Chains of the Past Break
"Miss Juri." Juri stopped in her tracks, Miki was standing right in front of her, even though she was only halfway to his dorm room.
"Miki." She'd thought she'd have more time, she'd thought she'd be more prepared for this. They stood there for a while, each held in place.
"Miss Juri," Miki spoke first, "I really am sorry about before, I should have done a better job listening, and I want you to know..." Why did he have to start biting his lip like that? Such cruel innocence. "...that you don't have to be worried or scared about me." Did he know? "That's, that's what Kozue said for me to say, but I still don't quite get it Miss Juri; what could you be worried or scared about me for?"
No, he didn't. No miracle was going to swoop in and spare her from what she had to do. "Miki, I'm the one who owes you an apology." Her, apologizing? She could feel their eyes on her already! No, no, no one was actually around, no one was lingering to look at them, she had to stop imagining so many eyes on her. "I have been avoiding you, and you deserve to know why." She took a deep breath. "I was afraid that I would do something foolish, something shameful that could ruin our friendship, the way mine and Shiori's had been for so long."
"Yours and Shiori's?" Miki looked up at her. "Wait, what do you mean by that Juri? What happened between you and Shiori?"
She'd already committed herself to this, Juri had already thrown herself off the cliff there was no point in trying to stop herself now. "I couldn't express my feelings for her, and so we ended up hurting one another for a long time." She paused as the words weighed on Miki, saw the light of understanding in those eyes of his, the red dusting his cheeks. "I didn't want the same thing to happen to us."
"The same thing..." Miki's face turned the reddest that Juri had ever seen it turn, redder than it had ever gotten from her teasing. "Miss Juri, d-d-d-do you mean...that is, a-a-are you saying..."
Juri's throat was so dry, her hands had never been so sweaty even in the most tense of her fencing matches. "I..." She'd modeled and bowled, she'd stood before adoring crowds and basked in their recognition of her and now with just one person before her, her best friend, now she was afraid? No. "Miki, I like you, and not only as a friend."
She said it, and in her mind she heard chains snapping all around her, she felt herself loose and limber as never before in her whole life. "You...you like me, Miss Juri?" His face turned so red that there weren't even words for it. "I...um..."
"It's all right Miki, you don't have to say anything." Juri smiled. "So long as we can still be friends Miki, nothing has to change."
"But...what if I'd like things to change?" The red was fading from Miki's face. "Would it be okay...if we were to try, Miss Juri?" He looked down at his hand.
This was happening, it was happening, Juri Arisugawa saw a window open and a bird fly through it. "Yes it would Miki." She took his hand and walked with him; not to her dorm and not to his, Juri walked with Miki and that was all.