"Hi."
Kagura seemed to have been breathing heavily. Every so often a startled gulp slithered down her throat. Sakaki raised an eyebrow.
"Something the matter?"
"Tomo just..."
"You had problems with one of them too?"
"Wait, did you?"
Sakaki nodded. "I can't believe Yomi did that to me. It was such a shock."
Kagura paused for a second. S-so Yomi and Tomo are...but, what?
"I never thought she would be so stupid. That incident still makes my blood boil."
"Why?" Kagura asked Sakaki, "it's not like she was trying to hurt you."
"You weren't there!" Sakaki's voice unusually sharp. "How would you know anything about it?"
"Geez don't yell." Kagura sat down on the couch beside Sakaki. "What should we do?"
"What happened?" asked Sakaki. "You and Tomo are best friends aren't you?"
"That's kinda, the thing." Kagura's gaze fell to the floor. "I, I don't know what to do."
"I shoved Yomi out of the apartment in anger," said Sakaki, "what did you do?"
Kagura had a shocked look on her face. "Why would you do that? Can't you appreciate her...unique perspective a little more than that?"
"What are you talking about? She insulted me!"
Kagura stood up. "I can't believe you Sakaki!"
"What's gotten into you? Why are you so defensive?" the "Lone Wolf" asked.
"I am not defensive!"
Sakaki refrained from rolling her eyes at the childish outburst. "What happened you ask?" Sakaki paused. "Yomi accused me of doing...things with animals. What happened to you?"
"I, I don't know where to begin." Kagura realized that nothing had happened between Sakaki and Yomi. At least not something equivalent to what happened between her and Tomo. Sakaki moved out of the corner of her eye.
"Here."
A brown box sat on the stand between them.
"You can tell me the story over chess."
Kagura felt confused as the small wooden pieces were taken out of the dark, chocolatey vessel. Two rows of custard figures and an equal amount of ebony soldiers stood on the checkered field.
"Pick a color."
Kagura looked at the two sides. "White I guess."
"I'm black, eh?" Sakaki gave a sly smile. "So you're going to start off the match?"
"I guess so." Kagura moved a knight onto the lower left quarter of the board.
"So," said Sakaki as she moved a pawn two spaces forward, "what happened?"
"Tomo invited me over to her apartment, you see." She moved one pawn from a white square to the adjacent black one. "And then she ignored me and spent five minutes writing something in a notepad."
"Go on." Sakaki moved the pawn to the left of the one that sat alone.
"And then I read it as she wrote it and," she moved the same pawn forward, "it was Ichigo kissing Naruto!"
"Really?" Sakaki smiled as she moved a bishop out from the side of the queen.
"Yeah but then we just argued for a while." Kagura moved another knight. "Then we got into her car and we were supposed to see Kurt."
"Who?"
"Coach's friend."
"Ah." Sakaki moved her king-side knight.
"Then we found out that we didn't know where he lived. So we argued some more about what we were going to do for lunch." Kagura didn't know which piece to move at this point: she'd never been talented at chess. "Then we sat in her hot car for a minute or so. Then I began to sweat a little." Kagura settled on moving another pawn. "Then she suddenly decided on an idea. We raced off towards a restaurant."
Sakaki nodded. Her right hand moved a pawn.
Kagura moved her other knight before proceeding. "When we got there we met Kaorin."
Sakaki moved her other bishop.
"We greeted her." Kagura moved one of her center pawns. "Then our waiter ran into somebody." Sakaki's hand merely rested on her chin. "Then we sat and talked a little." Sakaki just sat. "Before long our waters arrived along with some appetizers."
Sakaki moved her rook and her king in unison, the crown switching places with the turret.
"What did you just do?"
"I castled."
"Can I do that?"
"Not when you have pieces between the king and the rook."
"The rook?"
"This one."
"I thought that was called a castle." Kagura jerked a bishop forward.
"That piece doesn't move like that."
"Oh," she repositioned it, "sorry."
"That's okay."
"When I was drinking my water Tomo hit the glass with her arm. She then grabbed a napkin and," Kagura moved a knight towards the center of the board, "she dabbed the water off my face. It was so soft and gentle and I was so surprised."
Sakaki moved her knight towards the center.
"I mean Tomo had never done something like that to me before. She'd never really touched me in a gentle manner. She's always been kind of rough and tough with us you know?"
Sakaki nodded.
"As she dabbed at my face Kaorin said we'd make a cute couple. I was shocked, especially after hearing about Yomi's yuri fanfic of us. After that Tomk was acting weird." Kagura moved a pawn into the center, where it was soon taken. "She would look at me and look away. She blushed and gave a weird laugh. And as I ate my meal, I think she looked and smiled at my boobs!"
Kagura noticed that her pawns were being consumed by a combined assault by Sakaki's bishops and rook. "I didn't think about it that much. And we got back into Tomo's car. From there we went to buy her and Yomi groceries. And she was just as weird at the supermarket."
Sakaki silently slaughtered Kagura's pieces, save for the tink of a connection between the wooden pieces.
"On the way back here she apologized to me for all of the times she didn't treat me very well. She asked me if I knew that I was her best friend."
"She did?" Kagura nearly jumped at Sakaki's sudden words. "I thought Yomi was her best friend." Sakaki ended the game as the victor. She began to push the pieces back into the mahagony box.
"And when I got out of the car she, she told me to stop." Kagura's tone shifted and so did her body. "And then I noticed she was out of the car and," she gulped, "Tomo, kissed me."
"She did?"
"Yeah." Kagura thought back to that recent time.
She could feel Tomo's lips against hers. She felt scared. She didn't understand what was going on, or why she had Tomo's soft lips pressed against hers. Then as quickly as Tomo had kissed her, she'd pulled away.
"Tomo, what, why did you kiss me?"
There had been tears in her friend's eyes.
"I'm sorry I'm so stupid!"
"What?" Kagura had asked her.
But Tomo had slammed the door of her car and sped away. Leaving her best friend confused and a little frightened. Kagura felt that she didn't really know Tomo, and perhaps even herself.
"So what was it like?"
Kagura had been ripped out of her thoughts by Sakaki's sudden question.
"Was she a good kisser?"
"Sakaki— What?"
"It's just a simple question," Sakaki told her friend, "I'm a little curious to be honest."
"What are you talking about?" Kagura asked, well screamed. "I don't wanna—"
"Are you blushing?"
"Sakaki, what's gotten into y—?"
"Don't you think she's a cute girl? I mean at least you didn't get kissed by someone who's ugly. Or someone who's boring." Sakaki smiled. "I think you two are a good match."
"SAKAKI!"
"You're getting redder and redder. Were her lips soft against yours?"
"WILL YOU SHUT UP!"
"You liked it when she kissed you. I can tell."
"What?" Kagura asked, confused. "Why would you say that?"
"You're so embarrassed right now," said Sakaki, "your cheeks are red and you're talking fast. It's so cute." She smiled. "And you two are pretty close. But it's a little odd that Tomo wouldn't have an interest in Yomi."
"It doesn't matter," Kagura's voice tainted with anger. "She ran off. She told me she was sorry for being stupid or something like that. I don't know why she would say something like that. I guess she thought I hated her for kissing me. But, she's my friend. It's gonna take more than that for me to not like her anymore!" Sakaki was busy messing around with something in the microwave. "It's not weird to say that is— I should have seen this coming!"
"Why is that?" asked Sakaki, returning with a box of take out.
"Tomo was talking about lesbians a lot today! I didn't realize that until now. She was trying to tell me that she liked me. I'm sure of it! And then she ran away when she kissed me."
"You should talk to her, tell her how you feel."
"But I don't know how I feel, Sakaki. I don't know why but, her lips were soft. They felt...good." Kagura stopped.
"You should probably talk to Tomo, she can get really into the moment and bad things can happen then."
"You're right!"
"You'd better go talk to your girlfriend."
"Sakaki!"
"Who has a girlfriend?"
The two roommates looked at Yukari. They had blank looks as the English teacher unexpectedly invited herself in.
"Kagura?"
"I don't have a girlfriend!"
"Really?" Yukari was stunned. "You're the one person I expected to have a girlfriend. I mean you looked the part."
"That's what Tomo said!" Kagura's fist hit the table. "Why does everyone think that?"
"So then why did Sakaki say that you have a girlfriend?"
"Because she likes Tomo."
"No I don't!"
"You liked it when she kissed you."
"Well...maybe."
Suddenly the phone rang.
"Yomi?"
"Have you guys seen Tomo?"
"No."
"Huh, I'll call Osaka. She ran out the door crying for some reason. She said something about being 'too stupid.' I hope she's all right."
"I'll find her!"
"Huh?"
"She's my best friend, I have to help her!"
"What are you talking about?"
"She needs me to be there for her. Even if I don't know how I can help, I have to go— I have to!" And Kagura rushed out the door.