Matsui Jurina should have been smarter than this. She was supposed to know that it could only take a vile turn and yet she foolishly has had trust in humanity and common sense.
In the end she didn't even question anything when Churi invited her and her classmates over for a "girls-only night". Surely, she could have imagined less favorable scenarios such as having to make it through a cheesy movie or possible overly-girly talk of… whatever girls liked to gossip over. Realistically speaking however she had believed in the illusion of simply relaxing with her friends to some cozy music over a bowl of microwaved popcorn. Besides, she certainly didn't mind the opportunity of staying among female-exclusive company and thus promised Churi to attend immediately.
Matsui Jurina had a reputation to maintain after all.
Yes, she should have known better. It didn't take long until the oh-so-cozy evening turned into pure madness when someone suddenly showed up with an empty bottle of wine - wherever she might have retrieved it from - and suggested playing the infamous yet childish game Truth or Dare. To Jurina's horror most of the girls were quick to warm up to the idea and left her with simply no chance of opting out.
This incident alone wouldn't have been so bad. She had confidence in her abilities to make it out of difficult situations alive without losing her face in the process. The definite last straw however was the simple fact that no one else but Matsui Rena herself was among the party guests as well, much to Jurina's and possibly everyone's surprise. She was infamous for abstaining from social events and thus possibly the very last girl she would have expected to show up this night. Regrettably enough, she was however the person she secretly hoped to spend time with the most.
Jurina was well-known around school and had a standing that preceded her. Girls and boys alike very fawning over the handsome girl and thus she was often invited along to hang out during lunch break or after school. She certainly didn't want to boast but she took a certain pride in nourishing her own image and was certainly not shy about her own charms. Usually.
Her carefully constructed reality collapsed in the blink of an eye literally every single time she ran into Rena ever since she met the girl the first time. Jurina's natural cool facade would crumble in an instant and she turned into a nervous, awkward or even downright clumsy mess once she even thought of talking to the other Matsui. Although she should have been more than thrilled to have a good reason for meeting her crush tonight the timing yet couldn't have possibly been worse.
When much to her shock she was greeted by no one less than Rena at Churi's front-door she nearly dropped the popcorn bags she was holding and barely avoided stumbling over the doorstep itself right into the arms of her beloved. Rena had only chuckled at her awkwardness and Jurina had been quick to join in, hoping to not make herself look like an even greater fool throughout the night.
The rest of the evening Jurina had been on the edge. Every so often she found herself watching the other Matsui who preferred to simply listen to the others' conversations but rarely spoke up herself. Sometimes she even caught Rena gazing back at her but then both of them quickly decided that the wallpaper was much more interesting to look at instead. No matter how often she tried, she simply couldn't come up with a coherent reason to casually walk up to Rena and talk to her.
Why did it have to be today of all days?
"Jurina, stop dreaming. The next round is about to start!" Shibata Aya exclaimed and slapped her shoulder in an attempted act of encouragement. Hard. Surprised to witness such an action from the usual quieter girl Jurina began to notice her slightly uncoordinated movements in shock. "Ayachan, have you been drinking too?!" Had everyone gone crazy today? There was absolutely no way this could end well.
"Attention everyone!" Churi announced as Nishishi leaned forwards to set the bottle into motion once more.
The spinning movement slowed down and finally stopped to point at the next nominee. Of course, it had to be no one else but Jurina. Yes, this evening could only get worse from now on.
She mentally collected herself, eager not to let any sign of hesitation show beneath her cool exterior. She knew the truth option was more likely to give her a hard time and made it more likely to expose her own weaknesses. Action however had always been one of her strong points.
"Dare." she stated calmly, her voice faking self-confidence she didn't possess.
Nishishi mustered her mockingly as if accepting the unspoken challenge. "Okay then, Matsui. I dare you to… play a Pocky Game with Rena."
"HUH?" Jurina and the previously quiet girl exclaimed simultaneously.
It took her all self-control not to kill Nishishi with a glare alone as she was grinning back at her mischievously. So this was what the face of Satan must look like. This little…
But Jurina wouldn't give in to her games and faced Rena instead who was still in a visible state of uncertainty. She knew the shy girl was much too timid and got embarrassed really easily. There was absolutely no way Jurina could drag her into the misery she caused herself; she had to suffer the consequences alone.
Even though she really wondered what Pocky would taste like on Rena's lips.
Pinching herself hard back to reality Jurina raised her voice in defense: "We can't do tha-"
"We'll do it." Rena suddenly interrupted.
"Eeeeeeeh?" everyone in the room echoed, clearly not having expected such resolution from the bashful silent girl. It was only Nishishi that dared speaking up first: "That's the spirit!"
Jurina could only watch Rena in shock yet found nothing but determination in her unfaltering gaze. "Rena, is it really okay?"
She only nodded stiffly in reply and accepted a stick of Pocky from the wicked Nishshi. "It's alright, Jurina." she said before enclosing the chocolate-coated candy between her teeth.
Jurina gulped. Carefully she edged closer on her knees and leaned in to nervously bite down on the other end of the Pocky while trying to avoid looking into Rena's eyes at all costs. Her fingers tensed as she grabbed her own shirt tightly, as if making a point that she would try no further physical advancements on her beyond that.
Time passed painfully slowly as they took timid turns in nibbling on the chocolate stick, much in contrast to the enthusiastic cheers of their friends. Jurina was well-aware that chickening out of the game too early would make her look like a spoilsport in the eyes of the other girls and so she was determined to not pull away, no matter what happened.
Jurina was distracted when she sensed her hot breath tickling her face. She was tormentingly tempted to close the gap between them in the name of the Pocky Game but mentally kicked herself to not take advantage of this situation. Feelings of conflict began to rend her from the inside. Despite her reputation as a kissing monster there was more at stake here than the game. Much more.
She prayed to whatever deity up there that Rena would pull away first.
The moment of decision arrived. With only a tiny bit of the Pocky left it was to be determined who would quit first and thus lose the competition. Jurina carefully tried to calculate every of Rena's moves but found her brain unable to properly judge the other girl's intentions under these circumstances. If only she could bite off the last piece quickly before Rena attempted anything there might be a peaceful solution for the both of them. Encouraged by the energetic cheers of the others Jurina finally couldn't stand the tension anymore and went in for the kill.
If only Matsui Rena wouldn't have had exactly the same thoughts in this very moment.
Both gasped slightly as their lips suddenly connected midair, gently brushing against each other unexpectedly. For the fragment of a second Jurina closed her eyes and allowed herself to take in the sweet taste of the soft texture moving against another. Disregard the deities; this was what heaven must be like.
They weren't in heaven however. This was only Earth, and reality wasn't so patronizing.
Jurina's eyes shot open and she fell backwards all horrified, landing on her behind rather ungracefully. She eyed Rena in shock who seemed just as surprised by the sudden events and covered her own mouth with her hands in embarrassment.
The spectacle's bystanders didn't notice their conflicted expressions at all and immediately turned their attention back to the bottle in order to continue the game. Jurina hastily crawled back to her kneeling position in the circle as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.
For the rest of the evening she didn't find the courage to meet Rena's eyes again.
When the laughter and the games finally died down everyone laid out their futons in order to go to sleep right away. Only Jurina was left wide-awake to stare at the ceiling. Every so often she caught herself licking her own lips, trying to absorb every little remain of the lingering taste on her lips. For some reason the Pocky had tasted much sweeter than usual, she thought.
*WHAM*
"Hnnnghh?"
For heaven's sake. For the second time this night Jurina was torn away from her hard-earned sleep and instead greeted by an elbow hitting her right in the face. Who knows whom it belonged to, after all Churi's room was running well over capacity with most of the guests having passed out on the countless futons.
The very first time she had been rudely awakened she has had trouble going back to sleep because of the constant annoying chirping of Churi's little bird collection that she had to keep inside a cage in her own room of all places. Jurina was hardly surprised that the others didn't mind this though; looks like the most of them had their fair amount of drinks and wouldn't even wake up if Ragnarök suddenly dawned upon them. Perhaps she could talk Churi's parents into buying her a cat instead for her next birthday.
When Jurina finally had been able to fall asleep again her peace didn't last long. This time the tossing and turning invader, which turned out to be Kuumin, had now successfully covered her complete futon in the process and somehow even managed to get tangled up in Jurina's blanket, effectively preventing her from finding rest again.
Jurina sat up with a conspicuous breath and looked around the room for another spot to sleep in instead. She was however rather surprised to find a full futon unoccupied, and if her cautious glimpses earlier that night had been correct it was actually Rena's.
Her curiosity immediately got the better of her and she got up in search of the missing Matsui. She tried to sneak out carefully, jumping over bodies and stretched-out arms awkwardly in the process without making much noise. When she finally reached the door and already believed herself to be victorious it was unfortunately the damn birds that had taken notice of the refugee and started protesting audibly. Jurina's eye twitched in frustration. She had enough of this and quickly slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her dismissing the situation altogether.
Tiptoeing through the unenlightened and coldish house Jurina finally came upon the living room only to find a very familiar silhouette in front of the wide windows. From the look of the long raven hair falling down her shoulders Jurina immediately knew that she had found whom she had been looking for. Rena had wrapped a blanket around her slim body in order to shield herself from the November coldness and seemed to stare out of the windows dreamily.
If anything the moonlight made her pale figure look even more mysterious and alluring to Jurina. If she had been cursed to watch this serene scene silently forever Jurina didn't think that she would have minded.
For some reason however Jurina found herself drawn towards her, as if invisible strings attached her to the other girl. She wanted nothing more than to join Rena in her quiet resort and share whatever was going on inside her mind at the moment. The pull finally became overwhelming and she parted her lips in what seemed almost like a whisper.
"R-Rena, are you okay?"
Said person turned around quickly in surprise, not having expected to find anyone else wake. "Jurina?" Slightly embarrassed for having been caught she directed her gaze towards the ground instead as if any of it mattered in the darkness. "I couldn't sleep, I'm not used to spend the night with so many people in the room." she admitted.
"Y-yes, it's actually something like that for me too." Jurina explained, suppressing the need to touch her sore nose in the process.
The white moonlight allowed her to witness the faintest trace of a smile form on Rena's lips. "Join me then?"
Jurina gave in wordlessly and stood next to the slim girl, both watching the quiet scene of the illuminated nature outside.
A few minutes of comfortable silence had passed when Jurina had finally gathered the courage to speak up again, addressing what had actually been on her mind all night long.
"Rena, about earlier…" She waited for the other girl to direct her attention towards her again. "I'm sorry for making you play that stupid game."
She only shook her head in a friendly manner. "No, I told you it was fine."
Jurina carried on: "I didn't know they would make me do this, I swear. I'm sorry about all of this."
"I actually wanted it too."
"I swear we're never going to invite Nishi- HUH?" Jurina slapped a hand over her own mouth to scold herself for speaking up too loudly.
Rena turned towards the windows again. "I don't mind playing the Pocky Game if it's with you. I mean, since today is Pocky Day…"
Jurina was left to stare. It wasn't like a sudden moment of realization that made the truth kick in at once. No, it was nothing like that. Instead it felt like red wine spilling on the tablecloth, slowly seeping in and making you grasp the truth step by step. Slowly but continuously it then began to dawn on her.
"Rena…" she commanded the soft-spoken girl's face back towards her once more.
Jurina now couldn't help but notice that Rena had a certain tendency to act shy and hesitatingly around her in contradiction to her somewhat nervous and too fast movements. She had simply dismissed it as a nervous tic of the slightly insecure girl but now she was beginning to question whether this behavior wasn't rather to be blamed on Jurina's own presence so close to her.
It had always been a mere faint hope to her, but if she had just gotten the older Matsui's innuendo right Jurina was now well-aware of what had to be done.
Cautiously the palms of her hands found the sides of Rena's face, caressing them with a feather-like touch as if every unwary move could stain her flawless existence at any given time. Even if she couldn't fully see her eyes in the darkness she sensed that they hold nothing but acceptance and love for her at the moment.
Gathering all her courage Jurina finally leaned in.
In her opinion their lips fit together surprisingly well and judging from Rena's gentle moves in response she seemed to think the same. Neither thought about pulling away and instead they began to explore each other's feelings deeper, taking in the overwhelming sensation of basking in each other's presence. Air was the only necessity that forced them apart but in the blink of an eye they both found each other's lips again.
Rena unwrapped her arms that were holding the blanket around her own body and locked them behind Jurina's waist instead, enveloping both of them in a protective embrace to which she gladly complied. They both indulged in this bliss as if time had lost all meaning, as if all night belonged to them only. All that mattered any longer was the both of them and their hearts that had finally found each other.
When both finally cuddled up on a single futon that night Jurina decided that Rena's lips definitely tasted much sweeter than Pocky.