Chapter Text
No one told Rei that private school would be quite so big.
She read and imagined what she could from the small pile of novels on her mother’s table, clearly picturing the grand, glittering staircases and tall stained-glass windows before she even entered Seiran’s doors. It was a far cry from her home. However, she never anticipated the bustle of thousands of students happening all in one place. She had never even been around so many people at once.
It was easier to keep to the back of her own mind if she was quiet and didn’t look at mirrors. It seemed no one else sported the plain, girlish uniform, so perhaps her unusual wardrobe wouldn’t draw much attention. If no one paid her mind, it wouldn’t be so different from home, and as much as she feigned indifference, Rei did like it when things were in their place.
She’d been living on her own for just over a few months then without contact with the outside world except for her indifferent new brother’s phone number, which was scratched on a note and flung at her. Already the family was pushing to enroll her into Seiran, considering her rather impressive test scores in literature and French.
As though it was their concern. No, Rei knew that grander affairs occupied the family’s minds– there was only one person who would have vouched for her.
Golden Fukiko, the elegant, prideful, beautiful sister she never saw anymore. Whenever Rei thought of her now, and this became increasingly more often each passing class, a strange mess of fog clouded her mind. She missed her. She’d given Rei a pretty thing to remember her by, and they both liked pretty things.
Of course, Rei understood it all the minute she came to school and learned of her sister having been first choice for the upcoming generation of Seiran’s sorority. Those words meant absolutely nothing to Rei, but they made her preen with pride all the same on her sister’s behalf. Fukiko deserved the honor, a perfect match for her excellence.
Meanwhile, Rei remained elusive in the margins, dragging around her mother’s old copy of Jane Eyre like she would a dead cat.
She noticed some stares in her first few weeks. It made some amount of sense that as one of the taller, less feminine girls in her class, she would receive some attention that was not always positive. She paid them as little mind as she cared to, and once they realized they’d have no reaction out of her, the light jeers became occasional little whispers of intrigue.
To be found interesting was like a beautiful new drug to Rei, and she certainly learned to indulge. She supposed she first noticed it when a doe-eyed girl took a shine to her in second year of junior high. She’d stay behind to wait for her after all their classes, she’d giggle at nothing with her friends and glance back for Rei’s eye, and she’d get up close and personal. She would touch her arm, and Rei noticed. It didn’t matter to her in the slightest, not when her heart was taken. But she noticed it, and she felt something she hadn’t felt before.
One day during morning class, something was strange about that girl. She was tapping her foot, looking forward at nothing, and she didn't seem to hear a word from her friends chattering on at her table. After class, she dragged Rei behind the door, pressed a peck to her cheek, and ran off.
Rei barely got the chance to feel funny about it; the girl never spoke to her again.
This was first in a line of subsequent mini-tragedies. Rei took to the unfortunate heartbreaker role like a duck to water, but affection kept her kind. The pretty girls liked her, and she came to like pretty girls.
When it came to it, she knew she wasn’t much more than a fantasy for the girls who liked their tragic, artistic heroes. But who was Rei to spoil the moment? She could let them blush at her in one moment and whisper with their friends about boys across town in the other. After all, it made little difference not to let them have their fun.
Even with the every-so-often curious classmates, Rei managed to keep to herself. She would listen in on classroom chatter about teenage fallouts, the scolding of strict mothers, or frustrating dress shopping and realize how little she had in common with the girls of Seiran Academy. It was as though there was an entire world she couldn’t be privy to, despite her presence between the same walls. But their worlds were the least of Rei’s worries when only one occupied her mind.
Sometimes, if Rei’s train came early enough, she would have a chance to see Fukiko be dropped off to school in the morning in her shining black car. The station wasn’t far from the main gates. Sometimes Fukiko would glance back at her, but Rei couldn’t seem to meet her eye anymore. She hadn’t for some time. Still, she returned to the gates in the early morning each day.
Lunch was a different story. Lunch was one of the few breaks Rei had from her bubble, where she could stay in the open air on her small, secluded hilltop without anyone to bother her at all– except, of course, Seiran’s basketball team, which usually spent the whole beginning of the hour roughhousing on the field below.
Not that Rei paid any mind, particularly. They weren’t so loud from a distance, and they certainly had no interest in interrupting her reading. But as unconcerned with school activities Rei could be, she couldn’t be oblivious towards everything, and that included Seiran’s new star player. Frankly, it was difficult to ignore the girl; her name was in everyone’s mouth during game season at some point or another. ‘Kaoru-no-kimi’ they called her, like the prince. How obnoxious.
She’d first heard her name while idling in French class towards the start of the year. As the girl walked in, a small group formed around her, patting her back and congratulating her for making varsity. She seemed surprised from the attention but not put off, and a few girls clamored to sit by her as the professor entered and the class started settling down.
Rei hadn’t seen her up close much, but she always seemed to be flanked by a fan or two in the field when she wasn’t playing. Skeptical as she was, whenever Rei bothered to take a peek at how their practice was going, she could tell why the girls were so mesmerized. Kaoru really did shine on the field, and Rei heard from a blushing birdie or two that her teammates all adored her. She’d make team captain soon, no doubt.
Despite her reservations, in truth, Rei never saw anything ingenuine when she laid eyes on the girl. She did have something special. She had a way about her that naturally took up space. In short, she was nothing like Rei.
The days got slowly cooler as they went by. Midterms inched closer. Rei’s hair began to drape past her shoulders. Against the routine changing tides, she still had her alone time atop that hill, complimented by the distant ruckus of the match below.
Rei didn’t remember if she heard the shouted warning or felt the impact first, but she certainly took a basketball directly to the face– and not without a yelp.
“No, wait!”
She heard someone running to her and groaned.
It was Prince Kaoru who stopped in front of Rei, scratching the back of her neck.
“Sorry, what was that?”
“I said, wait for what? You already hit me.”
The girl burst into laughter like she couldn’t keep it in. “Oh, please forgive me! We were in a scuffle, I swear I didn’t mean to…”
“Yes, yes,” Rei muttered, feeling her stinging face grow hot with embarrassment. Throwing the ball back to Kaoru, she added, “Just watch where you’re flinging that.”
Kaoru looked at the ball back in her hands and glanced at Rei for a moment.
“Let me take you to the nurse!” she said suddenly, extending an arm. “He’ll give you some ice for that. I really am sorry. Let me make it up to you.”
Rei found herself taking her hand.
“Fine. Then, I’ll consider accepting your apology, Prince Kaoru.”
Kaoru snorted. “How merciful.”
Kaoru waved goodbye to her teammates before the pair made their way back inside, into the main hall, and down to the nurse’s office. Their footsteps made squeaking echoes down the otherwise silent hallway.
“I’ve seen you around, haven’t I, Asaka? But we haven’t introduced ourselves properly.”
“I think this was more than enough of an introduction.”
Kaoru laughed lightly in agreement before glancing down at Rei’s hand. “You were reading something, yes?”
Rei realized she noticed her book and promptly brought it to her chest. “I’m sure it wouldn’t interest you,” she said airily.
Kaoru grabbed it anyway, to Rei’s surprise.
“Oh, it’s Verlaine. ‘Rain falls in my heart, as it falls on the town..’ Right?”
“...Right. Not bad.”
“Don’t sound so shocked! Anyways, now we’re even.”
“How so?”
“To tell you the truth… “ Kaoru began, sheepishly, “I offered to walk you mostly so I could ask you something. Would you consider yourself a sportswoman?”
“By no definition.”
“Well, how would you feel about it? Our basketball team needs some new good players for next year, and we need to start training them soon.”
“Was my blow to the head that impressive?”
This earned a laugh. “Well, you threw that ball back to me like it was nothing! I can work with that, trust me. And you happen to be tall as a stallion. Please consider it? It would be a big favor to me.”
The door to the nurse’s office approached, and Rei rapped twice on the door.
“Fine, I’ll trust you,” she conceded before she left.
-
It wasn’t till she was home when Rei’s mind came out of schoolday torpor and she realized what she’d agreed to.
Kicking strewn junk from her covers and collapsing in the undone bed, she stuffed her face in her pillow and mused on the interaction. It was rather unexpected from a “prince,” but Rei could admit that Kaoru’s forwardness was not entirely unbecoming.
The question of joining the team was another entirely, coming faintly to her mind as a bad idea. Height wasn’t everything; she had not a runner’s bone in her body. But the thought of the girl-prince’s plea was endearingly genuine enough to charm her, at least for now. No harm could come of it. And so what if she wanted to see her again?
The light above her bedroom suddenly gave out with a fizzle, enveloping her apartment in the dark. Dazed, Rei wrenched herself from bed to have a look at the fried light switch. The pretty thing round her wrist felt a bit colder today.
-
“Just a little more, hang on!”
Rei could barely hear the encouragement as she ran, despite it being practically yelled into her ear. The sun beamed down hot and heavy on the pavement, and even the shade couldn’t entirely mask the heat as she stumbled through the last couple meters of the pathway.
Kaoru trotted beside her for a moment before racing to catch up to the finish, and once Rei caught up to her, she dropped down against a tree to gasp for breath. Seemingly unphased, Kaoru was already chatting with another few girls who’d finished their laps earliest of all. They seemed taller than the rest, and they were certainly faster– seniors, probably. A few younger girls were still recovering, wiping their faces, gulping down water.
“You’d think, what with all the upscale donors, the school would fix up a real track for us. Even my old school had one- a dirt one, but still. I suppose the park will have to do.”
Frankly, Rei couldn’t imagine running that length with no shade at all, but she sat quietly by her tree and closed her eyes.
“How about you, Asaka? Did your old school have a track?”
Rei opened her eyes again and saw that Kaoru had turned to her. The other girls looked briefly to her, and then to Rei in silence.
“This is my first school.”
The small lull made Rei feel looked at. The seniors said nothing. The girls seated by the grass quietly looked back and forth before continuing their chatter. The older girls seemed to take it as a sign to talk again too, but Kaoru still faced Rei. She took a few hesitant steps forward before sitting down next to her.
“Did you bring water?”
“Forgot.”
“No worries,” and she handed her her own bottle.
As Rei took a grateful swig, Kaoru added, “You won’t forget again, after today’s heat.”
“Yeah.”
Kaoru crossed her arms against her knees. “You did well today. I was watching you. You need some practice, but you’ve got a good start. Beat some of the freshmen today.”
“A real honor.”
“You’ll be back, won’t you?” She looked almost bashful. “We’re conditioning on Mondays, but tomorrow we’ll get on the field. Please come.”
“I’m not sure your teammates like me so much.”
“They don’t know you. Want me to give you an embarrassing introduction tomorrow?”
“Oh, my…” Rei laughed lightly.
“Just be receptive. The girls are sweet.”
“Not like you’re sweet.”
Kaoru laughed back. “Be here tomorrow?”
“Okay.”
-
Being “on the field” made no difference to Rei’s burning legs than running laps around the park, but Kaoru seemed pleased enough.
Sure, Rei passed the ball to the other team one too many times to be funny, but she wasn’t half bad at the free throw, and she could make it across the court with seconds to spare from the other girls.
Having long legs didn’t hurt. Or rather it did; she hadn’t been so sore in ages. But over time, to her irritation… it got easier, like Kaoru told her it would. She managed to win some respect from the varsity team. An approving glance here and a curt nod there sent enough of a message to Rei: maybe if you keep at it, you’ll make it next year. She let herself feel some pride.
Her chest heaved and she felt her heart pound alive in her chest. A smack on the shoulder jolted her out of her reverie.
“Nice job!”
The girl-prince appeared behind her, damp skin gleaming in the midday sun.
“Thanks. But I’m no Kaoru-no-kimi.”
This earned a laugh. The girl’s eyes always smiled with her mouth.
“What an honor. Especially coming from our new star player.”
“What?”
“Well, we were going to wait to tell you.. But I thought it wouldn’t be fair to ask you on the spot.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Well, Keiko is stepping back from the team very soon. Said school needed more of her time these days. So, I thought I’d ask if you might like to… take her place. On varsity. This year.”
“Me?”
“You’ve grown a lot as a player.” Kaoru looked around to her side, and then back to Rei.
“...You don’t have to stay. Not if you don’t want it,” she added, lowering her voice.
Rei chewed on the thought for a moment. “Well. I suppose it will give me something to do… Besides, how could I refuse such a plea from the prince herself?”
She gave Kaoru a vain grin, but the girl seemed to see through her irony. She rewarded Rei with a playful cuff to her shoulder.
“Thank you.”
-
There was a second number that occupied Rei’s outgoing calls now. Another person to know her by her true name and not the new, gruesome moniker the class had adopted for her. As much as she may have looked like it to the freshmen who whispered “Saint-Juste,” she didn’t feel much like any angel. Not of any sort. Certainly not one worthy of the attention from that girl.
But when Kaoru swapped seats in French class to be near her, Rei felt something new. It budded in her chest when their legs brushed and neither would move. It bloomed when they roughhoused and one would wrap her arm around the other’s shoulder as they laughed. It was a sentiment unlike anything she’d experienced before. Not while the hallway girl stole a kiss before running off. Not while sharing her first smoke with an older sorority girl who made her swear not to tell.
Not with her Lady either.
There was nothing gold or shining or perfect about Kaoru, but she resembled the sun much the same, more than Fukiko did in her forebearing majesty– much to Rei’s shame.
Her face rested in a light smile. Through kindness, she commanded respect. Her freckles spilled down both her shoulders and her back. Everyone adored how she spoke with such clear vitality. Her hair seemed to curl a new direction every morning. Guilt bit Rei long and hard in the throat for noticing these things, and the teeth wouldn’t seem to let her go. But it offered some relief, having a friend to laugh about nothing with. She gave Kaoru her copy of Jane Eyre.