She woke up on her bed still wearing the dress, and shoes Hades gave her. She quickly checked the time.
"Shoot!" She has to meet Suzuki at the park in two hours!
She still had to get everything together for her projects, clean the apartment, make lunch, and get ready. Well she might as well just freshen up and leave her hair, and dress.
She freshened up quickly, and did a very quick clean of the apartment, if you could call it that. She threw everything into her bedroom and closed the door.
She looked in her fridge to see what she had to make lunch with, but it looked barren.
"Ugh crap!" She grabbed her purse, and ran to the convenience store across the street.
In the corner of her eyes she could swear she saw Hades standing on a street watching her, but when she turned to look he was gone.
Suzuki waited under a beautiful Cherry Blossom tree. It covered the grassy hill with much beauty, and grace. They bloomed for only a short time once a year, which starts the season for Hanabe, where, for a week or two, everyone gathers in groups to have a picnic under the cherry blossom trees.
They greeted eachother, and sat down on the grass.
"Sorry, I didn't bring a blanket. I didn't think I would get a spot, the people before me left, so we got lucky. " He said.
"I'm amazed you got such a great spot so late... I brought us a cherry blossom themed lunch. Sorry I didn't make it, I woke up a bit late today."
Stephanie placed the lunch boxes on the floor. She felt pretty disappointed that she couldn't make him lunch herself. Things like that may make him think she's not interested, since in japan everything was measured by effort.
"That's alright, you have a lot of work to catch up on right? You must be tired."
She appreciated his kindness, although she hadn't actually been working hard, which made her feel more guilty.
They said thanks for the meal, and began to eat. It was a cherry blossom themed lunch which was rather common at this time of year. She also got two cherry blossom themed beers. It wasn't home-made, but it still tasted good.
She took a few photos of the tree, and then they got up and took a walk around the park.
One of the spots was on a hill where you could see lots of cherry blossom trees in a row. Their beautiful light pink, sometimes almost white petals scattered all over the promenade, some falling into a little stream next to it.
Stephanie stared at the trees, and Suzuki stared at her.
"You look very pretty today." He said blushing.
Her hair lit up in the sunlight, like it was the sun itself. Her lips had a reddish glow about them. He moved closer to her. Their pupils shook as they looked into eachothers eyes. He wanted to lean in and kiss her. He put his hand on her arm and pulled her closer.
Stephanie could feel her heart racing. It beat so hard she could swear the whole park could hear it. She closed her eyes, and felt his soft lips on hers. It was a short kiss, almost as if to test the water, when he leaned back, and saw her face again they both pulled eachother back into a longer more passionate embrace.
Later they walked back to Stephanie's apartment hand in hand. It felt so good to finally be holding his hand. She wanted to hold it everyday since they started walking to the train station together. Their classmates already speculated there was something going on after seeing them leave together each day. Stephanie wished it was true then, and now it finally is.
They sat on the carpet in her living room working on one of the projects she fell behind on. They sat closer to eachother now, and touched eachother a lot more. The changes made them both happy, and nervous.
"I have to go now it's getting late. Why don't you come to my place tomorrow? There's a festival nearby."
"Sure, that sounds great, I'll call you tomorrow."
He pulled her in for a short kiss, then left.
The next day they went to the festival together. She had never been to that area before. Red lanterns were hung around the temple. It reminded her of the town her and Hades went to. She felt nervous thinking about him, knowing next weekend he will take her away. She wanted to stay with Suzuki, she felt safe with him. She held tightly onto his arm. He looked at her concerned, and then smiled when she looked up at him, giving her a kiss on her forehead.
They went back to Suzuki's place. He lived in a small two story apartment. They started kissing eachother, and made their way to his bed. While kissing, Suzuki suddenly stopped and moaned in pain, holding his head.
"Are you alright?" Stephanie asked.
"...Yeah.."
He began kissing her more passionately, He bit her lip, and grabbed her wrist holding her down. Something about this felt off to Stephanie. She pulled away, and she saw his eyes were a shining blue. She screamed, and pushed him off.
"Hades!"