Sahana had three tickets in her hand. ‘You’re free on Saturday night, right?’ she asked Kunie, who was sitting in the classroom at lunch. ‘Toyomi and I are going to this comedy festival. It starts at 7:30. Want to come with?’
‘Uh… sure? Are you sure you don’t want to just go with Toyomi?’
‘Well, I’ve already got three tickets, right? Masami can’t go so that leaves you. Oh, and we’re meeting there at 7 just in case. Plus, that way we can chat before the show. Should be fun, right?’
‘7. Got it. Thanks for inviting me.’
On the other side of the classroom, Fumie asked Masami, ‘Would you be able to come to church service on Saturday night at 7? They need to fill more seats. You don’t need to be a Christian to go. I promise the service won’t be long.’ She gave her the address.
Masami agreed to go, having no clue that Christian church services are usually on Sunday mornings. Fumie and Sahana looked at each other and nodded.
On Saturday night, Masami looked at Fumie with a confused face. ‘So, uh, where is the church?’
The meeting place turned out to be a small convenience store squished between a closed two-story karate dojo and a run-down graffiti-covered bookstore. The area smelled of rubbish and old paint. The closest thing to a biblical reference that Masami could see was a devil spray-painted onto the bookstore.
Fumie put her hands together in prayer and muttered, ‘Lord, please forgive me.’
‘Why would he have to forgive you?’
Fumie looked up with the eyes of a first-time criminal under interrogation. ‘For lying to you.’
‘Where’s the damn comedy club?’ a familiar voice asked. Masami turned around and saw Kunie.
Fumie began walking away. ‘I’ll leave you both to it.’
Masami reached for her desperately. ‘Wait, why is she here?’
‘You need to talk things through. I don’t wish to see the outcome myself, so I must leave.’
Once Fumie had disappeared into an alleyway, Masami snorted like a horse, though with her mouth rather than her nose. She faced Kunie.
‘Any idea what’s going on?’
Kunie shrugged. ‘I was supposed to be going to a comedy festival with Sahana and Toyomi but…’ she took out her ticket and noticed the cheap way they were printed as well as the lack of a name for the venue. ‘Those damn… Okay, looks like it’s just us.’
Of course, Sahana and Toyomi were there, just hiding in the convenience store behind one of the racks and watching the scene unfold.
‘So…’ Masami began.
‘I’m going home,’ Kunie interrupted.
‘Wait, no, Fumie was right. We need to talk this out.’
A sigh left Kunie’s lips. ‘Fine. What is there to talk about?’
‘You’ve changed. Wait, that wasn’t supposed to be what I was going to say, uh… you know what? You have changed and it scares the hell out of me. You were so confident and that just disappeared. I miss the old you.’
The memory of Kuri’s words fluttered through Kunie’s brain. ‘You… you do?’
‘Yeah. I miss that and spending time with you. I finally found someone to talk about Takarazuka with. Plus, you accepted my weird cooking habits and listened to me when I was struggling. You even forgave me when I was acting really strange and was avoiding you.’ A chuckle from Masami tickled Kunie’s ears. ‘I guess I got payback for that since you quickly started avoiding me.’
‘Why were you avoiding me anyway?’ Kunie spat. ‘You kept saying it was because of school work but that sounded like total bullshit.’
‘It was my first time having a crush on someone, okay? I didn’t know how to handle it. It’s not like you handled realising you were gay well either, Miss ‘He’s your entire life’! Jealousy is not a good look on you. But you said you don’t like Sahana that way, so who do you even like? How’d you find out you were gay?’
Kunie bit her lip and moved her eyes in every direction. ‘Do I have to tell you?’ Masami put her hand on her hips. ‘Fine. It’s you. I fell for you.’
Warmth travelled from Masami’s heart up her throat until it reached her face. ‘Wait, let’s get this straight. I like you and thought you like Sahana and you like me and thought I like Sahana. Is that right?’
Kunie nodded, The two stared at each other silently for a moment before bursting into laughter. Laughter that brought a tear to Masami’s eye. She held her hand up to her eye to wipe it away but Kunie took over that job and wiped the teardrop herself. Masami was too busy drinking in the moment to worry whether Kunie could hear how fast her heart was beating.
‘But I thought you said we had nothing in common, which is totally wrong, by the way,’ Masami rambled. ‘We had enough in common to be friends even without Sahana there. And I could learn to live with your slobbiness. Or you could get used to me getting annoyed at you being a slob. Whichever’s easiest. Oh, but I’ve never been in a relationship, so I don’t really know what I’m doing. What if you grow to hate me or-’
Her words were interrupted by Kunie’s chapped lips. When the short kiss ended, Masami touched her own tingling lips, which felt like clouds charged with electricity.
‘Sorry for interrupting, it just seemed like you wanted me to kiss you.’ Kunie’s confident grin was back. ‘I mean, you were so worried about us so I wanted to ease your fears.’ The grin faltered a little. ‘Oh, I am so sorry-’
Masami kissed back, wrapping her arms around her neck and holding the back of her head. Kunie caressed her cheeks then brushed her hands down her back until she reached the small of it, which she used to push her closer to her. Masami giggled when that happened.
Kunie, for some reason, smelled like roses. Masami, whose brain was intoxicated by the kiss, figured it was the power of love. In actuality, it was Kunie’s deodorant.
Masami broke from the kiss. ‘Wait, I’m actually not the first girl you liked. It was that Takarazuka actress-’
‘Do you want to talk or kiss?’
‘Sorry. Carry on.’
As they continued the kiss that was verging on a makeout session, Sahana turned to Toyomi.
‘We should probably leave them be. I feel like a voyeur.’
‘Fair point, but how are we going to get out of here?’
As if answering their question, Kunie turned her head and shouted, ‘Hey, Sahana, Toyomi, wherever you are, get out of there!’
Sahana and Toyomi sheepishly shuffled out of the convenience store. ‘Sorry,’ Toyomi said on instinct.
Kunie wrapped her arm around Masami’s shoulders and pulled her close until they were standing right next to each other. Did Masami blush even more?
Ding Ding Ding! If you answered yes, you are correct!
‘You kidding me?’ Kunie asked Toyomi with a laugh. ‘Thanks to you, I got to kiss this one right here! I’m buying you two snacks. What do you want? Oh, Masami, do you want anything?’
‘This is enough.’
The new couple walked into the store, still attached at the hip. ‘Wow, that’s pretty cheesy, Masami, not gonna lie.’
‘Oh, shut up!’
They both giggled. I twisted red fibres around each other until the string of fate between the couple was repaired.
Gitan, you brilliant bastard.
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