A/N: Welcome back and thank you for reading on! Quite a few passages here are devoted to backstory from the Marimite anime (season 1). That's because I wanted to make the story accessible to readers who (like me) are discovering Marimite through fanfiction rather than through the light novels or anime. For those of you who've already watched season 1, I hope you'll still have some fun reading this rendition of events from Yumi's perspective. If you haven't watched any Marimite yet, beware of major spoilers, but I suppose that's par for the course.

Chapter 2: Yumi

"Are you sure this is the right address, miss?" The cab driver cast an incredulous glance at the girl in the back seat as he drove the car up to the massive wrought iron gates.

Fukuzawa Yumi sighed. It was always the same. Whenever she chose to take a cab to visit her onee-sama rather than be picked up by an Ogasawara sedan, the driver simply failed to believe that someone behind these forbidding walls could possibly be waiting for this plain, unremarkable girl.

No wonder, Yumi thought. I can hardly believe it myself. Five years had passed since the day that Ogasawara Sachiko mowed her down in the hallway of the Rose Mansion, sending both of them crashing to the ground—Yumi first, Sachiko-sama on top. Until that day, Fukuzawa Yumi had just been an average first-year at Lillian Academy—as average as you could be at one of the most selective high schools in Japan. She'd kept her eyes glued to the books, given her best in class, and, like so many of her peers, spent her free time nursing a crush on one of the Lillian stars, an upperclassman she'd never even spoken to. But that day, the unconceivable had happened. The object of her affections had noticed her existence.

"Miss?"

"Just use the intercom, please."

The driver rolled down his window and pushed the button. With a crackle, the device came to life.

"Yes?" asked a harsh, male voice.

"Nakata-san?" Yumi called out from the back seat. "It's me, Yumi!"

"Ah, Yumi-chan!" Immediately, the voice brightened. "Come in, come in!"

The gates swung open without a sound.

Yumi had been praying in front of the Maria-sama statue on the grounds of Lillian Academy, as most girls did on their way to class in the morning. A strong autumn wind had swept the gingko leaves through the air, tousling Yumi's pigtails and loosening the knot of her sailor collar. She'd just stepped away from the statue when she was stopped in her tracks by a voice she'd only ever heard from a distance—and in her dreams. Yumi turned around, and there she was, right in front of her, as if the wind had carried her there—Ogasawara Sachiko, the Lillian princess par excellence. Yumi straightened her pose, standing at respectful attention. Sachiko-sama was Rosa Chinensis en bouton, after all. Next year, she'd be Rosa Chinensis, one of the three members of the Yamayurikai, the student council that steered the seamless operation of daily life at Lillian.

Sachiko-sama fixed Yumi's collar, said something about Maria-sama watching them, and, as quickly as she'd appeared, walked out of Yumi's life again.

But not without casting one last look at Yumi over her shoulder.

It was that look that did me in, Yumi thought. Sachiko-sama's gray eyes had seemed wistful—Yumi would later find out how easily they moistened because of her allergies. Her long, jet black hair wasn't ruffled by the wind—it was so fine it just floated on the draft. She just stood there for a moment without saying anything, straight but tender, calm but proud, before turning to leave again. But that moment was all it took for Yumi's childish crush to blossom into something else.

As the cab drove up the winding path through the Ogasawara Mansion's grounds—past the luscious groves, manicured lawns, and artificial ponds—Yumi noticed her chatty driver had clammed up. He wasn't making eye contact through the rearview mirror anymore and sat noticeably straighter in his seat.

But none of it would have mattered, Yumi thought, if it hadn't been for Takeshima Tsutako. Tsutako-chan had been Lillian's resident camera nerd and the driving force behind the student photography club. Yumi didn't know how—nobody ever knew how—but Tsutako-chan had managed to get the perfect shot at the perfect time, a photo of Sachiko-sama gently adjusting a wide-eyed Yumi's collar. "Training," Tsutako-chan had named the photo, and to this day, it remained Yumi's favorite picture with her onee-sama. But Tsutako-chan wasn't just going to hand it over. She'd insisted that Yumi permit her to exhibit the photo at the school festival—and that she acquire Sachiko-sama's permission as well. And so, Yumi had found herself in the Rose Mansion, the Yamayurikai headquarters, a place she would never have dared set foot in if not for that photo, and for Tsutako-chan's nudging presence at her side.

"Here we are, miss. Would you like me to wait?"

"Thank you, that won't be necessary." Yumi paid the driver. Her door clicked open; outside stood the Ogasawara butler, Kobayashi-san.

Taking a deep breath, Yumi stepped out of the cab. A harsh sun beat down on her from the spires of the mansion, a towering gothic edifice more reminiscent of a European castle than a Japanese private residence of the twenty-first century.

And I'm here to rescue the princess, she mused.

"Greetings, Fukuzawa-sama," Kobayashi-san addressed her stiffly. "The lady awaits you in the tea room."

That day, Yumi thought, it was you who came out to me. I was about to knock on the door of the student council meeting room when you stormed out and crashed right into me. No such luck today—you're making me come to you, through the winding halls of your mansion, all the way to your formal tea room. But one thing hasn't changed. Kashiwagi Suguru. The reason we meet today, the reason we met back then.

Lillian had been preparing a theatre production of Cinderella—for some reason, it hadn't felt ridiculous at the time—and Sachiko-sama was chosen to play the lead. Since Lillian was an all-girl school, the male roles were to be filled by pupils from Hanadera Academy, the nearby, all-boy equivalent of Lillian. And from among the Hanadera students, Suguru-sama had been picked to play the prince.

As far as Yumi could tell, Sachiko-sama loathed her cousin and fiancé. After all, why shouldn't she? He was an arrogant, insufferable brat to whom she'd been engaged by her family against her will, for business reasons alone. She couldn't stand to be in the same room as him, let alone play his princess. So when the Yamayurikai had announced the casting to Sachiko-sama that day, she'd flat out refused to take part in the play. Mizuno Yoko, Rosa Chinensis at the time, had scolded her for her disobedience. But Sato Sei, the mischievous, tomboyish Rosa Gigantea, had taken a different line. She'd offered Sachiko-sama a choice: if she found a petite soeur willing to assume the role of Cinderella in her place, she'd be excused from the play.

The soeur system was an integral part of student life at Lillian. It was an informal, voluntary system of patronage whereby an older girl picked a younger one, usually in the year below, to be her petite soeur. All Lillian pupils carried rosaries, and the upperclassman would announce her intentions by offering hers to the younger girl. If the rosary was accepted, the grande soeur, or onee-sama, assumed responsibility for her petite soeur's moral and educational progress. Since Lillian was a three-year school, it wasn't uncommon for a second-year to have a grande soeur in the year above and, at the same time, a petite soeur from among the first-years. Yoko-sama was Sachiko-sama's grande soeur, but Sachiko-sama had been putting off finding a petite soeur of her own for quite some time. Technically, of course, she didn't need to have one at all, but it was Yamayurikai custom for the three Roses—Chinensis, Gigantea, and Foetida—to pass on their posts to their petite soeurs upon graduation, and Sachiko-sama's reluctance was endangering the tradition.

At least until that day, when Sachiko-sama accepted Sato Sei's challenge.

Yumi knew very well that right under the surface of breeding and decorum drilled into her onee-sama since childhood, there lay an untamed, ferocious, primordial temper. Yumi likened this temper to a tiger just lying in wait for the slightest provocation to burst out of its cage and rip everything around it to shreds. It could be provoked by the most disparate things—a perceived insult, a transgression against Sachiko-sama's unyielding sense of justice, or even a display of stupidity that she simply wouldn't abide. More often than not, Yumi had to admit, her onee-sama's anger was justified. But her reaction was so disproportionate that it risked putting her in the wrong even if she was right, or causing more harm to herself than those against whom she lashed out.

Sometimes, those who provoked Sachiko-sama's ire had no idea what they'd done and were taken completely by surprise as they were annihilated by her fury. And sometimes, Yumi thought, they knew exactly what they were doing. Sato Sei knew Sachiko-sama well—their mothers had been classmates at Lillian, and Sei-sama herself was a frequent guest at the Ogasawara Mansion. She also knew perfectly well that forcing Sachiko-sama to pick a petite soeur would be as offensive to her as making her play the princess, and that Sachiko-sama would do something extreme to pay back the offense. Yumi suspected that Sei-sama, who was a hopeless tease, had just been curious to see what that something would be.

As it turned out, that something was Sachiko-sama rushing to the door, determined to spite the Yamayurikai by giving her rosary to the first girl she ran into.

And that, quite literally, had been Yumi.

By now, Yumi was quite adept at finding her way around the maze-like interior of the Ogasawara Mansion. Nonetheless, as custom dictated, she let Kobayashi-san lead the way.

"How has Sachiko-sama been?" she asked carefully.

"The lady is in good health," the butler replied.

"Nothing… out of the ordinary?"

"The ordinary has no place in a house like this."

Yumi lowered her eyes to the marble floor. Kobayashi-san was a snob, one of the few Ogasawara retainers that had never warmed to her presence. Yumi wondered if that was why he'd been sent out to greet her today. Why hadn't Sachiko-sama come to the door herself? Could it be that, with recent events, Yumi wasn't welcome anymore?

Stop it, she chastised herself. You're overreading things again.

In the end, Sachiko-sama's breeding had overcome her revulsion, and she had played Cinderella opposite Suguru-sama's prince. But she'd also kept Yumi on as her petite soeur. And so had begun a triangular relationship that Yumi was still trying to master. Over the years, Yumi and her onee-sama had grown fonder and more intimate, their initially formal relationship replaced by something increasingly personal. At the same time, Sachiko-sama's wedding, originally scheduled to take place upon her graduation from Lillian, had been delayed again and again, until Yumi had dared to hope that it wouldn't take place at all.

And then she'd received the invitation.

"Fukuzawa Yumi-sama has arrived, young lady."

The butler's formal announcement brought Yumi back to the here and now. They were standing at the entrance to the tea room. A large set of doors had been swung open to reveal the baroquely decorated hall; in it stood a number of round tables, each covered with exquisite lace tablecloths. At the far end of the hall, massive floor-to-ceiling windows offered a view of the grounds behind the mansion. And right by the windows, at a table bedecked with the full accoutrements of an English afternoon tea, sat Ogasawara Sachiko.

"Yumi-chan! Finally!"

The heiress rose from her chair. She was wearing a cream-colored dress, tailor-made but understated, that accentuated her feminine figure without revealing too much skin. That was how Sachiko-sama liked it: Yumi had never seen her stoop to cheap tricks like cleavage, even though she had fuller breasts than most Japanese girls. Yumi herself had tried to dress nicely for the occasion, in a white blouse and a knee-length pencil skirt, but as always, she felt more awkward than attractive, not to mention hopelessly outclassed in her onee-sama's presence.

Giving the butler a quick bow, she walked up to Sachiko-sama, who pulled her into a tight embrace. At least her hug is still the same, the younger girl thought with relief. Sachiko-sama hated being touched, and it had taken Yumi a long time to reach this level of intimacy with her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Sachiko-sama had put on her light, jasmine-scented summer perfume. Her skin, as usual, was cool to the touch.

"I missed you, onee-sama," Yumi confessed. Every second of every day, she added to herself.

"Don't be silly." Sachiko-sama broke their embrace, holding Yumi at arm's length and fixing her with a fond gaze. "It's only been a couple of weeks."

They sat down across from each other. A maid appeared and poured the tea.

"Thank you," Sachiko-sama said. "That will be all."

"As the lady wishes." The maid bowed and left the room, closing the doors behind her.

"So, Yumi-chan, how have you been?" Sachiko-sama asked cheerfully. "How is college treating you?"

"Fine, onee-sama, thank you."

"How about your parents, and Yuuki-chan?"

"They're fine too, thank you." Yumi looked down at her plate. "They send their regards."

"Well… how about the gang? Have you seen any of them lately?"

"Not really." Yumi kept her eyes on the empty plate. "I did visit Sei-sama at Lillian U, um, I think it was last week? And I see Yoshino-chan a lot around school. We often get coffee together."

"And they're well?"

"Yes."

"Oh my, Yumi-chan." Sachiko-sama laughed softly. "I can hardly get in a word with you today. Is something the matter?"

Is something the matter, Yumi repeated to herself. What kind of question was that? Sachiko-sama knew why she was here today. Yumi had called her in advance, telling her she wanted to discuss the wedding. So why was her onee-sama being so casual? Was there really nothing wrong as far as she was concerned? Or had she just decided to act that way?

Yumi cleared her throat and forced her eyes up to meet Sachiko-sama's gaze. "Onee-sama, as I told you on the phone, I'm here about the wedding."

"I know." Sachiko-sama's expression changed. She looked more serious now, even a tad apologetic. "And I'm glad that you came."

"Thank you." Yumi breathed a sigh of relief. At least she'd managed to broach the subject. But what next? The fact was that she had no clue how to talk about it, this elephant in the room that had been silently sitting between them for the past five years without either of them daring to point it out.

"I have to say," she began cautiously, "the invitation caught me by surprise."

"Because you received one? Or because there was one at all?"

"The latter, I guess. The whole thing was delayed so often I thought…"

"You thought it would never happen."

"Yes." Yumi paused. "Actually, to be honest, most of the time I tried not to think about it at all. Maybe some part of me believed that if I just ignored it, it would go away on its own."

"That's a very… wishful way of looking at life."

"I know." Yumi swallowed. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

For wasting five years, Yumi thought. For not saying a word to let you know how I feel. For not opening my mouth to tell you this engagement is bullshit. For not offering you support to try and end it. For thinking I could get away with all this and you'd still somehow, magically, end up mine.

"Onee-sama." Yumi steeled herself. "Are you sure it's actually happening this time?"

"Yes." Sachiko-sama sounded firm. "This time it's definite."

"Why?"

"Isn't that a strange question?"

"Please, onee-sama."

"Alright." Sachiko-sama paused, seemingly searching for the right words. "The wedding was only put off for so long because my father didn't feel sick enough to hand over the business to Suguru. If he was well today, it'd be postponed again. But… he isn't. That's why the invitations were so rushed."

Yumi felt a shift in the tectonic plates of her world. Somehow, perhaps because of how they'd met, she'd always believed that fate was on her side when it came to her onee-sama. That the wedding wasn't happening because some cosmic force was keeping Sachiko-sama and Suguru-sama apart, waiting for Sachiko-sama to realize her undying love for Yumi. But clearly, as Yumi now pondered with more than a hint of sarcasm, that had never been the case. She had simply profited from a sick man's reluctance to give up his power. She'd been little more than an unwitting beneficiary of his ploys. And now, the same ploys were casting her aside without even acknowledging she'd been there in the first place. All of a sudden, Yumi felt a little more scared and alone in the world.

"And you're really going to do this?" A nervous edge had crept into her tone.

"Yes, I am."

"But why?" Yumi was startled by the loudness of her own voice. And so, it appeared, was Sachiko-sama, whose eyes widened as she leaned back in her chair.

"You know why, Yumi-chan," she whispered.

"Onee-sama, I know we should have talked about this earlier," Yumi said. "Much, much earlier. And I know I'm in no position to ask this of you now. But please… onee-sama… don't marry him."

"I beg your pardon?" Sachiko-sama seemed genuinely taken aback.

"Don't marry him, onee-sama," Yumi said. "He won't make you happy."

"There's more than one way to be happy."

"Onee-sama, no!" Again, Yumi was shocked at how loudly that had come out. She took a breath to calm herself. "Please don't lecture me."

"Then… what would you like me to do?"

"Don't marry him," Yumi repeated. "You don't love him."

"It's not about love, Yumi-chan. You know that."

"It is about love!"

Against her better judgement, Yumi had shouted again. That made three times in a row, and Sachiko-sama normally drew the line at one. Yumi watched in apprehension as her onee-sama stiffened and placed her hands on the table. Her eyes darkened, and she fixed Yumi with a cold stare.

"Why are you telling me all this?" the heiress asked in a harsh but controlled voice. "I don't love him, he won't make me happy, don't you think I know all that? I've been engaged to Suguru since I was a child! Do you think I'm stupid?"

"No, onee-sama," Yumi answered quietly. "I don't think you're stupid."

"Then what, exactly, is your point?" Sachiko-sama's anger was unabated. "Are you trying to make me angry?"

There it is, Yumi thought. The tiger. Once Sachiko-sama had declared her opinion on a matter, it was almost impossible to dissuade her. She could accept—though not without strain—that other people's views might diverge from hers. She was also willing—in principle—to tolerate those views being aired in her presence. But if people insisted on their opinions even though Sachiko-sama had already let her own view be known, she didn't take it kindly. To her, such people weren't so much trying to change her mind as stubbornly ignoring the fact that her mind was already made up. It was disrespectful. If this behavior came from someone Sachiko-sama didn't know, or knew only casually, she put on what she believed was a polite smile—and most others read as a condescending smirk—and remained silent. But if it came from someone who should have known better, she could get, well, annoyed. And when Sachiko-sama got annoyed, the tiger was never far.

Yumi realized she'd danced around the subject for too long. The only way she could salvage this conversation now was by cutting straight to the chase.

"I'm sorry, Sachiko-sama." She gave her onee-sama a pleading look. "All the stuff I said, it isn't really about you. It's about me."

"About you?" Sachiko-sama's frown gave way to concern. "What do you mean?"

"It's me, onee-sama. You may be able to bear marrying him, but I can't bear to see you do it. Not because of you. Because of me."

"Because of… you?"

This is it, Yumi thought. Speak now or hold your peace forever.

"Yes, onee-sama." She swallowed hard. "I love you."

"I…" Sachiko-sama seemed perplexed. "I love you too?"

"No. Not like that. I love you. I love you the way that Suguru-sama should."

"Yumi-chan, you… what?"

"You heard me, Sachiko." In a bold move, Yumi skipped the honorific. "I love you. And I can make you happy. In fact, I think I already do. Give me a chance, Sachiko. Just one chance, and I will devote my entire life to making you happy. When you wake up in the morning, I'll be there to make you happy. When we go to bed in the evening…"

"Yumi… how long have you felt this way?" Sachiko had dropped the honorific as well, but Yumi couldn't tell if it was out of sympathy or shock.

"I've known it since the first time we talked in front of the Maria-sama statue."

"When I… your collar…"

"Yes."

For an instant, the room was very still, and Yumi allowed herself to register that she'd just said it all out loud, told her onee-sama all that she'd been holding inside for five long years. She felt dizzy.

"Thank you, Yumi," Sachiko-sama finally said. This time, it was the older girl who kept her eyes on her untouched plate. "I know this can't have been easy for you to share. But I need you to go home now."

"What? Sachiko, why?"

"I'm not feeling so well, dear Yumi." Sachiko-sama started massaging the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "I think it's the migraine again. Please don't be cross with me. I'll ask Kobayashi-san to escort you out. A driver will take you home, of course."