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“The bastard cheated on me,” Shimizu Kiyoko announced one morning as she came in to the daycare center where she works at a teacher. Groans from both Kanoka Amanai, and Yachi Hitoka were heard from inside the teacher’s quarters, a tiny room at the back part of the center near the kitchen.
“Are you serious? But then again, Misaki-chan already warned you about Terushima. She already warned you that he’s a jerk and an incorrigible flirt,” Kanoka responded, still disgusted with the news.
“Well, we can’t help it anyway if senpai wanted to give him a chance. I mean, she’s always like that – like looking at the better side of people and giving them a chance to change or something,” Yachi quipped on the other side of the room, changing into her work clothes.
“The most annoying thing is, he went to chase a younger girl! Like a college freshman! As if he’s not yet old or something!” Kiyoko continued. The 25-year-old bespectacled beauty was not one to lose her calm demeanor or anything. She had always been the quietest voice in the room, the most rational voice of reason in the group.
“You two better be careful! Men cannot be trusted that much! Especially the handsome ones! They’re certified jerks!” Kiyoko concluded.
“HEY! Don’t be mean! Tetsu-chan is really nice! I don’t think he’s gonna do that to me,” Yachi replied indignantly.
“Yeah, Kiyoko-san. I don’t think it’s still fair for you to generalize men like that. I mean, Iwa-chan is also really sweet and all. Plus, he always goes out of his way to take care of me,” Kanoka responded, but a little bit hesitant. She’s not sure how angry Kiyoko is and to what lengths she’d take this argument.
Kiyoko sat on the sofa at the corner of the room. Finally giving in to her emotions, she quietly cried into her hands.
“I know Kanoka-chan, I just…” she tried to finish her words through her quiet sobs.
The two younger girls came to her side and began patting her back quietly.
“Shhh… we’re here senpai,” Kanoka whispered.
“I just don’t know what’s wrong with me… why did he leave me?” Kiyoko wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “I guess I’m ugly,” she said with finality.
“You are not, senpai. You’re not. He’s just stupid to not see your worth,” Yachi lightly hugged her from the side opposite Kanoka.
“Just guard your hearts, girls. Make sure they’ll never hurt you the same way,” Kiyoko reminded the two girls. They both nodded in agreement, and then stood up to start the day in the center.
Kiyoko washed her face, straightened her clothes, and put on a face that resembles the brightly shining sun. Her students deserve her best whether or not Terushima broke up with her. She’s a smart, independent, and brave woman. She can handle anything.
“I’m done with this love-thing. From now on, I’m my own woman,” Kiyoko cheered herself on and went out the room to greet her students.
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A couple of months have passed, Kiyoko received a call at 6am from Yachi.
“I can’t make it to work today. I’m sorry, senpai,” Yachi said in between sniffs.
“Did anything happen?” Kiyoko asked. Her worry had been evident enough through the volume of her voice.
“No, no, no. I just have the flu. Please tell Kanoka that I can’t make it. If you guys would be kind enough to cover my class, please?” Yachi was still sniffling though the phone and Kiyoko tenses as she feels something was off.
When she met up with Kanoka and explained to her what happened, even Kanoka was shocked.
“Huh? Yachi never gets sick. Kuroo-san always takes care of her and make sure she takes her vitamins and all. I think something’s wrong.” Kanoka’s brows were furrowed as she thinks of things that might be off with Yachi.
“I want to go and check on her after work. Wanna come?” Kiyoko was determined to know what exactly had happened to Yachi. She knows it’s not just the flu.
“I’m in,” Kanoka replied as she pulled her work apron over her head an tied it in one swift motion behind her.
That afternoon, they barged into Yachi’s apartment and knocked loudly at the door.
Yachi opened it up and the two ladies were shocked to see Yachi’s puffy face, red eyes, and snotty nose – all indications that she had been crying the whole day.
“Yachi… I mean… Wha- … Why?” Kiyoko was tiptoeing, not sure how to ask it.
“Tetsu and I broke up,” Yachi slumped on the floor and cried her eyes out.
Kanoka and Kiyoko hurried to her side and closed the door, peeling Yachi off the floor in fluid motions. They guided her to the couch and let her take a breather first.
“Okay. Okay. We’re here,” Kiyoko cradled her head and smoothened her hair out. “Let it out. Tell us all about it.”
Yachi rambled on about how Kuroo became demanding, telling her that she doesn’t have enough time for him. He wanted Yachi to come to Tokyo and visit him for the weekend but Yachi can’t because of the school activities set on the same day.
Kuroo got upset and apparently spewed cuss words at Yachi, telling her to quit her job and come to Tokyo because Kuroo will take care of her and her needs.
“He said I don’t need to work anyway because he will do that for us. But I like my job. I like teaching children, and I like being independent as well,” Yachi sniffed.
“Was I wrong to want a life of my own?” Yachi turned to the two.
Kanoka almost shrieked, “NO! Of course not! You’re allowed to be your own person and that includes your career.”
“Kanoka is right. He does not have the right to boss you around and dictate what you will do in your life,” Kiyoko tried to respond calmly but she was seething. She couldn’t imagine a guy so misogynistic in this day in age. “Seriously, how backwards can he get?”
Kanoka stepped out of Yachi’s apartment to buy ice cream from the nearby konbini. Kiyoko stood up to make dinner for the three of them. Yachi went to take a shower.
While in the shower, she realized that her two friends are right. Kuroo cannot and does not have any right to demand her to quit her job or move to Tokyo or be an asshole to her. No. She deserves equal respect and care.
“Fuck you, Tetsurou. I am my own person. I don’t belong to you and you don’t get to boss me around,” and with that, Yachi stepped out of the shower, changed clothes, and ate dinner and ice cream with her two best friends.
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“Let’s go out and drink,” Kanoka declared to the staff room filled with three people on one Friday night, two weeks after Yachi’s break up.
“That’s so sudden of you, Kanoka,” Kiyoko observed the sudden shift in her kouhai’s attitude. As the ever-loving pseudo-sister to the two, she has somewhat understood their behaviors and when they’re deviating from those behaviors.
“I just suddenly want to go out! We haven’t gone out in aaaageeeessss,” Kanoka exaggerated the last word on purpose, trying to sway her workplace nee-chan.
Yachi giggled, “Kanoka-chan is right though. We haven’t had drinks in ages.”
“Come on, senpai-nee-chan! Onegaishimasu!” Kanoka pouted right in front of Kiyoko’s face. “I’ll pay for it.”
Kiyoko suddenly burst out laughing. Maybe she was just overthinking it. Maybe, just maybe, Kanoka just really wants to go out and drink.
“No need for that, we’ll go with you,” Kiyoko said in between bursts of laughter.
That night, Kanoka downed three mugs of beer in almost one go, ignoring Kiyoko’s warnings and Yachi’s offer to switch to water for a while.
“He’s gay!” Kanoka said out of nowhere. “He’s gay and he’s in love with his childhood best friend.” Kanoka slumped on the table, slamming the mug with it.
“Ehhh,” Kiyoko and Yachi looked at each other, confused to what it was – or who it was – that Kanoka was referring to.
“Uhm… Kanoka… who-” Yachi was cut off with Kanoka’s wails.
“IWA-CHAN!! Why did you have to be gay!? And in love with Oikawa-san!?” her wails were thankfully muffled by the table. Kanoka raised her head to look at her two friends. “We had to break up, of course.”
Kanoka pouted at her two workplace sisters and tears were streaming uncontrollably from her eyes.
“I knew something was wrong. It’s the same as Yachi’s sudden absence a couple of weeks ago,” Kiyoko responded while handing Kanoka a box of facial tissues. “Did he cheat on you with Oikawa-san?”
“Well, that’s probably the only good thing about it. He was still kind and sweet and apologetic when he broke it off with me,” Kanoka paused to blow her nose. “He said he didn’t want to pursue Oikawa-san until it’s cleared between us. And he still cares about me to even want to hurt me in the first place.”
“Lucky you,” Yachi muttered under her breath. “You didn’t get cursed at by an asshole of a guy over the phone and told you to get lost before blocking your number from his phone.”
“Lucky you,” Kiyoko found herself automatically muttering her own thoughts. “He didn’t cheat on you.”
“Yeah, lucky me. He didn’t treat me like shit, and he didn’t cheat on me, but he still left me… for a guy,” Kanoka dried her eyes with the tissue before taking another mug of beer.
There was a moment of silence between the ladies and no one tried to talk for a while. Each one was lost in their own thoughts.
Kanoka broke the silence. “I guess it was for the best. I meant it when I told him that I don’t want to force him into a relationship where he has to hide his true self. I assured him that he is accepted and I still care about him even though he’s now sure that he’s gay.”
Kanoka chugged her beer again, “I was right, right? I mean, it’s better to let him go and be gay and happy than force him to be straight and miserable, right?”
“Kanoka-chan, you did the right thing, and I’m sure he’ll be thanking you forever for accepting him for who he is,” Kiyoko wrapped an arm around Kanoka’s shoulders and pulled her in for a hug.
“We should make a toast,” Yachi finally spoke, raising her mug of beer.
“For what, though?” Kiyoko asked.
“For being sure of who we are. I mean, for being enough,” she gestured at Kiyoko. “For being accepting and loving,” she turned the mug to Kanoka’s direction. “And to me, for being independent. It’s not our fault they left, right? We did our best to love them, it’s just that they prefer someone else. Another woman, another kind of submissive woman, and another gender.”
Kiyoko smiled at Yachi’s profound words of wisdom. She maybe the youngest, but her mind and her heart are both full of wisdom and kindness. She looked at Kanoka and nodded. They both raised their beer mugs and bumped it into Yachi’s.
Suddenly, a familiar tune wafted through the air as they made their toast. Lovesick Girls by that famous Korean group Blackpink. Absently, the three women started humming to the song and eventually, they broke out into full singing when they caught each other’s eyes.
“We were born to be alone! Yeah, we were born to be alone! And we were born to be alone, but why’re we still looking for love?”
“To us!” Kanoka cheered.
“To being free!” Kiyoko followed suit.
“To the lovesick girls who needs no one else to be happy,” Yachi ended their toast and all three ladies drank heartily from their mugs.
“But,” Kiyoko said as she lowered her mug. “You two have to promise me that when a guy comes asking for a chance to love you right, you’d still open up your hearts and let them in, even if we’re not looking for love at the moment.”
“We’ll promise it if you do,” Yachi smiled at her senpai.
“Sure,” Kiyoko bumped her glass into theirs one more time and drank again.
How they got home was a real mystery.