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Kira was everything that people at St. Dominics feared. She was like an elegant queen bee if they were in a normal high school instead. She was the epitome of the word pristine. Her white long-sleeve shirt would always align perfectly at the neck with a red tie with a golden spade symbol on it. Above, she would have a dark blue vest, almost black—not that she would ever show it off, when she always had a blazer to top it all. In the rare cases she didn’t have her tie perfectly done, she would use any other piece of garment that would grace her neck in just the right way.
And when she walked around, her perfume would enter the room first, a combination of the most manly perfume anyone had ever smelled, but sweet enough to keep the feminine touch in it. It would always either turn heads or scare people away, but not Yumeko. Never Yumeko. It would never scare her away. The opposite.
Her words could be harsh, but her voice would always sound like moonlight sonata for her, when the rest of the world would hear Shostakovich’s eighth quartet, second movement—furious, brutal, controlled. And that was what was driving Yumeko crazy. She wanted her messy and furious, but sweet and real at the same time. She knew deep down Kira was just a girl with the world on her shoulders, and she didn’t want to help her carry that weight, no—she wanted to destroy it, rip it to pieces for her.
Yumeko looked behind her, up to the balcony. There she was, eyes fixed on Yumeko. She grinned, delighted. Kira rolled her eyes in response.
In front of her, the croupier revealed his hand. They were playing a modified game of Blackjack—they were playing against the house, and against each other.
“Burst.”
Yumeko had an eighteen.
The new boy, Dmitri, had a fourteen. He didn't look frightened at all, just furious. He was an arrogant, pretentious boy trying to get in Kira's pants, encouraged by none other than Arkadi Timurov. He was the son of a tycoon in the oil industry, one of many in Arkadi's list to marry Kira off to someone who could benefit his enterprises.
If someone were to look up to the balcony, they would see Kira's usual face, serious, cold expression, accompanied by that metallic blue in her lips. But Yumeko knew her like the back of her hand. She had watched her since that first day at lunch. She looked confused as to why Yumeko would play against him and defy her father in the process.
The last round started smoothly. Yumeko was intentionally crushing him, not even entertaining the crowd. This wasn't a normal game for her.
Mary revealed her cards.
“Twenty.”
Yumeko's card was an eight.
Dmitri had a ten. He had the best chance at winning the round.
They were close, 19-18, Yumeko up. They were playing for a total of twenty points. To win, she needed to either tie with the house and win against Dmitri to get one point or win against both to get the two points. If Dmitri won against both, then it was game over.
“Hit me,” Dmitri said. He got an Ace. Twenty. He stood on it.
He looked at her with a cocky smile, already assuming she would either lose or burst.
“Hit me,” Yumeko said. A ten. Eighteen in total.
“Save yourself the humiliation. Surrender.”
“Hit me,” she repeated. She could either match or burst.
She paused. Mary added suspense, laughing at Yumeko's nervousness. The croupier had never seen her like that before.
“Twenty-one.” She had gotten an impossible three. “Yumeko wins.”
She looked back at the balcony, and there she was. Her deep, blue eyes looked back, still confused, still out of the cold and calculated persona used to planning and overseeing everything. Yumeko made Kira's control slip this time.
Yumeko dismissed them quickly, ignoring Mary and Dmitri to go after Kira. At her back, the leaderboard changed.
It was an obsession of hers—to know how Kira's skin would feel against her lips, how her lips would taste without poison in the middle of it all.
She found Kira at the back of the student council chambers. The blazer hung from the chair, the tie hung loose and undone against her white shirt. Yumeko saw her back when entering the room. It was quiet enough for steps to click against the floor.
It took Kira longer than expected to acknowledge her presence.
“What do you want?”
“We haven’t talked properly since… you know,” Yumeko’s breathy voice made Kira shiver.
“Because there’s nothing to talk about.” She said, still not turning around.
“But there is,” Yumeko said, closing the distance slowly. “Don’t you want to know why I played Dmitri?”
“Because you’re a compulsive gambler, maybe?” Kira’s voice sounded muffled as if she were underwater and trying to speak.
“You know that’s not the truth, Kira-san.”
“Then, why?”
“Let’s just say… he’s going to leave you alone from now on,” Yumeko said, sitting on the council table. “Isn’t that great?”
Finally, Kira turned around. She locked eyes with that infuriating girl who was driving her crazy lately.
“I didn’t need your help.”
Yumeko laughed, all breath and teeth.
“Who says I did it for you? I did it for me.”
Kira closed the gap, cornering Yumeko against the council table, their faces too close to be friendly.
“And how does this benefit you? Dmitri stopping pursuing me?”
Even then, Yumeko read confusion, not rage.
“It just… does. You know, everything that I want, I get. And I want him far away from you.”
Kira scoffed, closing the distance even more if that was possible. Yumeko can feel her inhale and exhale on her face. Kira’s perfume made her dizzy.
“Don’t tell me this is a confession, Jabami.”
“And what if it is? Will you accept it?”
That left Kira speechless. Was Yumeko really asking her if she would accept her feelings?
“We still have a revenge pending,” she deflected instead, taking a step back to unfog her mind. Yumeko matched her step, keeping the same distance as before.
“And? We would still be partners, don’t you think?”
“That’s—that’s not what I meant when I accepted your proposal at the party,”
Kira’s back hit the wall behind her, now being the cornered one. She turned her head to the side, but that only made things worse, exposing her whole neck to Yumeko. Still, Yumeko was not the type to do things without permission, at least not in those cases. In everything else, yes, she would go and destroy everything if she wanted, but not Kira. Never Kira. It was as if she were sacred, never following her rules but breaking them in a public way just so Kira would always find out.
She should not be thinking about what Yumeko meant with those words. Getting the kiss out of her mind was hard enough; she could not go down that rabbit hole.
She should have said no, but that wasn’t what came out of her mouth.
“My father would never allow that; he could hurt you if he found out.” She said instead.
Yumeko touched her face softly, using her fingers to make Kira turn her head towards her. She was so close, Yumeko’s perfect nose touching hers.
“Is that what stops you? I can feel you stopping yourself from touching me.”
Kira realized in that moment that she was digging her nails into her skin, tensing her whole body in a way that was easily noticed by the girl in front of her. She just wasn’t used to relaxing in front of anyone, only in the solitude of her room.
“This can’t be, you know that.”
“I could bet on us,”
And then, she went from speaking to kissing in an instant. Kira wasn’t sure who initiated the kiss, whether it was Yumeko or her. It didn’t really matter, not when she had her mouth against her, so open and inviting that it made her lose her mind. The kiss wasn’t like the first time, no, it was entirely different, so uncharacteristically soft, even for Yumeko, who always did everything with passion. They were living in the moment.
Yumeko stepped back first, the metallic blue lipstick all over her mouth. Her breathing was uneven, almost as if kissing Kira had been one of a hell of an experience. Her pupils were dilated, and Kira assumed hers were the same.
“We’re meant for each other,” Yumeko murmured in that breathy voice that drove Kira mad. “The faster you realize it, the faster we’ll finish everyone off.”
Kira decided in that moment that she needed Yumeko as close as possible. She grabbed her by the collar, pulling her even closer if that was possible, her lips clashing against hers in a bruising rhythm that couldn’t be sane.
The sound of the door opening went completely ignored by both, too much noise in Kira’s mind to be able to focus on anything else that wasn’t Yumeko.
A gasp. Then, a thud.
That, Kira did notice. She pushed Yumeko away, but it was too late.
A couple of meters away, standing in the door frame, were all the student council members and their house pets, too. Kira’s body went rigid. She was having a stroke, probably. Yumeko was grinning beside her, subtle enough that Kira wouldn’t notice.
“Everyone, out now!” Kira yelled, moving on autopilot and pushing everyone out and closing the door behind them. She could hear their comments at the other side of the door, laughing. She put her back against the door, closing her eyes, her whole body trembling.
“Breathe,” Yumeko murmured.
“You too, get out please.” She sounded vulnerable, not Kira at all.
“But—”
“Please, not now. I can’t deal with… this right now.” She muttered, moving her hands in a way that signaled she was having a nervous meltdown.
“...Okay. But promise me you’ll think about it. Don’t shut me out.”
It took twenty long seconds, but she replied eventually.
“Promise. Now, leave me alone.”
Kira stepped aside, opening the doors for Yumeko.
Yumeko looked at her one last time, closing the door behind her. Their strategy nights planning the board’s deaths were going to be fun now.