Evening waxed on Akatsuka Town, tincturing the small clouds high up in the sky in a precious soft pink. It was the start of a breezy weekend, but also the very start of a new Happy Hour Time ™ for all working people, and in between theme there was a group who consisted on six tired girls fresh outta their respective jobs working hours, who had been planning for days to go out for fun and were prepared for it. They had already accorded to reunite at their favourite izakaya, the (only) one that could accept their usual misbehavings for a bit more of cash, as it was March's end and they needed a way to start the upcoming month with new energy. It was their own way to relieve their stress, entirely uncaring if it was a good way or not, and it was a great excuse to meet up with each other (and sometimes with other boys) when they had little to no opportunity to get together and pester each other as often as they would have liked it.
Of course, nights like that meant a whole bunch of hours made for drinking until vomit, laugh and tears poured out of their noses until the place closed and so they had to find another place to hold their wrath. And that, just like that, was how the girls found Osoko, the oldest of the group yet the one who tended to act more like a child in between non working hours, already inside their little rented room on the izakaya, laughing and crying at the same time, maniacally slapping her hand on the table, with noticeable tears of black rimmel splashed all over her cheeks. To be fair, it was not a rare sight according to her closest friends who knew of her emotional outbursts usually related to bad breakups, and they had to admit that they occurred often, more often than what everyone deserved, so there was no shame on their tired sighs at the sight. The girls sat next to their friend, slumping over the tables and swiftly pressing the menu button on them for more rounds of whatever liquor or whatever the businesswoman had already started with.
"Hell, Osoko, it's just 8PM and you already look like a melting cake" said Choroko, the girl with a messy bun on her hair which revealed the tiredness of an entire week and winter green clothes, voice tired already and not just by the all nighter she had pulled off the day before that one or the excessive amounts of paperwork she had to fill.
"Shuddap you fool, it is what I deserve for shurviving this hell of a month," Osoko, looking annoyed and donning her already well known business attire like it had been used for dancing instead for office jobs and hadn't even tried to cover the beer smears or the wrinkles on it. She hiccupped twice, for then getting her face slushed with beer bubbles. A snap from her fingers resounded in the air. It looked like the businesswoman, in her beer fueled stupor, had already forgot the bartender nor the waiters couldn't listen from the outside of the private room.
"Yeah, sure thing Osoko-chan, it is what you deserved this month and the last one and but I'm sure you've drunk enough for all the rest of months this year, too. You smell like it, so I believe you". The mori girl, Todoko, who called the waiter that had just entered the room and gave him precise instructions on how strong she wanted her grapefruit Jägermeister, sneered with a known ugly face retorted while getting comfortable on her sit to then steal from Choroko's glass to slurp a bit of her beer. "So, tell us, what happened this time?"
"If it's another guy on your workplace don't even try to start. I've already told you, businessmen are all leeches, and you never seem to understand that fact," Ichiko, the mature-looking girl with fair skin and ebony hair, wearing clothes that clearly screamed "end of the week" and "please kill me" said, receiving her of red wine on her right hand with a chilly grace only reserved for those vendors who couldn't shut their mouths.
"Eeh, Ichiko-chan, at least let us listen to her story! I'm sure it's the "eww" kind of romance, but I wanna know it the guy was hot!" Jyushiko, the tanned ganguro girl who was the only one in a pretty white cocktail dress, free of the clasps and chains from the business world, jumped excitedly. She sighed after a while of showing her excitation over her friend's tears, imagining the ephemeral hottie in her mind.
"Whoever got you like this, more ugly than usual, doesn't deserve you, Osoko" the last of the girls group, Karako, the slightly tanned but very toned girl who looked fresh out the (gym) shower, said those words in a firm voice, only to snicker at the terrible face Osoko did to her.
Osoko couldn't help but give the girl an annoyed look, the implications of her double meaning sentence clear on her mind. Picking her nose, she crashed the same finger on Karako's boob, knowing well that wouldn't help in anything but cleaning her finger and mind of those mean words. Besides, they all did the same when she had breakup problems. Even she would start up ruckus in between her group sometimes, when they needed some distraction from their daily lives, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem.
"… You said one word too many, but I'll let it pass this time"
… But this time it just didn't feel like "not that much of a problem".
Silence ensued suddenly, as if the girls were able to feel the gloomy mood overflowing from the oldest of them. Even the background murmurs and clinking glasses coming from outside the room seemed to stop too.
They paid full attention. Osoko took some air first before starting.
"He, he wasn't a guy from work. Far from it, I met him outside a nearby outlet mall."
"OMG" "Just like that?" "How suspicious" "Was he that hot? Oh my gawd" With the revelation out there, the girls couldn't stop their mouths and interrupted Osoko, savoring the mental image of the mysterious dude and their romantic encounter.
"What! Shuh up! He helped me with the bags a-and not many men do that for us girls this days yanno!" Osoko said, moving her glass and sloshing beer everywhere. "He sheemed goofy and charming, and he did a joke trick where he tried to steal my wallet, it was so stupid and badly done I fell on my ass laughing"
"A trick?" Ichiko inquired, disgust present on her face."Like a magic trick?"
"Yeeeeeah, sure thing Osoko, a joke." Todoko deadpanned, looking more annoyed by the minute.
"But Osoko-chan! You haven't told us how hot the guy was!" Jyushiko interrupted, angered and pouting at not having her question answered.
The businesswoman scrunched her face a bit; the face of the person she had on her mind had become a bit too fuzzy due to all the alcohol she had drank for hours. It was kind of the idea but...
"If he was hot, you say?" - She asked herself - "Uhhh no, he seemed kinda plain. A bit chubby even, with a baby face. But a charming smile, yeah… yeah"
"That sounds terribly normal" - Choroko deadpanned, pushing her glasses up to then drink her beer in full. "That doesn't seem your type at all, you always go for guys who are more like hotties than the average dude"
"Why would you lose your time on a plain idiot like that then?!" Todoko exclaimed.
A low chuckle resounded, and so everyone knew it was bantering time.
"Hey, don't become desperate this soon Osoko, we still have much to live," Karako commented as if she was very serious, even when the smirk on her face said other different thing. "You'll get better dudes, just don't go catfishing whatever scum on the street" Of course this was something the terrible drunkard of a friend she had would catch and Karako knew it, laughing on the inside when she saw her eyes bursting on fire and teeth clench up. Osoko got up from her seat, knocking up the little food she had on her side of the table and grabbed Karako by her jacket's neckerchief.
"You dun understand! He was such a nice guy, he gave me gifts and called me cute and uh—" – The girl suddenly stuttered, releasing Karako's neckerchief and hugging her, rubbing her face and smearing it with black rimmel and tears. "Why did he leave… w-we were gonna romp together a-and he couldn't g—g-g—"
"Get it up?" All girls on the room deadpanned, completing the sentence Osoko was unable to even end.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" she sobbed, remembering the moment just made the painful grip on her heart tighter, as if it wanted to let her heart explode. "A-am I that ugly? W-what did I do to desherve this…? W-was it because I tried to flirt to my boss son – a married guy – sometime ago? Was it b-because—I dunno, whatever? Or is it 'cuz I don't deserve love?" As she said that, she tightened her grip on Karako's shoulders, who could only pat her back awkwardly. After a small while, Osoko suddenly freed her friend from the tight grip to sit down again practically shove in her mouth whatever was left on her glass.
"Aw, Osoko-chaaan, that's so saad" Bawled Jyushiko, with 70% real tears on her face, snorting on a napkin near her. "Next time you should come with me! I can find you the hottest bods on sale and/or not for all the nights you want!"
Sniffing, Osoko could only shake her head. "Gnnh... Sorry Jyushiko, I'm a picky person, so no sex dungeons for me. Thank you anyways."
"Boo, that's boring." Jyushiko sticked her tongue out at her.
Then, her shoulder was grabbed on that same instant in a one armed hug by Karako. "Oh come on Osoko, don't cry, it's just a sex slump! You'll get better from it in no time, you'll see." She said fiercely, being influenced easily by her friend's tears.
"… Do sex slumps even exist, Karako-han?" Ichiko asked her, her sly voice tone making the other shiver a bit.
"Who cares, sex slumps are slumps, one time means nothing!" The youngest of them screamed, drunk already, swinging her beer vase and staining everywhere, with some of the girls applauding and laughing at her angered face.
The conversation went on and on, the girls offending and bantering to each other in the friendly way only they could understand, until they heard sobs. Osoko still looked terrible, tears mixing with her remaining food bits and staining the crystal glass. At the sight, Todoko, always the most sensitive or at least the one who was terribly empathic even if she disliked it, sat up, cleaned up her mess, and the rest of girls sat down as if they were still on the catholic school they once all went to.
"… Man, you know, that really hurt my feelings," She said, cleaning the rimmel smears on her face with a dirty nape –"… I feel like… it's almost like as if I were…"
There was a long pause.
"… Cursed"
No one gave much thought to her word, but in the very instant Osoko, still saddened by her own thoughts and words, sadly looking in her almost empty glass and remembering images of the past, finished the sentence, Ichiko got up and spouted her drink, releasing whatever she had been drinking violently from her mouth with a strong sound, drenching all visible parts on Jyushiko, who was sitting in front of her. Jyushiko didn't expect the sudden attack, so all she could do was an empty look.
"… Aaah… Ichiko-chan…" Commented Jyushiko, cleaning whatever was on her face with a napkin.
"God! You too? Are you this drunk already, Ichiko?" Choroko rasped.
"Wow. Gross." Todoko commented like meant to be a passing thought but everyone knew it was a reprimand itself, while pressing the table's button for more food.
"A-ah…! I'm very sorry Jyushiko, l-let me get you to the bathroom!" The purple clad girl took her ganguro friend by the arm, practically dragging her outside the rented room. And their friends could only watch the scene, just as surprised as Jyushiko was.
"How fast."
"You have some idea of what happened to her?"
"No idea, really."
Whatever happened there, it was nothing new, so, after looking at each other as if annoyed for some seconds, they continued their drinking as how it was before, it would be not the first nor last time something like that happened.
Or that's what they thought.
-0-0-0-
The inside of the izakaya's bathroom was chilly, that thanks to an open window somebody forgot to close. It shone bright and impersonal, giving the two girls little comfort over their both very, VERY different situations. Ichiko dragged Jyushiko by the arm to the nearest hand basin, like she was a little girl. Somehow, everyone seemed to forget the ganguro's real age over how slutty and childish she loved to act and live. And Jyushiko let herself be treated like one most of the times, just like what was happening that moment, her face being strangely devoid of any emotion.
"God, I'm so, so sorry I ruined your cocktail dress Jyushiko-chan, I-It wasn't my—" – Ichiko started, getting some water and soap to run through the other's dress and looking very flustered over what she had done.
The other girl seemed to regain consciousness suddenly, and, removing herself from her purple-clad friend's grasp, she sat in the bathroom cabinet, crossing her legs in what it was an experienced sexy pose.
"You know what, Ichiko-chan? The "curse" Osoko mentioned… it reminded me of what happened when we were still in school" She mentioned while drenching her pretty dress in water. It was cold, yes, but she was strong and also had a gorgeous fur jacket waiting in the rented izakaya room that could cover her from the cold wind outside.
The pale girl paled even more over her words. It couldn't be helped, really. Jyushiko hadn't raised her voice against her in that tone since her ex-boyfriend of some years ago decided that two timing them was a good idea, but now it was happening and she knew she was on trouble.
"U-uh…"
"Yeah, I just remembered how you were kind of a witch when we were on high school, your "witch goth" times." The tanned girl had lots of experience on plastering a dumb attitude on her face and make it credible for everyone, it was easier for the people to see a dumb money swinger ganguro than realizing how much of a real person she could be underneath all, but in situation like this, faking an airhead voice would make her dearest friend refresh her mind, if she hadn't remembered it already. It sucked to be Ichiko right now for sure, but cocktail dresses weren't cheap things you could buy everywhere after all. "And yes, I juuuust remembered how you put a curse on her o—"
"Yeah! Yes, but please shut up! I-I..."
"To think you were the culprit of all her bad luck, Ichiko-chan…"
"Gngh—" Ichiko bit the inside of her cheek, feeling the guilt she never had fell over her shoulders like an acme anvil. "I-It could've been something else, her terribly modest way of dressing, cologne, whatever! A-also it was a long time ago, and I sucked as a witch anyways."
It was all feeble excuses, and they both knew it.
"Well, I dunno if you remember it, but I also delved in magic those times too, so… I believe I can help you prove if it was your curse of something else, maybe." - Jyushiko said, the airhead tone still strong on her throaty voice.
Ichiko, who was almost kneeling on the cold floor, got up suddenly.
"Really?"
"Only if you pay for the drywash service fee, this dress is too cute for ugly stains thanks to your red wine."
"… Oh, yes, yes! I guess can do that" Ichiko said, which elated a very excited hand movement from her friend - excited for what she usually tended to be, even elating a smile out of her.
"That and a year of free wine"
"... Ok" - Now that wasn't accepted with that much happiness.
Soft knocks on the bathroom's door interrupted both girl musings.
"Girls, you alright? Osoko got too drunk, we gotta go!" – A voice they could recognize as Choroko in mom mode called to them.
"Ok, we're getting out soon!" Ichiko called, already fixing her dress and hair.
"I'll be going first Ichi-chan, I need my jacket nooow! If I get a cold because of you, you'll be paying that too!" But when Jyushiko had her hand on the door handle, she felt a strong grip on her arm stopping her. Ichiko was there, a serious look on her eyes, a pale, sickly tint on her face, it was clear she had something else to say, something that had occurred to her in just that very instant.
"Jyushiko, do you remember the very first rule of curses, that them have a principal effect plus a secondary one…?"
"Yeah…?"
-0-0-0-
"God, why are they taking so long!? I want be out of here soon!" The youngest girl in the room scowled, pouting childishly over her drained beer glass.
"I'm sure I can get another set of karaage if they take that much time in there."
"Please don't do it Choroko, you'll need some strength to carry Osoko to her room."
"What! Why should I do it!? You live nearer to her, y-you even live on the very same apartment, Todoko!" – Choroko exclaimed, seriously angered over the very idea.
"Yeah, well, I-uh, I have a date with destiny today… you know, getting myself I tune with nature and all," Todoko said, curling her hair with one delicate finger, as she always did when she tried to hide an enormous lie with a nervous laugh.
"Don't tell me it's again one of those trips sponsored by your boss yet again!?"
"I need my muscles in perfect condition you know…"
"Karako did you hear that!?" Choroko screamed in direction to the second oldest, face red in all her furious drunk glory. "You see how she wants me to do everything yet again!?" But the shouting stopped fast, seeing how the girl had her ruined neckerchief in hand, looking at it as if it had the answers to the universe. "Karako? Are you feeling okay?"
"Karako…?" Todoko also asked, looking somewhat worried for her friend.
"Well, would you believe me when I say that…" For this Ichiko cut off the sentence, coughing the last part. She licked her lips to calm herself down, then drank some tap water as if the very thought dried her mouth completely. "If the principal effect of the curse is "making males being unable to love Osoko"… then the secondary one…"
"The secondary one would be…?"
"W-would be the exact contrary…?" She finished the sentence in a shaky voice.
"What, like, females would be attracted to her?"
"Yes..."
"Nah, not possible"
"You think so?" The most serious girl of their group, until that moment of course, asked, in a hushed voice.
"Listen. We are a group made of pure feminine power, you think no one would've shown attention 'till now?"
Grabbing her wind jacket from her gym bag, as Karako hadn't feel the need of using it while feeling all clean and nicely warm thanks to the gym showers, she decided that she wouldn't need her neckerchief to cover her anymore. After all, the thing was not pure cerulean now as it was drenched in mascara and mucus.
Her cerulean neckerchief was pretty much ruined, Karako thought while dislodging it from her neck, holding the fabric in her hands. But god help her, she couldn't feel bad about it, even if she knew she should be at least a tiny bit angered over the total destruction of 6000 yen.
In fact, a thought appeared flying on her mind, and poised itself over her eyes.
It was a bubbly rose thought of Osoko, who laid herself, drooling like an idiot, over Choroko's tired shoulders. A thought that made her think Osoko as cute.
Was she cute because of what she had done…? She asked herself silently, still with the neckerchief in hand… Nah, it couldn't be. The exercise enthusiast shook her head a bit – enough for the rosy feeling to fly away, at least for a while, and put the ruined piece of cerulean fabric at the very bottom of her bag.
Maybe she had too much to drink after all.
"No worries, girls. I'm alright!" Karako reassured, a bit perturbed she even had those thoughts of Osoko. But she was feeling better now, and she would act like it. Whatever she's coming down with, a virus or whatever, it just needs some hard exercise and it would be gone as fast as it had came.
Right?
Written for the Osomoatsu-san Sextbang 2k18!
Here is where I begin to post something I had as an idea for a long time, but that had the opportunity to write only now. It was a complicated work, and its still incomplete. Still, It's a work in progress that advances steadily, and that m' trying to make it shine as much as I can.
I thank lots Choco, who was my cowriter until she couldn't work anymore by serious reasons. Jalle, who made AMAZING art for this story (and who i PLEAD YOU to go to his twitter Jallematsu and go cwatch the images cuz they are simply perfect) and who I'll always be glad for being worried about this job even when I was so swamped in work I couldn't do anything. I thank my friend Cata for cheering me on.
And I thank you, who are reading this.
This is non beta-ed and so I'll be fixing from time to time, but please enter to comment and chat with us please!