Chapter 5: Sweet

Makoto looked at Ryuji as she slid into a booth at the diner in Shibuya, settling down next to Ann. "Do you think we're coming here too much?" she asked.

Ryuji gave her a confused look, like he'd never even thought that could be a problem. "I dunno," he said. "Shibuya's pretty much central for all of us, yeah? And it's a good place to meet if we want to go do something after we eat."

Ann nodded, then pulled a spoon full of ice cream and strawberries out of her parfait. "And I really like this place," she said.

Makoto smiled. She'd heard about people becoming creatures of habit, even more so as they got older, and some part of her wanted to rebel against that; getting stuck doing the same things over and over when she was only nineteen seemed strange somehow. But if this was the best place for them all to meet, she supposed she couldn't find any real problems with it.

"So, just us and Haru today, yeah?" Ryuji asked. He glanced back the way Makoto had come in, toward the diner's entrance. "Kind of figured she'd be here by now, or you two would have showed up together."

Something about what he said made Makoto wonder if he meant 'together' in a different way than expected, but she brushed it aside. Ryuji was a lot of things, but he wasn't at all subtle; he said what he meant, and didn't talk sideways about things. So if there was ever anyone who wasn't hinting at anything, it'd be him.

Though it did make her wonder again if people would see her and Haru together and think them as a couple. She felt her mind start wandering in that direction, and swiftly pulled it back in; now was not the time to consider that.

Would there ever be a good time for that, she thought.

"Unfortunately, we still don't get to spend much time together," Makoto said, glancing down at the table. "Our classes are on different parts of campus, and when we're off campus, we're on different sides of the dorm. But she's still coming to aikido club, so I'm glad for that." She paused, considering, then looked at Ryuji. "Will Tsuruko be joining us today?"

A glum look took over Ryuji's entire face. "I keep asking," he said. "But she's got a thing going on with the other girls on the team today, so that was a nope. Hopefully she'll be here next time." His expression changed all at once as he grinned. "She really wants to meet all of you. I told her my friends were, like, a model and the student council president and an artist and a genius hacker and a company heir and she just laughed at me."

Ann laughed aloud, putting a hand to her mouth. "That is so you," she said. "Do you really tell people about us like that?"

"Not really," Ryuji said, shrugging. "Most of the time, it's just, these are my friends from high school, here's us at the beach, here's us at this cool old coffee joint, here's us and this van we drove all across the country, stuff like that. But when I was telling her who you all were, then she was like, no way you got to hang out with all those people."

"She'll believe it when she meets us," Makoto said, and she felt herself forming the smile she'd learned from Sae, the one her sister said she used to terrify witnesses.

Ryuji blinked at her. "It sounds really creepy when you say it like that." Makoto kept smiling at him, and he held up his hands, guarding his face. "Don't do that!"

"I'm sorry I'm late," Haru said as she hurried up to the table, then slid into the booth next to Ryuji. "I missed my train, I was on a work call, and I had to take the next one." She looked around the table, and smiled, though it seemed a little strained. She must be under a lot of stress, Makoto thought. "Is anyone else coming, or is it just the four of us again?"

"Shiho should be here soon," Ann said. She ate another bite of her parfait, and Makoto wondered if it was to hide her sudden blush. "She's been working for an elementary school doing some sports stuff, but she gets off in time to be here."

"Good," Makoto said, nodding. "I never got a chance to meet her before – before everything happened." She looked down at the table again, and tried hard not to think about what she hadn't said.

Everything that had happened with Shiho . . . it still weighed on her sometimes. She should have been able to do something about it, as student council president. But so many of the faculty were behind Kamoshida no matter what he did. There was no way to know if she actually could have helped, or even prevented things from getting that bad.

But she could have tried.

"Hey, how's the aikido club going?" Ryuji asked, turning to Haru and talking louder than he probably needed to. "You learn to beat anyone up yet?"

"Ryuji," Makoto said, raising her head and narrowing her eyes at him.

"It's fun, but it's not like that," Haru said, waving her hand in front of her face. "I've only been going for a few weeks, so I'm still learning. It's been nothing but the basics so far. But I think Kintaro said he wanted me to start learning throws next time," she added, and looked at Makoto. "Does that sound about right?"

"After a few weeks of learning, yes," Makoto said. She'd watched some of Haru's training in the club, when she wasn't busy with her own, and it had been interesting. There was definitely still some of the same spirit that had hacked down shadows with an axe in Haru, even after so long outside of the Metaverse. Makoto had heard a few people at the club quietly say that Haru was scary, which was kind of funny for anyone who hadn't seen that side of her.

"I just think it's cool you're there," Ryuji said, grinning again. "I remember how you were against the shadows, that was some scary shit."

Makoto almost chided him, but she'd been thinking about the same thing, hadn't she?

Haru ducked her head, and folded her hands on the table in front of her, looking down at them. "I'm not trying to be like that," she said, her voice low. "And it's not the same thing. It's just for exercise, and stress relief, things like that." She looked up, and smiled at Makoto, a faint blush on her cheeks. "But I'm glad Mako-chan invited me, it's been a lot of fun."

Why . . . why was Haru blushing?

Makoto thought back to after they'd left the aikido club for the first time, when Haru had asked if she'd wanted to get coffee afterward. It hadn't seemed strange at the time – friends getting coffee, nothing unusual – but only after she'd taken the time to think about it had Makoto wondered if Haru meant anything different by it, and come to a possible conclusion that she still hadn't taken the time to unpack.

And then there was their conversation about a week ago, when Haru had asked if there was anyone in the aikido club that she was thinking about dating, or something like that. Makoto hadn't expected to hear something like that from her – from anyone, really, but from Haru in particular, since she'd never been one to pry into another person's life like that. And it had brought back a memory that Makoto hadn't realized she'd held onto, about the two people who found love in the aikido club and might even be married by now.

But if she put those two things together–

"Shiho!"

Ann's sudden cry jolted Makoto out of her thoughts, and then she immediately had to move, as Ann was just about shoving her out of the booth. Makoto slid out and quickly ducked aside as Ann launched herself out of the seat and hugged Shiho, holding onto her like there was nothing in the world more important.

Makoto had never been one for public displays of affection, but she could almost feel the happiness coming off of Ann, and something about it made her cheeks grow warm. Think about it later, she told herself; now still wasn't the time for that sort of thing.

Ann and Shiho shuffled themselves into the booth where Ann and Makoto had been, clearly intent on sitting next to each other, which Makoto supposed was only natural. She gestured for Ryuji and Haru to scoot over, and sat down on the other side of the table with them. Shiho leaned against Ann once they were both in place, resting her head on Ann's shoulder.

Haru, she couldn't help but notice, kept her hands together on the table, clenched together maybe a little too tightly. She must have a lot on her mind, Makoto thought; Haru had said she'd missed her train thanks to a work call. Hopefully some time with all of them would help her to relax.

Or was she thinking of something else?

"I don't think we've met," Makoto said, smiling as Shiho leaned on Ann's shoulder and Ann beamed. "I'm Makoto, and these two are Haru and Ryuji."

"It's good to meet you," Haru said.

"Yeah, hey," Ryuji added. "I don't think we've talked for a long time. Maybe second year?" He clapped a hand over his mouth. "Shit, I'm sorry, should I not talk about that?"

Shiho shook her head, her long ponytail waving back and forth. "It's all right," she said with a small smile, though there was some weariness around her eyes. "It's been a long time, and I've learned how to deal with everything that happened back then. Going to a new school and finishing my time there really helped me out."

"I bet," Ryuji said.

"Ann said you're working at a school now?" Haru asked.

"Oh, yeah, it's great," Shiho said, her eyes brightening. "It's just part time, but I'm doing sports work with elementary students. They wanted someone with a history in athletics, and I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do."

"Take as long as you need," Ann said, and it sounded like a discussion they'd had before. There was something protective in her voice, something Makoto hadn't heard before. But she supposed it made sense. Ann and Shiho had been very close, even before they became a couple, and they'd both been through so much thanks to the same horrible person.

"I know," Shiho said, and raised a hand to gently pat Ann's cheek. "I just don't want to freeload off you for the rest of my life."

"Sounds pretty good to me," Ryuji quipped, then grinned when Ann glared at him.

Makoto felt herself seized by a sudden impulse. All of these things she was trying to figure out, both herself and Haru among them, she wondered if she could talk about that with Ann and Shiho without being explicit as to why she was asking. It could be very helpful. She'd just have to be careful how she asked.

"I was wondering," Makoto began, "if you two would be all right telling us how you got together." The surprised looks on their faces told Makoto she hadn't been anywhere near as subtle as she'd wanted. Best to just press on. "It was kind of a surprise to all of us, so I've been curious how it happened."

Ann and Shiho looked at each other, and seemed to be communicating without words. Makoto had heard about couples doing that, but seeing it happen right in front of her felt like watching some kind of magic trick. After a moment, they seemed to come to some kind of agreement, and Ann nodded.

"Like I said before," Ann began, "I came back to Japan after doing some touring for my modeling. Of course Shiho and I kept in touch when I was traveling, and as soon as I was going to be back in Japan for a while, I told her, we need to hang out." She smiled. "We started hanging around a lot, like, all the time."

"I was still figuring out what I wanted to do," Shiho said. "Still am, but this was before I even had a job. My parents were supportive, but I knew they wanted me to do something more, maybe go to college." She looked away, her eyes a bit downcast. "I don't know if I'm ready for that yet. So . . . I just started staying at Ann's house."

"And my parents had no problem with this, they're barely ever home." Ann ate some more of her parfait, then offered some to Shiho, who ate it without taking the spoon. Haru giggled. "So after a while," Ann continued, "I just asked, why don't you move in here?"

"Of course I said yes," Shiho said, and licked a bit of cream off her lip. "Live with my best friend or with my parents? That's not exactly a hard choice." She snuggled up against Ann a little more, and Ann leaned into her. "And we just . . . got closer and closer."

They made it sound so easy, Makoto thought.

"We've always been close, since we first became friends," Ann said, blushing now. "But when we were around each other all the time, when we didn't have to ever be apart, it was like . . . we just kept finding reasons to be close. We'd hug as soon as we got home, lean on each other when we were making dinner-"

"Shiho, you can cook?" Ryuji interrupted.

"I can and I'm teaching Ann," Shiho said, looking rather proud of herself.

"And eventually," Ann continued, glaring at Ryuji again, "we were just sort of . . . cuddling. All the time. And it . . . it felt really good."

Shiho's cheeks were red now too, and when she spoke again, she was quieter than before, and Makoto found herself leaning forward. "I remembered what Ann said, when I went back to Shujin that one time, when I had to face what I did there. Ann said she loved me. I knew then she meant it as we were best friends, but in all the time we spent together, I started wondering if she meant it like something more. And I wondered if I meant it the same way."

Makoto felt herself grow warm inside. Was she just overthinking things? Could it be that easy?

Shiho raised her eyes, and looked up at Ann. "So one night, when we were cuddling on the couch and about to watch a movie, I just . . . I kissed her on the cheek. Because I wanted to, and I wanted to know what she'd do."

Makoto barely heard Haru take a deep breath, but she fought back doing the same. She could feel herself blushing, though, and hoped everyone else would be so taken in by Ann and Shiho's story that they wouldn't notice.

At least she could hide how hard her heart was pounding.

Ann said, "And I just felt something inside me screaming to kiss her back, and so . . . so I did." She turned and hid her face in Shiho's hair, and Shiho put a hand to her cheek again, and it was clear the story was over.

Was it really that simple, Makoto thought. That had hardly involved words, to hear them tell it – just a lot of time and a slowly growing affection. Could she do something like that? Not saying anything, just kissing someone . . . that was not her style.

But what if someone did that to her?

What if Haru did?

"Wow, do you two never watch romance stuff?" Ryuji asked out of nowhere. "Both of you are seriously red."

Out of the corner of her eye, Makoto saw Ryuji peering at her and Haru. She turned and snapped "Shut up, Ryuji!" at him, and he ducked back, right into the wall of the booth. "I'm sorry," she said a moment later. "Ann, Shiho . . . thank you for telling us. That's actually really sweet."

The conversation resumed after that, but Makoto hardly participated, instead trying to analyze her feelings and figure out what she could do about this. Ann and Shiho's story had struck something within her, there was no doubt about that. But she couldn't see herself approaching it the same way. She still needed time to figure herself out – to see what she really wanted, and to determine if what she was thinking about, what she was feeling, was really what she wanted or if it was just some passing thing.

But she glanced at Haru, who seemed engaged in the conversation, and remembered again what the other woman had asked her, if there was anyone at the aikido club she was interested in. Makoto didn't think Haru was really one for trickery in a conversation, but . . . if she'd wanted to know how Makoto felt, asking that would have been a very good way to learn.

If Makoto had any kind of answer for her, at least.

Makoto held back a sigh. She was still making too many assumptions – about Haru, and about herself. She needed time to figure this out. It wasn't the sort of problem she'd ever thought she would have, so it was much more of a mystery than she'd expected.

But looking at Ann and Shiho, and seeing how happy they seemed together . . . this, she told herself, would be worth figuring out.