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The heart yearns for its other half, Sayaka’s mother would always say, that’s why it sings. Like a caged bird trying to find its partner.
That was the first time Sayaka’s mother explained to her what the unfamiliar music playing in the back of her mind was. Her piano lessons eating up most of her time, Sayaka couldn’t even think about listening to songs other than the pieces she needed to practice. Trying to listen to the melody in her mind, only barely succeeding. The song so quiet Sayaka wouldn’t have heard it if it didn’t stand out from the classical music.
A young Sayaka smiles at the thought, happy that her soulmate had different tastes in music than her.
---
It started inconspicuously enough. As she arranged the files on the table, the classical music served as her metronome. Keeping her in beat with whatever task she focused on. The mind works best when it’s not trying.
As Mozart transitioned into Chopin, and Chopin transitioned into. . . that. The change of genres so fast that it almost gives the violet-eyed girl whiplash. Sayaka strains hard to listen to it, the melody just barely a whisper loud.
It wasn't that bad, the new song did have a catchy tune. But they lived in Japan. Of all the songs that could get stuck in her soulmate’s mind, why did it have to be that new Spanish hit? Sayaka curses the day her soulmate was born. Not at all happy with the different tastes she and her soulmate shared. She’s glad she could barely hear the Spanish singing at all.
Disappointment wells up in her, because really? A wide array of songs ready at their disposal, why did her soulmate have to like Despacito and have it play in her mind?
Maybe it will change within the week.
---
It didn’t.
If anything, it got worse. And it was driving her mad. Currently, it was just her and Runa in the student council room. Runa's gaming console is anything but quiet and Sayaka welcomes the annoying game soundtracks. If anything, just to try and drown out that cursed guitar opening.
"Yatta!" Runa singsongs, clearing another level in her game. She takes out the lollipop in her mouth, and points it towards Sayaka. "What's got you down in the dumps, Sayaka?"
“My soulmate’s a peasant!”
Sayaka holds her head in her hands and yells, as if the infernal melody would get out of her mind simply by rapidly shaking herself. This is honestly the last straw, and Sayaka is at her wits’ end.
Even if the music is oddly hushed, almost as if it’s muted, it’s the repeating melody that gets her. As a music enthusiast, this is an utter disgrace. The violet eyed girl inhales deeply, trying to keep her anger in check, and failing miserably.
Runa’s laughter is high-pitched and hysterical, but even she calms down at the absolutely incensed fire in Sayaka’s gaze.
“Sayaka, relax. What exactly is it about your soulmate that’s driving you mad like this?”
“Despacito!” Sayaka shrieks in lieu of an explanation, witnessing Runa’s eyes widen and her answering chuckle. “Of all the songs my soulmate could be obsessed with - of all the beautiful, elegant, melodic classical music there is in the whole wide world - they had to choose the trashy Despacito?”
Runa clamps her mouth shut but lets a few amused snuffles slip through. “Nyahaha! Sayaka, don’t be that mad at them! Your soulmate might just be enjoying the latest trending songs! Really though, they wouldn’t mean to keep playing Des-”
“If you say the name I will slit your throat, Runa.”
Runa gulps at Sayaka’s acerbic tone, almost as if she is going to follow through with her murder threats. So Runa shuts up, lets Sayaka sit in silence - or rather, in the cheerful, upbeat, positively infuriating tune of Despacito , while she wallows in despair.
---
“Despacito, Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito…”
“Quit it will you!” Sayaka’s voice travels round the corridors and she almost drops the stack of files she’s carrying. The other Hyakkaou students shoot her strange glances, mixed with quizzical curiosity and muffled laughter behind their hands. Sayaka’s glare of rage is enough to shut some of them up.
She storms into the student council room in a complete fury, not noticing the quiet atmosphere that has descended upon its inhabitants. It is not until Sayaka almost crashes bodily into her President that she realises the reason for the silence.
“Ah-President-sama! I’m so sorry! I wasn’t concentrating on where I was going, and. . .”
A slim hand rests on Sayaka’s shoulder, steadying her, and Sayaka gazes up almost breathlessly into her President’s face - that stately, feminine, distant expression. Violet clashes with blue and Sayaka tries to will the blush away from her cheeks as a sweet smile spreads across Kirari’s face and oh why couldn’t Kirari be her soulmate instead of the peasant?
Immediately, Sayaka berates herself for the thoughts. It’s not like her to be disloyal to her soulmate, the one she’s destined to be with. The song of the caged bird intertwined with her own life. But Sayaka is painfully aware of Kirari all the time, her heart yearning for a melody that would possibly be a refined classical piece, anything other than -
“Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito, Nos vamos pegando poquito a poquito…”
“Ah damn you!”
Sayaka rips herself apart from Kirari’s touch, missing the surprised flush flitting across Kirari’s cheeks, and stumbles to the nearest ornate chair beside the long table in the council room. She buries her head in her palms and wills, with all her heart, for the irksome song to reach its end and fade away, but she knows it’ll start up again in an endless loop. Heavens help her.
A chair is pulled out beside hers and then seconds later Kirari’s soft, enchanting voice, a soothing arrow shot in the darkness and dimming the sounds of Despacito considerably.
“Sayaka, is something wrong? I’m worried about you.”
The music suddenly halts and screeches to a blinding stop in the midst of Kirari’s question, and Sayaka is finally able to lift her head and stare into her President’s breathtaking eyes with nothing obstructing her thoughts - finally! Sayaka could have cried in relief.
At the same time, there’s a warmth spreading through her chest, all too familiar with its pounding glow - Kirari cares about me? She’s asking after me? I. . .
“No! No, I’m okay! It’s just. . . I’ve been preoccupied by something recently. I’ll be fine President, please trust in me! I’ll get over it - find a way to stop it -”
“What exactly would you mean by that?” Kirari’s expression is inquisitive, her head tilted gracefully to the side, and not for the first time in the day Sayaka melts under her gaze.
“Uh, it’s personal I guess. . . Thank you so much for your concern!” Sayaka stutters.
In truth she’s too embarrassed to say to the President, the person she’s loved from afar and knows is so perfectly unattainable, that my soulmate is a complete halfwit and is unhealthily obsessed with the song Despacito and it’s hurting my head and I really want to strangle whoever my soulmate is so that I can live in peace at last.
“All right, Sayaka,” Kirari purrs, and she ends with a lilt to Sayaka’s name that makes Sayaka positively weak in the knees, “I hope whatever it is ends on a good note, then.”
Sayaka is half gratified and half triggered by the President’s last words as the song starts up yet again and somehow it’s louder this time, easing into a crescendo in the chorus. A noisy, annoying crescendo. She narrowly refrains from bashing her head out on the table.
---
One afternoon, the song would just randomly stop. In its place a song that Sayaka fully recognizes: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Has her music finally influenced her soulmate to listen to more refined songs? Sayaka could cry out of sheer joy, ecstatic at the reprieve she has been given from that god-awful song.
Her increase in productivity is not missed by the student council. The week of being haunted by less than. . . delightful music did horrors to her usual work ethic. Her attention being focused primarily on trying to drown out the insufferable tune that plagued her waking hours. Sayaka doesn’t know how long this silence would last, but she’s basking in it for now.
A soft laugh brings her out of her reverie, chiming like bells and completely in tune with the song in her mind. “Did you find a solution to your problem, Sayaka?”
It takes all her willpower not to hug the student council President, her happiness going through the roof. She settles with a smile, her giddiness seeping in her voice. “Yes, President-sama! The problem has fixed itself, actually.”
“Well, I’m glad. I can’t have my precious secretary perform any less than her very best.”
And Kirari smiles, not her usual smile filled with hidden agendas and twisted amusement, but an actual soft smiles that has butterflies - no, an entire zoo - bursting in Sayaka’s stomach. Sayaka can feel her heart beat faster, the same warm feeling as last time returning. And in that moment, Sayaka forgets about songs, about soulmates, about anything other than her President. Right now it was just the two of them. And nothing else matters other than the company they share with each other.
---
Tchaikovsky’s Valzer de Fiori blares loudly in Sayaka’s mind. Even though she’s still quite unsure why the music keeps getting louder, Sayaka doesn’t mind it this time around. She works with the rhythm set by the song gracefully, her fingers arranging the stacks of paper. Controlling them as if they were a set of ivory and ebony keys that she had oh so mastered long ago.
“Glad to see you back to normal, Sayaka.” Runa mentions in passing. Sayaka just nods, smiling and humming to one of her favorite arrangements since she was a child. “Have you finally gotten Des—"
“Don’t finish that sentence,” even though her tone is chirpy, the underlying threat is not missed. “My soulmate has finally gotten some class! Valzer de Fiori! Can you believe it?”
Still busy with her paperwork, Sayaka misses the smirk that adorns Runa’s face. Her laugh, low and ominous, straying from her usual mirth. “Oh, I believe it.”
“I hope my soulmate stays like this. This is more welcomed than that poor excuse of a pop hit that’s been haunting me.”
“Nyahaha! Don’t get your hopes up way too high~ Remember!” Runa rolls the saccharine treat she always has with her in her mouth, passing cheek to cheek. “If everything goes well, there’s most definitely trouble stewing in the background.”
---
She did, and it backfired.
To say that Sayaka was peeved would be an understatement of the century. She was downright murderous. Her temporary alleviation to the infuriating song was that, temporary. After a few days, barely three! The relaxing piano music started transitioning back into a familiar guitar plucking, and suddenly Sayaka finds herself back to square one.
After the gamble at the Tower, the music had gotten even louder this time. Reaching a whole new volume. Sayaka could feel her ears start bleeding from the music she couldn’t even mute. The violet eyed girl throws her head back in exasperation and frustration. She clenches her fists, trying to decide if she was going to kill her soulmate or herself first.
“Hasta que las olas griten ¡ay bendito!...”
A scream is bubbling in her throat, tears welling in her eyes. Oh how she wishes she had died when she jumped off the Tower, at least that would have been the end of the wretched song booming in her mind.
But, no. She is cursed with a fate worse than death. Of all the ways to drive her into insanity, having Despacito blaring over and over and over again in her mind was the worst kind of them all.
She was going to give her soulmate hell for this. The president had called for her to discuss her new role as her secretary but she still had another hour of free time before it would begin. And Sayaka will be damned if she won’t try to find reprieve for this problem, even if barely. She doesn’t want a repeat of her near meltdown last meeting.
The students of Hyakkaou Academy already know to step out of the path of any student council member, especially if they were furious. Sayaka doesn’t bother to hide her anger, shooting daggers from her eyes as they stepped to the side. Stomping her way to one of the few places in the school that made her relax: The Music Room.
She all but rips the door off its hinges, a slam echoing behind her as she strides purposefully towards the grand piano in the middle of the room. The sleek piano brings comfort to Sayaka. The way the polished keys glimmer in the sunlight that peeked through the curtains. The sight alone is almost enough to make her relax and ignore the world around her. She takes a seat and thinks of a song to play.
Despite not having played the piano for a while, the notes flow like honey, fingers dancing as her movements come out like second nature to her. Muscle memory guiding her, not even thinking about her dumbass of a soulmate. Drowning the wretched song with something she could control. Sayaka isn’t sure how long she’s been playing. As one song ended, Sayaka started another. Losing herself in the music. Songs that remind her of her childhood. A wave of nostalgia and melancholy wash over her. Perhaps, it’s been a while since she’s last enjoyed playing the piano.
Did her soulmate even hear these songs? She’d been too caught up with suffering that she realizes that no other song has been playing in her mind. Did her other half worry about the silence? Or was she too busy with—
Wait.
Her mind is oddly silent, the song she had just been playing echoing in her mind. She didn’t notice at first, it went with the same tempo and rhythm as she played. But, she’s not playing right now.
Oh what I would give if we could share thoughts and not songs. Sayaka thinks forlornly, still battling an inner tug of war of loyalty to her president or to her soulmate. Why couldn’t President-sama be my soulmate.
She swallows that thought down, maybe she was being unfair to her soulmate. Not really giving him or her a chance. They haven’t even met yet, and maybe it wasn’t by choice that the song would be on repeat non stop. She doesn’t understand why she never thought of it like that. No sane person would ever have Despacito playing in their head on repeat.
As she closes the piano, there is silence. Both in her mind and the world around her. She closes her eyes, trying to think of a song that would fly towards her caged partner. Something that would make them birds of the same feather. Something that—
“Sabes que tu corazón conmigo te hace bom, bom…”
Sayaka screams in a fortississimo.
---
Seeing the President wandering the halls of the academy was a rare sight by itself. Seeing the President alone, with neither the Vice-President nor her Secretary flanking her was like seeing a magical sea-serpent eating the moon. Kirari had seen her precious secretary all but stomp off out the council room after being informed of a discussion of Sayaka’s new roles was still an hour away. Stress, perhaps. The gamble at the tower did nothing to help her either. It had been a while since she saw Sayaka take a break, maybe they could go and take a relaxing walk in the gardens before the meeting started.
With that goal in mind, Kirari had followed Sayaka, instead of the other way around, throughout the school. But the younger girl was way too preoccupied to have even noticed the figure of Kirari shadowing her. The murmurs of the students quickly being shut at the glare of Sayaka, even going as much as flashing to the wall to avoid her.
Kirari takes lazy steps humming all the while to Despacito. The Spanish hit song had quickly become Kirari’s favorite, and to Kirari’s guesses, much to the dismay of her soulmate. She didn’t understand how her soulmate could possibly stand listening to classical music only , even going as far as listening to them for a while before getting bored with it and going back to Despacito. Lately, her mind had gone silent. Lacking the usual richness of a piano. Had she actually killed her destined partner with Despacito?
Kirari follows her to a part of the school that she isn’t familiar. The halls all look alike, the wings all blend together that no one would really notice the difference, but Kirari had memorized each nook and crevice of her precious academy to easily recognize where they were.
The slamming of a door piques Kirari’s interest, however still taking her time striding towards the room Sayaka had picked. She never knew Sayaka had an interest in music. It seems like the President keeps finding out new things about her Secretary.
Kirari is about to follow her when she hears a soft melody playing from inside the room, the very same song that she hears echoing at the back of her mind. The songs come screaming in like tidal waves, and when it reaches Kirari, she is drowning in it. She has never wanted to live her life wondering if the songs she’s heard were ghosts, and now she doesn’t need to.
It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots, and Kirari is far from being a genius. Who else would enjoy classical music more than a musician themselves? Kirari listens to Sayaka’s playing, as if she were performing in front of a live audience. Kirari couldn't see her, but she knows that Sayaka herself was drowning in the music as well.
There’s not much pause between songs, seamlessly transitioning one after the other. Pitter pattering themselves throughout the hallway like rain. She listens carefully and intently to the way Sayaka wills her imaginary audience to be entranced by her songs.
Sayaka stops playing, but Kirari still plays the last of the notes in her mind before stopping. She stops for a while, an amused smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She waits for a moment before leaving, laughing internally as she hears Sayaka’s dismayed screaming.
---
The President waves a regal hand in a dismissive gesture, ending the meeting, and the council members rise from their seats. Runa is stretching and yawning, and Sayaka smirks fondly at the tiredness in Runa’s eyes. Midari slouches off the seat and trudges out of the room, and Yuriko trails after her, an impassive expression on her face.
Sayaka gathers her agenda booklet and the pile of Life Schedules beside her before making to leave herself. It’s been an unusually long day and Sayaka is yearning for nothing but a long nap and -
“Sayaka? There are a few files I still need us to go over before we leave. Is that alright with you?”
The President’s airy voice sounds from behind her and Sayaka bites back a curse before realising, yes she does indeed want to spend more time with Kirari. . . Alone.
As the other members file out she nods deferentially in response and returns her gaze to Kirari, who is reclining in front of her aquarium, her platinum hair tumbling gracefully across her ears in that elaborate braid Sayaka so loves. The sight of the rippling water reflected in Kirari’s eyes is so unreal, so mystical, that Sayaka has to swallow the words that are threatening to trip over her lips in an unruly mess:
You are so beautiful. So poised. So breathtaking. I love you.
And yet Sayaka can’t stop herself from that small pang of unease whenever she deliberates over her devotion to and affection for Kirari, whenever she ventures closer to that edge of being disloyal to her soulmate. . . The Despacito loving fool. Sayaka rolls her eyes in consternation and the President, unfortunately, catches her expression at that singular moment. Damn.
“That problem still troubling you, Sayaka?”
“Oh! Um, yes, to be honest. I thought it was resolved back then, but it seems to have returned with a ferocity that I can’t even begin to fathom-” Sayaka’s answer is cut short by a small laugh, and Kirari’s amusement in the form of a dainty hand covering her lips.
"Ferocity? Sayaka, are you sure you aren’t too overworked? I really told you to stay back because I wanted to say this, actually.” Kirari crosses her legs and Sayaka bites her lip, refraining from staring too much at the polished movement. Or the beauty that is Kirari’s slim, shapely legs peeking out from under her uniform dress. “Tomorrow, take a day off with me, will you?”
“What?” Sayaka returns a nonplussed glance at her President. “We have duties, though, we -”
“Do you remember how we used to stroll around the gardens during breaks? I miss that. You’ve been stressing out too much, Sayaka.” Kirari recalls sweetly, and Sayaka is tempted to rush over and hug the President - much as it would be against the etiquette she’s learnt to muster, it is a very tantalising urge.
“President, I really can’t begin to say how grateful I am for you—"
A guitar plucking shatters the atmosphere into a million pieces. Sayaka’s head jerks up as an overly familiar, vexing, downright maddening tune fills the Student Council room. No. It can’t be. . .
Her doubts are completely crushed when the first few bars of strumming enter the room and Despacito rings out with a vengeance destined to obliterate Sayaka’s ears. She chokes as Kirari tugs out a slim smartphone and swipes the screen -
“Not again, one of those unknown calls,” Kirari snubs, while deliberating over whether to accept the call. Sayaka’s eyes widen and she barely gets her next words out.
“What? P-President-sama! What is the meaning of this! Why do you have this blasted song as your ringtone?”
Kirari raises one perfectly shaped eyebrow, and Sayaka tries not to let the scream she’s been suppressing inside her chest out.
“I’ve had this as my ringtone since it came out, why ask?”
The melody is still ringing out in the room, the echoes driving Sayaka insane. As if in slow motion, Sayaka watches Kirari extend a slender finger to answer the call, but the moment is dragged out and painful and she can’t bear it any more, to hear the idiotic tune in her head blaring into her ears in real life -
“Can you switch it off? I’m sorry, this is so rude but I’ve just-”
“Just what?”
Kirari frowns delicately when Sayaka’s voice peters out uncertainly. Sayaka bites her lip and deliberates over whether to confide in her President, to spill out her rage and annoyance at her unknown soulmate, and maybe even shed a few indignant tears at the debacle that’s been her life these days, but it would be highly embarrassing. Not for the first time, Sayaka wonders if there’s a way to switch soulmates.
She would give her life up to hear Kirari’s sweet songs in her mind all day.
Seeing Sayaka’s lack of response, Kirari sighs and cuts the call with a curious smirk on her face, giving Sayaka’s ears a temporary reprieve. She extends her hand out to Sayaka gracefully. Sayaka gulps, nerves bubbling up in her chest, and tentatively slips her fingers into Kirari’s grasp. Kirari’s palm is warm, and Sayaka is tugged to her feet despite her pounding heartbeat, elicited by Kirari’s touch.
“You’re tired.”
It is a statement, one that is tinged with affection and mild exasperation, and Sayaka’s heart melts at the emotion behind Kirari’s voice.
“I’m-” Sayaka starts to reply gratefully, but is cut off by Kirari’s murmur and the tightening of her fingers around Sayaka’s hand.
“Let’s go to the gardens now, since everyone’s left. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the fountains, and I remember they are beautiful at this time of day. The sunset bleeds into the water - it is breathtaking.”
And Sayaka momentarily forgets all about Despacito , as a blissful, almost eerie quiet takes over her mind - all she can hear is the sound of their interlaced footsteps as Kirari leads her out of the student council room and towards the direction of the gardens.
---
Silence. It is the sweetest sound to Sayaka’s ears, because then she can hear Kirari’s heartbeat, clear and precise, from the idle thumb that Sayaka has rested on Kirari’s wrist. The fountains are indeed at their most magnificent, tinted with crimson and salmon hues from the setting sun behind the mountains that rim Hyakkakou Academy.
Kirari’s gaze is fixated on the rush and tumble of the fountain water, so clear in the reflection of the sunlight. Sayaka’s gaze, however, darts between the fountain and her President’s face - have Kirari’s eyes always been so violently and perfectly blue? Sayaka tries to refrain from lifting a hand to touch Kirari’s braids - the braids she does up with so much love and care every morning.
“Feeling better?” Kirari quips, glancing sideways at Sayaka cheekily and promptly catching the violet-haired girl in her act of staring.
“Yes, thank you so much.” Sayaka mumbles hurriedly, a blush spreading across her cheeks as she realises that Kirari’s hand is still entwined with hers and it is such a bittersweet feeling: Kirari so close to her, yet so unattainable.
“That’s good to hear.”
Kirari stares off into the distance, and Sayaka notices her fighting to keep an amused smile under wraps. Everything seems to be amusing to the President these days, but Sayaka is only happy to see Kirari in high spirits. After all, she clearly knows that she is deeply in the throes of one-sided attraction to Kirari, but being here in the gardens and so close to Kirari sends waves of comfort through her.
And then a blaring dragged-out note in her mind obliterates that thought completely,
“De-spa-cito…”
Sayaka chokes on air. The melody rips through her mind in a fit of savagery, and Sayaka almost collapses in despair at the fact that no, she is not going to be rid of Despacito after all. She curses the unknown soulmate that’s dared to destroy the moment between her and Kirari, her one true love, and tries to block out the lyrics invading her head.
Kirari is humming idly, and Sayaka registers the sound in her peripheral hearing, so she decides to focus on that instead.
She forces her mind to switch back to the present, Kirari’s humming filtering into her-
Wait.
The lyrics of Despacito have muddled into a low humming of the melody, and Sayaka is initially bemused as to why it overlaps with Kirari’s voice. Sayaka’s thoughts cloud over, and the voices meld into one, distinct tone of Kirari… humming the exact same bars of Despacito that are in Sayaka’s mind right now.
“Oh my God.” Sayaka blurts out, frozen disbelief racing through her. Her mind is malfunctioning with the realisation - Kirari is singing Despacito. My soulmate the Despacito lover. Kirari is my. . .
“Soulmate , dear Lord, you’re an absolute irritating- Kirari!”
Sayaka trips over her exclamation and in her wild epiphany spins Kirari round to face her. The distance between the two of them closes as Sayaka turns an accusing gaze on Kirari. A slow smile spreads across Kirari’s shrewd features and Kirari tilts her head playfully, earning an even more intense glare from Sayaka.
“Did you just say irritating, my dear secretary? I am personally offended. What in the world could have caused you to make such a claim, now-”
“You knew!” Sayaka points a threatening finger at Kirari, whose smile is positively maddening and endearing at the same time. “You knew all the time, and you were toying with me, and do you even realise how much Despacito irritates me, and-”
“Aw, Sayaka!” Kirari finally gives in and doubles over in laughter, abandoning her cold facade for the mirth underneath. Sayaka is not amused. “I only figured it out the day you were playing the piano in the music room. Your classical music is enchanting, by the way. Superb musical talent.”
Sayaka bypasses the compliment despite the warm glow in her chest and starts raining light punches on Kirari’s arm.
“Come on! You even set Despacito as your ringtone to make it more painful, huh?”
“Hey, I genuinely forgot that was my ringtone! I really didn’t have it in mind to torture you with it!”
Kirari smirks as she protests adorably, and Sayaka is torn between the urge to smash the fountain beside them or launch herself at Kirari or both.
“President-sama, you are honestly the worst!” Sayaka wails with a helpless expression in her eyes. “I know I’ve been in love with you for ages and I’m so overjoyed that we’re soulmates, but did you have to do that? And ask after the problem bothering me while you were singing Despacito for days on end? You. . . Sometimes you really are an idiot!”
“Now just who are you calling idiot, my Sayaka?”
A dangerous light enters Kirari’s eyes and Sayaka gulps.
The feeling is then eclipsed by happiness when she registers the warmth in Kirari’s voice, the way she addresses Sayaka - my Sayaka - and the earlier anger dissipates into shock and deep, deep contentment. Kirari takes Sayaka into her arms and Sayaka forgets all about her vendetta against Despacito when her eyes meet her President’s, violet against blue in a tender, searing gaze.
“I, well. . . Kirari, I’m sorry?”
She doesn’t know why she’s the one apologising, just that Kirari is snickering and then the air is charged with something like a bolt of electricity. They’re kissing, the softness of Kirari’s lips on hers laced with fire and flame and passion, the mark of their shared bond.
Kirari tastes like the first flight of freedom. The way her hand snakes on her shoulders feels like she’s given her wings. Giving her a way for her to follow her caged bird’s patterns in the sky, her heart soaring with each gratified whisper that comes out Kirari’s lips. The way Kirari’s fingers feel like angels, and her ticket to madness.
They break apart, and Sayaka cannot help the grin that surfaces, a testament to the freed bird twittering in her chest, the cage doors broken apart and the bird reunited with its destined partner. It is beautiful, the sensation of her being with her soulmate. Even if it is The Despacito Peasant , which also just so happens to be her President, Kirari Momobami, the love of her life.
The partner to her caged bird.
Omake:
Kirari speaks first.
“Despacito isn’t that bad, Sayaka.” And a ticket to madness was definitely an apt description of Kirari. Sayaka is sure now that it was Kirari’s sole purpose in life to ruin the moment. “It’s popular for a reason, it’s catchy, it has fun lyrics, it’s amusing—"
“President-sama, as much as I admire you. You make it hard to resist not to taser you.”
Kirari laughs at Sayaka’s empty threat, caressing Sayaka’s smooth face with her perfectly manicured nails. “I like to think that you find me just plain hard to resist. And you don’t need a taser to be shocking.”
“President-sama, your sense of humor is as bad as your taste in music.” Sayaka deadpans, staring deep into the ocean mist of Kirari’s eyes, the sunset sky twinkling in them like fireflies, and resisting all urges to just slap her senseless. “I just don’t understand how. . . Of all the songs. . . ! I reiterate: You’re an idiot.”