Momokino Himeko slowed her stride to consult the list on her clipboard. "The last one left is the volleyball club in the weightroom. Nikaido-san said that they would definitely be there by four pm," she noted.
Aihara Mei nodded and the two student council officers followed her to the South gym. They had spent the last hour visiting different clubs who submitted requests for the upcoming student activities budget, and they were all ready to get this task done and over with.
The weightroom was full when the student council entered, with every station occupied by one of the volleyball club members. The three girls stood there for a few moments looking around for Nikaido Moe, the manager of the club. The 11th grader spotted them and hurried over.
"Good afternoon," Moe said politely to the three girls. "Thank you for coming back to see us today," she said apologetically. She gestured to the middle of the room and said, "As you can clearly see, it's quite crowded in here. We have 28 active club members, but with all the equipment in use, this room can only comfortably handle about 17 people …"
The room indeed looked too crowded to the three student council members. The aisles were blocked by small groups of girls, and those who wanted to pass had to squeeze past them or go between the weight machines which were all occupied.
"….really not safe for it to be this crowded in a room with machines and heavy weights…."
Mei spotted Yuzu in the far end of the room. Yuzu was in the middle of jumping rope when she saw Mei, and she immediately stopped her exercise and started making her way towards the student council president, weaving her way through equipment and girls.
The first thing the raven-haired girl noticed was that Yuzu didn't have a shirt on and was just in a salmon-colored sports bra and volleyball shorts. Mei's eyes widened a little, then swept across the room, now noticing that at least a fourth of the girls were similarly dressed. Mei swallowed as her stepsister stopped in front of her.
"Hi Mei," Yuzu said with a bright smile. "Here to check out our training program?" she asked, raising her arms behind her head to stretch her shoulders, pushing down on her left elbow with her right hand.
Mei felt her mouth go dry as she beheld the blonde stretching in front her, in what felt like a very sexually provocative pose. Her raised arms lifted up her chest, like some kind of offering, and Mei felt her gaze pulled south. Yuzu's boobs were squeezed together in her sports bra, giving her a delicious cleavage. Surely, she's not trying to flaunt her half-naked body to me, right? raced Mei's thoughts. Then Mei's eyes travelled down to Yuzu's taut stomach, and she couldn't help but notice that Yuzu was covered in a light sheen of sweat. Mei swallowed again and said, "We're here to inspect the facilities of the weight room."
"Right," Yuzu said with a grin. "Well, have fun with your inspection."
Mei watched Yuzu's retreating figure and then turned to Himeko. "It's a little warm in here, isn't it?" she said, fanning herself a little with a piece of paper she had in her hand. "It must be because there are no windows in this room."
"You're right, President. The ventilation in this room is poor because of the lack of windows," Himeko agreed, scribbling notes on her clipboard.
Moe, who didn't particularly feel like it was warm in the room, remarked, "Ah, yes. It can get a little stuffy in here because it's so crowded." Moe motioned for the student council to follow her to an area in the room with two rows of exercise machines. She said, "Each girl starts their workout by doing 5 circuits on these weight machines, but as you can see we really need to move each machine farther apart…."
Noe continued to explain how the space restrictions impacted the girls' circuit program on the weight machines, slowly going up and down the aisles, with the Mei, Himeko and Kayo walking behind her.
As the group passed Yuzu on the leg press machine, Mei slowed her steps, pretending to read something on her notes, but was surreptitiously side-eyeing the blonde. Something deep inside Mei clenched as she drank in the sight of Yuzu on her back, with her legs in the air, straining in concentration. Mei gazed hungrily at the muscle definition on Yuzu's quads, thinking, her legs look so strong, I bet they're strong enough to pin me in place if she wanted to...
Mei felt a flush creep to her face, and she banished the image of herself pinned between Yuzu's legs from her mind. She picked up her pace to catch up with Moe, who was pointing out the mats that the gymnastics club stored in a corner of the room, taking up valuable space.
After ten more minutes of Noe yammering on that more space was vital to the volleyball club's strength training program, the student council's visit was finally over. Himeko was heading towards the door when she realized that Mei wasn't beside her. She turned back to Mei and said, "President, aren't you going back to the student council room?"
"No, I'll stay here for a little while longer. I want to observe the whole training session and see for myself how these space constraints affect their training program," Mei replied, with a serious look on her face. "Please go ahead without me."
A look of disappointment crossed Himeko's face before she nodded and said, "Very well, I'll go back to the student council room and organize our notes from today."
Mei nodded back to Himeko and said, "Thank you. I'll see you in the morning."
After Himeko left, Mei slowly turned started walking towards Yuzu, as if pulled by an invisible force. The blonde was on the lat pulldown machine, and Mei stopped a few paces away from Yuzu, admiring her hourglass shape from the back. Damn, she looks good even from behind, Mei thought. Her gaze travelled up from Yuzu's slender waist to her arms which were raised above her head, grasping the bar. This time, the unbidden image that sprang to Mei's mind was Yuzu holding her wrists over her head, restraining her arms and pinning her down with her body weight, intense green eyes staring at her lips…
Mei felt an ache so acute to feel Yuzu's body against hers that she clenched her jaw. For the most part, she had been able to maintain a safe distance from her stepsister and resist the impulse to just touch her, kiss her, hold her body against her. But the effort keeps getting harder and harder, Mei thought, gritting her teeth. Her impulse control had been honed since before she reached adolescence, but the appearance of Yuzu in her life has been wreaking havoc on it lately.
The raven-haired girl walked around the lat machine, circling Yuzu like a shark who just smelled blood in the water. When Yuzu saw Mei watching her, she let go of the bar and asked, "Mei, are you interested in lifting weights? I could teach you." Yuzu gave Mei a sweet smile, eager to teach her overachiever stepsister something.
Mei smirked and said, "Oh no, I'm fine." She let her eyes slowly travel down to Yuzu's exposed midsection before going back up to meet her eyes and said, "I have better ideas on how to get some exercise."
Yuzu stared blankly at Mei, wondering about the meaning of her cryptic comment. Wait, is she implying…? Nah...can't be, Yuzu thought, dismissing the thought almost as fast as she considered it, because her brain would probably short circuit if she pursued that line of thinking with Mei.
Mei didn't mean for those words to come out of her mouth, and she was so flustered that she turned on her heel and went to sit down on a chair by a wall. She pulled out a pen from her pocket and started writing notes on her sheet of paper, periodically looking up to observe the volleyball club girls going through their workouts.
Yuzu finished her circuit on the weight machines and moved on to the free weights. Mei tried really hard not to let her gaze linger too long on Yuzu, lest her imagination run away with her again. The next time Mei allowed her eyes to drift towards Yuzu, the blonde was on a weightlifting rack doing bench presses. A wicked smile started to tug on the corner of Mei's lips as she started to imagine herself walking up to a supine Yuzu and then straddling her hips, looking down with bedroom eyes at her gorgeous stepsister and asking for….Kurosawa Yurine!
Mei's daydream was unpleasantly shattered by the appearance of Kurosawa Yurine, star athlete and top student (second only to Mei). A burning heat began to build in Mei's chest as she watched Yurine standing over Yuzu lying on the bench. The memory of Yurine getting a little too friendly with her stepsister yesterday flashed through her mind and she thought, Kurosawa better not be making moves on Yuzu or I am going to cut a bitch.
Kurosawa Yurine had walked over to Yuzu and said, "Hey Yuzu-chan, let me spot you. You should always have a spotter when you do your heavy lifts, you know."
"Oh thanks! I was just warming up and then I was going to ask someone to spot me," Yuzu said with a smile at her new friend. Yurine has been so nice and helpful to her since she joined the club, thought Yuzu.
"Well I'm always happy to spot you, Yuzu-chan," Yurine said, leaning towards the girl lying on the bench. "In fact, I'm happy to help you out with a lot of things."
"Cool!"
Yurine chuckled a little at Yuzu and the two proceeded with the exercise. In between sets, they chatted about their favorite TV shows, with Yurine laying a hand on Yuzu's shoulder or back ever so often when they laughed about something.
Each time Yurine made contact with Yuzu, Mei's temperature ratcheted higher and higher. Her lip curled in disdain at how Yurine would run her hand through her short haircut and then smile flirtatiously at Yuzu, tilting her head a little. She's seen this move before, and it was guaranteed to titillate the girls who had a crush on the 10th grade prince. Ugh, seriously. I'm going to be sick, thought Mei. When Yurine's hand landed on Yuzu's back again, Mei started seeing red.
Yurine was enjoying herself talking with Yuzu, but she was also a little distracted by the fact that Aihara Mei was shooting her murderous looks from across the room. Yurine first thought that it was just coincidence that Mei was looking her way with a hateful look, but after the 4th time that she glanced at Mei, she thought, yup, she is definitely looking at me like she wants to kill me. Why?
She turned the question over rapidly in her mind, running down the possibilities of why Aihara Mei would have a beef with her. She's still number 1 in the class rankings, so that can't be it. I haven't broken any school rules lately. I haven't gossiped about her or anything. I'm not going after any of her friends….wait!
Yurine frowned, confused. Could she be mad because of…Yuzu? Yurine became even more befuddled when she realized that the two shared the same last name. But these two can't be related; they couldn't be more different. They're like, polar opposites. Yurine was still puzzling over the question as she walking to grab her water bottle from where she had set it by the door, when she felt her shoulder jerk back from Mei bumping into her.
Aihara Mei had shoulder checked her.
Oh shiiiiiit….., thought Yurine. She had known the Aihara heiress for years, having gone to Aihara middle school. The raven-haired girl was known as an ice queen, never displaying any intense emotions or letting any situation get the better of her. She certainly had never witnessed a display of open aggression from Aihara Mei before. Holy heck, this is serious.
Yurine slowly walked back towards Yuzu. Mei was saying something to the blonde, who was now sitting upright on the weight bench. When she got closer to them, she realized that Mei was telling Yuzu that they should leave now.
"So you want to go to the grocery store and get stuff for soup curry?" Yuzu asked.
"Yes, so let's go because we would still need to go home to change," Mei replied.
Yurine walked right up to the two and said, "Ok Yuzu-chan, ready to do squats?"
"Oh actually Kurosawa-san, I think that I'm done for the day…," Yuzu replied with an embarrassed shrug.
Mei nonchalantly stepped behind Yuzu, and turned so that she was facing Yurine. She placed her hands on Yuzu's shoulders and then leveled Yurine with an icy stare. "Yuzu and I have somewhere to go, so I'm afraid she'll be cutting her workout short," Mei said evenly, but Yurine didn't miss the ice in her tone.
Having been around the block when it came to romancing high school girls, Yurine was familiar with the behavior of this species when they felt threatened. She now recognized that Mei was marking her territory, and she was willing to take on any challenger.
The short-haired girl cocked her head for a moment and assessed her competition. She stared at Aihara Mei's heartbreakingly beautiful face, silky raven hair framing her delicate features, amethyst eyes glinting with intensity and challenge. The girl was formidable in almost every sense that Yurine knew of her. She quickly weighed her chances of winning a contest over Yuzu's heart against Aihara Mei.
Mei and Yurine were locked in a staring match for a few moments as they both sized each other up. Staring down Yurine, Mei thought that at least she wasn't dealing with someone like Shizuma Hanazono. The senior girl's panty-dropping magic was legendary. For now, Mei was confident that she could take Kurosawa Yurine. Just like with Matsuri, she thought.
Yurine took a step back and raised her palms in a gesture of surrender. "Oh, ok. That's fine, you did more than what we usually do in a session anyway."
As the two stepsisters were walking out of the school gates, Yuzu turned to Mei and asked, "So what made you decide you really wanted soup curry for dinner, Mei?"
"I was just reminded today about the last time you made it, and it was really good," Mei answered with a warm smile towards her stepsister.
Author Notes:
The special guest mention in this chapter is Shizuma Hanazono from the yuri classic Strawberry Panic! I couldn't resist slipping her in there for some reason. Shizuma Hanazono is this legendary playgirl who everyone loves and basically throws themselves at. Strawberry Panic! is set in an all-girls catholic school where pretty much everyone is gay. There's romance, drama, intrigue, school council power plays, and really elaborate (bordering on the bizarre) school traditions. Anyway, I recommend the Strawberry Panic! manga if you want some French-themed boarding-school yuri.
Kurosawa Yurine and Nikaido Moe are from Kiss and White Lily, another excellent yuri manga.
