When idolization Goes Awry
By Anonymous
Chise. Chise was really just another girl within the Yin-Yang club in Hyakkiyako. Yet at the same time, she was also so much more than that. She was the club's idol, without a doubt. Kaho, the vice-president of the club, had always considered Chise as such.
Kaho thought about Chise when she woke up. She thought about Chise when she went to sleep. Chise's name was always quick to fly from her lips and she had dreams of Chise just as often. Kaho literally owned multiple figurines and plushies of Chise that she herself had crafted. Kaho couldn't stop thinking about Chise.
"Wait...does that mean..." A cold sweat broke out on Kaho's brow one morning as she stared at the bedroom ceiling, having only woken up about five seconds ago, "Am I...am I IN LOVE with Chise...?"
Kaho grabbed the extra large Chise plush that she always kept by her side every night and lifted it up into the air. She stared into the black button eyes of her doll for several, silent moments. This wasn't the kind of thought she wanted to wake up to. However, now that she thought it, she couldn't stop thinking about it.
She had admired Chise for an idol for so long. Chise was, as far as Kaho was concerned, the cutest girl in the entire world. She was absolutely perfect in every possible way that could be conceived. Kaho's pale cheeks grew increasingly more ruddy in complexion as she thought further about everything that made Chise great.
"I admired her for so long, practically worshiped her ever since we first met, and only now I'm starting to think I might have actual FEELINGS for her?" Kaho slammed the doll down on top of her face and groaned. "This isn't how it's supposed to be...I'm not supposed to feel THAT WAY about Chise..."
There seemed to be something so sacrilegious about the idea of her having a ROMANTIC inclination towards Chise. You can't just fall in love with your idols! You just can't! That's literally asking for nothing more than disappointment and heartbreak of the highest magnitude. They were members of the same club and they worked together in close proximity all of the time. It just seemed wrong for her feelings to change when they had seemed so straightforward to herself up until now.
Kaho thought about Chise some more in spite of this, though. Her round face, that lovely sky blue hair, those adorable red horns...and then Kaho's entire face turned bright red when she began thinking about getting even closer to that face than usual.
Oh, it sucked so much that she had to now feel conflicted about her feelings with Chise. Damn you, brain, for betraying me like this! Kaho thought to herself with an angry huff. She had mused about Chise plenty of times in the past without questioning her feelings, and now THIS! Ugh.
"Argh! I'm sullying the good and pristine name of Waraku Chise by having these immoral thoughts about her! I can't do this!" Kaho was about to hurl the plushie, but she stopped herself short and very gently placed it back onto the bed before she got out with a huff and stomped into the bathroom to wash up for the day.
Kaho washed up and put on her makeup as well as her usual robes for the day. She tried not to think about Chise too much. Not the easiest thing to do given her current headspace and how she had almost a hundred different types of Chise-based memorabilia spread throughout her entire bedroom. Kaho stormed out and headed into the school while acting like nothing was wrong. As usual, she went straight to the main room of the Yin-Yang Club to check in with the president.
When Kaho pulled back the sliding door, she did not find the president in her office, but instead she found Chise busily shuffling papers and wiping everything down with a feather duster. Of course. Kaho had forgotten at the time that Chise had taken on cleaning duty for the week.
"Ah! Good morning, Kaho!" Chise bowed, beaming so brightly that it would have put the sun to shame. "It's such a wonderful day out today, isn't it? Maybe we can go and take a nice walk around the school today after we're finished with our duties! What do you think?"
Kaho stared. Her mouth hung wide open. Then, her entire face began to glow bright red. Her ears started twitching on top of her head. She couldn't even look at Chise like she used to anymore. Not with her heart pounding so VIOLENTLY inside her chest. It made her feel like she could pass out at any moment.
Chise frowned, cocking her head to the side. "Are you okay, Kaho? You're acting a little funny."
"I'm sorry, Chise, I'm just feeling a little...under the weather, I suppose." Kaho chuckled sheepishly. She had to try and play this off as nothing important, but Chise put down the feather duster and carefully approached her. Chise was too kind for her own good and she worried too much about Kaho and her other friends.
"If you're feeling sick, Kaho, then it's okay for you to go back to your room. I can let the president know when she gets back. I'll finish cleaning up everything else here too!" Chise remarked in that absolutely adorable high-pitched voice of hers.
Kaho's heart felt like it was going to break out of her ribcage and go flying into the air at any moment. She couldn't let Chise get any closer, but she couldn't try to actually resist Chise either. Her mind, her body, her very SOUL were so deeply conflicted by this matter that it left her effectively paralyzed. Kaho's face just kept on growing redder and redder as she stood there, watching Chise steadily close the distance between them.
Chise stopped right in front of Kaho. They were only a year apart in age but Kaho was much taller and more 'mature' in appearance. Even so, Chise was the one acting like a real adult here. She suddenly stood up on her tip-toes and placed her warm palm right against Kaho's sweaty forehead. Kaho literally passed out for just a second or maybe it was her heart missing its next beat. Either way, she was unable to do anything when Chise touched her on the temple.
"Wow, you really are getting sweaty, Kaho. You might be more sick than you realize! That's no good!"
"Ch-Chise, I...!"
Kaho's hands shot out before she really thought about what she was doing. She grabbed Chise and wrapped her arms around the woman's much smaller back. Chise gasped; since she had been standing on her tiptoes, she almost fell over from the sudden collission. They fell back towards the president's desk. Kaho used one hand to grab hold of the desk to stop their momentum and keep them both standing in place, but she used her other hand to grasp at Chise's back. The two women stared directly into each other's eyes. They were so close that they could literally breathe on each other.
"...Kaho..."
"...Chise..."
The two women had always been close, but this was the first time that the two of them had been close in a physical, INTIMATE sense like this. Chise didn't know what to do. Kaho didn't know, either. They just stood in that position for several seconds, holding onto each other, gazing deeply and earnestly into each other's shimmering eyes. It was a moment that felt like it lasted so very briefly and yet for an eternity at the same time.
"Hey there! What's going on here?"
Niya, the Yin-Yang club's current president, marched into the room with several boxes tucked under her arms. She noticed that both Kaho and Chise were here, but they both seemed to be in the middle of...something. Niya realized as soon as she saw it that she might have accidentally interrupted something important between the pair.
"Ah...should I...should I come back later...?"
Kaho suddenly released Chise after gently placing her in a way so that she would not fall against the desk. Then, with her face still shining brightly and her eyes just as much so, she bowed a quick apology to both of the other women before making for the day.
"I'm sorry...I just need to go and wash my face before you see me...I didn't do my makeup quite right today..."
"Oh, that's not really a big-" Niya started to say, but Kaho quickly bowed and excused herself anyway.
"I'll be right back...! Please, j-just give me a moment!" Kaho shouted, trying very hard not to accidentally choke up.
Chise watched Kaho leave, but she wasn't all that upset or bewildered by how the other woman had behaved. If anything, she was now unable to stop blushing herself. She could still feel that sensation of Kaho's big, strong, loving hand on her back. Chise turned so red that Niya actually had to ask her if she was about to pass out from heat stroke.
In the restroom, Kaho splashed water onto her face several times. She looked up and stared at her own reflection in the mirror. She saw her expression...and she realized that she had been smiling this entire time. Grinning so wide that it almost made her cheeks hurt. It felt so GOOD and yet so BAD at the same time. Never, ever before had she felt something like this in her entire life up to this point.
"I think I really do like Chise a lot..." Kaho started to laugh, even as the tears were still clinging to the edges of her eyes, "I like her so, so much...I might...even more...than I ever thought..."
Things may be a bit rockier for Kaho and Chise from this point onward, but it wasn't all bad. If anything, there was quite a lot more hope than the fox-eared woman even knew. There would be a light at the end of the tunnel. It's just...if she ever invited Chise to her room, she might need to hide all of those plushies and figurines first.
~The End~
