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Body rolls.
A well-defined figure.
A small amount of sweat.
…her.... No. Sayo wasn't going to think about that. She shouldn't even have been looking so hard at Lisa's body when she had been trusted to critique Lisa's performance and not Ogle her until no inch of her was left unscanned.
Sayo would lie to herself and say she couldn't help it, but she could, she absolutely could have refocused herself, yet pulling the fog from her brain seemed like less of a good idea when Lisa was moving the way she did.
Reality didn't set in until Lisa finished, Yukina paused the music and gave her opinion that Sayo didn't even hear with the panic rushing round her head sounding like a whirling cage of death in her ears... and they both turned to her.
"I..." Sayo starts, hating that she appeared foolish more than anything else. "Am not a very good judge at this sort of activity. I think you should go with what Minato-san has said."
"Ah, well, that can't do! I invited you both because Yukina can be a bit biased you know?" Lisa says.
"I still don't think that's true." Yukina responds. "I think I'm entirely fair-minded."
" When it comes to Roselia that is true, Minato-san. You do seem to admire Imai-san greatly otherwise." Sayo notes.
"And I'm super grateful for it and wanted to show you the dance just for that Yukina!" Lisa smiles at Yukina who was now blushing at being called out. "But I was hoping to get a less clouded opinion too."
"Perhaps, you could do it again, if that's not too much to ask?" Sayo requests guiltily.
"Of course it isn't. Yukiiiina, could you get us something to drink? I want to have a refreshment after!"
"Sure." Yukina said handing Sayo Lisa's phone which played the music before exiting.
"Tell me when you want me to press start." Sayo began reading the song's name out as well as the artist. It was some solo artist's debut bubblegum pop album. Horribly produced, but catchy and sexualized enough that it seemed like something that would frequent the radio.
"Sayo." Lisa said, closing the door. "Are you okay? You don't usually space off like that. While Yukina was talking to me about the dance you seemed Ill."
Leave it up to Lisa to notice something was amiss so quickly.
Sayo felt a bit sick actually. Sick with herself...
"Yes. I apologize. I was a little distracted while you were dancing."
"That's fine, it's just you don't usually lose focus Sayo. I mean I know my dancing might not be the most exciting or useful thing but you don't usually space off. Is something bothering you?"
"It was exciting." Sayo interjects insistently. "Very much so. Don't think I didn't enjoy it Imai-san, I just lost track of myself for a moment."
"Very much so huh?" Lisa questions with that smile she always does right before she says something that scared the living hell out of Sayo. "Using words like that, even though you didn't even pay attention? Sayo.…"
She comes closer and Sayo immediately steps back.
Lisa was dawned in the least amount of clothes Sayo had ever seen her in, lighter breathable dancewear presumably, perspiration still on her skin, hair all the way down.
She looked insanely good. Insanely sexual. Insanely beautiful.
"I know dancing can be intimate and vulnerable. If you looked at me in anyway, I'm fine with it okay? In fact it's a good thing if you did." Lisa reads her like a book.
"A good thing??" Sayo asks, too caught off guard to dismiss the assumption.
"Ah! You didn't deny it." Lisa caught on. "So I did feel someone's eyes burning a hole in my skin and that explains your red face right now!"
Sayo flushes even more realizing she played herself. "How is it a good thing? I feel entirely disgusted with myself."
"Well dance is meant to invict emotion, isn't it? There'd be no point if you felt nothing after watching. The fact that I can get such a reaction from you? That's amazing! Besides, it was a risque dance. I made it that way and picked a song that fit that theme."
"I see." Sayo says. "So you are not upset? Truly?"
"No, not at all! I got one of the reactions I hoped for. Maybe this time around you can focus on the dance now that all of the ogling is out of your system!" Lisa winks.
With that wink Sayo was already sure the instinct to ogle was nowhere out of her system.
"Imai-san, how do you do it?" She asks.
"Do what?" Lisa asks.
"This dancing... Those moves. I could never imagine having the confidence to do them."
"Really?" Lisa asks. "You always seem so confident and you have great rhythm Sayo."
"It's... " Sayo didn't know how to explain. "Being a guitarist is different than what you just did in some ways."
As a guitarist her skill alone was what mattered. As long as she appeared neat and in control, determined and focused, she was doing her job as a guitarist. Sayo thought that for the longest time and recently had found more things that were important to her journey as a musician than just those. She was working on them but... Still there was a difference.
Lisa exuded so much feminine power and sexuality, and that was a part of what made her skills shine. Sayo didn't have anything like that within her goals, and she was glad because she knew she could never pull it off the way Lisa had.
"Hmm... I'm not sure. I just sort of feel it, you know? Like how it feels when you do the first strum of the night on your guitar or for me the bass at a performance? Like that special feeling but the whole time I'm dancing. My upper-class man said that it was special and something of note about me, that she could feel the music course through me when I danced ,if that helps?"
"That's amazing, Imai-san." Sayo says, in wonder. She wondered how much music meant to Lisa, that she could embody it so accurately and for it to make her appear so bold.
"Well... " Lisa says, a smile different than the ones before gliding upwards onto her mouth. "Thank you Sayo. If you want I could -"
"Guys? Can you open the door. My hands are full." Yukina calls out.
"Coming!" Lisa exclaims opening the door and taking a drink off the tray. Sayo thinks to take hers now, too, just in case she got a little too heated again while actually watching.
Now, if she got incidentally turned on by her friend... At least she knew it were okay. Accepted, even.
…how strange.
Sayo manages to keep her focuses on the dancing this time and is surprised when she actually finds things that needed technical improvement, little things that didn't really cast any negatives over the dance overall but if Lisa were to be doing this for a contest between her friends, however playful it was, surely she'd want or should aspire for perfection. She was in Roselia, after all.
"That was good, Imai-san. If I may note some things?"
"Go on ahead!" Lisa exclaims
"Forgive me if any of this is baseless. I have no dance knowledge after all. But, once or twice the transitions seemed less fluid than the rest of the dance, as if you were rushing to get into the next move, like after the lyric... "
Saying such crude things, even though she were simply repeating the lyrics for reference made Sayo a little embarassed but she went on anyway. Lisa herself had grabbed a pen and paper she had on her bed and was nodding and eagerly writing things down.
"Also, the repeated move, the body twisting at end would be better replaced by something different as the first time you did it, it brought a shock factor to the dance and it feels less effective when done again."
"Mmm. Like when we decided not to have the exact same chorus in our new thing?" Lisa asks while jotting the advice down.
"Exactly. Otherwise, just make sure that song is approved at your school and everything else is fine. I am impressed by your musicality."
"Got it. It would be really bad if my upper-classman didn't like the song for me but since it isn't an officially sanctioned event I at least won't get in big trouble for it." Lisa puts down her paper and then says "Thank you so much, Sayo. You've been a big help. You too Yukina, your support always means the world to me!"
"I'm glad to help, Imai-san. You help the band in more ways than I could count."
"It's true. I think you will win Lisa." Yukina agrees.
"Aw! You guys! Let's cheers to my future victory then!" Lisa retrieved her iced lemonade.
----
They spent a little more time together before both she and Yukina depart Lisa's home. Yukina to go home and quickly help her family with evening chores before coming back over to watch a movie with Lisa, and Sayo because she lived a little away and didn't want it to get too dark before she got to her house.
Hina would most definitely worry far more than necessary.
There was, however, what Lisa said to her, whispered in her ear right before she left causing Sayo to get a massive glare of confusion from Yukina and goosebumps all over her arms.
'Check your messages when you get to your room. I have something to tell you.'
Tell her? What could it possibly be that she couldn't say while she was there?
Sayo followed the rules, not clicking on the notification which appeared to be a media attachment until Hina finally let her go after rambling lovingly about her day with her girlfriends, yes, girlfriends; Chisato and Aya for almost thirty minutes.
She didn't know how her sister managed to get all the ladies or a lady at all with the way that she was, but it was just another thing on the list Sayo just wasn't capable of, that she was.
In her room, she immediately sets herself on her bed and clicks the notification, happy that she finally could.
It took a moment to download and buffer thanks to her home's iffy wi-fi, and then Sayo sees a video of Lisa close to the camera. "Just for you." She says with a wink. "For being so helpful today."
Lisa pans her camera down and she... Was wearing only her undies, a matching green and lacey set. It was simply an overview angle and the video wasn't very long yet Sayo was completly undone by it.
Lisa was giving her something specifically meant for perverse incentives.
Sayo practically drooled because she forgot to keep her jaw in place.
She saves it the moment it ends (for the fifth time) and almost goes for a sixth viewing before remembering she should respond.
'Wow, Imai-san. That was appreciated.' Sayo texts carefully, her stomach in knots. 'Very much so.... Thank you.'
'Haha, no problem :-* maybe some day I can see you work with your Kyudo? That would be really fun.'
'I doubt it'd be as attractive.... ' Sayo replies, her weak attempt at a flirt if it could even call it that, instead of just the truth.
'Nonsense. Girls with arrows may just be a weakness of mines.'
'I wasn't aware of this.'
'Why would you have been? I keep it a secret! Well ;) now you know, so what're you gonna do about it?'
'I'll ask you to join the crowd whenever it is I have my next competition. I'd like you to see the best version of my skills.'
Sayo's panic ran at a mile a minute when she realized Lisa kind of just... Confessed to her in a way? She responds as fast as she could, unsure how she'd ended up pacing around her room.
'That sounds nice. Like I understand the process of training, so I could watch you practice if you don't want me intruding on a big day but I'm definitely not as much of a critical eye as you.'
'You wouldn't intrude... And perhaps. You could be a support, like Minato-san was for you.'
'I think I definitely have the being biased for you part down. '
'That video proves as much.'
'Yeah? How do you know I didn't send one to Yukina too?? ;) '
Sayo retreats inside herself in embarrassment for a moment wondering if she were being presumptuous before settling on the fact that Lisa was just teasing.
The wink said as much.
She was a good tease. Sayo didn't even know there was such a thing until now.
'You said it was just for me, Imai-san. I believe you.'
'Haha. Okay okay, so it's a deal. I can't wait!'
'I share this sentiment.'
Sayo puts her phone down, reveling over that conversation. Did they... Sort of set up a date?
Sayo really did admire Lisa, but this was not how she was expecting her night to go at all.
Perhaps Sayo wasn't capable of getting all the ladies like Hina, but somehow; Lisa saw something she liked in her.
In a metaphorical high, Sayo felt the focus in her brain shift ever so slightly to make room for something, someone else and she surprisingly didn't even want to stop it from happening.
She liked this.…
She liked Lisa.
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