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“YUI, WHAT DID YOU DO??”
The shouts of on Azusa Nakano bellowed throughout not only the entire house, but the around the entire block. It was late on Saturday night, the summer of her senpai’s second year of college and her first. The whole gang had gathered at Mugi’s place for a night of games and fun to unwind after a long year. Everyone had, for once, been able to make it. Mio, Ritsu, Mugi, Nodoka, Ui, Jun, even Sawa-Chan had somehow ended up there. She wasn’t sure how that happened but figured if she thought about it too much, she’d start going crazy. And of course, her and Yui had arrived together, the last ones there.
It had only been a few months since they had started dating. It had been kind of sweet actually, how they’d got together. Especially since she’d been nursing a crush on the ditzy elder Hirasawa since they had first met all those years ago. And now here there were, girlfriends spending time with all the friends they’d made over the years. Their own little family.
So why, she wondered to herself, was her girlfriend so goddamn clueless at times.
About three hours prior, the conversation had somehow turned to hair dye. Azusa couldn’t remember who had brought it up, but Jun and Ritsu jumped on the idea and eventually, with Mugi (and Sawa-Chan’s) encouragement, the Hirasawa sisters had ran to the store and bought a few small boxes of hair dye. All different colors of the rainbow, blue, green, red, pink. Each of the girls took their turn in the bathroom putting in the cheap dye. Most everyone had went with just a streak or something on the bangs. Mio had done purple, Ritsu green, and so on. It was all going well. Until it came to her turn.
Yui had insisted on going to the bathroom with her and helping her with the hair dye. She said she’d even bought a special color just for her little Azu-Nyan. It was sweet, she thought, even if she wasn’t the fondest of the nickname. Though hearing it come from Yui, her Yui, had made her really begin to like it. But that was besides the point. Her girlfriend had told her that she’d bought a special dye just for her and that she’d help it be put in. Some kind of pink was all Azusa knew, but she acquiesced to her excited other half and let her do it despite some reservations deep in her gut.
The first problem began when Yui had used too much. Azusa had just wanted the tips of her bangs and her tails dyed. But, clumsy as she always was, her adorable Yui had spilled much more of the the dye onto her head while attempting to get it on her bangs, coating virtually all of her hair in the liquid. The second problem came when Azusa went to look in the mirror after waiting for the dye to set. When she saw what she now looked like, she screamed. And now she had marched out into the living room in a panic. There she stood, Azusa Nakano, with bright vibrant neon pink hair atop her head.
“YUI WHAT KIND OF DYE IS THIS?! WHY IS IT SO BRIGHT?!”
“Well it’s pink. I just saw it on the shelf when we were going to checking out and thought it would look so cute on you.”
“YEAH BUT YOU SAID IT WAS JUST PINK, NOT ALL THIS !”
“Idk, I think you look cute Azusa”, piped in Ui.
“Ugh, thank you Ui. But I can’t go around like this. If it was just a stripe maybe, but my entire head? Can somebody go grab the box and see how long it takes to wash this out?”
Nodoka quickly got up and headed towards the bathroom. But when she came out, holding the box, her face showed concern Azusa hadn’t seen since Yui’s first time drinking sake. “Um, Azusa, I don’t think you’re going to like this.”
“Wait, what do you mean?”
“It says here that the dye doesn’t wash out. Its permanent without using bleach.”
“WHAT?!”
“Oh I’m sorry Azusa, but you know this would make you perfect for a magical girl outfit.”
“Sawa-Chan, you really do have the mind of a madman.”
“Ritsu!”
“What, like you haven’t thought the same, Mio!”
As those three devolved into playful squabbling, Azusa was exhausted. Her protests of how she couldn’t have her hair stay like this, especially with a job interview later this week, seemed to fall on deaf ears. Ui and Nodoka comforted her. Jun laughed. Mugi fetched her something to drink. And meanwhile Yui just shrugged her shoulders, seemingly oblivious as always. Azusa decided to walk out to the yard for some fresh air. Taking a seat on the patio, she sighed, She’d had enough.
A few minutes passed before she her the door open and a hand touch her shoulder. “Azusa?” The familiar voice of her girlfriend beckoned, but the poor girl was not in the mood.
“What do you want Yui?”
“Are you feeling okay? You seemed a little, well, upset.”
“Upset? Yeah of course I’m upset! I have a job interview in three days and now my hair looks like I’m some anime character, I’ve got Jun laughing her ass off at me, I basically started an argument between Mio, Ritsu, and Sawa-Chan, and my own girlfriend not only caused me to look like popsicle, but doesn’t have even so much to offer but a shrug! So yeah, I’m a little upset to say the least Yui!”
She had almost instantly regretted what she had said, but the words had left her mouth and there was no putting them back. Yui quickly turned away and Azusa, ashamed as she was, could only stare down at her feet. Seconds felt like hours and minutes felt like years, but soon she heard a noise. She couldn’t place it at first, until she heard it again. A sniffle. Oh shit, she thought, I made her cry. “Yui?”, she carefully beckoned. As she turned and got a look at her loved ones face, she could see the tears beginning to form, barely held back.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Yui…”
“I’m sorry Azusa. I didn’t mean to cause you so much trouble. I should’ve looked at the box before I bought it, I shouldn’t have spilled so much into your hair when we were putting it in. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you all these problems.”
“Yui…”
“I’m so sorry Azusa. I understand if you w-want t-t-to b-break up.” The tears were now mounting past the point of no return.
“What?! Breakup?! Yui, whatever gave you that impression? Why would I want to breakup with you over this?”
“B-because I’m such a klutz. I’m always making your life and everyone else’s so much more difficult. I keep making mistakes and causing you problems. And I thought I could make up for it by loving you as hard as I could, but all I seem to do is mess everything up. I’m so sorry Azusa.”
“Yui. Look at me.” She gently took her girlfriends chin and pulled her head to face her directly. “You do not mess everything up. Yeah, you make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. And sometimes those mistakes make me frustrated or upset. But not all mistakes are bad. You remember our first date?”
“The one where I got us lost in the woods on the way to a picnic?”
“Yes.”
“I know… even from the beginning I’ve been messing things up.”
“But, you didn’t mess it up.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, we got lost and didn’t end up in the spot you’d chosen. But do you remember what happened next?”
“What?”
“We stumbled across that beautiful little pond. And we decided that, after what, an hour or so of stumbling around, that we would just sit and eat there. And you know what? It was fantastic.”
“B-but I messed it up.”
“You made a mistake. But not all mistakes are bad ones. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect first date than spending time with you, walking through the forest, eating lunch by a beautiful little pond, watching the ducklings play as we ate and held hands. So yeah, you may have make a mistake and lost track of where we were supposed to go. But I think where we ended up was a lot better.”
“T-thanks Azusa. But why are you telling me this?”
“Because Yui. We all make mistakes. Every one of us. And yeah sometimes they cause problems. But sometime, they make things better than you could’ve imagined. And I couldn’t be happier to be making mistakes right alongside you, even if yeah, sometimes they make me a little frustrated.”
“Y-you really mean that? You d-don’t think dating me has been a m-mistake?”
“If it is a mistake, than it’s the greatest one I’ve ever made. And it’s one I’m happy to keep making over and over again.” As Yui began to bawl, Azusa pulled her close into a hug. “It’s okay Yui, I’m right here.”
“I’m s-so sorry for being such a mess and messing up your hair. C-can you please forgive me?”, she managed to get out between sobs.
“I already have sweetie. And I’m sorry for yelling at you. Yeah you messed up but even then, I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that. It was just an accident. And besides, the more I think about it, I well… kinda like it.”
“Y-y-you mean that?”
“Of course I do baby.”
“I’ll run to the store first thing in the morning and get some bleach so that it’ll be out by the interview.”
“Don’t worry about it, seriously. If those guys think my hair is a dealbreaker well, I’m better off not working there anyway. Besides, maybe it’ll even give me a leg up on style point.”
Yui couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “Thank you, Azusa. I’m so lucky to have you around. I love you.”
“I love you too Yui. And yeah, I’m just as lucky to have you around too. Besides, if I didn’t have you around, my life wouldn’t be half as interesting.” The two girls chucked as they embraced and held each other tight.
It was some time later before the two came back inside. “Oh thank goodness, I was starting to get worried! Can I get you two some te?”
“We’re okay Mugi, I promise.”
“Alright if you insist. There’s still some left in the kettle if you change your mind.”
“We’ll let you know, thank you.”
“Hey Azusa”, Ritsu piped up. “I got a question for you.”
“Oh, go ahead senpai.”
“So now that your hair looks like that, can we start calling you Azu-Neon now?” Within seconds, a pillow connected with the Tainaka girls face, courtesy of Mio. Everyone couldn’t help but laugh as an impromptu pillow fight began amongst the cadre of friends. And after everything died down and the two collapsed to the floor, exhausted, Azusa couldn’t help but gaze upon her sleeping girlfriend and think to herself.
Mistake or not, I couldn’t be happier with anyone else.