The Girl Who Got Engaged To Her Best Friend
SAKURAKO AND HIMAWARI woke up with plenty of time to make breakfast before school. The only thing Sakurako said after "Good morning" was "Please help me learn to solve problems today, instead of taking them out on someone I love." It was a very un-Sakurako thing to say nowadays, but wouldn't have been out of place back in the good days. So, all Himawari did was nod. But then she gave Sakurako an actual kiss. She could see Sakurako wanted to freak out over that, but controlled herself and accepted it.
"There you go, first lesson!" she whispered.
"I secretly love your b-breasts," Sakurako whispered. Then she went even redder and her eyes widened. She hadn't meant to say that at all.
"Secretly?" Himawari whispered back. Sakurako limited herself to wagging a finger at Himawari. She didn't trust herself to hit Himawari gently on the shoulder as she would have a short time ago. Well, she'd develop her confidence again, that was what this was all about. Then Sakurako surprised her. Her eyes stayed wide but her lids lowered a little.
"I love you, Himawari. I've always loved you." Wow, was the new Sakurako embarrassing?
"We'll have to gradually let the others know, you know," Himawari began. "So we'll have to act a little like our old selves. I will let you explain that you found a way to make it up to me. Chitose-sempai and Toshinou Kyouko-sempai will guess right, more or less, but ... Sakurako, do you know how girls ... how girls give each other pleasure?"
Sakurako just looked confused at that.
"Never mind, then," Himawari continued. "They do, and they will assume you did ecchi things to me."
Now Sakurako looked outraged.
"You are still maybe a little young but some of it I want to do, like a lot of kissing, okay?" Himawari asked.
Sakurako nodded. Then she drew herself up like a soldier about to go into the field, and kissed Himawari sweetly and gently. Well, her being here was all about learning. She'd have to explain a lot to Kaede. Then again, if her beloved onee-san liked girls, she'd learn liking girls was good, so this might not be too early.
Over breakfast with Kaede and Mama, Himawari made Sakurako snort her juice accidentally, which she apologised for profusely.
"Sakurako, you like Toshinou-sempai, right?" she asked suddenly.
A flustered Sakurako wiped the juice off her face and shook her head while stuttering a denial.
"Oh! I mean, you admire her. She's your role model," Himawari corrected. Mama looked at Sakurako at that. It was hard to fully approve of Toshinou Kyouko-chan, she could be very selfish, lazy and irresponsible and often didn't care how her behaviour affected others. And she was Sakurako's role model? Seeing Sakurako was puzzled, she kindly explained what a role model was, and Sakurako agreed. Mama Furutani held back a sigh.
"Well, she has a theory about why we had two first years in a row without growing older," Himawari said. Seeing the expression on her mother's face, she added, "No one outside Namori Middle School seems to have noticed, Mama. It's why even our worst students did so well on the exams. Now that I've told you and Kaede, you will probably go through another year's repetition, too."
To Furutani Ai, her daughter had too blasé an attitude, saying weird things like that.
"Anyway," she continued, turning to Sakurako, "She has a theory that some ghosts used spirit magic to keep us in Nanamori until all the love relationships are resolved. She also said ... ehh, that you and me are the keys."
"Why would ghosts care about our love lives," Sakurako said, puzzled. She didn't like being puzzled, but on the other hand, like Kyouko-sempai, she had to admit she hated being bored and loved being excited, and ghosts creating a time-loop that could reach out and envelop a family was certainly exciting.
"Well, according to Toshinou-sempai, who was talking to Funami-sempai, who told Ayano-fukukaicho, who told me, two girls died the day before they were going to confess to each other at school, so they were doomed to haunt Namori until they could fix a year's worth of couples."
Sakurako hadn't held her head up through most of breakfast, but she did now. She looked at Mama Furutani. She even looked over at Kaede. Well, Himawari was talking to her, and she was Kyouko-sempai's pet the way Himawari was Ayano-fukukaicho's, so ...
"Well, that's ... ehh ... it's a little crazy, isn't it, Himako?"
"So is going through first year twice?"
Tsumi.
"Wait," Sakurako objected. "We're going to school at least for Rise-sempai's graduation ..."
"Second graduation," Himawari corrected. Well, yesterday she'd prayed to whatever gods existed that she'd have another chance to have Himawari correct her.
"Anyway," she continued, unruffled, "we can just go to Nanamori and confess!"
Himawari looked troubled. "It's not that I don't want to, but ..."
Sakurako looked troubled now, too.
"But I think maybe just us might not work, for one thing. And for another ... what's wrong with reliving this year?"
Sakurako pondered that. "You know ... there are a couple of middle schools where they get amazing tests without having good teachers or facilities ... and there are those mahjong schools where the girls are practically supernatural ..."
Himawari pondered that. Then she clapped her hands. "Right! And we can join them! This must be a power that Japanese middle school girls' ghosts have. No wonder no one knows about it but us!"
"Alright, but please don't be ashamed of me, Himawari," said Sakurako. A single tear welled up in one eye.
"Never, Sacchan. Never, ever. But we should drop hints, maybe, but not confess formally until we are well into our third first year."
"Why?" Sakurako wondered. Even if Kyouko's weird theory ... latest weird theory ... latest weird theory that they knew about ... was true, then waiting until even the first day of school then confessing would do the trick.
"I want to get the full benefits of the extra year," Himawari confessed. "And we'll need it if we are going to help the ghosts fix up couples."
"Help them do what?" Sakurako, Mama Furutani and Kaede all said, at the same time.
"Fix up couples, of course. And end the curse for sure. And improve Sacchan's grades, and keep her family away, and plan the wedding and our careers, and ..."
Mama Furutani and Kaede hushed up Sakurako.
"Onee-san gets like this, sometimes, Sacchan, Mama says she's in her own little world and we should wait for her to get back," sweet little Kaede whispered. Sakurako had missed hearing the sweetest little girl in the world call her Sacchan. It probably reflected something unsavoury, like Kaede sensing a fellow child, but it didn't matter, you couldn't not love Kaede.
When Himawari did come back to herself, she said, "We must go to school from now on, though. And explain that we've made up. And you can tell everyone how sorry you are,"
Sakurako nodded, but Himawari wasn't quite done. "That way we set the tone for the repeating year. It will be already established that we're getting along well." Then, she seemingly noticed Sakurako's eyes rolling up, exposing the whites, and said, "Let's discuss everything one step at a time, okay?"
Sakurako seemed to snap out of it. "You know, finding just one girl for Kyouko-sempai won't be easy."
Himawari nodded absently, but they were already on their way to school. When they got to the gates, no one was around, so they were either just barely on time or pretty early. Sakurako looked around, gave Himawari a brief kiss, and said, "I guess we can ask the ghosts?"