Epilogue
Eichou High's cultural festival took place on Saturday and
Sunday. Seeing as that meant we had to go to school on the
weekend, everyone was given Monday and Tuesday off in
exchange.
I saw off my little sisters, who made a very firm point of
making sure I knew exactly how unfair it was that they still
had to go to school when I didn't, and also my parents, who
let me know how much of a relief it was to not have to do
the laundry or clean up the kitchen after breakfast, since
they knew I'd be around to handle it. Then all that was left
for me was to enjoy my weekday off in blissful idleness!
For this brief, shining moment, I reign supreme over the
whole Hazama household! Bwa hah hah!
Okay...so the truth was that, actually, I had been thinking
about taking advantage of the weekday off to go out and do
stuff without having to deal with weekend crowds for once. I
had been thinking about it, past tense, because everyone
who I'd asked to hang out had turned me down. It just made
sense, really—everyone was either so worn out that they
wanted to relax instead or had already booked up their
break before I got to them.
Huh? That's weird. I thought I'd made a bunch more
friends lately, but maybe I was just imagining it? Maybe
everyone's going out to have some sort of cultural-festival
after-party whatchamajigger sans me?!
Which was exactly what I asked Mukai in a text, to which
she responded: "nope (lol)". Sorry for the pointless ping,
Mukai.
Speaking of Mukai, her creative drive had gotten kicked
into overdrive in the festival's aftermath, and she'd be using
her days off to shut herself up in her room and draw like no
tomorrow. She had a sort of self-discipline when it came to
her art that I really admired.
Oh—and I also eventually learned that there would be an
after-party, but that the plan was to put it off for a while so
everyone could rest and recover beforehand. My classmates
were so considerate, it was actually a little scary. You'd
almost think that I was totally thoughtless in comparison!
Right?!
And so, I ended up with so much free time on my hands
that I soon found myself sprawled out on the couch in the
otherwise abandoned living room, watching TV. My parents
subscribed to a streaming service—one of the ones that let
you watch all the old movies and TV shows you wanted—
from which I'd picked something out more or less at
random.
"These services sure are handy," I said to myself. My
parents were the ones who paid the subscription fee, so I
got to watch all I wanted without having to put any strain on
my own wallet at all.
Not too long ago, most people would've gone to rental
shops instead of streaming stuff online...and, in fact, I
actually remembered begging my parents to rent movies for
me when I was little. That was where the idol-show
recordings that Makina and I had watched back in the day
came from, mostly. She owned a few of her own, but the
bulk of them, we'd had to borrow. You could see recordings
like that even easier these days—of the famous groups,
anyway—and there were even sometimes concert
recordings that were exclusive to streaming services,
apparently.
Not that Makina watches that sort of thing anymore, most
likely, I thought to myself as I munched on snack foods and
flipped through the movie listings. I'd started with a movie
that I'd been interested in but hadn't quite gotten around to
seeing while it was still in theaters, then moved right onto
another film without missing a beat. Just as that was
wrapping up and I was considering a third—seriously, I
could've killed infinite time like that if I'd had the chance—
my phone rang.
"Hello? Yotsuba?" said the girl who'd called me.
"Hey! Did you need something, Mio?" I replied.
"Not really. I had a free moment, and started wondering
what you were up to."
Y-You mean she called me on the phone even though she
didn't have any real reason to?! Extroverts are amazing!
"I just wrapped up lunch, and since I've got work this
afternoon, I was about to leave school for the day. You?" Mio
asked.
She had a high school idol's schedule, all right. Just the
thought of it was exhausting. I wasn't sure what sort of
whim had led her to call me at that particular moment, but
my circumstances were almost laughably lax compared to
hers, and so...
"I'm, uhh...g-going over my notes from the class I just
took, basically?" I said, lying on reflex. Actually, maybe
"posturing" would be the better word in this case?
"Huh? I thought you had the day off 'cause of your
cultural festival?"
"H-How'd you know?!"
"Maki mentioned it when I called her earlier. But, wait—
you have classes anyway, so... Oh. Are you taking makeup
lessons right now, Yotsuba? Heh heh! Yeah, that sounds like
you for sure."
I'd tried to show off, and where did it get me? Buried
neck-deep in a misunderstanding that actually made me
look worse than the reality of the situation would've! And it
really did sound just like me, when she put it that way!
"N-No, I'm not! I'm actually...well, lazing around watching
movies at home, more or less," I admitted.
"What, really? Why didn't you just say so in the first
place?"
"Ugh... It sounds like you're really busy with work, so I
thought you might get annoyed if you knew I was slacking
off."
"Why would that annoy me?" Mio asked with a sharp
laugh. The sounds in the background made me think she
was probably walking somewhere while she talked to me,
but she didn't seem like she was tense or in any particular
hurry.
I guess that's a real celebrity for you. She's incredible...
"Yotsuba? Are you listening?"
"Ah—yeah! I, umm... Sorry, what did you just say?"
"So you weren't listening. Great. I was just asking what
movie you were watching."
"Oooh. Umm..."
I took a moment to tell her about the two films I'd
watched. Both of them had come out in the past two or
three years.
"Hmm... Hey, Yotsuba—ever heard of a movie called The
Ladies' Academy Case Files?"
"The name rings a bell, I think...?"
"Well, if you don't have anything better to do, watch that
next. It's not bad at all."
"'Not bad'...?" I repeated. It wasn't exactly the most
glowing review for a movie she was actively recommending.
I searched for it on the streaming service, and...
O-Oh!
"Wait, Makina stars in it?!"
"Yup! And I'm a supporting actress."
"Hold on—is everyone from Shooting Star in this movie?!"
"That's right. A lot of people treated it as a B-tier idol
commercial as a result...which, I mean, it was, don't get me
wrong, but it also turned out pretty darn well, considering. It
got a good reception among insiders, you could say."
"Huuuh..."
That explained a lot. No wonder I'd heard about it in
passing—with a cast like that, Sakura and Aoi had almost
certainly gone to see it, and they'd likely mentioned it to
me.
"The elevator pitch is that there's a murder in an all girls'
boarding school for the upper crust that's located deep in
the mountains. Maki's the detective who gets called in to
solve the mystery, and I'm her assistant," Mio explained.
"Oooh...?"
"Maki said you hadn't touched any of the stuff that our
group's done. I figured it wouldn't kill you to watch a single
movie that we were in, right?"
"Ugh... Sorry," I said with a wince. "But also, thanks! I'll
watch it for sure!"
"Great, you do that. Oh, and this won't be for a little
while, but the four of us—like, all our members except Maki
—are gonna be having a concert! It'll be a little smaller
scale than our usual shows, but we're making sure all the
music and stuff meshes with the small-scale vibe. We're
doing everything we can to make sure we'll power up
something major by the time Maki comes back!" Mio
declared in a very spirited tone. "Some of our fans'll
probably pitch a fit about us carrying on without her, I
guess, but we don't have time to spin our wheels. If she's
not coming back right away, we'll just have to see what we
can do without her—and there's plenty of stuff we'll only be
able to try out while she's away, so this is our moment to
throw all that at the wall and see what sticks!"
"Bwuuuh..."
"What's that groan supposed to mean, doofus?"
"Wha—?! Nothing! I mean, I was just thinking, 'Wow,
that's amazing,' and couldn't quite figure out how to put it
into words just right..." I said.
I realize that this might come across as being pretty
backhanded in a condescending sort of way, but I was
shocked, honestly. There I was, completely occupied with
choosing whether I should even try to get into college, and
meanwhile Mio was out there grabbing life itself by the
horns.
"You know, you're really cool, Mio..."
"Huh? O-Oh, you think? Can't say I disagree," said Mio.
The way she'd barely hesitated before agreeing was just like
her, somehow, but that ever so slight moment of
bashfulness that had preceded her boast also nearly made
me crack up. "But, like...I wasn't telling you all this to show
off, for the record! Anyway, do you wanna come watch?"
"Wait, watch what?"
"Our show! I can get you an invite, so you wouldn't need
to buy a ticket. Think of it as thanks for showing me your
cultural-festival performance."
"I wouldn't exactly say I showed it to you..."
"Plus, I'm the sort of idol who likes making sure her
friends all get the chance to see what I'm really made of."
H-Her friends! She just called me a friend just now, didn't
she?! There's that extroversion in action again! I can't
believe she's accepting enough to call someone like me a
friend!
"I mean...probably," Mio added a second later.
"Probably?!"
"The thing is, looking back, I haven't really had all that
many real friend-friends...? I always had to prioritize work
and practice when I was a kid, so I never got to go out to
play or hang out much."
Wait. Does that mean...?
"S-So when they told me I could invite people to the show
if I wanted to, you were the first person who came to mind,
and I was like, 'Oh, I guess I'm the shows-off-to-her-friends
type, it turns out!' That's all! You don't even have to come,
if you don't—"
"Of course I'll come!" I exclaimed. "I'd love to! For sure!"
Mio's not the ultra-social extrovert I took her for after all!
It turns out...I really am just friends with her, plain and
simple! Sorry, Mio! I've totally been assuming that I was just
one of a bunch of friends for you this whole time!
"Oh? Well, good," said Mio. "I'll send you all the deets
later."
"Great!"
"Oh, and also..." Mio continued, her voice fading into a
slight mumble. "Tell Maki that the four of us are moving on
ahead. If she wants to come reclaim her spot with us, she's
gonna have to earn it, or there might not be a spot left
anymore!"
"Wait, why me?! Didn't you say you talked with her on
the phone just a minute ago?! Why didn't you just say all
that to her?!"
"Ugh... It wasn't that sort of phone call, okay? We were
just chatting, basically."
"Oh. Really?"
"We've never done the 'just chatting' thing before, you
know? It's always been all about work for us, which is
probably why our relationship's been so weirdly tense for so
long... So I decided that it's about time I tried to learn more
about her, you know? Like, Maki herself," Mio muttered in a
way that really made it sound like she was making up
excuses for herself. In a weird sort of way, the contrast that
cut with her usual straight-to-the-point persona made it
easier to take her words at face value.
Considering how the two of them had come across during
their confrontation at the cultural festival, I saw them trying
to get to know each other more personally as a step in the
right direction. After all, I was positive that Shooting Star
was just as important to Makina as it was to Mio. It was a
place where she belonged, in her own sort of way.
"So saying that sorta stuff myself would be, well... It can
wait for a little longer, that's all. It's not that I'm too scared
to say it to her face, okay?!"
"Ha ha ha! Yeah, I know. I get the picture—especially the
part where you made sure to say there only might not be a
spot for her at the end," I said.
Mio let out a strangled gasp. Knowing how she tended to
act, it would've been incredibly in character for her to flat
out say that there wouldn't be a spot left for Makina, period.
The fact that she'd gone out of her way to phrase around
that implication almost felt like it was asserting the opposite
—like she was saying that when Makina finally came back to
the group, Mio would make a spot for her, no matter what it
took.
"Wh-Whatever! Not my problem how you read into it,"
said Mio.
She hadn't even been able to bring herself to deny it, so
obviously, I was onto something. Hee hee! You know, she's
actually surprisingly easy to read now that I know her a little
better.
"Anyway," Mio said after a pause, "I'm getting pretty
close to the place I'm heading, so I'm gonna hang up now."
"Got it," I replied. "Oh! Hey, Mio?"
"What?"
"Good luck with your work!"
"Oh... Come on, as if I'd need luck! But also...thanks!"
With that, Mio hung up.
I slumped onto the couch, flopping listlessly onto my
back. Talking about Makina with Mio...well, it hadn't made
me nervous, per se, but it did prompt all sorts of questions
for me. Mio had still seemed a little awkward and stuff
during that part of our conversation, but if sneaking her into
the cultural festival had helped the two of them get at least
a little closer to each other, then I liked to think that my
efforts hadn't been in vain. Or Mukai's, Koganezaki's, and
everyone else's efforts, of course!
"I'm kind of excited to see Mio's show...but I hope I get to
see them all together someday. The whole group, Makina
included," I muttered to myself. When the opportunity
arose, I wanted to earn the money for tickets and pay my
own way into one of their concerts. Which would be pretty
hard, considering how tough it would probably be to get
tickets and how I'd first have to find a part-time job I could
actually succeed at, but it would be nice if I could manage
it. "Guess I'll start by watching that movie Mio
recommended."
A frighteningly believable image of myself failing to deal
with a customer at a convenience store's counter was
beginning to form in my mind, and I escaped it—along with
reality—by hitting the "play" button.
◇◇◇
Wednesday arrived, and our oddly timed pseudoweekend came to a close.
"Good morning, Yotsy!"
"M-Morning...Makina..."
"Huh...? Yotsy?"
I'd promised Makina that I'd walk to school with her, and
we met up in the morning, just as planned...but I couldn't
bring myself to look directly at her. Why? Because the movie
that Mio had recommended to me, The Ladies' Academy
Case Files...had turned out to be really, really good! Not only
was the movie's story just plain interesting, Makina and
Mio's chemistry had been ridiculously perfect. If I hadn't had
a handkerchief handy, I never would've made it through the
climax!
Thanks to that experience, my internal image of Makina
had gone through a rather dramatic revision. I just couldn't
stop myself from seeing her as a big-name actress now, and
looking directly at her felt...I dunno, a little presumptuous, I
guess? Like, this was a girl who'd won the Yotsuba Academy
Award for Best Starring Actress, in a manner of
speaking...and it definitely didn't help that afterward, I'd
gone on to watch as many episodes of this one TV show that
Makina and Mio were both in as I could access from that
streaming service. Even its theme song was great! After all
this time, I was finally turning into a Shooting Star fan—or,
from another perspective, I'd finally fallen into the Shooting
Star pit trap.
"Heeey, Yotsy?"
"Bwaugh?!" I yelped. While I'd been lost in thought,
Makina had leaned in to peer at my face! Her eyelashes
were so long! And her eyes were so shapely! Her chin too!
She was so pretty!
"You're a little spacey today," said Makina. "Did you not
get enough sleep?"
"N-Nope!" I yelped. "Nope, nah, not at all! I'm the same
as ever! T-Totally normal!"
"Oh, really?"
Makina was walking by my side, as if it were perfectly
normal for us to be together. I'd always known how
incredible of a thing that was, of course, but as time passed
by, it was like I was becoming more and more aware of it on
some deeper level... And aaaah, it feels like my face is on
fire!
"Yotsy...?"
"Y-Yeah? What is it, Maki—"
Smch!
The next thing I knew, Makina had leaned in so close I
could almost see her pores...and I felt the softness of her
lips. We were on a public street—an abandoned public street
in a quiet residential area, sure, but still a public street—in
the middle of the morning, and she'd kissed me out of the
blue?!
"M-Makina?!" I shouted.
"Hee hee! You made it so easy, I couldn't resist," she
replied.
"You couldn't resist...? D-Don't you know how risky that
was?! What if this ends up in the tabloids?!"
"Oh? Are you paying me back for the fib I told back when
we met in the summer?"
No! I mean, okay, I guess she did lie to me about being
followed around by paparazzi back then...but just because
that wasn't true doesn't mean it couldn't actually happen,
and if it did, she might not even know about it!
"But you know, if someone did take a picture of us...that
might not be so bad. It'd be nice to show our relationship off
to the whole world," said Makina. Not only was she not
cowed by my warning at all, she actually got even closer
and wrapped her arms around one of mine?!
"U-Uh, excuse me, Makina...?!" I said. "I sort of remember
you saying a bunch of stuff about giving up on becoming my
girlfriend? Does that ring a bell...?"
"Oh, yes, I've given up on that," Makina replied. "That's
why my current plan's to be your mistress instead."
"M-My mistress?!"
"Exactly! In the 'person you're cheating with' sense, just
in case that wasn't clear. We'll have something deeper,
more sensual than plain old bittersweet love," she
whispered straight into my ear, her voice breathy in just the
right way to scramble my brain like an egg! "Yuna and Rinka
have a lead on me now, maybe, but that's just fine with me.
Oh, and I don't mind at all if your relationship with them
stays the same as ever, of course. I just thought it'd be nice
to make sure you can't live without me on the side."
That was a really cute way to tell me something that isn't
the slightest bit cute, content-wise! Makina had polished a
powerful, adultlike sort of appeal in her time in the
entertainment industry, and now she was turning the full
brunt of all of it directly on me!
"Don't worry. We have plenty of time. But then again,
how about we skip school today and get a head start?"
"Bwuh, ahbwuguwaugh..."
"If you want, the two of us can head right back to my
place. We'll be nice and alone, and we can take all the time
we need to—"
"Nooope!!!"
Wha—?! That was Yuna's voice!
"Tch!"
And now Makina's clicking her tongue?!
"Good morning, Yuna," Makina said after a particularly
pregnant pause. "And Rinka as well. I'm quite sure I
remember arranging for us to meet up several blocks away
from here?"
"And then I had a bad feeling and changed those plans,"
said Yuna.
"A bad feeling that was clearly right on the money,"
noted Rinka.
"Remarkable," said Makina. "You have the finely honed
instincts of a wild animal."
H-Hmm? That's weird. All three of them are smiling, but
the atmosphere's so tense I can actually hear the strain in
the air...?!
"You should be more careful, Yotsuba," said Rinka. "Even
the loveliest roses have their thorns."
"Thorns? I have no such thing," said Makina. "I might
have my fair share of sweet, sweet nectar, though."
"You mean poison!" snapped Yuna.
Rinka peeled me and Makina apart while Yuna interposed
herself between us as a human shield. Meanwhile, Makina
was still smiling away as happily as ever...which was really
scary! It feels like they might start duking it out at any
second! What is happening here?!
"No need to be so on guard, you two," said Makina. "I've
settled on just being Yotsy's mistress, after all."
"Her mistress?!" Yuna and Rinka shouted.
"Precisely! The two of you can have your sweet little high
school romances with her, and meanwhile, I'll be taking a
step ahead and leading her up the stairs to adulthood. Hee
hee—that way I won't be getting in your way at all anymore,
will I?"
"You'll be doing something way worse!" said Yuna.
"I can't think of a more distasteful way you could've
bounced back," Rinka commented.
I thought the three of them were getting along way better
than they used to! Did something happen over those two
days off to make their relationship backslide in a major
way...? None of them said anything about meeting up...so
maybe this is one of those things where their mindsets
naturally changed over the course of time? Or maybe they
can be this openly at each other's throats specifically
because they get along well now?
One way or another...
"I think it's clear we have to set the record straight again,
Makina," Rinka said in a very firm tone.
"We're never, eeeeeever giving Yotsuba up to you!"
declared Yuna.
"Of course. I'd expect nothing less," Makina replied with
such a bright, spirited look on her face, you would've
thought that every doubt she'd ever felt in her life had been
cleared away.
Yeah, okay, this is a sign of how well they're getting
along! Thank goodness! All's well that ends well! I thought,
reassuring myself with the power of pure, undiluted denial
as the three of them more or less played tug-of-war with my
arms.
All I ask is for none of this to actually end up on the front
page of some tabloid!
Side Story: Our Own AfterParty!
"Okay, everyone has a drink, right?" asked Yuna.
"Cheers!"
"Cheers!" Rinka repeated.
"Ch-Cheers!" I sort of stiffly followed up as we all raised
our glasses.
A few days had passed since the cultural festival came to
an end, and Yuna, Rinka, and I had all gotten together to
have our own three-person after-party in advance of the fullblown one our class would be throwing. The venue: a
yakiniku joint by the local station! It was part of a chain with
branches scattered all across the country, and it happened
to offer a student discount that made it a very easy-on-thewallet sort of place for people like us to frequent! Which
was, of course, all news to me!
The total price for today's two-hour course, including allyou-can-drink soda: two thousand yen each! Which was
cheap! Probably! I'd never been to an after-party before and
had no clue what the usual price for something like this was,
so I wasn't in any position to judge!!!
"Hee hee!" Yuna giggled as she looked over at me. "You
can go ahead and stuff yourself until you're sick today,
Yotsuba! Eat as much as you want!"
"I will!" I said.
"Hold on. It's already all-you-can-eat, for one thing, and
for another, you're not even treating her," Rinka chimed in
with a roll of her eyes.
"Oh, lighten up! It's an atmosphere thing," Yuna declared
with a cocky grin before grabbing a nearby pair of tongs and
loading the grill up with thinly sliced beef, which had arrived
with our drinks. "Gotta go with rib meat first! It's the only
right choice!"
"I'm more of a skirt steak person, myself," Rinka said as
she filled the unoccupied portions of the grill with her own
choice of meat.
Before I knew it, the grill on our table had transformed
into a barbecue battlefield! We were seated at a four-person
booth, and after a very strict discussion of the possible
arrangements, Yuna and Rinka had ended up on one side of
the table while I sat alone on the other. That meant there
wasn't much I could do to intervene—I just had to sit still
and watch their struggle play out!
"Don't worry, Yotsuba," said Yuna. "I'll grill up plenty of
rib meat for both of us!"
"I have her portion under control, actually," Rinka chimed
in. "I'm pretty confident when it comes to cooking skirt
steak."
"Excuse me? What's your deal?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
"H-Hey, guys...?!" I anxiously interjected. Yuna and Rinka
were giving each other very pointed looks, and the festive
after-party atmosphere I'd been enjoying just seconds ago
had been overwritten by something a lot less peaceful!
"Who goes to a yakiniku joint and doesn't order rib
meat?!" snapped Yuna.
"People who aren't hopelessly behind the times and know
that skirt steak's better, maybe?!" countered Rinka.
"I, umm, I like both of them, actually," I stammered. "Oh!
Hey, who wants rice?! I don't know about you, but I don't
think any trip to a yakiniku place is complete without a big
bowl of—"
"Get me a large!" Yuna and Rinka said in perfect unison!
"Did you two rehearse that in advance or what?!"
One second they were taking hard-line stances in the rib
meat versus skirt steak debate, and the next, they were
placing the same order with pinpoint precision! I was
overwhelmed—and a little exasperated, honestly—as I
grabbed the menu tablet and placed an order for three
bowls of rice, two large and one medium. Then I added in a
salad and some soup too, on a whim. It was all-you-can-eat,
so why not?
"Okay, rib meat's done!" said Yuna.
"The skirt steak's cooked just right as well!" said Rinka.
"Th-Thanks!" I said as they piled my plate high with
lightly browned meat in the blink of an eye.
Hmm? Is it just me, or am I not going to have to cook my
own meat at all tonight...? I wondered. The two of them
were reigning over the grill like a pair of feuding feudal
lords, after all. I usually ended up doing most of the cooking
when my family went to this sort of restaurant, so being fed
like this made me feel a little restless.
"Okay, let's eat!" I said. Our rice hadn't arrived yet, but it
would've been a shame to let the first round of meat go
cold. The question was: Which to start with?
Eeny, meeny, miney...this one!
"I'll start with a piece of skirt steak... Mmmh, this is so
good!"
"Heh heh!" Rinka triumphantly chuckled.
"Grr... I never said skirt steak was bad," grumbled Yuna.
The meat was soft, but had just enough chew to be
satisfying—exactly how skirt steak should be. Rinka had
talked a big game about knowing how to cook it just right,
and she'd lived up to her own hype. I wonder if she'd cook
skirt steak like this for me every day if I asked...?
Rinka was giving Yuna a How do you like that? sort of
look, and Yuna seemed a little frustrated...b-but I wasn't
trying to take a side in the great meat debate or anything,
for the record! "Okay, time to try the rib meat next!" I
quickly continued. "Mmh, yeah, this is great too!"
"Of course it is," Yuna huffed.
"I guess...that makes this a draw?" said Rinka.
The rib meat was ridiculously tasty in a super in-your-face
sort of way. It came drenched in sauce that matched its
meaty flavor really nicely, and Yuna had done an incredible
job cooking it to perfection! I had absolute confidence that I
was, at that very moment, eating the tastiest grilled rib
meat in the world.
Love really is the ultimate seasoning! This is bliss!
"You sure can make a piece of meat look like it tastes
amazing," said Yuna.
"That's because the two of you cooked it for me!" I
replied. "Oh, but don't mind me—you should eat up too,
okay?! We're on a time limit!"
"Naturally," said Rinka.
Yuna and Rinka grinned at me, then got to work on their
own helpings of meat. To my surprise, they both ended up
grabbing equal portions of each cut.
Eh, they're both delicious, so no wonder. Enjoying both of
them is the right move for sure!
The rice that I'd ordered arrived soon after, and the salad
and soup came out just a moment later. Seeing as I wasn't
on grilling duty, I took it upon myself to portion them all out
to everyone. Grilled meat tasted even better when you'd
done something to earn it, after all!
"So, which is your favorite in the end, Yotsuba?" asked
Yuna.
"Skirt steak, right? Right?" said Rinka.
"Hmm... Well," I began before resting my chin in the palm
of my hand and pausing to ponder. Had I preferred the ultrasavory flavor bomb that was the rib meat, or the soft,
exquisitely meaty skirt steak? "If I had to pick a favorite, it'd
have to be...intestine, I guess."
"Intestine?!" Yuna and Rinka exclaimed in unison.
Awww, come on! It's really tasty!
◇◇◇
To make a long story short, all three of us kept ordering
plate after plate of food, grilling and sharing away as our
after-party carried on. I'd been really set on getting my
money's worth at first, but the thing about two-hour all-youcan-eat deals is that you always seem to end up feeling
pretty stuffed just half an hour to an hour in.
Around the time our grilling and ordering speeds had
slowed to a leisurely crawl, a thought seemed to strike
Rinka. "By the way," she said, "you met up with Mio Kuruma
again after the first day of the festival ended, didn't you?"
"Oh, yeah," I replied. "We had to so she could give my
uniform back."
"I figured," said Yuna. "You smelled like her afterward,
you know?"
"W-We didn't do anything weird, if that's what you're
thinking!"
I hadn't noticed any lingering scents on my uniform at all
the next time I put it on, honestly...but Yuna and Rinka, it
seemed, were a little more sensitive on that front. Mio had
given it back to me on the night after she snuck into the
festival...
◆ ◆ ◆
The night after the cultural festival's first day, Mio called
me out to the same park where she and I had ended up
talking the first time we met.
"My, Yotsuba! Good evening to you."
"Whahuh? Uhh, g-good evening?!"
"Ha ha ha! C'mon, I'm just messing with you," Mio said
with a grin as she plopped down on a nearby bench and
beckoned me over to her. She'd ditched the wig she wore to
the cultural festival in favor of her hat, and she'd left her
sunglasses and mask off this time, leaving her in sort of a
casual half disguise. "What? It'd be weird to wear a disguise
when I'm going out to meet a friend, right?"
"You read my mind again...?!"
"Haven't I told you you're easy to read? You're the sort of
person who always gets voted out on Night One when you
play Werewolf."
"'Werewolf'?"
"Oh, uhh... You know what, never mind," Mio said,
awkwardly glancing away from me.
That more or less told me all I needed to know:
"Werewolf" was probably one of those games that you
needed a bunch of people to play. Information about games
like that barely ever made its way to me, considering I had
almost no friends...or, well, considering that my group of
friends was still a pretty small community even these days.
One might go so far as to say that I was chronically shut out
from that sort of social interaction!
"Why're you still standing, anyway? This bench is big
enough for two," said Mio.
"Oh, sure. Thanks, Mio," I said, then hesitated. "It's not a
problem for me to call you that or anything, right?"
"Yeah, that's fine. It's my real name, so whatever. I just
write it differently for the stage-name version. My real
name's written, uhh—here." Mio grabbed my hand and
started to write on it with her index finger.
"Hyeeek?!"
"Ha ha ha! Quit squirming, sheesh."
She definitely knew that this would really, really tickle!
She's doing it on purpose!
Mio took her time to sloooooowly trace her name onto my
palm. It tickled so much, it felt like it was going to drive me
crazy...but I at least had enough presence of mind left to
figure out that she was writing a character for "waterway."
At least, I couldn't think of any other characters that could
be read "Mio" and had that number of strokes, so that was
probably the one.
"Wait...you definitely only decided to write it on my hand
because you knew it had a ton of strokes! You bully!" I
yelped.
"Bully? That's going a little far, isn't it? If that's the
attitude you're gonna take, I think I'll go ahead and show
you how I write my signature while I'm at it!"
"Gyaaah! Cut it ooout!"
One tiny complaint was all it took to line me up for a
brutal counterattack! Mio made good on her threat, by the
way, and really did write her signature on my palm, this
time with a pen. She turned out to be a genuine celebrity:
Her signature was completely illegible.
Anyway, once those shenanigans were over and done
with, we settled back down on the bench. All that squirming
had made me work up a pretty serious sweat.
"Ahh, I actually tired myself out laughing that much," said
Mio. "You're the most ticklish person I've ever met,
Yotsuba."
"I'm not happy about that at all, just so you know!"
"Aww, and here I meant it as a compliment. Oh, right! I
should give this back before I forget," Mio said, pivoting on a
conversational dime and handing me my uniform. She'd
carefully folded it up and carried it around in a rather sturdy
paper bag.
She sure made that seem like an afterthought, but wasn't
this the whole reason she called me out here in the first
place...?
"You sure you don't want me to get it cleaned, though? I
could do that, no problem," Mio added.
"That would take time and cost money, though, right?" I
countered. "And it's not like you did anything that'd get it
dirty."
"Doesn't it bother you, though? Like, just the thought of
wearing clothes someone else had on...?"
"Not really. You're kind of a neat freak, aren't you?"
"Ugh... I don't think I like you calling me any sort of
freak," Mio said, pursing her lips with a wince. She might
have been an active member of the working world thanks to
her idol career, but she was also my age, and every once in
a while she actually acted like it. Those little moments of
childishness were kinda cute. "Oh, and you don't have to
worry about the money part. I'm loaded."
"That wasn't cute at all!"
"I took a taxi here, and I'll be taking one home too. And
it's late enough they'll be charging the night rate!"
"You sound really proud about that and I have no clue
why!"
Even a little kid like me knew that taxis were pretty darn
expensive! I wasn't totally sure what a night rate entailed,
but it seemed safe to assume that it'd mean you'd have to
pay a decent percentage more than they cost during the
day. If I ended up in a position where my choices were to
pay a rate like that out of my allowance or walk home, I'd
lace up my shoes and hit the road for sure.
"You really don't have to worry about it, though," I
continued. "I mean, it's not like I got it cleaned before I
loaned it to you."
"I couldn't have asked you to when you were the one
doing me a favor, could I...? But, well, if you don't mind,
then I guess that's that," Mio said with a nod. She leaned
way back onto the bench and heaved a heavy, languid sigh.
Huh? I sort of thought we'd split up and go home right
after she gave it back, I thought...but I didn't move either. I
sat there for a moment, just watching her.
"Man," said Mio, "it's like I can still hear it, even now."
"Hear it...? You mean today's concert?" I asked.
"Yeah. It's been a pretty long time since a performance
left that much of an impression on me. Makes me wanna
jump right into practice, here and now...or, really, it makes
me want to put on a show of my own."
The flames of motivation burning in Mio's eyes were so
distinct, even I could see them. To me, performances were
something to watch. Once you'd seen one, that was all
there was to it. Mio, however, was a performer. For her,
seeing a show was only the start.
Something about that felt really impressive to me. I'd
been super pessimistic about this whole endeavor from the
start, and if I could turn back the clock and do it all over
again, I still wouldn't have actively wanted to go through
with something so risky, but now that it was all over, I could
at least say that I was glad I'd managed to give her the
chance to see the show for herself.
"Hey, Yotsuba?"
"Yeah?"
"There's, well... There's a lot of stuff I'd like to talk
about...but I'm honestly still a little worked up after
everything that happened today, so this probably isn't the
right time. I'll just leave it at this for now."
She smiled at me. I had a feeling that it was the best
smile that Mio—not Mio the idol, but plain old Mio Kuruma—
could offer.
"Thanks, Yotsuba!"
◆ ◆ ◆
...And that was basically all there was to say about it.
Nope! Nothing weird (in the sense of things that most
people would consider to be cheating) happened between
us whatsoever! I reaffirmed to myself.
Yuna and Rinka, meanwhile, just looked at me.
"Why are those stares so frigid?!" I wailed. I really,
actually didn't even do anything weird this time! All I told
them was the plain and simple truth: I met up with her to
get my uniform back! No funny business whatsoever!
"Well...whatever," Yuna sighed. "There's no point
worrying about you cheating—we'd never run out of reasons
to keep questioning it, after all."
"I really wasn't, though!"
"We know, we know. You wouldn't do anything like that
intentionally," said Rinka. "We can't, however, rule out the
possibility that you did something accidentally."
"Wait, so you believe me, but you're still doubting me
anyway?!"
Just how little faith do they have in me? I wondered...but
on the other hand, I did recognize that I'd earned that
skepticism. After all, who even knew how many times I'd
bragged about my adorable little sisters in casual
conversation before all that stuff happened. Not to mention
that all it'd taken was a reunion with a childhood friend to
send things in that sort of direction all over again...
That said, it really does bear repeating that up until this
year, I'd been very high up in the running for the title of
"the world's least popular loner"! That had been my whole
life! The fact that—disregarding Yuna, Rinka, and Makina for
a second—I'd been blessed with friends in the form of
Koganezaki, Emma, Mukai, Akksy, and Mio since I got into
high school was nothing short of a miracle! Questioning
whether they might have romantically inclined ulterior
motives for getting close to me would be super rude to all of
them!
I mean, sure, Koganezaki had gone out of her way to ask
if the Mio Kuruma incident had ended decently even though
it had basically nothing to do with the Sacrosanct, and sure,
I'd promised Emma that we could hang out again sometime
next week, and sure, the "good work" message Mukai had
sent me after the festival included an invitation to have an
after-party for just the two of us at some point, and sure,
Akksy had recommended a few of her favorite anime for me
to watch, and sure, Mio had invited me to come see her
concert...but that was just them being friendly, that's all!
"Eh, it's fine," said Yuna. "Cheat all you want—we'll drag
you back to us in the end every time, no matter what it
takes."
"Whahuh?!"
"At the end of the day, we're your formal and official
girlfriends, after all," said Rinka.
"S-So cool...!"
They were both just so dang confident—and maybe a
little embarrassed, considering the slight flush creeping
across their cheeks...which was super cute! I really had to
wonder how I could be dating a pair of adorably cool girls
like them. Maybe all of this really was just a dream? This
would be the fifth time I'd questioned that this week alone...
"Honestly, I'm more concerned about how you'll definitely
get scammed by someone someday, at this rate," said Yuna.
"Definitely?! Not 'might'?!"
"Yeah, not much question left at this point," Yuna very
bluntly confirmed.
Rinka, busy chewing a piece of meat, nodded as well.
Cute!
I mean...if they're both sure about it, then maybe they
have a point...?
"Okay, but a scam...? What would that even look like?" I
asked.
"Imagine, like... Ahem! 'Hello, Yotsuba? It's me,'" Yuna
said, clearing her throat before pitching her voice down ever
so slightly and speaking in a sort of theatrical tone.
Wait—that voice...!
"Are you...doing an impression of me?" asked Rinka.
"That's right—it's the Rin-Rin Scam!"
Oh! Like those scams where people call up old folks and
pretend to be their grandchildren, only she pretends to be
Rinka instead! And the name's probably, like, a play on
"Rinka" and "ring-ring," or something! But seriously, what
sort of actual monster would impersonate Rinka just to
scam someone (read: me) out of their—
"'Yotsuba...I ate too much at a yakiniku place and can't
cover the bill. Could you wire me some money to bail me
out?'"
"Sure! Right away!"
Rinka gave me a look. "Yotsuba?" she sighed.
"Ah?!" I yelped. I said yes! I didn't even hesitate! And I
only snapped out of it when Rinka sighed at me...b-but
these were super extenuating circumstances! "I couldn't
help it! Yuna was being so cute, I just couldn't resist!"
"Wait, I sold you on it? Not the act?" said Yuna.
"I mean, you nailed her mannerisms...but no matter how
good of an impression it was, there's just no way I'd ever
mix up your voice with Rinka's," I said.
I was sure of that because this wasn't the first time I'd
considered it. Rinka had borrowed Yuna's phone to call me
once, and I'd known it was her instantly, even though my
phone had claimed that the call was from Yuna. I couldn't
remember precisely when it had happened, but the point is,
I'd given some real thought in the past to how well I could
tell their voices apart.
"But you doing an impression of Rinka is just the cutest
thing ever, especially when I get to see it in person! Like,
how you were trying so hard to mimic her tone of voice, or
how you were focusing so hard on her vocal mannerisms
that you ended up scrunching up your brow in the funniest
way, or how you didn't even realize that your shoulders
were all clenched and stiff!"
"Wha...?! Wait, was I really doing all that?!" Yuna
exclaimed. If that hadn't been enough to tell me that she
hadn't realized it at all, the blush that flashed across her
face certainly would have. I couldn't help but grin—not that
it was anything to be embarrassed over—and apparently
that just made it worse than ever for her. Her response:
lashing out by swiping a piece of skirt steak that Rinka had
been carefully cooking, right off the grill!
"Hey!" shouted Rinka.
"I-I'm not blushing! I'm just flushed because I'm so
hungry, that's all!"
Wow, that was a terrible excuse! Yuna's never that bad at
thinking on her feet!
It was over in a flash. Before Rinka could stop her, Yuna
had practically inhaled the piece of meat. She'd been
prioritizing talking over eating for quite a while, and
apparently she hadn't been totally making up the part about
being hungry—the next thing I knew, she was filling the grill
with rib meat again!
"Honestly... Not that I really mind, I guess," grumbled
Rinka.
"Ha ha ha..." I awkwardly chuckled. "Oh, right—hey,
Rinka?"
"Hmm? Yes?"
"You should try doing an impression of Yuna too!"
"Wha—?!" Rinka said in a strangled half gasp, dropping
the towelette she'd been wiping her hands on. She
definitely hadn't seen that request coming. "Wait, but—
why?!"
"I just wanna see it! I'm curious!"
"She's got a point, actually," said Yuna. "I did you, so
fair's fair, right?"
"Nobody asked you to mimic me!" Rinka snapped back.
What would it look like if Rinka did her best Yuna
impression...? Adorable as all get-out, obviously! Which
wasn't to say that Rinka wasn't cute as herself, of course.
That was a given! But the thing about Yuna and Rinka was
that they generally made sure that their personalities—as
they chose to portray themselves, anyway—didn't have too
much overlap. I wasn't totally sure if it was something
they'd learned to do unconsciously over the course of their
close, long-standing friendship, or if it was something that
they'd done on purpose to help prop up the Sacrosanct
image, but I sort of suspected that the truth was a little bit
of both. That was why seeing Yuna emulate Rinka's
mannerisms on purpose was such a rare treat...and why I
was really sad that I hadn't been quick on the draw enough
to record it! Which, in turn, was why I pulled out my phone
and booted up its voice recorder app!
"Wait, you're recording me?!" said Rinka.
"Of course! Don't worry—I'll have Yuna do hers again at
some point over the next few days so I can save it too..."
"Mmgphgh?! Agh, haugh!"
Yuna choked on her food! Please, though? It'd be the
perfect thing for me to listen to every night before bed...
"Oh, but come to think of it, maybe it'd be better to give
you some time too, Rinka? That way you can think a little
harder about your lines," I mused.
"N-No, thank you! I'd rather get it over with now!" said
Rinka. "It feels like the longer I put it off, the higher I'll be
raising the bar for myself... We'll do mine now, and Yuna can
handle hers later!"
"I never said I'd do it again at all, actually?!" Yuna
exclaimed.
"Huh? You don't want to, Yuna...? I mean...if you really
hate the idea, I won't force you or anything..."
"Ugh... I-I didn't say I wouldn't do it either...!"
"Woo-hoo!"
"You made that way too easy. Not that I'm any better..."
Rinka groaned.
Heh heh heh! Sometimes it pays to be needy!
With that settled, I turned my phone's microphone in
Rinka's direction. "Okay, the stage is yours!"
"Umm... I'm supposed to act like I'm Yuna talking on the
phone, right? Okay, then," said Rinka. "'Hey, Yotsuba? It's
me...wh-what'cha up to?'"
"Squee! Not much! Doing great!"
"Hold on a second, Rinka—you're not even trying to fool
her!" Yuna cut in. "This is a Rin-Rin Scam, remember?
There's no point if you don't put in the effort to make it
convincing!"
"It's not a 'Rin-Rin' Scam if I'm imitating you, is it?" Rinka
countered. "Actually, can we drop that name altogether? It's
vaguely humiliating."
"Okay, okay! You're pretending to be me, so it can be a
Yu-Yu— No, scratch that. I see your point now. Saying it
myself makes it feel like I'm being super attention-hoggy."
"But 'Rin-Rin Scam' and 'Yu-Yu Scam' both sound so
cute!" I said. "And actually, I think Rinka had your voice
down pretty darn well! It was the cutest thing ever!!!"
"W-Was it...?" Rinka muttered. It seemed like she couldn't
quite decide whether she was happy about that or not, and
chose to snag a piece of Yuna's rib meat instead of pressing
the issue any further.
"I get you. Should we be happy or upset right now? I have
no clue," Yuna said with a deep, understanding nod. I noted
that she hadn't protested the meat theft at all.
I mean, look—even I could tell that Rinka wasn't totally
on board with this, okay? The thing is...I just couldn't help
myself. And can you blame me? This is the very first afterparty I've ever been to in my whole life! People always get
just a little bit more assertive when they're thrown into
open, unreserved situations like this! I think it's called
getting drunk on the atmosphere, or something? I never
thought the day would come when I, Yotsuba Hazama,
would experience that particular brand of intoxication... If
you'd told me a year ago that this would happen, I probably
would've bought one of those page-a-day calendars just to
count down the days until the moment arrived!
But, anyway...I should probably apologize, shouldn't I?
Good manners are important, after all, even with the people
you're closest to.
"Sorry, Rinka," I said. "But, umm, I really meant what I
said about it being cute, and I know I'll never forget it for as
long as I live...a-and all that stuff about recording it was just
a joke! I was just kidding about recording you later too,
Yuna!"
"Why're you acting so timid all of a sudden?" asked Yuna.
"Well...I might've been having fun, but I didn't want to
make you two have a bad time for my sake. If I did, I'd end
up going home and spending all night regretting it for sure,"
I mumbled.
"I could say the same about wanting you to have fun,"
said Rinka. "It's not that it really bothered
me...embarrassment aside, I mean. Making sure you enjoy
yourself is my—is our highest priority."
"And in that sense, I guess we hit it out of the park
tonight," Yuna said with a slightly tired chuckle.
A moment later...
"Okay, here's your order! One plate of intestine and
another helping of rice!"
"Oh, that's mine! Thank you!" I said. The waiter set my
food down in front of me and I started moving the intestine
over to the grill right away...only to notice that Yuna and
Rinka were both giving me the same sort of strained-butamused looks.
"Yotsuba...you're a pretty heavy eater, aren't you?" said
Yuna.
"Right? She hasn't stopped for a moment since we got
here," Rinka noted.
"Wha— Really?! I thought I was really slowing down," I
said.
"Slowing down, maybe, but you haven't stopped at all,"
said Yuna.
"You've been grilling and eating the whole time, even
while we were talking. Also, how many bowls of rice does
that make?" asked Rinka.
"Umm..." I said, pausing to try to remember...and giving
up. I might not seem like the sort of person who'd stress
about her weight, but there were some realities not even I
was prepared to confront. "I-I don't eat this much every
night, just so you know! It's just that we're at an all-you-caneat place, and this one has really good intestine, and I'm a
little worked up about being at my first after-party, and on
top of all that, I'm sitting in front of a pair of super pretty,
incredible girls! The atmosphere's making the food taste so
good, I just can't stop!"
"It's incredible how effective your casual flirting can be,"
said Rinka.
"And the fact that she doesn't have any ulterior motives
when she compliments us makes it so much worse," added
Yuna.
My impassioned appeal didn't seem to have resonated
with them. They were watching me like a pair of parents
would watch over their child.
Ugh... Well, fine! I wasn't kidding about how much fun I'm
having, or about how the food's so tasty I could keep eating
forever! I thought before defiantly placing yet another order
with the table's tablet. Time was a-wasting, after all!
◇◇◇
Some time later, when our two-hour limit had run its
course...
"Blugh... I ate way too much. Think I'm gonna be sick..." I
groaned.
"What did we tell you?" Yuna sighed. "I knew you were
pushing your luck."
"Are you all right? Do you need to sit down for a
moment?" asked Rinka.
"Sure, thanks... Sorry for the hassle..."
I'd filled my stomach with meat, then kept going until I
was right on the verge of bursting. The unsurprising result:
intense nausea. Yuna and Rinka ended up having to hold me
upright as we walked along.
Ugh... I feel terrible, in more ways than one. Had the
restaurant cast some sort of yakiniku magic on me? Or had I
just been too hyped up on first-ever-after-party adrenaline
to regulate myself? Or maybe the meat that I'd eaten had
swollen inside my stomach postconsumption?! One way or
another, I felt ill in the same sort of way I always felt when I
got carsick...and the fact that all the meat had been a lot
fattier than I'd given it credit for in the moment probably
wasn't helping. My first-ever after-party and I dropped the
ball at the last second...
"I see an open bench just in front of the station," said
Rinka. "Should we stop there, Yotsuba?"
"Sure..." I groaned. "Oh, but it's pretty late. Maybe you
two should just go home...?"
"Dummy," said Yuna.
"Of course we won't leave you alone," added Rinka.
Ugh... Of course they'd say no, and of course they'd scold
me for suggesting otherwise.
I sat down, and Yuna and Rinka sat on either side of me.
Rinka gently stroked my back, while Yuna pulled a plastic
bottle of water from her bag and offered it to me. Their
nursing had me feeling a little better already...and the
relieved sighs they let out made it clear that they could tell.
"This is the most you thing you could've possibly done,
honestly," said Yuna.
"Isn't it just?" Rinka agreed. "And when there's still so
much left to do this evening."
"Huh...?" I grunted. I wasn't quite picking up on what
Rinka had meant to imply with that. I'd been under the
impression that we'd be having a meal, then going home...
"Hey, Yotsuba. What day is it tomorrow?" asked Yuna.
"Umm... It'll be, uh, November 2nd...?"
"Right. And what's November 2nd?"
At that, the free-spinning gears in my boiled brain finally
clicked together. They only managed to produce one
answer, mind you, but it seemed like a pretty likely one.
"It's...my birthday?"
"Exactly!" Yuna and Rinka said in excited unison.
It was true. November 2nd was indeed the one and only
birthday of one Yotsuba Hazama. You might think that this
would be the part where I pathetically groused about how
gloomy loners like me didn't deserve birthdays—it would be
pretty in character—but my family always made a point of
celebrating with me every year, and last year Yuna and
Rinka had done so as well. It was one of the most special
days of the year for me, no question about it. Was it really
special enough to make a big deal out of it the evening
before, though...?
"And your birthday this year will be a first for us," Yuna
continued.
"A first? How?" I asked.
"Our birthdays are both in April," said Rinka, "and back
then, we weren't in this relationship yet, were we?"
"Oh..." I instantly realized what they were trying to say.
Tomorrow would mark the first time one of us had had a
birthday since I started dating the two of them.
"We know that you've always celebrated with Sakura, Aoi,
and the rest of your family," said Yuna. "They're the ones
who've always made the biggest deal out of your birthday.
But the thing is—and maybe this is just a little selfish of us,
but still...it'll be our first birthday with you as your
girlfriends. This year, we want to be the ones who make the
biggest splash, you know?"
"So we decided to cheat the system a little," said Rinka.
"We made plans to celebrate before your birthday
technically arrived."
"You...did? Is that what this was? I had no idea..."
"Because we were careful to make sure you wouldn't
notice," Rinka said with a slightly bashful grin.
"But considering the state you ended up in, and that we
really don't want to make it worse, it looks like we're gonna
have to stick to giving you your present and calling it a
day," said Yuna.
"Ugh... Sorry..."
"Look, we're saying you don't have to apologize! We got
to watch you have a blast today, and we had plenty of fun
too! Right, Rinka?"
"I couldn't have said it better myself. If we're with you
and you're having a good time, we're guaranteed to have
just as good of a time too."
Yuna clung to one of my arms, while Rinka took my other
hand in both of hers, cradling it in front of her. I felt
incredibly loved, which was both wonderful and a little
embarrassing. And, more importantly...
"I-I don't stink right now, do I?!" I yelped. "Oh, jeez, I just
know I smell like a barbecue pit...!"
"No, you don't," said Yuna.
"And even if you did, we would too. Does the way we
smell right now bother you?" asked Rinka.
"N-No, not at all..."
"Then it's all good!" said Yuna.
There was no way I could ever think that the two of them
smelled bad (on account of the fact that my brain had never
been equipped with the capacity to see either of them in a
bad light to begin with), so all I could do was accept that
they'd won this round. What was all that stuff they were
saying about celebrating my birthday early, though...?
"I think it's time for us to cut to the chase, Yuna," said
Rinka.
"Oh, right! We didn't get to cuddle at the restaurant, so I
couldn't help myself for a minute there," Yuna agreed.
She spent a moment fishing around in her bag, then
pulled out a gift-wrapped package. I couldn't tell what was
inside, of course—gift wrap does that—but it did look like it
had to be expensive, judging by how carefully packaged it
was. It had, like...an elegance to it, I guess?
"Here you go, Yotsuba," said Yuna.
"We're still a little early...but happy birthday," said Rinka.
Yuna held the gift out to me, and Rinka guided my hands
toward it. It was physically light enough to easily hold in one
hand, but the weight of the feelings that had clearly been
poured into it was so great that I was a little worried about
whether or not I could bear it. I could feel my fingers
trembling, and I knew that Yuna and Rinka had noticed too,
but neither of them said a word about it. All they did was
wait and watch over me.
"Can I open it?" I asked.
"Sure!" said Yuna.
"Of course," said Rinka.
I slowly, carefully peeled off the wrapping paper. I wanted
to see what was inside as soon as possible, but it had been
wrapped so beautifully that it would've felt wrong to just
tear it open. I was also still pretty worn out, so it took quite
a while for me to get it all opened up, but when the package
was finally free from its paper, I found myself holding a very
classy-looking box. I'd opened one package to reveal
another, like some sort of present matryoshka doll—y'know,
those little dolls with littler dolls inside them? My
anticipation was building. My real present would be inside
that box...!
"O-Okay, I'm opening it," I said before timidly cracking
the box open to reveal...a necklace. Its design was fairly
understated—the sort of jewelry you could easily wear on an
everyday basis—but I knew for a fact that its price tag had
been anything but. I recognized the logo inside the box,
after all. It was famous enough that even someone totally
unacquainted with fashion like me knew it on sight. "WhWhere did you get this?!" I yelped.
"Oh, y'know! We splurged a little," said Yuna.
"M-More than a little! This must've been so expensive..."
"It took a chunk out of our savings...but that's fine with
us," said Rinka. "We'll only get one chance to celebrate our
girlfriend's birthday for the first time, after all."
"We can just get part-time jobs and save up again," Yuna
added.
They were making it sound like no big deal, but I was
convinced they'd really had to push themselves to get ahold
of my gift. For a moment, I felt bad about it...but then I
shook my head. Apologies weren't in order this time.
"Thank you... I love it!" I said. I still felt a little bad, but
my gratitude outweighed the guilt tenfold.
"We were thinking about getting you rings at first, but
they would've stood out too much to wear at school, and
you just know we would've ended up fighting over whose
would go on which finger," said Yuna. "Getting one from
each of us would've probably been hard for you to deal with
too, and we didn't exactly have the money to—"
"I thought we agreed we'd be keeping all of that to
ourselves, Yuna," Rinka interjected.
"Ah... R-Right, my bad. She just looked so happy, I started
blabbing without thinking..."
She was right that getting two rings would've been a little
hard for me to deal with in the long term...but on the other
hand, I had a feeling that I wouldn't have thought about that
at all the moment they gave them to me. I would've just
been ecstatic.
"So the two of you worked together to pick this out for
me...?" I asked.
"Oh, umm... Yes," said Rinka. "I guess the group gift does
raise some questions, huh? I was thinking of getting you
something on my own, at first, but I knew that Yuna
wouldn't be happy if I cut in line to give it to you first, and I
wouldn't have wanted her to do it to me either. Then when I
decided to talk to her about it, it turned out that she'd been
thinking the exact same thing, much to my—"
"Now you're oversharing, Rinka," Yuna sighed.
"Oh! Sorry," said Rinka. She'd scolded Yuna less than a
minute ago, only to get scolded right back.
The sheer length and depth of their friendship was on full
display again. There was definitely something special there
—something truly precious that nobody, me included, could
ever intrude on. I'd felt it when I watched them up on the
stage too...and the fact that they were using that perfect
synchrony to tell me they loved me was far more than I
could have ever dreamed of asking for.
"What...?" said Yuna. "Why're you smirking at us?"
"I was just thinking about how lucky I am, that's all," I
said.
"Because we could only buy you one present...?" asked
Rinka.
"J-Just so you know, we didn't go in on it together
because we were cheaping out on you!" Yuna insisted. "And
we're planning on celebrating one-on-one with you later on
too...but, umm, it'll have to be a celebration that doesn't
cost very much..."
"You're going off the rails again, Yuna."
"Ugh...! Like you're not just as broke as I am right now,
Rinka!"
"Wh-What does that have to do with you running your
mouth?!"
"H-Hey, come on, you two! Let's all calm down, okay?!" I
said. It took seconds for them to get all prickly with each
other out of nowhere!
I tried to play peacekeeper, but the sparks just kept flying
until finally...
"Hey, Yotsuba!"
"Yotsuba!"
...both of them wheeled around at the same time to face
me!
"I swear I'll make you happier than Rinka! Just wait!"
"I'll make you happier than Yuna ever could, I promise!"
They made their declarations like they were reciting lines
from a script, in such stunningly perfect harmony that
nobody who witnessed it could ever have disputed the fact
that they'd earned their Sacrosanct title. I was so
overwhelmed, all I could do was nod vigorously. I guess I
really am the villainous interloper who stepped in to ruin the
Sacrosanct, I thought as I stowed the necklace away in its
box, clenched it tightly in my hands, and made a promise to
myself.
One way or another, I'll be doing something even crazier
to celebrate both of their birthdays next year!!!
There wasn't a moment to waste. April 8th and 16th
would be here before I knew it, and I had so much allowance
to save up and so many preparations to make! And I'd
burned through my savings ages ago by spending freely
while I hung out with the two of them!
Oh, but wait—even before their birthdays, I have
Christmas and Valentine's Day to think about...! I-Is my
allowance going to be up to the task...? Especially
considering I'll have to get birthday presents for Sakura and
Aoi, and for Makina, and I guess Koganezaki and Emma
too... I have to celebrate my friends too, right...?
"All right—I've decided!" I shouted as I shot to my feet!
"Huh?" said Rinka.
"D-Decided what?!" yelped Yuna.
Their fight (if you could even call it a fight, which
honestly, you really couldn't) had been momentarily
forgotten. I turned to look at them...and declared my
intentions at the top of my lungs!
"I'm gonna get a part-time job!!!"
Silence. Wide-eyed, gaping stares. Expressions that
practically screamed, Where on earth did that come from?
then quickly faded away, replaced by something more
openly apprehensive.
"I'd, umm, really like to say that you should go for it, and
that we'll be cheering you on," Yuna somewhat
uncomfortably began.
"But I don't really think you're very suited for that sort of
thing," Rinka said, stepping in to finish the thought.
"Whaaat?!"
That was a really calm, gentle way to completely shut me
down! Granted: I can't actually picture myself doing well at
a part-time job either!
"And more importantly, you know that finals are right
around the corner, don't you?" asked Yuna. "Have you been
studying? We don't have midterms in the second semester,
but that's no good reason to let your guard down! It means
that finals are weighed more heavily in our final grades,
actually!"
"And now we're jumping straight into a super serious
reality check?!"
"There's also the school marathon to worry about," noted
Rinka. "You really trailed behind the pack last year, and I'm
worried it'll make it hard for you to enjoy the school trip if
you repeat that performance this time. It's right after the
marathon, after all."
"I totally forgot that that hell on earth was even a thing,
and now you're telling me it's coming up any day now?!"
My moment-of-excitement declaration had already been
put on ice. This was no time to think about getting a job! A
very unpleasant dose of reality had just come knocking!
Seriously, why are high schoolers this busy?! There aren't
enough hours in the day for me to get ready for all this stuff
at once! They say that blessings don't come in pairs, so why
do trials get to come in sets of who even knows how many?!
"It's fine, Yotsuba! I'll help you study! Your goal this
year's to not fail any of your finals!" said Yuna.
"And I'll help you get in shape," Rinka chimed in. "It'll be
hard to build up much stamina in the time between now and
the marathon, but we can at least work on controlling your
pace and polishing your running form. That should make a
huge difference."
They're so helpful, their goodwill is blinding me...! Can I
really handle preparing for the tests and the marathon at
the same time, though...? There's only one of me to go
around, you know...?
"And now that that's decided, this is no time for us to be
fighting!" said Yuna.
"Agreed. It's our duty as Yotsuba's girlfriends to make
sure she overcomes all the challenges in her path!" said
Rinka.
Is it just me...or are they super fired up now?! Weren't we
celebrating my birthday just a minute ago?! And giving the
cultural festival a send-off before that...? We're moving
through topics at light speed, here! Can't we stop and enjoy
the moment?! Like, just take it nice and easy for a little...?
"Don't worry, Yotsuba! I'll make you the perfect study
schedule—you'll see!"
"And I'll put together a perfect training regimen!"
"H-Ha ha ha... Yaaay..."
Yup, I'm sure they will. That schedule and that regimen
will be as perfect as they come, except for one tiny little
problem: I'll be the one who has to put them into practice...
Flanked by my hypermotivated girlfriends, I finally
realized that the end of the cultural festival had not, in fact,
marked the finish line for my troubles and tribulations. No, it
was just the starting line to a whole new set—a fact that I
grimly accepted as I held back the urge to cry.
If only I had a few extra mes to help, maybe I could...
Actually, no. On second thought, no number of mes would
be able to pull this off!