Ia stood inside the air-conditioned expanse of the mall and stared. All around her were white walls, florescent lights, large store windows proclaiming sales or displaying clothes. There was a strong smell of perfume from perfume stalls. A loud buzzing noise of people talking filled the mall. Ia trembled a little, intimidated. She had never gone inside a mall before, since she did her shopping online. There were so many stores to go to that Ia didn't even know where to start.
Next to her, Yukari was cheerfully humming as she looked through the mall's directory, looking comfortable and at home. "What kind of clothes do you like, Ia?"
"Uh..." Ia looked down at her clothes before realizing that she was still in her school uniform. "I like..." she shrugged, "normal clothes."
"Normal clothes?" Yukari furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Ia. "Like what?"
Ia couldn't quite describe it. Her own sense of fashion was somewhat undeveloped. "Um, like...shirts? I haven't been to a mall before."
"Whoah, what?" Yukari's eyes widened and she stared at Ia. "You've never gone to the mall?"
Ia mutely shook her head. Yukari's blatantly shocked tone made Ia a little self-conscious, and she looked away from Yukari's nakedly curious gaze, feeling a small heat in her cheeks.
"Well," said Yukari, a small, mischievous grin spreading on her face, "at least now we know what we're going to do."
Ia felt a small rooting feeling of nervous dread at Yukari's tone, one that was confirmed the moment Yukari grabbed her by the wrist again and dragged her into the nearest clothing store. All Ia could do was helplessly stand next to her, lost and confused, as Yukari examined and rejected countless items of clothing. Eventually, Yukari grabbed a rather large pile of clothing before carting Ia over to the changing rooms, practically pushing her into the room after throwing the clothing items in after her.
Ia stared at herself in the mirror for a few moments before turning towards the door. "Hey...what goes with what?"
"Use your best judgment," Yukari answered, cheerily. "Oh! And show me what you're wearing too, just come out the door when you finish changing into whatever."
Sighing, knowing that there's no escape, Ia started unbuttoning her uniform jacket and undoing her tie. Shucking off the rest of her clothes she selected a pink skirt, a black short-sleeved shirt, and a longer sleeved shirt to wear underneath. After staring at herself in the mirror for a few moments, acutely aware of the fact that her clothing choices would most likely be judged, Ia smoothed out her hair, though it was so long and mussed that there wasn't much point.
"Are you done yet?" Yukari called from outside, her voice sounding a little bored, and Ia nodded before realizing that Yukari couldn't see her. Taking a breath, she opened the changing room door and stepped outside, where Yukari was sitting on a brown chair. At the sight of Ia, Yukari's eyes lit up and she leaned forward, carefully examining Ia's clothes while Ia fidgeted nervously.
Yukari's face cracked into a smile. "Wow, Ia...you look great! This outfit looks so cute on you!"
At the praise, Ia felt her cheeks heat up unexpectedly in a blush. "Th-thanks..."
Yukari leapt to her feet. "Well, while you were in the changing room, I got some more clothes for you...so try these on too!" That said, she shoved more clothes into Ia's arms and pushed her back into the changing room.
Ia sighed. It looked like it was going to be a long day.
-o-o-o-
By the end of it all, Ia found to her surprise that she had wound up purchasing a sizable amount of clothing. She woke up from it all sitting on the hard plastic seat of a food court, eating burgers from McDonald's with Yukari, who paid for the burgers. Ia had never before eaten such food, but after a few bites of the burger she had to admit that there's a certain trashy appeal to fast food. Except...
"It's so...greasy," Ia said as she stared at her fingertips.
"Of course! It's food court food," said Yukari. "It's bad for you, but it's good for a quick fix when you're hungry." As if to emphasize this, she took a huge bite of her burger.
Ia stared at Yukari, not quite understanding the benefits of greasy food. "I...see." She continued eating the food, taking a few bites of her burger and then eating some of the fries, which were...were...Ia's eyes widened, her tongue overwhelmed by the taste. They were salty, but...delicious. Eagerly she ate more of them, until she had tucked away a significant portion of the food and could eat no more.
"So what kind of music do you like?" Yukari asked. "You mentioned that you liked music before."
Ia blinked and looked up at the ceiling of the mall. What kind of music did she like? She listened to so many it was hard to choose. No matter what kind of music it was, Ia could usually find something she liked about each genre. She consumed rap, pop, rock, folk, country, metal, electronic, and more. "I like a lot of kinds of music."
Yukari laughed. "That's specific. Okay, I'll tell you what I like then." She leaned forward, smiling. "Have you heard of Hatsune Miku?"
"Of course I have..." Hatsune Miku was such a big singer these days that not knowing her was impossible. Not only that, but Ia had made several mashups of her songs before. Not that she was going to tell Yukari that at the moment. "What about her?"
"I'm like, addicted to her new single," said Yukari. "It's called Romeo and Cinderella. Her first hit was Melt but I didn't really get into her music until now."
Right...Romeo and Cinderella. Ia remembered seeing a ten-foot billboard advertising it before. It was a more mature song at odds with Miku's previously cute bubblegum image. "It's a good song," said Ia.
"I know right? It's great! She's really versatile...or maybe she's just growing up," Yukari laughed. "There's a rumor that her next single is going to be something with Megurine Luka, but since Miku usually does stuff with Kaito I don't know if it's true or not."
Ia shrugged. "Romeo and Cinderella had a really pink color scheme in its advertising. It's possible."
There was a pause, Yukari's eyes growing wide. "Whoa...I didn't even think about that! True, usually they would've just gone with making her wear blue, right? But this time, she's wearing pink," Yukari snapped her fingers. "More fuel for the shipping fire."
"Shipping fire?" Ia had no idea what those words meant.
"Oh, uh," said Yukari, suddenly looking mildly flustered. "It's not important. Umm, hey, wanna watch a movie?"
"A movie? Which one?"
Yukari smiled excitedly. "Well," she began, "I've heard there's this new movie out called Ai to Makoto. Want to watch that?"
Ia swallowed the lump in her throat. Yukari looked so excited about it...even though Ia had only just met the girl, she was already forming an attachment to her. This was dangerous, Ia recognized. What if Yukari didn't want to hang out with her after today? What if, next week, Yukari ignored her like everyone else? It was safer to stay away, Ia told herself. Right. She didn't need anyone else. Don't get attached. Therefore, Ia should say no. Say that she was busy, that she had to do homework back home even though it was Friday.
"Um, okay," said Ia instead, "I'll watch it."
Yukari's smile grew even wider. "Then we better get popcorn and tickets."
-o-o-o-
Blinking at the darkness of the outside at night, Ia smiled as Yukari laughed next to her, the two of them walking to the train station. It had been a good movie, all considered, a normal romantic shoujo, but it was a sweet, fun watch.
"Tsumabuki Satoshi is such a good actor!" Yukari exclaimed. "I really liked him in Waterboys."
"Waterboys?"
"Wait," Yukari stopped and stared at Ia, "you haven't heard of Waterboys? It was so big! It came out in 2001. It's a really funny comedy about synchronized swimming."
Synchronized swimming? No wonder Ia had never heard about it. "Uh, right..."
"It's a great movie!" Yukari enthused. "But anyways, you should definitely watch more of Tsumabuki's movies. They're so good. I think you'll like Spring Snow. It's based off a book, so that sounds like that's right up your alley. Oh," Yukari perked up, "I have a copy of it that I can lend you."
"Ah, no," Ia said quickly, "you don't have to lend me a copy-"
"I want to!"
Ia glanced away, unsure of how to react to this. Yukari was so nice that to someone like Ia, who never really had any friends, her actions bordered on strange. What kind of girl was this generous? Maybe it really was all some kind of big set-up, and at the end of today Piko and the rest would step out from nowhere and reveal that it was a prank.
Yukari cocked her head, a confused expression passing over her face. "Are you okay, Ia?"
"Oh..." Ia snapped herself out of it. "I'm fine."
"You sure?" Yukari looked concerned. "You don't want to sit down or anything?"
Ia shook her head. "No, uh, that's...that's okay. I'm fine."
"If you say so," Yukari said with a slight frown. "Um, so...did you have fun today?"
Yukari looked so curious and serious that Ia had to give her a straight answer.
"I had fun," she said, trying to smile. Her muscles weren't used to it. Ia immediately felt foolish for even making the attempt, and quickly dropped it.
Yukari, on the other hand, seemed to be completely fascinated by Ia's poor attempt at a smile. "That...that was the first time I've ever seen you smile, Ia!" She grinned, a natural, carefree one that made Ia's heart skip a beat for some reason. "Did you really have fun with me? That's great! I was worried that I might be annoying you, you know."
"You're not annoying," said Ia, hesitantly, also unused to saying such open words. "I had fun today."
Yukari clapped her hands together. "Great!"
There was a pause as the two walked on. Ia felt like she had to say something.
"Um," she said. "Did you have fun too?" Inwardly, she cursed herself. She sounded so juvenile, so immature.
"Yeah," Yukari nodded. "I had a lot of fun...oh, we're here already." Indeed they were - the train station loomed before them.
"I see..." said Ia, feeling a brief, faint stab of disappointment. "I guess I'll see you next week, then, after the weekend."
"Yup," said Yukari with a grin, before she did something that astonished Ia: namely, she bounded forward and wrapped her arms around her in a hug.
At once, Ia froze up. She had absolutely no idea what to do, where to put her hands, and so she simply stood there, at loss, eyes wide. Yukari was soft and warm, her hair smelling faintly of flowers and shampoo, and Ia's breath stuck in her throat.
Then, Yukari pulled back with a cheery grin and clasped Ia's hands between her own. Ia had to fight the instinctive urge to recoil - she hadn't been touched so much in such a short span of time in a while. "I'll lend you the DVD on Monday," Yukari promised, before letting go and walking over towards the station, hand raised in farewell. "Bye, Ia!"
"Bye," said Ia quietly, raising her hand in turn. She watched Yukari's back for a few moments before sighing, turning around, and heading back to her own home. Her head was a mess, and Ia waited for her heartbeat to calm itself on the way back.
-o-o-o-
"You're home late," Mayu remarked as Ia pushed open the door and kicked off her shoes. Mayu was sitting at the TV, a bowl of popcorn on her lap as she watched some drama. "What's up? Oh," Mayu turned around, eyes bright with interest, "were you on a date?"
"Ha ha," said Ia, dryly. "No, I wasn't out on a date." She walked over past Mayu to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water.
"Well," Mayu said, "judging from those bags you're carrying, apparently you really expanded your wardrobe. And I mean," she grinned at Ia, "why would you upgrade your wardrobe unless you're trying to impress a cute guy?"
"I didn't get that many clothes," Ia said, taking out a glass and filling it with water. "And I didn't get it because of a guy." Ia hesitated. She still wasn't sure if she wanted to tell Mayu about Yukari yet. She had no idea how her sister would react, and she had no idea if Yukari's friendship with her would carry on to Monday. It was better not to get her hopes up. Most likely Yukari would forget all about Ia over the weekend. Though the thought of it was a stab in Ia's chest, it was something she was already expecting. After all, Yukari had other friends. There was no reason for her to want to keep hanging out with Ia."I just thought maybe I should...switch it up a little or something."
"Whoa," Mayu's eyes went wide. "What happened to you? You're going outside? You're trying new things?"
"Don't get that excited," Ia said.
"I can't help it! Every day when I come home you're in your room," said Mayu. "This is all brand new."
Ia sighed. "Okay. What'd you do tonight?"
Mayu shrugged. "Not much. I just watched some movies. Hey, Ia," Mayu leaned over the couch, "now that you're out and about, let's go to the tea shop sometime!"
"No thanks," Ia turned around to hoist her bags to her room.
"Ahhh, you're so cold, Ia! So cold," Mayu whined behind her.
-o-o-o-
The weekend passed, slow and boring. To Ia's surprise, she actually found herself both anticipating and dreading Monday, so that she could see Yukari again, but Ia still had that lingering insecurity inside her. Somehow Ia had gotten quite attached to the new transfer student, and on the day school started Ia almost flew out of bed, haphazardly put on her uniform, ate a quick breakfast, and with a hurried 'bye' at Mayu, who had just sat down to breakfast, Ia ran out of her house. It was only when she reached the gates when she realized that she had arrived at school too early - the campus was almost completely empty.
Oh well. At least she'd be able to read her book...
Some time later, students slowly filed into the classroom, all of them completely ignoring Ia. Yukari ran in and took her seat, greeting all of her friends, who were already beginning to surround her, and then got back up, as if she had just remembered something, and walked over to Ia.
"Good morning," said Yukari, her smile bright and radiant.
"G-good morning," Ia stammered. Yukari seemed to remember something, for she grabbed her backpack, rooted through it, and gave a slightly worn DVD to Ia - Spring Snow.
"Oh..." Ia said, her eyes wide. For some reason, she was surprised Yukari even remembered.
"Here's Spring Snow, the movie I was telling you about," Yukari said. "It's really good, so when you're done with it, tell me what you think."
"I will," Ia said. "Thank you."
Yukari grinned at her. "It's no problem, Ia."
It seemed as though Yukari's greeting also brought her friends over - Piko, Oliver, Sonika, Gumi, all of whom never paid attention to Ia before. Ia stared goggle-eyed at all of them, her hands clutching the DVD, heart beating fearfully, as they all greeted her as if they did so every morning.
Ia didn't know what to think. This was all so new, this amount of attention. She glanced up at the clock - fifteen minutes before class started.
"So..." said Sonika, slowly. Ia turned towards her, stunned. Sonika had never spoke to her before. Ever. "Want to...play chess sometime?"
-o-o-o-
That was how it all began, at least. Urged on by an ever-supportive Yukari, who kept bringing her friends over to Ia's desk every morning and lunch break, Ia slowly became acclimatized to spending her time with people, though not completely; she had become so used to being lonely that spending time with people was still something that made her nervous, and sometimes she would search the eyes of Yukari's friends and wonder if she was being set up to be the butt of someone's joke.
Ia still spent the majority of her time with Yukari, and this was where the trouble started. It was, after all, no big secret that Ia wasn't very good about being touched, but Yukari was something else. That enthusiastic hug in front of the train station was only the beginning - Yukari was all about friendly hugs and playful jabs. In short, Yukari seemed to have no conception of boundaries.
She was like that with everyone - Ia wasn't deluded enough to think that Yukari would only hug her (and there was no reason why Ia would think that, anyways, because that thought was perfectly ridiculous) - and it was, in Ia's mind, just plain unfair. Ia had spent most of her life being lonely, constructing her defenses, and Yukari just waltzed into her life as though Ia's boundaries weren't even there. Don't get too attached, Ia would tell herself, but it was so hard when Yukari was so friendly and her friends so welcoming. Oftentimes Ia found herself caught between letting go, giving in, or clinging to the hard walls she constructed around herself. It was a constant war, one that Ia never had to deal with until now.
It really shouldn't be this hard, and for Yukari, it wasn't. She was so relaxed and free. Obviously, she never worried like Ia did about how people would react if she hugged them, or if she touched them. And for Ia, it really hadn't been a problem until Yukari swept into her life.
"You're spending a lot more time outside these days," Mayu had commented one night when Ia returned home laden with a bag full of brownies that Oliver had baked. "Are those brownies?"
"Yes."
"Oh!" Mayu's eyes lit up. "Are those from a secret admirer?"
Ia shook her head. "Hardly. Oliver just baked way too many...he's a stress baker, apparently."
"Oliver bakes?" Mayu gaped at her. "I didn't know that!"
"It's supposed to be a secret," Ia said. "Want one?"
Life went on like that for the next few weeks. It was only when Ia mentioned off-handedly to Yukari that Mayu would be out at her friends' place for a sleepover when her troubles came to a head. The moment Ia told her that, Yukari invited herself over. Ia had tried to protest, but Yukari had given her puppy dog eyes and, well, there was no way anyone could resist those.
The next thing Ia knew, they were sitting on the couch, Yukari flipping through the DVDs she brought over. Upon learning that Ia hadn't really watched many movies before, Yukari seemed to have taken it upon herself to properly educate her.
"Okay, so," said Yukari, "I have like, a bunch of movies from a bunch of different genres. All of these are great." She tapped the cover of one of them. "This is 3-Iron. Back in Artech, I had a friend named SeeU and she introduced me to all sorts of movies like this. Though if that's too heavy for you right now," Yukari took out another DVD, "I have Toy Story and The Truman Show and-"
"Wait," said Ia, holding up a hand. "Just choose anything. I don't know what to pick."
Yukari sighed. "But it's so hard to choose..."
Eventually, the two of them, through a series of coin flips, managed to narrow it down to a single movie. After putting it into the player, after preparing the popcorn, after flicking off the lights, Ia found herself trapped in her own personal hell.
Yukari had apparently decided that Ia would be her cuddle buddy during the movie or something, because the purple haired girl had an arm around Ia's shoulders, her weight palpable, one hand alternating between playing with Ia's fingers and grabbing popcorn, the other idly sifting through Ia's hair. Ia, for her part, was wedged against the edge of the sofa, trying to put as much distance between her and Yukari as possible, but that wasn't really working because Yukari was taller and the weight of her arm was pressing on Ia's shoulders in such a way that Ia was practically falling onto Yukari's body. It didn't help that Yukari smelled good too, like lavender, and Ia was rapidly discovering that she just couldn't deal with the situation.
She tried to fight it, of course, and concentrate on the movie. She was socially savvy enough to know that some girls were just really physically affectionate with their friends, and Yukari just happened to be one of those girls. She hugged and cuddled her friends at school enough already, back before she even started talking to Ia, so Ia was certain that this sort of behavior was just par for the course for someone like Yukari. The problem was, though, that oft-reiterated phrase - Ia hated being touched, and Yukari's closeness was causing all sorts of short-circuits in Ia's brain.
As Ia tried to deal with her anxiety, Yukari stiffened in excitement and pointed at the screen. "Oh! This is such a good scene. Look at that cinematography."
Ia 'oofed' at the sudden shift in balance and dragged her attention back to the television. There was the main character in a boat. "Huh? He's just in a boat."
"Ia! Haven't you been paying attention?" Yukari scolded. "Truman's rebelling! He's trying to get back out to the real world. Look," she pointed at the screen. "This is the part where the artificiality of his world is shoved in your face."
Ia swallowed. She didn't exactly want to tell Yukari that she had spent most of the movie anxiously trying not to pay attention to how close Yukari was. "Oh...yeah, that's great."
Thankfully, Yukari didn't seem to notice. "Isn't it? I watched this movie for the first time when I was a kid, and, well," she laughed, "that scene's still stuck in my mind now." She let out a small sigh against Ia's skin, making goosebumps appear, and Ia shivered and tried to tear her attention back to the movie.
Thankfully, Ia managed to watch the rest of the movie without incident, and as the credit rolled, Yukari turned towards Ia, her face a bit too close for Ia's comfort.
"So what do you want to watch next?" she asked, her breath tickling Ia's ear.
Ia swallowed, hard. "I don't care," she said.
"Right..." Yukari laughed. "Want to coin flip this again?"
Yukari was way too close, and Ia defaulted to her normal response in uncomfortable social situations. "Whatever," she mumbled.
"Well," said Yukari, "we don't have to watch anything if you don't want." She rested her head on Ia's shoulder. "What do you want to do?"
Ia mumbled something incoherent to even herself, mainly because she was suddenly acutely aware of the situation she was in now - sitting with some overly affectionate girl in a dark room with a blanket over them on her couch after watching a movie - and the fact that Yukari sounded so...so...seductive, even though Ia was certain she wasn't.
Shit. Ia's mind just had to go there, didn't it? Ia tried to ignore the heat in her cheeks and push the thought away, but once it was thought, it was over. It was all Ia could think about. Her heart was beating like a panicked rabbit's and Ia prayed that Yukari wouldn't do anything to set her off.
But of course, Yukari had to do just that. On the surface, it was all rather innocent. Yukari merely squeezed herself closer to Ia, pressing her chest against Ia's arm, but even that was enough to push Ia over the edge. She practically flung herself out of the couch, leaving Yukari staring at her, eyes wide with confusion. Of course Yukari wouldn't get what just happened. Of course.
"Ia," Yukari said, eyes wide, "what's wrong?"
Ia put a hand to her forehead, tried to calm down her rapidly beating heart. "I don't...feel well."
"Huh? Really?" At once Yukari's voice transitioned to concern, and she reached out her arms. "What happened?"
Ia shook her head. "Nothing."
"No, Ia, tell me. You were fine before..."
Ia felt a burst of irritation in her mind. Why was Yukari being so difficult about this? "Well, now I'm not, okay?"
Ia had snapped the words, and Yukari flinched. At the stricken look on Yukari's face, Ia felt a stab of guilt, but that wasn't enough to stop her resolve. This...touching thing had to stop. "It's just..." Ia dropped her hands, "you're invading my personal space. All these hugs and cuddles and tickles, I can't do it, okay? I..." Ia looked away, "I don't like...being touched."
Ia looked back at Yukari, whose eyes were like saucers. "Oh...oh," she said, drawing back. "I'm...I'm sorry, Ia, I didn't know..."
"Well, now you do."
"I'm so sorry," Yukari repeated, looking more and more upset by the moment, her voice trembling in a way that clawed at Ia's heart. She looked so much like a hurt, kicked puppy that Ia couldn't stand it - she had to look away. "I'm so, so sorry."
Ia took a breath. Her anxiety earlier was ebbing away now, leaving only the guilt. She felt numb all over, and she couldn't quite bring herself to look at Yukari again. "Right...that's good."
There was a silence in the room. Ia kept her eyes trained on the wall as she heard the sounds of Yukari getting up from the couch and putting her DVDs back into her bag.
"I guess I should, um, go now," Yukari mumbled, sounding as though she was about to cry.
No, wait, was what Ia should say, but she couldn't bring herself to. The guilt was eating her alive. It wasn't Yukari's fault Ia was like this, but what was Ia supposed to do? Sit there with Yukari constantly touching her? Ia couldn't deal with that. Not yet. She couldn't deal with the fact that her body reacted like a teenage boy's earlier either. Ia didn't know if it was because barely anyone touched her before that she reacted that way, or if it was something else that she didn't want to think too much about, but either way, Ia had to be strong.
"Yeah," said Ia, keeping her eyes away. "I guess you should."
For the first time since they became friends, Yukari didn't hug Ia goodbye.
Instead, Ia got the sound of her door closing shut behind her.
Ia stood there for a long while, her eyes closed, before she fell back on the couch. Yukari's scent surrounded her, and Ia felt so bad she wanted to throw up.
Perfect. Just perfect. She got what she wanted and she felt like shit.
After looking through the development of the story, I think I'm gonna have to up this up to an M rating...sorry guys D: I dunno if actual lemon will occur but...just in case? xDDD
