Pieces of You: Omake 1
Jun sighed wearily as she settled into a hard folding chair in the musume’s shared dressing room. There were two rooms designated for their use, but the girls all either had their favorite and didn’t care about assignments or just wandered from room to room daily. Jun herself was a wanderer, but had, in more recent months, begun to favor this room. That was due mostly in part to the usual occupant of said dressing room; Takahashi Ai.
Thinking about her lover made her smile; the older girl was due back from a meeting any second and Jun needed to intercept her before she got to her book if she wanted any attention today. The thought that she was basically competing with an inanimate object, instead of making her feel unimportant, made her feel mischievous. Ever since she’d found out about this rather annoying aspect of her girlfriend’s personality, she’d made it into a game to distract her as much as possible and capture her notice first.
Thinking about being together always made her think about the night they’d first shared a kiss, in front of Ai’s apartment door. It was just like in the movies where the two young lovers can’t bear to part without a goodnight kiss. Though in reality she was sure Ai didn’t think of it like that, the girl was terribly unromantic after all.
Despite the obvious difficulties, though, she knew that Ai really loved her and she wholeheartedly returned the feelings. Jun leaned her head back against the wall behind her, reminiscing about how they had come together.
Ever since Ai had become leader, she seemed to give off a determined aura, one that drew Jun’s eyes to her whenever they danced at rehearsal or performed in concert. She felt small in comparison, still stumbling on every Japanese sentence she spoke and leaning heavily on Lin Lin for help, something she detested doing with a passion. And on top of the language barrier, the pressure to perfect every morning musume dance ever created and to learn every song ever sung weighed heavily on her.
Yoshizawa-san had been giving her private lessons two times a week until she’d graduated and Fujimoto-san never got the chance to, but Jun just couldn’t bring herself to ask the current leader for help. So after every late night rehearsal, Jun would stay behind with a handful of tapes and practice until she had trouble walking, somehow managing to keep it secret from everyone else. The pain in her legs, though, made her normal rehearsals even worse and instead of helping, her extra practice was actually hindering.
Still, she kept at it, enduring the yelling during the day and the pain at night, until Ai happened upon one of her night rehearsals. “So this is why you’ve been getting worse.” Jun jumped when Ai announced her presence, “you’re working yourself too hard.”
“Takahashi-san!” Jun fumbled to turn off the little TV on the desk, futilely trying to hide the evidence.
“If you were having trouble with the dances, you should have come to me or one of the others.” Ai scolded more harshly than she’d intended.
“I didn’t want to bother anyone with this.” Jun mumbled, lowering her head shamefully and feeling like she’d got her hand caught in the cookie jar for some reason.
“While I agree that the only way to get better is to practice, if you overwork your muscles, you’ll be useless. Here,” Ai added before the sting of being called useless could set in, “I’ll help you stretch out.”
In no time, Jun found herself flat on her back, yelling in pain while Ai pushed her leg till her shin rested on her shoulder, “I’m not this flexible! Stop!” Jun dissolved into gibbering in Chinese as Ai expertly pulled her muscles to just before the breaking point.
Just when she thought her leg would disconnect from the rest of her body, Ai stopped, bringing her leg slowly back to rest on the ground. Jun breathed a sigh of relief before Ai said, “Alright, let’s do the other one.”
Half an hour later, Ai patted her on the head, wiping up the remainder of her tears, “Alright, we’re done for tonight. Now, I want you to wake extra early tomorrow, do some of those stretches I showed you and take a hot shower. Then I want you to skip your night rehearsal tomorrow and go straight home. I promise to work with you from now on, okay? And make sure you always stretch either just after you wake up or just before you go to bed.”
“Okay.” Jun sniffled, “Where do you live?” she asked seemingly out of the blue. Though Ai was surprised at the question she described where her apartment was, “We don’t live too far apart, would you mind if I saw you home? We can share a cab.”
Ai looked at her appraisingly and Jun thought she would refuse, “Okay.” she finally replied simply. And just like that, they began a normal routine, every day they would stay behind to practice something, not always dancing either, sometime Ai would help her study Japanese and even help her with her singing, and after practice, Jun would see Ai home.
They kept this up for almost a year until Jun came to the conclusion that she was hopelessly in love with her leader. Not one to withhold her affections, Jun nevertheless tried to be discreet, only giving in to her impulses when they were alone. What surprised her more than her growing feelings for Ai was that the older girl didn’t seem to mind at all, leaning into her touches and returning them sometimes.
The even bigger surprise came when Jun finally decided to tell Ai her feelings. As soon as the met up that night, she was practically bouncing with bottled up tension, putting 110% into her practice. Jun was going to wait until she saw Ai home that night to tell her, so that if the leader didn’t return her feelings, she could escape into the night.
“Jun.” Ai called to her as they were packing up, sweat dripping off both their brows, “Can I talk to you?”
Tilting her head in question, Jun nodded, “Of course.” she resisted addressing her by her last name, subconsciously trying to improve her chances at Ai seeing her as more than a kouhai.
“I like you.” Ai stated matter-of-factly, fighting to keep the tremor out of her voice and barely succeeding, “I want us to go out on a date.”
Eyes wide and mouth gaping open, Jun found her mind going blank. Did Takahashi Ai just confess to her? On the same night she was going to confess to Ai? When her brain caught up to her mouth, instead of making sounds of agreement like she wanted them to, her vocal cords produced hysterical laughter.
Immediately, Ai’s face fell and she started to turn away. Unable to stop laughing, but quick enough to snag her leader’s arm, Jun caught Ai’s wrist in a firm grip. Confused, Ai turned back, and Jun motioned for her to wait a moment, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” she gasped out hysterically, finally getting herself under control. “I was just so surprised.” Jun took a deep breath, “You see, I was going to tell you the same thing tonight. I’ve been in love with you for months now. It’s just a coincidence that you came to the same conclusion on the same night and you have to admit that it’s pretty funny.”
“Yeah I guess, but did you have to laugh at me?” Ai pouted, trying to cross her arms over her chest, but unable to break Jun’s grip.
“It’s a nervous habit.” Giving a firm tug, Jun pulled Ai into an embrace, sighing contentedly into her hair, “This is nice, but it’s getting late and I promised Lin I’d be home for dinner. Let me take you home.”
They took their normal route home and that night their first kiss took place, sweet and gentle and full of promise. When she burst in the door of her own home later, Lin was startled as she grabbed her and swung her around happily. They’d been roommates since Jun had come from China and never had she seen her so ecstatic.
“What happened?!” Lin laughed at her infectious behavior, feeling a little dizzy as she was finally put down.
“Takahashi-san and I are going on a date!” The two chattered excitedly about the details for the rest of the night.
Jun smiled in remembrance, that had been a good night. The sound of a door closing startled her out of her reverie and catching sight of her girlfriend, Jun hopped to her feet, “Ai-chan!” Ai looked up with a big smile, coming over to embrace her.
They kissed, Ai wrapping her arms passionately around Jun to clutch at her back, having to stand on her toes a little, and Jun gripped Ai’s neck gently, using her other hand to support her at her waist. They kissed for a long moment, Jun faintly hearing the door slam closed in the back of her mind. Paying it no mind, the two finally split apart, slightly out of breath.
“Ah,” Jun finally remembered her original goal, “I wanted to talk to you. I was wondering if you would talk to Niigaki-san for me? She’s seemed a little down lately, but she insisted that nothing was wrong when I asked.”
“Gaki-san? Are you sure, I haven’t noticed anything.” Jun nodded firmly at Ai’s questioning look.
“Well, I’m not surprised, she hides it pretty well and you’ve been pretty busy since you became leader, but I think it’s been going on for a while now. She seems kinda strained lately and Lin and I are starting to worry about her.” Next to Tanaka, Niigaki was her favorite sempai. Ai didn’t count, of course, since they kissed each other a lot.
“Alright, next time I see her, I’ll take her to lunch or something.” Ai promised earnestly and Jun nodded, satisfied.
“Okay, here’s your book.” Jun handed over the item she’d confiscated from the leader’s bag earlier. Ai took it like a child being offered candy and settled into the corner to read. Jun laughed and took off on her own.
~~~~~
OMG! Two posts barely 12 hours apart!? What is wrong with me?
But this one's for you JFC.
Topic: rndmnwierd's Closet (Granite 9/6) (Read 74106 times)