One fateful day I was in the forest admiring the beauty surrounding me when I heard a noise. Scared, I jumped behind a tree in order to give myself time to collect myself and look as composed as I could. When the noise stopped I looked out from behind the tree and felt my breath catch in my throat.
I knew who the girl was, or at least I had a suspicion she was the girl we were awaiting back at the school. She looked to be about 15 and she was extremely cute! Not knowing how to handle myself, nor sure of my reaction I stayed behind the tree for a couple more seconds. Soon, deciding that this girl shall be my new conquest, after all she was cute and was completely ignorant to my past, I moved from behind the tree and stood before her.
I saw a small bear on the grass and picked it up intending to return it to the young girl. This is where it all started to go wrong though. When our fingers touched I felt something. I had no idea what it was but I was shocked. I just pulled her closer to me and found myself looking deep into her eyes. They were beautiful. I brought my face closer to her, intending to kiss her. She could help me move on and find a release. I never had any serious intentions for her, she was just cute and naive. An easy target I guess. Or that's what I thought. It was when I draw even closer to her to the point where I could feel her breath on my face that she found some courage. She pushed me away breathing heavily.
I realised she was scared instantly but her reaction to my presence was quite entertaining, truth be told. She just felt backwards in shock and passed out.
Afraid, but realising I had a duty to protect this girl I took her to Miatre instantly.
I am not completely sure what happened between then and the next time I encountered her but I do know she found herself a friend, later to be a rival of mine in a way. Tamao. A pretty girl in her own right with luscious blue hair but she didn't quite match up to the standards I set. A fine girl though. She introduced the girl I met in the forest to other students in the Strawberry dorms and showed her around the school. Miyuki told me that she wasn't too good at the latter as the new girl found herself in trouble the very same day she arrived. She was late for curfew and endured the wrath of the Sister. Miyuki rescued her of course, understanding the situation, she also gave her a stern talking to before bringing her to the cafeteria where I next encountered her...
I saw her with Tamao and Miyuki not too far ahead of me just before dinner however they appeared to be deep in conversation so I didn't catch them up. When I neared the doorway the new girl looked quite nervous as she approached a group of girls my age. Unsure as to why this was I leant against the door and watched from a distance.
The girls parted revealing one girl who was seated. Instantly the new girl gave a sort of bow and introduced herself. Unfortunately I didn't catch her name in the midst of everything else she said. All I could hear was snatches of it but it was alarmingly clear that she thought the girl she was speaking to was the Etoile. Not sure what to do I walked into the room which was completely silent apart from the girls loud introduction.
Stopping behind her I said 'hi. So we meet again.'
Hearing this she spun around her finger pointing at me as if to accuse me of something whilst stuttering 'y – y – you!' I suppose I found it quite funny and decided to make the girl even more frazzled. I pushed her back against the table while she was still trying to get her words out and leant into her again. She was irresistible. I could hear the girls behind me gasp and I slowly moved closer and closer to the girl's lips. It was all too easy. The girl was speechless and seemed unable to move. All she could do was stare into my eyes, looking every bit as innocent as I suspected she was.
All too soon Miyuki stopped my fun and informed me it was time for the prayer before we ate. Instantly reminded of my duties I subdued and moved away from the cute girl to lead the school in praying in thanks for the food.
Through the prayer I noticed she was looking at me. She still didn't seem to understand what had happened over the course of the day. I could only hope that Tamao would fill her in on everything otherwise the girl would be lost.
That night when I went to bed the girl was still on my mind. She wasn't taking over my heart, I just saw her as a plaything still. I weren't sure how it was going to work out but as I undressed I felt certain it wouldn't be long until I got myself a talking to from Miyuki. Sometimes I wished she would relax a little more and understand my situation. Instead over the years she had gotten much more serious and I often felt that my carefree attitude to everything was irking her. She could never have what I was after from the new girl. It just wasn't a possibility for her to have a relationship at school, regardless of her hearts yearning. She was betrothed to someone she had never met and intended to marry him as soon as we graduated the next year. I knew better than anyone that she resented this decision but felt she had to fulfil this mission of sorts. I respected her choice to some extent but in the end I just wanted her to be happy.
For ages I had my suspicions about her sexuality, especially in regards to whom she liked. This was her most closely guarded secret. Not even I was fully aware of the identity of the one she adored from afar.
Just as I crawled into bed I heard a knock on my door. Three knocks. It was Miyuki. Knowing she wouldn't be fazed by my lack of clothing I called her into my room. The second the door was closed she jumped straight to the point demanding to know what was going through my head and why I seemed to be trying to seduce the new student. I had no answers for her. I just shrugged helplessly and said that I didn't know what was going through my head; that I just knew I wanted to kiss her when I saw her adorably cute face in the cafeteria.
When I said that her face hardened and she came closer to me. "I don't want you to hurt this girl. She knows nothing and hasn't done anything to deserve this. Don't do this Shizuma. Don't hurt the girl." I heard what she said but her words had no effect on me. I knew that I needed to kiss the girl to sate my curiosity. I needed to get Kaori out of my head and move on. This girl could help me do that but creating a distraction in my mind. Obviously I didn't intend to fall in love with her or anything like that; I just needed a bit of fun in my life to break the monotony.
When Miyuki left my room soon after I looked out the window staring at the stars above until sleep took me.
I was lost.
