Miki tried to focus on her book. It was always a bit of a challenge with Yuki around. Though today it was for a bit of a different reason. What she saw out of the corner of her eye drew her gaze away from the book.

"Yuki, what are you doing?"

"Huh?" Yuki's voice was muffled due to the fact that her shirt was wrapped around her face rather than her torso. Miki couldn't help but note that Yuki was just a little bit more endowed than she would've expected. "I'm changing my shirt! I spilled some spaghetti sauce on it, and Yuuri is about to do the laundry."

"You should go to the bathroom or something to do that," Miki said, refocusing on the page. "You can't just go and take your shirt off."

"Why not? We're all girls here, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Miki mumbled. "It's just weird."

"Uh."

"What is it?"

"I'm kinda stuck."

Miki rolled her eyes, just enough to see Yuki struggling to get her shirt off of her head. "I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out," she said. She watched, oddly intrigued as she watched Yuki try to wriggle her way free. The door opened, and Yuuri stepped in. Miki swallowed. Yuuri was wearing her gym clothes. They seemed a bit tight.

"What's going on in here?" Yuuri asked. "Are you alright, Yuki?"

"She's fine, she just got her head stuck in her shirt," Miki said. "Why are you wearing that?"

"Again?" Yuuri shook her head. "Hold still and let me help you." She reached up and began to work on detangling Yuki. "I always wear this when I do the laundry. Makes sure I don't get any of my other clothes dirty."

"I see," Miki muttered.

"I really should look for a new set. These are starting to get a bit small on me. Yuki, I said to hold still!"

Yuki didn't. She kept wiggling. And as a side effect, it caused Yuuri to wiggle too, in a way that made Miki wonder if she was washing her bras today, too. She buried her face back in the book, hoping that they wouldn't notice that she was beginning to turn red.

"Got it!"

Yuki took a deep breath as her head finally came free. "Whew! I was getting stuffy in there!"

"Oh," Yuuri said. "It looks like you got some sauce on your skirt, too."

"I'd better let you wash that too, then!"

Miki crossed her legs as she listened to the sound of Yuki unfastening and dropping her skirt. "Don't any of them have any modesty?" She murmured to herself.

As if on cue, the door slammed open and Kurumi walked in.

"Ahhh! Nothing like a nice hot shower!"

Miki looked up and gasped. The first thing she noticed was that Kurumi had a towel draped over her shoulders. And nothing else above the waist. Her modesty was only preserved by the towel and her hair sticking to her still-damp skin. The only article of clothing she had were her panties, and if they hadn't been black, Miki was sure that they wouldn't have really covered much of anything.

"Hhhnk!" Miki said.

"Are you okay? Kurumi asked.

"I'm fine!" Miki choked out.

"Are you sure? You look red as a tomato." Kurumi reached out to put her hand on Miki's forehead. As she leaned forward, the towel shifted away from her body. Beneath the table, Miki's toes curled.

"I have to go." She pushed away from the table and scurried into the next room before they could stop her.

Kurumi cocked her head to the side. "What's with her?"


"Miki, are you okay?" Kurumi knocked on the bathroom door. "If anything's wrong, just let me know what I can do to help. We just want to help you feel welcome, you know?"

"That's not the problem," came Miki's reply. "You've all been great about that, even though I was… a bit impatient about Yuki. I… the problem might be that you're a little too welcoming."

"Too welcoming? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's just… it's hard to explain, I guess?"

"It is?"

Miki was silent. Kurumi could almost hear her thinking. "Well, maybe it's not. It's… hard to talk about, though. I guess I should talk to somebody about it, though."

"You can talk to me about it."

"Alright. Just one thing."

"Yeah?"

"Are you dressed yet?"

"Huh?" Kurumi scratched her head in confusion. "Yeah. I am. Why does it matter?"

Miki opened the bathroom door just a crack and peered out. "Good. Is there somewhere we can talk privately?"

"The club room should be empty. Yuki and Yuuri are up on the roof hanging the laundry out and taking care of the garden."

"Alright." Miki stepped out of the bathroom and hurried down the hall towards the club room.

"Seriously, what's bothering you?" Kurumi asked as she followed Miki.

"Just give me a second, okay?" Miki locked the door. "I've… actually never talked to anybody about this before." She took a seat at the table and inhaled deeply.

Kurumi sat down across from her and waited. Whatever it was, trying to force it out of her obviously wouldn't help.

"The thing is…" Miki said, "there's… I probably should've told all of you this before, but I thought that… given the situation it would never really come up, but I guess it's not that easy to get away from."

Kurumi nodded silently.

Miki drummed her fingers on the table. She couldn't look Kurumi in the face and instead stared at her own hands. Her face had turned from its usual pale complexion to bright pink. "I…"

"Yeah?" Kurumi prompted/

"I like girls, okay?"

"Oh."

Miki looked up to see Kurumi staring blankly at her. Then Kurumi's eyes widened.

"Oh. I, uh, that's… quite something." The words tumbled out of Kurumi's mouth. "Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just didn't think it would be something like that. Wait, so when I came out of the shower…" It was Kurumi's turn to blush profusely.

"Yeah," Miki muttered. "It's not like I was trying to be a pervert or anything. It's just… you know."

"Oh, man. And Yuki was just wearing a bra, and Yuuri was wearing that tight shirt…" Kurumi shook her head, unsure whether to be mortified or shake with laughter. "That must've been super awkward."

"Just a little," Miki answered, still blushing. "I thought that because of the circumstances it wouldn't be a problem. I didn't think I'd really be in the mood for eye candy, and all."

"Eye candy, huh?"

"Kurumi…"

"What? It is a bit flattering. I'm… not sure what to say, really. I mean, I guess I should stop walking around in my underwear so much." She winked. "Unless you don't mind."

Miki blushed again. "I'd rather not things be awkward like that."

"I thought so," Kurumi said. "Are you going to tell Yuki and Yuuri about it?"

"I don't know. Maybe. I mean, I thought telling you about it would be really hard, but it wasn't that bad. I think Yuki would want to ask a lot of questions about it, though."

"Probably," Kurumi said with a shrug. "I doubt she would mind though. She probably wouldn't even get why it's a big deal. But until you feel like you want to tell them, your secret's safe with me."

"Honestly, I think it might be best to just get the whole thing out of the way," Miki answered. "The last thing I want to do is try to hide anything from all of you. It's going to come out eventually, so I might as well get it overwith."

Kurumi giggled. "Heh. 'Come out." That was a good one!"

"Huh?"

"Never mind. I'll go get Yuki and Yuuri."


"Oooooooooohhhhhh!" Yuki said, grinning widely. "I knew something was up!"

"It does explain the, er, awkwardness earlier." Yuuri blushed slightly and crossed her arms over her chest. "I hope we didn't make things too weird for you."

"No, it's fine. You had no idea," Miki said. "I should've told you earlier."

"Well, it's a very personal thing," Yuuri said. "I can understand why you'd want to keep that to yourself."

"So this means you like boobs, right?" Yuki asked.

"Yuki!" Kurumi glared at her. "That's rude!"

"What?" Yuki shrugged. "Isn't that how it works?"

"Well, technically, yeah," Kurumi said. "But you can't just ask stuff like that. It's kind of a big deal that she told us at all. You wouldn't somebody asking you a bunch of questions about stuff like that, would you?"

"I guess not," Yuki mumbled. "Sorry about that. I was just curious."

"It's okay." Miki grinned. "I do like breasts. Although I'm really more of a leg person, though."

"Legs, huh?" Yuki wiggled her eyebrow. "Well, I'm sure you'll find somebody who suits your taste."

Miki couldn't help but giggle. "Maybe I will."

Kurumi shook her head, then glanced at Yuki. "Hey, why are you elbowing me?"