@jhom_09, there is just something about those sad songs, I guess... makes us think, stop for a minute, lister for 10 times in a row and so on... haha, honestly sad songs usually inspire me to write
and yeah, the wedding has happened! yeyeyeyey
@RenshuChan, there will be some in this chapter
@arawche079, it took me forever to write this next chapter... sorry
@sasshirie, sorry for the wait!
@rindg, yeah the 'wedding bells' happened already... now it is time to concentrate on what happens 'after the wedding', thanks for the comment... I guess Jurina is opening her heart for Annin which is a good thing, everyone deserves to be happy/find their happiness
Chapter 17
Yuko couldn’t comprehend what surprised her more. The fact that she did actually just got married to… well quite a stranger, instead of someone she dreamed to be with from childhood, the fact that she didn’t mind it, or the fact that she started missing Haruna went she left for her work trip.
The situation even worsened, ending in more confusion, when Haruna had no other choice but to make her trip longer and promised to be back in two weeks. Maybe, one week would have been enough to keep Yuko’s sanity and stop the questions but now… she couldn’t understand herself anymore.
The first thing Yuko had to do after all ‘official marriage’ thing was move into Haruna’s apartment. She was accompanied by Jurina and Milky, since her two best friends were too curious to pass an opportunity to check the rich person’s home. Yuko felt weird though… since Haruna wasn’t there and she was invading her privacy.
Yes, before leaving Haruna assured that Yuko needs to be comfortable since it is going to be her home from now on and she needs to find places for her things, wardrobe and other personal belongings. The worst part of it all was probably THE BIGGEST picture on a wall with a short kiss that they had to share during their ’10 minutes’ marriage ceremony.
It felt the same like ‘getting married in Vegas’, everything was in a rush, but still they had a personal photographer who captured their everyone move. Ironically, it was Haruna’s father idea to take this photo and present it for the world to see in their home.
To see herself in a short but sweet kiss with Haruna, whenever she came to the living run (which happened every day, since Yuko had to come there after waking up), was some sort of torture. Especially, when Yuko was still uncertain what is going to happen between the two from now on.
Milky (HER OWN FRIEND) wasn’t helping either. Instead, she took as many photos as their photographer and teased Yuko whenever she got a chance, showing all the different angles and leaving comments like:
“you two look great, am I right?”;
”aww…look at that shy smile of yours…I think it is been awhile since I saw it”;
”oh…I have captured the kiss moment! I’m living every fangirls dream!”;
”this one is my personal favorite! Haruna is hugging you like her life depends on in… so close yet so far… I mean it in an ironic way… since you know… she’s away now… but in this photo you were so close… were you even able to breathe?”
Milky wasn’t better to Jurina either. Since Jurina showed up with Annin; Milky took her time and stole few photos of the guests of the wedding as well. Ironically, the only guests that actually got some pictures were those two.
They looked cute and shy in those photos, so Milky come up with phrases like:
“You could have at least held her hand”;
”oh you should have hugged her from behind”;
”or at least smile and look at each other lovingly… haven’t you learn anything from Yuko? Look how great those two look at camera. Does it look like that trying hard? No, they are not. But it is just chemistry, undeniable chemistry!”
Both Yuko and Jurina couldn’t actually escape Milky, so getting tortured like this at least ‘once a day’ didn’t help for either of their cases. It sometimes intensifies and ruined all Jurina’s and Milky’s chances of finding a roommate.
The girls searched for all week, every day… having at least two candidates per day… but most of the girls ran away petrified after witnessing two best friend bickering (that they would get to see for every single day). No one really wanted to come between the two… and in the end Jurina decided to take some extra work, in that way they wouldn’t even need to search for a roommate.
Matsui used her chance finding a vacant place in Annin’s dance studio, but of course after that she had to hear even more sarcastic Milky’s comments:
“aww, if you wanted to do this from the start you should have, why put me through this week with those weird girls leaving one after the other?”;
”so you will spend even more time from now on? How about making it official since…you’re not a nun. I know this since I caught you once with Rena… worst experience of my life, but you were definitely enjoying yourself”.
Despite this sort of teasing, Jurina and Yuko knew that is it harmless and that’s just how Milky gets sometimes. Especially, when she tries to avoid the reality or hide the hurt. So the two girls never retaliated and let Milky continue, pretending to be more annoyed that they were.
Yuko smiled after getting a new message from Haruna and already started wondering about an answer, at the same time when Asuka stepped out of the elevator and noticed the small smile on her dork co-workers face “our boss is interrupting your work again?”
“Duh? Oh…it is just…”
“Oh come on… you don’t need to hide it from me. Also… I’m kind of glad that you feel more free with communicating between each other right now. I thought these few weeks will make you more distant from one another than… you already were sometimes… well with you keeping your distance and Haruna… wondering if she should overstep it or not”
Yuko squinted her eyes slightly confused about the comment but didn’t have a chance to actually think about it (or fully grasp the meaning behind it), when Asuka spoke up again.
“I do remember that the first week, you only sometimes messaged each other, or she called few times but it lasted like 3–5 minutes… asking random things about each others day… is it because of that interview you will have to give to press right after Haruna gets back? Once again…as a reminder, I’m only talking about the first week…”
Unsure how to react Yuko just nod her head. She learned with time that whenever she didn’t know how to answer Asuka, or can’t actually understand what the other girl wants from her, she needs to nod or shake her head, and Mocchi gets straight to the point.
“What I mean is… that I’m happy you two are getting along…and despite this distance you’re actually getting closer. Don’t try to lie… I had to practically drag you out of the toiler the other day, when you still kept on talking with Haruna for… an hour… maybe longer… do you keep it up after going back home too?”
Yuko shrugged her shoulders this time “I mean… sometimes… well we do wish each other goodnight… so we usually talk for a bit…”
“For a bit means… that you talk before you fall asleep?”
“N…a…h…?”
“So it happened?” Mocchi raised her eyes suggestively and laughed quite content with the information she somehow managed to get from Yuko.
Knowing that she’s already busted, Yuko just sighed defeated “once. It happened once… and it wasn’t me who has fallen asleep… it was Haruna and she even started snoring so…”, unconsciously Yuko smiled at the memory but forced herself to shook her head since Mocchi still kept on smirking teasingly.
“Please just don’t… I hear enough from my friend Milky…”
“Teasing machine?”
“Something like that… none of the things I do goes unnoticed so… since I’ll be probably hearing the same stuff and need to make excuses to go into the other room so I could make a short phone-call to my…well… wife… I wish to be at piece at least for now”.
Mocchi laughed, but after all, she nod her head without fighting, only adding one last comment before walking away “Don’t forget to text Haruna back. She must be anxious by now… without getting your answer for five minutes”.
Yuko rolled her eyes at another silly remarked. She squinted her eyes staring at Mocchi at least for a minute and trying to prove a point.
“I’m serious…”
As if one queue, after yet another comment, Yuko got a new message from Haruna and looked down, feeling embarrassed that people seemed to notice more than she does.
Truthfully, Mochi was right, and even Yuko knew it.
The first week between Haruna and Yuko was quite formal… they asked about each other day, shared some memories or better moments, agreed to talk the other day and ended their conversations. It never lasted longer than 5 minutes, since Haruna was really busy with work and Yuko didn’t really know what to say to her ‘wife’.
Of course… as Yuko mentioned, they did send ‘good night’ messages to each other, though not because they had to, simply because they wanted to.
After a call from Haruna on Saturday night that she will have to prolong her trip for one more week and she feels sorry about not doing things the way she said she will. They started talking longer. It wasn’t planned and it wasn’t intentional. But whenever something funny happened between her two friends, Yuko took a photo and send it too Haruna.
They also discussed that whole ‘big photo on the wall’ situation, that might be really awkward, and in a form of messages Yuko started whining how it is annoying her.
Whenever getting a chance, Haruna took photos of her food and send them to simply annoyed Yuko, knowing that her ‘wife’ really likes food and she must be really jealous about the delicacies Haruna gets.
One evening, Yuko was so full of impressions (since it was also the day when Jurina announced that she started dating Annin) that she couldn’t help herself and told Haruna everything about it.
“I don’t know if it was actually planned… the first thing… well you’re aware of a fact that Milky and Jurina are like cat and dog…and they scared all the potential roommates away… after this Jurina decided to find some extra job and surprisingly ended in Annin’s dance studio.
Obviously, Annin was more than excited to spend more time with my best friend… though I think they spend all their evenings together, because Jurina went to her studio after finishing up work, and Annin waited for her. Those two pretended to be taking things slow but couldn’t have enough of one another with spending more and more time together…
So with this opportunity, now Jurina spends there half a day… well firstly, doing the things she needs to do in the morning and then, going straight there. Of course, it is not like they’re together every time. Depends on the clients, of music and dance style… Annin also has her off days… though Milky commented that on those days Jurina always visits her with an excuse to tell how well the classes went…
So yesterday… Annin out of the blue suggested a sleepover. Well… a simple sleepover… not the pervert stuff… muahaha… not that Jurina would have minded… though if you believe everything that Milky says… Jurina had a phone call when those two were together and Milky said that Jurina looked like a caught deer… wide eyed… unable to form words… so obviously she was imagining pervert stuff.
Luckily, Annin was kind enough to explain to Jurina that she would like to watch some movies, talk a bit more.. since she has already been in Jurina’s home for a bit… and it might be time to visit hers… Actually Annin was even kind enough to invite Milky to join in… well Milky doesn’t know about since…of course Jurina didn’t told her about it.
No one, who’s clever enough, would tell such things to Milky… since she would have joined… I’m 100% sure of it… just to annoy Juri and get in between… so yeah… Jurina went to Annin’s home for that simple girls night out… they talked a lot… watched some romantic comedy… Jurina doesn’t even remember the title of it… so imagine how much they actually watched of it…
Though… Jurina swears that they haven’t actually done anything… she’s playing innocent with us… so they talked, drank tea or coffee, talk again…and all of a sudden Annin asked what they are now… yes! My friend couldn’t even ask such an important question! Though I do remember they agreed take it slow…
With that in mind…Annin said something between the lines ‘that she’s okay right now…quite a lot of time pass and by the way Jurina behaves… she believes that she’s not just Jurina’s rebound girl…
Jurina says that she sealed the moment with a kiss and they got together, agreed on dating. Obviously, I believe that for at least 5 minutes Jurina murmured something, stuttered and tried to find the right words…but I can’t really know since I couldn’t witness the scene myself… wait… are you snoring?”
Yes, Haruna probably fall asleep in the middle of Yuko’s story, but it was the first evening that Yuko felt absolutely comfortable with the other girl. She liked talking, there was no denying it… but whenever she get together with Haruna…somehow they seemed to lack with conversation (except the very first evening they met, when Yuko lied about her real name and they ended up not only talking but doing other stuff too).
After that evening, though, it appeared that they opened a new door, a door without holding back and telling each other every detail of their days. Haruna even joked one evening that some random girl hit on her at the bar while she waited for clients. While Yuko laughed it off but felt a pang of jealousy.
The truth was… the two weeks went both fast and agonizing slowly… the fast part — they spend most of their times either messaging or talking on the phone, the slow part — there was no end to waiting.
It was a Saturday evening once again, and Yuko (together with Milky, Jurina and Annin), spend their evening in Atsuko’s and Takamina’s home. Sayaka was away because of her job, which was a good thing since Milky was there too.
It was still way too awkward between the two and after the conversation outside the bar, they ignored each other. Milky even heard that Sayaka started dating some co-worker of hers, but surprisingly it didn’t hurt as much as before…
So while spending quite a lovely evening at friends’ home and laughing around, Yuko felt quite nervous with thoughts that Haruna might call her and tell that she might not be able to get back home again… Haruna even had to reassure Yuko with her messages that she’s indeed coming back tomorrow morning.
So a bit more calm after the reassurance Yuko enjoyed the rest of the evening with her friends, hearing how Milky complained that she’s the only single one around the table and that she obviously lost the bet, or hearing for a second time the shorter and shyer version of how Annin and Jurina got together.
Jurina looked even happier when she get confirmation from Takamina and Atsuko that they’re indeed supporting the couple and they believe it is a good fit. Though most likely she enjoyed this moment since she definitely won against Milky and smirked mischievously.
By the end of the evening Jurina remember about her phone left in the kitchen and decided to leave the girls and walked out to check on it. She didn’t actually left since she could see them clearly while standing behind the table, or even hear pretty much every word they said, but still there was some sort of distance between Jurina and them.
Taking her phone into her own hands Matsui got honestly surprised after noticing a new message…even more surprised when that message came from Rena.
Rena: Hey. Sorry I kept on bothering you lately. This is the last message that I’m going to send you since… obviously I shouldn’t. Or that’s what your bodyguard friend thinks. Even when I called I didn’t actually get an answer… so I need to know. How are you doing? You do know that despite of everything I still care, right? So I would be truly thankful if you could let me now at least that… Bye”.Matsui reread the message for at least five times before realizing what might have been happening and raised her head to look back at the table, where quite happily Milky joked around with others, this time even laughing with Annin, after some joke she just cracked.
Honestly, Jurina had no idea what to think or how to feel… normally, you should be in rage after founding such things… but seeing her happy friends…
having Annin… and knowing what kind of reaction Rena’s messages might have caused from her…
Jurina just couldn’t get angry.
She will obviously has to talk with Milky about it, the younger girl was sure of that…but for some unknown reason she smiled shortly, deciding that she will message Rena later, and once again leaving her phone, Jurina went back into the living room, where the laugher and chatter didn’t seem to end or quiet down for the rest of the evening.
Next morning Yuko couldn’t help but feel nervous… anticipating the return of Haruna and not knowing what she must say to the other girl… obviously, all kinds of panicky thoughts creped into her mind. That maybe they are more comparable when Haruna is away… maybe it will all change…
Also, Yuko wasn’t really sure what she wants yet… she couldn’t deny the attraction for Haruna and with this constant communication it definitely went past that… but isn’t it too soon?
Yuko shook her head a bit annoyed by all the annoying thoughts and decided to concentrate on them later, since at the moment she had more important meeting to attend… and by mentioning meeting…
She obviously had ‘the surprise picking Haruna from the airport’ in mind.
A/N: sorry for the long wait... argh... I haven't even noticed that it has been a month