Sakura School Days (Countryhumans Neko Japan)

Chapter 8

hey friends! there's a lot of stressful stuff happening in life right now, but I'll try to update this story the best I can :>

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"Hey Japan," Japan opened her bleary eyes to see South Korea gently shaking her awake. "You fell asleep. Do you want me to take you home?" My car, Japan thought sleepily. "It's okay," Japan mumbled, waking up for real. She was still on the porch swing, and the stars had become brighter. She pulled out her phone. 10:00 PM. "Oh no," she yelled, scrambling to stand up. "Taiwan is gonna kill me!" She ran back inside to grab her purse, fishing her keys from the side pocket. South was on her heels. She gave him a quick hug. "See you soon." "You too." On her way out, she thanked Canada and America for the meal, then hopped in her car and sped home.

Most of the lights were off, so Japan slipped out of her car and opened the front door as quietly as she could. She was almost in the kitchen when someone said: "Hello. You're late." It was Taiwan of course, and Japan slowly turned around to face her disappointed brother. "Uh...the food was good?" She didn't mean for the statement to sound like a question, she was just nervous. "I'm sure it was." Taiwan flipped the lights on and checked his watch. "You're an hour and fifteen minutes late from the time I told you to come back. You're lucky I'm letting it slide and not taking your keys." Japan tried to hide her sigh of relief, but failed.

"Listen, I'm not mad, I'm just upset with you." Classic parent move, Japan thought, annoyed. "Okay. I'm pretty tired, so I'm just going to head to bed now." Japan slowly started inching up the stairs, tuning out Taiwan's attempts to get her to continue talking. Finally in her room, Japan tossed her keys and purse on her desk and rolled into bed. She hadn't meant to fall asleep! Just...South Korea's presence was so lovely, and his jacket was so warm...OH. She still had South's jacket on.

She grabbed her phone, silently panicking. She hoped that Taiwan hadn't noticed, but he probably did. She opened South's contact.

>hi! I completely forgot to give your jacket back :/ 

>I'm sorry about that!

>Hey, it's cool. You can keep it over break

Japan's heart did a backflip. I can...keep it? 

>okay! thanks for letting me know

>No problem! Let me know if you need anything

Japan placed her phone down and looked at the jacket covering her arms. It was light gray and oversized. It smelled really good, like fresh flowers and maybe strawberries. He smells so good! Japan thought giddily, laying back. She got lost in a daydream, sleepily breathing in the jacket's scent. Without thinking, she slipped her hands into the jacket's pockets. Her hand brushed against something paper-like. What?

She sat up a second time. She took out the papery thing. It was an origami crane made of red, gold-foil paper. It's folds were crisp and neat, and its beak slanted at an elegant angle. Curious, Japan checked the jacket's other pockets, even the ones in the interior. Light blue earbuds, colorful pens, empty candy wrappers, a pair of chopsticks. She inspected each item carefully. The pens had little fruit patterns on them, and the chopsticks were wrapped in a pastel-green napkin. She placed everything back in its respective pockets, hoping that South Korea didn't need them. Plugging her phone in for the night, she dozed off, feeling the softness of the jacket.

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Japan woke up earlier than normal to her phone notifications going crazy. It was the Cosmetics Club. She rubbed her eyes and prepared herself for the messages.