Waiting for Flowers to Bloom

"Welcome to the gardening club, Ninomiya. I'm so happy! I thought we wouldn't manage to recruit any new members this year."
Hana Ninomiya secretly heaves a sigh of relief after seeing the club president accept her application to join the club. Looking at the shy yet sincere smile of the club president, she can't help but feel a little guilty. In her heart, she puts her palms together in apology and apologizes to the club president for her impure reason for joining the club.
On the first day of school, when the students in the auditorium heard the principal announce that all freshmen had to join a club, almost everyone was happy because club activities were more interesting than wasting time while teachers dragged out their classes. However, this news made Hana Ninomiya's eyes grow dimmer.
If she could choose, she would rather just go home after school every day for these three years.
Her reluctance to participate in club activities isn't because she finds them troublesome or dislikes interacting with others. In fact, she is even a little fascinated by the so-called "vibrance of youth" mentioned by the principal, but...
"The vibrance of youth... That doesn't seem to have anything to do with someone as transparent as me."
She can already imagine how everyone will be ignoring her while getting along happily with everyone else after she joins a club. If by any chance... someone suddenly realizes that she is the only one who isn't playing with everyone else and starts talking to her awkwardly with a stiff smile, she finds herself cringing inside with horror just imagining that.
After careful consideration, Hana Ninomiya waited until almost everyone had chosen a club before investigating which clubs had the least number of people. In the end, she chose the gardening club because she thought it required the least social interaction.
After all, the club president who was recruiting members also looked very introverted. The other clubs were all passionately trying to get people's attention, whereas she only replied quietly to freshmen who asked her questions.
Despite her impure motives for joining the club, Hana Ninomiya didn't neglect her club activities and can even be considered a model rookie.
Other than occasionally asking others about flowers and plants, she focused on doing her own things during club time. The other members of the club were also busy doing their own thing, and no one cared whether she fit in or not. This atmosphere in which everyone left each other alone was exactly what she wanted.
It's not like she hadn't imagined that a smaller community would be more united like in a manga, which would make it possible for someone as transparent as her to live a fulfilling life filled with friendship... but a manga is just a manga after all.
"Senpai, you can leave first and let me deal with everything else."
One day, Hana Ninomiya said goodbye to everyone like usual and stayed behind to do chores. The reason she actively sought out this responsibility is to have more private time.
...After packing up all the tools, she sat down beside a potted plant she was taking care of and opened a book. The setting sun entered the room through the window, crossing the vines, and shone on an unread part of a page.
Everyone reads for a different reason, and her reason is a little embarrassing: she likes to pretend she is the protagonist of the novels she reads and experience their wonderful adventures in the stories.
Softly, she whispered the words spoken by the protagonist as she turned the pages of books to help herself understand their feelings.
Even if she were in a library, no matter how transparent she might be, she wouldn't dare to indulge in such fantasies without worrying about what others are thinking. Whenever she thinks of this, she feels that joining the gardening club was a wise decision.
"One spark. One spark is all one needs to light up the dark night of life."
Hana Ninomiya closed the book after reading the last paragraph for the day. She stood up and grabbed a water bottle to water the potted plant one more time before leaving.
The potted plants in her care are more troublesome to take care of, so other club members are reluctant to take them on.
She can't deny that she sympathized with these potted plants that no one cared about at the very beginning. However, she now has greater expectations for them.
She asked the club president about these plants and was told that many of them would grow into eye-catching specimens in the future.
She didn't know when dawn would break in her life. Maybe... that day would never come. However, at the very least, she can be a spark that lights up the nights of these plants for now.
Ninomiya expected them to be like the protagonists in her favorite novels. They would endure hardships for many years and turn the situation around one day.
"Hmm? Is it... blooming?"
Hana Ninomiya wiped her glasses to make sure she wasn't seeing things and was delighted to see that one of the buds of the potted plant had opened a little.
However, she would need to wait another two years before she would meet the "spark" that would make her bloom...