Budding Hearts
“Hah… hah…”
Early in the morning, Yu Juju was running the track that circled the edge of the artificial island.
She was supposed to be doing this with Lua, but Lua hadn’t shown up today—probably still nursing a hangover—so Juju was alone. Himari hadn’t come either, for the same reason.
“Hah… hah…”
Her short hair whipped in the wind, and the sweat on her skin caught the sunlight like scattered jewels.
After nearly an hour of running, her body was thoroughly warmed through. This was the moment Juju loved most.
When she exercised, the usual clutter of thoughts simply… stopped.
The light ones—grades, homework—and the heavy ones too: the state of her wallet, the faces of family who no longer existed in this world. All of it fell away.
Thud!
“Whew.”
After one last all-out sprint, Juju gradually eased off and came to a stop.
Wiping the sweat with a towel, taking a mouthful of water—it was all part of the routine.
Feeling refreshed, she drew in a deep breath.
—Juju’s our party’s reliable tank… and the cuteness specialist.
“Huh?!”
The memory hit her without warning. Something Lua had said while clinging and whining.
I’m… cute?
No one had ever said that to her before.
As far as she was concerned, she had always been about as far from “cute” as a person could get.
Even as a kid, she’d preferred hanging out with the boys, gravitating toward soccer and basketball. Plenty of adults had mistaken her for a boy back then.
After her family died and she decided to become a hunter, nothing much changed. If anything, she put even more distance between herself and anything resembling grooming or self-care, pouring everything into building her body and her athletic instincts.
Until now, living that way had never really bothered her—
But that was a shock…
Himari admitting she’d mistaken Juju for a boy. That single remark had lit a fuse of urgency in her.
A sense that she couldn’t keep going like this.
A fear that if she just kept living the way she always had, she might grow old without ever knowing the ordinary happiness of dating, or marriage, or any of the things everyone else seemed to get.
So she’d gone and asked Lua—on pure impulse.
Not because she particularly wanted to date anyone. Not because there was someone she liked. Just because she was in a hurry, and her heart wouldn’t sit still.
She’d bought perfume. Bath additives. Clothes. Thanks to Sua unnie, the outfits had even turned out pretty cute.
And still, something felt hollow. Incomplete. The confidence she’d expected to fill her up never quite arrived—
Not until she heard those words from Lua.
—The cuteness specialist.
“……!”
Blood rushed to Juju’s face—not from the run, but from sheer, mortifying embarrassment.
She pressed the water bottle to her cheeks for a long moment before the realization finally settled in.
Getting dressed up only meant something when there was someone you wanted to show it to.
I want Teacher to call me cute again…
Lunchtime, behind the school building, where almost no one ever went.
A male student and a female student stood facing each other.
The boy spoke in a trembling voice.
“S-Sua… I-I like you. Will you go out with me?”
“I’m sorry, Hyeonseong.”
The answer came at once.
“You’re a really great guy. Honestly, I think you’re too good for me.”
“But—”
“Can we just stay good friends?”
“Okay…”
Sua spoke with genuine regret on her face. Shoulders slumped, the boy trudged back into the building alone.
“Haa…”
Sua let out a long sigh.
That made four this month alone. Beginner class, intermediate, advanced, special class—boys from every level kept coming up to her.
Turning them down every time still hurts.
Sua had the looks and the style, but she had no intention of getting a boyfriend. Her friends were always baffled that someone as pretty and kind as her didn’t have a partner, and every time they asked, she just laughed it off.
I can’t exactly tell them I like girls…
But that wasn’t the only problem.
She’d figured out her own preferences a long time ago. The trouble was, even among the girls, no one had ever made her heart race.
I want to be in a relationship… but I can’t be someone’s girlfriend if I don’t actually like them.
It was a headache from every angle.
“Ah! Class president! The swordsmanship teacher said to tell you thanks!”
“Sua, wanna eat lunch together?”
“Han Sua! Thanks for helping earlier! It’s nothing much, but—here!”
The moment she stepped back into the classroom, friends called out to her from every direction. Sua answered them all with her usual bright smile.
School life was full. She was a model student by nature—her grades were excellent, her friendships solid. Nothing to complain about.
But still… I’m lonely.
She wanted to be in love.
The kind that made your chest pound. The kind where you ached for each other. That kind of love.
“…….”
For the rest of lunch, Sua propped her chin in her hand and stared blankly out the window.
The faces drifting through her mind belonged to people she’d only recently met.
Hoshikawa Himari…
Pretty. Adorable, even. The face she’d made the first time she tried coffee had drawn a genuine laugh out of Sua for the first time in ages.
Yu Juju.
Bright-eyed and earnest—a junior who was almost painfully sincere.
She’d had a good time with both of them. They’d even exchanged numbers and made a group chat.
But.
Whenever she saw Himari and Juju getting along so well with her sister, something in her felt… off.
When she heard Lua was alone with Himari in the nurse’s office, or that she went running with Juju every morning, a restlessness she couldn’t name would rise up in her chest.
I shouldn’t feel like this.
So she’d tried to correct course—being warm and kind to both Himari and Juju. She’d even asked Juju to look after Lua for her.
And still—when Lua clung and whined, Sua had felt a flicker of resentment toward her own sister.
Because every time Lua nuzzled against Himari’s cheek, or ruffled Juju’s hair, the feelings Sua had been holding down would quietly lift their heads again.
It was strange.
Her sister, who’d always been alone, was finally getting along with students. That was a good thing. Something worth celebrating.
So why did Sua miss the days when Lua had depended only on her?
Why did it make her jealous?
And why—
Why did her heart race every time she saw Lua smile?
“This is harder than I thought…”
Late at night, Hoshikawa Himari was wrestling with a tangle of machinery in her room.
She’d managed to get the roll-up screen installed against one wall, but the projector and camera had completely stumped her.
“Nnn…”
In the end, she had to read the manual the way one reads a textbook—cover to cover—before she finally got the equipment working.
By then, she was already thirty minutes past the appointed time.
Tap. Tap.
She hurriedly raised an index finger and pecked at the keyboard. A moment later, a video call filled the screen.
On the other end was an elderly man with a full beard. Dressed in traditional Japanese attire, he cut an imposing figure despite his age—broad-shouldered and solid as stone.
“Hoo.”
Himari took a steadying breath, settled into a formal seated posture, and switched on the camera.
“You’re late, Himari.”
“I apologize, Father.”
She pressed her hands to the floor and bowed low.
The man on the screen was her father and the head of the Hoshikawa family—Hoshikawa Toshio.
“You look well. Nothing amiss, I trust.”
“Yes, Father. I am in good health and managing without difficulty.”
“I received your report card. First place. Well done.”
“Thank you.”
Even as her father offered praise, Himari kept any pleasure carefully hidden. Concealing one’s emotions was the proper bearing of a successor to Hoshikawa-ryu Battoujutsu.
“And how is school life?”
“I am getting by without issue.”
“Is that so? I heard there was an incident at a gate not long ago.”
His eyes narrowed with clear disapproval.
“It was resolved without lasting harm.”
“Tsk, tsk. For such a thing to happen at an educational institution…”
“…….”
“Had anything befallen you, I would have brought you home at once.”
Himari bit her lip lightly.
Her father, Hoshikawa Toshio, still disapproved of her studying abroad. What he wanted was for his heir to remain at the Hoshikawa estate, endlessly drilling battoujutsu.
Himari had earned her place at the academy by passing the entrance exams on her own merit—but he was still waiting for her to come back to Japan.
“We agreed I would not return until I quit of my own accord, or the school expelled me, Father.”
“Tsk. I am aware.”
Himari lowered her gaze in silence.
“A promise is a promise, I suppose. But once you graduate, you will do as I say.”
On the screen, Hoshikawa Toshio folded his arms and regarded her.
“When you finish the three-year program and return, I will have found the one you are to serve as ‘Moon.’”
“Pardon?”
“The head of the Naruse family. I have already spoken with him about taking you under his wing—”
“—I am sorry, Father.”
His daughter cutting him off made Hoshikawa Toshio’s eyebrows shoot up.
“I am already serving a master here—as ‘Moon.’”
“What did you say?!”
His voice cracked like a whip.
“I permitted you to study abroad. I did not permit you to take on the duties of a Moon! What judgment do you imagine you possess, to choose a master on your own?!”
“She is someone I deeply respect.”
Himari thought of Lua.
Childish. Not especially reliable in her day-to-day conduct. And yet, somewhere inside that small frame, there was a core of something solid and unshakable.
—I trust you. So I need you to trust me, too.
The way Lua had said it, utterly serious. Clearly, there was more to this school nurse than met the eye. Perhaps that loose, frail exterior was hiding something extraordinary.
“I have no intention of withdrawing.”
“Have some awareness of what it means to be the heir of the Hoshikawa family, Himari!”
“I apologize. However—”
Himari lifted her gaze and looked straight into her father’s eyes on the screen.
“—I am fond of Teacher.”
“You ungrateful child! How dare you do as you please!”
“…….”
“Fine! Do whatever you like! I have my own plans!”
The screen went dark. Hoshikawa Toshio had ended the call on his own.
“…….”
In the darkened room, Himari remained seated formally, eyes closed.
I am fond of Teacher.
She quietly repeated the words she had just spoken.
Having spent nearly her entire life within the walls of the Hoshikawa estate, Himari lacked common sense. She did not know many of the words people used to name their feelings.
And so, what she felt toward Lua was simply… that she was fond of her.
But it is different somehow.
The way one is fond of cherry blossoms in full bloom, or a cool breeze on the skin—
the way one is fond of a delicious meal, or the clean ease of a good bath—
the fondness she felt for Lua was not the same as those other fondnesses.
It was a little more special. A little more tender. A fondness that made her chest ache. And as she sat there wondering how to put a name to it—
Himari reached out and picked up the book Lua had lent her. She had already read it cover to cover more times than she could count: Whae? Puberty and Sexuality.
“Is the answer in here… Teacher?”