az: First actual chaptered original story I did. The muse arrived in one of my dreams so I thought of typing it up. The name of the main male character was from my dream as well. I seldom write romance... so feel free to drop in the comments.

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Blossoms in the Wind

Chapter 1: The chance meeting

By Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

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Kitaoka Yuri never thought her life would change by that first meeting. She never thought anything will come out of that meeting and that her first crush would remain as just a first crush. In the end, it just showed that fate is not something that you could predict...

Everything had started since that one day, when she and her long-time friend Saejima Akira were on the way home from school. That time, Akira had suddenly excused herself to visit a nearby shrine; to get a protective charm for her sick mother. Alone by herself, it was that time when she had been harrassed by a group of boys.

Yuri never considered herself to be very attractive. Given her shy attitude, she never really taken it seriously when her classmates teased her on her pretty looks. After all, she had reasoned to herself; there were more beautiful girls in the school as compared to herself. That was one of the reason she never expected to have to experienced situations such as this.

One of the boys that had been cornering her suddenly started running his hand along the side of her right arm as Yuri silently wished for Akira to return faster. Akira would have been better suited to tackle situations like this, she was after all the captain of the female karate club at school. How would she expect to be as aggressive as her in these kinds of situations? Yuri never been suited for such a sport and she was never good at handling people of her opposite sex.

But a split second after that moment, Yuri wished she had convinced herself to join Akira in her club activities. The other boys seemed to take it that she would be a good target for their interest as she had yelped when the other boy had touched her earlier. That, or the fact her voice when she had insisted to not be harrassed any longer had sounded a lot weaker than she had intended. Two of the boys had suddenly grabbed both her arm as the third boy started fondling her legs.

Alarms started to form in her head as the third boy started lifting her skirts up and slid his hand inside her panties. Tears started to form in her eyes as the boy ran his fingers over her private parts. She had wanted to scream for help but one of the boys that held her had placed his palm over her mouth, muffling any attempts for her to seek help. And just as suddenly, she felt the zip from her sailor uniform being pulled down as the other two boys started joining in the act.

Yuri struggled desperately against her assailant as more tears fell. Just when she thought her life was going to end at that moment, she barely heard another voice coming towards her as the three boys immediately released her and ran away. Yuri collapsed to the ground, relieved as she barely saw two guards running past her to chase after the boys. She almost never noticed the arrival of another young man by her side as he asked her gently if she was all right. When Yuri finally noticed his presence and realising that her panties still hung loose over her hips, she hastily pulled it back up to hide her embarrassment. But apparently the lad had not noticed that as he had immediately knelt behind her to zip her sailor uniform back up and covering her body with his jacket.

Yuri remained staring at him in a daze as the lad helped her up.

"Are you all right?" the lad asked as Yuri blinked.

When she finally become aware of herself, Yuri immediately nodded her head before blushing.

"I... I'm all right, I guess. Thank you... for saving me." Yuri finally spoke as the lad kept holding her close to comfort her.

"Yuri... YURI!"

Yuri's attention snapped back into place as she heard Akira's voice.

"Aki!"

Yuri quickly dash out to Akira's side as the girl appeared alarmed.

"What happen--"

"This girl had been harrassed. But all is fine now. Nothing really bad had happened to her."

The lad spoke instead as he started explaining to her what happened. Akira looked up at him as she recognized him.

"Is that what happened? Ah, thank goodness you were around then, Imanari-senpai!" Akira cried, before turning towards Yuri. "--this is one reason I wanted to drag you out into my club! Yuri! Why haven't you cry out? I'm not that far away... I could have come earlier to save you!"

Yuri stared at her best friend in alarm. She could feel her knees shaking before the gentle hands squeezing her shoulder made her calm again. Yuri glanced up towards the young man called Imanari as the lad explained on her behalf.

"She had been accosted by three guys. From afar I could tell that they'd look threathening up close. I think your friend here had been too afraid to do anything, Saejima-san."

Akira blinked before realizing her rashness as she apologized to Yuri.

"In any case, thank you so much for helping my friend."

"It's no fuss. I lived around here after all..."

Akira gave a cry. "Ah! I forgot... here's your family's shrine, wasn't it?" she exclaimed as Imanari nodded. Akira clapped her hands aloud. "Such a blessing! Am I glad that we went to this shrine instead! Wonder what'll happen if nobody had been around to save Yuu-chan."

Imanari laughed. "Don't mention it. Take care of yourselves on your way home..."

"We will!" Akira said aloud as both of them excused themselves...

xxx

"Aki..."

The girl in question turned to look at her as she cocked her eye brow at her.

"...did you know that person?"

Akira's eyes brightened.

"Of course! He's Imanari Shuichi-senpai, he's the Judo club captain in our school! I was surprised that you didn't recognize him the moment you saw him! He often pass by the clubhouse to give pointers to our Karate club members..."

Yuri looked at her strangely.

"But you said he's from the Judo club--"

Akira giggled. "Of course he is! But occasionally he come over with his other club members so that we could have some practice with our own techniques. Just to make sure all that practice worth the time spent."

"Oh..."

"Did you like him?"

Yuri appeared horrified at the thought. "How could that be--Oh! I forgot to return his jacket!" she cried aloud as she finally noticed the club jacket still covering her body. Akira grinned.

"No problem... we could always find him later to return it after school. Imanari-senpai was only one year senior from us after all..." said Akira as she started poking Yuri's side. "He's handsome too... and he does appear heroic earlier. It won't be a surprise if you fell in love with him right away!"

Yuri blushed as she poked her best friend back. "Don't tease me..." she said softly, as she absentmindedly pulled the jacket tighter around her body. Suddenly, her body felt warmer just like the time Imanari-senpai had held her body earlier.

Imanari-senpai was it?, thought Yuri by herself. Perhaps this would be a start of her romance. Probably also a start of a great change in her life. She smiled as Yuri felt her heart beat faster.

Hopefully this change in her life would be for the better...