumi's eyes at that moment, a light like a raindrop was flickering just a little.

One Saturday afternoon, as the end of the rainy season approached. The wind, heavy with humidity, was swaying her hair heavily. Izumi, who usually laughed as if to repel the raindrops, looked deeper and more sunken today than the cloudy sky.
"What's wrong? The hydrangeas are blooming energetically today, too, aren't they?"
When I tried to speak as brightly as I could, Izumi gently touched a white hydrangea blooming in the flowerbed behind the school building, its color not yet settled.
"Hey, Yu. Do you really think the reason hydrangeas change color is just the pH level?"
"Huh? What else could it be?"
"In the legend of the town where I was born, they say hydrangea colors reflect the color of 'tears shed by people.' Sad tears turn them blue, happy tears turn them pale purple, and tears of hope turn them a burning red..."
I didn't know what Izumi was trying to say, but I waited silently for her to continue.
"White flowers, whose colors haven't settled yet, are the color of 'tears no one knows yet.' In other words, they are the color of hidden emotions that haven't been shed yet."
The moment I heard that, my chest tightened. Deep in Izumi's eyes, the light like a raindrop I had seen before was flickering. Perhaps that was her own tears, not yet shed.
"Hey, Izumi. What kind of tears are you hiding?"
I gathered my courage and asked. Izumi stared intently at the hydrangea that was starting to change from white to blue, and then turned to face me. In her eyes, there was indeed a painful light, like a lake on the verge of breaking its dam.
"I'm transferring again."
Those words scorched my heart mercilessly, like the sun announcing the end of the rainy season.
"Because of my father's work, I have to go far away again. They say it's a place with strong sea breezes where hydrangeas don't bloom much."
My vision blurred for a moment, like a glass window wet with rain. A dull pain I had never felt before spread deep in my chest.
"When... when are you leaving?"
"The day after tomorrow. So today is the last day I can see the hydrangeas with you, Yu."
Izumi lowered her eyes. I couldn't say anything, just staring at her profile.
"You know, until I met you, Yu, I thought my world was always blue. It was sad, lonely. But if I cried, I was afraid that, just like the legend of my hometown, the surrounding hydrangeas would be dyed in the blue of sadness, the color of my tears... I was always scared. I lived killing my emotions so I wouldn't cry. But every day since I met you, even the rainy days and the dampness of the rainy season, everything looked like it was shining like a prism. That's why... I wished that only these hydrangeas wouldn't turn blue."
Her voice echoed quietly, like the sound of rain.
It was actually me who saw everything as a prism. I felt pathetic that I couldn't do anything for Izumi, who had brought me out of my monochrome world.
"Izumi..."
I tried to reach out, but she shook her head slightly and stepped back. A forced smile was plastered on her face.
"Goodbye, Yu. I don't want to dye your world blue with my tears."
She turned her back and ran away. All that was left was me and a single hydrangea. When I looked, the white hydrangea Izumi had been touching was beginning to dye into a deep, cold blue, as if ink were seeping into it.

The next day, Izumi didn't come to school.
I went to see the hydrangeas behind the school building alone. The hydrangeas that Izumi and I had looked at together yesterday had turned a deep blue. As if the purity of the tears Izumi shed and the pain of the parting I felt had become the color itself.
I stood frozen in front of those blue hydrangeas. Even though the rainy season had ended and the sun was scorching, cold rain was falling only inside my heart.
"Sad tears turn them blue..."
Izumi's words came back to me.
Tears naturally overflowed from my eyes. Large drops of tears fell to the ground, and onto the petals of the blue hydrangea. The tears I shed didn't change the color of the hydrangea. It had already been dyed a deep blue.
From that day on, I began to avoid blue hydrangeas. Because they were a sad color that reminded me of my parting with Izumi.
My world returned to monochrome once again. Hydrangeas became just 'flowers' that got wet in the rain. Only, because the colors had been so vivid, the loneliness stood out more than before.

Summer passed, autumn deepened, and winter came. The seasons changed, the hydrangea flowers withered, and only the branches remained.
I looked up the flower language of hydrangeas that Izumi had mentioned.
Patient love, devoted love, and energetic woman.

—I wonder if she's doing well.

In a world without Izumi, I just waited devotedly for the day I could meet her again.
After Izumi was gone, I changed a little. I tried to find meaning in every color and every drop of rain, just as Izumi had taught me, on rainy days that I had previously thought were just 'boring.' It was the 'glasses' for seeing the world that Izumi had left for me. Although the parting was a painful blue, the days she gave me added a certain color to my life.

The seasons turned, and the rainy season began again.
Now a third-year middle school student, I was spending busy days studying for entrance exams. I had no time to look at hydrangeas, and I felt the rainy days were as depressing as they used to be.
One evening. It was when the heavy rain had stopped and the western sky was beginning to be dyed orange. As I looked up at the sky while pedaling my bicycle, there was a rainbow. A giant arch, emitting vivid, seven-colored light.
I stopped my bicycle and looked up at the sky.
"Could it be that the rainbow is also the work of the fairies?"
I muttered to myself.
The story Izumi told me about hydrangeas being flowers where rain fairies dwell. Surely, in the legends of her town, rainbows must have a special meaning too.
Is Izumi, who went to a town I don't know, looking at this rainbow somewhere right now? Is she looking up at this rainbow in a distant seaside town, in a landscape without hydrangeas?
Suddenly, a flowerbed by the road caught my eye. There was a brand-new white hydrangea that had just been planted. That flower hadn't been dyed any color yet. What color will this hydrangea turn tomorrow? Will it turn blue again—the color of tears?
As I stared at the white flower, I wished strongly in my heart.
—Please, turn into something other than blue.
A single ray of light after the rain shone onto the white hydrangea. Receiving that light, the petals sparkled.

"It definitely won't turn blue. Do you believe me?"

A nostalgic voice came from behind me. My heart leaped, and my breath stopped.
I thought it was an auditory hallucination. I was afraid to turn around. If I turned around and no one was there, I might not be able to recover this time.
"...Yeah, I believe you."
I answered with a trembling voice, with all my might. The sound of gravel being stepped on approached. And then, that presence stood beside me.
"In the seaside town, there really weren't any hydrangeas."
It was definitely Izumi's voice. It was a little more mature, but it was the same clear voice, like the air after the rain, as it was back then.
"That's why I spent a year persuading my father. I told him I wanted to return to that town because there was a color I absolutely had to see."
"A color you wanted to see...?"
I finally turned toward her. Standing there was Izumi, her hair a little longer. She was smiling in the backlight, with the sunset at her back.
"Yeah. Not a sad blue, but a stronger, kinder color."
Izumi walked past me and squatted down in front of the white hydrangea. A single tear traced her cheek. But it wasn't a tear of sadness. The setting sun illuminated her tears, and that light reflected onto the white hydrangea.
"Look, Yu."
The moment her tears fell onto the petals. The white hydrangea changed color as if by magic. A vivid, noble purple, where the orange of the sunset and the color of her tears melted together.
—The color of happy tears.
Izumi turned around. Her smile, wet with tears, was more dazzling than the rainbow after the rain, and it stole all the focus from my vision.
"I'm home, Yu. I finally found the true color."
Hot things overflowed from my eyes too. Beyond the tears, the purple hydrangea was swaying. It was no longer the color of depressing rain.
I took a deep breath. And I shouted the name I had wanted to call the most.
"Welcome back! Izumi!"
The world is indeed full of color. In it, I finally found the true color.

(The End)

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