Tomorrow arrived swiftly, and the two girls once again found themselves staring each other down with sunny smiles as they arrived at the alpaca stables at exactly the same time. But for today, there was the heavy presence of an awkward air, it seemed to linger over them like a thick fog; neither girl could forget the comments their friends had made at the stadium, or what happened afterward that evening either. All they could really try to do was laugh it off for each other's sake, yet they couldn't stop thinking of that one particular line, and doubted they'd be able to anytime soon. The line that started this whole confusing, jumbled mess of emotions that they were both experiencing in equal amounts. Well, they were already unsure about how they felt for each other, but now they were REALLY unsure about how they felt for each other.

"You two...are actually kind of cute together."

Things should have finally calmed down now that they'd rekindled their relationships with their friends; instead, life was turning all the more on its head. There might have even been romance blooming in the air. After yesterday and almost all throughout the school hours, their friends had been talking to them, practically pushing them, to try and go on a date. They were all convinced it was nothing short of a perfect idea. Umi and Hanayo made no comments about it in response to their friends' insistence, and they simply tried to continue and act like everything was normal around each other. Little did they know that the time for 'normalcy' had long since passed them by.

"H-Hello, Umi," Hanayo bowed her head. "Good afternoon...!"

Umi bowed back. "Hello, Hanayo. G-Good afternoon to you too."

They were rather nervous, the two of them, and it clearly showed in their every action. Umi and Hanayo exchanged a brief pair of polite smiles before going straight to their work, no small talk exchanged beforehand at all. Umi took to the bales of hay as usual, summoning up the strength of muscles in her arms, back and legs as she heaved them around with the pitchfork. Hanayo brushed away all of the stray hair and bits of uneaten food that were strewn around the floor of the stables. The girls worked diligently, putting all of their focus into their work before them, yet now and then, like an obnoxious itch, the urge to say something came resting in their throats. Umi would cast her glances, Hanayo would cast her glances, but nothing happened.

Only the alpaca knew that they would get nowhere without talking soon. They had witnessed the girls go through this routine time and time again, and it only got worse and worse the more they realized their feelings for each other. Now it felt nearly stifling to observe them. It certainly hadn't taken this long for the white alpaca to make its intentions clear to the brown alpaca in comparison, but then again, humans were an odd sort, who continually sabotaged their own happiness by allowing their lives to become increasingly more convoluted than necessary, like a masochistic game they played. Hanayo started to brush the white alpaca's fur, and it grunted satisfactorily; whatever been on its mind just now was forgotten.

Umi placed the pitchfork aside and wiped her drenched forehead against her sleeve. It was tough work, the sort of job you wouldn't expect to do anywhere else but on some farm out in the country, but it was good work, and Umi surmised it might have even helped her build up her strength over the past number of weeks. Her confidence in her kyudo skills was certainly an improvement over before, pre-stables. Umi had already placed the second-place trophy on her shelf; it was the first one she'd ever won.

She stretched her arms overhead, yawning. She gave a ponder to if she should send Kotori a text, to see if she and Honoka were up for meeting up and eating somewhere tonight. She had no plans after school.

Neither did Hanayo.

"Umi...um..."

"Eh?"

"Would you...! Ah, I mean," Hanayo said in the middle of brushing the brown alpaca, "I was going to stop to get something to eat for dinner on my way home, I usually do on the days that I stay after-school to take care of the stables. I was wondering...would you like to go there with me?"

She left out the fact that she normally asked Rin to take this trek with her, and considering they'd made up quite well, Rin probably would have happily taken the offer. But Hanayo only wanted to ask Umi. Something compelled her to do it.

"You want to go out?" Umi asked, and when she and Hanayo both started to blush over the unintended implications of her poor phrasing, she was hasty to add, "Somewhere for dinner? To eat?"

"I thought I could treat you for dinner tonight...because of your victory yesterday..." Hanayo mumbled.

"You don't have to do that," Umi shook her head.

"Oh...?" Hanayo made her disappointment quite clear, and if her voice didn't make it obvious, she lowered her head in a dejected sort of way to emphasize her point.

Umi coughed nervously. "B-But...but...but..."

"Butt?" Hanayo said and cocked her head.

"But! I think I would like to go with you anyway. I'll take you up on your offer, Hanayo! Thank you!" Umi was probably more nervous than the first-year, but her excitement didn't pale in comparison; still, she was just at a loss with how she was feeling, what she should be feeling, what was right and what was wrong.

A sheltered upbringing in regards to sexual education was about to come undone and unravel at the bluenette's feet.

Hanayo beamed. "If you like rice, I'm sure you'll love this place!"

Umi didn't want to tell her that she wasn't a fan of rice; she had eaten it all the time with her family, they considered it an essential part to every meal, but the young woman had only ever put up with it for the sake of appeasing her parents. When out with friends or at school, she avoided eating as much rice as she could. However, she'd never break Hanayo's heart like this. She'd never want to be the one to shatter that beautiful, perfect smile. To keep that smile illuminating, she would eat all of the rice in the world. Umi was just that sort of person. To disappoint someone was tantamount to delivering a fierce slap across their face.


"Thank you for the food!"

"Thank you for the food."

Umi and Hanayo started to eat. It was a small but homely eating establishment, one that Umi had never been inside before, but as she was led here by Hanayo, she discovered it was a store she'd passed by on her way to and from school, but never noticed it once until now. They were one of the few couples there, a few friends and family, a few obviously lovers, but only Umi seemed to make note of them, as Hanayo immediately lunged for her rice the instant they'd finished saying their thanks. She had a large bowl of rice with fried egg on top, a container of soy sauce on the side. Umi went for the sushi and rice, if only because it had been some time since she'd last gotten to eat it.

Hanayo was so deep into her feasting that she did not notice Umi watching her. Even when she was in the middle of stuffing her face, Hanayo was still adorable; a few grains of rice clung to her cheeks as she shoveled clumps of it into her mouth with her chopsticks. Umi blushed. She returned to her own meal and started to eat. The bluenette attempted to eat slowly, but she could barely contain herself. Not only was the food delicious, but she hadn't realized how hungry she actually was until she took her first bite. Working for so long and so hard in the stables had worked up an appetite in her. They spent some time eating quietly to themselves, Hanayo practically swallowing her rice by the mouthful, until the need for conversation arose. To sit and eat without exchanging a word seemed like a lonely experience.

Unfortunately, there were only so many topics, and the one weighing the most on Umi's mind was a complicated subject indeed.

"Hanayo, about what happened yesterday...ahem..."

"Ah! Y-Yes...?" Hanayo licked one of the stray grains off of her bottom lip.

"With what Nozomi and the others said..." Umi's face started to burn; why did she have to blush so easily? Even for the girl it was getting to be bothersome.

"Yes, I remember that..." Hanayo was in the same boat, when it came to how simple it was to break out in a flush.

"Did Rin and Maki say anything about it to you?"

Hanayo ate a little more rice. "Maki...she didn't really say anything, she understands tact a little better, but she did ask me once if we had something going on between us. I wasn't sure what to tell her, but she didn't press me on it. Rin, though, oh, she wouldn't stop pestering me about it all day. She was texting me last night and asking me all these questions in between classes about what you and I do at the stables, and I told her, we were taking care of the alpacas! I know she just wants to see me be happy, but it's so...it's so..."

"So embarrassing?" Umi winced.

"Yes!" cried Hanayo.

"You're lucky, Hanayo," said Umi with a sigh.

"Eh?"

"You only have Rin bothering you. For me, Honoka and Kotori..." Umi scoffed, shaking her head, "They've always been like this, I think they actually get some enjoyment out of teasing me! Honoka especially. Kotori also likes to mess with me, but she never makes it obvious, but she thought she could get away using her 'onegai' against me, but it won't work on me anymore; I've come to be able to withstand it, although it's still difficult. Whereas Honoka was teasing me about a lot of things this morning already...she said too much..."

"Like what?" Hanayo was curious to know. She also had no idea what Umi meant by Kotori's 'onegai', whatever that might have been.

"Ah? Oh, uh...um...things like...it doesn't really matter, does it?" Umi let out a nervous chuckle. If she told Hanayo that Honoka had made jokes about them kissing or even getting married, it might not have been good for the sweet and innocent Hanayo's heart, or even Umi's own heart for that matter. She shouldn't have even brought it up in the first place, she'd walked herself right into a trap she'd made; Umi's lips curled, her teeth chattering behind them. Hanayo continued to stare at her. The first-year wasn't about to let it go without some kind of explanation. Umi's mind scurried to come up with a believable excuse, to change the subject. Her eyes darted to Hanayo's bowl.

"Ah! Hanayo, your egg-!"

Hanayo glanced down; some of her fried egg was starting to slip off of her bowl. "Oh no!"

Like a bird snatching an insect out of mid-air, the young woman used her chopsticks to catch the piece of egg before it hit the table, and scooped it straight into her mouth.

"Well we should probably finish our food first, shouldn't we? Before it gets too cold.

"Okay." Hanayo didn't want to lose her egg, but she wished she had the chance to inquire more about Honoka and Kotori's teasing. She wondered what Umi really thought about the idea of the two of them as a couple too. In fact, the more she thought about it, the less bothered Hanayo was with the concept. It seemed like a good concept, a very good one in fact.


After eating, Umi had offered to walk home with Hanayo, probably out of some desire to repay her for 'taking her out' in the first place, but Hanayo felt her heart pounding and skipping all over the place as she replied with a squeaky 'yes'. The girls paid, having settled on going dutch, and left. Fortunately, it turned out that the path to Hanayo's house wasn't too out of the way from Umi's normal route. Whether or not Umi realized what she was doing only enhanced the similarities of their eating out with an actual date, Hanayo didn't know, but there was no way an avid reader and watcher of all things romance like herself wouldn't have recognized this set-up.

Umi was kind. Umi was smart. Umi was sort of high-strung. Hanayo knew these things to be true, but what she really wished to confirm was where Umi's feelings truly lied. She had never thought this much about her upperclassman until they'd begun spending time together, and now she couldn't get the older girl out of her head. The teasing and the goading from Maki and Rin, Hanayo had brushed it off, but their words had her seriously consider what a relationship with Umi would be like. She could say with confidence that she did like Umi; she liked her a lot. But did she like her enough for it to be love? Did Umi secretly like her back? Could a relationship between the two of them, young people so painfully awkward and shy, actually manage to work? Hanayo nearly wanted to scream. No, what she really wanted was to bury her face in a nice, big pile of soft alpaca fur and just lay there for a while until her brain could sort itself out. But of course, she couldn't do that, so she just kept walking and thinking. Umi hadn't been very talkative since they'd left the restaurant, she'd not.

That was because Hanayo wasn't the only one who was facing a bit of an internal crisis of love, either. Umi kept thinking about how it would be really nice to hold Hanayo's hand while they walked, but then she'd mentally slap herself and tell herself to keep her hands pinned to her sides if she had to. It wouldn't be right to touch her that way; Hanayo was her underclassman, she had to treat her in a careful and respectful manner, as part of her responsibility as the older one here. Umi swallowed that desire down to the pit of her heart, just like every other desire she might have felt toward the violet-eyed girl in the past few weeks. She started to get paranoid, looking all around to make sure her nosy friends weren't spying on her. Honoka could probably talk everyone into trying to pair them up, if she really wanted.

Things were beginning to come to a head for the two girls. They could only be contained for so long, these rampant emotions running about inside.

"Oh, this is my house,"

"Is it? That was faster than I thought it would be!"

"Yes! I live right around the corner, really."

"It will take me at least twenty minutes to make it home from here, I believe."

"Ah, do you want to, um, come inside? I can make tea for you!"

"No, it's alright, I had tea at the restaurant,"

"Oh, yes...that's right..."

"I don't think I can stay for much longer, either. Now that my archery club is on break for a little while, I need to put all of my effort into school and writing new lyrics for our next song! Thank you again, Hanayo for showing me that restaurant too. I'll need to tell Honoka and Kotori about it sometime, once they've learned to lay off on me a little bit. Anyway...um...good night?"

"Good night, Umi!"

"Good night, Hanayo."

Hanayo waved, and Umi started down the sidewalk with a little too much speed in her step, to which Hanayo suddenly had an impulse to call out to her. For the first time since this whole confusing mess began, she decided to go with that impulse. She didn't know what brought her to this ultimately life-changing decision; maybe she was tired of flip-flopping around the issues, or maybe she finally wanted to settle the score with whatever her feelings about Umi were trying to tell her.

"Umi! Wait!"

Umi turned. Hanayo ran up to her and bowed her head.

"Umi, I...I want to thank you! For everything you've done for me! Helping me with the alpacas, listening to my problems, becoming my friend when I thought Rin and Maki had forgotten about me...I want to thank you for doing all of that for me! Thank you so much!" Hanayo reached out and grabbed hold of the older girl's arms. Umi didn't try to stop her.

"Hanayo!" Instead, Umi was shocked the girl said all of this; honestly, she didn't require any sort of thanks for everything she'd done. It had been done for her own sake as well. She hadn't been entirely selfless in offering Hanayo some help before. The arrangement had supported both of them during a rather difficult time. Umi wanted to make all of those points, but Hanayo had stunned her practically speechless.

"Umi..." Hanayo started to tremble like a leaf in a violent wind. That little impulse that had told her to tell Umi these things was now ordering her to do something else. Something she wasn't sure if she should do. Because if she did this one, simple thing, everything would change. No longer would she and Umi be able to remain friends. Hanayo, though...she wanted to do it too. She was now in cahoots with that crazy impulse, and it really wasn't so much an impulse anymore but an overwhelming and passionate desire.

"Hanayo?"

"I want to thank you properly." she'd read that line in a manga, and she'd wanted to use it at least once, even if she wasn't sexy enough to pull it off properly to its full effect.

Hanayo leaned in. She kissed Umi on the lips. Not on the cheeks, not on the nose, she went straight for the bluenette's mouth. It was a closed-mouth kiss, Hanayo's pert lips smearing themselves against Umi's in amateurish fashion. It was a sloppy and ungainly first kiss, but it was the very first kiss that both Umi and Hanayo had ever had. Umi's eyes bulged from their sockets. Hanayo's lips were wonderfully soft, tasting of egg and rice, with a hint of soy sauce.

Hanayo held the kiss for about three seconds before pulling her head away, and she opened her eyes to see the older girl looking at her with an uncomfortable face. The sort of face one would make in the first split-second of discovering the school principal and Maki's mom making out on the kitchen floor and their brain was still in the middle of registering it, while also being related to one of two mothers at the same time. It was a face THAT bad.

Hanayo had never done something like this before. She'd never considered herself a dominant person, like someone who would be brave enough to initiate a kiss. It was a side of herself she hadn't been aware of. She kind of liked it. However, her concerns right now were squarely focused on the unsettling expressions the girl she'd just kissed was giving her.

Umi gripped her head in her hands and started crying out. She tilt her head back and shouted at the clouds above. She was growing increasingly frantic with every passing word she spoke, and Hanayo began to feel she'd made a terrible mistake, joining forces with that impulse. Umi was flipping out.

"No...no...no! This can't be happening...! This is what I wanted to avoid! Oh, oh, that was my first kiss, and I just let her TAKE it! Gah! This is bad...this is bad! I shouldn't have let you do this! I should have stopped you! What am I going to do now? I can't get married anymore, can I? Can you get married? If you took MY first kiss, then I took YOUR first kiss! We're both girls, we shouldn't...no, I mean, girls can kiss girls, I guess, our friends certainly do that...but...but I shouldn't...and you...with me...! Please, believe me, I never meant to steal your kiss!"

"Umi, you didn't do anything wrong; I was the one who kissed you! I'll take all of the blame!" Hanayo was desperate to calm her down.

"Then why would you do that? It's, it's improper! Terribly improper! You didn't even ask me!" Umi screeched.

"Umi-"

The second-year shook her head. "I'm sorry, Hanayo! I...I need to go...right now!"

Umi was already running for the corner before Hanayo could catch her. Hanayo made chase, unwilling to let it end here, knowing she had to give Umi the proper explanation that she deserved. She wanted to apologize to her as well if she had to. Yet, in the depths of her love-addled mind, Hanayo still wished to have another experience of that kiss, even if it went against Umi's own desires.

"Umi! Wait!"

Hanayo turned the corner. To her surprise, and to her relief, she saw the second-year was sitting there, huddled in the shadows.

"Umi..."

Umi had her head buried into her knees. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

Hanayo sat down beside her.

"Maybe I shouldn't have done it so suddenly, but Umi, I've..." Hanayo took a deep breath, "I've grown to like you a lot. Almost more than Rin, and she's been my best friend since we were kids. In a different sort of way, if you know what I mean."

Umi raised her head, golden orbs glazed with tears like pearls. "I think I do know what you mean."

"You don't have to feel ashamed for kissing someone, Umi. There's no shame in wanting to love someone before marriage, or anything like that, if that's what's bothering you." Hanayo assured her. She was already cringing at her own words; she didn't know how to handle this, she'd never had to comfort someone like this before, usually being the one getting comforted in the first place. She reached out to place her hand comfortingly on the girl's shoulder. Umi didn't try to stop her.

"I don't?" Umi sounded disbelieving, but she wanted to believe. Oh, how badly she wanted to believe.

Hanayo shook her head. "I was unsure about how I felt about you for a long time, since I've never felt this way for anyone, but, Umi, did you...did you like it when I kissed you?"

Umi sniffled. She looked directly into Hanayo's eyes. She thought about it, but the time it took for her to decide to speak the truth was less than a second spent.

"I did." she admitted.

Hanayo gripped Umi's shoulder a little tighter. She felt so happy all of the sudden. Like her heart had literally leaped and taken flight straight into the troposphere. She wanted to lean over and give Umi another kiss, but she was afraid that it would cause the poor girl's heart to give out.

Finally, after all of the mental and emotional stress they'd endured, the two girls knew where they stood with each other.