My beloved sister, Mio, loved telling me stories.
This should have made me a little skeptical of certain things, I suppose, but that's another matter.
One of my favorite bedtime stories from her was the fable about the oyster and the mussel.
She emoted so that the story came alive before my eyes as I watched and listened to her. I loved that story and made her narrate it to me often.
Those bedtime stories will forever be among my most vivid and fondest memories of Mio. So, I hope you'll enjoy this personal favorite of mine:
The oyster didn't mind that she had fallen onto the seabed underneath the reef. She didn't miss the company of the other oysters.
Down on the substrate underneath the cliffs, there was lots of food she didn't have to share. She could dine all day long - Yum Yum Yum - on the yummy plankton and algae drifting all around her.
What the oyster did mind was that occasionally she might be harassed by a predator.
There were many vicious carnivores wandering around in the ocean. Starfish were especially vicious hunters of shellfish. By guile or by force they tried to get into your shell and eat you. A fact that the oyster was acutely aware of.
It almost happened to her once and the oyster had been so traumatized by the experience that she built her shell thicker and bigger than anyone else's.
"Oofffffff!" She went, sucking in all the calcium in the area and heaping it on top of her fort. Nobody would be able to come close enough to hurt her ever again!
And so, the oyster lived a comfortable life on her own away from the reef, unaware of the fact that deep down there was something she was missing.
Until one day she heard a voice outside.
"I've never seen such a large shell. What dedication you must have to build such a large shell for yourself!"
The oyster frowned at the strange comment. Curious about the creature that was venturing near she opened her shell a few millimeters and peered out at the surrounding substrate.
She saw a creature in a long black shell lying on the ocean bed.
"Hello," The creature greeted. "I fell off the colony on the rocks above. Is that what happened to you too?"
The oyster immediately noticed the shiny black tongue that protruded from the pale creature.
"It's a snail!" She exclaimed in horror and closed her shell.
"What?! No! I'm just a mussel. Please won't you talk with me for a while?"
The oyster was terrified. But there was something in the sound of the mussel's voice that made her curiosity get the better of her fear.
"You really aren't a snail?" She asked as she cautiously peered out of her shell.
"No. I promise," The mussel gently replied.
"Or a starfish?"
"Bah! No! I hate starfish. They're the worst!"
The two reserved mollusks didn't say much for a while until after a few minutes the mussel spoke up again.
"You know…?" She falteringly began. "That's a very elaborate shell you built. I never saw an oyster shell so large."
"Well, I have to build it so big if I want to protect myself from all the predators crawling around here," The oyster commented.
The mussel looked around at the mostly deserted sea bed. Not even a cricket was chirping. Though the mussel wouldn't have known what a cricket was if she did hear one.
"Say, can I come over for a visit sometime?" She asked.
"A visit?" The oyster repeated anxiously. "No. I don't entertain visitors."
"What? But…"
"It was nice talking to you!" The oyster said hurriedly. "Good evening!"
With a deflated feeling the mussel saw her new friend close her shell.
She was quite saddened about the event. Obviously the oyster must have been caused quite a bit of distress by a snail or a starfish.
The mussel wished she could do something to make her new friend feel better again.
The following day the oyster was quietly enjoying herself filtering water and eating plankton.
It had been peaceful again lately. She had enjoyed her talk with the mussel, but if she ventured out of her shell too much she would only invite predators in.
She supposed it was nice to have someone living nearby, but it was best to keep her distance.
"Hahaha! What have we here? What a cute little thing! Won't you show me how cute you look from the inside, little girl?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Starfish, but I was raised to not open my shell to any starfish."
That was the mussel's voice! The oyster was terrified and moved around in her shell. The mussel was in danger! She had to do something!
She suddenly opened her shell wide and yelled loudly: "Hey, you monster! Leave her alone!"
Then she saw what had happened.
"Let me go, you mean-spirited girl! You are so not cute!"
"I am certainly not letting a vicious starfish like you roam around and preying on my friends!" The mussel stated.
"I'm not even a starfish to begin with! Let me go and I'll leave you and your friends be!"
There weren't any starfish. It did seem the mussel had caught a snail in the byssal threads she had spun, but it was only a kid. The oyster wasn't scared of something like that.
"Maybe you should let him go," She said. "He'll die if you leave him like that."
"Huh?" The mussel reacted. "But aren't you afraid?"
"He's only a little snail. He can't harm us."
"I don't know…" The mussel frowned. "I don't trust him. He sounded quite frightening earlier."
"I was only trying to act tough, okay!" The snail whined. "Please let me goooo!"
"Just let him go. He's too small to be dangerous yet," The oyster smiled.
"Alright then," The mussel said. "If she says so, I'll let you go."
And so the snail was allowed his freedom again.
The mussel kept up its guard though. Apprehensive of what the creature might try.
But: "I'm sorry for scaring you," The snail awkwardly apologized. "I promise I won't bother you anymore. And if I see another snail I'll tell them there's nobody here."
"Thank you," The oyster gently spoke. "That's very kind of you."
And so the oyster and the mussel waved the snail farewell as he disappeared over the horizon.
The following morning the oyster woke up to a strange sound as if something was sliding over the sand of the sea bed.
After a quick wash and breakfast, she planned on checking out what was going on outside, but while filtering the ocean water she heard a thud above her.
"No! It can't be a starfish, surely!" She panicked.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" She heard the mussel call out.
The oyster opened her shell and looked around until to her surprise she saw the mussel's shell attached to her own.
"What are you doing?!" She exclaimed.
"Well… I was starting to feel a little lonely out there. So I thought I'd come and live closer to you," The mussel bashfully explained.
'Really!' The oyster thought to herself. 'What an invasive species. She just does whatever she likes.'
Then the oyster looked at the trail the mussel had left behind in the sand. She had pulled herself and her shell along all the way to the oyster's home, and all that with that little tongue of hers. The oyster started to realize just how much the mussel wanted to be close to her.
"Well… it's alright I suppose," She decided at last with a slight blush. "It'll be nice to have a friend nearby."
Her reaction made the mussel smile from side to side, exposing her cute black tongue, which made the oyster blush even more.
"Does that mean I can come and visit someday?" The mussel asked.
"You… you can come over this evening if you want," The oyster falteringly replied as she hurriedly closed her shell. "See you then."
From that day on the mussel often visited the oyster in her large home.
Sometimes they talked. Sometimes they filtered water and dined together.
And sometimes the mussel tickled the oyster with her tongue… They… They had lots of fun together.
Occasionally some other oyster or mussel fell off the reef above and so their little community gradually increased to include lots of friends and family.
I… I guess that's rather a peculiar fable for my sister to have read me as a bedtime story. But I'm sure it didn't influence me in any way, hahaha!
The reason I chose this story as an introduction, however, is because I think it fits the events I will be recounting very well.
And I'm so excited to be the narrator for once. Yay!
So here we go:
Picture Sakaya, Koyomi, Yuu, and me just leaving an old-fashioned beach house with walls made out of white-painted wooden planks and walking over a light-grey stone-paved esplanade.
The sun was shining above us and we could smell the scent of the sea in the air all around us.
In the prime of our youth, our dashing figures were clad in beautiful beachwear which we wore under fashionable and becoming shirts and skirts.
Koyomi sported a thin long-sleeved white shirt and short green shorts and carried the cooler with our drinks together with Sayaka, who was dressed in a short-sleeve salmon-pink bolero over a thin white ruffled shirt and a pastel-green knee-length skirt.
We kind of forced their situation onto them for their own good, but more about that later.
I was wearing a knee-length beige linen wrap dress, my hair in a low ponytail as I carried our blue-and-white parasol and the bag with our beach volleyball and half of our towels.
And my lovely Yuu was dressed in a white short-sleeve shirt and a yellow divided skirt with a perky white cap over her cute pink short double ponytail.
"Hurry up, you lot!" She called out to us behind her as she walked hurriedly on her yellow slippers, carrying a cooler with our lunch and a bag with a few extra towels, shower cream, and sun lotion.
"It'll be alright, Yuu," I smiled, happy to see her so excited. "If the court is occupied we'll just wait our turn."
"Don't hurry us after you made us carry the heaviest box," Kanou-san protested. "Besides, I think you're well aware that some of us can think of more enjoyable pastimes than beach volleyball."
"Oh, come on, Koyomi," My girlfriend grinned. "It's just a friendly game. Don't sweat it."
"There are no friendly games when you and Nanami-senpai are involved," Came the sour, but admittedly accurate reply.
"Well, if you want to put that frustration to good use, you are welcome on my team, Kanou-san," I said as we descended the concrete steps to our sandy playground for the day.
"I'm not sure if that's a good idea, senpai," My black-bobbed junior sweat-dropped uncomfortably.
"I agree," Yuu said. "Kouhai versus senpai will be the most fun."
"I advise the same," Kanou-san pleaded nervously while she and Sayaka waded on their slippers through the grey sand that got in between their toes.
"Nonsense. I don't want Yuu to use height as an excuse when Sayaka and I crush you," I smirked.
"Well, I don't want you to use Koyomi as an excuse when the two of you lose," Yuu grinned back.
"I'll make you rue this day, Koito Yuu," Her unusually bitter friend threatened.
"Are you that unathletic, Kanou-san?" I asked with a frown, intrigued by my girlfriend's statements. "I can imagine you don't get much exercise if you've been working so hard on your novels."
"Oh no," Yuu interjected with a sly grin. "When it comes to track and field Koyomi performs better than you'd expect thanks to her natural flexibility and due to the fact that in middle school…"
"I think you've said more than enough on the subject of your low esteem of Kanou-san's physical ability, Koito-san!" Sayaka unexpectedly spoke up. "I...!"
As she realized how her ex-girlfriend was blushing Sayaka immediately swallowed her words with an awkward color on her own cheeks.
Both of them silently carried the cool box with our drinks in between them as we shuffled to our destination, looking awkward and miserable.
And that is why I think this is the right time to go back in time to a Friday evening about a week before the start of summer break.
With exams a week behind us everyone was looking forward to summer break.
Few perhaps as much as Kanou-san who sat planning nervously in her room when unexpectedly Sayaka came by.
Putting a few things out of sight the blackette hastily opened the door and let her girlfriend in.
"I apologize for the intrusion," Sayaka bowed with downcast eyes.
"I was planning on coming over tomorrow," Her girlfriend said as they sat down at her table. "I thought we could discuss our plans for the summer break."
Kanou-san frowned curiously at how Sayaka's hands gripped each other in her lap after she sat down. Then she watched the brunette's pale face.
"Maybe we can discuss them now…" Her voice quietly continued, sounding strange to her ears. "Is… Is something wrong?"
"I'm sorry, Kanou-san," Sayaka muttered.
"You don't have to…" The enamored author who sat opposite her started.
"I bound myself to say this at the end of the first week after our exams so that you would have been able to recover from studying and have summer break to look forward to," Sayaka breathed as their eyes met. "I'm sorry that I kept giving you hope…"
"No," Kanou-san interrupted in a subdued tone, aware of the reason for her girlfriend's visit. "You were always very honest with me. It was I who insisted I'd make your feelings change. Please don't blame yourself."
"I know," Sayaka nodded with tears in her eyes. "But I indulged you because it was convenient and comfortable."
More than the fact that their relationship was over, the distress apparent in the constrained tone of her ex-girlfriend's voice hurt Kanou-san's heart.
"We both had fun. That's the point of being in a relationship, isn't it?" She pleaded in sad monotone.
"Please, stop being so kind," Sayaka started to sob. "How is the way I behaved any different from the senpai who broke my heart?
I knew I was doing exactly the same while I was doing it but I didn't stop," The brunette wept out loud while wiping her eyes. "No matter how you look at it I should have been more strict with myself."
"No! Please, Senpai," Kanou-san protested. "No matter what, we both had fun. I'm grateful that we could spend so much time together. I'm grateful that you agreed to my foolish proposal and my selfish ideas.
We did have fun, didn't we, Saeki-senpai?" The blackette timidly suggested as she saw the girl she loved weep pitiably over self-inflicted wounds. "Remember that time we met up with Renma-sensei and she said you really do look like Tomoe Gozen?"
That made Sayaka chuckle in spite of herself.
"We had a lot of fun during our museum visits and the workshops we attended together too," Kanou-san continued with a heavy heart but relieved that her ex-girlfriend seemed to have stopped crying.
The black-bobbed girl quickly went over to her desk and opened a drawer from which she produced a packet of paper tissues.
"Please use these," She offered as she stood over Sayaka.
"Thank you."
Then she sat down again while she observed how the brunette wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
"I apologize for barging in here and bringing you this bad news all at once," Sayaka said with downcast eyes and a shamed expression. "I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go through with it if I wasn't abrupt."
"I understand," Kanou-san replied. "Honestly, Saeki-senpai. What is most distressing to me right now is hearing you rebuke yourself like this."
For the first time, Sayaka raised her eyes to those of her ex-girlfriend.
"We were always honest and open about our feelings and reservations. It's fine if things didn't work out the way I had hoped they would in the end.
I am very happy that we could spend so much time together," Kanou-san smiled gently.
"Of course I am sad. But I would be more so if we continued together while you felt uncomfortable in our relationship."
"I had a lot of fun too. I do enjoy your company, Kanou-san. I think you are a very kind and considerate person and I loved our talks. I know you probably won't like the idea… at least not right now, but I hope that in time we can be friends again."
"Me… me too!" Sayaka's ex-girlfriend eagerly agreed. "I mean… Whenever you are ready… I hope we won't become strangers to each other."
"No. I don't want that either. And I doubt Touko or Koito-san would let that happen.
I still want us to be friends and do the things we both enjoy together. But I think it's best if we kept our distance for a while outside of school," Sayaka said while looking at her clasped hands. "No doubt our friends will invite us to a few activities over the summer, that's why I think it will be for the best if we don't meet up next week."
"Yes… I understand. I agree," Came the subdued answer.
It didn't take my girlfriend and me much effort to notice that each of our friends was quietly struggling with their own pain when we saw them at school the next Monday.
When we were told what had happened we reacted with the empathy and kindness that can be expected from trusted friends… Honestly, we really did.
The next few days Sayaka and Kanou-san continued their school days mostly as usual. They still greeted one another when they met, they still shared a table with us for lunch, and they still contributed to our conversations. But it was clear that the end of their relationship weighed on both of them.
Whenever we were on our own, Yuu and I discussed what we could do to help them.
We came to the decision to invite them to a day at the beach on the last Wednesday of school when Sayaka found Kanou-san clutching her abdomen while strolling down the hallway at school.
"What's wrong?" Sayaka asked in a thin voice as she approached our friend. "Does your stomach hurt?"
Kanou-san turned around with a slight grimace.
"Oh! It's your period!" Her ex-girlfriend remembered.
"Hello Say… Saeki-senpai. I'm just going to the nurse's office for some medicine."
"Wait! I'll come with you," Sayaka said. She came closer and lead the perplexed blackette by the arm.
"Oh? Thank you," Kanou-san blushed.
Together they arrived at the nurse's office and knocked on the door, but when there was no answer Sayaka opened the door anyway.
"The nurse must be out for the moment."
"Yes," My trusted friend replied while she and her ex walked into the room. "We'll just wait until she returns."
Kanou-san observed the brunette's face. She thought that the girl she loved looked anxious and pale.
"It's very kind of you to want to wait with me, Saeki-senpai," She smiled. "But I'll be fine waiting on my own."
"Uh? But what if you faint while there's nobody to help you?" Sayaka protested.
Then she looked at the bed behind Kanou-san.
"I think it's best if you rest a little until the nurse gets back."
While Sayaka took her slightly shorter friend by the shoulders, Kanou-san braced herself against the way the brunette pushed against her.
"What are you doing, senpai?" The young novelist protested while my friend tried to guide her toward the bed. "Please, let go. I told you: I'm fine. The cramps aren't so bad. I just want some pain medicine."
Kanou-san was pushed back a step but pivoted on her other leg.
Sayaka used all of her might to resist, but she couldn't stand her ground as her black-bobbed ex pulled her closer to the bed.
"Why are you being so difficult? Just lie down and rest!" She insisted as she struggled with the blackette.
Kanou-san forced the brunette back a step. Then another, until Sayaka pulled against her and she braced herself.
"I'm not being difficult!" She exclaimed at last. "The one who needs to rest is you!"
As Kanou-san pushed her unusually forceful senpai onto the bed with the soft light-blue sheets Sayaka fainted.
By the time she regained consciousness, her ex-girlfriend had received her pain relief from the nurse and both of them were looking over her with much concern.
That is only one example of the strange and awkward behavior of our friends in those days.
So to help them relax while being in each other's company again we came to the beach to have some fun without boys or straight girls.
"Remember, Koyomi!" My girlfriend was calling out to her friend as she stood about three meters apart from Sayaka wearing a light-blue dotted bikini and similar cute shorts while standing in a defensive position. "You have unlimited re-serve rights."
"Don't let her get to you, Kanou-san!" I told my junior who stood behind and to the right of me. "Just relax and enjoy yourself. We'll beat them together."
"Alright, Senpai. Thank you."
I glanced behind me at the girl in the stylish azure one-piece swimsuit and saw that she was getting ready for an overhead serve.
"Get ready for a pounding, Yuu!" I grinned.
"I apologize, Senpai," I heard in a voice like an automatic tape behind me.
I quickly looked at Kanou-san and saw that she had retrieved the ball she apparently dropped and was getting ready to serve again.
"I'm looking forward to splitting that watermelon later!" I smirked while I caught Sayaka who was dressed in a very becoming peach-colored bikini staring at her ex-girlfriend with a wistful look in her eyes.
"I apologize, Senpai," I heard behind me while our white-and-blue ball rolled onto the other court.
"Here is the ball, Kanou-san!" Sayaka kindly said as she kicked the ball back to the blackette.
"Oh! Thank you, Saeki-senpai," I saw the young novelist blush as she caught the ball and moved to her original position.
"Don't worry, Kanou-san!" I said, showing my most encouraging smile. "Maybe try an underhand serve!"
"If you say so, Senpai," My partner disinterestedly replied as she took the appropriate position.
As soon as I looked ahead again I heard: "I apologize, Senpai."
"Hey, Yuu," I scolded my distracted girlfriend. "Don't you think it's very disrespectful to your opponent to be staring at that kitesurfer?!"
"But he's really cool!" My girlfriend whined in a cute way. "Besides, Koyomi doesn't really care."
"I apologize, Senpai."
The two of us looked at the person on the wakeboard who was attached to a big bright blue-and-yellow power kite high in the sky.
He had been surfing the low waves of the beach in a semicircular motion, but at that moment he jumped three meters into the air and turned around his axis.
"I apologize, Senpai."
"That was so cool!" Yuu and I exclaimed together while clapping in our hands.
"If you two don't mind, I would like you to pay attention to our game again!" Sayaka remarked in a harsh and annoyed voice. "Koyomi is doing her best to…"
Kanou-san's eventually successful serve couldn't have come at a more unexpected time.
As the ball soared through the sky Sayaka was the first to jump into action.
"Ball!" The brunette exclaimed as she stepped back, preparing to intercept the projectile.
She joined her arms and passed the ball to Yuu, but since the ball came so suddenly the assist missed precision and Yuu wasn't able to position herself in time.
With a clumsy smash, the ball hit the top of the net and bounced onto their side of the court.
"1-0! That was great, Kanou-san!" I laughed with a thumbs up as I exchanged places with my partner.
"It's my serve now, Yuu!" I grinned while balancing our volleyball on my left hand. "Things are going to go a little faster now! Are you ready for this?"
"Be careful, Koito-san!" Sayaka exclaimed. "Touko is good at hitting fast aces when she's serving."
"Don't worry, Saeki-senpai!" My girlfriend smirked. "I can read her like a book."
I admit I felt somewhat intimidated with Yuu's sexy eyes staring at me, but I hit my overhead serve undaunted into their court just to the left of Sayaka and right behind the net.
"Ball!" Yuu exclaimed as she jumped forward and kicked the ball into the air, falling backward into the sand.
Sayaka quickly hit the ball over the net with an overhead pass and because I had expected her to set the ball for Yuu I was too far from the net to intercept.
Luckily, to my surprise, Kanou-san called the ball.
Positioning myself to smash the ball deep into Yuu's corner of the court - since she was still getting up hurriedly - I watched my partner jump up and was surprised to see how high she was able to hurl her body up.
At that moment Kanou-san looked like a dolphin rising out of the water in her azure one-piece swimsuit.
I watched her right arm take aim to send the ball straight towards my completely unprepared girlfriend.
As the young novelist smashed, the ball passed her hand by about half a centimeter and landed in the sand behind her.
Kanou-san turned around as she landed and sighed in meek acceptance of the talents she hadn't been dealt in life.
"Ugh… I apologize, Senpai."
"It's alright, Kanou-san," I winked. "The wind can play tricks on you in beach volleyball. The next rally is ours."
"Hahaha. I look forward to going all out on that watermelon at the end of the day," Yuu chuckled.
A good while later I was lying beside my cute girlfriend in my stylish black bikini bottom and top on two large yellow beach towels we had spread out in the shade of the blue-and-white parasol we had rented out from the beach house.
Half an hour earlier, after our long game of beach volleyball, we had opened up our bentos and enjoyed lunch together while we talked about this and that. An activity that eventually evolved into shameful indolence.
"What a pity that group asked us to please end our game after the second set," I sighed. "I know we had been playing for an unusually long time, but I'm sure we could have beaten you if we kept playing."
"No way," Yuu grinned. "You were lucky you scored as much as you did."
"You got some nerve saying that when you won with only a few points difference, Yuu," I smiled, leaning over her with my nose close to hers to see her blush. "But that victory dance you did more than made up for losing."
"Don't come so close," My girlfriend glared. "It's hot and I'm tired. I don't feel like flirting."
"I know," I sighed.
As I rolled onto my right side I watched Kanou-san who had been wandering around the beach while observing the seven or so other groups who occupied the beach here and there in the neighborhood.
"I'm pretty exhausted myself. Standing under the sun and waiting while staying on your toes so you can win the next rally takes a toll."
"Yeah. I'm just going to lie in the shade for a while before I go for a swim," The cute pinkette in the polka-dotted blue bikini next to me smiled.
Kanou-san was slowly walking over to Sayaka who had been hanging around the rocky beachline to our right and was currently sitting on her knees on a large flat rock, staring intently at something.
I looked up at the bright blue sky above which was only dotted with a few stray white clouds. A single seagull floated by.
About four or five people were swimming close to the beach. A boy and his father were playing with a beach ball about twelve meters to our left while the mother was looking on.
An elderly couple sat under a parasol about eight meters closer to the water than Yuu and I were.
"They seem like they're having a good time at least," I remarked.
"Huh?"
Yuu looked at me. Then she turned her eyes on our friends.
"I suppose so. Koyomi can imagine about a thousand things more fun to her than ballgames, but she didn't hate our game. And Saeki-senpai seemed to be enjoying herself too."
I remembered how a few times when Sayaka was serving she would lose focus because of Kanou-san whenever she was positioned opposite her. She even implored her ex not to stare at her too attentively at one time.
"Maybe Koyomi shouldn't do what she's doing," Yuu reflected as we watched the young novelist squat next to her ex. "Maybe we were wrong. Isn't it a little too soon to try and get them to interact normally again?"
I saw how Sayaka stiffened as she sensed that Kanou-san had come near. But then I noticed how her body relaxed almost immediately.
"Maybe… " I muttered. "... the Minamoto clan will do things in their own peculiar way."
"Huh?" My girlfriend frowned at me.
"What are you looking at, Saeki-senpai?" Kanou-san asked as she squatted next to her ex on the large flat dark-grey rock they both occupied.
"Oh? Look, Kanou-san," Sayaka said with a quick glance at the blackette as she pointed to the surface of the rock.
Together they observed how a group of golf-ball-sized red crabs with four long and four shorter legs moved sideways over the rock towards the sharper rocks to their right.
"Heikegani crabs!" Kanou-san exclaimed in surprise. "What a great find."
Sharing an amused smile they marveled at the unique samurai-mask shaped shells of the crab species that according to legend are the reincarnations of the army the Minamoto clan destroyed in the battle that founded the Kamakura shogunate.
"They are funny little fellows," Sayaka chuckled.
Then she looked to her left where she saw her ex smile as if enchanted at the diminutive crustaceans who crawled on top of each other to get to the nearby rocks where several of them tumbled into the water below.
"Are you having fun, Kanou-san?" The brunette asked with a blush on her cheeks as she crawled closer to the edge of the rock.
"Huh? Yes. I wasn't looking forward to the beach volleyball game, but it wasn't that bad. I actually enjoyed myself. We had some laughs over lunch too. And I had a nice walk along the beach."
"Good," Sayaka smiled as her former girlfriend slowly crawled closer.
Kanou-san was trying to judge the new distance between them.
She guessed that she could sit at about the space of another person from her ex. But then she purposefully closed that distance by about five centimeters.
She looked at the familiar body in the beautiful peach-colored bikini and wanted to be closer to Sayaka. She wanted to be in her arms like before.
And she was sure that if she was smart about it she might get that close again.
"Have you been having a good time, Saeki-sen…?"
Then she saw what the brunette had been looking at.
Underneath the rocks below the waterline an oyster reef had built up that was host to a whole bunch of mussels, barnacles, and other small creatures.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Sayaka smiled. "Those are gulf pearl oysters I think."
The two of them gazed down at the reddish mollusks and the dark-blue and grey bivalves growing on and in between them.
Then, Sayaka saw movement in the water a little up ahead.
"It's an octopus!" She exclaimed.
"Really? Where?" Kanou-san frowned.
"Look ahead. Under that brown rock," Sayaka pointed with her finger. "It's tentacles are moving."
"Ah! I see."
"It must have caught one of those Heikegani crabs," My closest friend observed as they saw the dark-orange octopus devour its meal.
"We should get Yuu over here," Her ex-girlfriend stated as she got on one knee.
Sayaka turned her eyes on the blackette and reflected on the fact that the girl was going to share the find with her friend even though it was obvious that what she really wanted was to make the moment even more intimate.
"It might be gone by the time Yuu gets here," She said, arresting the young novelist by laying her hand on her right arm.
They locked eyes and couldn't help awkwardly staring for about half a minute before Sayaka pulled her hand away and rested it on the rock again.
"It's no use, Kanou-san. Let's just keep this to ourselves," She smiled.
"Y… Yes," The black-bobbed girl muttered while she sat down again in her azure swimsuit, two centimeters closer to the girl she loved than before.
As the light of the blazing sun was exposing Sayaka's heart I looked at our two friends who sat close together with the low waves of the sea leisurely bumping up against the beach in front of us.
"I still don't understand why you are going to study management," Yuu - who had been staring up at the sky while her cute body in the light-blue bikini and shorts was lying between me and my vision - suddenly piped up. "I would have thought you'd want to become an actress?"
Her brown eyes landed on mine as she turned her head to the left.
"I enjoy acting a lot," I said. "But I don't want to pursue such an insecure career choice. I want it to stay fun. Like a release.
There are actors in Nara-sensei's troupe who have worked with her for over twenty years. I'm sure she'll want to employ me as long as I keep growing."
"Okay," Yuu sighed in acquiescence.
"I'm sorry, Yuu," I smiled as I kissed her. "I made my decision. I really loved being a student-council president. It's the kind of work I want to keep doing.
I enjoy working together with different people to accomplish a project. And contrary to acting it's not something I can just do for fun."
"As long as you do the things that make you happy, that's what's most important to me," My girlfriend smiled."
"And what about you, Yuu?" I inquired slyly.
She looked at me blankly.
"Do you enjoy being student-council president as much as I promised you would?"
"Oh!" My girlfriend reacted. "Well, as I said before: I didn't expect I would enjoy myself so much. It felt great when we were able to get the school direction board to make double-sided printing the norm at school."
"Yes. I could see how hyped you were about that," I chuckled.
"Paper waste reduction at school is important," Yuu said firmly.
"I totally agree," I smiled. "But if you are enjoying yourself as much as you are, what do you think about following me to management school when you finish your third year?"
"Hmmm… It's not like I haven't thought about it," My girlfriend frowned at the yellow beach towel we were lying on as she rolled onto her side. "But…"
"Hey, Yuu! There's an oyster reef underneath the rocks we were sitting on," Kanou-san and Sayaka interrupted us. "Do you want to come and see?"
"An oyster reef?"
My girlfriend and I sat up as our friends came near and halted in front of us.
"It's quite beautiful," Sayaka smiled.
I observed how more animated her face was compared to when we arrived at the beach.
"Since you are both here, I felt like getting some ice cream from the beach house," I smiled and got to my feet while stretching my arms. "What do you think?"
"I could go for some vanilla Coolish," Yuu said, looking like a cute kid the way she looked up at me.
"It's my treat. But I'll need you to come with me so we can get back before everything melts," I addressed Sayaka.
"Oh? Okay."
"Then I'll stay here if you want to go and look at the reef, Yuu. Thank you for the treat, Nanami-senpai. Can you get me an Azuki bar, please?"
"That sounds good," Sayaka said as her ex sat on the yellow towel I formerly occupied and Yuu got up.
"We'll get back ASAP," I promised, holding my purse in hand. "Let's go, Sayaka!"
The sky was still nearly spotless, the sun shining down on us with a gentle breeze to mitigate its severity.
"We chose a great day to come to the beach," I commented.
"That's true," My companion agreed. "It's been wonderful so far."
To our right, the sea was spread out as far as we could see while we climbed the dunes to the esplanade.
"What were you trying to talk Koito-san into earlier, Touko?"
With a grin like a naughty kid, I looked into Sayaka's penetrating eyes.
"So you heard us?" I asked. "I just think Yuu would have a bright future in management. She's very good at getting people together and organizing them."
"Like you are," My loyal but critical friend deadpanned. "Koito-san has plenty of time to discover what it is she wants to do once she finishes her high school education. I don't think it would do her any good to push her into something."
"I'm only trying to steer her in the direction of something I believe will suit her very well… And we might go to the same school again if she does choose to do what I suggested."
"So you admit that you have ulterior motives?" My friend in the peach-colored bikini sternly interrogated me.
"Hihihi. You can't blame me for wanting to see her often when I'm in university."
Sayaka playfully rolled her eyes at my retort.
"By the way, Sayaka…" I started as the beach house came into view in the distance. "How are you doing? I saw how you and Kanou-san were interacting earlier. You didn't seem as stiff with each other as you have been at school."
"Well… It is still painful to Kanou-san that we aren't together anymore. But it is good that we can still enjoy things together. I think we will still be friends once the pain subsides. It's what we both want."
"And what about you? I have been thinking… I know you told us that you split up because you didn't feel the same way about Kanou-san anymore and you didn't feel it would have been fair to her to stay in your relationship, but there were a few times today when it seemed to me like you yearned to be close to her."
"I-it did ?"
"I understand that you are concerned about Kanou-san," I said while turning my eyes on my friend and arresting her progress by standing still. "But if there are times when things are difficult for you I want you to know that you can talk to me. You have been a better friend to me than anyone could wish for, Sayaka. I know how much you denied yourself for my sake. I don't want you to go through anything like that anymore. So please, tell me if you are feeling sad."
Sayaka's eyes looked wild and surprised for a moment, but then a soft smile appeared on her face.
"Thank you, Touko. I know I can rely on you to cheer me up when I feel down.
It's true that I kept too much to myself when I was in love with you because I didn't know who I could talk to. But like I told you before, you were more than kind and supportive to me. It is in large part thanks to your deep and heartfelt friendship for me that I was able to overcome the pain of realizing that you couldn't return my feelings.
Don't worry about me," She said while she hugged me. "Kanou-san and I will both have a hard time of it for a while. It is very soothing, however, to know that we will be able to remain friends."
"I'm glad to hear you will tell me if you feel troubled," I said as we moved apart and started walking again. "All I hope is that you will always know that I will listen to anything you need to get off your heart without judgment and that I will do my best to offer the help you want from me."
"Thank you, Touko," Sayaka replied while affectionately taking and squeezing my hand. "Say? Do you remember what Koito-san wanted?" She asked once we arrived at the beach house.
"She wanted a vanilla Coolish."
"Ah, yes. And an Azuki bar for Kanou-san and me."
I wonder if it showed on my face how puzzled I was.
While Sayaka picked our orders out of the freezers and we walked towards the cashier I was still wondering why she tried to evade how obviously to me she loved Kanou-san.
All I could hope for was that she would open up to me after all when things became too painful for her.
After we enjoyed our ice cream we took to the water and had a good swim.
Alternating between swimming and lounging underneath our parasol we passed the afternoon of a wonderful day.
At the end of that afternoon, Yuu and I had fun kicking our volleyball back and forth while Sayaka came out of the water to lie on our beach towels and Koyomi still swam about some twenty meters out in the sea.
"It's getting late," I stated as I kicked the ball to my girlfriend. "I think it's time you spliced the melon I brought back when we bought the ice cream if we want to shower at the beach house and catch the train to get home in time for the dinner mother wanted to make us."
"I guess so," Yuu smiled, shading her eyes against the sun with her hand. "What a great day this was. I think we all had a lot of fun."
Both of us looked at Sayaka, who was reading a book underneath our blue-and-white parasol.
"We could come back next week or so," I suggested while I scratched an itch underneath the strap of my black bikini-top.
"Sounds great," Yuu answered. "Hey, let's get that melon ready. I'm eager to give it a good smashing."
While we were having our conversation Koyomi was eyeing us from a distance.
An idea had been forming in the girl's head for a while. It was an idea linked to the plan she had formed before we came to the beach.
She had ascertained that she was still in hearing distance from us and was restlessly swimming back and forth while she gathered courage for what she was about to do.
She was only waiting for the right moment.
Truth be told this wasn't just a ploy to explore Sayaka's emotional attachment to her, which she had been suspecting to run deeper than her ex-girlfriend claimed.
Aside from her main goal, Koyomi was feeling warm inside just imagining Sayaka running into the water and carrying her back to the shore in her arms.
When she considered making her ex think that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation might be necessary the blackette plunged her head underwater.
She was already crossing a line with this kind of deceit, so she decided not to overdo it.
"Sorry to bother you, Sayaka," I said, standing in front of her.
My friend looked up at my face while she lowered her book.
"It's almost time to pack in, so Yuu wants to use the towels to split the melon on."
"Oh? Is it that late already?" Sayaka asked with some disappointment. "Let me get up."
I waited until she had packed her book and stepped aside before moving the towels a little further while Yuu got the watermelon out of our
"Koyomi is yelling at us," I heard behind me.
I immediately turned to face the sea and saw what Sayaka was seeing: our friend was wildly moving her arms and yelling for help.
"Oh my God! She's drowning!" Sayaka shrieked in fear and ran towards the shore.
At the same time, I ran into the water and swam towards the young novelist, pushing my body to reach her as fast as possible.
With each stroke, I saw our struggling friend come closer until I finally came face to pale face with her.
"I don't see how Koyomi can drown in this mild surf," Sayaka heard behind her as she looked for info about emergency care to drowning victims on her smartphone.
"She could have been stung by a jellyfish or something," The brunette suggested to Yuu as my girlfriend came and stood beside her while I reached Kanou-san. "People do drown in low waves."
"I know that," Yuu sedately replied. "But Koyomi used to be in a synchro club when we were in middle school. She's a pretty great swimmer."
"What?" Sayaka reacted as she looked at my girlfriend.
"You didn't know? She quit when we started high school, claiming synchro was uncool or something like that. But I now suspect that she didn't have time to participate anymore because of her writing."
The two of them saw how I was helping Kanou-san swim back to the shore.
"Even if she got stung there's no way Koyomi is going to drown in such waves," Yuu continued while frowning suspiciously. "Actually, the way she was moving reminded me of one of her club's shows."
Sayaka stared at her.
"Are you suggesting she's faking it? But why…?"
Then a thought struck them both and the brunette had to hide her blush.
"I guess Koyomi doesn't know I'm not a very good swimmer," She confessed. "I'm really good at ball sports, but Touko tops me in swimming."
"What?" Yuu suddenly reacted.
"I didn't say anything."
Meanwhile, Kanou-san and I had come to shore and were slowly approaching our friends.
"I'm really very sorry I scared you all," She bowed when she stood before our friends while Sayaka handed her a towel. "I merely had a cramp in my leg and I panicked. Thank you for coming to my rescue, Nanami-senpai."
"Are you sure you are okay?" Sayaka asked while neither of them was able to properly look at each other.
"Yes. Thank you for your concern, Saeki-senpai. I'm perfectly fine."
"Well… then, let's pack in and split that watermelon!" Yuu came to the rescue.
Saved from awkwardness Koyomi set to work folding the umbrella with me while Sayaka spread out our two yellow beach towels and Yuu placed the melon in the middle.
"Well here it is, Yuu," I smiled while I blindfolded my girlfriend. "Your moment to shine. I hope you enjoy it."
"You bet I will," She grinned as I turned her around and our two friends stepped aside.
On her first try, Yuu wound up facing Sayaka more or less and caught wind that she wasn't facing the right direction because of my amusement. She tried to move a little to the right but ended up missing the melon by about two meters.
After Sayaka turned her around my girlfriend found herself in the right direction.
She moved forward, encouraged by our tense silence, and whacked the big green melon with her bat. Unfortunately, she only ended up batting the watermelon aside and when she tried again she got way off the track after a few attempts.
On her third try, after Koyomi turned her around, she ended up coming in my direction. Our suppressed laughter warned her off, however, and she somehow managed to redirect herself and walked straight toward her goal.
She carefully used her bat as a cane to guide herself forward and when she touched the melon she stood up straight.
Using the bat one last time to ascertain whether the melon hadn't rolled to the side again she carefully positioned herself and struck with all of her might.
"I have no idea how this could have happened," I smiled as I eyed my girlfriend, who was covered in red juice and seeds. "But you do look delicious, Yuu. I think I'll forego my piece of watermelon and clean you up instead.
I was standing with my piece of melon in hand next to my friends who sat on our yellow beach towels.
"Yuck. It's starting to stick already," My pink-haired lover reacted while she ate her piece of the spoils and left the double-folded beach towels.
"Would you mind if I run ahead to the beach house and shower?" She asked while standing in front of us. "This feels really disgusting."
"Go ahead, Yuu," Kanou-san said while she and Sayaka chuckled amusedly.
"Here's the bag with your and Touko's clothes and towels," The latter said.
I watched how my poor Yuu took the bag from her and started to run toward the esplanade to our right, while I waved at her and genuinely lamented not having gotten permission to lick her clean.
Meanwhile, Kanou-san, Sayaka, and I finished our portions of watermelon and took a last look at the sea and the beach.
"Sure was a nice day, wasn't it?" I smiled.
"I had a lot of fun," Kanou-san replied.
Sayaka watched how the blackette got up and folded up one of our beach towels to dust herself off with. Then she too got up and folded the other towel for the same purpose.
"Yuu and I thought the four of us could come back next week," I said while grabbing a bag with towels and clothes in one hand and our umbrella in the other.
Sayaka demurely put the towel she had folded into the cooler she was going to carry with our empty bottles and other trash while Kanou-san lifted the cooler that was filled with our clothes and other towels.
"I'd like to return with you next week if you do. It is very nice here," The brunette said. "Maybe we can explore the city at that time."
"That's a great idea," Kanou-san agreed. "I was thinking it was a waste we didn't get to do that."
Underneath the warm sun, we stepped through the sand toward the esplanade, looking at people who were still sunbathing, swimming, or walking on the beach or in the ocean to our right.
A few seagulls sailed ahead on the winds above us toward our goal.
I noticed that Kanou-san was particularly enjoying the sights and the walk while she hummed the melody of a pop song with a smile.
We slowly ascended the concrete stairs to the esplanade while she hopped over the steps.
"That was unexpected to learn you used to be in a synchro club, Kanou-san," I stated while we approached a colonnade that ran in front of a series of small shops. "I guess while you're not good at ball games you are a very good swimmer."
"I won't claim I'm able to swim competitions," The young novelist replied while she danced around the columns to our right and smiled at an apprehensively looking Sayaka all the time. "But I can swim quite well. It was a fun club, but it was just a pastime. Once I decided I wanted to become a novelist I knew I wouldn't have time for it anymore.
When I find something that's important to me I want to devote myself to it," The black-bobbed girl smiled cheerfully as she twirled around a column and came to a standstill in front of her startled ex-girlfriend.
We left the cover of the colonnade and felt the heat of the sun on our half-naked bodies again.
"Do you have any recordings of your shows, Kanou-san?" I asked. "It would be great if we could…"
A ringtone from my smartphone made me stop in my tracks. I rested the blue-and-white parasol I had been carrying against my black-clad body and picked my smartphone out of the bag I had been carrying to read the text message I had received.
"I took the wrong bag with me, Touko. I have the bag with Koyomi and Saeki-san's clothes. Please hurry to the beach house, since I already showered. I am waiting in the shower area for you."
An annoying situation for my dear Yuu, so I quickly checked to see if I had the right bag and dropped my smartphone in it.
"Yuu has the wrong bag, so I'm going to run to the beach house and bring her this one," I stated to our friends who were standing and waiting for me at a small green enclave with - strangely out of place - a Korean Whitebeam and a few wooden benches in the grass around it.
"Okay. We'll see you in a few minutes, Touko," Sayaka waved before I ran ahead.
It didn't take me long before I realized that running with our parasol under my arm was tricky business. I found myself stumbling a few times as I made my way. But I did manage to get about sixty meters far before I nearly tripped over the pole and realized I was endangering myself.
Deciding that I would be able to help my girlfriend faster if I retraced my steps and deposited the parasol with our friends I turned back and walked at a hurried pace. I was a little surprised that I didn't run into Kanou-san and Sayaka, and by the time I reached the little park where we parted I despaired that I had somehow missed them and made the walk back for nothing.
"Why do you want me to sit here with you?" I heard Sayaka nervously ask.
Curious, I gently placed the parasol and bag in the grass and peered around the large tree with the red clusters of berries in the middle of the group of benches. Sure enough, my friends were seated on the other side.
"There is something I want to tell you, Saeki-san," I saw Kanou-san smile while she fetched something out of the cooler she had been carrying.
The scene had something idyllic about it. As if Kanou-san and Sayaka were the center of some romantic epic, sitting side by side while facing one another on a wooden bench on the other side of the beautiful Korean Whitebeam.
"When you told me that you wanted to end our relationship I felt like a rock fell on my heart, Saeki-san. I felt like I had failed to do for you what I had set out to do and lost the most important person in my life as a consequence. I continued my days like a robot. Even the news I received later did not cheer me up as it should have," Kanou-san said, looking up at Sayaka who looked down at the grass by their feet.
"But as we interacted at school I started to notice something. It gave me hope. Hope which grew stronger as I found more and more proof for my suspicions. At last, my heart, more passionate than it had ever been, was able to unflinchingly confront my mind in its most austere state and I did something my parents will severely scold me for when I tell them."
This startled Sayaka, and with dread in her eyes, she looked at the black-bobbed girl next to her.
"What? What did you do?!"
"I will tell you in a minute, Saeki-senpai," Kanou-san confidently spoke. "After you answer one question for me."
I saw my best friend stare into the eyes of the girl who had helped her recover from a deep and intense infatuation for me. At that moment we both knew what question would follow and we both waited with bated breath and beating heart.
"I know we are both important to each other, Saeki-senpai. So I know you will answer me truthfully if I ask you to.
Are you in love with me?"
I had thought that Kanou-san was kind. I had thought that Sayaka was strong. But as I witnessed how my friend turned pale as a corpse and trembled all over in the face of the brightly smiling black-haired novelist who - unconsciously it seemed - placed a hand on that of the girl she loved and adoringly looked up at her, for the third time in my life I found my former certainties crumble before my eyes.
Then, to my own surprise as much as to Kanou-san's, Sayaka jumped up and ran.
Her ex-girlfriend went in pursuit almost immediately but stopped in her tracks as she spotted me.
"Nanami-senpai!" Kanou-san exclaimed with a blush as she saw me sit behind the tree that had concealed me before.
"Don't stop! Run after her! I noticed how she's been acting too! You have to get her to talk about her feelings for you!"
"Isn't Yuu waiting for you?" Kanou-san asked bluntly.
I realized Yuu had been waiting for some time and was probably feeling quite uncomfortable.
"I… I'll carry the two coolers with me to the beach house, so don't worry about them," I said.
Then I saw the smile on the face of my kouhai.
"Thank you, Nanami-senpai," She said. "If it hadn't been for you I would never have loved as I do. I might never have known Saeki-senpai as I do now."
Then she ran off in the direction Sayaka had gone to.
I walked over to the other side of the tree and packed one of the cool boxes in each hand. Then I went back to where I had deposited our parasol and the bag with my clothes.
I pressed the bag into the cooler which held our empty plastic bottles and with our parasol under my arm I carefully advanced step for step.
I got five meters further before the parasol's pole hit the sidewalk for the first of many times.
"Oh geez!" I cried out to the heavens while an elderly couple on a stroll with their dog looked at me. "I'm so sorry, Yuu."
Meanwhile, Kanou-san continued her pursuit of her ex-girlfriend.
Sayaka had a head start on her and was out of sight initially. The young novelist only knew in which direction the brunette had gone off, so she continued toward the beach. By the time she came to the concrete steps downward she spotted the girl she was looking for standing by the railing that ran along the sidewalk on the side of the beach with her hand to her mouth.
Kanou-san slowly stepped closer and stood at about a meter distance from Sayaka who was weeping miserably.
"Please, just leave me alone for a while. I'll come to the beach house in a few minutes," The brunette quietly pleaded as she wiped her tears eventually.
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that."
To Sayaka's dismay, Kanou-san closed the distance between them and enveloped her ex-girlfriend with her arms.
"You are so unfair!" Sayaka whined as fresh tears poured down her cheeks.
A few kids walking by giggled at the girls who were hugging each other in their bathing suits and joked that they were lesbians. The joke was on them.
"I gradually realized that I had fallen in love with you after all," Sayaka whispered into Kanou-san's ear. "And it makes me feel terrified.
When we went to that poetry evening together and you held my hand my heart was racing in my chest. It wasn't because I had to go to the toilet that I left the aula. It was because I panicked. I decided I had to end our relationship the next day. "
"Why are you so scared? I will always be open and honest to you. I won't ever be mean or dump you."
Sayaka listened to the gentle words of the blackette against whose forehead she rested her cheek and felt her love overwhelm her.
"It's too strong," She moaned. "I know you will always be the same kind Koyomi, but the power of my feelings for you terrifies me."
Kanou-san couldn't help smiling blissfully.
"We are so young," Sayaka continued. "Eventually one of us will probably not feel the same anymore and I'm terrified of how devastated I will be when that person is you."
"But that will never happen! I promise you!"
"Don't say things like that. You can't make promises like that," Sayaka said as her ex-girlfriend released her from her embrace.
Kanou-san took a deep breath and opened her lips.
"The week before we broke up I was contacted by my agent. He told me that one of the companies he sent my novel to wants to publish "We will meet again at the source of my dreams" and asked to meet me."
"Really?!" Sayaka exclaimed in surprise. "That is wonderful news!"
"I didn't tell you back then because I wanted to be certain of success. But they were very happy with our meeting and said they saw great potential in me.
Soon afterward they contacted my agent again and we had another meeting during which it was decided that they would publish my Tomoe Gozen novel."
"Koyomi! That's amazing news. I'm so happy for you!" Sayaka smiled as she took the young novelist's joined hands in hers.
"With the advance on royalties that got transferred to my account after the signing of the contract I went out and bought something I had been thinking about for a while.
It may seem irresponsible and I afterward realized that we should have done it together… But more than anything I wanted to show you this and tell you how important you are to me, Sayaka. You are so much more than my muse. You are my editor, my most accurate critic, my best friend, and the person who is always looking out for my wellbeing. "
Kanou-san pulled her hands away and opened them to reveal a small but beautiful box.
For a moment Sayaka could hardly breathe, she couldn't believe her ex-girlfriend had done this. But at the same time, she knew it wouldn't be any other thing, coming from Kanou-san after such a speech.
As her ex-girlfriend opened the box she indeed saw two shiny engagement rings.
"They aren't inscribed yet," The young novelist smiled. "I thought it better for us to have that arranged near the date of the occasion.
I wanted to show you these and tell you that I will keep them until we graduate from university. Or whenever we can afford to get married abroad if same-sex marriages are still illegal in Japan by then."
"Ko… Koyomi… You worked hard for that money," Sayaka gasped. "How do you know we will still be together by then?"
"I'm sorry," Kanou-san blushed. "I don't ever seem to do things the proper way with you. I know this is extravagant and presumptuous to do when we have only been together for a little over six months. But it's something I really wanted to do.
I don't know if we will still be together in five years from now.
I don't know if we won't ever hurt each other. I hope we won't.
I don't know if I will ever stop loving you, but I am sure right now that I love you and that I want us to be each other's wife someday."
'I am sure right now, that I love you'
It was as if Sayaka heard herself speak. Those were the same words she had said to Yuzuki-senpai a few years ago. But somehow when Kanou-san said them they didn't sound so uncertain and tentative.
Sayaka realized that Kanou-san's love for her was so much bolder and honest than the love she had harbored for Yuzuki-senpai and for Touko after her.
The love she had felt for them paled in comparison to the love that had been poured into her during the past months.
It also paled in comparison to the love she now felt for the girl who had laid her heart bare to her.
Kanou-san's love was young and the blackette was aware of that. It was a brash love.
But it was a love Kanou-san was completely invested in. Not in a half-hearted way like Sayaka had been with her previous crushes.
That didn't mean Sayaka's love had been any less true or that the heartbreak she had suffered wasn't real, but there was a clear difference. A difference that she had become acutely aware of.
It lay in three words that she had never been able to say so honestly as she said them while she tenderly hugged her blushing girlfriend and her heart overflowed with joy.
"I love you! Koyomi, I love you."
Kanou-san's love may have been young and brash, but it was also self-aware and thoughtful. Kanou-san knew what she wanted out of their relationship, and now Sayaka knew that too. She wasn't going to be in their relationship anymore without committing to her girlfriend.
There would always be the possibility of finality… Of getting hurt. But that only meant living every moment together without reserve was that much more important.
So while I brought my girlfriend her clothes and bowed deep in apology our two friends kissed under cover of the out of place Korean Whitebeam in the little park like an oasis from before and vowed that they would wear their rings in five years' time.
"Can you help me place the napa cabbage Nibitashi on the table, Yuu-chan?" My mother asked my girlfriend while I placed the plates with the chicken katsu before each guest on our dinner table.
"I can't believe you texted Yuu to ask what she'd like to eat, Mother," I sighed, taking place opposite Sayaka who had Kanou-san to her right and my father at the head of the table next to the young novelist. "You are always spoiling her."
"Don't complain, Touko. I ask you what you would like for dinner often."
"That's not the point," I replied while Yuu chuckled over my mother's scolding and both sat down. "How am I ever going to satisfy her when we live together after she got used to your cooking?"
"Your cooking is plenty delicious, Touko," My kind girlfriend consoled me.
"But I want to cook you the best food you ever ate!" I whined. "I tried so hard trying to be perfect, but I never could surpass my mother in cooking."
"Well, I can tell you I'm not going to try and become a star chef for you," Yuu reacted with a narrow look at my grumbling face. "Whatever we get on the table will have to do."
"Well said, Yuu-chan," Mother smiled at the cute pinkette to my left.
As she put her hands together we all expressed our gratitude for the meal.
Meanwhile, Sayaka stealthily nudged her girlfriend who slowly raised her head to the brunette.
Kanou-san smiled at the slightly opened mouth and the piece of chicken katsu presented to her and acted as she was expected to. Sayaka couldn't help but quietly giggle as she saw how much the blackette enjoyed being fed.
"Can I get some more of that cold barley tea, Yuu?" I asked. "I'm parched from standing out in the sun all day."
Upon looking to my left I saw a strange look in my girlfriend's eyes.
"Are you, Touko?" She smiled. "Don't worry. I'll help you out right away."
"I am so happy that you two girls are back together again," Mother told Koyomi and Sayaka and caught them blushing awkwardly as they were feeding each other again. "It was a shame to break up. Don't do it again."
"Quite true," Father agreed while Yuu refilled his glass for him. "It's plain to see how happy you make each other. I don't know what was the cause for this breakup, but I hope you worked it out."
"Yuu? Can I also get some barley tea?" I asked.
"Thank you for your kind words," Sayaka said with a bow of her head. 'I'm very happy that we were able to work out the cause and that it won't be a problem again."
Kanou-san returned her girlfriend's bright smile.
"Then I'm relieved that I can have all of my girls coming to dinner like this more often in the future," Mother said and winked at my father.
"Indeed," He said. "But I hope some of you will adopt a boy or two someday so I won't feel so lonely among you women anymore."
While everyone laughed at the joke Yuu stopped pretending she hadn't heard me and turned to me with an amused smirk.
"Oh? Sorry, Touko. A few things happened and caused me to be a little late. Here's your barley tea."
Her smirk was so cute while she poured the tea into my cup. But I couldn't help wanting to get even with her for that joke.
"Thank you, my mean-spirited and vindictive girlfriend," I grinned in reply before picking a piece of chicken katsu from her plate.
"Hey! Give that back!"
With much luck, I was able to fit the food directly into Yuu's mouth and got to see her surprised blush as she chewed.
That was a wonderful day and a memorable evening.
Kanou-san and Sayaka became more lovey-dovey than before even and like my mother wished that day we regularly had my friends and girlfriend over for dinner from then on.
Even so, all of us were aware that it wouldn't be long before Sayaka and I ended our education at Toomi East High and the days that we could easily see our girlfriends every day would be over.
I at least had a plan at work to hopefully alleviate that problem.
I also had another plan in mind to have my way with the student council one last time and have some fun with my girlfriend.
But all of that will have to wait for another story.