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Yuyuko didn’t know what pissed her off more: the girls who scorned and shunned her because they were jealous of how close she was with Rui, or the girls who tried to cozy up to her in order to get to her best friend.
Rui was ridiculously popular, especially for a first year. She was already the tallest girl in school and one of the most athletic—the envy of the sports clubs. It didn’t hurt that she was—in Yuyuko’s opinion at least—one of the prettiest girls as well. The more benevolent of Rui’s fans wanted her for their sports team, and the less innocent of the suitors wanted her in their dorm rooms, euphemistically speaking. Such a shame that Rui had her heart set on Tamao and her stage.
Such a shame indeed.
“Is it true that you’re dating Akikaze-san?”
Lunch was almost over, class was about to begin, and some nitwit had interrupted Yuyuko’s nap. She usually ignored or lazily deflected her classmates’ Rui-centric queries, but this one had her full attention. She raised her head from her folded arms and looked at the enquirer head-on: a girl from the tennis club. A gaggle of Rui fangirls stood nearby, eagerly awaiting the answer. “Is that the rumour nowadays?”
“A-san from the basketball team confessed to her yesterday, and she turned her down. When she asked if there was someone else, Akikaze-san got really cagey.”
That’d be Tamao-senpai, Yuyuko thought with no small amount of bitterness. “I most certainly am not Rui’s girlfriend.”
“Really? You don’t have to hide it. It’s not weird to want to date a girl like Akikaze-san.” Yuyuko didn’t have to borrow Karen or Hikari’s Sherlock Holmes costumes to figure out these girls thought it would be weird if Rui wanted to date her .
“You two are together all the time, it’s not like we’re jumping to conclusions,” said a girl from the volleyball club, one of Rui’s most persistent suitors.
“They are roommates...” chimed in another girl, as if this information didn’t burn a hole in their Rui-obsessed brains every night like a hot coal.
“Rui is my best friend ,” Yuyuko emphasized. “That’s why we hang out all the time. If you guys wanted to spend time with her, you should’ve joined the performance department.” After all, that’s what Rui did for her crush. Instead these girls only tried to convince Rui to abandon her own club. Scum.
Tennis Club-san frowned. “I guess you two are friends, but are you trying to tell us you don’t think she’s hit? Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it.”
Yuyuko let out a disgusted sigh and lost her patience. “ Of course I think she’s hot. I’ve got eyes, don’t I? But just because Rui’s one tall streak of hotness doesn’t mean I—”
A schoolbag crashed to the ground, and from the sound it could have only come from a particular height. Yuyuko’s neck creaked as she slowly turned her head and saw Rui in the doorway, scrambling to pick up her bag. When she stood up, her face was bright red. Burning crimson. The same damning shade as a certain hoodie and the idiot wearing it.
Yuyuko buried her face in her arms and prayed for a shinigami to end her life during her next nap.
“Oh no,” Tennis Club-san said, her tone borrowed from a shoujo anime bully. “Did Akikaze-san hear you?” Apparently that’s what they were counting on.
Yuyuko was spared further mockery by the teacher arriving and kicking off the afternoon classes. She was too mortified to look Rui’s way and too restless to nap. Had she any less self-control, she would’ve fled to the nurse’s office, but she needed to maintain some semblance of normalcy if she were going to try to play this off to Rui. If she couldn’t convince her best friend that her words were meaningless, then she had all but admitted to having a crush on her.
Rui had a crisis on her hands. Well, an anxious girl like her often did, but this one seemed infinitely more complicated than usual. She needed advice, and at least three senpai worth of it.
Luckily—if you could call it that—Yuyuko was trying to avoid her as much as possible, and had muttered an excuse about getting a can of coffee from the vending machine to wake herself up before practice. Rui hurried to meet the second years in the practice room in hopes of sorting this out before Yuyuko arrived.
Tamao, Fumi, and Ichie were in the locker room, just having finished changing into their practice outfits.
“What’s up, Rui?” Fumi asked. “You look out of breath.”
“Uh...” How was she going to phrase this? “Is it, um, normal to think your friend is hot?”
Fumi’s eyes darted from Rui to Tamao, then back to Rui. Her shocked expression suggested that she couldn’t believe Rui was bringing this up in front of her crush.
“Finally fallen for my alluring figure?” Ichie adopted a pin-up pose. “You’re my homie, so you’re allowed to stare.”
Rui almost choked. “N-no! This isn’t about you. Besides the one I like is...”
“Don’t be so nervous, Rui-chan,” Tamao said, smiling serenely. “We all know who it is you like.”
“Y-you do!?” Rui wasn’t ready for this conversation right now. She needed to sort out this mess with Yuyuko!
Tamao suppressed a giggle. “Excuse me for saying this, but it’s been obvious for a while, your crush on Yuyuko-chan.”
Fumi looked at Tamao in shock, blinking in confusion. Ichie chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck.
Rui’s reaction wasn’t so reserved. Her mouth opened and closed like a gasping fish; she bypassed stammering and spluttering and went straight to stunned silence. Heat rose in her cheeks, and she flailed her arms helplessly as if she could fan away her blush.
“I don’t have a c-crush on Yukko!”
“It’s okay to have a crush on your best friend,” Tamao reassured her, the air thick with dramatic irony. “If you need advice on how to confess to her, we’re here for you.”
Why does Tamao-senpai think I have feelings for Yukko!? Rui’s thoughts were a whirling mess. It was embarrassing enough that the girls in her year thought they were dating. Then Yuyuko went and said she was hot , boldly proclaiming it in front of most of her class. She... she... Rui’s brain overheated.
Ichie came to her rescue. “Um, I don’t think that’s what Rui wanted to talk to us about.” She skipped over to Rui’s side and laid a calming hand on her shoulder. “What was it you were saying earlier?”
Rui was so grateful that she could’ve kissed her—figuratively of course. She didn’t need her love life to get even more complicated. As soon as she was articulate enough to speak, Rui told her senpai about the scene she’d walked in on.
“Doesn’t it seem like Yuyuko was just riled up and blurted out something to shut them up?” Fumi suggested. “I don’t know if it’s anything to be shaken up about.”
“Yeah!” Ichie nodded vigorously. “Nothing wrong with thinking your homies are hot. I for one am grateful to be surrounded by all you cuties.”
This comment added fuel to the fire of Rui’s blushing. “Th-that’s just you, Ichie-senpai!”
“Not necessarily.” Fumi gave her an up and down assessment, raising an eyebrow. “There’s no denying that you’re good-looking.”
“You have a fan club for a reason, Rui-chan,” Tamao agreed. “You’re gorgeous. We can all agree on that.”
“Wuh-what?” Tamao-senpai thinks I’m gorgeous? Rui’s heart skipped a beat. Maybe there was a chance—wait, she had something more important to figure out! “This is supposed to be a conversation about Yukko!”
Tamao looked inordinately pleased with herself. “Yuyuko-chan thinks you’re hot... that’s good news for you, isn’t it, Rui-chan?”
“I don’t like her like that!” Rui insisted. “Why do you think I do?”
“Because I’ve seen the way you look at her. You’re always looking after her, making sure she gets to school on time and carrying her when she’s tired. It’s all very gallant. And when I’m doting on Yuyuko, you glare at me jealously. Not that I blame you,” Tamao added quickly.
I’m not jealous of you, I’m jealous of her! But Rui could hardly admit that to her actual crush. “I would never resent you for that kind of thing, Tamao-senpai,” was her compromise. “In any case, Yuyuko is my best friend, not my crush.”
Tamao pouted, but didn’t reassert her theory. Off to the side, Fumi let out a sigh.
“So...” Ichie said. “Yuyuko thinks you’re hot, but what do you think about her?”
“Eh?” Rui wouldn’t have thought her cheeks could get any hotter, but her blushing intensified anyway. “Yukko is... cute.” There was nothing scandalous about admitting that, but nevertheless her heart jumped into her throat as she uttered those words. “Sometimes she can be a pain. Yukko teases me a lot, but I know that she really cares, and that part of her can be cute. Sometimes. She’s lazy and her sleep schedule is a nightmare, but she’s sort of adorable when she’s napping. Doesn’t she look like a teddy bear when she’s all curled up in her hoodie? Honestly, I’m surprised she doesn’t have more fans when she’s that cute.”
She hadn’t expected to say that much. “B-but these are my feelings as her best friend.”
Tamao didn’t seem convinced; her Cheshire Cat smile made that perfectly clear. Rui wanted to clear things up, but it seemed everything she said only muddled things more.
“Sorry for taking so long.”
Rui let out a squeak at that oh-so-familiar voice. She spun on her heel and found herself facing Yuyuko. Was it just her imagination, or was her best friend blushing?
“Alright girls,” Fumi said, raising her volumes to bossy levels. “We’re going to go on ahead. Rui, Yuyuko, get changed quickly.”
She gave Rui and Yuyuko sympathetic looks before leaving the locker room. Ichie patted Rui on the arm before following Fumi, and Tamao flashed her a conspiratorial wink before following suit.
The awkwardness in the locker room was so thick either of them could cut it with their Revue weapons. Of course, that would require one of them to move, and both of them stood stock still, like deer caught in headlights.
In the end, Yuyuko was the one who broke the tension. She walked over to her locker and pulled out her practice uniform. “Are you going to stand there all day? Stay still too long and your roots might set in, you giant tree of a girl.”
The allusion to her height reminded her of the phrase “one tall streak of hotness,” and her stomach did a backflip. “Sh-shut up I was going to go in a minute!” She opened her own locker and was thankful for the chance to turn her back on Yuyuko. Her face burned at the thought of either of them catching sight of each other while changing. That hadn’t been a problem for either of them before, but Yuyuko had never called her hot before either.
Rui had never called her cute before either.
Yuyuko didn’t know how she made it through the day. Only fear of being lectured by Fumi kept her from skipping out on practice, though overhearing what Rui thought of her made her question her resolve.
“ Honestly, I’m surprised she doesn’t have more fans when she’s that cute.”
Stupid Rui. I don’t want fans, Yuyuko thought. I just want you to look at me the way you look at Tamao-senpai.
Just her luck to fall for the most oblivious girl in her school—well, second most oblivious. Tamao might have been able to hand-wave someone calling her hot, but there was nothing clueless about the way Rui had reacted to her accidental confession.
Practice couldn’t end soon enough. Rui’s face turned pink every time their eyes met, but she clearly tried to pretend nothing had happened. The others helped maintain the fiction. Once it was over, Yuyuko sped out of the locker room at record speeds—record speeds for a sleepyhead, anyway.
Yuyuko wasted no time retreating to her dorm room and slipping into bed; she’d have been exhausted after the day’s events even if she hadn’t run more in an hour than she had the rest of the month. Her brain needed a quick reset.
She wasn’t worried about having to deal with Rui for the time being. Nap time was sacred, and nobody could complain about her sleeping during her off-time. Of course she could only nap for so long.
Yuyuko tried to act normal at dinner, having cooled down a little from her afternoon nap. “Tried” being the operative word. Rui sat at her side, as usual, and Yuyuko couldn’t shake the feeling her crush was watching her out of the corner of her eye—Yuyuko was too nervous to look over to check. She ended up scarfing down her food and scurrying back to her room to hide again.
Her haphazard plan was to sleep until Rui went to bed, then stay up all night to get some free time. Hopefully Rui would forget everything when she woke up.
The plan almost worked; she woke up just as Rui entered the room, ready for bed. “Have you been sleeping this whole time, Yukko?”
Yuyuko rubbed her eyes. “Is that so unusual for me?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Then it’s fine, isn’t it?” She stood up and stretched, extremely conscious of the distance between them. She sneaked a look at the clock: 11:00pm, Rui’s bedtime.
Rui sat down on her own bed, glancing nervously at her. “You aren’t going to stay up all night again, are you?”
“Afraid so. Don’t worry, I won’t keep you up. In fact, I forgot the book I was reading in the common room, so I’ll go there to read—” She headed for the door, but a hand seized her by the hand and pulled her back...
...into Rui’s lap.
The hand released her only for two arms to wrap around her waist and held her in place like a seat belt. “Please don’t avoid me, Yukko. Anything but that.”
Even if that means you have to date me? But Yuyuko couldn’t—wouldn’t—say that. It would be beyond manipulative. Just thinking it made her recoil at herself. So she kept her mouth shut, which was easy when her entire body had frozen in Rui’s embrace.
“Was it something I did?” Rui asked, her voice directly in Yuyuko’s ear. Her hood had fallen back, so there wasn’t even a layer of fabric to muffle the begging in Rui’s voice. Or to hide the blush building in her cheeks.
“Of course not. You’ve done nothing wrong.” If anything, Yuyuko was at fault for making everything awkward between them, albeit accidentally.
“You overheard us in the locker room before practice, right? Tamao-senpai has the wrong idea!” Rui’s voice shook, and her grip tightened.
“When did Tamao-senpai come into this? All I heard was you calling me cute.” A fresh surge of embarrassment hit her just as hard as the first time. Her crush thought she was cute. Her crush thought she was cute . Yuyuko didn’t know if she should cry from joy or despair.
“Y-you mean you didn’t hear the parts before that?”
“Nope.” Yuyuko held in a sigh of relief; Rui was flustered now too, so she went on the attack. “I’m curious now. What was Tamao-senpai so wrong about? It’s not like you to acknowledge her mistakes.”
“I-it’s nothing!”
“Doesn’t sound like nothing.” It didn’t feel like nothing either; Rui’s arms hugged her tighter. “I’m sure Ichie-san would tell me if I asked...”
“T-Tamao-senpai thinks I have a crush on you! Obviously I don’t, because... obviously!”
“Obviously, huh?”
“Because Tamao-senpai is the one I have feelings for! You know that!”
“Eh? I can see how she would get confused, since you think I’m so cute.”
Rui made a choking sound. “Yukko! What’s gotten into you!?”
Yuyuko continued. “I guess I’m not as cute as Tamao-senpai though.” She really needed to put a sock in it—Rui already knew something was up—and she was only digging a deeper grave for herself.
“I wouldn’t say Tamao-senpai is cute. Pretty, beautiful even, but not cute. So that means you’re...” Rui mumbled something else too quiet to be heard at even so close a distance. When Yuyuko didn’t react, she repeated it in a whisper. “That means you’re cuter than Tamao-senpai.”
A self-destruction warning went off in Yuyuko’s head. “I see, I see. That’s very interesting. I’m going to go process that information in another room.” She tried to break free of Rui’s embrace, but her struggling backfired by causing the two of them to fall over onto Rui’s bed. Perfect. Not a total disaster at all.
The pair became a jumble of limbs, and they ended up facing each other. There was no disguising the feverish flushing of her face and neck, not even in the dark. Before Yuyuko could even think of trying to escape again, Rui clung to the front of her hoodie.
“Why are you trying to avoid me?” The look in Rui’s eyes pained Yuyuko’s heart. “I really did do something wrong, didn’t I? Is it because I said you’re cute?”
It is, but it’s not upsetting me for the reason you think. Aloud, Yuyuko said, “I told you there wasn’t anything you did wrong. I started avoiding you before that, remember?”
“Oh. Right.” And then Rui’s face turned a familiar crimson. “Y-you avoided me after you s-said that I’m hot.”
Yuyuko blinked. She’d almost forgotten about that little detail. Hearing her crush call her cute had taken precedence over her own mortifying admission. “I... well... that’s...” Was there anything she could even say to that?
“You think I’m hot, but you freak out when I say you’re cute.” Rui loomed closer, or was it just Yuyuko’s imagination? “That’s not fair.”
What isn’t fair is you clinging to me like this when you’re only interested in Tamao-senpai. “Because everyone knows you’re hot, and I’m not cute at all. That’s what our classmates think too. You’re so tall and gallant, and your hair is so beautiful.” Yuyuko ran a hand through Rui’s long, chestnut tresses. “Your limbs are so supple and strong.” She brushed her fingertips over the bare skin of her roommate’s bicep. “Our classmates have seen you carrying me. They’re jealous. They wish you were holding them instead.”
Rui squeaked in response. If Yuyuko were less of a blockhead, she’d put a stop to her own nonsense then and there, but a rakugo otaku like herself couldn’t resist a monologue.
Yuyuko got closer, hiding her face between Rui’s neck and chest, lest her crush see the truth in her eyes. “There’s rumours that we’re dating, did you know that? Some people think we share a bed every night. Can you imagine? Being close like this all the time?” Yuyuko clung to Rui’s worn-out t-shirt, desperate to press their bodies together. “Our classmates think we’re getting up to lewd things right now.”
Against her better judgment, she leaned in and pressed her lips to the red-hot skin of Rui’s neck, like a vampire going in for the kill. Rui shivered beneath her kiss. “That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?”
She let go and shuffled away from her, the mattress creaking beneath her. Rui stared at her in shock, as was the appropriate response to being kissed out of nowhere by a friend.
Ah, I’ve really messed up this time, Yuyuko thought. There would be no explaining this away. She needed to swallow her pride and confess her feelings once and for all—
“Just kidding!” Yuyuko winked. “How was my confession performance? Repeat that and Tamao-senpai will fall for you for sure.”
Emotions raced across Rui’s face as she processed what happened. Then she started shaking with anger. “You’re unbelievable, Yukko!”
“I’d prefer to be called incredible.” She somehow had escaped scrutiny once again.
However, she couldn’t evade Rui’s embrace for the third time. Rui pulled her into bear hug, burying Yuyuko’s face in her chest. “Why are you being so difficult? Who could say that to the person they like?”
Yuyuko wriggled until she wasn’t at risk of suffocating in her crush’s bosom. “Being difficult is who I am. Get used to it.”
She could hear the pouting Rui’s voice. “I don’t care how difficult you are, Yukko. Just don’t avoid me anymore, okay? I can’t bear that.”
Now who’s not being fair? Then again, it was better than being pushed away. “I won’t leave your side.” Staying at Rui’s side was the most she could hope for. The chance they would ever date was practically zero, and the best friend role was a pretty sweet deal. She reminded herself that she should be happy with that, and not threaten her position by wanting too much.
Yuyuko snuggled closer to Rui and tried to calm her quickly-beating heart. Hopefully some of this awkwardness would clear up in the morning.
Rui awoke the next morning with Yuyuko in her arms and a certainty in her mind: Yuyuko liked her. Romantically. She had tried to pretend she didn’t, attempted to work in some plausible deniability at the last second, but she’d showed her hand. Hell, she’d kissed her neck like some kind of seductress! Then she acted like everything was the same as before.
How long had she been holding in those feelings? Rui wasn’t sure she wanted to know. How many times had Yuyuko sat through her gushing about Tamao when she’d rather listen to anything else? Rui would rather be buried alive in shiitake mushrooms than think about it. If only there were a way she could make up for the emotional pain she’d no doubt caused Yuyuko all this time—other than returning her feelings of course. Her heart belonged to Tamao.
She didn’t want to have to reject her best friend, but she had a feeling last night was the closest Yuyuko would ever come to confessing her feelings. There was a depressing side to the situation, but if Yuyuko didn’t want to pursue her, that was her business.
Rui brushed Yuyuko’s hair away from her face. If I never fell for Tamao-senpai, would I have answered Yukko’s feelings? s he wondered. But if she never fell for Tamao, she wouldn’t have joined the performance department and met Yuyuko in the first place. Think about that next time you get jealous of Tamao-senpai.
Still, Yuyuko was cute. As Rui stroked her cheek—soft and smooth as mochi—she wondered why Yuyuko didn’t have fans the way she did. Not only was she smart and talented, she was also adorable. Did nobody else see that? If only Yukko was always as cute as she is when she’s asleep, maybe... Rui shook her head. Tamao was the one she liked! She was only thinking this way because she was so surprised by what Yuyuko had said.
Tamao’s voice rang through the door. “Girls, you need to get up now.”
Hearing her crush’s voice during her moment of doubt was the last thing she needed. “We’ll be out in a minute!” Rui yelled in a strangled voice, her words almost not making it out of her mouth due to her heart jumping into her throat.
“Are you alright, Rui-chan? You sounded strange.” A pause. “I’m coming in.”
“I’m fine! Don’t come in!”
Tamao opened the door, and her eyes widened when they fell upon the scene of Rui and Yuyuko in the same bed, cuddling like lovers. She smiled. “I knew I was right. Congratulations, Rui-chan.”
“Th-this isn’t what it looks like!”
“Quiet down,” Yuyuko murmured, nuzzling the crook of her neck. “I’m trying to sleep.”
“You’re not helping!” Rui didn’t even have it in her to push Yuyuko away. “Wait, how long have you been awake!?”
“Longer than you have.”
So Yuyuko had been awake when Rui played with her hair and touched her face. Rui’s entire body heated up like an oven. “Then why did you let me—!” She covered her mouth with her hands before she let slip anything more in front of her actual, true, for real crush.
Tamao cleared her throat to get their attention. She was grinning with glee. “You lovebirds can cuddle for a little longer, but you need to be in the kitchen in five minutes. Don’t be late!”
She closed the door behind herself before Rui could object to her assumptions. The flustered girl turned her frustrations on her roommate—her not-so-secret admirer—instead. “Th-this is all your fault! Now Tamao-senpai is going to think we’re dating!”
“Ah, what a horrible fate.” Yuyuko’s annoyance wasn’t subtle. Especially when her whinging was whispered against Rui’s neck. “You know how to sort out that misunderstanding? Just tell Tamao-senpai that she’s the one you like.”
“I can’t do that!” If confessing to Tamao were that easy, she would have done it by now. Not that Yukko would know about how to confess properly! she thought. Rui pushed Yuyuko away and scrambled out of bed, changing into her uniform at record speed. “Quit lazing around! You better not make us late!”
“Okay.” Yuyuko buried her face in Rui’s pillow, pulling the hood of her sweater over her rosy ears. “One more minute.”
“You better not try to avoid me today either!” Rui glared at her roommate, only to look away in embarrassment when she realized the girl who was crushing on her was snuggled up in her bed. She stomped out of the room, blushing furiously and muttering to herself incoherently.
Never mind! That girl isn’t cute at all!