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It was a Saturday afternoon like any other.
The weather was turning from hot and humid to overcast and chilly, giving Reina and Kumiko the perfect opportunity to hole themselves up in Kumiko’s room under the guise of practicing for the upcoming competition. Though what they were actually doing was eating snacks and talking their usual nonsense, Kumiko leaning back against the headboard with her legs splayed out in front of her while Reina sat demurely at her desk, nibbling on a cookie and mulling over the latest topic.
Little did Kumiko know that the discussion that followed her naively teasing her best friend about her penchant for Taki-sensei’s hair would change her life forever. The jibe was almost intentional: the jealous bubble that swelled up in her chest at the thought of Reina ogling their teacher caused the accusation to fall from her mouth with more venom than necessary, but she hadn’t expected Reina to actually pause and think about her own emotional attachment to their band leader.
“I’ve never once wanted to kiss him,” Reina said slowly, speaking the words aloud as though to herself as much as her audience, realizing the truth of it as she mulled it over. “I... don’t think about him like that at all, actually, about how his hair looks, or the colour of his eyes, or the clothes he’s wearing. Surely that’s odd. I’ve never once ogled him as you put it. I’ve been in awe of him, yes, amazed at his talent – his kindness – but I’ve never thought... he’s attractive. If you love someone, you should think about them like that, right?”
The question seemed rhetorical and Kumiko couldn’t answer if she wanted to for what could she say to that? Except a new bubble, one of hope, was swelling in her chest against her will and better judgment.
“I’m not even sad about it,” Reina continued, bemused. “Realising I don’t love him that way doesn’t upset me. Is that strange? If we’re being honest I think I’ve known for a long time that that was the case. Not once have I imagined kissing him.” Then she turned her full attention to Kumiko, who was watching her carefully with her heart hammering, hand poised from where she was about to take a cookie before Reina turned her world upside down.
“But I always want to kiss you,” she told her, casual as you please, cocking her head to the side as she regarded her. “That’s strange, right? I’ve never once thought of him in that way and yet I think about kissing you all the time. I'm so attracted to you it pulses through me veins. I think about walking up to you, pushing you up against the wall, or down on the bed, straddling your lap as you look at me with your Reina, what are you doing eyes and just... letting my tongue entwine with yours, preferably while you grip my hair.”
Reina’s eyes glazed over as she pictured the scene. Meanwhile Kumiko could barely breathe. She vaguely noticed her hand dropping to her lap, of her heartbeat thudding desperately in her ears. She must have appeared ghostly white; all her blood rushed southwards at Reina's words, leaving no room for thinking capabilities.
“Huh,” Reina mused, taking another bite of her cookie while Kumiko struggled for air. “So I really was never in love with him after all. I was infatuated with his talent. He’s a great teacher, it’s true. But I was never... I never wanted to...” She snorted. “I never even wanted to hold his hand.”
Then she leveled her intense gaze to Kumiko, who was flushed red and clenching both fists on her knees, slowly sucking in a breath to say something, anything.
“But you...” Reina said, slowly appraising her. Kumiko felt her gaze like a caress and she felt the urge to cross her legs. “You I want. I think I’ve always wanted you, but I was so distracted and confused and focused that I never saw it. Despite thinking about kissing you constantly. Kumiko, you appeal to every single sense I have.”
“I – um – you-“ Kumiko tried valiantly to form a sentence, but failed.
Reina was saying all of this so nonchalantly. Typical Reina! Meanwhile Kumiko was dying inside – from joy, from embarrassment, from arousal, she really didn’t know.
“Sorry,’ Reina said blankly, snapping out of her reverie. “I shouldn’t let my thoughts spill out unfiltered like that. I’ve made things awkward...”
“No, no-” Kumiko shook her head desperately. “That’s fine! Awkward is fine! I like awkward!” She cringed at her high pitch. “What I mean is, um, I’m glad you feel like that because... I – I think like that too.”
Reina’s smile started slow, her lips curving in amusement. “Really?”
“Really, really.”
“For how long?”
Kumiko waved vaguely, chittering nervously.
Reina outright grinned. “I’ve been so stupid haven’t I?”
Kumiko had enough presence of mind to say, honestly, “A little, but I’ve been stupid too. Besides, being your friend first gave us this – this – whatever it is between us – so I’m not upset.”
“Oh, Kumiko,” Reina sighed, looking rather pained at her long-delayed realisation.
“It’s okay,” Kumiko reassured her, because it really was. She scrambled off the bed and engulfed Reina in a hug before she thought better of it, and Reina stiffened for a moment before returning the embrace with all the strength she had.
“You’re everything,” she said into her shoulder, drawing back so she could look into Kumiko’s eyes. “You always were.”
Tears pricked Kumiko’s eyes, and her smile became wobbly. She couldn’t believe this was happening. One second she was wiping crumbs off her bed sheets, praising Reina’s silky looking hair, feeling that familiar jealousy at her friends infatuation with their teacher, and the next her best friend was confessing to her in a way only she could, strangely and passionately and wonderfully while putting all her past envy and nerves to rest.
“My Kumiko,” Reina murmured, kissing her knuckles.
Kumiko swooned.
“I will make this up to you,” she vowed.
“Reina, seriously, there’s nothing to make up-”
“Just let me,” Reina pleaded, gazing up at her imploringly.
“I don’t even know what that means, but fine.”
Pleased, Reina tugged her down so Kumiko was sitting on her lap, wrapping both arms around her waist and nuzzling her shoulder. “This is where I’m meant to be.”
Kumiko blushed for the thousandth time. Or maybe she’d never stopped blushing since the first one and it was in fact a long continuous flush. “Jeez, you’re such a romantic.”
“You’re complaining?”
“No! Just my heart... can’t take it right now,” she chuckled, running her fingers through Reina’s silky tresses, delighting in the fact she could do such a casual, heart stopping thing.
Sitting with her like this, saying the words she’d kept buried, felt somehow natural, like they were there on the tip of her tongue all along, waiting patiently to be let free.
Now they were swirling all around them, a conversation immortalised in the soft, warm ambiance of Kumiko’s bedroom, the faint smell of cookies and a vanilla candle in the air, Reina’s hands on her waist, Kumiko’s heart slowing and slotting into the same rhythm as Reina’s. As for Reina, she hummed into Kumiko’s hair, content to sit with her in silence as she breathed out the rest of her feelings.
“I will play for you, always,” she whispered, untold moments later, and Kumiko felt a few tears slip down her face, her smile watery as she leaned back to meet her loving stare, and said, “I’m going to marry you someday.”
Suddenly she snapped out of her lovesick daze and promptly flushed to the roots of her hair, practically falling off Reina’s lap and landing haphazardly on the floor, and figured she’d never, ever uttered anything more mortifying during one of her whoops-I-said-that-out-loud moments in her life.
Except Reina was standing over her prying her hands from her face, laughing, and Kumiko was smiling back sheepishly as she allowed herself to be pulled up from the floor.
“At least buy a girl dinner first.”
Kumiko chuckled, rubbing her arm awkwardly. “I can do that.”
“And Kumiko?”
Reina waited while Kumiko summoned the courage to look her in the eyes again.
“I’d say yes.”
It was a long, long, long time before Kumiko was able to stand back up.