I have published a new story, Strawberry Swing. It is a MakixOC fic, which takes place at Maki's second year and will have classical music as a backdrop to the story. If you want to read a story of Maki in a non-yuri pairing, check it out!

As for this chapter, we'll jump ahead a bit and move into Maki and Rin's second year. I think the chapter title needs no explanation as to who wrote that song.

Chapter 4: All You Need is Love

The rest of μ's accepted their relationship much smoother than Maki had imagined. They offered words of encouragement and teased them constantly ever since, as if they had known it would happen all along. The one thing that bothered Maki the most was Nozomi's knowing smirk, and Maki truly wondered if working at the shrine actually meant one would be granted supernatural power. Mind-reading, by any chance?

The only person who had difficulty comprehending the concept of two girls going out was Umi, though Maki could sympathize with that, given Umi's strictly traditional family background. The initial shock on the blue-haired girl's face was hard to forget, and the archer looked torn between supporting her friends and betraying the way she was raised. It took her a while to get accustomed to it, and Maki couldn't blame her for feeling conflicted like that.

How would her parents react if they found out that she was dating a girl? It was a thought that made Maki shiver. While her mom might be more open-minded on such matter, she couldn't even imagine how furious her dad would be if he found out. In the past she had heard him make comments about homosexuals that weren't all that pleasing, to say the least. To her understanding, Rin's family was pretty traditional as well, and like herself Rin was keeping this a secret from her family. It wasn't something that Maki was proud of doing, considering that they had been dating for over half a year. Still, there was no need to put themselves in that position now.

The young composer had never really given much thought about her sexual orientation before. She had always pictured her future life as settling down on a marriage and having children that they bore, just like any other girls would have. She never found herself leaning towards girls despite her lack of interest in the opposite sex. Even when she was dating Rin at the beginning, or to an extent even now, she wondered if she could possibly love a male too. Sure, she liked Rin, more than anyone in the world, and she enjoyed her company and holding and kissing her, but would that change? Would she 'get out of this phase', as her dad had once commented on love between teenage girls, and become like anyone else too?

The sixteen-year-old let out a long sigh as she read Umi's lyrics for their new song. Unlike the previous songs that were about departure and keeping friendship alive (in hindsight, their songs after the departure of the original third-years all sounded rather saddening), this was their attempt to write something more cheerful. The words spoke of a love tale between a girl and her best friend, and her fear of confessing due to worry over a possibly ruined friendship, but at the end she did confess and they ended up happily together.

Where is the cheerful part, Umi-chan? Maki wondered. Sure, there was a happy ending, but the transition from worrying to being over the moon was too fast. She made several notes next to the lyrics and decided she had to discuss this with Umi in more details, once the blue-haired girl was finished with student council duties.

'Maaaaaki-chan!'

Rin slid open the door, closed it, lunged at Maki, and hugged her from behind, all within the duration of three seconds. Maki almost let out a small laugh at how Rin still hadn't changed, even if she's the leader of the new idol group now and being called 'senpai' by the juniors,. Though, admittedly, that's what she liked about her.

'What are you reading?' Rin asked after she gave Maki a quick peck on the cheek, to which Maki was thankful there were no other people in the club room. The junior members of the new group knew about the two of them going out, but Maki still found it awkward to have any public display of affection in front of them. She found it much more comfortable being with the original cast, a feeling that she wasn't sure if it's appropriate or not.

'The lyrics for our new song. Umi-chan gave it to me this morning.'

'Hmmmm,' Rin continued holding Maki from the back as she scrutinized the sheet carefully. She raised her eyebrows at a few phrases, and unconsciously tightened her embrace.

'What's wrong?' Maki asked, not noticing the look of realization on Rin's face. 'This phrase sounds weird, right?' Maki pointed her finger at the first line of the chorus. She had been trying to think of alternative words for that place, but nothing came up in her mind. However, Rin remained still.

'You aren't usually this quiet.' Maki twisted her eyebrows and turned around to look at the girl, who had a small smile on her face.

'I like this lyrics actually. I don't think we need to change anything.'

'How could that be?' Maki looked startled. 'Look at this verse, "we're always together, forgetting the world, being all lovey-dovey". This doesn't sound like anything that we have performed in the past.'

'Ah, Maki-chan is too dense,' Rin grinned and pressed a kiss on Maki's forehead, 'but that's why you're so cute.'

'Wha–what?' Maki blushed and stared at her girlfriend, who jumped to the other side of the room and took out some snacks from her bag. Chewing on her food, she pleasantly ignored Maki's continuous attempt to lure an answer out of her mouth. Not even until all other members had come to the club room did Rin say more about that.

Maki gave up, and decided to just go on with practice as usual. Umi seemed to be glancing in her direction from time to time, as if waiting for her to make a move. The crimson-haired girl used to feel rather uncomfortable about it, since that reminded her of the way Umi stared at her and Rin after they revealed their relationship to everyone, but this time something felt different. What that was, Maki had no idea. She made up her mind to talk to her after practice anyway to discuss the lyrics in more details, but right now she had to focus.

It was just a routine practice session, with group training at first and then she and Umi would give guidance to the first-years. It was during their break, when Rin leaned on her and passed her a bottle of water, that Arisa looked at them with a cunning smirk.

'You two are really lovey-dovey all the time, senpai-taichi,' the partly-Russian girl teased, and she was soon joined by Yukiho.

'Indeed, indeed! You two are always doing everything together! It's such a heart-warming sight whenever you two are together!'

'Shut up! Don't say things like that!'

While the rest of the first-year members were generally quite obedient towards the crimson-haired girl, the younger sisters of Eri and Honoka were always the exception. They would tease them whenever they could, and since Rin would scheme with them at times, Maki was always the lone soldier defending herself from…whatever this embarrassing feeling was. However, it was only shortly into their 'debate' that Maki stopped in mid-track, finding something oddly familiar with what Arisa and Yukiho had just said.

'Maki…chan?' Yukiho suddenly felt like she might have crossed the line, as shown by the worried expression she was carrying. However, Maki was thinking about something entirely different.

'Lovey-dovey, doing everything together, heart-warming…' Maki murmured, trying to remember when those items had crossed her mind before. Suddenly, it clicked.

She shot her head upward to look at Rin, who sent her the same knowing smile she had seen in the club room, then at Umi, who looked confused before slowly shying her glance away.

It all made sense now. She understood why Rin acted so mysteriously and why she liked lyrics right away. Thinking back to Umi's words, she seemed to have deciphered each subtle clue, and after connecting all the dots together she was now able to see the full picture.

This was Umi's response. This was Umi's final answer.

'Maki-chan, are you alright?' Honoka approached her and shook her slightly, bringing her back to reality.

'I'm fine,' Maki brushed off their concerning expressions quickly. 'What's more important is to get back to practice.'

After commanding everyone to get back to their positions, she stood next to Umi. The pianist opened her mouth a few times, and finally was able to mutter her thoughts.

'About the lyrics…'

Umi sneaked a look at her, fearful of facing her directly.

'I think it's good,' Maki said firmly, causing the blue-haired girl to meet her gaze. 'Thank you.'

Umi looked thoughtful for a minute, but returned a smile at the end. Rin observed the interaction of the two under her eyelids, the small, warm smile never leaving her face.

End of Chapter Four

In case it's not clear, let's take it as that they continue their school idol activity with newly recruited first-years to form a new group. However, the new members won't really play any significant role in the story. Arisa and Yukiho might make more appearances, but the main cast will be the chief protagonists still. Due to my own incapability of writing sound lyrics, I'll leave it up to your imagination as to how Umi answered Maki's doubt.

I thought about having someone else, along with Umi, feeling awkward around Maki and Rin, but I couldn't figure Honoka and Kotori playing that role, given their characters. In case anyone is wondering, the third-years will make their appearances eventually. But then, given what I am planning for next few chapters, I think this will be enough.

Kindly leave me a review to let me know what you think!