Sahana was one of those kids who smiled more than she should. Yes, even when surrounded by five girls whose glares screamed, ‘He’s ours!’

 

She was going to be doubly late if the girls didn’t leave her alone, so naturally, she finished the now cold toast in her hand. No way was she going to risk choking to death by running to school with it in her mouth.

 

This would be the time when I’d tell you about how she was an ordinary girl who somehow got whisked off to a magical land or something. You know, ordinary except for the bright pink hair in short pigtails and the gigantic blue eyes that I could compare to some gemstone. Yeah, no. I mean, for one thing, this isn’t a fantasy story. Also, she isn’t our main character.

 

A girl with a bright red ponytail and matching eyes sprinted to Sahana and used her arms as a barrier between her and her bullies.

 

‘Back off before I cook your intestines and feed them to my dog,’ she said in the voice of a noblewoman. You know the voice.

 

One of the girls claimed that such a threat didn’t scare them, but they all took a few steps back at the exact same time, stopping when one of them bumped into someone. This time it was a tall and thin but muscular girl with short blonde hair and icy blue eyes. 

 

‘Now, Masami, that’s a bit extreme,’ she said to the redhead, her voice deep and slightly hoarse. ‘I doubt your dog would want to eat these girls’ intestines. Don’t be so cruel to him.’

 

The girls ran as far as they could, then turned around and headed to where they were supposed to go.

 

‘You guys didn’t have to do that,’ Sahana said in a sweet, high-pitched voice, looking up at these girls who were much taller than her. ‘But thanks!’

 

Masami and the blonde girl enveloped Sahana in a bone-crushingly tight hug. It didn’t take long for Sahana to notice the crumbs on the blonde-haired girl’s face, which gave her an excellent opportunity to namedrop the character. Thank you, Sahana, for making my job easier.

 

‘Were you running late too, Kunie?’

 

Masami let go of Sahana and crossed her arms. ‘She was eating breakfast in the classroom. Honestly! Crumbs everywhere! I was just about to tell her off when I heard one of those girls badmouth you.’

 

Kunie yawned and stretched her arms. ‘Whatever. Sorry I don’t have a butler serve me a three-course meal every morning and wipe my face with banknotes.’

 

‘I don’t either! That’s no excuse! Honestly, you are so….’ Masami and Kunie looked at Sahana with apologetic eyes and Masami coughed until her word disappeared. ‘Anyway, what caused you to be late?’

 

Sahana dropped her smile and furrowed her eyebrows. ‘When I woke up and looked through my window, I realised that my drapes don’t match my carpet.’ Masami covered her mouth to stop herself from doing what Kunie was openly doing: laughing. Sahana continued. ‘I wonder if I should dye my carpet to match the drapes. What do you think?’ Kunie started wheezing. ‘What’s wrong? Did I say something weird?’

 

Kunie patted her shoulder. ‘You’ll find out when you’re older.’

 

Sahana pouted because of course she did. Whenever she does this I kind of want to pinch her chubby cheeks, not going to lie.

 

‘I’m the same age as you,’ she murmured before returning to her smiling state. ‘Hey, do you know where Toyomi is? He messaged me about how he wants to talk to me about something.’

 

Before getting an answer from either friend, she heard trumpets and turned around. I don’t know where they came from either. That’s Benzaiten’s realm.

 

Whatever the answer may be, what’s important is that the trumpets signalled the arrival of Toyomi. Toyomi with the peacock-blue hair in a bob and oceanic eyes. Toyomi with the smile that made those miniature oceans look warmer. Toyomi with the hordes of fangirls who looked at each other like snipers preparing to shoot.

 

With a flick of the wrist he held out his hand and Sahana graciously took it. Well then, I guess she really did get whisked away, just to a secluded spot so he could recite a poem he had written for her. He also handed her a little bag of chocolates he had made, which she immediately began eating.

 

‘Would you like to go out with me?’ he asked her with soft eyes and a saccharine voice.

 

‘Of course!’ Sahana answered with pink cheeks and a grin that could melt the paint off a door.

 

Toyomi jumped up and clapped quickly. ‘Thank you! I knew that manga was right. I got to your heart through your stomach.’

 

The two held hands and stared at each other in a way that passers-by would have found weird but was perfect for them.

 

Now let’s get back to the actual protagonist of this story. After heading back into the classroom, Masami smoothed her knee-length skirt behind her as she sat in her seat. Unlike Sahana, her seat was at the front of the classroom rather than near the back by the window. Kunie took the middle seat at the very back, completely opposite to Masami. She sat with her legs open, a certain region only just covered by her short skirt, and picked her ear.

 

A girl from another class entered the room and handed Kunie a letter with a crown sticker on the front. Before Kunie could respond, the girl zipped out of there.

 

Our protagonist scowled at the empty food packets on Kunie’s desk. She had no clue why anyone would want to go near that desk without a vacuum cleaner. Fair enough.

 

Kunie read the letter and sighed. A petite girl with long, wavy, light golden brown hair leaned towards her from her seat next to her. She wore a smirk that made it increasingly difficult for Kunie not to groan.

 

‘I’m sensing a pattern here. Maybe if you showed an interest in Prince Toyomi, this wouldn’t keep happening. Honestly, how many lezzos are in this school anyway?’

 

Kunie shrugged. ‘You tell me. You seem to be the expert, Dooru.’

 

The girl looked at her like she had just been accused of throwing a baby into a river. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

 

‘Then again, I guess a prince and a prince don’t go together. I mean, can you imagine it?’

 

Kunie slammed her hands against her desk. ‘I’m not a prince!’ she yelled.

 

Dooru snickered. ‘Sure, your highness. I will ignore the love letter on your desk, my liege.’

 

Before Kunie could respond, the trumpets returned and Toyomi took his seat, followed by Sahana and eventually the teacher.

 

Masami actually, no, really, actually clicked her tongue in scorn as she looked at the clock. Ten minutes and thirty-two seconds late. Miss Date ran her fingers through her oily red hair and breathed a sigh of relief.

 

Another click of the tongue from Masami. Any more and her tongue was bound to hurt. ‘Um, excuse me, Miss Date, may I ask why you are so-’

 

‘That’s Ukiwa to you,’ the teacher said with a grin and finger guns.

 

I apologise. Ukiwa opened the roll book and called everyone’s names. Masami noticed a hickey peeking out from behind the teacher’s shirt collar.

 

Masami reached under her desk for her pencil case but felt plastic wrap. She pulled out a bag of cookies and a tiny teddy bear. She didn’t even have to look at the tag to know who it was from.

 

She turned her head and saw Fumie, a thin and frail-looking girl who wore her mint hair with violet tips in high pigtails. She had eyes of different colours, one matching the top of her hair and the other matching the tips. A cross hung from her neck. The girl had a hopeful face and one thumb up. Masami saw her clean desk and smiled at her. When she turned back around, she noticed other students holding bags of cookies.

 

When lunch arrived, Sahana bowed her head and held her hands up as if praying. ‘I’ll hang out with you guys next time, I swear! I just want to have some alone time with Toyomi.’

 

Masami and Kunie were about to respond but Sahana and Toyomi had already disappeared by that point. All they could do was look at each other and shrug.

 

They both took their lunch to Sahana’s desk and giggled. ‘I guess we should go somewhere else this time,’ Kunie said.

 

They sat at Kunie’s desk because Masami refused to let Kunie dirty hers. Masami held up her bento box rather than attempting to fit it on the tiny rubbish-free space on Kunie’s desk. They ate lunch quietly, Masami picking her own brain for a topic of conversation.

 

All she could contribute was, ‘So, uh, it’s kind of weird, isn’t it? How we haven’t hung out by ourselves before.’

 

Kunie nodded, swallowing the piece of fish in her mouth before continuing. ‘Yeah. I mean, we’re supposed to be friends, right?’

 

‘Yeah, I guess we’re friends.’ Masami almost corrected her blunder but she kept her mouth shut in case she made another.

 

Now I know what it’s like to pray to the gods and hear nothing but silence.

 

As if answering my own prayers, eventually the trumpets returned and Toyomi sauntered in the classroom, followed by Sahana. Gitan, a stocky boy with messy black hair and a tan, sneered at the peacockish boy with the glowing face.

 

‘Finally got yourself a boyfriend?’ he asked.

 

Toyomi gave him a smile. ‘I’m not sure I understand your question. Why would I want a boyfriend? I already have a girlfriend and I don’t like boys that way. But thank you for caring about me!’

 

Gitan rolled his eyes, muttered some slurs under his breath and turned in his seat towards Masami and Kunie, grinning when Sahana grabbed a chair and sat in between them. He took a pencil and sketched Masami and Sahana holding hands between their chests and looking into each other’s eyes. In reality, they were simply sitting and talking.

 

‘So what did you get up to without me?’ Sahana asked her friends, who shrugged in perfect unison.

2: Chapter 2: Break her heart and I’ll break your gallbladder

With her laptop where it’s supposed to be, Masami created a spreadsheet. She was sitting straight-backed and straight-legged on her bed.

 

She titled one column, ‘Hobbies’, another ‘Average grade per year’. The third column was for ‘Intentions’ and the fourth was ‘Methods’. Yes, this is very typical teenage girl behaviour, I know. 

 

After saving the spreadsheet, she took her laptop to the printer in the study. Her smile patted her back for her. Toyomi’s Friendful page gave little information, and she refused to follow him just to see if he had any secret posts.

 

Naturally, she brought the sheet to school and slammed it on Toyomi’s desk before homeroom. He looked at her like she came in with a rainbow umbrella hat on her head and a wearable sleeping bag on her body. 

 

All he could ask was, ‘Can I help you?’ 

 

‘Today at lunch we will discuss your relationship with Sahana and determine your worthiness.’ You can bet your life savings she practised that line on the train ride to school. If you want an instant win, of course. You can trust me on this. I was there.

 

After their arrival, Kunie and Sahana headed to Toyomi’s desk to see what the commotion was all about.

 

Masami whipped her head towards Kunie, who held her hands up like she was facing a police officer.

 

‘Kunie, you can join me. We’re going to learn more about Toyomi Hane at lunch. And Hane…’ She remembered Ukiwa’s order for her homeroom students. ‘...er, Toyomi, you cannot skip this interview. If you do, it shows a lack of care for our dear Sahana. Break her heart and I’ll break your gallbladder. Understand?’

 

Toyomi nodded and Kunie walked closer to him, taking advantage of her superior height. Masami hid Sahana behind her arm, while Sahana looked between the three parties, looking for a way to lighten the mood.

 

‘You know, while walking to the train station I saw this truck for a restaurant near me that had ‘You can’t beat our meat’ painted on its side in big English letters. I was super shocked since it’s not true. Not by a long shot. My mum is an excellent cook and has been beating their meat for years.’

 

First came Masami’s suppressed chuckle and then came Kunie and Toyomi’s open laughter. 

 

‘What’s so funny?’ Sahana asked.

 

Masami and Kunie wrapped their arms around Sahana. ‘Never lose your innocence,’ Kunie said, wiping a single tear from her eye. The tear was from the prior laughter, but Sahana didn’t need to know that.

 

For the lunch interview, Kunie combined her and Masami’s desks, a difficult task given how far away theirs were from each other. They sat together on one side while Toyomi and Sahana sat opposite to them. Sahana’s friends peered at the spreadsheet.

 

Masami cleared her throat with a little cough. ‘What are your hobbies? I believe you’re in the theatre club, correct?’

 

Toyomi nodded. ‘And the student council. I also like baking, sewing and reading shoujo manga. Oh, and I’m a big fan of action movies and professional wrestling.’

 

Sahana turned to her boyfriend. ‘You are?’

 

Masami clicked her pen. ‘Interesting.’ She wrote about Sahana’s surprise in tiny characters in the ‘Hobbies’ column.

 

Kunie gave a quick glance at the sheet. ‘So how do you fit in these hobbies with your schoolwork? What are your grades like?’

 

‘Oh, pretty good. I think I’m ranked 15th this year level.’

 

‘And last year?’

 

‘I believe I finished... 17th?’

 

‘Did you or did you not finish 17th?’ Masami asked with a tone befitting of a bad cop from a movie.

 

Sahana fiddled with the hem of her skirt, looking up at Toyomi and searching for a crack in his expression that could ruin everything. But her dear Toyomi kept the contented smile and patient stillness of a meditating Buddhist monk.

 

‘I finished 17th. I make sure to spend my time wisely. Because of this, I promise you I won’t waste Sahana’s time.’

 

The corners of Sahana’s lips leapt up and she hugged a now blushing Toyomi. I’d do the same if someone said that about me.

 

The smiling spread to Masami, who took note of his words in the space on the paper beneath the spreadsheet.

 

‘Now, speaking of which, what are your intentions with Sahana?’

 

That question got a rare frown from Sahana, who was still hugging Toyomi. Her front arm doubled as a shield for her boyfriend.

 

‘Can we stop this? Don’t you know enough?’

 

Guilt pricked Masami’s heart, but she shook her head. She had a mission and not even the reason for said mission could get in her way.

 

‘It’s fine,’ Toyomi reassured Sahana. Determination burst from his eyes as he looked into Masami’s. ‘I like Sahana a lot and I want to spend more time with her.’

 

‘Can’t you do that as a friend?’ Masami asked.

 

Sahana pouted. ‘Masami!’

 

Toyomi answered with the same look in his eyes despite the jitters I know he felt. ‘To be honest with you, I want to kiss her someday. It would probably be considered weird if we kissed as friends.’

 

Masami raised an eyebrow. ‘Just kissing?’

 

Before Sahana or Toyomi could voice their discomfort, Kunie snatched Masami’s pen and scribbled all over the sheet.

 

‘That’s enough. We only need one more piece of information. How did you ask her out?’

 

Toyomi stroked his chin for a second before heading to his own desk and pulling a bag of chocolates out of his bag. He asked Sahana to hand him the poem that rested in her bag.

 

‘I’m so sorry, Sahana. I had some leftover chocolates and was going to give them to you today when this happened.’ He dropped the bag of chocolates and slid the poem onto Kunie and Masami’s conjoined desk. ‘I recited this and gave her chocolates similar to these. Enjoy.’

 

Kunie started with the chocolates while Masami silently read the poem. The mix of rich chocolate and sweet yet savoury matcha greeted Kunie’s tastebuds with the same friendliness that Toyomi himself possessed. Her eyes popped out in shock and she gulped down several chocolates with a grin.

 

She offered one to Masami, who seemed preoccupied, judging by the tears coming out of her eyes. Masami stood up and bowed.

 

‘Please take care of Sahana for us.’

 

Toyomi returned the bow. He took Sahana’s hand and lead her to the garden outside, where they chatted for the rest of lunch.

 

After spending a few minutes in the theatre club after school, Toyomi headed to the student council room. The president scowled at him and looked at his watch. Meet Atsuji Chinen, a tall and skinny boy with large, round, clear-framed glasses and short purple hair that would not be seen on a real-life student council president. But hey, he’s got to stand out, right? How else are you supposed to recognise his importance?

 

‘It looks like your various… hobbies are stretching you rather thin. Maybe you should consider eating more of your desserts.’

 

Missing the point of that comment, Toyomi looked down at his own body. ‘Do I really look that thin?’

 

Atsuji massaged one of his temples. ‘Just sit down.’

 

Meanwhile, Sahana and Kunie rehearsed a scene they shared. They both constantly looked to Ukiwa for approval but she was busy staring at her phone.

 

Dooru sighed. ‘I guess it’s not the same without The Prince here.’ 

 

‘We’ll survive,’ Kunie replied with a shrug.

 

‘I still don’t get you. Prince Toyomi is a wonderful person. He should be enjoyed by all.’

 

‘I’m pretty sure he’s only able to be enjoyed by Sahana. Does that make her a princess?’

 

‘Wait, what? Do you mean…’ Dooru turned to Sahana and smiled at her. Believe it or not, that smile was genuine. ‘Congratulations. At least someone appreciates him.’ She said that last sentence facing Kunie, who rolled her eyes.

 

Sahana looked at her watch and gasped. ‘I’ve got to get to my other club. I promise I’ll practice at home!’

 

Ukiwa waved her hand dismissively, still looking at her phone. Sahana raced to the Home Ec room. As soon as she arrived, Masami turned off her stove so she could hug Sahana.

 

‘Making something new?’ Sahana asked.

 

Masami smirked and lifted the lid on the pot. The stench of mustard, custard and fish filled the room, prompting the rest of the cooking club to pinch their noses.

 

Sahana grabbed a spoon and had a taste of the broth. ‘Delicious as always. You’ve really outdone yourself.’ She scooped another spoonful and pointed it at Fumie, who gave her an awkward smile.

 

‘Um, I wouldn’t want to take food from you.’

 

Sahana frowned but nodded in understanding. ‘Oh, Masami, thank you for earlier.’ Masami looked at her like a fish would look at a bird toy being randomly thrown into its tank. ‘You know, for looking out for me. Remind me to thank Kunie too.’

 

Masami patted Sahana on the head. ‘I’m sure you’ll be fine with Toyomi. Consider his digestive system safe.’ She grabbed another spoon and sipped the broth she made, scrunching her nose. ‘Unlike mine.’

3: Chapter 3: That tastes disgusting!

Was Kunie’s desk a mess? Here’s a hint: Masami had to push tissue paper off a chair with one end of her chopsticks. 

 

Just like last time, they ate in silence, though Kunie’s voice eventually entered the air.

 

‘So, uh, remember when Sahana accidentally made that innuendo about electrical sockets?’

 

‘Oh my god, yes! How on earth does she spout that stuff without realising the implications?’

 

‘It’s kind of amazing. She’s always…’ Kunie gazed at Sahana’s unoccupied desk before turning the piece of meat in her bento box round and round. ‘Have you acted before? Sahana’s always hilarious in comedy roles. She’s terrible at playing intimidating characters, though.’

 

‘No, I haven’t.’

 

‘I see.’

 

‘Oh, do you like to cook?’

 

‘Not really.’

 

Masami ground her teeth. ‘I see.’

 

Awkward silence is the eye of a storm. Sure, you’re safe for a moment, but to be in that spot you have to become surrounded by a giant mess of terrifying forces.

 

The next day’s lunchtime fared little better but, towards the end of the break, Kunie found a topic.

 

‘Why are you so protective of Sahana? I mean, I am too, but I’m curious about what your reason might be.’

 

‘Oh, that? She’s the only person who appreciates me.’

 

Now it’s time for me to guide you through Masami’s memories via the ever-important flashback.

 

She swore that day that she would kill the tooth fairy and take all their money.

 

Oops, wrong memory. Take two.

 

Masami held out a bowl of spaghetti carbonara mixed with peanut butter and strawberries. Everyone in the Home Ec room turned up their nose at it, but they didn’t leave it at that.

 

‘Ew, you’re so gross!’

 

‘Why would you make something like that? Are you trying to poison us?’

 

‘This is why no one wants to pair up with you.’

 

The teacher warned them about making such comments, but added, ‘But you should really consider making food that’s edible.’

 

‘Look, I’ll give it a go,’ a boy in the cooking club said with a smirk. ‘I’ll take one for the team.’ As soon as the food touched his tongue, he spat it out, tears in his eyes. ‘What in the ever-loving crap! That tastes disgusting! Definitely not edible. Guys, get me some water! Fuck! No wonder no one likes you when you make shit like this.’

 

‘Hey now, let’s watch our language,’ the teacher ordered.

 

‘She should watch what she makes first! She should be following your instructions but instead she decides to go off and make her own stuff. And what’s the result? This… I don’t think we can even call it food at this point.’

 

Masami looked down at the bowl in her hands. She wiped her tears before they could drop into the bowl and sully her creation. Her face was the temperature of a car left in the sun too long and her legs shook as if warming up to run away.

 

Before Masami could run away, Sahana helped herself to a taste of the carbonara. ‘This is actually pretty good. It could use a bit more salt, but other than that it’s delicious!’

 

The shaking stopped but not the tears. ‘You’re just saying that to be nice to me.’

 

‘No way. Look at what I’ve been making.’ Sahana showed her a steak marinated with melted icy poles of differing flavours. ‘We pioneers need to help each other out.’

 

Masami took a bite and felt joy course through her like electricity in a cable. The meat was cooked just right and the icy pole liquid marinade gave it a sweet kick that also managed to not be overbearing. She had never tasted anything so delicious in her life.

 

She never got around to formally thanking Sahana for that day, but she hoped that her protection would suffice.

 

After hearing this story from Masami, Kunie looked down at her hands and realised that she had been absentmindedly pushing her rubbish towards her side of the desk, giving Masami room.

 

‘Wow, that sounds exactly like something Sahana would do. I didn’t know about the weird food combos, though.’

 

Masami giggled. ‘Yeah, maybe I’ll make you something. I’ll go easy on you for your first time.’ Laughter sprayed out of Kunie’s mouth, including some spit. Kunie reached for her handkerchief and wiped the saliva that had touched her face. ‘Real mature. I didn’t mean it that way.’

 

‘Sure, Sahana, sure.’

 

Masami lightly slapped Kunie’s arm and Kunie retaliated by pinching some of her food. The two squealed with laughter as they stole each other’s food, annoying everyone in the classroom. Did they care? No way. Not when they had finally gotten out of that damn storm’s eye and gathered the courage to enter the eyewall.

4: Chapter 4: You’re never going to change

With her hands on her hips, Masami declared, ‘Enough is enough. You have to clean up after yourself. Think of all the students who have to deal with your mess when they’re on cleaning duty.’ Kunie shrugged. ‘Wow, psychopath much?’

 

‘There shouldn’t even be cleaning duty every day. Can’t we just wait a while for things to pile up and then clean it up? It wastes less time since it all gets cleaned at once.’

 

‘That’s not how this works. That’s not how anything works!’ Masami noticed the love letter that had been knocked off Kunie’s desk by rubbish. ‘How on earth do people consider you a prince?’

 

Kunie stood up with enough power in her legs to cause the table to wobble. The vibrations pushed plastic wrappers off the desk like she created an earthquake. 

 

‘Don’t call me that! Why do people keep calling me that?’

 

Masami leaned in closer, a flame making her crimson eyes even redder. ‘That’s what I’m asking. Maybe it’s because you’re acting as entitled as one. You know what? Maybe you should start living like peasants and sort things out by yourself instead of expecting everyone to do things for you.’

 

She stormed out of the classroom, only stopping for a second when Sahana walked in so that she could smile and act like she wasn’t angry. She failed, judging by the fact that Sahana asked Kunie what was up with Masami.

 

Just like Masami, Kunie put on a smile. ‘Nothing. Don’t worry about it. She’s just, uh, really determined to do… something… I don’t know what. She’ll be back soon, I’m sure.’

 

Masami did come back, various snacks in her arms. ‘Sahana, Toyomi wants to talk to you for a second.’

 

‘But I just saw him!’

 

‘He must have forgotten something.’ Masami waited for Sahana to exit the classroom before tearing the wrappers and dropping everything, food included, onto Kunie’s desk. ‘Is this piled up enough?’

 

Kunie bared her teeth. ‘Has anyone told you how mature you are?’

 

‘Says the person who refuses to clean up themselves like a functioning human being!’

 

‘What’s going on?’ Sahana asked from the doorway. 

 

‘Nothing!’ Kunie and Masami yelped with such perfect synchronicity you’d think they rehearsed it.

 

Sahana furrowed her eyebrows. ‘Toyomi didn’t have anything to say to me. Weird.’ Neither Masami nor Kunie apologised with their words, preferring to give her a contextless hug.

 

Over the course of the next few days, Masami took her rubbish and dropped it on Kunie’s desk. Oh boy, did it pile up after four lunchtimes. Despite her earlier words, Kunie did not clean it up, even when Masami bought extra snacks to make more mess. Instead, she shoved the wrappers underneath her desk. All of her teachers except for Ukiwa told her off for it, but she would not budge on her decision to not fix the mess. 

 

By the end of the week, Masami couldn’t help but scream in frustration. ‘What the hell’s your problem? Fine, you win. You’re never going to change, so there’s no use bothering with all this.’ She scooped up the mess that she herself made and took it to the bin, leaving behind Kunie’s rubbish. ‘Happy now?’

 

Kunie snickered at her. ‘Very. I’m about as satisfied as Death when he finally seduced the Prince of Austria after getting blue-balled for an entire song.’

 

Masami glared at her and put her hand over her mouth, her gut rising and her sides shaking.

 

She finally let out a big laugh. ‘Is that an Elisabeth reference?’

 

Kunie blinked with wide eyes that soon began to twinkle. ‘You betcha. You know about it?’

 

‘Well, duh!’ After blurting that out, Masami coughed. ‘I mean, yes. I saw the Takarazuka Revue perform it once.’

 

‘You have excellent taste. Who played Death?’

 

The two chatted about this all-female acting troupe until the end of lunch. Before Masami could head to her desk, Kunie said, ‘I thought you weren’t into theatre.’

 

‘Well, performing theatre. I like watching it, especially Takarazuka shows.’

 

‘To be honest with you, I was planning on messing with you some more by referencing something you didn’t know about, but you actually knowing about it is so much better.’

 

‘Wow, rude.’ Masami said this with a smirk that quickly faded into a warm smile.

 

Ah, youth. I never really experienced it myself. I just watch over everyone’s experiences from underneath the moonlight, a red cord wrapped around my arm. I wonder when I’ll get to use that string next.

5: Chapter 5: It’s obvious why you joined the theatre club

Once again, Sahana decided to hang out with Toyomi, leaving Masami and Kunie alone. The abandoned girls found solidarity in a shared mission to find a new place to eat. They searched heaven and hell to find the perfect spot, eventually settling on a tree with wide roots. 

 

At least, that was how it was supposed to be. Surprisingly enough, roots aren’t exactly comfortable, and the dirt on the ground did little to ease Masami’s mind. 

 

After a few minutes of shifting butts, the pair stood up and wordlessly shuffled back into the school building. Masami surveyed the school evacuation plan and noticed the Home Ec room. At long last, they had found their sanctuary!

 

Masami made sure to finish chewing before asking Kunie a question. ‘Please don’t take this the wrong way, but why is someone like you in the theatre club? Your… aesthetic gives me... track and field vibes.’

 

Kunie chuckled. ‘Just say I’m a tomboy.’ Masami bowed her head in apology. ‘It’s all right. I’ve always loved the theatre, even when I was a little kid. It felt like a place I could be myself. Ironic, huh? Playing characters makes me feel like the real me. One time I saw a Kabuki play and was amazed that there was a male actor playing a female role. If someone like him could do that, I could do anything, really.’

 

‘Wow, that’s really-’

 

‘Don’t say deep. I don’t really care about that nowadays. Now I just like playing characters like I’m a kid playing house. Though I will say that Sahana understood my old motivation.’

 

Dooru snatched Kunie’s paintbrush from her. ‘This set needs a delicate touch,’ she said as she painted a thin stroke of orange on the sunset-adorned timber. 

 

Kunie looked at the ground. ‘Why do we have to paint the set, anyway?’ She grumbled. ‘Can’t we get the art club to do this?’

 

The teacher turned his head, paintbrush in hand, and answered. ‘It’s a good idea to gain an understanding of all departments in charge of putting on a play. It gives you an appreciation of every role’s hard work.’

 

Toyomi nodded in agreement. ‘And this is nice. It gets the creative juices flowing, doesn’t it?’ He painted a ripple of sunlight with one big stroke. Dooru had to stop for a moment to bask in his glory.

 

He looked at his watch and said a quick goodbye before heading out the door. Dooru sighed, absentmindedly drawing rays of sunshine where there should not be any.

 

‘Isn’t he dreamy?’ she whispered.

 

Sahana blushed, missing a nail with her hammer. ‘Well, he is a nice person.’

 

Kunie offered to give Sahana’s job a try and Sahana handed her the hammer. Dooru snickered when Kunie managed to hit the nail with ease.

 

‘So, what do you think about him?’ A shrug from Kunie. ‘Seriously? Who wouldn’t like him? Unless…’ Dooru scanned the girl up and down. ‘Oh. I see. Now I get it. It’s obvious why you joined the theatre club. You thought you would get girls that way, didn’t you?’ 

 

Kunie tightened her grip on her hammer and yet Dooru continued. ‘Shame Toyomi is playing the prince, or you might have succeeded. With that hair and your acting skills, you could have been a charming leading man. But I guess that would have required all of us to be big lesbians, wouldn’t it? How sad for you-’

 

Place your bets. Did the teacher tell her off or did Kunie smack her with a hammer?

 

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Do you have your answer?

 

Bzzzz! You’re wrong if you chose either answer because the first to respond was none other than Sahana. 

 

‘Just because she has short hair doesn't make her a lesbian. Kunie is a wonderful person and I don't think she deserves you being so mean to her!’

 

Dooru stepped back and looked around her like she had a harsh spotlight put on her. ‘I… wasn’t trying to be mean.’ She whipped back towards the set and resumed painting it.

 

Sahana kneeled down next to Kunie with eyes that warmed Kunie’s soul. The short-haired girl gave her thanks via a smile.

 

Realisation dawned on Masami’s face. ‘So that’s why Dooru is always calling you a prince. I’m surprised Sahana’s words didn’t get her to stop picking on you, though.’

 

‘Yeah, it’s weird, but at least I know I’ve got Sahana on my side no matter what,’ Kunie said with a smile that quickly plummeted. ‘It would be nice if people stopped making assumptions about me, thinking I’m a lesbian.’ 

 

She paused for a moment, biting her lip. ‘I’m glad that Sahana defended me but sometimes people’s words do kind of get to me. There are times when I wonder if I should grow my hair out and wear lipgloss or something. I only wear makeup for theatre, so I kinda wonder if I would look like a clown if I tried to wear it regularly.’

 

Kunie’s expression punctured Masami’s heart, spilling out an idea. Masami stood up and headed to the pantry. ‘What are you doing?’ Kunie asked with one eyebrow up and her mouth curved into a smile. Masami didn’t answer her, focusing on pulling out ingredients.

 

‘Turn around or close your eyes. I have a surprise.’

 

Kunie followed both orders. She could hear the chopping and crushing of food. She could vaguely smell sushi and some other unidentified food.

 

After ten minutes, she asked, ‘Is it ready? I’m pretty sure lunchtime is almost over.’ 

 

Masami slammed a plate on the bench and turned Kunie around. ‘Enjoy, if you can.’

 

Sushi with chocolate. Sushi with chocolate. Sushi with chocolate.

 

Now that she was closer to the meal, she could smell it. Not wanting to pinch her nose, she scrunched it and held her breath.

 

She picked up the chopsticks and put the sushi in her mouth. The raw tuna underbelly and sour vinegared rice clashed with the richness and sweetness of the chocolate. As soon as it touched her tongue, Kunie had to spit it out. She looked at Masami with apologetic eyes but spoke her mind.

 

‘This is terrible,’ she said with a laugh.

 

Masami sighed in relief before joining in the laughter.

 

Despite succeeding at her initial mission, she mentally filed the meal under ‘failure’. She had a feeling she would continue to do this with multiple subsequent meals until she found one that Kunie genuinely enjoyed.

 

For now, she watched Kunie smile as she stabbed the sushi with her chopsticks like doing so would kill the horrid flavour.

6: Chapter 6: Is he really right for her?

You know when you’re out on a date and you happen to run into someone you know? Awkward, right? Luckily for Toyomi and Sahana, the person who spotted them stayed far away.

 

Atsuji’s table in the food court was several tables away from Toyomi and Sahana but their bright, attention-garnering Main Character Hair™ stood out amongst the black and brown hair in the background. He stared at them. Well, it was more like a glare.

 

He watched them laugh together and wondered what was so special about Toyomi, the boy who was always late to council meetings, frequently spoke in a sickly sweet voice seemingly dripping with condescension and was currently resting his hand atop his limp wrist as he leaned forward during his conversation with Sahana. Not that Atsuji cared. If Sahana wanted to be a discount lesbian, fine by him.

 

Part of his heart cracked upon thinking that. He had dared to sully Sahana’s good name. But he definitely didn’t care.

 

If Sahana was to date Atsuji, you know, just hypothetically, he would surely be a better match. He was punctual, hardworking, romantic and humble. But did he care? Of course not.

 

Wooh, reading people’s minds takes a lot out of you. I’m slowly getting better at it, though. Give me a moment. 

 

Okay, the story continues.

 

Atsuji found himself slamming his hands against the table as he pushed himself up. When he saw a few pairs of eyes on him, he put his hands in his pockets and hightailed out of there.

 

Once home he took out his laptop and continued writing a story on his bed. A big grin came onto his face when he laughed at a joke he wrote. He regularly checked his notes for plot points he should include. He stopped at the point where a teenage boy confesses to a girl, deciding to leave it until a day he could fully focus on writing the girl’s reaction. 

 

He had a general idea of how he wanted the character to respond, but his inexperience barred him from imagining the details. That is, until he started thinking about Sahana and wondering how she reacted to Toyomi’s confession. If he was the one who confessed, of course. Knowing his disposition, it could have easily been the other way around.

 

But imagine Atsuji did, and over time Toyomi’s delicate features were replaced by Atsuji’s until he was the one confessing to Sahana.

 

Once he got to the point of kissing Sahana, he pushed the laptop in front of him and crawled backwards until his head whacked against the headboard. The pain was numbed by a confusing mix of fear and anger.

 

In the middle of the confusion was one certainty. Toyomi needed to feel as miserable as possible.

 

This mandatory misery was enforced, or at least attempted to be enforced, by Atsuji, who dumped a landfill’s worth of mostly unimportant work on him. He did this under the guise of ‘student council’ duties.

 

First he made the poor boy clean the council room. Naturally, he inspected every inch of that room and barked at him to reclean any part that was not spotless.

 

Another command of his was that Toyomi compile a list of every club and the number of toilet breaks they offered. Atsuji pretended that this was necessary to ensure the efficiency of club activities. Toyomi’s repetition of this excuse to club leaders did not prevent them from giving him dirty looks.

 

Towards the end of the week, the student council president... By me, I dare not speak of it, for it is much too cruel and disturbing. Wait, you really want to know? 

 

Atsuji gave Toyomi several pieces of red string, which he had confiscated from a club planning to use them on Valentine’s Day, and ordered him to cut them into smaller strings.

 

The horror of it all! My beautiful invention treated as a weed ruining a lush garden!

 

This task did not work as Atsuji had planned. Toyomi didn’t come to the realisation that his relationship with Sahana was doomed to end, nor did he receive the message that love was pointless and that he should lead the single life.

 

What he did notice was humanity’s capacity for cruelty. No, not from Atsuji’s actions, but Gitan’s. After catching wind of Toyomi’s quest for toilet break information, he absolutely had to make a comment while Toyomi was walking from one club room to another.

 

‘Do gay guys even cruise these days? Honestly, you must be getting desperate if you’re using school toilets.’

 

Toyomi gave him a bewildered look. What did toilets have to do with gay people? Gitan grabbed him by the strands of his hair and pulled them up, mimicking the cutting of hair with his fingers.

 

‘Hey, maybe if you cut your hair, you can be better at sneaking into men’s stalls. Or do you like being an attention whore, faggot?’

 

Toyomi’s voice was strained as pain circled around his hair’s follicles. ‘H-how am I a-’

 

Gitan stretched his arms until they were open, still holding onto Toyomi’s hair. ‘Come on, we all know the truth.’ His voice and gestures were loud and dramatic enough to rival Toyomi’s way of moving. ‘Your hair and visage are terribly reminiscent of a BL character.’ 

 

‘BL? How do I look like one of those characters?’

 

‘Do you have a pile of dust for a brain?’

 

Toyomi shook his head and immediately yelped from the pain that action added to his head. Gitan snickered at him.

 

‘What’s the matter, faggot? And try not to sound too condescending when you answer. I know that’s hard for you.’

 

Before Toyomi could answer, a certain mint-haired girl shouted at Gitan, the sun creating a glow around her through the window behind her.

 

‘Let go of him before I bring a teacher here!’

 

Gitan didn’t even have a chance to let Toyomi go because Fumie snatched him from him. All he could really do was smirk and make another remark.

 

‘I see you need a girl to fight your battles for you. Isn’t that right, faggot?’

 

Fumie checked Toyomi’s face for any injuries. ‘You’re an abomination, Gitan.’

 

‘Oh, get off your high horse, you third rate nun!’

 

The yelling gathered a dozen students to the scene. Rumours dripped from the tongues of students in deafening whispers.

 

‘Are you really okay with him prancing around like he does?’ Gitan continued.

 

‘I never said I approved of his behaviour,’ Fumie answered. ‘That isn’t a good excuse to bully someone, though!’

 

Toyomi crashed into their conversation. ‘What behaviour? Why does everyone think I’m… and what’s wrong with gay people?’

 

Gitan crossed his arms and scoffed with pride. ‘Of course you’d defend gay guys.’

 

Toyomi didn’t know how to respond to this accusation, so he shut his mouth.

 

Whenever Sahana wasn’t around, he could hear people calling her a fake girlfriend in a failed whisper. Every word pinched his heart inch by inch until the entire thing throbbed in pain far worse than what he felt after Gitan’s insults.

7: Chapter 7: You look smarter with them on

Writer’s block hit Atsuji like a tower of books dropped by a tired student. He took off his glasses and polished them as if doing so would clear his mind. Once he put them back on, he looked at himself in the mirror.

 

‘You look smarter with them on.’

 

He gulped as the memory faded from his mind’s vision. It had been so long since he had heard those words.

 

You see, Atsuji did not always wear glasses. As a child, he could see perfectly fine. Well, for a while. 

 

So, what happened? A freak accident? A violent assault? A tragic illness? 

 

Bzzzz! You’re wrong. It was nothing too exciting and dramatic, his vision slowly deteriorated so he had to wear glasses. That’s it.

 

Well, that would have been the end of the story, but one person just had to make that one life-altering statement.

 

‘You look smarter with them on.’

 

This line was uttered by his aunt, who did not realise the effect of her words.

 

Atsuji was not exactly a studious child before he got the glasses. He played in the sand and made jokes and tried to push anyone who annoyed him, just like your average kid. 

 

When he received both his first pair of glasses and that comment from his aunt, he started paying more attention in school. After all, he was smarter now, wasn’t he?

 

Of course, feeling smarter and being smarter are two different things, so he inevitably butted heads with teachers who gave him less than stellar marks. Eventually, however, those marks did become stellar as he improved in classes. You can probably imagine how inflated the boy’s ego had become by then.

 

He was smart, he was eloquent, he was a free thinker and he was perfectly obedient. He was… gifted.

 

Did that word send a shiver down your spine? I’ve watched enough lives get ruined by that word to feel the shiver myself.

 

Now, he got the long end of the stick compared to other ‘gifted’ kids. He didn’t quite have the same mental breakdown one would expect. Still, life didn’t turn out great.

 

He never had a friendship last longer than a month or two. Either they drifted apart and he was too busy with schoolwork to hold onto them or people found his increasing uptightness a bother.

 

As middle school thrust him into a testosterone-spiked nightmare, he began writing romantic comedy stories. At first they were thinly veiled fanfiction about his real-life crushes, but he eventually gained a handle on character writing and created his own unique characters.

 

In high school, he didn’t make friends with people but everyone quickly recognised him as ‘the smart guy’. He was dependable and a capable planner who got into everybody’s business but nothing more. Of course he was bound to be Student Council President. He was the smart guy.

 

Whenever he tried to be anything more, it backfired. He tried to make jokes and be ‘the funny guy’ but everyone was too bewildered by him trying to be funny to actually laugh. That was when the jokes didn’t fly over people’s heads and people could actually tell he was joking. Years with barely any friends certainly didn’t help his delivery and ability to read the room. He had to stick to writing romantic comedies on his laptop at home. He swore he could be funny, just not in front of an audience.

 

Of course, all of the romantic writing in the world could not equip Atsuji with the social skills to get a date. He wasn’t ‘the romantic guy’. He was still just the smart guy.

 

He first met Sahana when he had considered shutting down the theatre club due to low membership. She delivered an impassioned speech in defence of the club and the fire in her eyes lit a flame in his heart.

 

In hindsight, he probably should have still shut the club down. Powerful speech or not, the club was still too small to be worth the funding it drained. Did this matter to Atsuji, whose heart was both uplifted and twisted beyond recognition? His decision to keep the club going should give you the answer you seek.

 

To be fair to him, even a ‘gifted’ boy such as him could not foresee a handsome and friendly boy with hair the colour of a robin’s egg joining the theatre club and bringing with him a slew of new members.

 

All Atsuji could really do was fantasise about romantic adventures through his writing, occasionally cleaning his glasses and reminiscing over how clever he was supposed to be.

8: Chapter 8: Today’s the obligatory Valentine’s Day Special

Nowhere was safe. The hordes invaded every inch of the school. They were hungry for blood and they got it.

 

Well, okay, it wasn’t really blood so much as a chance to give chocolates. When it comes to hormone-pumped teenage girls, it’s kind of hard to tell the difference.

 

Poor, poor Toyomi. His arms quickly started aching under the weight of all the chocolates he received. Why, he could barely see anyone underneath the sugary tower in front of his face! From far away, he looked like he was carrying a whole library’s worth of books. 

 

Out the corner of his eye, he could see Fumie a little. ‘Hi!’ His voice shook the tower of chocolates in front of him until it collapsed into the girl’s arms. ‘I’m sorry! I didn’t mean.’

 

‘It’s alright.’

 

‘Oh, while I’ve got you here, I’d like to thank you. You know, for defending me earlier. I thought I was alone and no one would come to help me, but you came at just the right moment. Uh, Fumie? Are you okay?’

 

Poor, poor Fumie. She could barely concentrate now that Toyomi was standing so close to her, looking straight into her eyes with his own beautiful set. Her chest rose in temperature and she could barely breathe.

 

The sight was too blinding, so she had to look down. When she did that, she finally noticed the chocolates in her arms.

 

‘It was nothing!’ she yelped as she put them back into Toyomi’s arms. ‘White Day’s going to be a pain for you, isn’t it? Haha. Gotta go!’ True to her word, she zipped out of there.

 

The next person Toyomi could just barely see was Atsuji.

 

‘Hey, I need your help with something,’ he said to the purple-haired boy, who was looking away but couldn’t avoid getting found. ‘It’s about Sahana.’

 

Atsuji’s words had to be squeezed out from his pursed lips. ‘I see. What about her?’

 

‘I know guys are supposed to wait for White Day to give presents, but since she and I are dating, I want to get her something. I don’t want to give her what I already gave her when I asked her out. What do you think I should get her?’

 

Atsuji blinked in surprise, then smirked. The heavens had blessed him with an opportunity. He looked up at the ceiling in thought.

 

‘Have you thought about getting her food? Try a can of sardines. She loves those so it’ll be romantic.’

 

Sweat ran down Atsuji’s face as he wondered if he was too blatant. Luckily for him, Toyomi smiled and put his fist in his hand as if he had come up with the idea himself. This led to him dropping all of the chocolates in his arms.

 

‘I see. Thanks!’

 

He ran out of the school, abandoning the chocolates. Atsuji considered calling out to him that leaving the school premises was forbidden at this hour, but his drooling mouth as he stared at the chocolates was much too distracting.

 

The student council president looked side to side before picking up a box and opening it. With all these chocolates, Toyomi surely wouldn’t notice, right?

 

It cost Toyomi ten minutes and 400 yen to get the Sardines and bring them to Sahana. Unbeknownst to him, Atsuji was watching over them from behind a corner. Don’t worry, dear reader, he is most definitely not a stalker. See? He’s not wearing a long jacket nor densely tinted black sunglasses that look like the windows in a mafia boss’ car. He is certainly, totally, without a doubt an upstanding member of society who would never participate in stalkerish behaviour.

 

What we can accuse him of, however, is being just a little bit sadistic. He grinned with anticipation. Would Sahana slap Toyomi in the face? Would she run away in tears, leaving a heartbroken Toyomi? Would she simply yell in his face?

 

Make your guess in three… two… one…

 

Bzzzz! She grinned and gave him a hug. Atsuji was grateful that he was not drinking any water or else he would have spit it out and possibly given away his location. 

 

Sahana took the can from Toyomi’s hands. ‘I ran out of sardines and Mum keeps forgetting to buy more. Thank you!’

 

Toyomi sighed in relief. The couple walked hand in hand to the shoe lockers so that Sahana could store her new sardines. There they saw Masami and Kunie.

 

Sahana and Toyomi said hello and delivered small talk before leaving. Kunie scoffed a laugh upon hearing Sahana giggle at a joke Toyomi made.

 

‘Those lovebirds… Well, I mean, today’s the obligatory Valentine’s Day Special. May as well let them act like lovebirds. I can’t imagine acting like that, though. You know I love Sahana to bits and Toyomi’s great with her, but… I don’t get it. What’s so special about dating anyway?’

 

Masami tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘I’m not sure either. To be honest, I’ve… never really fallen in love before.’

 

Kunie grinned at her. ‘Same here! It’s like, what’s wrong with me? Why don’t guys do anything for me? Am I just a late bloomer?’

 

‘I know, right? And Valentine’s Day’s just this giant neon sign saying ‘You’re alone!’ And don’t get me started on PDA.’

 

Kunie scrunched her nose. ‘The worst, right? I don’t want to see you flaunting your boyfriend with your tongue. We get it, you got a guy to have an interest in you for five minutes. You don’t need to let us know every other second.’

 

Masami giggled, then blushed at how similar she sounded to Sahana. ‘Yeah, it’s ridiculous. And I still don’t know the real difference between a friend and a lover. Other than tongue.’ 

 

‘And spending your hard-earned money on heart-shaped pieces of diabetes and flowers that are going to die in a week.’

 

Masami’s giggling turned into a guffaw. We’ve reached guffaw levels, people. Before Masami could blush and shut her mouth, Kunie joined in.

 

It took them a good minute to settle down. By me, these ladies laughed a long time for that little joke. 

 

Warmth spread through Masami’s heart. She guessed it was because of the mutual understanding. Meanwhile, I gathered up some red string. Just in case.

9: Chapter 9: That was so cool!

Sahana narrowed her eyes at the tickets in Toyomi’s hands, one eyebrow up. ‘Wrestling?’ She lifted her head, her eyes wide with apology. ‘You did mention liking that sort of thing. What date is it on?’

 

Toyomi gave her the date and time. ‘Would you like to come with me? I promise it’ll be fun.’ Sahana answered with an excited hug and the invisible trumpets surrounding Toyomi played a victorious tune.

 

‘You’re going to have to teach me everything about wrestling, starting with why you like it.’

 

Toyomi scratched his chin. ‘I think it’s because it’s a lot like theatre. A lot goes into making a wrestling show. You’re basically staging a bunch of action scenes except they’re live rather than in a movie, so you have to find ways to make it look and sound like a character hurt another without actually hurting them. It’s really clever what they do and the wrestlers are usually a lot of fun.’

 

‘Well, I guess I have something to look forward to, then.’ Sahana spotted Masami and Kunie walking to the Home Ec room and ran towards them. ‘Hey, guys!’

 

Kunie responded, ‘Oh, I was going to see a play this Saturday and was wondering if-’

 

‘I’m sorry, I can’t. Toyomi’s taking me out to wrestling. It should be fun watching a bunch of sweaty men pin each other down.’ When Kunie laughed, Sahana put on a shocked face. ‘What’s so funny?’

 

Toyomi finally caught up to Sahana. Between pants, he said. ‘You… don’t… need… to run… everywhere…’

 

Sahana bowed her apology but smirked. ‘Maybe you should get better at running.’

 

Kunie’s jaw dropped. An insult? Who was the Sahana that stood before her?

 

Sahana realised her error and chuckled awkwardly. She grabbed Toyomi by the arm and whisked him somewhere, anywhere, else.

 

Masami and Kunie turned to each other. ‘Mind if I go to the play with you?’ Masami asked. ‘What play is it?’

 

‘Well, it’s a Takarazuka musical. So yeah, it might be more suited to you than Sahana. I just haven’t hung out with her in a while so I thought it might… I’d be glad to go with you.’

 

Saturday night lifted its curtains and soon The two pairs were at their respective events. Let us begin with Sahana and Toyomi.

 

The term ‘verbal assault’ took on new meaning as Sahana stepped into the sizeable room with her hand in Toyomi’s. Her ears were hit by cheers and heckles from wrestling fans. The hype pulsed throughout her body.

 

She copied Toyomi’s chants and clapped along with the crowd. The first match was between Benny Beta, an American man, and Kouki Boushi, a Japanese man. 

 

Toyomi clutched at his chest and looked like he was about to cry. Sahana put her hand on his shoulder and he smiled. He leaned in and whispered in her ear, inadvertently tickling it.

 

‘These two used to be a tag team but became enemies when one of them joined an evil gang. They spent so many games getting closer and closer only for that one event to shatter everything. It’s such a shame. Hopefully after this game they can go back to being friends or lovers or whatever they are.’ He turned his head until it was facing the ring. ‘Ooh, it’s starting!’

 

The first thing that stood out to Sahana was the booming of the wooden floor as the wrestlers fell onto it following a hit. It resounded through her core and made each attack from the wrestlers feel impactful. She could barely hear the dialogue above the crowd, but the wrestler’s moves seemed to tell a story all on their own. She remembered what Toyomi said about the wrestlers potentially being lovers and noticed a degree of sexual tension between them. She knew next to nothing about these two characters and yet all she wanted was for them to get along again.

 

As if the gods granted her wish, the two ended the match with a big hug, with the heel returning to the side of the face. Toyomi cheered them on.

 

They had to wait a while for the next match and the cheering gradually died down, giving Sahana and Toyomi an opportunity to talk.

 

‘So, what did you think of your first match?’ Toyomi asked.

 

‘That was so cool! I didn’t realise how complex the storylines were, plus the acrobatics were really impressive.’

 

‘Yeah, Kouki Boushi’s pretty light on his feet.’

 

After all the matches ended, the couple went to a nearby restaurant. They talked about wrestling while waiting for their orders but once they got their food Toyomi steered the conversation in a different direction.

 

‘Hey, uh, I’ve noticed something about the way you speak to your friends. You make a dirty joke and then act like you don’t know what you said. Is that an in-joke between you three?’

 

Sahana’s shoulder’s rose. She stood still for a moment before scratching her cheek and looking away. 

 

‘You caught me.’ She brought her shoulders down even lower than they were before. ‘I don’t know. I guess I’m playing a game to see how long it takes them to realise I’m not the pure innocent maiden they think I am. It’s weird, I know.’ She slurped some noodles before twirling her chopsticks around the bowl without picking anything up. ‘I kind of want them to figure it out, but at the same time I kind of… don’t? What if I go too far and they think I’m some sort of pervy weirdo? But I still do it, trying to be as subtle as I can. At least if they don’t know they can just think I’m unintentionally funny.’

 

‘Do you think your friends are the type to judge you for something like that?’

 

Sahana stopped moving her chopsticks. ‘Probably not.’

 

‘I wouldn’t worry too much about what people think about you. I mean, it seems like half the school thinks I’m gay for some reason.’

 

‘Well, you were on the verge of tears over the reunion of two male wrestlers who may or may not be lovers.’

 

‘Fair point.’ 

 

Sahana leaned forward, her eyes half-closed. ‘You don’t need to prove anything to anyone, but if you, for whatever reason, want to prove your interest in me, my lips are here.’

 

‘Is this the real you? I like it.’

 

Toyomi’s lips were soft enough to tickle Sahana’s. She giggled at the sensation and took in the smell of ramen from his hot breath. Her heart alternated between shocks of joy and warm contentment. She felt as if she had moved into a new house and immediately settled into it. Toyomi’s gentle touch was now her home.

 

Now, how were Masami and Kunie doing? Before the show started, they chatted about theatre and, for the first few minutes of the musical, struggled to keep quiet. The glares from the people sitting around them eventually sewed their mouths shut. 

 

Plus, they had pretty and talented women to watch. The grand movements and powerful voices of the performers captured Masami and Kunie’s very souls. At one point, Masami turned to Kunie and could vaguely see a blush on her cheeks whenever the stage lights got brighter.

 

She followed Kunie’s eye line and saw that she was staring not at the woman wearing a suit and singing in a deep voice but at the soft-faced woman in a dress. The feminine woman wasn’t singing at the time.

 

Something bugged Masami about that woman. It wasn’t like she had any reason to. Her singing was fine and she played the role well. What was it about her that ever so slightly heated up the blood in her veins?

 

Masami’s blood cooled down when intermission began and Kunie rapidly fired off all the reasons she was enjoying the performance.

 

‘And the costumes are gorgeous too! I think you’d look good in the outfit Mieko Chage wore in the last scene.’

 

Masami’s cheeks matched Kunie’s from earlier. ‘Wasn’t that a wedding dress?’ At this point, I had my red string in my hands. However, her thoughts went elsewhere. In her mind, she explained away her blush as the result of the embarrassment she would naturally feel from someone making such a suggestion.

 

‘I’d hope you’d look good in a wedding dress. You will invite me to your future wedding, right? I’d hate for my friend to look bad on her special day.’

 

‘Who on earth would I marry?’

 

Kunie shrugged her shoulders. ‘Maybe no one. Or maybe I was right about us being late bloomers. You could find someone. Just make sure he treats you right, okay? And for the love of all that is good, please don’t use tongue when the groom is told to kiss you.’

 

Another guffaw from Masami. As the two laughed, they got closer and closer until Masami’s head rested underneath Kunie’s chin. While calming her own laughter, she could hear Kunie’s heartbeat and felt like she was in front of the fireplace on a cold winter’s day.

 

After a few moments of them slowing their breaths, Masami removed her head from Kunie’s chest and stood up, holding out her hand.

 

‘Want to get some ice cream or a drink before intermission ends?’

 

Kunie grabbed her hand and let her pull her up. ‘Think we can get to the front of the line before then?’

 

Masami shrugged, giggling and taking her to the candy bar’s long line. Only then did she realise she was still holding Kunie’s hand and let go. Her hand felt colder by itself. Only a bit, though.

10: Chapter 10: It’s not love

Great, now we have to talk about Gitan. He fancies himself another version of me, huh? Let’s see how he likes red string when it’s tied around his neck… I’m sorry. 

 

I guess I shouldn’t feel threatened by a boy who only plays matchmaker with girls. One day he was in a particularly matchmakery mood, so he searched the classroom for any girl who might be in love.

 

He saw the warm smile on Masami and took note of her glowing skin. She was talking to Sahana and Gitan put two and two together. 

 

When lunch approached, Gitan approached Masami before she had the chance to leave the classroom.

 

‘I sense love is in the air.’

 

Masami scowled at him. ‘Is that your idea of a pickup line?’

 

Gitan held his hands up with his palms facing Masami. ‘I wasn’t talking about love between us. I just sense some… interest between you and Sahana.’

 

‘Well, your senses are wrong.’

 

‘Then why do you look different than before? You look like a girl in love.’

 

‘It’s not love. Well, it is, but the friendship kind. So, because I’m supposedly in love, that means that the one I love is Sahana? I hope you didn’t break your hip trying to make that leap.’

 

Gitan couldn’t help but chortle at that comment. ‘You’d be cute together, is all I’m saying. You could simply be in denial over your true feelings. I must offer you some comfort. It’s not the 1970s anymore. Love between women is no longer a source of tragedy.’

 

‘Why don’t you go and bother someone else?’

 

Gitan took the suggestion to heart and went over to Fumie.

 

‘So, do your eyes have magic powers?’ Fumie glared at him. ‘Ooh, I sense a tsundere in our midst. What fun!’

 

Masami gave her an apologetic look before heading out of the classroom with her bento box. She was going to hang out with Kunie, have a few laughs and forget everything Gitan said.

 

They met up at the Home Ec room and Masami immediately got to work on a new, inevitably disgusting meal.

 

Kunie began gushing over the Takarazuka show as if Masami had not watched it with her.

 

Masami joined in with a smile. However, it didn’t take long for that smile to drop when she remembered the actor who had captured Kunie’s gaze. 

 

It also didn’t take long for Kunie to notice that Masami had fallen silent and was whisking with the speed of a peregrine falcon on caffeine.

 

‘Something else on your mind?’

 

Masami finally slowed down. ‘Yeah. Gitan talked to me. He thinks I’m a lesbian.’

 

‘He thinks every girl is a lesbian.’

 

‘Well, he thinks I specifically like Sahana.’

 

Kunie blinked with wide eyes. She put on a smirk and leaned in closer, though not close enough to let whatever Masami was concocting reach her nostrils. She sat down on the high chair behind her and played with the bowl of fruit Masami had placed on the counter.

 

‘Do you?’

 

Masami didn’t look up, returning to abusing the poor mix in the bowl. ‘No way. She’s just a friend. What kind of person falls for their best…’ she looked up. ‘...friend?’ She said that last word on a strangled whimper.

 

Kunie was right in front of her. Kunie, the girl she got along with even better than Sahana. Kunie, the fun and confident girl with the most enviable wit. Kunie, the girl who, now that Masami thought about it, had really smooth skin and soft hair and… Masami looked down again, but not before noticing Kunie’s chest. 

 

Clang! That was the sound of Masami’s bowl falling to the floor. Some of the mixture splattered onto the ground until it looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. The chef’s heart rocked back and forth inside her chest like a train carriage.

 

Kunie leapt off her seat and rushed to help clean up the mess.

 

‘So you do like Sahana,’ she finally said.

 

‘No!’ Masami shouted in a higher pitch than she had hoped for. ‘No, I was thinking about something else and got distracted. Damn it, I should have concentrated on making this.’

 

‘What were you thinking about?’

 

‘Uh…’ Masami couldn’t come up with a lie quick enough. ‘I’d rather not talk about it.’

 

‘Oh…’

 

Upon seeing the frown on Kunie’s face, Masami’s already fast heartbeat got faster.

 

‘Um, so that Takarazuka show, huh? Pretty… bodacious.’ Masami mentally swore at herself.

 

Kunie laughed but her eyes showed no signs of contempt. ‘Bodacious?’

 

‘Y-yeah.’ As Masami talked, she kept sneaking glances at Kunie’s chest. ‘That young actor was pretty good, if a little rigid in some parts. I think she’s a newcomer, but I have a feeling she’ll soon bosom- uh, blossom.’ Nice one, Masami. She gasped, looking at the now clean floor and the almost-empty mixing bowl in her hands. ‘What am I going to make you now?’

 

‘You don’t need to make me anything. Hanging out with you is enough.’ 

 

Damn it, Kunie, you had to make Masami stop working. The chef stood frozen with the big, fear-drenched eyes of someone about to be beamed up into a UFO. ‘What, did I say something wrong?’ Kunie asked. Masami shook her head like a wet dog but said nothing. ‘Okay… So, um, uh… Oh, how are things going with the cooking club? Is anyone still giving you crap?’

 

As if Kunie’s presence gave off a blinding light, Masami looked back down at her bowl. ‘No, it’s fine. Everything’s… fine.’ 

 

Kunie snatched Masami’s bowl and set it on the table before putting her hands on her shoulders. Meanwhile, I tied a piece of red string around Masami’s pinky finger as the poor girl trembled under the weight of Kunie’s affection.

 

‘Know you can ask me for help whenever you need to.’

 

‘I said it’s fine.’ Masami’s voice was a little sharper than she had anticipated. Kunie let go of her shoulders and lowered her own. Masami didn’t directly apologise but she did ask Kunie to continue talking about theatre. She didn’t add anything to the conversation, simply listening and trying not to think too much about how the other girl’s voice suddenly sounded like butter.

 

A saviour arrived in the form of the school bell, bringing a sigh of relief out from Masami’s lips. That sigh went back into Masami’s mouth with a gulp when Kunie continued talking to her all the way to the classroom. 

 

‘Uh, see you,’ Kunie said, forcing a smile before heading to the back of the classroom. As soon as she sat in her chair, Masami slammed her forehead head onto her desk.

 

Meanwhile, I kept on looking at Kunie as she looked at Masami with melancholic eyes, hoping I would get a chance to tie Masami’s red string around Kunie’s finger.

 

Alas, this was not the right time. Their destiny was still unclear, even to me.

11: Chapter 11: What’s going on?

The weather was not chilly at all and yet Masami still froze up around Kunie. 

 

One morning, she whispered to herself, ‘Don’t run away, don’t run away. Don’t be the type of girl who avoids her crush. Don’t run away.’ She saw Kunie and ran away.

 

She had forgotten how fast Kunie could run. ‘What’s going on?’ 

 

Masami laughed a little too loud. ‘Ah, well, you see, I want to lose some weight, so I’ve taken to running.’ Another laugh, even more awkward than before.

 

‘You don’t need to lose weight,’ Kunie murmured. Those words, just barely heard, sent flames to Masami’s cheeks.

 

‘Well, you know, haha, it’s always good to be healthy and get some exercise.’ To emphasise her point, Masami touched her shoulder and rolled in backwards repeatedly.

 

‘True. So you’re not avoiding me?’

 

Masami waved her hand up and down. ‘No way, now way!’

 

Kunie’s breath as she exhaled was scented with relief. She smiled at Masami but that smile soon dropped upon seeing Masami freeze up again.

 

‘Are you sure you’re okay? I think you might have a fever.’

 

Masami shut her eyes with the speed and intensity of an old garage door being dropped closed. She could sense it coming: the dreaded hand on the forehead to check the temperature. If she was extra unlucky, Kunie might use her own forehead to check Masami’s forehead temperature. 

 

When she felt nothing touch her face, Masami opened her eyes to see Kunie’s concerned expression.

 

‘I told you, I’m fine!’ Once again Masami’s voice was harsher than she meant it to sound.

 

Kunie dropped the topic and went into the classroom alone.

 

As per usual, Ukiwa was late. When she reached into her messenger bag and felt air, she shrugged and took out her phone.

 

‘You guys do whatever you want.’

 

Of course, Masami had to raise her damn hand. ‘Miss Date-’

 

‘Ukiwa. I’m not one of those fuddy-duddy old teachers.’

 

‘Ukiwa, if you don’t have a copy of the roll, I can call out the names. I know all the students’ names in this class.’

 

That earned her a few snickers from her classmates. Ukiwa shrugged again. ‘Go ahead, I guess.’

 

At first, she rattled off the names with ease. Shigeru Honda, Akira Hosoi, Kunie Ideguchi…’ Did her body freeze up or did she run out of the classroom?

 

Ding Ding! She did both! The former came first, of course, which gave her plenty of time to notice Kunie’s non-judgemental gaze which, under Masami’s mental filter, was the most judgemental glare possible.

 

Once out of the classroom, Masami took a few deep breaths. There was no way in hell she was going to run away from this. She absolutely had to act normal. Well, as normal as she could following that outburst.

 

She put on a smile and reopened the door. She apologised to Ukiwa but offered no explanation. She sat back in her seat and said nothing, hoping everyone would simply forget what they just saw.

 

Dooru hid a few insults under coughs. Gitan stared at her with a knowing or, in reality, a half-knowing smirk. Fumie looked at her like the clinically awkward girl was a leper seeking holy cleansing.

 

The eyes of both Sahana and Toyomi were covered by clouds of confusion. Why was Masami, model student and stickler for the rules of the world, acting like a goddess of chaos?

 

Masami tucked her lips into her mouth like she just sucked on a lemon and put her nose into a book.

 

When lunchtime rolled around, she understood what it must feel like to sit in a medical restraint chair. She sat and ate by the locked door to the roof with Kunie, who kept quiet about the earlier incident. Instead, she rattled on about theatre, with Masami half-listening and half-debating over the potential kissability of her lips. Eventually she gave up on thinking about either subject and started basking in the warmth of Kunie’s very presence. Without even realising it, she was slowly inching closer and closer to the girl beside her.

 

By the time lunch finished, Masami had her head on Kunie’s shoulder. When the bell rang, she finally realised what she had done but had learnt from that morning not to freak out so easily, so she slowly inched away from Kunie. 

 

‘So, yeah, we should, I should, go,’ she spluttered.

 

She held out her hand, praying to whoever would listen that her hands weren’t sweaty. Kunie leaned back against the door with her arms crossed and a smug look on her face.

 

‘First you’ve got to tell me the reason you’ve been acting weird.’

 

‘Oh, that? I already told you I’m-’

 

‘Okay, since you don’t respond to ‘weird’, why are you acting ‘different’? You know, different than usual?’

 

Masami shifted her eyes to the side for a millisecond before returning to Kunie. ‘Schoolwork. It’s finally getting to me.’

 

Kunie didn’t give advice. No suggestions of mindfulness exercises, no offers to tutor her (not that Kunie could be of much use in that department), not even a mention of group study sessions. All she did was take Masami’s hand and share her warmth with her. 

 

So, in other words, she did everything.

12: Chapter 12: Maybe I should get these lines engraved on my tombstone

The spotlight painted little blotches of random colours onto Kunie’s strained eyes, making it difficult to read the script in her hands. Blinking didn’t help.

 

She missed her line a couple of times. At the end of rehearsal, she apologised to everyone for not being off book yet. Sahana squeezed her hand in sympathy but walked off with Toyomi, discussing future dates with him.

 

Kunie stood alone for a moment before taking out her phone and messaging Masami. 

 

Hey, could u help me with my lines? Sry in advance.

 

She couldn’t help but chuckle at Masami’s stilted use of complete sentences and big words.

 

There is no need to apologise. That would be quite enlivening. When shall we converge? Please keep in mind that I have little experience in acting.

 

They ‘converged’ on Saturday morning. Masami had been in Kunie’s home before. She had frequently, well, frequented it with Sahana. Somehow this was different.

 

Kunie’s cramped Western-style house had one story, a black skillion roof and white concrete walls. Most of the inside was messy, with clothes, towels and empty bowls littering the rooms. 

 

However, when Masami followed Kunie into her room, she dropped her jaw. Just a little. Heh, as if she was going to return to weird and awkward chaos mode. The room was spotless. It had never been spotless.

 

Despite Masami’s attempts at subtlety, Kunie read her expression easily. ‘I cleaned up before you came here.’

 

The two sat down on opposite ends of a low, large table in the middle of the room. Kunie took out her script and beckoned for Masami to sit closer. When she saw the other girl’s wide eyes, she chuckled. ‘What? I’ve only got one script.’ She leaned in closer. ‘Or can you read upside down from all the way over there?’

 

With a shrug of forced apathy, Masami shifted her butt closer to Kunie. ‘You’ve got a lot of lines,’ she said as she skimmed over the first page. 

 

‘Yeah. Maybe I should get these lines engraved on my tombstone. Then I can finally remember them when I inevitably die of embarrassment.’ A look of concern from Masami. A look of comfort from Kunie. ‘I’ll be fine. You know me. A study session or two with you and I’ll get these memorised in no time.’

 

A few slow breaths from Masami and she was able to convert that proximity-induced blush on her face to complete determination.

 

‘Glad to be of help. Let’s get started.’

 

‘Are you sure you don’t want a drink or a snack or something?’

 

Masami slammed her hand on the script on the table. ‘Let’s. Get. Started.’

 

‘Yes, Mrs Morokuzu.’

 

‘Mrs?’

 

‘You could get married.’

 

A small laugh was wrung from Masami’s lips as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘I doubt that will happen. Not unless I’m totally wrong about…’

 

‘Wrong about what?’

 

‘... Whether I’d look good in a wedding dress! Hahaha!’

 

Damn Kunie had to put her hand on Masami’s shoulder. The poor girl overheated! ‘You would look great in a wedding dress.’ Kunie, if you don’t get that hand off her, I swear Masami will burst into flames. Either that or completely freeze over. The usual hell or hell after a big surprise: pick your poison.

 

Well, luckily Kunie did let go of her and began practising her lines. At first, Masami was taken aback by Kunie’s expressive delivery, too distracted to remember to read the next line. The number of times Masami apologised was a whopping… three. Okay, that doesn’t sound like much but, considering they were at the beginning of page two by that point, three mishaps were a lot.

 

Then they got to a stage where they both said the lines like they weren’t reading off a script. Kunie even found herself laughing at Masami’s performance of a comedic character.

 

‘You sure you’ve got no acting experience?’ she asked her while wrapping an arm around her back and rubbing her shoulder.

 

The return of Masami’s blush painted Kunie’s face a similar hue. As soon as this happened, Kunie let go and coughed. She was tempted, very tempted, to put her arm back around Masami, but she kept away and returned to looking over her lines. Still, the heat wouldn’t leave her cheeks alone. What was happening to her?

 

That just had to be the time I got all my red string all tangled. Kunie’s thoughts turned to that Takarazuka actress as questions tugged on her heart, vying for her attention. Was her blush from that musical performance, which involved hot lights and a general feeling of excitement, related to her blush at that moment? Why was she blushing now, anyway? What excuse did she have this time?

 

She puffed out air like she had eaten too much food and pushed the questions away, going back to this damn script. Her voice was noticeably weaker as she tried to read out her lines. In fact, one could say it was hoarse with emotion. What exact emotion it was evaded Kunie’s scattered mind.

 

‘You okay?’ Masami said, this time putting her hand on Kunie’s shoulder. Kunie nodded with her eyes closed, inadvertently earning a grin from Masami.

 

‘Adorable,’ Masami let slip.

 

The blush on Kunie’s face spread throughout her entire body. ‘What?’

 

‘Oh, uh, this character.’ Masami pointed to a name above a line in the script. ‘He’s very likeable, don’t you think?’

 

‘I... guess...’

 

Even I wasn’t sure what would make the character of Old Man Takada, the grumpy fisherman with a hook for a hand, adorable. At least Kunie didn’t press further.

 

Upon finishing the script twice, the pair high-fived each other. Masami looked at the time on her phone and stood up, bowing as she said goodbye.

 

She noticed the disappointment on Kunie’s face and grabbed her hand, giving it a light squeeze before letting go and heading out of her room.

 

Kunie kept looking at her now empty hand while I got to work untangling the red string.

13: Chapter 13: These characters will get together!

The blue light from the laptop screen kept Atsuji awake. This was by design.

 

He groaned at the drafts on his word processor. After reading over each one, he pulled at the hairs on his head.

 

He took a few deep breaths and focused on happy thoughts. Naturally, these included memories of Sahana. Memories that transformed into ideas. 

 

He rubbed his eyes, stretched his arms and opened a new document. He was about to break a major rule of respectable writing.

 

He introduced a character named Sakana, a mermaid who didn’t let her unfortunate name, meaning ‘fish’, get in the way of her boundless optimism. He added a boy whose skin was covered in wool called Hitsuji, named after the animal he was similar to. Hitsuji was a grumpy intellectual with glasses. You can probably see where this is going.

 

Sakana didn’t seem to notice Hitsuji, who struggled to confess his feelings. Atsuji kept trying to find a way for the two to be together but he couldn’t find the right catalyst for Sakana to notice the sheep boy.

 

He eventually gave up, saved the story and went to sleep.

 

The bags under his eyes could be seen from the heavens. What a day to run into Sahana.

 

She talked to him about something but he could barely hear it under the burning of his cheeks. 

 

He spluttered his responses, earning a snicker from some of the students passing by him.

 

‘He does realise he’s lost already, right?’ one student whispered to another. ‘Can’t beat The Prince.’

 

Atsuji bowed his goodbye to Sahana with startling speed and rushed into his classroom. 

 

He shook his head. What did Sahana see in Toyomi? Sure, the two shared a love of theatre, but Atsuji had plenty in common with Sahana! Like… well, like… you know, like…

 

When he got home, he cracked his knuckles with intense desperation. ‘These characters will get together! I’ll show you!’ He may or may not have laughed maniacally after saying that. Who can tell? 

 

Oh, who am I kidding? His mother walked into his room and asked whom he was talking to, concern etched in her voice.

 

After making a mental note not to say his thoughts out loud like a fictional character, he began his quest to write the romance of the century.

 

The first roadblock was Hitsuji refusing to confess his feelings and Sakana being too oblivious to bring the two closer. Atsuji decided to have Hitsuji confess his feelings anyway but it didn’t feel natural for the character. He ignored the problem and moved on. He could always fix it in the editing stage.

 

Now that the characters were a happy couple, the second obstacle reared its ugly head. How exactly would the two act as a couple? Hitsuji naturally retreated back into his shell, rendering his brave confession moot. Atsuji made Sakana reach out to him but struggled to write her words of encouragement. He wound up writing something he may have already heard from some cheesy romantic comedy he watched a couple of weeks ago. He could always fix it in the editing stage.

 

These problems with the characterisation piled up until Atsuji could no longer ignore the fact that his characters had changed so much over the course of the story that they were unrecognisable. While he did not ignore it, he did justify it in his head as character development that was just a little too fast. If it became a problem, he could always fix it in the editing stage.

 

He wrote a happy ending for his characters and stared at his creation. His monster.

 

A monster with no semblance of romantic chemistry. His characters had nothing in common and weren’t even different enough to play off one another in their dialogue. There was no spark between them.

 

He wrote a new draft, this time with them as friends going on an adventure. The chemistry was still mostly lacking, but at least that wasn’t as obvious. Letting Hitsuji remain grumpy and Sakana remain oblivious lent itself to more comedic scenes. The story felt less forced.

 

As it slid down his cheek, one tear was all it took to make the author feel refreshed. Of course, more tears followed, but he smiled through it all.

 

He thought about what drew Sahana to Toyomi and figured it out in an instant, as though he had not wasted countless hours pondering this exact topic. He remembered how Toyomi was openly in the theatre club, openly into baking, openly a fan of romance manga. Open. Free. Expressive.

 

Atsuji looked over his previous works and smiled. They weren’t masterpieces but they were pieces of him. He visited Friendful and posted some of his stories to the student hub page for his school. He had to go to the bathroom and wipe the copious amount of sweat off his hands with a towel but his smile remained. His heartbeat was sickeningly fast, but that meant warmth spread throughout his body quicker. His legs trembled as he walked back to his room, but he was proud of every step he took forward.

 

It was a few hours before anyone commented, but he received words of encouragement. One comment stood out.

 

You’re one funny guy.

14: Chapter 14: I’m not worth your kindness

Bored as all hell, Kunie took out her phone and went onto the school’s Friendful group. She was lying on her bed and scrolling through the page when she came across Atsuji’s stories.

 

She found herself laughing at the witty narration but it was the serious moments that stood out to her.

 

He shouldn’t have felt good. How could we, when his heart was twisting until he almost couldn’t breathe? How could he possibly enjoy the feeling of walking in glass skin, ready to shatter at any hint of rejection? Yet, he continued walking, in hopes that he could get just a little bit closer to her. 

 

She needed no protection, yet he felt a desire deep in the pit of his gut to protect her anyway. Or maybe he was confusing that with the desire to hold her close and brush her soft hair behind her ear.

 

Kunie remembered Masami’s habit of tucking her hair behind her ear. She pictured herself pushing her hair back, leaning in until she was ever so close to her lips.

 

Realisation crashed into her, breaking the glass in her face. Tears seeped out of the cracks. In her mind, the beautiful Takarazuka actor bowed to Masami and stepped back until she was among the other cast members and Masami was right at the front of the stage. Masami’s skin glowed under the spotlight. Why did it have to glow so much?

 

Kunie wiped her eyes but the tears kept coming. The lovely image of Masami on stage was quickly replaced with Dooru’s smug face.

 

After turning off her phone, Kunie took to staring at the ceiling until the ceiling appeared to be mocking her with memories of Masami. When that happened, she closed her eyes and screamed into her pillow.

 

Meanwhile, I tied Masami’s red string around Kunie’s pinky. As soon as I did this, I noticed how thin and frail the string was. That tempted me to enter the human world and scream into a pillow as well, but alas I had to keep at least a little distance. Destiny was in the hands of these two girls.

 

Apparently there’s a hangover for excessive crying, or at least Kunie felt something similar to that the next morning. The lack of sleep certainly didn’t help.

 

She could barely muster a hello to her classmates. To wake herself up she bought a dozen or so food items from the vending machine and ate as quickly as possible, creating a pile of rubbish all over her desk.

 

As soon as Masami saw the mess, she opened her mouth to complain, but then she saw the bags under Kunie’s eyes and bit back her words. Sahana asked her if something was wrong and Kunie didn’t respond for a while.

 

‘Nothing,’ Kunie eventually murmured, looking into her eyes and feeling every part of her body tense up. Sahana, who was walking back to Toyomi’s desk, was the girl who had defended her honour. Her honour as a perfectly straight girl who was definitely not crushing on their mutual friend.

 

‘Just because she has short hair doesn't make her a lesbian. Kunie is a wonderful person and I don't think she deserves you being so mean to her!’

 

That line repeated in her head, getting more distorted as time went on. Each time, the sound of Sahana’s laughter got louder and louder.

 

‘... doesn’t make her a lesbian. Kunie is a wonderful person.’

 

‘Kunie is a wonderful person. She’s not a lesbian.’

 

‘She couldn’t be a lesbian. She’s a wonderful person.’

 

Kunie choked on the piece of melon bread in her mouth. She spit it out and, as she returned to reality, she discovered that the laughter came from Sahana as she chatted with Toyomi at his desk near the front. Like she always did.

 

There was only a few tables’ worth of distance between Kunie and Sahana, yet it felt like they were in completely different schools. Kunie gritted her teeth and looked away, tearing another bite out of her melon bread. She left the choke-causing piece on the table.

 

Seeing that let Masami know that enough was enough. ‘Something’s clearly annoying you,’ she said, crossing her arms. ‘What is it?’ Kunie frowned. ‘Why can’t you tell us?’

 

Dooru sniggered. ‘Maybe she got dumped by a girl.’

 

‘Fuck off, Dooru,’ Kunie said.

 

‘If you hate me so much, call me by my surname and see how Ukiwa reacts.’

 

‘Like I give a fuck.’

 

‘Seriously, what’s going on?’ Masami asked. ‘Dooru’s not helping, but you know Sahana and I are usually nice to you. Did we do something to make you-’

 

‘I’m not worth your kindness.’

 

The lack of confidence startled Masami. ‘Why not?’

 

Kunie shoved the rest of the melon bread in her mouth and curled her hands into fists. ‘You wouldn’t get it.’

 

‘Try me. We get each other more than anyone else I know.’

 

Finally, Kunie looked up at Masami. She couldn’t help but smile, even if the burning in her cheeks soon got annoying. The morning sunlight from the window illuminated Masami’s face until she looked like the glowing Masami from her daydream.

 

‘You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ll be fine in a bit. I just didn’t get much sleep last night.’

 

Masami’s giggle tickled Kunie’s ears. ‘That’s it? I think most people get what it feels like to have trouble sleeping. What kept you up last night?’

 

‘Uh, homework, yeah. But don’t worry too much. I’m doing pretty well in class. I just didn’t plan my studying schedule very well, haha.’

 

‘Fair enough. Ukiwa’s still late, so you can take a nap now if you want.’

 

Kunie held up some empty packets from the various sugary snacks she ate. ‘I should be fine for now.’

 

The two chatted for a good half hour, Ukiwa running later than ever for the weekly hour-long homeroom. Kunie was mostly paying attention to the glowing girl in front of her, but occasionally she would sneak a glance at the happy couple that was Toyomi and Sahana. They seemed to pay no attention to her and existed in their own little world. Their own little perfect world where they could love each other and not get crap for it. A world where they could, if they wanted to, judge Kunie’s feelings without Kunie even hearing them.

 

Whenever she saw Kunie scowl at the couple, Masami felt her heart crack. Each time this happened, she put her hand on top of Kunie’s fist and changed the subject, praying that Kunie would return her attention to her and forget whatever was really troubling her. She would lean in closer to help her with this task. It worked every time.

 

By the end of the half-hour, Kunie and Masami were inches apart. The sliding of the classroom door and the click-clacking of high heels pushed them away. Their panicked faces almost made Dooru spit a rat king of remarks but Ukiwa’s voice robbed her of that chance.

 

Ukiwa called the roll as quickly as she could and then asked everyone how they were doing. The students groaned, except for Kunie, who was too busy glaring at Sahana sitting on Toyomi’s lap to notice anything her homeroom teacher said.

 

When lunch rolled around, Sahana stopped to chat with Kunie. ‘You feeling better now?’

 

Kunie nodded, forcing a smile. ‘Yeah, it’s all good. Now go have fun with your boyfriend.’ She thanked her ancestors that she managed to say that with a convincing amount of ‘sincerity’. Sahana nodded and took Toyomi’s hand, resting her head on his shoulder as the two strolled out of the classroom.

 

Kunie and Masami went on an expedition to whatever room they could find to eat their lunch in. On their journey, they ran into Atsuji. Kunie considered complimenting him on his excellent stories, but the painful emotions they had stirred in her that night put a cork in her vocal cords. She could only nod as she passed by him.

 

The pair of friends eventually gave up on finding a spot and went to their usual spot in the Home Ec room. Masami cooked up a quick dish of cereal ramen. Kunie laughed in between crunches as the mix polluted her taste buds.

 

‘You’ve outdone yourself in terribleness,’ she said. ‘Do I taste soy sauce on these flakes?’

 

Masami pouted. ‘I will make a weird dish that you end up enjoying.’

 

Kunie put her hand on Masami’s. ‘I’m sure you will.’

 

As soon as her hand registered the heat of Masami’s, she let go. Masami bit her lip and brushed her hair behind her ear. It took all of Kunie’s energy not to hug her right there.

 

I noticed the red string connecting the two girls growing a little bit thicker and sturdier.

15: Chapter 15: He’s your entire life!

Once again, Sahana and Toyomi were chattering away. On an entirely unrelated note, Kunie was wondering if her blood pressure was rising and whether she should see a doctor about that.

 

It was lunchtime and she was at least a little pleasantly surprised that the power couple had bothered to grace the class with their presence instead of running off to their castle somewhere else in the school. They even saw Kunie and smiled once before returning to their conversation!

 

‘Are you listening?’

 

When she shifted her eyes to the source of the question, she saw Masami looking at her with furrowed eyebrows.

 

‘Yeah. Sorry. Keep talking.’

 

‘About that… are you getting bored of me?’ Masami bit her lip in a way that was not intended to be sexy but read as such to Kunie. The actual reason for the lip biting was the tornado of insults circling around her mind, all directed at herself. Why did she have to blurt out that question in that way?

 

‘Uh, I mean it seems like I’m the only one doing the talking,’ she clarified. ‘It’d be nice to hear your voice every once in a while.’ Her face immediately went red as soon as she said that. She opened her mouth to do some damage control, but she had a feeling that she would end up saying something even worse. She bit her lip again. Did Kunie notice? Do I even have to ask?

 

Let’s just say that the red string got just a little bit thicker.

 

‘No, I’ve just been distracted.’

 

Masami looked back until Sahana was in the corner of her eye. ‘I see.’ She took a deep breath and put on a smile. ‘So anyway, how are rehearsals going? Are there tickets yet?’

 

‘There are. I’ll give you the link on Friendful. And I’m off book now, so thanks for that.’ She chuckled. ‘I told you I could do it.’ The grin on her face didn’t last long because Sahana was giggling and Toyomi was leaning in for a kiss. ‘Um, Masami, you know the rumours about Toyomi? How has Sahana reacted to them?’

 

Masami shrugged her shoulders. ‘She probably doesn’t believe them. I mean, I don’t. Their affection for each other is almost sickening.’ Before Kunie could add an ‘Exactly!’, Masami raised her hands as if proclaiming her innocence. ‘I’m happy for them, though!’

 

‘But, say if they were true, and he broke up with her and told her the truth, obviously she would be sad about the breakup, but would she accept him?’

 

An eyebrow raise from Masami. ‘What exactly are you getting at? Do you know something I don’t?’

 

‘No, no. I agree with you. Those rumours are probably lies. I’m just speaking hypothetically. How do you think she feels about… those people?’

 

Ouch, Masami’s poor shoulders. They were so tense and high up that they looked and felt like they were chained to a wall. Did Kunie figure out her secret?

 

‘I don’t really know,’ Masami eventually mumbled. ‘Not like I’ve asked her a question like that.’

 

Seeing Masami look like she was in pain pinched little segments of Kunie’s heart, despite having no clue why she looked like that.

 

When club activities ended that afternoon, Sahana brushed past Kunie to the shoe lockers. She didn’t look angry or anything. Kunie was just invisible. She wrapped her arm around Toyomi’s and chatted animatedly with him.

 

The words Sahana had used to defend Kunie against Dooru crawled up Kunie’s leg, as did the words Dooru used at the time. They twisted and tangled up before turning into toxic sludge and spilling from her tongue.

 

‘Go ahead, ignore me, then!’

 

Sahana turned her head. ‘Sorry. Didn’t see you there.’

 

‘Of course you didn’t. I’m not your precious prince.’ When Masami heard that, she grasped at her own shirt as if trying to guard her heart. She took a deep breath and focused on putting her shoes on, trying to ignore the conversation.

 

Toyomi instinctively wriggled out of Sahana’s grasp and kept his arms at his side. ‘What’s going on?’ Sahana asked as she looked side to side.

 

‘I should be asking you that. Masami and I are supposed to be your friends. No, your best friends. And what do you do? Avoid us every chance you get and go off to your boyfriend.’

 

Sahana reached out to Kunie, who dodged her hand. ‘I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just that I didn’t get to hang out with Toyomi as much as I’d have liked to. Now that we’re together, I want to spend a bit more time with him.’

 

‘He’s your entire life! You’ve spent plenty of time with him!’

 

Finally, Sahana raised her voice, looking at the hand Kunie refused to go near. ‘I still spend time with you!’

 

‘Ha, barely! You just abandoned Masami and me and acted like we’re acquaintances rather than best friends.’

 

‘You could have told me that,’ Sahana said in an almost whisper as if trying to make up for her shouting before.

 

‘You could have thought of it! But you didn’t. You know why? You’re selfish!’

 

Masami leapt in front of Sahana and used her arms as a barrier between her and her bully. She and Kunie stared at each other in silence, unsure what to say.

 

‘You’ve said enough,’ Masami finally declared with laboured breaths. She wanted to yell so badly but she just couldn’t.

 

Kunie’s volume lowered in kind. ‘I don’t think I have. You know she only thinks about herself, about what makes her happy.’

 

‘Then why has she been so kind to us? She supported my hobby and defended you against Dooru.’

 

Ooh, girl, those were the wrong words.

 

‘Yes, ‘defended’. Let’s call it that. She totally wasn’t secretly insulting me.’

 

Sahana tried to interject. ‘When was I insulting y-’

 

‘Shut it, Sahana!’ Kunie shouted. She lowered her voice again as she turned back to Masami. ‘But sure, take her side, she was always your friend, after all.’

 

‘I don’t know exactly what you’re implying,’ Masami said with the face of a cat being pushed off its favourite spot on the couch.

 

The other students watched the two as they argued with hushed tones. Kunie said, ‘We’re only friends because someone had to hang out with us and it sure wasn’t going to be Sahana.’

 

‘That...’s not true.’

 

‘Face it, Masami. Sahana doesn’t care about us, and even if she did, she cares more about displaying her boy toy for everyone to see.’

 

‘Woah, woah, wait a minute,’ Sahana interrupted, successfully this time. ‘What’s your problem? Don’t drag Toyomi into this and don’t call him that!

 

Toyomi placed his hands in between them. As if that would do anything. ‘Okay, let’s both calm down. Maybe you should lower your voice, Sahana.’

 

‘So you’re taking her side? Even after I defended you?’

 

The trumpets that accompanied Toyomi went off key before stopping completely.

 

Kunie clicked her fingers and pointed her index finger up. ‘Ah, see? It’s always about you.’

 

Then it was Masami’s turn to push herself back into the conversation. ‘What about you? You love eating food but don’t care to, you know, actually clean up the mess you made so everyone can be in a nice, clean place.’

 

‘I’ve changed! I cleaned up my room, remember? Or what, is that not good enough for you and your high-ass standards?’

 

‘What would be good enough is for you to stop picking fights with your own friends! All Sahana did was accidentally bump into you without realising. Is that a crime now?’

 

‘You know it’s more than that. You absolutely know it. She’s been ignoring us for a while. Like, for the past couple of months.’

 

Toyomi added his two cents. Or, at least, tried to. ‘I mean, she’s kind of right.’ He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Sahana. ‘You haven’t exactly spent as much time with them as you used to. I would be happy to join your group so we can please everyone-’

 

Sahana threw her hands up in the air. ‘Once again, taking Kunie’s side! You know what? I don’t have to deal with this. I’m going home. You can find a way home yourself, right?’

 

‘Uh, y-yeah. Wait, what?’

 

Before Toyomi could receive an answer, Sahana slipped into her shoes and stormed out of the building. Masami glared at Kunie before putting her own shoes on and following Sahana outside. Toyomi sighed and joined the two, leaving Kunie alone.

 

Kunie slid down the end of the shoe lockers until she was sitting on the floor. It wasn’t long before all the other students had left.

 

She tugged at her own hair and let out a primal scream that echoed throughout the halls, nobody around to drown out the sound.

16: Chapter 16: She’s so stubborn!

Wrappers kept piling up on Kunie’s desk. Masami didn’t scold her. She didn’t say anything.

 

She was busy chatting with Sahana. Toyomi sat alone. He spent the lunch break writing a poem. 

 

‘Am I selfish?’ Sahana asked through the table where her face was planted. 

 

Masami hesitated. ‘You were a little before.’ Sahana looked up and Masami held her hands up in surrender. ‘But I forgive you! I get what it’s like to want to spend all your time with your crush.’

 

Perhaps that was an unwise thing to say. After all, it brought a glimmer to Sahana’s eye and a grin to her face.

 

‘Ooh, when did you have a crush?’

 

‘Anyway, I think you should try and talk things out with Toyomi. I don’t think he’s worth breaking up with.’

 

‘But what if he doesn’t forgive me? I was so harsh to him. He’s probably better off with one of his fangirls.’

 

Masami raised an eyebrow. ‘You really think someone like Dooru is more suited to him?’

 

Sahana scrunched her nose and tucked her lips in like a lemon sucker. ‘...Maybe…’ 

 

‘Be honest.’

 

‘But I’ve never had a fight with a boyfriend before. I haven’t even had a boyfriend before.’

 

‘You could give him a present.’

 

‘But what if he thinks I’m trying to buy him back?’

 

‘Then make him something.’

 

After a few seconds of thinking, Sahana ripped a page from one of her exercise books and began to write a poem. Without even realising, she had left Masami alone again.

 

Masami gave Kunie a mix of a glare and a loving gaze. When Kunie noticed eyes on her, Masami looked away, only to look again once Kunie’s head was back down.

 

Finally, Sahana spoke. ‘You didn’t tell me you had a crush on someone.’

 

Masami coughed. ‘Had. Past tense.’

 

‘Was it someone I knew?’ Masami’s gulp gave Sahana the answer she desired. ‘Who?’

 

‘Look, I don’t really want to talk about it. It was a stupid crush and it’s only a matter of time…. It was only a matter of time before I got over… that person.’

 

Sahana frowned. ‘I see.’

 

During cooking club activities, Masami gave her batter a limp stir, her mind stirring much faster. Sahana looked at her with concern but didn’t know what to say.

 

She knew what to say even less when Masami began stirring the batter at almost superhuman speed. Murder wasn’t in her eyes, per se, but at least jaywalking, maybe even vandalism. She got faster and faster and that vandalism in her eyes was quickly upgraded to physical assault. The only thing Sahana knew was that she should step away.

 

Fumie, however, moved past her initial fear and put a hand on Masami’s shoulder. ‘I heard you and Kunie had a big fight. Want to talk about it?’

 

At first, Masami considered shaking her head and saying that everything was fine, but Fumie’s gentle hand on her shoulder pushed her into nodding. Fumie asked the teacher if the two could speak alone for a moment and the teacher allowed it.

 

Sahana looked at her watch and left for the theatre club. Fumie led Masami to a spot by the stairs, where they sat down.

 

Fumie didn’t have to even ask anything before Masami exploded with anger. ‘Who does Kunie think she is, calling Sahana selfish like that? And why’d she get so angry at her in the first place? Talk about a chip on your shoulder. Sahana’s been so nice to us but I guess that’s not good enough for Kunie. Urgh, she’s the worst! What did I even see in her?’

 

Immediately, Masami covered her mouth. Fumie held onto the cross around her neck. Masami waved her hands about like an interpretive dancer at 1.75 playback speed. ‘I didn’t mean that! That was, uh, just an inside joke between Kunie and I! I’m not gay or anything like that.’

 

Fumie closed her eyes and sighed. ‘Masami, tell me the truth.’

 

The stairs got wet with tears as Masami whimpered, ‘I love her. I’m sure you don’t want to hear that, and you probably think I’m disgusting and wrong, but please… just let me cry over this.’

 

‘You think I could stop you?’ Fumie wrapped her arms around Masami’s shoulders and patted her head. ‘It’s okay. Cry. Keep going until the tears stop and it no longer hurts.’

 

‘What… happened… to… me? This isn’t… fair! What… made me so gross?’

 

‘You’re not gross. You’re just a regular human being who’s going through something. God has a plan for us and I doubt his plan for you involves you being sad forever. You can get through this.’

 

‘And of course, of all the girls I had to fall for, it just had to be her! She’s so stubborn! She hasn’t tried to make peace at all when it’s her fault this fight happened in the first place! I have to get over her. I wonder if there’s a way to get over someone in a day.’

 

‘I think you should talk to her.’

 

Masami leaned back until she was out of Fumie’s grasp. ‘Huh? Didn’t you hear me?’

 

‘I’m not saying you have to go out with her. You know my thoughts on that. But if you’re supposed to be such good friends, this little spat shouldn’t be enough to completely end your friendship. I think you need to let go of your own stubbornness.’

 

‘But she started it!’

 

‘That’s exactly what a stubborn person would say.’

 

Masami sniffled and wiped her eyes. ‘I… guess you’re right.’

 

‘And if she pushes you away and your friendship ends, I’ll be there if you need some support. I can bake you some cookies if you want.’

 

Masami chuckled. ‘Thanks.’

 

Fumie gave her one last hug before standing up. ‘Come on, let’s go back. Sahana’s not there to make weird food, so you’re our last hope.’

 

Meanwhile, in the theatre auditorium, Kunie kept forgetting her lines. Even the cues for her to speak slipped her mind. Dooru tapped her feet each time until it became too much for her.

 

‘Ukiwa, do something! Kunie needs a big talking-to!’

 

The shout woke Ukiwa up. ‘Ah, yes, Kunie, come with me.’ She took the student outside of the theatre.

 

‘So, uh, is everything okay?’ Kunie said nothing. ‘You’re not exactly giving me much to work with here.’

 

Kunie held her arm in and rubbed up and down it. ‘There’s nothing to work with. Sorry for messing up.’

 

‘You sure?’ Ukiwa asked. Kunie nodded. ‘Okay.’ As Ukiwa turned around and headed back inside, Kunie managed to muster up her courage.

 

‘I’m in love with a girl.’

 

Ukiwa turned back and clapped her hands together. ‘Really? Tell me the deats! That’s what the kids say, right?’ Kunie stepped backwards. ‘Sorry. So, is that what you’ve been worrying about?’ A nod from Kunie. ‘I wouldn’t worry too much. It’s getting more and more accepted these days. Does the girl like you back?’

 

‘I think she likes a different girl.’

 

‘Oh, well, there’s plenty of fish in the sea, even for lesbians.’

 

‘Don’t tell anyone, okay?’

 

‘Your secret’s safe with me,’ Ukiwa said before opening the door.

 

The next morning, Ukiwa was actually at homeroom on time. When Kunie walked through the door, the teacher scanned the room for the girl Kunie might like. When she saw her student’s heartbroken face and followed the eye line, she gasped.

 

‘Oh, so that’s the girl you like, Kunie!’ Everyone turned their heads. ‘Oops.’

 

Tears floated in the air as Kunie whipped around and ran out of the classroom. That afternoon, the theatre club heard the news.

 

She had quit the club.

17: Chapter 17: You have no idea what it’s like!

When Kunie returned to school the following day, she saw black writing all over her desk.

 

Dyke

 

Just crawl into a hole

 

Call Kunie at (555)-555-5555 if you want hot lesbian sex

 

Dooru laughed. ‘Wow, someone’s popular.’ Kunie glared at her. ‘What? I didn’t write that stuff. Much too vulgar. Plus, I doubt sex with you would be any good, even if I was a lesbian.’ Snorting mixed in the laughter. ‘Oh my god, could you imagine? Who’d want to sleep with another girl?’ She smirked at Kunie. ‘Oh, right.’

 

At lunch, Kunie decided to eat alone by the steps. On the way, she passed a male student she didn’t know. Apparently he knew her.

 

‘Hey, what’s scissoring?’

 

‘Huh?’

 

‘I mean, you’re the expert, right?’

 

‘What’s that supposed to…’ Realisation dawned on her. ‘Okay, fuck off.’

 

The boy snickered and went on his way. Kunie groaned and rubbed her temple as she sat down with her bento box. At least her mother included teriyaki chicken. 

 

She found herself wondering what ingredients Masami would add to chicken to transform it into one of her unholy abominations. Once the thought entered her brain, she shook her head to shake away any memories of that girl.

 

People whispered as they walked past her, thinking she couldn’t hear. ‘Who’s the mystery girl? That teacher said she liked a girl, right?’

 

‘None of my business. Still, kinda trippy, right? Never thought there’d be one of those people at this school.’

 

‘Oh, I saw a girl give her a love letter. Maybe they’re an item.’

 

Kunie twisted her upper body towards the gossipers and scowled at them. ‘Go bother that girl instead of me.’

 

She tore the chicken into smaller pieces with her teeth, not caring about the teriyaki sauce spreading onto her face. Something wasn’t adding up. She wasn’t the only lesbian at the school, so why was she getting all the attention? What about the girls who liked sending her love letters?

 

She stood up and began searching each classroom for one of the girls who had a crush on her, leaving her bento box on the floor. It didn’t take long for her to find one of those girls.

 

If there was one word to describe the girl, it would be ‘nondescript’. Average height, medium-length black hair and proportional facial features with no parts that stood out.

 

‘Hey, can I talk to you for a moment, uh...?’

 

The girl’s smile dropped. ‘Kuri Satou.’ However, she still followed Kunie outside of the classroom.

 

‘So, um, what’s it like, you know, liking girls?’ Kunie asked. ‘Has anyone given you crap for it?’

 

‘Oh, my class generally doesn’t care. Some of the girls in the art club…’

 

Kunie put her hand on Kuri’s shoulders. ‘What do the girls in the art club do?’ Her voice sounded a little harsher and more desperate than she had hoped.

 

‘Just, you know, comment about how they bet I can’t wait to start drawing naked portraits. Sometimes they also put fake love letters in my shoe locker. I don’t pay attention to those anymore, though. Fool me twice and all that.’

 

‘Wait a minute, fake love letters?’

 

‘Yeah. But my one to you was real. They send the fake ones to any girl they suspect is a lesbian, even if they actually aren’t. I think they just like to humiliate people. To be honest with you, I thought you were one of the people they got wrong, since you never, you know, responded to my letter.’

 

‘Oh my god, I am so sorry. I just didn’t know how to react. I don’t really know you well enough to be able to return your feelings, but I appreciate you for writing that letter. Probably took a lot of courage.’

 

Kuri looked down. ‘Yeah, it’s all good. If you want someone to talk to about your struggles, I can lend an ear.’

 

‘So, um, you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but what got you interested in me? We don’t exactly know each other.’

 

As Kuri continued her answer, her face got redder and redder. ‘Oh, well, I would walk past you every once in a while and notice how pretty you looked. Then I saw you defending one of your friends one day, which was when I heard your name. You exuded confidence and I was super drawn to that. Um, thanks for talking with me, even if you don’t feel the same way about me.’

 

‘You’re welcome. Good luck with dealing with the art club girls. See you around.’

 

With that, Kunie returned to her empty bento box and brought it back to her desk. She then decided to stroll through the school. She was tempted to stop by the art club room and trash the place but remembered a key detail in Kuri’s words. Some of the art club girls.

 

However, she managed to spot a girl who may have been in the club. Or rather, the girl spotted her.

 

‘Hey, it’s the dyke! I knew I was right about you. Thanks for helping me win a bet.’ Kunie turned around and power-walked away from her. ‘Hey, where are you going? I thought you liked getting girls’ attention. By the way, what got you to hate men?’

 

‘Leave me alone or I swear I will hang you by your eyelashes over a pit of fire!’

 

‘Wow, no need to be so angry. I guess that’s supposed to be expected, though.’ After giving her a smirk, the girl eventually did leave Kunie alone.

 

Kunie realised that her classroom, despite containing Dooru’s Dooru-ness, was the safest place to be for now. She sunk into her chair.

 

Masami tiptoed towards her. Great. She had to be there. ‘Could we maybe be able to talk?’ Kunie turned her head away. ‘I want to apologise and tell you something.’ A shake of the head from our incredibly mature Kunie. ‘Come on. Please? I won’t bother you again. It’s just kind of important.’

 

With a big sigh, Kunie stood up and followed Masami outside the school building. They walked to the athletics track. While Kunie dropped on to the grass with no care as to how she looked, Masami sat down as gracefully and cautiously as a fairytale princess with a fear of germs.

 

Kunie grumbled, ‘What is it?’

 

‘I’m really sorry. For two things. I shouldn’t have gotten so angry with you the other day. You may have started it, but I should have finished it.’ Kunie opened her mouth to argue, but Masami’s sudden hand on hers shut her mouth. ‘I’m also sorry that you have to go through all this. You don’t deserve it. I know what it’s like to be-’

 

Kunie pulled out strands of grass from the ground. ‘No, shut up right now. Whatever it is, you don’t know.’

 

‘How can you be so sure-’

 

‘You have no idea what it’s like!’ Those little pieces of grass became huge clumps. ‘You don’t know what it’s like to have everybody at school take your personal life and make it their business. You don’t know how it feels to become the school laughing stock. You don’t know what it’s like to receive comment after comment after fucking comment about your sex life. You know why? ‘Cause you’re nice and safe in your little closet.’

 

‘Closet? How did you...’

 

‘Come on, Masami. We both know you like Sahana.’

 

Masami blinked. ‘Huh? Sahana? The one I like is you, idiot.’ Her jaw tightened as she fought against the temptation to act as if she had just made a joke.

 

Kunie dropped the bunch of grass in her hand. ‘Seriously? I can’t handle having you lie to me about that shit.’

 

‘Why would I lie about that? Kunie, I love you.’

 

The expression on Kunie’s face fluctuated with frightening speed. First, her eyes were wide and her jaw agape, then her mouth curled into a smile with eyes that squinted as if holding back tears. Her eyebrows met and the smile morphed into a frown, her eyes full of fire. Finally, she looked at the ground with the eyes of someone who had never even heard of the word ‘confident.’ This last expression made Masami’s heart beat as fast as that of a scream queen in a horror movie. She could barely recognise the girl she loved.

 

‘Look, I don’t know if going out is such a good idea for us,’ Kunie said in a voice devoid of life. ‘Now that my secret’s out, I don’t really want to deal with relationship trouble on top of that. Plus, what do we even have in common? We’d be a disaster as a couple.’

 

‘I… guess so. And you like Sahana, anyway.’

 

‘The hell made you think that? I don’t see her that way, and even if I did, that would be even more of a disaster. She doesn’t care about me at all. She didn’t even comfort me when I got outed. Maybe if she wasn’t so self-absorbed I could have worked through this easier.’

 

Those words pulled Masami up until she was standing. ‘You know damn well that Sahana isn’t self-absorbed! Stop slandering her and blaming her for all your problems! I shouldn’t have even bothered trying to make amends with you since it’s clearly a one-way street.’

 

She ran back inside, breaking the red string I had so carefully placed around her finger. I gasped and tried to repair it as best I could but to no avail.

 

Kunie looked down at the dirt where she had pulled grass from, at the mess she had made.

18: Chapter 18: As a yuri fanboy, I cannot let this happen!

‘You’ve waited long enough,’ Masami said with a nudge to Sahana’s back. ‘Just give him the poem and get it over with.’

 

It was morning and Ukiwa was still late. Sahana had plenty of time. Time she was wasting in the limbo between following her heart and chickening out.

 

She took a deep breath and entered the classroom. Her eyes went straight to Toyomi in his seat. His hands, which held a piece of paper, were shaking. On his desk was a box of cookies.

 

At first, Sahana had assumed the worst. Did someone write him a love letter and give him cookies? Masami’s hand on her shoulder woke her from her momentary nightmare of assumptions.    

 

After another deep breath, Sahana plodded towards Toyomi. ‘Um, hi. So, uh, I wrote you a poem to say sorry.’

 

Toyomi handed her his piece of paper. ‘Same here.’ The two laughed before reading their respective love poems. They sighed and put their hand on their heart in perfect synchronicity. ‘Oh, and I baked you something,’ Toyomi added.

 

‘Same here.’ Another laugh. While Sahana gulped down Toyomi’s cookies straight away, Toyomi stared at her cookies warily. ‘They’re dark chocolate and wasabi flavoured,’ Sahana explained.

 

Toyomi brought the cookie to his lips. He grinned at the mix of flavours in his mouth. ‘Wow, how did this turn out so great?’

 

‘They were made with love, of course. I’m so sorry I got mad at you. I shouldn’t have taken out my anger for Kunie out on you. You were just trying to help and I was too focused on myself to notice.’

 

Toyomi grabbed Sahana’s hands and held them up between their chests. His accompanying trumpets returned. The two kissed and the red string of fate between them got thicker.

 

So you may be wondering when I put the string on their fingers. The answer is simple: As soon as they met. 

 

I’m quite the fortune teller, am I not?

 

Sahana turned to Masami. ‘Hey, have you made up with Kunie yet?’

 

‘I tried, but she didn’t accept it. I probably shouldn’t have tacked on that love confession.’ She stepped back. ‘Um, I have to go help… the student council.. See you later!’

 

Sahana and Toyomi stared at each other with mutual confusion as Masami ran out of the room. Behind them was the sound of triumphant laughter.

 

‘I had a feeling,’ a voice said. Toyomi and Sahana turned and saw Gitan wearing the smug face of an eighth-grader who thinks he’s got dark magic powers. ‘My yuri senses took me in the wrong direction, but now they’re back on track. I could see it as soon as I noticed how close their faces were that one day. And now they are in the break-up stage that comes before the climax. What if they don’t kiss and make up and the story just... ends? As a yuri fanboy, I cannot let this happen!’

 

‘A what?’ Sahana asked. Toyomi winced, knowing exactly what Gitan meant but bracing for the long-winded explanation.

 

‘I am but a connoisseur of media celebrating pure love between women. And now I must bring my expertise to the 3D realm. I will need your help, Sahana.’ Toyomi put a protective arm in front of Sahana and glared at Gitan, who groaned. ‘And yours too, Toyomi. I guess a BL character such as yourself could be quite useful in matters of the heart, even if it’s second-rate compared to yuri. Now, I have a plan in mind but I am open to suggestions for improvement.’ 

 

He turned in his chair towards a girl who was trying her best to ignore him. ‘Fumie! Join us on our mission! You’re friends with Masami, right?’

 

The look on Fumie’s face was a mixture of suspicion, annoyance and outright fear. ‘I am. What do you want from me?’

 

‘We are all working together to bring Masami and Kunie together.’

 

‘I’m going to have to pass.’

 

‘Why?’

 

‘Masami needs to get over her and find a man. I won’t get in her way but I will not go out of my way to support an immoral lifestyle.’

 

Sahana asked, ‘Immoral?’

 

Fumie pulled a bible out from the compartment in her desk. Before she could open her mouth, Gitan made his case.

 

‘Oh, please. That only applies to gay men. I haven’t read that whole book, but I was under the impression that it makes no mention of lesbians.’

 

Fumie gritted her teeth. ‘It’s the principle of the thing.’

 

‘Principles won’t nurse Masami’s heartbreak. Or help her find true love and happiness, for that matter. What kind of Christian wouldn’t help a friend in need?’

 

Fumie released a squeak of a sigh that sounded like steam coming out of a kettle. ‘Tell me what you need me to do and I’ll decide if it’s going too far in the direction of supporting homosexuality.’

 

‘You won’t have to do much, just bring Masami from point A to point B.’

 

The four discussed Gitan’s plans until Masami came back. During that time, Masami had been sitting on the toilet, trying to slow her breaths as panic took over her body.

 

Kunie arrived at school just before lunch. When a student asked why, she said, ‘Overslept.’ Dark bags rested under her bloodshot eyes. 

 

When lunchtime came, Sahana went up to Kunie. ‘I think a talk between us is long overdue.’

 

‘What, so you can talk about yourself? Oh, never mind. You’re not self-centred. Sometimes you think about your boyfriend.’

 

Sahana inhaled and exhaled as slowly as she could. ‘I was going to talk about you.’ Kunie rolled her eyes but went with Sahana to the empty home ec room. ‘You go here sometimes with Masami, right?’

 

‘How did you-’

 

‘I do pay attention to you two, you know. Anyway, I’m sorry your secret got out the way it did. You know how Ukiwa is. I’m actually kind of shocked that she knew before me. Did you tell her?’ Kunie paused, then nodded. ‘Okay, I’m about to go into selfish mode right now, okay? I wish you’d have felt comfortable enough to tell me. We’re supposed to be friends but I wasn’t there for you when you really needed me. That breaks my heart.’

 

‘Why didn’t you talk to me after everyone found out?’

 

‘I didn’t know what to say. Plus, I was still kind of mad at you for blowing up in my face for no reason. Well, it seemed like no reason at the time.’

 

Kunie scoffed a laugh. ‘Yeah, well, I doubt you would have supported me anyway. After all, I’m a ‘wonderful person’ who doesn’t deserve to be called a lesbian, right?’

 

Sahana’s already large eyes grew even more. ‘Kunie… you know I didn’t mean it like that, right?’ She grabbed Kunie and pulled her into a tight bear hug. ‘You’re still the same person, okay? You’re still my friend. I care about you so much and nothing will change that.’

 

Kunie cried on Sahana’s shoulder. ‘Thank you,’ she said with a shiver.

 

‘Let me rephrase what I said before,’ Sahana whispered as she stroked Kunie’s head like a human pets a cat. ‘You’re a wonderful person, so it shouldn’t matter if you’re a lesbian.’

 

Kunie let go of the hug and wiped her tears away. The two walked back to the classroom, chatting and joking like they used to.

 

Sahana admitted, ‘By the way, now that we’re talking about our secrets, I’m aware of when I’m making a dirty joke. I’m not that innocent.’

 

‘Really?’ Kunie asked as she intentionally bumped into her friend. ‘You should be an actor. You had me fooled.’

 

Sahana grinned and I silently wished there was a friendship equivalent to the red string of fate. Not that these two would need it.

 

Of course, Kunie apologised to Toyomi, who graciously accepted it.

19: Chapter 19: I promise the service won’t be long

Sahana had three tickets in her hand. ‘You’re free on Saturday night, right?’ she asked Kunie, who was sitting in the classroom at lunch. ‘Toyomi and I are going to this comedy festival. It starts at 7:30. Want to come with?’

 

‘Uh… sure? Are you sure you don’t want to just go with Toyomi?’ 

 

‘Well, I’ve already got three tickets, right? Masami can’t go so that leaves you. Oh, and we’re meeting there at 7 just in case. Plus, that way we can chat before the show. Should be fun, right?’

 

‘7. Got it. Thanks for inviting me.’

 

On the other side of the classroom, Fumie asked Masami, ‘Would you be able to come to church service on Saturday night at 7? They need to fill more seats. You don’t need to be a Christian to go. I promise the service won’t be long.’ She gave her the address.

 

Masami agreed to go, having no clue that Christian church services are usually on Sunday mornings. Fumie and Sahana looked at each other and nodded.

 

On Saturday night, Masami looked at Fumie with a confused face. ‘So, uh, where is the church?’

 

The meeting place turned out to be a small convenience store squished between a closed two-story karate dojo and a run-down graffiti-covered bookstore. The area smelled of rubbish and old paint. The closest thing to a biblical reference that Masami could see was a devil spray-painted onto the bookstore.

 

Fumie put her hands together in prayer and muttered, ‘Lord, please forgive me.’

 

‘Why would he have to forgive you?’

 

Fumie looked up with the eyes of a first-time criminal under interrogation. ‘For lying to you.’

 

‘Where’s the damn comedy club?’ a familiar voice asked. Masami turned around and saw Kunie.

 

Fumie began walking away. ‘I’ll leave you both to it.’

 

Masami reached for her desperately. ‘Wait, why is she here?’

 

‘You need to talk things through. I don’t wish to see the outcome myself, so I must leave.’

 

Once Fumie had disappeared into an alleyway, Masami snorted like a horse, though with her mouth rather than her nose. She faced Kunie.

 

‘Any idea what’s going on?’

 

Kunie shrugged. ‘I was supposed to be going to a comedy festival with Sahana and Toyomi but…’ she took out her ticket and noticed the cheap way they were printed as well as the lack of a name for the venue. ‘Those damn… Okay, looks like it’s just us.’

 

Of course, Sahana and Toyomi were there, just hiding in the convenience store behind one of the racks and watching the scene unfold.

 

‘So…’ Masami began. 

 

‘I’m going home,’ Kunie interrupted.

 

‘Wait, no, Fumie was right. We need to talk this out.’

 

A sigh left Kunie’s lips. ‘Fine. What is there to talk about?’

 

‘You’ve changed. Wait, that wasn’t supposed to be what I was going to say, uh… you know what? You have changed and it scares the hell out of me. You were so confident and that just disappeared. I miss the old you.’ 

 

The memory of Kuri’s words fluttered through Kunie’s brain. ‘You… you do?’

 

‘Yeah. I miss that and spending time with you. I finally found someone to talk about Takarazuka with. Plus, you accepted my weird cooking habits and listened to me when I was struggling. You even forgave me when I was acting really strange and was avoiding you.’ A chuckle from Masami tickled Kunie’s ears. ‘I guess I got payback for that since you quickly started avoiding me.’

 

‘Why were you avoiding me anyway?’ Kunie spat. ‘You kept saying it was because of school work but that sounded like total bullshit.’

 

‘It was my first time having a crush on someone, okay? I didn’t know how to handle it. It’s not like you handled realising you were gay well either, Miss ‘He’s your entire life’! Jealousy is not a good look on you. But you said you don’t like Sahana that way, so who do you even like? How’d you find out you were gay?’

 

Kunie bit her lip and moved her eyes in every direction. ‘Do I have to tell you?’ Masami put her hand on her hips. ‘Fine. It’s you. I fell for you.’

 

Warmth travelled from Masami’s heart up her throat until it reached her face. ‘Wait, let’s get this straight. I like you and thought you like Sahana and you like me and thought I like Sahana. Is that right?’

 

Kunie nodded, The two stared at each other silently for a moment before bursting into laughter. Laughter that brought a tear to Masami’s eye. She held her hand up to her eye to wipe it away but Kunie took over that job and wiped the teardrop herself. Masami was too busy drinking in the moment to worry whether Kunie could hear how fast her heart was beating.

 

‘But I thought you said we had nothing in common, which is totally wrong, by the way,’ Masami rambled. ‘We had enough in common to be friends even without Sahana there. And I could learn to live with your slobbiness. Or you could get used to me getting annoyed at you being a slob. Whichever’s easiest. Oh, but I’ve never been in a relationship, so I don’t really know what I’m doing. What if you grow to hate me or-’

 

Her words were interrupted by Kunie’s chapped lips. When the short kiss ended, Masami touched her own tingling lips, which felt like clouds charged with electricity.

 

‘Sorry for interrupting, it just seemed like you wanted me to kiss you.’ Kunie’s confident grin was back. ‘I mean, you were so worried about us so I wanted to ease your fears.’ The grin faltered a little. ‘Oh, I am so sorry-’

 

Masami kissed back, wrapping her arms around her neck and holding the back of her head. Kunie caressed her cheeks then brushed her hands down her back until she reached the small of it, which she used to push her closer to her. Masami giggled when that happened.

 

Kunie, for some reason, smelled like roses. Masami, whose brain was intoxicated by the kiss, figured it was the power of love. In actuality, it was Kunie’s deodorant.

 

Masami broke from the kiss. ‘Wait, I’m actually not the first girl you liked. It was that Takarazuka actress-’

 

‘Do you want to talk or kiss?’

 

‘Sorry. Carry on.’

 

As they continued the kiss that was verging on a makeout session, Sahana turned to Toyomi.

 

‘We should probably leave them be. I feel like a voyeur.’

 

‘Fair point, but how are we going to get out of here?’

 

As if answering their question, Kunie turned her head and shouted, ‘Hey, Sahana, Toyomi, wherever you are, get out of there!’

 

Sahana and Toyomi sheepishly shuffled out of the convenience store. ‘Sorry,’ Toyomi said on instinct.

 

Kunie wrapped her arm around Masami’s shoulders and pulled her close until they were standing right next to each other. Did Masami blush even more?

 

Ding Ding Ding! If you answered yes, you are correct!

 

‘You kidding me?’ Kunie asked Toyomi with a laugh. ‘Thanks to you, I got to kiss this one right here! I’m buying you two snacks. What do you want? Oh, Masami, do you want anything?’

 

‘This is enough.’

 

The new couple walked into the store, still attached at the hip. ‘Wow, that’s pretty cheesy, Masami, not gonna lie.’

 

‘Oh, shut up!’

 

They both giggled. I twisted red fibres around each other until the string of fate between the couple was repaired.

 

Gitan, you brilliant bastard.

20: Chapter 20: I cried a dozen times

Applause pulled the curtains down. Masami rushed to the door the actors were going to come out of once back in their regular clothes. She knew she was going to have to wait a while and going to the door so soon was pointless, but she was too high on the adrenaline coursing through her veins to care.

 

When the door opened ten minutes later, her heart jumped in anticipation, only to come crashing down upon seeing someone she didn’t know. This process repeated every minute or so until Dooru came out and saw the disappointment on Masami’s face.

 

‘Ew.’

 

The word did scratch at Masami’s heart, but the sight of Kunie behind Dooru repaired the damage pretty quickly.

 

‘Hey, babe,’ Kunie said, putting her arm around Masami’s shoulders and giving her a peck on the lips. Dooru gave the couple one more disgusted glare before walking as far away from them as possible.

 

Kunie asked Masami, ‘What did you think?’ She noticed how wet Masami’s cheeks were, not to mention how red her nose was.

 

‘It was amazing! I cried a dozen times! It was that beautiful. Your acting was really good too. One of the scenes that got me to cry was yours.’

 

‘Only one?’

 

‘You only had one sad scene, Kunie. Honestly, I thought the play was going to be a tragedy. At least it had a happy ending.’

 

Sahana and Toyomi came out the door hand in hand. After the group finished greeting each other, Sahana chuckled to herself and grabbed Masami’s hands.

 

‘Did you say ‘happy ending’ earlier?’ she asked. ‘I’m sure that, now that you’re in a relationship, you’ll get plenty of happy endings.’

 

While Masami bottled up her laughter, Kunie went straight for the guffaw. ‘Good one, Sahana.’

 

Masami turned her head towards Kunie. ‘Don’t tell her.’

 

‘Oh, she knows. Don’t you, Sahana?’

 

‘Maybe,’ Sahana said with another chuckle. Masami stared at her with her mouth agape before the meaning of Kunie’s words sunk in. She finally let herself laugh at Sahana’s joke.

 

Kunie rolled her eyes at Sahana. ‘Though you really shouldn’t make such comments about our relationship.’ She pulled Masami closer. ‘What we get up to is none of your business.’

 

The heat on Masami’s cheeks signalled the need to change the subject. She reached into her sizeable handbag and pulled out a plastic container which, well, contained four small chocolate-covered squids.

 

‘Enjoy,’ she said to the others. ‘There’s some raspberry in there too.’ She looked at Kunie. ‘You like those ingredients, so I mixed them together.’

 

As she watched Kunie put one of the squids in her mouth, her heart pulsed through her body at the speed of a rabbit fleeing from its prey. I myself had my eyes glued to the scene. Kunie bit into the squid and began to chew slowly. Very slowly. Painfully slowly. Damn it, Kunie, hurry up, for your girlfriend’s sake and mine!

 

Kunie’s eyes looked like they had Popeye disease and Masami felt on the verge of death at that very moment.  But then Kunie closed her eyes and hummed in bliss. She took more bites out of the squid until it was gone.

 

‘You did it!’ she exclaimed. ‘Delicious!’

 

Toyomi didn’t like it much but Sahana did and soon the three girls were jumping up and down in their own little circle.

 

At this moment, I saw something shocking. A green string wrapped itself around the fingers of the three friends. I turned my head and saw someone I’d never seen before, a new god who looked at me with a smile.

 

At first, I thought he was trying to take my job as the guardian of romantic relationships, but then I saw that my red string remained. ‘It’s nice to finally meet you, Musubi-no-Kami,’ he said. ‘Or should I call you Yue Lao?’

 

I returned my attention to the three girls. ‘So long as you keep the friendship between these three alive, I don’t mind what you call me.’

 

After putting her now empty container back in her handbag, Masami took Kunie’s hand and rested her head against her arm as the group headed out of the auditorium. Toyomi held Sahana’s hand as well.

 

The night sky was cool but it was outdone by the warmth of Kunie’s hand. Masami smiled contently as she looked up at the moon, silently praying to me to keep things exactly like this. Not that she needed to.