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Nanami had hardly come out of the guest room during the first two days of her stay with Juri. After all that happened, she had nowhere else she felt safe sleeping. Not under the same roof as Touga, certainly not with the Chairman, nor with the Kaorus, whose dynamic felt... uncomfortably familiar. Juri was more than fine with taking the younger girl in with her, she had been through so much, the least that could be offered was a safe place. The only person who had seen Nanami was Mitsuru, who came by to deliver homework. Even then, he was told to leave her room as swiftly as he came in.
It was on the third day of her stay that she finally walked out. Nanami, the girl who usually prided herself on her appearance and her superiority, appeared half-awake, with unkempt hair, and a frown that looked like it was stitched onto her face. Sniffling, she asked Juri if she could have some tea. Juri obliged and held her hand as they walked to the kitchen. Nanami held on to her as they walked downstairs, shivering. While they waited for the tea to boil, the two sat down.
"Are you feeling any better, Nanami?" Juri asked.
"Juri..." Nanami whimpered "You like girls, don't you?"
Juri paused at the question, but answered that yes, she did like girls.
"How did you find that out?" Nanami asked.
"...Where is this question coming from, Nanami?" Juri asked.
"I don't know what I like anymore" Nanami said "I thought I liked boys, but I think I might have just liked Big Br... Touga. I think it was just Touga."
"Well, I've basically... always known. It was never a question to me."
Nanami looked up at her in frustration, then shot out of her chair.
"Then how am I supposed to know?!" she shouted, her old temperament coming back to her. Juri responded with a soft smile and said: "Nanami. It was easy for me, but I'm hardly everyone. It's a question that you just need to settle for yourself."
The tea kettle began to whistle, and with that, the conversation about Nanami's interest - or maybe lack thereof - in girls came to an abrupt end. The rest of the time was spent making small talk. Juri, at her guest's insistence, regaled Nanami with stories of fencing (the subject of the duels was avoided out of mutual respect). Nanami looked at Juri with awestruck eyes, and by the end of the conversation, she was convinced her guest had managed to regain some of that childlike innocence that their time at Ohtori Academy deprived them both of.
The next night, Juri received a call from Nanami to meet her at an on-campus party. The older girl, having nothing better to do, got dressed in a lovely Sébastien Dior and went down to the main ballroom on campus. To her surprise, it was only Nanami there, save for a band playing the music of J.A. Seazer. Nanami, wearing a gown fashioned out of her old student council uniform, hurried over and grabbed Juri's hand, pulling her to the dance floor as they began a waltz.
"Nanami? Are we the first people here?" Juri asked.
Nanami pulled herself closer to Juri, resting her head against the older girl.
"I may have booked the hall for a private event" she said.
"What? Why would you do that?"
"For this" Nanami said, lifting her head and puckering her lips together.
Nanami brought her face closer to Juri's, and the older girl broke the dance altogether.
"Nanami, what are you doing?!" she asked with indignation.
The music stopped. Nanami looked over at Juri. Dead silence filled the room. Nanami's eyes began to leak tears.
"I... I just thought... this... Touga approaches girls...."
Her knees collapsed to the floor, and she covered her face in embarrassment, as tears came flooding down her face. Juri walked over to her and knelt down, sensing quite a lot of confusion on Nanami's part. Slowly, she got an answer from the younger girl. Nanami wanted to know if she liked girls, and she greatly admired Juri. She thought a kiss would tell her for sure, and she had approached this with the same tact that Touga did in hopes of achieving that.
"Oh Juri..." Nanami cried "You must think I'm terrible..."
Juri sighed, and grabbed onto the sobbing girl, holding her tightly. She leaned her face over Nanami's shoulder, and said softly into her ear:
"I don't. I think you're scared, Nanami. And you have every right to be scared. You went through so much, and it left you with so much pain."
Nanami cried into Juri's shoulder, trembling against her senpai. The older girl held her, letting Nanami explode in a sadness that must have been building for God knows how long. When Nanami finally stopped crying, she apologized again.
"It's OK. Nanami, I won't be your first kiss..."
Nanami's gaze averted, part in embarrassment, part in disappointment.
"...but I'd like to be something that I think is more important to you right now: Your first friend."
Nanami's eyes met Juri's again.
"First... friend?"
Juri nodded, then smiled.
"Not for your money, not for your stepbrother, for you, the person, Nanami Kiryuu. Would you give me that privilege?"
Nanami sniffled, a smile finally returning to her face.
"I would like that" Nanami said, her voice still somewhat cracked from her crying. "Can we... can we dance as friends, while I still have the hall?"
"I would like that."