15Chapter 1: The Whole Story
Yumi put her hand over her eyes, to block out the few sun rays that were peeking through the clouds. The sky was almost completely covered in a thick blanket of off-white, but what little sun was shining through felt brighter than normal. It looked like it was about to pour at any moment, the clouds getting grayer by the second.
"The rainy season is just about here," she mumbled to herself. She walked along a familiar little concrete path, one that brought back a lot of memories, especially considering the time of year. All the while, she tried to suppress the mental image of her 16-year-old self bursting into tears and melodramatically running through the rain years ago, when she thought her onee-sama had been "cheating" on her with Touko.
Those were simpler times, she thought with some amusement—though there was a small twinge of pain there for some reason still.
Eventually, she could see her destination up ahead, a place she had neglected for awhile. It's been at least a few months since I've checked on the rosa chinensis patch. I hope they survived the winter.
Of course, she wasn't going to the greenhouse just to look at the roses. As had been her habit in high school, she occasionally stopped by when she needed to think and decompress. So many important things had happened in that greenhouse, that it always gave her comfort to just sit there and reminisce, and think about how far she had come since those days. She was eager to spend a few moments alone and—
As she opened the door of the old greenhouse with a creak, she caught sight of the unmistakable shape of a human figure sitting near the back. At first she sighed, a little disappointed, but peering through the overgrowth, she quickly recognized the person as a fixture of the greenhouse itself.
"Of course she's here," Yumi whispered to herself, not at all bothered—in fact, a bit more excited than she was willing to admit to herself.
The other young woman looked up, recognizing her immediately. "Yumi-chan!" she said, though her usual enthusiasm was diminished somewhat. She seemed to have been broken out of deep thought.
"Sei-sama, what are you doing here?" Yumi said pleasantly. She came around the little path to get closer, quickly throwing a glance over her shoulder at the roses, before turning her attention back to Sei. "It's been awhile."
They ran into each other at school on occasion, but lately she had the feeling that Sei had been keeping her distance. Whether she was intentionally trying to give Yumi space, allowing her to independently adjust to her first year at Lillian University, or whether Sei was just absorbed in her studies, Yumi wasn't sure.
"Come here and sit a spell!" Sei whacked the space next to her on the bench she was slouching on.
Yumi sat down obligingly, smoothing her skirt with her hands once she was comfortable.
They looked at each other for a moment. It was the intense and slightly awkward eye contact that they always had, this brief exchange of energy between them. It was an acknowledgement, Yumi thought, of those unexplored parts of their connection, what had always simmered slightly below the surface—and a seemingly mutual agreement that they would never explore it.
"You look a bit gloomy," Sei finally declared.
"And you don't?" Yumi said bluntly, studying Sei's face. Yumi knew that Sei also had a bittersweet relationship with the greenhouse. It wasn't all that surprising that she had apparently come here to brood as well, as much as she often claimed to hate the place.
"It's the weather. Makes me moody."
"You're never moody."
Sei chuckled softly. "All right, all right. But what's on your mind? Tell me why you're here first."
Yumi pressed her hands together in her lap and sighed. "You know why."
"Sachiko stuff, huh?" Sei guessed—correctly.
Yumi nodded. "She's been...stressed lately. She's been having arguments with Kashiwagi-san about the future, and I know she doesn't like to burden me with her problems, but—"
"Sachiko's attitude is contagious for you. It's like you're joined by some invisible force."
Yumi nodded again.
"Well, it can't be helped," Sei said. "That's how it's always been with you two. It's enviable in a way. I wish I could stand to be so close to someone myself."
"So why are you here, then?" Yumi asked.
It was Sei's turn to sigh, but there was an odd smile on her face as she turned her eyes away and stared off into the distance. "To be honest, I don't know. I'm questioning myself, Yumi, for the first time in years."
"Questioning yourself?" Yumi cocked her head to the side. "But you've always been so self-confident."
"Nah, it's not about my confidence," Sei said, her smile growing brighter. "I'd never lose that. It's just...something weird happened a few nights ago. Something really confusing."
"Did you finally confess to Katou-san?" Yumi teased.
"Why, you think she's interested?" Sei said jokingly. Then her smile faded somewhat. "No, no. Though my hooking up with Katou Kei would definitely be weird, what happened to me was a lot weirder. The whole thing started Monday night, when I went to this bar that's for—you know—people like us." Sei didn't wink at Yumi, but the expression on her face seemed like it was well-suited for a wink.
"People like us? What do you mean?" Yumi decided to play dumb, even as she knew her face was probably betraying her. She had never actually told Sei about her preferences explicitly. Sure, a lot of girls at Lillian had romantic friendships with other girls, but the issue of growing up and maturing into adult relationships of a similar nature had never been a subject of conversation between them. Most girls weren't "like that," after all.
Yumi knew that it didn't make much sense, but it felt unfair that Sei just seemed to know.
"Oh, come on, Yumi-chan," Sei said, grinning from ear to ear. "We're not in high school anymore. You know I like girls—more than just in a friendly way. You have to know that, right? I was at a gay bar."
Yumi shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Okay, yes, I know," she said quietly. "But what about that other part? What's up with the 'us' part?"
"Oh, you also like girls," Sei responded immediately, as if it were the most self-evident thing in the world. Much to Yumi's outrage, Sei was practically rolling her eyes.
Her annoyance was tinged with a sudden wave of self-consciousness, though. "Is it...is it that obvious?" Yumi asked.
Sei's expression softened. "What? No, no. It's just obvious to me because, well, I'm the same way." Sei shrugged. "I've always figured you liked girls in 'that way,' almost since I first met you. It's not news to me or anything. Even if it were obvious to other people, though, there's nothing wrong with that."
"I know, I just...," Yumi trailed off.
"You're not ready to let other people know," Sei said. "I get that. I wish I had that luxury. I'm much too obvious."
Yumi cleared her throat suddenly, folding her hands in her lap. "Anyway," she said. "This isn't about me. We were talking about what happened to you the other night, remember?"
"Oh, right, right!" Sei scratched the back of her head, her gaze wandering as if she were trying to piece together a memory. "So I was at this bar in the gay district. It was one that's a little bigger than the usual, you know, one with actual tables here and there. I sat down at the bar and ordered a beer from the onabe who was bartending and..."
Sei crouched over the bar and chugged her beer. She had always felt awkward at these kinds of places, but having only become legal the year before, occasionally she felt compelled to assert her right to pound back a few drinks. More importantly, there was something about bars like these, something that made her feel less alone, even if she rarely talked to anyone.
She looked around the room, at the shelf behind the bar stacked with fancy alcohol that she didn't recognize, at the low tables next to a few couches in the lounge area, at the TV screens that were playing some kind of music video mix in an endless loop. The place was mostly empty, probably because it was early evening on a Monday night and other people had better things to do.
As she scanned the rest of the landscape, her eyes abruptly stopped at the far corner of the room. It was the darkest area, with only a couple of tables and chairs. One of the few other patrons was sitting alone in front of what looked like a solitary beer.
It was a girl. She was so small and unassuming, that Sei had almost missed her. She realized immediately why her brain had taken notice, though: even in the dim light, she could see that the girl looked a bit like Yumi. In fact, for a split second, she had thought that she was.
The girl indeed was about the same size and frame as Yumi, but had a slightly younger-looking face. Her brown hair was also cut shorter, styled in a rather feminine way, with a small rose-shaped barrette tucked into her locks. She was wearing a one-piece dress, her legs crossed tightly against the cold of the room in an amusingly obvious way.
She looked oddly familiar to Sei, and Sei could swear she had seen her face somewhere before. Perhaps at Lillian? She felt like she would have remembered a girl like that, though.
Sei shrugged to herself. Maybe the familiarity was only because she reminded her of Yumi.
"You gonna talk to her or what?" the bartender asked, breaking Sei out of her thoughts.
She turned and looked over at him, and he met her with a teasing look.
"I don't know, man, I'm kind of antisocial, if you haven't noticed."
"You've been here a couple of times already and I haven't seen you with a single girl," he said. "Go talk to her. She looks lonely."
"You're just telling me that so that I'll end up staying here longer and buying more drinks."
"Exactly."
Sei heaved a deep and nervous sigh as she looked over her shoulder at the girl. She had never approached anyone at a bar before, but perhaps the bartender was right. When was she going to meet any girls who were actually interested in other girls? At Lillian University? Was she just going to pick up somebody in the middle of class?
Sei hesitated for a moment, then started sliding lazily off the bar stool, beer in hand.
When she reached the far side of the room, which for some reason had much worse lighting, it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. The girl didn't seem to notice her standing there awkwardly, and seemed instead to be entranced by the surface of the table, staring at it like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
Without so much as mumbling a greeting, Sei grabbed the opposite chair and sat down with an abrupt thump. The girl finally looked up at Sei, and she looked immediately alarmed.
"You're too young to be drinking here," Sei said. "There's no way you're twenty."
The girl's eyes widened. "Are you...going to tell the bartender?" she whispered, panic written all over her expression.
Sei couldn't help but burst into laughter. "Jesus, at least try to deny it!"
She seemed bashful then, tucking her hands into her lap and looking at the floor. "Um, I'm twenty?" she said.
"Are you asking me?" Sei chuckled, but she toned it down a bit as she noticed the girl clamming up. "Sorry, sorry. Jeez, you don't have to take it so seriously. I'm just messing with you. I don't care if you're underage. It doesn't look like you came here to drink, anyway."
"What makes you say that?"
Sei pointed at the bottle in front of her. "Your beer's nearly untouched."
"Oh," she looked down at her drink, almost as if she were seeing it for the first time.
"How old are you, anyway?" Sei ventured to ask. She studied the other woman's face more carefully this time. It was true that she looked young, but her features were painted over with that messy kind of makeup job that inexperienced girls use to try to look older. Ironically, it made her seem like a schoolgirl, totally out of place. "Are you still in high school?"
"No, no!" she answered immediately. "I'm in my first year of university. I'm eighteen."
"Ah, okay," Sei mumbled, taking a swig of her beer. "That's not so bad, then. Did you go to Lillian Academy? You look familiar." She figured she may as well ask.
The girl's eyes widened again in surprise, and she stared at Sei's face more intensely for a moment. Some kind of sense of recognition seemed to dawn on her. "You're...the former Rosa Gigantea. From a few years back?"
"Ah-ha, so you did go to Lillian! That's where I know you from."
"...yes," she said in a low voice full of hesitation. Then she quickly added: "I mean, no—I mean, we went to the school at different times."
"Oh, so you must have transferred in after I left, then."
The girl nodded and looked away slightly.
"Then how do you know who I am? Were you friends with some of the other Rosas?"
She nodded again. "I saw you briefly at the school festival, from a distance."
"Oh come now, I would have noticed you, I think! You're much too cute to miss," Sei said, leaning in a little, getting a better look at her.
The girl blushed immediately. "Uh, well, we've never talked or anything."
"Do you know Fukuzawa Yumi?" Sei decided to ask. It seemed like the next logical question, so she was a little surprised to find that her table partner had taken on a more nervous demeanor immediately.
"Yes...yes, a little. I know her a little. Very casually. We're not, like, super close friends or anything," she said hastily.
"So were you two in the same class or something?"
"No!" the girl practically shouted, then, seemingly shocked at her own outburst, she added in a lower voice: "No, we were never in the same class. You know what? We didn't really know each other that well at all. We were just acquaintances, actually. I was the kind of person who just faded into the background, so she probably wouldn't even remember me. I don't think anyone would remember me, really, even if you asked them." She laughed a little, though it sounded totally forced.
Sei threw her a weird look. "Okay," she said, her eyebrows knotting. But she decided not to press the issue too much.
The girl sighed. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "I just...didn't expect anyone to recognize me here, you know?" She looked away listlessly. "I really, really didn't want to be recognized."
Sei gazed at her for a long moment, then nodded slowly in understanding. "Don't apologize," she said. "I get it. I totally do. If none of your friends know that you like girls, I can see why you might be paranoid."
The ghost of an odd, sardonic smile began to appear on the younger woman's face. Sei couldn't quite interpret what it meant. "Yeah, nobody thinks I like girls. No one. Even if I told them that I did, I doubt they would believe me. They would think I was making it all up."
Sei looked at her with compassion. "Oh yeah, people are full of denial about that kind of thing, no doubt about that."
"I guess the problem is that I'm so...feminine. If I told anyone I liked girls, they'd just take it as a joke. I really do like girls, though."
"Yeah, I can definitely see that," Sei agreed. "People think that if you're not a raging butch, then you're just confused."
The girl nodded quickly, but somehow seemed to be getting increasingly fidgety and nervous. Sei guessed that this had to do with the thread of the conversation.
She took a deep breath and picked up her own drink. "I feel like I've made you uncomfortable. I can leave if you want."
"No!" the girl protested. "No, no, that's okay. I'm just nervous, that's all. It's my first time going out to a bar all dressed up."
"Oh," Sei said, scratching her chin. "Yeah, I guess you're still new to this. Well, you have nothing to worry about here. We're all basically in the same boat. Your secrets are safe with me." Sei winked at her.
"Thanks," she said. "I guess I'm just not used to being around other...outsiders. I'm used to being the only weird one."
Sei laughed. "Tell me about it. You would think in a place like Lillian, there would be tons of other people like us, right? I only knew a few."
This seemed to pique the young woman's interest, and she leaned over the table, moving slightly closer to Sei for the first time. "Really?" she asked, her face full of scandalized excitement. "Who? Who?"
"Jeez, you should have worked for the school newspaper," Sei teased. "Anyway, I can't tell you. You might know some of them, and most of these girls really don't want to be found out."
"Oh my goodness, are any of the members of the Yamayurikai...like that?"
Sei raised an eyebrow. "As far as being actually gay? Like, grown up and still liking girls? Besides me, there's only one, but there's no way I'm telling you who that is." She paused. "Hmm, there might also be another one who is bi or something like that. We kind of had a thing, sort of. A thing that never happened."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she liked me, I'm pretty sure. No, I'm more than pretty sure—she basically told me to my face. She was as obvious as she could be without outright confessing. To this day, I'm actually shocked that she had the courage to be so obvious when she absolutely knew I would reject her. And I did." Sei looked away for a moment, her gaze falling at a random spot on the white wall across from her.
"Why did you reject her?" the other girl whispered. "If she was a member of the Yamayurikai, then she must have been beautiful, and respectable, and graceful, and talented and—"
"Whoa, whoa there. Don't forget that I was a member of that same student council and I was none of those things," Sei laughed. "You must have really idolized them."
The girl pulled back a little and shrugged. "I guess. I used to wish that I could be a Rosa, that I could be Sachiko-sama's little sister."
"A lot of girls did," Sei murmured. "It wasn't what most people thought, though. It was a lot of work to be in the Yamayurikai, and not nearly as glamorous as it looked."
"It was just a fantasy," she agreed, her voice wistful. "In reality, it would have been impossible."
"I wouldn't go that far, though I'll admit it was kind of exclusive and overly hard to get in." Sei paused for a moment, then said suddenly, unprompted: "If you really want to know, I rejected her because she loved me. She loved me for exactly who I was, and I wasn't really into that at the time. At that point in my life, love had to be this difficult thing to attain. It had to be dramatic. There had to be yelling and tears, or else it wasn't love."
"That's awful," said the young woman.
"Yeah, well, that's being seventeen," Sei told her. "Besides, she wasn't really my type. She was beautiful, of course, but she was one of those elegant, majestic types. Not really my thing."
"What is your type, then?" The girl leaned in a little again, propping her elbow on the table, resting her chin on her hand.
Sei smiled as their eyes met with what seemed like flirtatious intent for the first time. Then again, maybe she was imagining things.
Then again, maybe they had been flirting the whole time. Maybe that's what all of this was.
"My type?" Sei echoed, her gaze tilting upwards as she gave it some thought. Come to think of it, she had never really pondered too deeply about the subject before. When she saw what she liked, she simply knew it right away, wanted it right away. "I guess I like more innocent girls," she began slowly. "Girls who are a little clueless, a little less self-aware than most, a little awkward and unrefined." She stopped, then met the other woman's gaze directly. "Girls like you."
For her part, the young woman before her stared back in awe, completely taken by surprise at Sei's audacity.
Sei held her gaze with a steady intensity, then made a split-second decision. "You're interesting," she said. "You want to get out of here? Let's go somewhere where we can get to know each other better."
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean," Sei said, her voice unwavering, if amused. Deep inside, though, she was starting to panic a little. It was true that they had only just met. She hadn't even so much as touched her yet, and now she was trying to get her to leave, to go...somewhere. Where were they going, anyway? She hadn't thought that far ahead. Sei could feel her blood starting to pound in her ears.
"Um...okay!" the girl said after a moment, a tiny smile of anticipation growing on her face.
All right, so she does like me, Sei thought, a bit relieved, though she still wasn't sure what she was going to do. As impulsive as she was, she was probably almost as inexperienced as the little brunette in front of her.
In an instant, she nearly jumped out of her chair, reaching out and grabbing the girl's hand before she could think better of it. "Let's go," she said. She pulled her to her feet and led her quickly through the bar, which was starting to fill with a trickle of customers. Behind her, Sei could hear the sharp thumping of a pair of heels trying to keep up with her long strides.
When they made it outside, it was cooler than Sei expected, a nippy gust of wind making the hairs of her body immediately stand on end. She stared at the girl, who was bathed in a mixture of moonlight and the shine from a nearby street lamp.
She could see her features a lot more clearly now. Her face was absolutely adorable, with the energetic quality of a girl much younger. Now that they were standing up, Sei could see that the girl was a bit taller than she had originally assumed—though still quite shorter than Sei herself. As I prefer, she thought.
She felt the stir of physical desire growing within her, but something in her mind was wary of it. She looks a lot like Yumi, even out here in better lighting. Maybe that's why I'm attracted to her. Is that really fair to her, though? To act out some kind of sexual tension I have with someone else?
The girl seemed to brace herself a little against the wind, but she didn't cross her arms. Sei followed the line of her gangly arms and bony shoulders as they led into the top of her sleeveless dress. The edge of her collar bone peaked out of the top of her dress, and framed the bottom of a delicate neck with a slightly prominent throat. Sei suddenly had the strange impulse that she wanted to put her mouth against it.
The young woman brought her hand to her neck and covered it up, seemingly unconsciously, as she bashfully noticed the direction of Sei's gaze.
"What...what is it?" she asked. "Is something wrong?"
Sei shook her head. No, it wasn't just that she looked like Yumi. In her own way, she was interesting. Mature and built with much too sturdy of a body for her frame, yet at the same time innocent, dainty.
She indeed wanted to get to know her. In a naked way. There was nothing stopping her, either. These feelings of freedom were so alien to her that she wasn't sure what to do; no immediate action came to mind.
The girl seemed to grow increasingly self-conscious as the silence widened. Sei snapped out of it after a moment, and realizing the awkwardness that she had caused, grabbed the girl's hand once again and pulled her in the direction of a side street.
"Where are we going?" she asked, but her voice was full of excitement, naked anticipation, almost like she hoped Sei wouldn't tell her at all.
They ducked into a small alleyway near the bar. There was no one there to see them. Sei's heart was pounding so quickly, she briefly wondered if she was having palpitations. It was only then that she realized she had been holding her breath.
The girl was smiling, a smile that she was trying to hold back in vain by biting her lip. Her expressions were so transparently obvious, like Yumi's. She was so clearly full of nervous excitement that it radiated from her every pore and only fueled Sei's arousal.
Sei pushed her gently against the wall of the building beside them.
What am I doing? Sei thought to herself.
She nearly tripped as she slid forward, her body pressing harder than she had intended against the other girl. In an instant, they were chest-to-chest, their eyes locked in one of the most intense stares of her life.
What am I—
She crushed her mouth against the lips of the young woman in front of her. After a moment of shock, the girl responded, relaxing into her, kissing her in return, their chests pushing into each other with every one of their rapid breaths. Sei could feel their hearts pounding together. She could taste some type of flavored lipstick that was being quickly and messily smeared from the girl's lips.
As she deeply inhaled to catch her breath, she took in this girl's unique scent, something she found nostalgic somehow...and yet new. She didn't smell like any other girl Sei had ever kissed. It was a delicate smell, but slightly stronger than she was used to. She liked it.
They leaned further into each other, opened their mouths to each other. Without even thinking, Sei finally pressed the bottom half of her body hard against the other girl, wanting to feel her arousal and...
Sei paused. She thought she had felt something strange, but she adjusted and closed her eyes again, brushed her lips against the other girl's lips, then let her mouth wander down to her neck. She pressed herself fully against the girl again, pushing their hips together more deliberately this time.
Then she immediately pulled back in utter shock.
"Oh God," the younger woman said, before Sei had even managed to look at her in surprise.
Sei was speechless, the look on the girl's face answering all of the questions that she might have asked.
Still, she tried: "What...was that?" Sei gasped stupidly, her warm breath hitting the cool air outside like a gust of steam. She was standing back just far enough that she was no longer touching the girl. She wasn't sure why she was asking. She knew exactly what it had been; maybe she was still hoping that she was mistaken.
The girl looked frozen in place, though her eyes were darting around as if she were trying to figure out where she could run. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry, it just happened. You were kissing me, and I liked it, and I can't control it, I..."
So it was true. Sei swallowed hard. A few emotions ran through her mind. Underneath her surprise, she noticed an odd flare of anger, though it dissipated quickly. Mostly, she was just supremely confused.
When she could finally form words, Sei stared at the girl with as neutral an expression as she could manage. "Why...?" she began. She stopped. She took a shallow breath, then started again: "Why didn't you tell me that you were a boy?"
"I...I'm not!" she protested.
The anger returned. "What the hell was that I felt under your skirt, then? It sure as hell wasn't your phone or something. I felt the damn thing twitch!"
The girl turned beet red. After a moment, she looked directly at Sei. "Yeah, I have the parts, all right?" she said softly. "But I'm not a boy. I just have the parts, that's all." Her voice broke a little on the last syllable, visible droplets starting to form in her eyes.
Sei's anger softened. She put her hand to her own forehead and let out a long breath. She wanted suddenly to comfort the girl, in spite of herself, but she held back, still extremely disturbed by the whole ordeal.
"Why didn't you just tell me?" Sei asked again, though she wondered if there was even a point.
"I didn't expect all of this," she stammered. "It all happened so fast and I was caught up in the moment, and...you never asked! Besides, if I had told you, you would have thought I was a boy. And I'm not a boy." The last part came out harshly, as if she were saying it not towards Sei, specifically—but more towards the rest of the world.
Sei began rubbing her face with both hands, groaning loudly. "You're right," she said. "This is my fault. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have dragged you out here and tried to practically undress you in this alleyway of all places. I was too forward, I moved way too fast. I'm sorry." She started to turn around.
"No!" the girl, who was apparently not a boy, said quickly. "Don't apologize. I liked it. I like you."
"Yeah, but you do know that I don't swing that way, right?" Sei gave her a severe look. "I don't like boys at all."
"I told you, I'm not a—"
"Yeah, yeah, okay," Sei said, waving her hands back and forth. "I get it. I'm sorry. I guess we can just say you're not the type of girl I usually go for."
The young woman looked deflated. "I figured." Her whole body shuddered from the cold in that moment, her skinny frame flexing uncomfortably against the wall. Suddenly, Sei's eyes were drawn to her shape once again, to the lines of her form, up to the angles of her face and the messy tinge of pale red that still clung to her lips.
What was the type of girl Sei usually went for, if it wasn't this kind? Somehow, the physical attraction hadn't faded. Part of Sei's body was still quite perturbed that their activities had been cut short. She sighed deeply. Kissing her and whatnot was perfectly fine, but what about under her clothes? That's a problem, isn't it?
Sei couldn't help but glance down at the other girl's chest quickly, realizing only now that she hadn't felt anything there earlier, in the heat of the moment. She knew a lot of flat-chested girls, though, so it hadn't really seemed out of the ordinary at the time.
Sei staggered over to the wall. Her legs felt heavy all of a sudden. She leaned back beside the girl, keeping a comfortable distance, turning to look at her.
"So you didn't go to Lillian, then, did you?" she asked. "Unless you're extremely good at forging documents."
The young woman shook her head, wearing a sheepish look.
"So you don't know Yumi, either, do you?"
The girl was silent for a moment, as if she were debating what to say. Finally, she took a sharp breath and nodded. "Actually, I do. I'm friends with her brother, and we were in the same year. I was in the student council of Hanadera Academy with him."
Sei resisted the urge to say, "Ugh, does that mean you know Kashiwagi, too?" That's when it dawned on her. "Ohhh," Sei said. "That's why you were acting so weird about the whole Yumi thing earlier. You didn't want me to figure you out, is that it?"
"No," she said. "I didn't want you to see me in the bar and then mention it to people I know. I mean, they know that I'm a girl, that I...dress like this. They even call me by a girl's name. I just didn't want them to know I went to a gay bar. It's kind of embarrassing. And if it got back to my parents, it would be even worse. I promised them that I would stop wearing dresses after I graduated high school." She paused. "Besides..."
"Besides?"
She smiled at Sei. "Besides, it was nicer when you didn't know. You treated me like a normal girl—wanted me like a normal girl—and that hardly ever happens to me. You're right, I didn't want you to figure me out."
Sei couldn't help but smile a little, leaning lazily against the wall. Then, something abruptly came to mind, something she realized that she should have addressed earlier.
"Uh, what's your name anyway?" Sei asked. "A moment ago we were sharing our germs with each other, so at the very least we should properly introduce ourselves, I guess. I'm Satou Sei, by the way."
She looked up at Sei pleasantly. "My name is Alice. How do you do?"
Yumi gaped at Sei in complete shock. True to form, her emotions were all over her face, and she could tell that Sei was reading each and every one of them. She couldn't help it, though. Out of all of the people she could have imagined randomly meeting—and canoodling—at a bar in downtown Tokyo, these two would have been her last guess.
She just couldn't wrap her mind around it. Satou Sei-sama...kissing Alice-kun? Alice-kun? Full-on, swapping spit, groping each other in an alley? It was just so beyond the realm of her imagination, and yet somehow her mind kept playing images of the scene over and over again. She tried to think of something else—it was rude to imagine such things, after all—and yet she couldn't stop herself. In a weird way, she was totally fascinated.
Sei merely looked at her in amusement.
"So, uh," Yumi began, trying to clear her thoughts, to be respectful. "What happened afterwards?" New images came to her mind though, and try as she might, she couldn't fight the question that she was asking Sei with her expression, even if she didn't dare verbalize it.
"You want to know if I took her to a love hotel or something?" Sei asked, laughing.
Yumi knew it was pointless to deny it, so she merely nodded.
"No, no," Sei said dismissively. "After that, we talked for a few more minutes and then I went home. It was all too much to deal with at the time. It had been such a weird night, in a lot of different ways."
Yumi tapped her own chin thoughtfully. "That's a shame," she said.
"What, that we didn't hook up?" Sei looked amused.
"No, that you betrayed her confidence."
"What?"
"You said that her secret was safe with you, and here you are telling me the whole story."
It was Sei's turn to appear thoughtful. "Hm, I guess you're right. I didn't think about that. Why do I always tell you my secrets so easily, anyway? Now I feel like an idiot," she said, but she was smiling. "I suppose it's a good thing that I didn't actually tell you the whole story, then. At least there's that."
When Sei got up awhile later without saying anything, Yumi's gaze followed the older woman as she wandered out the greenhouse door. "I'll see you later, Yumi," Sei said as she was already stepping out. "I have some stuff to think about. Thanks for letting me spill my guts, as always." She threw her a smirk over her shoulder.
Yumi couldn't resist smiling back. Still, something inside of her was burning with frustrated curiosity. What was the whole story? She wondered if she would ever find out.
