MINAKO

She dreamt of lavender fields, rows upon rows of light purple flowers marching endlessly toward the horizon. The wet summer heat sank into her skin until she felt she was burning up inside. Although she was surrounded by the flowers, they slipped from her hands each time she reached out to grasp them, dancing away like flickering flames.

She wandered the fields, desperately searching for something, she couldn't quite tell what. It felt like it was just on the edge of her mind. Something? Someone? Her vision blurred and she fought desperately to bring it back into focus, but the harder she tried, the darker everything became.

When Minako finally awoke, her body flushed from more than just the late summer heat, the dream was already gone.

So, apparently, was her roommate.

Minako had actually woken up at a reasonable hour for once in her life, it was barely 8:00 am.

She hadn't heard Rei leave, but when she padded out into the living room, she found the tea mugs from last night already drying on the dish rack and no sign of the other woman. She'd left her bedroom door open and it's not like Minako had purposefully spent more than a few seconds searching for signs of life around the apartment.

Minako realized she should have figured out already that Rei was also an athlete, but hindsight was a true 15/10 (that's how that went, surely). She'd have to ask her when she returned home.

Or…

Or she could poke her head through the open bedroom door and see if Rei had any obvious memorabilia lying around that might indicate what sport she played. Any half decent college athlete should surely have at least a trophy or two on the shelf.

Any guilt Minako might have felt about her actions was overruled by her own curiosity as she stepped through the entrance to Rei's room.

Compared to her own room that was still a whirlwind of belongings and boxes, Rei's room felt like a ghost town. The bed that Minako had helped construct was pushed into the far corner, her desk set up against the wall across from it. Next to the bed was a simple nightstand decorated with a single coaster, a lava lamp, and a book.

Minako raised an eyebrow at the lava lamp, but that was hardly the focus of her search.

To the right of the desk was a cute little serving cart from which two more mugs, nearly identical to the ones they'd used last night, dangled.

Rei's desk bore nothing of interest, just a laptop, a lamp, her tea box, and an organizer for various writing tools. Above it, Rei had tacked an official Stella Nova University calendar to the wall, the same calendars they were handing out at the check-in desk when Minako arrived.

Minako drew closer to the desk, hoping that maybe Rei's laptop would provide some clues, but it seemed that Rei had opted not to participate in the stereotypical teenage ritual of cramming as many stickers as possible onto the lid. The empty metallic space grey lid stared back at her, her own expression distorted in the reflection on the brand logo.

Minako nearly screamed in frustration. Even the walls gave her zero hints as to what sport Rei played.

So far, only one of Rei's walls had been decorated. The wall above her bed held several canvases of various nature scenes. Minako could make out a farmhouse, sprawling meadows sliced through by a clear stream, hay bales set up into an archery range, some close ups of plants, and…

Minako swallowed, ears reddening as she took in soft fields of lavender. She hadn't realized it at first, but each of the other canvases was intermingled with four different paintings of the same lavender field at what looked like different times of the day.

Minako felt the same heat from this morning settle between her thighs and turned on her heel to leave, but she was stopped at the sight of a bookshelf. It was on the same wall as the door and she hadn't noticed it when she walked in.

The shelf was a modest size, just three cubicles about a foot and a half tall, sitting horizontally on the ground. A few books were stacked in one of the cubicles, but the others remained empty. Perched on top of the shelf, however, were three photo frames.

Still amazed that she'd seen no sign of any kind of trophy, ribbon, or athletic award, Minako was getting quite desperate. All she had right now was a painting of an archery range. SURELY one of those photos would have an image of Rei as a child winning some sort of sporting event. Wasn't it a parental obligation to have framed evidence of their children's success?

Before Minako could snatch up one of the frames in her hands, she heard the buzz of the electronic door lock in the main entryway.

"Fuck."

Thank the gods for long legs and years of diving drills. Minako was securely tangled in her own sheets and her body limply feigning sleep by the time Rei's footsteps approached their side of the suite.

She was about to pat herself on the back for a job well done when she realized her door was wide open. Double fuck.

If Minako's door being open when it certainly had been closed when Rei left earlier this morning set off any red flags, Rei gave no indication of it. Her footsteps didn't slow at all as she entered her own room and closed the door.

Minako breathed a sigh of relief. Of course it wasn't suspicious. Minako could have gotten up to go to the bathroom and gone back to bed and forgotten to close her door. Rei had no reason to suspect that Minako had been snooping in her room.

Just as soon as she'd exhaled did she tense up again as Rei re-emerged from her room.

Minako chanced a peak through one eye and saw Rei carrying an assortment of toiletries and a towel.

Rei's long, dark hair was tied up and back in a ponytail and she was wearing a simple sleeveless shirt and athletic shorts.

From the look of her, Minako guessed she'd just been on a run. Did archers need to run? Was cardio an important part of guaranteeing success on the range? Maybe she was a big game hunter? Maybe she was training to run down a deer? Or away from a bear?

Minako couldn't help but imagine Rei, dressed in some gods awful camouflage getup, covered in mud and crawling through bushes. She pictured the way her perfectly sculpted deltoids would flex while drawing back a bow. The way she probably eyed her prey.

She licked her lips. Camouflage might be her new favorite color.

Bzz. Bzz. Bzz.

Minako's phone startled her out of her fantasies. She saw Ami's name pop up on the caller ID and realized she'd forgotten she had promised to give Ami and Makoto a quick virtual tour of their suite sometime that morning.

She quickly joined the group call and found that both of their other roommates had already joined.

Distantly, she could hear Rei's phone in her room buzzing from the call. Minako had added her to the group chat after her embarrassing hallway incident, but Rei hadn't done more than offer a courteous hello. She'd ignored the follow up texts last night when Ami arranged the group call and considering she'd just hopped in the shower, she clearly had no interest in participating.

Minako, Ami, and Makoto all greeted each other somewhat awkwardly. They'd had two group calls before at Ami's suggestion, but they were still essentially strangers to each other. Still, Minako was excited for the other two to move in.

"Is Rei going to join the call as well?" Ami asked, eyes searching her screen as if Rei might appear somewhere behind Minako.

Minako cringed. "I think she actually just got in the shower…"

Makoto frowned and raised an eyebrow at that, but Ami merely shrugged. "I suppose there's no need for both of you to be showing us around simultaneously."

Makoto leaned into the screen conspiratorially, "So what's she like?" Her voice was a dramatic whisper.

Minako quickly looked to the side and tried not to let a blush rise to her cheeks. "She seems fine, I guess," she all but mumbled. "I think she thinks I'm an idiot."

At that, Makoto laughed. "What? Why?"

Minako couldn't control the flush that spread across her face. She'd already forgotten she hadn't told them about the door incident. Or that she'd forgotten to build her bed until late last night and Rei had had to help her with it.

Even Ami giggled at her when she caught them up on the previous day's tragedies.

As much as Minako would love to move past her shortcomings, her incidents had at least relaxed the initial awkwardness of the call. If she had to be the butt of the joke a few times to bring them all together, so be it. She considered herself a deeply unserious person when it mattered.

"So she's definitely some kind of athlete, right?" Makoto asked as Minako was guiding them through the kitchen.

"Probably," Minako said, "Although, I can't really tell what sport she plays. She had a couple paintings of an archery range in her room."

At the brunette's insistence, Minako was opening each drawer and cabinet in the kitchen so she could start to plan for what would go where.

One of the cabinets, Minako found, already had a small stack of plates and bowls. Another had a few cups. All of the tableware she discovered had the same plain, ceramic vibe to it.

Makoto scrunched her nose at them. "She has pretty boring taste regardless."

Minako chuckled. She wasn't necessarily surprised at the simple tableware given the state of Rei's room, but they did seem oddly lacking in character. Even the mugs they'd used for tea had a bit more to them than that. Rei might not have had a lot of clutter, but most of the belongings in her room seemed to have a purpose and character to them that the kitchenware did not.

"Do neither of you know who she is?" Ami was frowning at both of them.

Minako tilted her head. "Is she some sort of world famous athlete I should know about?"

She had to admit her knowledge of the sports world outside of volleyball was painfully low and she'd never once thought about the professional realm of archery.

Ami shook her head. "Her father is Senator Takashi Hino. He's one of those hardliners on agriculture and steel, but he's surprisingly liberal on certain social issues. He actually organized a–"

"–Wait, so you already knew who she was?" Makoto cut Ami off mid-ramble.

"Yes, didn't you both?" Ami didn't appear to be bothered at the interruption.

Minako and Makoto simply gaped at her.

"I assumed you both had at least googled her name when we got our room assignments. I thought her name was familiar when I saw it, but she's quite easy to search online," Ami stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I only thought to search her on social media," Makoto admitted. "Most people our age are easier to find Instagram than on Google."

Minako had done the same. It made a little more sense that the daughter of a prominent politician might not have social media.

Ami seemed to consider that for a moment before continuing, "Well there's plenty of articles about her father online, though the information about Rei herself is rather lacking."

Minako perked up at this. She was a genius really. All she had to do was deep stalk Rei on the internet to find more information about her. Surely politicians had reporters digging into every facet of their lives at all times. Somebody out there had to have information on her hot new roommate.

As soon as she thought the thought, however, she regretted it. She considered Rei's polite, but withdrawn attitude from when they'd first met, and how she seemed to hold even Yuuichirou at a distance.

Now that she really thought about it, Yuuichirou had clearly not been a relative, and when he'd left, she'd overheard Rei mention her grandpa, not her parents.

Minako recalled the way Rei's eyes had softened the night before when she mentioned her mother, and how she'd immediately looked like she wanted to take those words back. There had been a sadness in her eyes that Minako couldn't even begin to address, so she hadn't.

She didn't need a Google search to know that Rei's mother was likely dead.

"So do children of politicians get to move in early, or what?" Makoto's question brought her out of her thoughts.

Ami was shaking her head again. "No, she is also a student athlete. She's apparently quite talented at soccer."

Oh. Soccer.

Minako supposed that made a lot more sense than training to run away from a bear.

"She committed to Stella Nova when she was still a sophomore in high school, but she also got a full academic scholarship," Ami continued, her voice full of admiration and her eyes glinting excitedly.

Makoto let out a low whistle. "Whoa, so she's super smart AND super talented."

From down the hall, Minako heard the squeak of the faucet and the shower water turning off. She quickly hip checked one of the potential silverware drawers closed and glided toward Ami and Makoto's side of the suite.

"ANYWAYS," she said a little louder than necessary, and the other two seemed to catch her drift. "Do you guys want to see your rooms?"

It took all of her willpower to not turn around and drool when she heard the bathroom door creak open.