Sixteen
The red head Aoi Nagisa seemed to be lost in thoughts in the morning this Saturday's morning. Her roommate didn't make a comment on it, not when the blue hair girl could only watch and worry about her dearest friend from afar. Despite the fact that she was interested in Shimako and Sachiko, she couldn't stop herself from loving Nagisa more each day. Tamao knew that her roommate and love interest had gained a few new friends, or rather, eight new friends and they seemed to be the exchange students, and even though that Nagisa spent a little more time with them, including Hanazono Shizuma, she was a tad bit jealous. Sure, she got Nagisa every morning and every night, but in the afternoon the girl always seemed to be off somewhere without telling her where she'd be until later. She only wanted to take care of her Nagisa, even though Nagisa didn't belong to her or anyone. Actually, she had a small idea that Nagisa might as well belonged to Shizuma, if the older girl would have her. Tamao had watched the older girl while Nagisa was around her. There was something changing in the current Etoile and she was afraid that Nagisa might fall victim to whatever Shizuma was planning to do with her.
"Oi?' Snap. Snap. Snap.
Tamao seemed to be so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't notice someone's hand snapping fingers before her at lunch. She was still trying to analyze everything in her head from Nagisa's relationship with Shizuma to Nagisa's newfound friendship with all the Roses.
"Earth to the slightly confused adorable girl that is Yumi's friend ~ "
Tamao could used a little less distraction if that hand and that voice would leave her be. 'Hand and voice?' Tamao silently asked herself as she slowly came back into reality. There, in front of her, was one of the beautiful Roses that she had been seeing walking around the Strawberry dorm. She had took the time to memorize every single of the Roses' names, even noted down who was friendly and who was overly friendly. The older girl before her was Sato Sei, the overly friendly Rosa Gigantea that she had mentally noted down in her head. She was surprise to see the sixth grader here. Not only that, she was even surprised that the older girl was trying to get her attention.
"I'm sorry, is there something I can help you with?" The blue hair girl quickly answered after her head was a hundred percent focusing on the beautiful blonde in front of her.
Sei chuckled before she mentioned to the exit door of the cafeteria. "Do you mind taking a walk with me?" She asked gently.
Tamao waited for a few seconds to see if the older girl would explain why the blonde had asked her but not the other Roses. When she didn't get a respond, she let out a small sigh with a little shrug of her shoulders. "Of course, although I expect to have an explanation as to why you have picked me to have a walk with."
As Tamao stood up, Sei blinked before she let out a small chuckle. The blonde was expecting the other girl to ask such a question. She would only hope that the younger girl could provide her with some good advices because she didn't know where to ask if she had gone to the St Lulim's Student Council President. "Sure, I'll tell you along the way after we get out of this cafeteria."
Tamao nodded and soon they both left the cafeteria together while the remaining students in the cafeteria just watched them went. They both expected to hear some kind of rumors about Tamao and the Lilian's Rosa Gigantea taking a walk together that would surely lead to a blossoming romance. The two girls didn't care though, not when they knew that it wasn't true. Tamao expected nothing more from this walk with the blonde, and the blonde was expecting a good friendly advice from the blue hair girl. So in their case, it was a win-win situation.
Once they had gotten out of the cafeteria and onto the path that was leading out of the Strawberry dorm, Tamao glanced over to the taller girl expecting that the latter would be the first one to talk. When it seemed like the taller girl wasn't anywhere near ready to talk, she just sighed and looked ahead of her. The two walked in an awkward silent for about five minutes where the blonde was leading Tamao out into the shore of the lake. Tamao never did once question where Sei was leading her because she trusted the older girl to not try anything silly. So when the awkward silent had gotten too much for the energetic blonde to handle, the current Rosa Gigantea let out a sigh as she ran a hand through her hair.
"I'm actually here to ask you about advices. Shimako said that you give good advices to Yoshino-chan, Yumi-chan and Nagisa-chan. So I thought maybe I could ask for the same favor that you've given them?" Sei asked softly as she turned to look at the other girl with a little hope in her eyes.
Although the younger girl was surprised by the sudden request, Tamao just nodded her approval before asking curiously. "What do you need my advice for, Sato-sama?"
Sei blinked. "Sato-sama?" Then she began to giggle and shook her head. "That sounds too formal, Tamao-chan. Get rid of the 'sama' and we'd be fine."
'These Roses are so nice.' Tamao thought as she smiled up at the older girl. "Alright, Sato-san. What kind of advice do you want to hear?"
Sei thought for a moment while her feet continued to move towards the lake. It was a rather moment until she could come up with a proper answer when her head was filled with confused feelings for the roommate she was rooming with. So once she had found a proper answer, they were already at the lake and she couldn't be more than happy to see that the younger girl was patiently waiting for her.
"It's about emotions, if you don't mind me telling you some bits of it." After the younger girl had given her the permission to continue by a positive motion of her head, Sei smiled as she leaned against the tree behind her while her eyes looked out to the beautiful lake. "I'm not quite sure what I am feeling for a particular someone at this moment," She started. "I'm all confused and she makes me even more confused as to why she is so nice to me, and is always there when I need someone the most. It's like she always knows what I am thinking or…feeling!" She sighed and shook her hand, unaware that her hands had curled into fists. "It's so damn frustrating!"
Tamao watched silently as the older girl spoke to her about her feelings for this certain girl. She wondered who it might have been, and she couldn't take a guess when it might as well be a right guess. When Sei had first started to tell her the story, she had suspected it to be Chikaru but it turned out that it wasn't. It couldn't possibly be any one at Astrea Hill, Sei didn't know anyone for that long. So it had to be one of the Roses, and yet she couldn't tell which one it would be. It could possibly be Shimako but the younger blonde was so much alike with the older one. The Yellow Roses didn't seem to be much of an interest to the older White Rose. So it had to be the Red Roses. The only Red Rose she could name that had been receiving was Fukuzawa Yumi. However, the more she looked at those two, the more she realized that the relationship between those two couldn't pass the friendship zone.
"I honestly at a loss here." Sei sighed in defeat that brought Tamao out of her thoughts.
"Why don't you talk to that particular person?" Tamao suggested as she looked over at the older girl. "Or perhaps you could try and ask her out on a date and see it from there?"
Sei quickly looked over at her in a little surprise. "Ask her out on a date?"
Tamao nodded with a gentle smile. "Yes, you could give it a shot. Besides, it doesn't have to be a romantic date."
Sei thought over it for a moment before nodding her head in agreement. "Thank you Tamao-chan. I think I would try that."
-x-
"Are you sure that you saw Rosa Gigantea with a girl from St Miator, Yoshino?" Rei asked in disinterest as she continued to brush the coat of the horse that she had been entrusted with. She had never ridden a horse before, and when she first saw it while exploring the St Spica campus, she had quickly fallen in love with the horse that she was now taken care of. Even though horses weren't easy to take care of but she felt calm and at ease just working on one.
Yoshino was standing next to her, watching at cousin as the other girl brushed the horse. The younger girl had her hands on her waist as she stared at the taller girl as if to yell at her for not paying attention to her. She had seen Rosa Gigantea walked off with Tamao, a girl from St Miator and also Nagisa's friend and roommate. She had smelt something fishy going on between the two, but she couldn't quite put her fingers into it. It was rare for Rosa Gigantea to go up to a girl that she had never conversed with, and requested for the girl to take a walk with her. She wanted to know what was going on. In fact, she wanted to know everything since she had absolutely nothing to put her nose in. The students at these schools were too…polite. Too nice. Too everything that was positive and there wasn't enough drama! Actually, the only drama that was going on would be around Ohtori Amane being aware of her reputation at St Spica. 'Oh I am sure that she is aware!' She rolled her eyes at the Toumori Shion's worthless effort of pressuring Amane in admitting it.
"Why are you rolling your eyes?" Rei asked as she watched her cousin getting lost in her own thoughts.
"What? I did?" Yoshino asked as she stared at her cousin as if the older girl was an alien. Then she waved a hand in front of her in a dismissive manner before going back to the topic that she was there for. "Anyway, who cares about that? I'm telling you that I saw Rosa Gigantea walking towards the Strawberry Lake with Suzumi Tamao-san! I heard that Rosa Gigantea had gone up to her and requested if she could have a walk with her! I mean what is all that about? She doesn't even know Tamao-san! And…."
While Yoshino went on about how ridiculous it was for Sei to walk up to a girl she didn't even know and requested her to join in for a walk, Rei just zoned out and watched her cousin in silent. Yoshino looked to be very curious at this strange development between this Tamao and Rosa Gigantea, but the short hair blonde didn't really care about the story behind it. She only cared about Yoshino at this point and how the girl was getting so fired up about such silly things. The way the younger girl's lips were moving so fast that she had the urge to cover her hand over it. Although, she'd much rather use her lips to do so. 'Wait, what did I just think?' Rei mentally chided herself as her cheeks began to warm up into a small blush. At that point Yoshino was frowning at her since the younger girl knew she wasn't even listening!
"Rei-chan! You're an idiot!" Yoshino suddenly yelled at her before she turned around and angrily made her way out of the horse barn. Rei just blinked at her when the yell had pulled her back out of her thoughts. She knew that she was going to get in trouble with the younger girl much later, and that she should try to get the other girl's forgiveness and forget about her horse, but she just couldn't do it. With a sigh, she shook her head in disappointment in herself for not even paying attention to her cousin.
"She's very energetic, isn't she?" Came a voice from behind her. Once she turned to look at the owner of the voice, Rei gave a nod in acknowledgement before sighing again.
"Yes, she is. I apologize for the trouble that she may have caused you, Amane-san."
Amane just smiled and waved a hand to dismiss the topic. "It's no trouble at all." When she noticed that Rei wasn't making any attempt to run after her roommate, she lifted her hand and gestured it over to the horse that Rei was starting to brush again. "I'll do that for you. I think you should go and talk to Yoshino before she really gets angrier."
Rei just chuckled and shook her head before she handed Amane the brush. "Thank you, Amane-san, you might have saved me this time."
Once the Spica Prince had taken the brush and offered a kind smile, Rei turned and walked off to the direction that Yoshino had gone to. 'I honestly don't know what to do with her anymore.' The Rosa Foetida en bouton thought with a shook of her head, and a small sigh. If only she knew what her petite soeur was truly thinking.