"We have a problem."
Shimako raised an eyebrow as she read the message on her phone while walking home. She wasn't sure what could have happened in the short time since she had seen Rei, but to be sure she decided to call.
Ring, ring. . .
"Hey, it's about Yoshino." Rei answered in a somewhat displeased tone, as Shimako remained silent awaiting what she thought she was going to hear. "She said what we're doing is wrong and quit the council."
Shimako took a deep breath as she thought for a moment before her mind wandered back to Rei. She had wondered if Yoshino might do something like this. All throughout the meeting Yoshino seemed almost a little distrubed. Rei on the other hand hadn't seemed any out of the ordinary, but Yoshino was close to Rei. "What about you? Are you going to quit the council?" Shimako asked as Rei remained silent for a moment.
". . .No, but I don't want Yoshino to quit." Rei explained as Shimako nodded, she knew Rei and Yoshino were very close friends, and cousins. She also could see the issue with one of them being off the council while the other remained.
"Does she intend to help Sachiko and Yumi?" Shimako asked as Rei sighed and scratched the back of her head while she paced back and forth in the council room.
"I..I think so, I mean she said we all turned our backs on them when they need us most. . . I mean.. She has a point." Rei tried to explain, her thoughts were a bit scrambled though as one side of herself screamed monster and the other reasoned that she wouldn't be tormented.
"They made their decision." Shimako said firmly as Rei tried to balance her thoughts. "Lillian is a school with morals, what those two are doing is wrong. You know this and I know this. . . I know it isn't a kind reality losing what you considered a friend, but they decided to walk a different path than us, and now they are paying the price."
Rei remained silent as she listened to Shimako, she had never heard the girl so serious before. It was as if she was speaking with another person entirely, this wasn't the quiet, kind girl that she always knew. This girl was serious, absolute, and non-forgiving, definitely not the Shimako that Rei had known.
"Isn't it possible to walk a different path for free?" Rei asked as Shimako frowned, these were not the type of answers she was hoping to hear.
"I'm afraid not. . ." Shimako replied in a grim but somewhat sympathetic tone, she knew the Yamayurikai couldn't lose Rei. "All we can do is watch. It's possible that Sachiko and Yumi break it off and come to their senses, but until then, there is nothing we can do. Besides, in a school like ours we can't have a lesbian couple in the Yamayurikai, no one would respect us anymore as a council." Shimako said as she approached the front door of her house and took a deep breath. "You will have to excuse me for now though, I just got home and have a few things to take care, we can talk later if you like."
"Yea, maybe. . . If I don't talk to you later, then tomorrow." Rei replied as she glanced out the window, she could see it was getting late, she had to leave too.
"That sounds fine, and remember, we are just simply following the rules put in place for us. . ." Shimako said leaving a moments pause for consideration after it. "I'll talk with you tomorrow if you don't call tonight." She continued before hanging up the phone leaving Rei to her own thoughts.
-X-X-
"Are you alright?" Yumi asked as Sachiko's annoyed facial expression softened when looking to Yumi. She had just never been so upset in her life, everyone except Yumi, and her parents had basically just left her life. Of course this was true for Yumi too, but unlike Sachiko, Yumi dealt with it differently.
"I-I'm. . . I don't know, I'm angry." Sachiko frustratingly sighed as she stopped walking and sat down on a bench at the park the two had gone to. "They always tell me I need to stand up to my family, I need to live my own life, and right when I do it, they turn their backs on not only me, but you! I can't stand them calling you those awful names, we did nothing wrong." Sachiko finally vented as Yumi gave her a slight smile and sat down on the bench next to her.
"We didn't do anything wrong. . . We don't deserve this." Yumi said in a surprisingly calm tone for what she was saying. "Realizing your feelings and being able to share them with the one you love isn't wrong. What's wrong is that others find it unacceptable. . ." Yumi continued as she took Sachiko's hand in her own uncaring if they were getting weird glances at the people who walked by. "There words are harsh and cold, but I also think they are full of jealousy. Jealous deep down that we were strong enough to break away from the social norm and find happiness. The more we embrace what we have the more and more spiteful they become. . . I say let them, it's obvious that they cannot and will not comprehend what we have."
Sachiko smiled as she leaned over a little and gave Yumi a hug followed by a brief kiss on her forehead. "I'm glad you are able to speak about it like this, I constantly worry that it's breaking away at you, but it seems you are not as fragile as when I met you." Sachiko explained as she pulled away enough to see Yumi smile a little.
"Perhaps it's because I have something worth fighting for."
-X-X-
A single large door opened as a person glanced over their shoulder to make sure they were alone before entering. This place was always empty at this time of day, unless an event was happening. She knew that because of how many times she had been here trying to sort out her own life.
Today was a slightly different case though as she took her normal seat on one of the many benches filling this room. The large cross above the stage bringing many thoughts from the past to the surface as she felt a stinging in her heart. Never had she been so lost before and how it all started was becoming unclear.
Why she was feeling these emotions this heavily after the months and months that had passed were another question. No doubt Sachiko and Yumi's relationship had brought them to the surface in a violent way. Was it right what happened? Is she alright with just letting something like this happen after knowing the pain first hand?
She sighed as she dropped her head and bit her bottom lip thinking back to a time where she was truly happy and carefree. A time when she herself found pride in who she was, a time before her heart had been ripped out so to speak. A time where she felt like she could take on the world for what she had. . . That time had come and gone though, and now. . . Now she didn't know what to think, let alone know who she even was.
When did she become afraid of them? When did everyone else start to matter? Sei shook her head and sighed as she thought about Youko demanding her rosary back from Sachiko. It's not like Sachiko was different now, she was still the same girl that Youko had taken as her petite soeur back then. It just didn't seem fair, and the emotions brought with the witnessing of this event weren't ignorable. For the first time she had seen something she became afraid of happen to someone else.
"It's painful, seeing a truth about yourself being attacked so heavily, and yet I just sat and didn't do anything. . ." Sei said speaking her thoughts out loud as she thought of the Yamayurikai. "Yet here I sit, living a lie and telling myself that this is right even though my heart is gashed with the painful truth."
"It's not like you to audibly express your thoughts." A woman said as Sei turned in her seat at the familiar voice that had somehow entered without a sound. Her facial expression softened when she saw it was the school staff member that cleaned the small chapel daily. Sei had come to know this person a bit over the past few months with how much she visited this place.
"Well it was say it out-loud or scream." Sei joked as the staff member chuckled. "I should probably be going though, I'll let you finish your work."
The staff member smiled as Sei walked towards the doors. "Hey, if you ever need someone to talk to, you know when I arrive, if that means anything to you."
Sei paused as she reached for the door handle. "Maybe another day, I think I would like that actually."
A/N: Alright so there was chapter 3, I hope you enjoyed this one too and I thank you all for the reviews giving me lots to think about and play with as things progress here :). This chapter did have a redo part on it, which was Sachiko and Yumi's, originally they had gone to a mall and gotten ice cream while discussing something that will be in the later chapters. I didn't really like the mall thing, I always feel like the mall scenes I do are awkward, and for this I really didn't like how it was turning out so I changed it to it's current state which I like much more.