330a) Winter Lion
Genre: Humor, Romance
Main Characters: Karin, Yuzu
Rating: K+

Whenever Karin heard the word cute, she found herself flinching. Truth of the matter was, she hated the word cute because it had negative connotations whenever the word was said. She hated whenever the subject was broached by the other girls in her class. Yuzu used the word frequently, but she happened to find that she could tolerate the utterance of the word.

On one side, if someone brought up the word cute, it meant that said thing was girly. She could tolerate her father dressing his daughters up for pictures and wearing the nurse uniform for the clinic, but in truth that was the most of what she did that was in fact cute. And perhaps she could tolerate looking at cute baby animals.

On the other side, the girls were beginning to chatter about how cute different boys were. It was frustrating because, while she had to admit that the guys had good looks, she also found these guys to be the biggest jerks she had ever met. While the other girls, including Yuzu, bubbled about dating them, she in fact found herself never wanting to date them.

She walked close behind Yuzu as they were heading home from school and they passed by the television shop, at least Karin thought it was the television shop. There was a woman standing out there, holding a trey of lion phone straps and Yuzu stopped to look. "Those are so cute!"

At that, Karin had to stop and look too. The woman spoke up, a smile spreading on her face. "We're giving out free samples. How about you both take one?"

At that, Yuzu picked up one. When she saw Karin hesitate, she frowned at her sister. "You too Karin."

Letting out a sigh, the girl took one and then hurried after Yuzu, while attaching the phone strap to her phone. "I don't get why you are excited about these things."

"Because they are so cute!" Yuzu piped up. They were half way between the shop and home, when Yuzu suddenly paused.

"Something the matter?" Karin asked, looking back at her sister.

Yuzu walked forward and pushed the other lion strap into her hand. "I think you should give this one to Toshiro-kun."

At that, the dark haired female paused for a few minutes. "Look, Yuzu... I know you think Toshiro and I are dating, but we aren't."

At that, her sister paused. "He would make a really good boyfriend, you know."

"Yuzu..." Karin let out a deep sigh, hoping to somehow reason with her sister.

However, the brown haired female continued. "Then you need to ask him out. He's cute, even nice and polite."

"You know him even less then me." Karin reached up and scratched her head. "I doubt he would like something like this."

"Come on Karin! It matches his name!" Yuzu laughed suddenly, her face brightening up rather quickly.

"His name means intelligent or talented." The female placed her hands behind her head, the phone strap hitting her wrist as it dangled. This honestly wasn't normal for her.

"I saw the kanji he used for his name while he was here. His name relates to lions." The bubbly girl smiled at her twin.

At that, Karin blinked. "I didn't realize that Toshiro used that kind of Kanji in his name. How did you even see him right down his name."

"I was sneaky." Yuzu chimed in, causing her sister to flinch.

The female sighed suddenly. "Look, I know you are excited about this, but I have to say, Toshiro and I are just friends."

"Come on Karin..." The other female puffed out her cheeks, pouting as she did so.

"I'll think about it." Karin glanced at her own phone. "Why is she so instant about this?"

Author's note – Here is a bit of trivia. Toshiro's name basically does mean, in the most direct translation, intelligent; talented, which makes his name fit very well. However, the kanji of his name is 冬獅郎. The kanji 冬 flat out means winter (fuyu) and is used in words pertaining to winter. The kanji 獅 has no real meaning on its own, but add the kanji 子, it comes to mean lion and is contained in words pertaining to lions. The last kanji, 郎, is used in words pertaining to either young ones, or followers. So, one other translation of Toshiro's name can be "the son of the winter lion" or "winter lion cub".