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Rin Shima had a problem.
Upon further reflection, one could more accurately say that she’s had this problem for a good long while. Even now, as she rested her chin in her hands with her elbows pressed against the counter of the school library -- trying her hardest not to think about The Problem -- visions of fluffy, pink cotton candy hair blowing in the breeze and a dazzling smile that could melt even the coldest of hearts and outshine the very sun itself flipped through her brain like the pages of a book she never wanted to end.
Yes, Rin Shima had a problem -- and that problem had a name, and that name rhymed with… “Kadeshiko Nagamihara.” Yeah. That was it.
Upon even further reflection, one could even more accurately say that this particular problem of hers had originally been an entirely different -- though at the same time, very similar -- set of problems that had gradually cascaded into each other before finally coming together in a thundering crash of realization, poised to knock down the last metaphorical domino of the issue that currently had poor Rin all but screaming into her hands.
It had started as “This girl is kind of a ditz,” which later became “Kagamihara is maybe a little too clingy for me,” but even that, one day, had suddenly progressed to “Nadeshiko is fun to be around, even if she is a bit of an airhead.” But then, after all that? That’s when the real problem reared its head.
After they had become friends, her thoughts always leaned more toward the positive side, but “Nadeshiko looks cuter than usual today,” was the single -- seemingly innocent, at the time -- crumbling stone that had started the disastrous cognitive landslide that had led Rin on the fast track to other infinitely more embarrassing thoughts like “I wonder what kind of shampoo Nadeshiko uses? She always smells so nice,” and “I wonder if Nadeshiko would think this outfit was cute?”
If Rin didn’t like the way Nadeshiko Kagamihara’s name sounded so much, she probably would have gotten really sick and tired of hearing it by now, even through the medium of her own mind. The way the girl was wedged squarely into every other thought that happened to pop into her head was absolutely maddening.
Rin sighed as she laid her head down flat on the desk top. These disastrous "feelings" of hers, that she was very much still trying to come to terms with, had snuck up on her so stealthily that she hadn’t had the slightest chance to see them coming. She knew she liked Nadeshiko, of course, but she hadn’t realized that she… liked Nadeshiko. That recognition had come so far out of left field that she couldn’t even think of a way to finish this analogy.
Rin wondered just how long it had been since her feelings for her friend had advanced to this point? Surely it couldn’t have been during any of their camping trips this past winter. She was sure that she definitely would have noticed them back then, if that was the case.
Right?
Right?!
With another deep sigh and the realization she probably wouldn't have noticed, Rin briefly wondered if Nadeshiko would think she was strange if she knew. Would she care? Would she -- and the mere inkling of the idea that this could happen made Rin’s heart skip a beat, as embarrassing as that was -- respond in kind? Rin had no experience whatsoever when it came to intimate or romantic relationships, so she didn’t know how anything like that would work.
Before Rin could fall any further down this unfortunate rabbit hole she had tumbled into, she heard the distinct sound of footsteps approach from behind. It was rare to actually see anyone else in the library at this time, so she had a pretty good idea of who it was before she even looked up.
“This is a stick-up! Put the money in the bag and nobody gets hurt!”
Ah. One of those bits, eh? Rin looked up to see her good friend Ena Saitou pointing a "finger gun" straight at the center of her forehead. Ena was covering her face with her other hand as if it were some sort of criminal’s mask -- or so Rin assumed, anyway. Maybe she was just doing it so she wouldn’t have to try and keep a straight face while she was doing that dumb voice?
Rin -- coming up with a response as quick as she could -- rose to her full height, put her hands on her hips, and stared Ena dead in the eyes. “If you want to make a withdrawal, you’re going to have to wait in line just like everyone else. No cuts.”
“Oh, I’m making a ‘withdrawal,’ all right!”
“Then I’m going to need your withdrawal slip. You did take the time to fill one out, right?”
Ena made some kind of “Hrk!” noise and recoiled a bit. “N-no?”
Rin clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Then how were you expecting to withdraw anything? Please go fill out a withdrawal slip and proceed to the back of the line. Next!”
“Now, hang on! That sounds like a huge pain in the butt -- do you happen to have one up here I can use instead?” Ena asked, her robber character predictably falling right into the banker’s flow.
It wouldn’t surprise Rin if Ena already knew how this little skit of theirs was going to end.
Rin hummed and rifled around with some of the things laid on her countertop. She eventually pulled a sticky note from a small pad and gave it a quick once over. “You’re in luck,” she said. “Looks like we do. If you want to fill it out up here I can’t stop you, but you’re going to need to stop disturbing the rest of the patrons.”
“Yeah, yeah; I got it. Sheesh!” Ena carefully placed her hand -- still in the shape of a gun -- on the counter, lifting it back up and flexing her fingers before grabbing a nearby pen and scribbling her name and a ridiculous sum of yen on the sticky note. By the time she realized her mistake, it was far too late.
The robber’s blood ran cold as her eyes shifted upward, meeting the stoic banker’s own visage. A glimmer of recognition showed in that cold stare as the banker held the robber’s own thoughtlessly discarded weapon against her chest in the cruelest possible twist of fate.
After only a few seconds, Rin’s thumb and pointer finger already felt kind of uncomfortable. She tried not to let it show on her face.
Ena’s shocked expression faded as her lips curled into a grin, a low chuckle coming from her throat, almost like a growl. “I thought I recognized those stunning eyes of yours... Detective.”
“You should have trusted your gut on that one, you foolish thief,” Rin shot back. “I’ve always known how to play you like a fiddle.”
“Fiddle or no; I won’t just go quietly this time, copper!”
“That’s fine. I’m prepared to do what I must to protect the people here from you.”
Ena laughed again, a full-blown cackle this time. “Then do it! Show those cowards on the force and this whole deadbeat town that you’re just like your fath -- "
Rin lifted her pointer with a “Bang!” before Ena could even finish her sentence. As the defeated would-be-thief crashed to the ground with a yelp, Detective Shima -- her adversary finally bested -- blew away the smoke that puffed from the end of the barrel and pocketed the gun. “My father… was a good man.”
The dramatic silence hung in the air for almost a full minute before Ena sprung up from the floor, giggling like a lunatic. “Well; that was fun! Did it make you feel any better, Rin?”
Of course that’s what that was about, Rin thought as she settled back in her seat behind the counter. She could tell there was something on my mind. “It got my mind off of some things I was worrying about, I guess.”
“‘Some things,’ huh? You mean Nadeshiko-chan?”
Rin’s head slammed on the desk once again as she groaned -- half in annoyance, and half due to the sudden self-inflicted pain. She had come in way too hot and the point of impact was probably going to bruise. A problem for future Rin, now. “How did you know?” she grumbled.
Ena just stood there and smiled wide.
Translation: “I can read you like a book.”
Rin sighed and leaned back in her chair, staring up at the ceiling. “This is annoying.”
Ena giggled and moved behind the counter to sit in the chair -- that was, as most chairs like it, only built to seat one person -- beside Rin, shoving her to the side in the process. “Me, or your feelings?”
Rin gave Ena one of those looks and leaned back again, though it was much harder to do with the added person taking up space. “Yes.”
“I figured you’d say something like that. C’mon, Rin! You spend so much time of your time with her these days, why not just try talking to her about it?"
“Geez, Saitou; what great advice. Can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself,” Rin deadpanned.
“So you’ve tried, huh?”
“A few times, actually. I always chicken out and change the topic to something about camping any time I even get close to saying anything even close to… that kind of stuff. It's easier, you know?”
Ena grinned at Rin and pushed closer to her, almost knocking her off of their shared seat. “Looks like our little ‘Shimarin’ is a bit of a ‘Shimawimp,’ isn’t she?” she asked, in what Rin could only describe as the worst impression of their friend Chiaki Oogaki that had, or ever would be, attempted by any human being in the history of the entire world.
It still stung a little.
“I’m not a wimp. Feelings are just... hard,” Rin argued as she tucked her knees into the rest of her body, holding her legs close like a security blanket. She really wished Ena would get off of her chair, but she didn’t want to actually say that to her. It felt a little mean, considering she was trying to help Rin feel better and all.
“Who’s to say both of those things aren’t true?”
Ena was trying to help Rin feel better, wasn’t she?
Rin would have asked as much, but as she opened her mouth to speak, her phone buzzed in her pocket and mercilessly ripped any notion of forming a workable sentence from the language center of her brain. Only a handful of people actually sent her text messages, and one of the top two of those handful was sitting right next to her, so that could only mean one thing.
Well.
Technically, it could mean like… three things? Maybe four. A loose five at the most. But in the moment, Rin was absolutely convinced that it could only mean one thing. Rin fished her phone out of her pocket and stared blankly at the darkened screen.
“Rin?”
All she had to do was click the little button and check the notification, and then answer the message, just like she’d done a million times already. There was no reason for her hand to be this clammy.
“Earth to Shima Rin: this is Saitou Ena speaking. Do you copy?”
Was it getting hot in here? Why did Rin feel so squished? She didn’t know she was claustropho -- oh, wait -- that was probably just the whole chair situation. Nothing to worry about there. Perhaps her attention should be on the fact that she suddenly felt very lightheaded.
“Rin! Breathe!” Ena cried as she clapped Rin square on the back.
Rin sharply exhaled the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in. The shock of the impact caused her finger to slip and she pressed the button on her phone. Her screen opened straight to her text conversation with Nadeshiko -- but it was like a total coincidence, and not because Rin always went back and read over their conversations all the time, because that’d be weird, right?
The message was attached to a photo. It looked like Nadeshiko had found a camping magazine at some convenience store on her way home. Within it, she had found an absolutely stunning set of springtime photographs of the Lake Motosu campsite -- one of the personal favorites of both girls, for one reason or another -- complete with various groups of models and campers in candid or staged situations.
Nadeshiko had taken one of those groups, an older woman and a young girl who was probably her granddaughter, and used her phone’s editing features to transform them into Rin and herself. She had even scratched out a quick approximation of a Cup Noodles package in the elder woman’s hand. The attached text read: “My, my… take a look at this here, dearie. I can’t believe they snapped this picture of us, oh ho ho!” and Rin could practically hear her doing her “old granny bit” voice as if Nadeshiko was standing right beside her in the library.
Rin smiled and laughed quietly to herself. Little things like that were sometimes all it took for her to realize just how much she loved Nadeshiko.
A beat passed, and Rin felt the tips of her ears burn. Oh. Wow. I really just went straight there, huh? she thought, staring down at the image. She didn't dislike the thought, though. It felt right.
Suddenly; her phone vibrated again in her hand, and a new photo popped in. A woman in a gorgeous wedding gown smiled brightly at the camera, the rest of the outdoor wedding setting barely visible in the background. On this picture, Nadeshiko had doodled her own pastel pink bangs sticking out from underneath the upturned veil. “Don’t I look beautiful, Rin-chan? Haha, but for real, wouldn’t something like this be soooo nice??” said the line of text attached to the image, followed by a complex emoticon absolutely riddled with hearts.
“I wonder if this could be us someday?”
As she read over the short line of text, Rin felt as if her heart just flat-out stopped.
That’s when the flood came in, a virtual torrent of text messages, one after another. Rin could only imagine Nadeshiko’s full-on panicked expression as she typed each one out, quicker than the last.
“Me! Me, someday, is what I meant!!”
“Or you! Just you! That works too!!”
“Like, us separately!!”
“Well, okay, now I feel kind of mean for denying it so strongly. You’re so pretty and you would probably look amazing in one of those and I’d love it if you were there for my big day!!! But…”
“Ngh. I’m sorry, I don’t really know what I’m trying to say anymore. o(_ _;o)”
Ena hummed and nodded in approval as she read the messages storm in over Rin’s shoulder. Rin, having mostly forgotten she was there, almost jumped straight out of the seat. “Wow. That was probably the least subtle thing I’ve ever read in my whole life. And I read your face all the time.”
“C-come on. It’s Nadeshiko. She probably just said something without thinking it through, first. She... didn’t mean anything by it, I bet.”
“Rin. Come on.”
Rin glanced back at the phone. She spent a good long minute trying to figure out exactly what she wanted to ask, before eventually typing out: “Don’t worry about it."
Something spurred her on to keep typing. "You know, Nadeshiko. I was thinking, and... there's something I want to talk to you about. Can I come over to your house after I’m done here?”
Nadeshiko’s reply came a tad quicker than Rin expected, and she smiled as she skimmed over the lines. “Yes! Of course you can! My sister is trying out that recipe Aki-chan gave her a while back, so you can even stay for dinner if you’d like! And, uh… I’ll be honest. I was going to ask you the same thing, but I wasn’t sure how to do it. I’ve been thinking about a lot of things lately, too.”
Rin’s fingers typed her reply before her brain could catch up. “Really, now? First time for everything.”
“Hey! That's mean!”
“Sorry." Rin sent, too busy imagining Nadeshiko's pouting face to actually be all that apologetic. "But in all seriousness; I’ll go ahead and come over, then. I think we’ll have a lot to talk about.”
“I think so, too. I’ll see you later, Rin-chan!♡”
“... See you soon, Nadeshiko.”
Rin almost sent one of those little hearts back in her final reply, but it felt too embarrassing. Like it was too much, too fast. She exhaled a heavy sigh of... relief or exhaustion, she didn’t quite know -- and leaned forward, laying her head on the desk once more. Gently, this time. Her forehead still felt tender.
“Oh man, Rin; I wonder if she’s as stupid head over heels for you as you are for her? It sure is a mystery! Golly gee, I wonder if we’ll ever get the answer?”
Rin turned to glare at Ena, but she couldn’t stop the smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “Shut up, Saitou.”
Rin made a beeline for Nadeshiko’s house as soon as she left the school building after parting with Ena, who made her promise to “spill everything” the next time they saw each other. On her way, Rin tried to rehearse all kinds of things she could say that would properly get her feelings across, but nothing she came up with seemed right. None of them were... good enough.
Before she knew it, Rin stood in front of the Kagamihara household, woefully unprepared for what she knew would come next. She swallowed hard and glanced at her phone again to give herself something to do. This was it. She had to pick something to say. She knocked on the door, a little too softly at first. After realizing she needed to actually let someone know she was here, she tapped it a bit more forcefully, hard enough to get a good thump from it.
“Ooh! I bet that’s her! Rin-chan is here!” came Nadeshiko’s muffled, but incredibly excited, voice from the other side of the door. Rin heard her footsteps get closer and closer, and she cleared her throat.
Nadeshiko swung open the door, and Rin took in the sight. Her trademark smile seemed bigger than normal and she was dressed in comfortable-looking casual clothes -- which made Rin feel a little strange, since she was still in her uniform and all -- and her bright shimmering blue eyes were trained on her stunned visitor. “Hi, Rin-chan! It’s nice to see you!”
What stood out to Rin more than anything else about the other girl in this moment was the light dusting of pink that tinted Nadeshiko’s face and the subtly shy way she seemed to be fidgeting about. Rin couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen Nadeshiko make that kind of expression before. She looked just… way too cute.
“I think I might be in love with you!” Rin blurted out suddenly, surprising herself just as much as she apparently surprised Nadeshiko -- judging by the way her eyes widened and her mouth hung open in a little “O” shape.
However; she recovered far more quickly than Rin herself and giggled, the pink tint darkening to more of a reddish hue. “Why don’t you come inside?” Nadeshiko asked, stepping back and giving Rin some room.
“S-sure,” Rin replied as she sheepishly stepped through the door frame with her eyes locked on the floor. She was certain she was probably just as red in the face by now, if not more. That hadn’t been what she meant to say at all! It had just sort of... spilled out. So much for trying to prepare, she mused.
Nadeshiko grabbed Rin’s hand once she had removed her shoes and set them neatly by the entryway, practically bouncing as she pulled Rin along. “Onee-chan still has to make dinner, so we have plenty of time to talk about... all kinds of things! And if you get hungry before then,” she continued, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “I have some snacks hidden in my room!”
“Right…”
“Oh, but before that,” Nadeshiko seemed to realize something as she yanked Rin behind her. “I kind of feel like I didn’t really give you a proper reply earlier.”
“What do you mean?”
Nadeshiko turned and beamed at Rin, and her little lovestruck heart soared.
“I think I might be in love with you, too!”