A full day passed by in the blink of an eye.
The girls spended most of theier time resting after theier long trip around the city yesterday, still a bit exhausted.
Thought Sakuya never admitted it openly, in truth her muscles aches a bit after walking so much just yesterday.
It was because she, despite having recovered, was still a bit weak and needed more rest then her friends because of this.
On top of that, it was her first time wandering around so much all day.
She, Miyona and Haruka spended the day reading their books, playing some board games, they borrowed from the dormitory head, taking a long bath in the bathhouse downstairs and simply enjoying themselves.
Sakuya cooked three meals today, wich simply tasted delicious.
During dinner, Miyona had an idea.
" How about going on a Picknick tomorrow?", she suggested.
Haruka said yes right away but Sakuya hestitaded for a moment.
Then she asked:" Would it be alright if we went the day after tomorrow? If we go on a Picknick I want to prepare special lunchboxes, but I will need to buy the ingredients first and prepare everything in advance. Would that be alright?"
She lowered her head while speaking looking at her two friends shyly.
Miyona and Haruka exchanged a glance.
So it's not possible?, Sakuya thought to herself upon seeing that.
She had felt abut guilty about making her friends stay here with her instead of going home and she was more then happy to fulfill theier request, but she at least wanted to thank them with a special lunch.
Still, that didn't mean she wanted to ruin her friends plans.
Her gaze dropped to the ground completely as she silently waited for her friends answer.
As no one spoke, she decided to apologize to them, but before a word could escape her lips, Miyona said excitedly:" Thats a wonderful idea! Of course it's possible. I would be more then happy to eat your special lunchbox. Even your normal ones are always so delicious, so it must be even tastier."
Haruka nodded along.
"Me too.", she said,"Thanks for the offer. So, we should write a list first and go shopping tomorrow morning. Then you can prepare the food in the afternoon. Of course, we will help to!"
Just like that, theier plan was decided and Miyona quickly grapped pen and paper.
Sakuya instead took out an cooking book, she had buyed together with her schoolbooks and started flipping through the pages.
Thenever one of the girls saw something they wanted to eat, the would write down the ingredients on the list and put a sticky note on the page of the book.
It took them a whole two hours to decide everything and in the end, they had enough dishes to take a whole family with seven to ten people on a Picknick without needing to fear someone would remain hungry.
Haruka went over the list again, looking at it critically.
"With this much food, we will never be able to eat it all.", she then commented.
Miyona shrugged and answered:" We can just pack up the leftovers and eat them later."
Then both of them looked at Sakuya, who was already planning the menus for the next few days to use up all of the leftovers, resulting in her mumbling to herself quietly.
Once again, Haruka and Miyona exchanged a glance, unnoticed by Sakuya, before both of them neede to chuckle.
Only then did Sakuya notice them staring at her and she frowned in confusion, but since her two friends seemed to have fun, she just let it go and smiled alongside them.
By the time they finished planning, the sun had already set, so they quickly went to bed, thought none of them could sleep right now.
So instead, they ended up talking, and wishpering and laughing until it was past midnight, before falling asleep.
The next day, after sleeping until lunch, they went to the supermarket in the afternoon and shopped all of the ingredients.
Sakuya started preaparing some of the dishes right away then, so she would finish faster the next morning.
The next day, she was the first one awake, and after washing up, she started finishing the rest of the dishes for the Picknick.
Besides simple rice balls with different fillings, there also were some Tamogayaki, Octopus-sausages, a box with traditional Japanese potatosalad, Inarizushi, some small and easy-to-eat meat and fish dishes and lots of vegetables cut into all kinds of shapes, spanning from flowers to small animals.
Of course, she also didn't forget to pack some sweets, which included some ready-made mochi with all kind of flavors, dango skewers, doreyaki and small treecakes with diffrent flavors.
Miyona and Haruka also decided to help after waking up, thought they only cut some vegetables, before starting to pack up the other things that the three girls needed for the Picknick, such as a Picknick blanket, some books they could read, some drinks and some other stuff.
Soon enough, they were ready and decided to head out.
Miyona and Haruka had told Sakuya that they knew the perfect spot for a Picknick at this time of the year.
It seemed they had found it while exploring the academy at the beginning of theier first year.
As Haruka mentioned that, Miyonas gaze wandered off into the distance for a moment, as she said:" I still can't believe that it's already been a year since then."
Together, they walked around the school grounds for a bit, casually strolling, while getting further and further to the edge of them, away from the school buildings and dormitorys.
Then, the other two girls suddenly told Sakuya to close her eyes and Miyona took her hand, as they leaded her a bit further.
At first, Sakuya was surprised and hestitaded for a moment, but she trusted her friends so she willingly followed along.
After a while Sakuya could feel the gravel path beneath her feet change into one filled with grass, wich made her assume that they were walking through some meadows.
"You can open your eyes now.", Miyona said, after they suddenly stopped.
Slowly Sakuya opend her eyes, just to see a beautiful view infront of her.
Around her were meadows, wich slightly went upwards on a small hill, on top of which an incredibly big cherry tree stood, his branches reaching out over the whole hill, covered in wonderful pink cherry blossoms.
As the wind glided through them, they slightly rustled and a shower of petals was blown towards the girls.
The sight was simply amazing.
Sakuya had no other word for what she saw.
"It's beautiful, right?", Miyona, who stood on her right side said.
Sakuya just nodded along silently, as Haruka grapped her hand and started running towards the shade beneath the tree, pulling her along.
"Come on, slowpoke!", she cheerfully teased Miyona who was still standing in the same spot.
The words made a fire lit up in her eyes and she raced towards her friends.
Haruka evaded sideways, pulling Sakuya along, as Miyona reached them but Miyona still grapped the edge of her sleeve in the middle of her evasion.
It resulted with all three girls tampering and falling into the soft, lush green grass beneath the cherry tree, out of breath and laughing, hugging each other in a funny way, that they had landed in, as they fell.
Afterwards, they just layed there for a moment, looking up to the blue spring sky through the wide branches filled with blossoms and enjoyed the moment of silence, feeling the reassuring presence of each other next to them.
Suddenly Haruka grinned.
"What's so funny?", Sakuya asked, a bit confused.
Miyona agreed:" I also want to know. Care to tell?"
" It's just that I suddenly remembered a tale I heard about this cherry tree. It's said that if you confess your love to someone or swear and oath of enternal love beneath the branches of this thousand-year-old cherry tree while it's in full bloom, wich only happens once every five years, the oath will come true and the couple will be blessed with happiness and loyalty to each other for theier entire lifes. Pretty cool, right?", Haruka explained, still looking at the branches.
Enternal love, huh, Sakuya thought to herself, looking up at the branches.
An idea rushed through her mind and she shyly asked:" How about a promise of enternal friendship instead? Just for the three of us, so that we will stay as friends no matter what happens."
She didn't dare look her friends in the eyes, to afraid of rejection, but instead the other two girls rejoined happily at the idea.
They all sat up, facing each other, reaching out theier pinkies and interlocking them.
"We three promise to stay as friends for all of enternity, no matter what happens.", Miyona said then, and the otherworldly girls repeated her words.
They looked each other into the eye, each seeing the reflection of the three of them inside.
A smile bloomed over Sakuyas face, wich also spread to Miyona and Haruka, who, only seconds ago, still had an earnest expression while making the promise. Then they bursted out laughing, giggenling for no reason.
For a moment, ever since she woke up, Sakuya felt 100% at peace, her mind calm, filled with happiness and ease thanks to her two friends.
The truth was, she actually barley knew them, only having first met met a few weeks back and she knew even less about herself, her fears and worries always trying to creep into her mind, but all of that didn't matter in this moment.
No matter what was laying in the past or waiting in the future of the three girls, right know, on this spring day in the holidays, sitting beneath the blooming cherry tree were three friends, theier pinkies interlocked and theier hearts connected.
As the wind wisteled through the branches of the tree, for a second, Sakuya felt like he was nodding alongside theier promise, watching and deciding to keep it safe from all storms to come, just like how the old tree had kept hundreds of thousands of oaths and promises well protected as the only witness to many of them.