The bells rang at Otonokizaka High School, indicating the start of lunch. Half of the class left either to buy food at the cafeteria or to eat at a designated spot with their friends.
The sun shone brightly and there were no clouds obstructing the skies, which were painted a light shade of blue. The rough winds this day brought upon was the only unusual occurrence.
In other words, it was a normal day for Umi as she sat at her desk in the classroom. She was reading a book she had brought while conversing with her best friends, Honoka and Kotori. Everything was going along as usual—Honoka was excitedly rambling about something while she and Kotori listened, often giving their take on the matter. That is, until Honoka noticed something a bit odd.
"Kotori-chan, isn't your bag a bit fatter than usual today?" Honoka brought up and Umi's eyes trailed down to where Kotori's bag rested next to her table.
It did indeed look thicker than usual, Umi noted to herself as Kotori looked up from the sketch she was drawing to show that she was listening. She smiled sheepishly as she continued to draw, dividing her attention equally from her two best friends to her sketch.
This is what Umi liked about her. Despite her frequent tendencies to daydream, she had the capability to multi-task, though it was limited only to drawing while actively participating in a conversation. She especially liked Kotori's devotion to her art and to her friends—it was like she made sure neither were left out. Needless to say, Umi was amazed that her sketches looked amazing even though she didn't put in her full attention.
Kotori unconsciously sticking her tongue out or pouting when her sketch looked off was definitely not part of the reason why Umi liked Kotori.
Definitely not.
"There's nothing special going on; I just brought a couple reference novels for the costumes we'll be using for the next live. I thought it would be good if I could work on them during school too so I brought them today." Kotori answered as she looked up to give Honoka a smile before going back to work, making Honoka grin widely.
"Nice thinking Kotori-chan!" Honoka commented and Umi nodded her head with approval, making Kotori blush lightly at the praise she was earning.
"Honoka! The cafeteria is selling the bread you like today!" One of their classmates called out from the door and Honoka gasped in excitement.
"Really? I'll be right back!" Honoka exclaimed as she took some coins out of her wallet and ran out of the classroom, leaving Umi alone with Kotori.
Kotori kept on drawing while she made small talk with Umi, who started paying less attention to her book and more to her. It was hard not to focus on what truly appealed to her, not that Umi would ever admit that she was captivated by Kotori. That would only happen when Maki would admit that she didn't really hate Nico and instead felt the opposite, which was extremely rare given how much of a tsundere she is. After a moment, their conversation was interrupted as another person walked into the classroom.
"Kotori!" Nico called out and Kotori looked up before giving her senior a wave.
"What's up, Nico-chan?" Kotori asked and Nico made a disgruntled face.
"Maki and I were talking—"
'More like arguing.' Umi thought with amusement as she looked at Nico's body language, noting her subtle irritation.
"—about the costumes for one of our sub-unit songs."
"Oh! Is there a problem with one of them?" Kotori asked with slight concern and Nico shook her head with a sheepish smile, realizing that she could've worded her statement differently.
"No, no. It's perfect! But I was wondering why Maki gets cat-ears and Nico-Nii doesn't." Nico pouted and Kotori giggled at her mildly dissatisfied expression.
"That's because Maki is the center." Umi brought up as she turned a page, "It makes sense for the center to have an alteration so they could stand out."
"Umi-chan is right." Kotori confirmed and Nico huffed.
"And when will Nico-Nii be the center?" Nico asked and Umi hummed thoughtfully.
"I'll see what I can do." Umi answered and Nico grinned triumphantly, making Umi chuckle and shake her head. "Now I'm starting to wonder if that was your ulterior motive."
"O-Of course not! I also needed to show Kotori some costume designs." Nico protested, a light blush on her face as Umi raised an eyebrow.
"And where are those costume designs?" Umi asked, holding back a laugh when Nico sputtered and started to defend herself.
"It's alright, Nico-chan. How about I go to your class and you show them to me? I also need to talk to Nozomi-chan really quick." Kotori intervened, giving Umi a pointed look, who just laughed silently and went back to reading. Meanwhile, Nico nodded in agreement.
"Sure, but I don't know where Nozomi is." Nico replied, making Umi look at her curiously.
"She's not in the Student Council room?" Umi asked as she put her book down and Nico shrugged.
"Best bet is to ask Eli since those two are usually hanging off of each other, but no. She's not in the Student Council room." Nico responded as if she had a bitter aftertaste in her mouth and Umi hummed in agreement; she completely understood what she meant. It was clearly evident how they felt for each other after they sang their duet. Even back then when she was going over their lines with them she felt awkward because there some sort of peculiar tension the entire time. "Well, we'll be off now."
"I'll be right back, Umi-chan." Kotori waved goodbye with a small smile and Umi waved back.
Since half of the class was gone, it was somewhat quiet, though it got loud sometimes since the other girls would become momentarily excited about something before their chatter died out.
It really was strangely windy that day, Umi observed as her eyes drifted to the trees and the swaying of its branches. Since Umi, Kotori, and Honoka sat near the window, which was opened for some reason, the wind had blown Kotori's sketchbook away. Umi reacted quickly to catch the sketchbook but in the process she had accidentally knocked down Kotori's bag and spilled some of the contents inside.
Umi knew she shouldn't have pried but another part of her reasoned that it was reference material for Kotori's sketches so it would be okay to look. With that reasoning, Umi picked up one of the books that fell out and read the cover.
"NozoEli in their Secret Garden"
Umi looked at the title with confusion, wondering why there was a doujin that mixed up Nozomi and Eli's names and referenced their duet song. With curiosity, she opened the book and skipped some pages before holding back a choke at the images she saw.
'N-Nozomi and E-Eli a-are,' Umi thought as she gaped at the page, her eyes as wide as saucers as she read the page, 'kissing?!'
"Nozomi, what if someone finds us? We can't ever be discovered despite my fervent desire to be with you." Eli seemed to be out of breath as she laid on top of Nozomi, her eyes conveying her intense love for Nozomi.
"Don't worry Elichi, this is a place we have to ourselves. No one will find us." Nozomi said as she placed a hand on Eli's cheek.
"Nozomi..."
"Elichi..."
The art depicted the two moving closer and closer, their hands getting even more entangled with each other's body. Eventually, their lips were only centimeters apart, and at sensing Nozomi's hesitance, Eli decided to move first and leaned her head forward. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips against—
—Umi immediately closed the book and put it back inside, inhaling and exhaling deeply in order to calm herself. Telling herself not to look at the other book so she could be spared of any more indecent images of her friends, she picked it up and tried to put it back inside. However, the flash of red and black made her curious, and when she moved her hand, her suspicions were correct.
"NicoMaki After School"
Umi debated over reading the doujin or not, but her intense curiosity won over her logic and she opened it.
It was fairly innocent and consisted more of Maki and Nico arguing during their date rather than shameless things such as kissing, and Umi was a bit astonished as to how the relationship depicted in the book was somewhat accurate—it wasn't horrendously cheesy like the one with Eli and Nozomi. Well, mostly everyone knew that Maki and Nico were stubborn tsunderes so Umi guessed it wasn't that surprising.
However, as she got closer to the end, her fears were confirmed as her eyes trailed down the page and saw Nico pulling Maki down to kiss—
'Snap!'
Umi closed the book, her face unbearably red, and was about to put it back inside until—
"Kyaaa!"
—a horrified scream stopped her from doing so.
Umi was shocked when she felt someone snatch the book away from her hands and into the bag, and once she looked up, she saw Kotori's embarrassed face. Umi thought how adorable she looked, especially because she was blushing so cutely, but those thoughts were interrupted when she realized what situation she was in and Umi immediately began to explain herself.
"A-Ah! Sorry! The wind blew your sketchbook away and I tried to catch it but then your bag fell and your books fell out so I was just putting them back in." Umi hastily explained and became worried when Kotori wouldn't look her in the eye.
"Kotori? Is everything fine?" Umi asked as she got closer, hesitantly putting a hand on her shoulder.
"U-Um," Kotori started before stopping because she was too flustered, making Umi move her hand to hold hers and squeeze it in comfort. She let it go when Kotori gave her a silent thanks and she continued, "You saw, didn't you?"
Umi blushed at what Kotori was referring to and nodded slowly, making Kotori bite her lip nervously.
"U-Um, I'm sorry if it seems weird and if you don't want to be friends anymore then I'm fine with it so I'm sorry and—" Kotori rambled on as she put her bag back safely and clutched her sketchbook for dear life, but Umi interrupted by taking her hand again.
"What makes you think I wouldn't want to be your friend anymore? Everyone has different tastes and hobbies, and friends are supposed to respect each other's preferences. I wouldn't leave you for something trivial, especially since we've been friends since we were kids." Umi comforted and Kotori gave her an anxious smile. Umi then continued with a small blush, "And, it, um, doesn't bother me that much. Everyone here thinks that those four have something going on anyways."
"Really?" Kotori sighed in relief and she was finally able to smile with less nervousness, "So I wasn't the only one."
"Yeah." Umi said before clearing her throat and asking, "But did the thing with Nico go well?"
"Mhm, and I couldn't find Nozomi-chan so I just went back here." Kotori replied and at this point, she had gone back to drawing while Umi started reading again. Umi noted how her eyes would drift to her phone every now and then before going back to what she was sketching. The silence became a bit uncomfortable after that, but Umi was determined not to ruin their lunch because of her nosiness so she decided to continue the conversation.
"So I take it that you like to pair up the members of Muse together?" Umi inquired and Kotori nodded silently, though Umi could see that Kotori appreciated how she talked about the topic carefully. However, Umi didn't know how to respond so she continued without thinking, "So who would I be with then?"
At this question, Kotori accidentally dropped her pencil and had to pick it up from the floor, making Umi look at her with concern.
"Kotori? Are you okay?" Umi asked and Kotori giggled sheepishly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. That question just startled me; I hadn't expected you to ask that." Kotori admitted and Umi blushed. It took her a while to reply since she was trying to process why she had asked that in the first place but when she couldn't find a reason, she just continued talking.
"Y-You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Umi hastily replied and noticed that Kotori's expression changed when she viewed a text message she had gotten from someone. She seemed less flustered and more confident, making Umi wonder if she should be scared or not.
"It's okay, I can answer it." Kotori responded with a warm smile.
In the blink of an eye, Umi felt something soft touch her cheek. It gave off a faint scent of peaches mixed with raspberries and left a warm sensation, and once she realized what had happened, she blushed heavily.
"I wish it was me, Umi-chan."
Kotori gave her a soft smile before returning to her work, a light blush on her cheeks. Umi openly gaped at her, but before she could even formulate a response, Honoka came back in with a wide grin and strawberries in her hand.
"Sorry I took a while; the bread was just so tempting so I ate it on the way. They had strawberries too! My absolute favorite!" Honoka exclaimed happily and Kotori giggled, seemingly unaffected by the previous situation.
"That's great, Honoka-chan!" Kotori responded and Honoka grinned exuberantly before looking at Umi with confusion.
"What's up with her?" Honoka asked and Kotori shrugged with a mysterious smile—something one would usually see on a certain Student Council Vice President.
Umi returned back to reality just in time for the bell to ring and for her to see Kotori's wink. Being weak and completely non-resistant to Kotori's uncharacteristically flirtatious expressions, she fainted.
Needless to say, she and Kotori had a fun time talking to each other at the nurse's office after school.
AN: Hello once again! I hoped you liked this one-shot although I think this could have been written better. I might make a sequel on what happens after school (no sinning tho sorry) but it depends on how much schoolwork I get done.
As always, criticisms and reviews are much appreciated!