The Weed Plant (Kimsil but weed)

Basil kept firmly holding onto Kim’s hand, eager to show her all the wonders of his garden one by one. The girl herself was probably even more excited than him, to walk through what she thought was a forest full of vibrant colors and diverse, exotic plants.

Her mind drifted away, enthralled by the beautiful life that surrounded her. She always spent her time in places like the playground, in her opinion the only eye-catching thing in that boring patch of grass was the sparkling blonde hair of the boy who was now taking her hand into his. Basil was just so… enthusiastic, and bright. He was not anymore the meek boy that Kim and her friends used to mercilessly bully, at least, not when he was around his plants. He was a contradiction in this boring town.

And what a beautiful contradiction he was.

Basil suddenly stopped, clasping onto Kim’s hand so firmly it snapped her out of her trance. In a daze, she looked around like an alerted cat, before finally returning to her senses. Basil’s soft, cute voice slowly seeped into her ears; it was as if an immense mist, between her mind and his voice, had just dissipated.

As gentle and passionate as ever, Basil was talking about a verdant bush which contained flowers that she had never seen before in her entire life.

“...And that’s basically it! Yeah, these flowers have a really deep meaning… And they’re so beautiful, too…” A small blush formed on Basil’s face as he looked back at Kim. Her silly smile was brighter than the sunlight that caressed her hair. In his eyes, she was just… the perfect girl. Not only was she beautiful, but she also listened to his incessant ramblings about flowers, a hobby which others would find weird and “girly”.

Maybe flowers made her happy, too. Maybe they weren’t so different.

He shook his head and gazed back down at the flower bush, continuing where he left off: “I heard these flowers were imported from a place called… Armeen-ia? Arminia? Ar… me… nia! Armenia, there. Anyway…”

As Basil kept talking, Kim’s eyes wandered elsewhere, until she noticed a… different type of plant. One that didn’t bear flowers or thorns, one that was swathed in green and nothing else. And then, she recognized the plant leaves’ bizarre shape.

No… No, it couldn’t be.

She always thought of Basil as a nice boy, an angel who couldn’t do anything wrong or devious. And yet, seeing this plant, considered a taboo by most, in such a pure and lush garden, was almost going to change her whole view of him.

What was she supposed to think? Was he growing it for… himself? Was she just being too paranoid? Perhaps it’s not even the plant she thinks it is. Or maybe, there’s an actual, good reason behind its existence here, that her stupid brain just couldn’t understand.

But what if… it wasn’t so? Is there a side to Basil that she just didn’t know, that he always hid behind a cheerful mask?

A small grin formed on Kim’s face. If that was the case… Heh. Maybe they really weren’t that different after all. Everyone has a “dark” side, don’t they? The only distinction is how much they choose to show it.

Kim wasn’t so adamant on hiding her negative qualities; for her, trusting her friends with her secrets just came natural. But Basil? This wasn’t the case for him.

She wanted to further their relationship, and to do that, Basil would have to reveal those “negative qualities” to her. And maybe, just maybe, she could help him understand them and be more open about them.

Kim removed her eyes from the plant and looked back to Basil, who was still mumbling on and on about the bush to their feet:

“...and yeah, that’s how, in my opinion, the collapse of the Byzantine Empire led to the Armenian Genocide!”

By this point, Basil’s voice had lowered, so Kim couldn’t understand what the blondie was talking about. She quickly dismissed it, as there was a far more important matter at hand.

Still wearing that smug smile of hers, Kim tugged onto Basil’s shirt, drawing his fleeting attention to her. She let go of his hand and pointed it to the odd plant that she had been eyeing up earlier, inquiring:

“Hey flower boy, can you talk about that plant next? What’s it doing there?” She lightly laughed. “Are you hiding something?~”

Basil’s eyes went to the plant in question and, once he realized what Kim was talking about, his face morphed from one of confidence and happiness to one of nervousness. Instantly, another big blush covered his face, while his mind was scrambling to compose itself and release words from his fatigued mouth.

Nobody had ever asked him about the weed plant.

Once he stifled his deep, anxious breaths, which were synchronized with Kim’s almost hysterical laughter, he softly whispered:

“N-No! S-Stop that! That… That’s… That’s… for Polly! Yeah, it’s for Polly! She asked me to grow them!”

Kim suddenly stopped laughing, and turned to Basil with a shocked expression. She rubbed her eyes with her fists, and erupted into roaring laughter again.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! POLLY?! Oh, Basil! Just admit it!” she said between her laughters, elbowing Basil on the chest.

“I… I mean… It’s n-not… N-not actually for P-Polly… it’s for… M-My… err… uhh… My grandma! Yeah, my grandma! She uhh… uses this stuff! Not- pshh- not me!” he reiterated, even more shyly than before.

To stop herself from literally exploding from laughter, Kim placed her hand to her mouth, grabbing Basil’s soft shoulder with her other one. Before the boy could even utter a “Wha-”, she squeezed tightly and dragged him towards the not-so-mysterious plant.

Once there, Basil felt like his legs were about to give in, so he squatted down and looked at the majestic weed leaves, freely fluttering in the wind. Even a plant as reviled and taboo as the cannabis plant has its own beauty, he thought, and so does every other living thing in this world. A shame - the allure of such an interesting plant is blotted out by what human beings think of it!

In particular, the plant reminded him of two people: Mari, because of the name MARI-juana; and his grandma, who placed it within the ground in the first place. He let out a small whimper, he just wanted to be believed and taken seriously. Why should he take all the blame for his drug addict grandma’s actions?!

Suddenly, snapping noises reached the tip of his ear, and he turned his head to the origin of the sound: Kim’s hand, which had gotten too close to his face for comfort. Kim grinned.

“Yoo-hoo! Anyone in there?! I’m talking to you, Basil! Geez, don’t doze off on me like that! What, are you getting high just by looking at it?” she said, her thundering voice startling the blonde boy and nearly making him fall over. She scoffed.

“Hmph. Dork… Anyways, where was I… Ah, yes! Basil, you have a perfectly good marijuana plant here! You know what you should do with it?” Kim smugly looked at the nervous boy; “I-I’m telling y-you, it’s not mine…!” he yelped out. And yet, his pleas were ignored.

She continued, confidently: “You should sell this stuff! It’d be fun! Don’t you know how much money these kinds of things make?!”

For the second time already, the blonde boy felt like his mind shattered. He was containing the pure shock that was fermenting within him.

“WHAT?! S-Sell it?! No! N-No way! K-Kim, are you insane?! That’d be… No!” He sounded very meek, as if his shyness from the playground was returning. But the girl was not discouraged, her beautiful smile showed a stroke of deviousness that only someone like her could have.

“Come ooon, Basil!~ Don’t you trust me? We’re friends! Friends should open up to each other! Plus… I always knew you had a little bit of naughty inside of you! I do, too! That cute smile can’t hide everything, hehe!~ C’mon, make your… er, make your weird weed addict gran-gran proud!” Her smugness and arrogance were through the roof by now, it’s as if she was trying to drill into Basil’s brain with every single word she said.

Basil cupped his face with his hands, only slightly separating his fingers to be able to see Kim’s bright eyes.

The blonde boy felt… weird. He didn’t know whether he was getting teased by the girl, or if she was trying to get him to open up. “I-I… I d-don’t know, Kim… I-It doesn’t seem l-like a very good idea… I m-mean… My grandma m-might need the money but, k-knowing her, she’d just s-spend it to buy more w-weed, you know? I already d-don’t like the smell of the smoke… And won’t w-we get like, in jail for that?”

Kim groaned aloud, clearly getting tired of Basil’s innumerable excuses. But then, a flash of genius came to her mind, and her unchanging smile returned to her face again. She lowered her eyebrows, looking at the boy with a new feeling altogether.

“Psh! You’re so tiresome, flower boy!~ How many times do I gotta tell you, there’s nothing to worry about?! That’s it! Time to use my secret weapon, hehe!~”

The blondie scratched his head quizzically and stared at her, he didn’t know what to expect. Kim was full of surprises, it was impossible for him not to be nervous. She could pull out a gun and threaten him for all he knows!

Instead, Kim tugged on her big blue sweater and slowly raised it up, revealing her pale tummy. The blonde boy instantly knew what she was up to, his mind was pretty much close to imploding. In a panic, he grabbed onto Kim’s sweater and forced it down, slapping her hands off of it, still unable to remove that cheeky grin from her face.

“K-KIM!! What in the wo- Stop that!” Basil’s shy reaction made Kim wheeze again, although she was starting to blush as well.

“Eeh?~ Convincing? I could show you more~” she replied, teasingly. She could see it in the boy’s eyes that his blood was boiling, and that it was all going… well, down there. But Basil was desperate to hide it, he was pretty good at hiding things he didn’t want others to see, yet he felt like that was nigh-impossible to do with Kim.

“L-Look… J-Just, I didn’t… I didn’t t-think you’d b-be so serious about it, okay?! You w-were acting… weird… L-Listen, I…”

Basil snuck a peek at Kim’s still-covered chest. His eyes and pupils widened, but he quickly snapped out of it, redirecting his eyes further up to meet hers.

“Sigh…”

“...”

“I’ll… think about it.”