“Hey, Kuuchan…, what are you working on lately?” Yuria asked after a few minutes spent in silence while they were trying to catch their breath and energy back; laying side by side and their hands linked together between them. She then turned to laying on her side so that she could see the other girl’s face better despite how dimly lit her room were. “Besides the reunion project with Mii-san and Ogichan, I mean… And…. Aren’t you dating someone?”
Kumi smiled, then leaned closer to give a slow, almost lazy kiss on Yuria’s forehead, “Nothing much, working as OL in weekdays and sometimes I would do some modeling gigs on the weekends. Sometimes I would help in my friend’s café. Just normal boring life.” She intentionally didn’t answer the second questions.
“But that’s what you’ve wanted, right?”
“Yeah…,” Kumi turned to the lay on her side as well, and draping her arm around Yuria’s waist in a loose hug, “That’s the reason why I want to graduate.” Then her eyes twinkled, though she still have a serious look on her face, "There are some other things, but I won't tell you now." She then laughed when Yuria pinched her waist because of the way her words sounded, "I mean it... it's still a top secret for now. You'll know later..."
She sighed in bliss when the younger girl moved closer to her, but the sigh quickly turned into a painful “Ouch….” after Yuria used her shoulder as pillow.
That made Yuria quickly sat up, the blanket fall from her body and exposing her bare torso. “Are you okay? Is there something wrong?” She grew even more worried after Kumi didn’t say anything. After one look to Kumi’s eyes though, she knew where the older girl’s mind was going into and why she didn’t answering her question. “Don’t be a pervert, Kuuchan!” She slapped the back of Kumi’s head and pulled the blanket to cover her body again before laying back down on the bed with a huff.
“You don’t have to hit me that hard…,” Kumi whined while giving puppy eyes to the younger girl and rubbing the spot on her head, “Yuria-tan is abusing me…”
“I will hit you again if you don’t tell me what’s wrong with you.”
“Yuria-tan is scary.” Kumi pouted at her and when she saw Yuria narrowing her eyes menacingly at her, she immediately added, “Okay! Okay! Don’t hit me again!” Kumi pouted. “I had bruised my shoulder. I just noticed that when I took a bath earlier.”
Yuria blinked before leaning closer to inspect the said shoulder while cursing at herself inside her mind. A faint purple colored spot had formed in Kumi’s shoulder. She should’ve noticed it earlier, but she couldn’t see that well without proper lighting. That, and her mind was occupied with other things; like how good Kumi’s touches were, how warm she was and how Kumi’s moans are like music to her ears. “Eh? How? What happened?”
“You hit me earlier, remember? When we talked outside the studio?”
“I’m sorry!”
Kumi just chuckled at Yuria’s reaction. It was just too funny, how the girl’s face turned from worried, to thinking, to realizing, to remorseful. “Nah, it’s okay. I deserved to be hit anyway.”
“You’re such a DoM.”
“And you’re too much of a S.”
“Shush,” Yuria hit her Senpai’s arm and snuggled close to her, “I’m not a S.”
“But you’ve hit me for several times now, and considering other… things…, then yeah, Yuria, you’re S.”
Yuria was wondering what the other things might means but she had a hunch that Kumi was talking about how Yuria never really answered her confession. ‘But that’s because of the rules…,’ she thought, ‘not because I want to torment her…’
“I’m not S.”
“You are, if you don’t want to admit it, then tsundere.”
“Well, that’s ….”
“So you’re admitting it then? You’re a tsundere?” Kumi teasing the younger girl while pinching her round cheek. After Yuria punched her arm, she immediately moved away and let out an exaggerated whine, “Yuria-tan is abusing me…., so crueeeeeeeeel…”
“Oh, shut up,” Yuria sighed and moved closer, laying on top of Kumi, “if you keep saying that, I’m gonna kick your ass.”
Despite the younger girl’s threat, Kumi just smiled and put her arms around Yuria’s waist. With the happiness of finally being together with the girl she loved the most, came the fear and guilt. The fear of living her life alone after she goes back to Nagoya, and the guilt for making Yuria breaking the love-ban rule. At this point, she was certain the Team B Captain would be willing to start dating in secret if she asked. But would long distance relationship works out for them? Especially with how different their life-style at the moment was. Kumi herself knew that she was a rather jealous person, there were several times when she felt like wanting to throw things to the TV whenever she saw Yuria being touchy with others. Watching GTO was like a test of self-control for her. If they’re dating, she knew her jealous tendencies could get worsened. Kumi ended up thinking about it until she realized that Yuria had fallen asleep on top of her, based on the light snore coming from the girl. Smiling, she patted the head that was laying on her shoulder and on that moment, she had made her decision.
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Yuria woke up quite late on the next day. When she opened her eyes, she still didn’t remember what had happened the night before, it was until she sat up, stretched her body and feeling the sheet rubbing against her bare skin that she finally registered what had happened and blushing furiously. After her eyes scanned her surrounding, she sadly sighed, believing that Kumi already left. She unconsciously bit her lower lip and pouting while looking for her pajamas. She was still pouting when she went to the bathroom to wash her face and walked past the kitchen door. It was until she walked out from the bathroom then she realized that she saw something, someone to be exact, from the corner of her eyes when walking past the kitchen and she hurriedly walked to the kitchen.
There, she saw Kumi standing in front of the stove, flipping what looked like omelet with a spatula. Not just that, the Senpai also wearing one of her t-shirt. The sight was enough for making her face turned red again. Kumi. Wearing her clothes. From the back of her mind, Yuria could recall the buttons of Kumi’s shirt flown away when was she impatiently opening (or more like tearing) Kumi’s shirt the night before. The memories of what had happened made her groaned, half ashamed and half exasperated at her own self.
“Oh, you’re awake.” Kumi grinned at her, “I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your t-shirt. I can’t find the buttons for my shirt, so…”
“I’m sorry…”
A pat on the head, another flip of the egg and she was done. Kumi turned off the stove, took the two plates of omelets and went to the living room with Yuria following her without saying anything after grabbing two forks. Kumi put the plates down on the coffee table and they ate in silence.
“What is it, Yuri? You want to ask me something, right?”
“How did you know?” Yuria asked back, a pout was thrown at the older girl. Her heart was starting to beat faster from the usage of that nickname, the nickname that was only used by her family. Inside her mind, she was cursing at how her senpai can called her in that way without even batting an eyelash.
“I just did. What is it?”
“Why are you still here?”
Frowning, Kumi asked back, “You want me to leave?”
“No!” Yuria reached for Kumi’s hand, “I just… thought you would be gone when I woke up.”
“To be honest, I did consider that.”
“Eh?”
Smiling at the look of surprise on Yuria’s face, she gave the hand grabbing hers a light squeeze. “But I think you would kill me if do, so…” Then Kumi chuckled after Yuria punched her arm. “All jokes aside, I think that I have to be here when you wake up. I actually wanted to give you a breakfast on the bed but you already woke up.”
Kumi was actually waked up earlier than she usually would on off day. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes were Yuria’s face, dangerously close to her own. And she ended up staring at the sleeping beauty in front of her eyes for quite a long time until her bladder kicked in. But even then she still had the time to take some photos of Yuria’s sleeping face with her phone.
“Oh… anyway, are you okay? Not sore or anything?”
“Eh? Why should I feeling sore?” Yuria innocently asked back.
“Uh… I mean… since… uh… first time… and all…”
Yuria only understood the question after seeing Kumi blushed, and she realized she did felt slightly uncomfortable, but she didn’t thought it was because of what had happened the night before. Blushing, she hit her senpai’s arm yet again.
“Why did you hit me!?” Kumi protested and pouting at Yuria.
“Stop saying embarrassing things!”
“I’m just concerned of Yuria-tan’s well-being!”
“That’s embarrassing!”
Kumi pouted at the younger girl, “Where did the cute, shy, meek little Yuria go? The current Yuria is cruel…”
“That was because you’re a senpai and I was still newbie!”
“So Yuria-tan only nice to me because I’m her senpai,” Kumi sighed and acted as if her heart was hurt by covering it with both of her hands. She knew she was being childish and as usual, her mood swings would made Yuria confused, but she liked the way she was feeling at that moment. Warm, fuzzy and light. “I know Yuria-tan loves Ogi-chan more than she loves me!”
“Oh, shut up.” One of Kumi’s hand was taken by her kouhai. “I love her like a sister… while with you, it’s different.”
Seeing how Yuria was cutely blushing and refused to look at her, made Kumi felt more elated than ever. She knew it would be hard, but… after one quick glance at the clock on the wall, she knew she had to say what she wanted to say. “Yuri, I have to go back to Nagoya.”
“So soon?”
The mixture of pain and love on Yuria’s face melted her heart, but… “Yeah. I need to… clear out things with…”
“Your boyfriend?” Kumi threw the Kouhai a look of surprise even though she should’ve expected Yuria to know about it. “I know it, you know… From the way Nakanishi-san and Mii-san reacted whenever I asked them about you.”
“I… already broke up with him though. Or… he broke up with me, not sure how that went out.” Kumi stated while tilting her head to the side and gave a short awkward laugh. “I do think I owe him an explanation though. After he kindly accompany me to the station and I just… said … uh…”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me if you don’t want to.”
Despite the cold tone Yuria gave her, Kumi can see the honesty in her eyes. Yuria wouldn’t ask anything or pestering Kumi for information. But that’s the least she could do. To give the younger girl an explanation.
“I told him that I would go seeing my real first love. And I asked him to not contact me at all when I’m in Tokyo, in here. Then I apologized to him for being selfish, but… I just need to see you. I want to see you. To clear things out.” Kumi smiled a little. “After all, I thought you don’t love me in that way, so… what would happened?” She shrugged and linked her hand with Yuria’s. “I never expected we would be… like this.”
“So… w-what do you mean by like this?”
“If I ask you to officially date me in secret, would you?” Kumi slowly asked with an unreadable look on her face, the she started to smile when seeing the conflict on Yuria’s eyes, “Don’t answer it. That’s why I have a proposal for you. And before that, hear me out first.” She then took a deep breath.
“I… am a very jealous person. And I know you know that. All these time, I can control myself when it comes to you and… other members, because you weren’t my girlfriend. But if we’re dating, the distance between us, the differences of our current lifestyle, my jealousy and lack of confidence would make us fight. A lot. And I don’t want that.” She put her free hand on Yuria’s cheek and kissed her lips softly. “I don’t want us to end up like Yukko and Ogi-chan. I want to feel warm and happy whenever I think of you, not sad and bitter.” The hand on Yuria’s cheek started to move to her hair. “And…, if we occasionally meet out with each other, it’s also dangerous, for you especially. Even though the media probably wouldn’t find out about us, but the members would. Well, they seem to know from how they were reacted when I came to the studio yesterday.” Kumi shrugged a bit before continued, “And that would be bad for your reputation. I know you, Yuria. I know you would try your best to set an example to the juniors. That’s why I am happy that you’re willing to risk it for me.”
Yuria bit her lower lip, as much as she knew what Kumi had said was true, she couldn’t help but feel sad. It was as if Kumi was saying good bye to her. After last night, she was sure she would still have the older girl in her life, but now she couldn’t shake the feeling that Kumi would leave her again, and this time, it was maybe forever. “Kuuchan…”
“…Don’t look at me like that, Yuria.” Kumi had to look away for a few seconds. Yuria was looking at her with her big round eyes and pouting at the same time. “I would melt if you keep giving me your puppy eyes look.” She was chuckling when Yuria punched her arms as she had expected. “Unlike before, I won’t ignore your messages or call, but… I think it’ll be better if we don’t see each other-”
“No! No, Kuuchan, I don’t want that! Why the heck did you even come here if you would leave me again?!”
Kumi winced when Yuria punched her shoulder, in the same place with the day before. She then took both of Yuria’s hands in hers, to prevent the younger girl from hitting her again even though it was might be useless since Kumi was weak and Yuria was… Yuria. Yankee idol that was good at sports. “I’m not done yet. What I meant to say was… Us… spending time together alone. With your schedule, we won’t be able to see each other that often anyway. If you want to see me, then okay. Only… it wouldn’t be just us. Let’s ask Ogi-chan or Mii or Yuka-chan or Yukko or other people, just to prevent other things and the rumors from happening.” She then leaned her forehead on Yuria’s before adding, “And if… No, not if. After ten years and we’re both still single and you still want me, then… let us marry to one another.”
Yuria’s eyes widened at Kumi’s crazy proposal at the end of her speech. It was crazy, she thought, anything could happen in ten years, but then again Kumi is a bit crazy. That, and Yuria couldn’t find another way out. “Why ten years?”
“After ten years, I hope we would have enough time to settle our own life and career. I think you would probably end up as a famous actress. I’m hoping to see several awards under your name in ten years from now.” Kumi grinned mischievously, though her eyes showed honesty. “And I hope, at that time I would be someone who can support a family and not just depending on you.”
“You even think that far? I’m impressed….”
“Oy!” Kumi tapped the tip of Yuria’s nose, “I’m an adult now, you know?”
“So… how should I contact you? In case you went MIA again.”
“I won’t go MIA on you again. But…,” Kumi took a while to think before answering, “Let us meet in Sunshine Sakae, on the hallway to the Ferris Wheel, on 5 PM.”
“Sunshine Sakae, huh? It’s pretty fitting.” Yuria smiled at Kumi, her eyes caught how Kumi glanced at the direction of the clock, and she pouted, “Do you really have to go so soon?”
“Uh…,” Kumi’s mind went blank after seeing the look on Yuria’s face, “I can always take the afternoon trains or night bus.” She then leaned downward to kiss the younger girl’s lips.
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-Ten years after-
After months of not seeing each other’s, Kumi and basically had no one to talk to about her current problem, she finally had a girls' talk (more like whining) about her relationship problems with Rikako and Masana. It’s not like she doesn’t have someone to talk to, but these two are her confidante, they know her really well, and sometimes even better than Kumi herself! At the moment, there was this one man who kept contacting her and asking her out. The man is pretty decent, but Kumi only look at him as friend.
But then Masana reminded her about the promise she had with Yuria, and with Kumi still being a little bit of a baka, she had to reminded her friends that the date was getting closer.
“But it has been years since the last time I met her. Maybe she doesn’t even remember it anymore.” Kumi sighed and her gaze went unfocused as she remembered the last time she met the girl, on her graduation from 48 Group. And now, Yuria was a famous actress, she even starring as one of the main casts of NHK’s Taiga Drama! “And don’t you even read the tabloids?”
Knowing what Kumi’s meant by tabloids, Masana and Rikako only looked at each other. The ex-leader of SKE48 then patted Kumi’s head, “Rumors are just rumors, Kuuchan. You know that.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I just know it.”
Kumi looked at Rikako with a frown on her face, which the older girl returned with a kind smile. “You should go there. Don’t make Yuria waiting for you.”
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So there she goes, to the promised place, even though she knew Yuria wouldn’t come. And like she had predicted, she saw a woman with a tiny face came towards her with an apologetic smile on her face. "Sorry, Kuuchan, but Yuria..."
"I already know that she wouldn’t come. I was thinking of not going or asking Yukko to go in my stead but..." Even though she had predicted this, Kumi can't hide her disappointment from showing. After all, she still had feelings for Yuria. It was hard to stop it when she could see Yuria everywhere.
"Mm... well, then what about we go somewhere instead?" Ogiso Shiori asked while tugging at Kumi's arm. "Come on, I had a place in mind."
“What about your family, Ogi-chan?” Kumi was actually wanted to go back home and just be alone, but didn’t want to be rude, especially after Ogiso came to meet her just to not let her wait forever for someone who wouldn’t come.
“No worries. The kids would be safe with their father for a few hours.” With another tug on Kumi’s hand, the younger girl finally relents and let Ogiso led her to a fancy restaurant and to a private room! This made Kumi tugged at Ogiso’s hand to stop her, “Hey, Ogi-chan, isn’t this place a little too expensive?”
Ogiso merely smiled at her and simply said, “Don’t worry, Kuuchan,” and went inside the said room.
They talked about what they've been up to, a little bit of their past when they were still idols, life after graduation, their reunion projects with Mizuki years ago, a little bit about Ogiso’s family, and Kumi’s current work. Suddenly Ogiso's phone rang and she excused herself. After she was alone, Kumi was starting to pity her own self until the sound of the door being opened distracting her from the negative thought. "You take so long, Ogi-chan," she chastised while turning towards the door, but the person who opened the door wasn't Ogiso.
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Half an hour before. Sunshine Sakae.
A woman with a rather round face was running towards the Ferris Wheel. 'Yabai! I was very late! I hope she would still be there.' She said to herself while running. She had asked her manager to have this day emptied from months back, but there was this one sudden interview came out and her manager practically begged for her to take the interview. Saying this interview is important for her image and promotion for the new upcoming drama. So she did. But since she had been waiting for this particular day since forever, she couldn’t concentrated on the interview and ended up spacing out way too often, caused the interview to dragged longer than it should be. And now, she was berating herself from spacing out before.
Her mind kept reminded her of the time when she graduated from being an idol. How her friends, the active members at that time, set her a party and such, but that day (and a few days after that) were also the last time she saw the person she loves. She didn’t expect that person would come, but she did. Stood near the door and smiled in an awkward and shy manner towards her with Jurina practically pushed her to Yuria. Her manager was kindly gave her a three days off after the graduation and she spent those three days with that person, locked up inside her apartment.
She never really tells anyone about what happened during those three days but it seems her close friends and family knew what might happen. Probably that’s also why her parents never questioned her about the rumors about her dating her co-workers in the tabloids. They just simply knew. From where or how, Yuria doesn’t know.
Over the years, due to her hectic schedules, she had barely time for herself, let alone to keep in contact with other people except for her parents. From random phone calls once in two weeks, it became once in several weeks, to nothing. So did the emails and messages. Even when she has some free-time, it would be very late at night or even when it was in the middle of the day, she couldn’t bring herself to contact Kumi first. It made her a little lonely, but at least she has the memories. The memories of those days she had spent together with her, was enough to make her live through her lonely nights.
To think that there’s someone loved her enough to wait for her and kept on waiting in all these years.
Oh, she knew Kumi still waiting for her even though they rarely contacted each other, there was this one fan of her that kept on sending her mails with pen-name ‘Ookami-san’. The Ookami-san can be anyone though, but she recognized the hand-writing by heart, and how the person knew some things that only Kumi and Yuria knew.
As her eyes caught the figure of a woman waiting in front of the door, she smiled and walked slower. But the smile quickly disappeared when she saw that it's not the person she thought it was. Feeling confused, she took a deep breath and went towards the woman. "Hey, Yukko~, long time no see."
The said woman lifted her gaze up from her cellphone’s screen and smiled at her, “Hey, Yuria.”
“Why are you here?” Yuria saw Yukiko looked away with her ‘oh-shit’ face and felt her heart sunk. She knew several SKE members (if not all) knew about the promise she had with Kumi, and for Yukiko to be here instead of Kumi, only meant one thing. Kumi didn’t come. “O-oh…, I get it….”
“H-hey, cheer up, will you?” Yukiko patted Yuria’s back, inside her mind she was glad she could fool the younger girl. “C-come on, Onii-chan will treat you dinner, okay? Come on, Yuria.” She then took Yuria to a fancy restaurant. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Yuria’s eyes widen when she realized where Yukiko had took her. “Don’t worry. As I said before, I will pay. I have a nice thick wallet at the moment from the accessories I made with Shiitan.” Right before they entered the restaurant, Yukiko stopped, “Ah, I forgot I have to call someone. Yuria you go first, I’ve made a reservation under my name.”
So the Yuria went in on her own with one of the waitresses ushered her to a private room, and almost get a heart attack when she saw what, or more likely, who was inside the room.
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“K-kuuchan?!”
“Yuria!?”
The two sets of eyes locked with one another for a few while until…
“I thought you didn’t come!”
“I thought you have forgotten about the promise!”
They looked at one another. One was blinking and the other shaking her head.
“But why was Yukko waiting there?”
“I thought you sent Ogi-chan because you don’t want to go!”
They spoke at the same time again and laughed afterwards, realizing their friends had set them up. As the laughter died down, Kumi smiled warmly and patted the seat beside her, motioning Yuria to sit on it. As Yuria was sitting down, her hand reached for the older girl’s and she was just about to hug her, or maybe more, when the door opened with Ogiso and Yukko standing behind the door while grinning.
“You two! The fuck do you think you all doing!?”
This made Yukko turned her gaze to Ogiso while sighing, “Maaaan, Shiorin, why our dear little sister here still has such a foul mouth.”
“I know, Yukko. I’ve tried to make her stop cursing but…”
“Don’t ignore me and tell me what the heck is going on!?” Yuria cursed again, she knew they meant no harm, but she’s still angry from being fooled. Kumi on the other hand, she was just blinking and shifting her gaze from one person to the others, confused as well, but she doesn’t want to receive Yuria’s ire. So she opted to watch.
Yukko just shrugged, “Hey, don’t get angry at me. I just do what I was told to do.”
“Get angry at Mii-san if you want. She’s the one who came out with the idea to prank you two.” Ogiso added, her smile then turned into a mischievous smirk. “After all, what are you about to do when we opened the door? For you two to have your reunion in public places… you would end up in tabloid’s front page! Mii-san is actually thinking for your sake as well.”
The revelation made Kumi sighed. “That Mizuki…”
“Well, anyway…,” Ogiso moved to take her bag, “We’ll leave now. And, don’t worry about paying. Rena-san and Jurina-san already paid in advance. Bye you two. I’ll be waiting for the wedding invitation~” With that being said, Ogiso and Yukko left the two blushing woman inside the room again.
The End.
...I probably would make some epilogue drables, but.... we'll see...