"You're kidding!" Ayane threw her head back with a loud cackle. Sawako gasped quietly in surprise and Chizuru jolted to the side narrowly avoiding a collision with her friend's elbow.
"Oi! Watch it!"
Ayane wiped her eye daintily with her finger as she caught her breath and simmered down. Her hair was pulled back in one of her classic pony tails on the side of her head. One long strand was separated from the rest. Sawako had braided it. Sawako, not Sadako: the very same girl who knelt before Ayane shaking her head solemnly as though the rhetorical statement had been a sincere accusation.
"Not at all." Her long black hair swished back and forth falling over one shoulder and then the other. "My answer was not meant to be humerous. It is the absolute truth."
Ayane sighed and rested her cheek in her hand.
"I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. You've missed out on a lot of firsts."
Sawako adjusted the hem of her pink nightgown.
"Indeed." She seemed slightly crestfallen when she thought back to her days of solitude before she had made friends. In her typical Sawako fashion she bounced back quickly. "However, I have shared a number of happy occasions with you. I had my first sports tournament. I attended my first haunted house. I even went," Sawako's cheeks turned a deeper shade of red than Chizuru's oversized jersey "on...my first...date."
Chizuru's eyes widened and she pulled her knees up under her chin. Ayane merely giggled.
"Yeah. You and Kazehaya went out but," she smirked impishly "you didn't even make it to first base!"
"First...base?" Sawako cocked her head to the side as visions of Kazehaya playing baseball flashed through her head. Chizuru, on the other hand, was reeling.
"Geeze! You're so chill with all this! You act like you're not even in the same grade as us!"
Ayane grinned and leaned back against Sawako's bed.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm about ten years older than any of you. By the way don't think I've forgotten about Ryu's impromptu confession." Sawako was no longer the only one blushing and stammering. "You should give me some credit for not immediately screaming 'I told you so.'"
"Yeah...well...well...well."
"So, I take it you haven't either?"
"Haven't what?"
"I swear! Do you perceive anything that happens around you? Kiss! It's only what we've been talking about for the past five minutes. Have you and Ryu kissed?"
Chizuru crossed her arms.
"I'm not telling you that! Besides, I'm like his brother!"
Ayane was unmoved.
"So, that's a no."
Sawako spoke up timidly from her spot on the floor.
"Um...Yano-cha...I mean, Ayane. You've...kissed someone before?"
"Oh? Well of course. You know I had a boyfriend. Even if he did turn out to be a complete idiot-jerk."
"I was wondering what...it's like?"
Ayana thought carefully. What had her first kiss been like?
"Well, the first time...it's really weird but in a good way. Lips can be really soft...and warm. If you're kissing someone you like then you get electric shocks all over your body." Ayane giggled and rubbed her arms yet Sawako looked slightly frightened.
"And you like that feeling?"
"Yeah. It's great. It's...magic."
"Magic." Sawako echoed her thoughtfully.
Ayane placed a hand on her friend's back.
"I'm sure you'll get to experience it before too long." She glanced over at the gangly girl on her other side. "You too."
Sawako still seemed distressed about something.
"The feelings you described. They sound so intense. I cannot imagine that my heart could ever handle something that monumental. I am scared that, in the moment, I will become overwhelmed."
Ever the optimist, Chizuru rushed in to be supportive although she had no experience to draw from on the subject.
"You're the amazing Sadako! You can handle anything!"
Ayane seemed less convinced. She did have a lot of misunderstandings this past year…
"I have an idea." Ayane spoke with resolve. "Tonight our goal is to get Sawako ready for her first kiss."