2 months have passed since Yuzu accepted the role of becoming the head of the Hayato family. However, at the moment she was still a novice learning the proper protocol in business affairs by accompanying her grandmother to various companies and military branches.
The first thing Mrs Hayato wanted to do was to introduce her granddaughter to the country and to her business partners. Whenever Yuzu was spotted in a public place she always ended up being surrounded by reporters and journalists. Fortunately, a few weeks after the announcement of her existence commotion finally died down a little.
Aihara Academy was also caught by storm. The rumours about the blonde martial artist disappeared almost over night after she confronted her club members with the truth. Word got around quickly and the blonde's popularity suddenly skyrocketed. If Yuzu wasn't surrounded by paparazzi in public, she was crowded by many of the students in school.
Mei was quite busy as well. The business deal that her grandfather was arranging with the Hayato family was finally made, leaving her in charge of half of her grandfather's work load.
With all that's been going on, both girls were always exhausted by the time they arrived home. The only time they really spoke to one another was in the morning before school. But after some strenuous work on both sides, Yuzu and Mei finally managed to arrange a day that they could spend together.
Surprisingly, it was the aloof younger step sister who organized their date. Being the student council president, everything was planned so intricately so there's no way anything could possibly go wrong… Right?
"Sorry, we're sold out…", the cinema clerk apologized sheepishly.
"All tickets are gone?", Mei asked, "Are there any other movies?"
"All the films have already started but you can come back in 2 hours for the next one", he suggested.
The younger girl frowned. Yuzu chuckled quietly and wrapped her arm around her girlfriend, "It's okay, Mei! We can just come back later and do something else for the time being".
Mei thought for a moment before agreeing, "I guess we could get some lunch first".
With that the girls made their way to a small restaurant across from the mall. 'After eating we can go to that arcade place Yuzu likes, Mei thought
"Oh, there's no one else here. Lucky!", Yuzu sat down on a booth by the window. She opened the menu and started to contemplate on what she wanted to order.
Meanwhile Mei looked at the menu pensively without really reading the it. Her thoughts were in disarray after her schedule was ruined. 'It's okay. One tiny slip up isn't going to ruin this day for us-'
"Mei?"
The girl snapped out of her thoughts and looked up from the menu. "Yes?", she saw a waitress already standing by their booth.
"Are you ready to order?", the waitress asked politely.
Yuzu pointed at something on her menu, "I'll take this!"
The waitress jotted down her order on her notepad.
"I'll have whatever she's having…", Mei mumbled as she handed her the menu.
Yuzu raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure? I know you can't handle spicy foods…"
"It's fine", Mei looked out the window. "So, how are things with your grandmother?"
"It's been great! On our last trip to Tokyo I brought her to a fast food joint. It turns out she's never even tried a hamburger before!", the blonde told her happily. "She was reluctant to try it but liked it in the end- Wait, do you smell that?"
Mei sniffed the air, "It smells like something's… burning!"
As if on cue, black smoke emitted from the kitchen area and the alarms started ringing. Both girls shot up from their seats.
"Help! Please, someone help!", a voice yelled from the source of the smoke.
The girls barged into the kitchen where they saw a panicked man trying to put out the fire with his apron. This seemed to only make it worse as the flames grew bigger.
'Why aren't the sprinklers going off?!', Yuzu covered her mouth with her arm. "Where's the fire extinguisher?!
"W-we don't have one!", the man answered her.
After a few minutes of frantically trying to put out the fire they finally managed to extinguish it. Yuzu and Mei collapsed on the floor from exhaustion. The chef laughed heartily and scratched the back of his head, "Thanks to you girls, the restaurant didn't burn down!"
"Hey Mei, I think I've lost my appetite", Yuzu mumbled quietly.
"Yeah… me too", they both got up and started towards the exit.
"Next time you come back I'll whip up something for you, and I'll even give you a 20% discount!"
Both girls shot daggers at him, "We're never coming back", they said in unison before slamming the door behind them.
'Today has been a disaster!', the younger girl thought anxiously. However she tried to calm herself, 'It's okay, we'll just move on to the arcade-'
Yuzu and Mei stood frozen in front of their destination.
'Closed down for maintenance' it read on the sign.
They stood there for a good 5 minutes until Yuzu looked over at Mei, who wore an eerily unaffected expression.
"Hey, it's okay! We can go to some other place. How 'bout the mall?", the older girl tried to cheer Mei up. "C'mon", she grabbed a hold of the raven haired girl's hand and started to pull her.
Suddenly a loud rumbling sounded from the sky, followed by some lightning. As if things couldn't get any worse rain started to pour down. The girls ran for cover and both stood in awkward silence. Even the optimistic blonde couldn't think of anything to say. Without warning Mei let out a sob.
"Eh?! I-it's okay! We can take the bus!", the blonde panicked.
Even more tears started to fall down her face, "I'm sorry Yuzu… It's been awhile since we could spend time together so I was really excited for today. It was supposed to be perfect!"
"Hey… it's not your fault", Yuzu tried to console her. "I'm happy enough with what we've done today"
"...Really?", Mei, for the first time ever, looked like a small child who was being comforted by a parent.
The older girl gave her a small smile, "Yeah! I'm happy that you put so much thought into planning our first date", she gave her a peck on the forehead and Mei finally calmed down.
Just then the rain was reduced to a small drizzle, making it easier for them to run to the nearest bus stop. They decided to go home instead and hang out for the rest of the day since both of them were exhausted. The younger girl opened her bag to pull out her wallet for the bus. However, after a minute of rummaging, she huffed angrily.
"What is it?"
Mei lowered her eyes to the ground, "It seems I have forgotten my wallet at home".
"...I didn't bring mine". Yuzu suddenly burst out laughing making the other girl blush in embarrassment. "H-how were you… planning on… paying for anything?", she managed to say in between giggling.
"Sh-shut up! This is serious!", the younger girl was beginning to get flustered.
It took a few minutes but Yuzu finally calmed down. She pulled her girlfriend away from the bus stop. "Come on, I've got an idea"
After a few minutes of walking the blonde finally spotted a street musician. A look of resignation was plastered on his face as his guitar was leaning in the wall next to him. He seemed to be taking a break from being overlooked by the bustling crowd in front of him. Yuzu approached him slowly, "Excuse me sir, could I borrow your guitar for a minute?"
He looked surprised at first but nodded in agreement, "Sure, knock yourself out"
The girl thanked him, then grabbed his guitar and sat down on the small stool. Mei watched in confusion while Yuzu tuned the guitar, twisting the pegs before strumming.
At first only a few people stopped to glance at the blonde but when she started to sing the people were entranced by her voice. Even though she was only beginning to sing the chorus a large swarm of people had already surrounded her in a thick semi circle, the guitar case in front of her filling up with notes and coins fast.
So I'll go to you now, I've made up my mind
I want to play you the song in my pocket
I quietly turned up the volume to make sure
Oh good-bye days
I feel like things are changing now
So long yesterday and before
I have a clumsy tenderness by my side
La la la la love with you
I pass you one earphone
And in that moment, it plays slowly
I am I loving you right? Sometimes I get confused
Oh good-bye days
Now what's in my heart has begun to change, alright
I have a clumsy tenderness by my side
La la la la love with you
I don't want to have sad thoughts if I can help it
But they're bound to come, right?
When they do, I'll smile and say
Yeah hello! I hope I can call you
My friend...
When we sing the same song
Be by my side, I wish
I'm glad I found that clumsy tenderness
La la la la Good-bye days
When she finished the song with the last strum the horde that accumulated in front of her cheered, some asking for an encore. However, Yuzu stood up and turned to the owner of the guitar, "Sir, would you mind if I take some change for the bus?"
The speechless man stared for a minute before finally forming a coherent sentence, "Y-you should take all of it! You earned it"
The girl laughed lightheartedly as she grabbed a few coins from the case, "It's fine, sir. Keep the rest as thank you for letting me borrow your guitar"
"Ah! Isn't that Hayato Yuzu?!", someone suddenly shouted.
"Oh my god, it is!", someone else pointed.
"Crap, I've been discovered", Yuzu lowered her hat and grabbed Mei. "Let's go!"
…
Yuzu panted as she peered over the corner. They hid in an alley after being chased by some persistent people. Thankfully, they ran past the girls.
"Whew, that was close. Alright, let's go find a bus st-mmph!", the younger girl suddenly smashed her lips against the blonde. "M-mei?", the older girl was caught off guard. "I'm not complaining but what's gotten into you all of a sudden?", she wiped her chin.
"Yuzu…", Mei couldn't find the right words to convey what she was feeling so she pulled her into another kiss. This one was slow and timid unlike the fierce kiss she gave earlier. The raven haired beauty stopped to catch her breath before speaking, "...Anything else I need to know about you? Do you have a secret twin? Are you an ex-convict?"
The blonde chuckled at the unfound accusations, "I guess I surprised you, huh?"
Mei crossed her arms, "You think?"
"I thought you told me you were 'done' with being surprised?", Yuzu air quoted.
The blushing girl scoffed and turned away, "Whatever. Let's just get to the bus stop".
Once again the older girl chuckled at her reaction. Only Yuzu ever saw this side of her girlfriend. The childish, flustered side of her was too adorable and she found that teasing her was a great way of exacting revenge from all the times Mei left her a red-faced, blubbering fool.
Yuzu and Mei stared out into the open sea.
'Where the hell are we?'
Both girls fell asleep while on the bus and were dropped off at the very last stop. Yuzu forced a smile in hopes of remaining optimistic and looked at the bus plan, "Th-that's okay, we'll just take the next bus-"
'That was the last bus.', Yuzu rigidly turned towards her girlfriend.
This time it was Mei's turn to laugh, "Yuzu, did you anger the gods or something?", she continued to laugh.
'Well, seeing as I'm dating my younger step sister, I'm pretty sure I'm bound to be punished by some omnipotent being…'
The older girl smiled at the laughing girl in front of her. She couldn't help but join in and when they finally settled down Yuzu spoke, "Come on, let's go home"
Mei nodded and held her girlfriend's hand. They walked side by side, passing the time by chatting about all kinds of things. They probably walked and talked for hours until they got home. When they collapsed in their bed they realized that they were too worn out to do anything else. It felt like it had been forever since they even had a proper conversation, what with all the craziness of gaining fame and national attention in a matter of days. So they just continued talking about the most meaningless things, in hopes of making up for lost time. Without realizing it, both girls fell into a deep slumber.
The song Yuzu plays is 'Goodbye days' by Yui. Next chapter is the next arc for the story