@maikea: ahh i missed the weekend but i was close enough
@arisa: lol i know it seems like they're officially together but they never confirmed it
which is dumb i've been careful trying to keep them from talking about it
@MsSmigge: LOL well i'm prone to breaking my promises...
@rndy: that, my friend, is self-confliction.
@risa_ai: ahahahaha it's a story, don't be mad
@correne: welcome~~~!
lol good to see you commenting! i hope you enjoy reading the rest of it too!
@yellow: lol yeah i'm making them all be idiots
@nora_nora: dudeee it's been a WHILE.
stick around, gosh.
Thank you for all the comments and the thanks~~
I'm working so hard to make this story move forward lol sorry if it seems rushed
But it's ALSO because i'll be leaving home again soon, and then i'll get busy again. So i'm trying to write a lot while i can!
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Chapter 20 – “Juliet was truly frightened of Cinderella” “I don’t know, Aika, I just felt really bad for her at that moment, you know? I mean, she’s never had a home-cooked meal before. What kind of person living in Japan has never had a home-cooked meal before? I just think that she’s probably lonely all the time… Can you imagine living alone in this big giant building by yourself? I don’t even know how she does it. Honestly.”
“And you think that you cooking for her and eating dinner with her will somehow make her less lonely or something? Gaki-san, you’re a lot of things but you’re not a house keeper.”
Risa groaned in frustration as she let her body fall backwards onto the sofa. She turned her body so that she was lying on top of it with her foot dangling off one end. She had been on the phone for the past hour or so, explaining to Aika how she had spent her past couple of days. When the topic of her cooking dinner for her boss came up, Aika had been less than eager to rejoice in her behavior.
“I’m telling you, it’s not like that,” the older woman emphasized. “Look, I think she just needs company. Everyone does. And I’m being that for her. Do you have any idea how lonely her job is? She works so hard, too. She left for a business trip today, Aika. On a Sunday. On a disgusting, rainy, Sunday. How terrible is that?”
“Okay, so her life isn’t the most wonderfully happy fairy tale ever,” Aika said over the phone. “My sympathies. But it doesn’t mean you have to volunteer for this job to be her… her friend, or dinner-buddy, or whatever you are.”
“Well, why not volunteer?” Risa argued back. “What’s so bad about making another friend? Tanaka Shachou is, contrary to popular belief, actually a normal person. And a very nice one. She has another side to her.”
“Gaki-san, I’m not doubting your boss’s character,” Aika explained. “I understand that she is a very nice person from what you’ve been telling me. But that’s not the point!”
“Then what is?”
“You’re supposed to be with Takahashi-san!” the younger girl said, sounding slightly annoyed. “You chose her over Tanaka Shachou so now, you have to stick by that choice.”
“… I’m not seeing the connection,” Risa said slowly. “What does Ai-chan have to do with me making a new friend?”
“… Please tell me you’re not blind.” When no answer came, Aika groaned again. “Okay, you’re blind. So I’m going to make this clear and precise for you: Tanaka Shachou is so very obviously still interested in you, Gaki-san. And you eating dinner with her every night might give her the wrong idea. Especially if she doesn’t know that you’re going out with Takahashi-san yet.”
“… Well…” Risa mumbled, “I told her I’m not.”
“… You what.”
“She asked, and I told her I’m not. I’m not going out with Ai-chan.”
“… And why would you say that?”
Risa sighed, squeezing her eyes shut before answering. “Because… because we’re not, okay? Ai-chan and I aren’t in a relationship. We’re not committed. We’re just… together. Just together.”
“… Something happened.”
Risa exhaled deeply again. Aika wasn’t asking. She was saying. She already knew. The girl was always a sharp one, especially when it came to her. Even when she was just a little kid, she could read Risa like a book. It was a useful asset, but also a bit frightening at times. It always put the bean in a situation where she would have to tell the girl everything. Even when she left out a little detail that she wanted to keep for herself, Aika would realize that there was more she hadn’t heard. So was Risa’s fate. And so was what she had to do now. She repeated every little word spoken in the phone conversation between her and Ai when they had discussed their relationship, practically venting out all her inner feelings while she was at it.
“I mean, what was I supposed to do, right?” Risa moaned. “We had never confirmed it or talked about what we really were! But she didn’t disagree with me either! She just said we were together. How was I supposed to react to that? Insist that we were a couple? I couldn’t do that, Aika!”
“Can I just say that this is really dumb? Of both of you?”
Risa remained speechless for a while, completely caught off-guard by Aika’s quick and harsh interjection. “Um. Okay.”
“Look,” the younger girl sighed, her tone low with forced calmness, “you made a mistake in telling Tanaka Shachou that you and Ai-chan aren’t in a relationship. But then you made a second mistake in telling Takahashi-san what you told Tanaka Shachou. You should’ve just told her what you wanted. But that’s not even my point.”
“What’s your—”
“My point is,” Aika cut in, not waiting for her friend to finish, “if Takahashi-san isn’t willing to commit to you and just you, than she doesn’t deserve you. She should be willing to have this bond with you if she truly feels strongly for you as we all thought she did but I don’t really see her fighting for you right now.”
Risa sighed again. She ran her fingers through her loose hair, hoping to help with the headache that she was starting to get. “But Aika… I love her.”
“I know you love her, Gaki-san, but… you deserve more.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Risa said, shaking her head. “You’re talking as if I have a choice. I love her, okay?
I love her. She loves me too but
I love her back. I need her as much as she needs me… no,
more than she needs me. Don’t you see, Aika? I’m not in a position where I can afford to choose.”
“… Can I just say that I think you’re an idiot?”
Risa kicked her heel against the sofa with a grunt of aggravation. She could practically see her young friend rolling her eyes at her. “I know, I know…”
“Okay, fine, whatever, you do what you want, Gaki-san, I have to get to class anyway,” Aika sighed in defeat. “But… I still think that you should keep some distance from Tanaka Shachou. Don’t let it get to anything more than a relationship between that of an employer and an employee, understand?”
“Hai, hai,” Risa answered half-heartedly. “Don’t be late to class. Take an umbrella, it’s raining pretty hard.”
“I will. Ja ne, Gaki-san.”
“Un. Mata ne.”
Risa hit the end button on her phone and let her hand drop by her side, her muscles happy to be finally relaxing. Grumbling for no particular reason, Risa twisted her body to the side to change her position on the comfy sofa. But just as she did so, her phone vibrated again. Risa checked the incoming call, raised her eyebrows, then quickly picked up.
“Moshi-moshi? Ai-chan?”
“Gaki-san, what floor do you live on in Bijou?”
The bean blinked, taken aback by the unexpected question. “What? Why?”
“Just tell me what floor!”
“Um… 28th?”
“So this is the right place!”
The signal clicked off without another minute’s warning. Risa remained frozen before starting to stare at her phone, utterly confused. “What the—”
Before she could finish her thought, a series of quick knocks came from the front door. Risa shot up and rolled off the couch. She bolted to the door and opened it without a moment’s hesitation.
Could it be…? The first thing Risa saw was flowers. A bouquet of it, to be precise: pink roses. As she gasped in complete utter amazement, the flower bouquet sank a little lower to reveal the face of her dear one behind it, smiling. There were droplets of rain still running down her skin but that didn’t hinder her natural beauty at all.
“I hope this isn’t a bad time,” she said, shrugging innocently.
“Even if it was, I wouldn’t say so,” the bean laughed.
“Great, then,” Ai grinned. She held out the bouquet in her hand along with a flat rectangular box that she had been holding behind her back with a plastic bag.
“What is all this?” Risa breathed, receiving the gifts slowly.
“Flowers for the beautiful lady, chocolates for the lonely girl, and rented movies for two hopeless women who have nothing else to do on a rainy, Sunday afternoon.” She leaned in and kissed the younger woman’s cheek. “Not that we would rather do anything else in the first place.” She winked with a smile, automatically making the bean smile back.
“Of course not,” she agreed, kissing her visitor on the lips. “Thank you, Ai-chan. This is very sweet of you.”
She motioned for the woman to come in as she went into the kitchen. Her past worries had melted away as soon as she saw Ai’s face. And how could it not? Just the image of her smiling was enough to make Risa lose her mind sometimes. It almost made her think that it was okay to leave things the way they are, despite Aika’s protests. She had Ai and Ai had her. What more did they need to confirm? I mean, the woman brought her flowers with chocolate and movies on a rainy day. This was enough, right?
After some adventurous explorations through the kitchen that she had yet to become familiar with, Risa managed to find a large bowl in the cupboard which she put in the sink, filled with water, and carefully placed the stem of the bouquet in.
“It’ll have to do since there’s no vase here,” she sighed. “By the way, shouldn’t you be at work?”
“Eri gave me the day off,” Ai said from the living room while turning the television on. “Said something about it being too beautiful a day to not stay indoors at home or whatever.”
Risa raised an eyebrow. “Interesting logic.”
“She has her moments,” the older woman chuckled. “But she also said I should take advantage of this oh-so-beautiful day to stay in with you. Which, in my book, is absolutely wonderful logic.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Risa smiled.
“So,” Ai said, holding up a couple DVDs, “should we go comedy or horror or sad or sappy?”
“Sappy?” Risa questioned.
“I don’t know, the girl at the movie rental place strongly suggested it,” the older woman explained, shrugging. “But it seemed like she was quite the… melodramatic type.”
“We’ll take her up on the suggestion,” Risa grinned. “Let’s go sappy.” Hopefully, the movie was boring enough that she could focus on something else other than the actual film.
“Sappy it is,” Ai laughed, cracking the case open. As she got the DVD into the machine and somehow figured out how to change the channel so it would appear on the screen, Risa dimmed the lights and made herself comfortable in her couch and opened the box of chocolates. After a short while, Ai was snuggled up by her side, helping herself to a piece of the milky candy she had brought.
The movie did not disappoint them: it was as sappy as they came. It was one of those old, black-and-white, American films that had many romantic and gushy moments that were, simply put, not possible in the real world. Just by watching it, Risa could imagine exactly how much of the “melodramatic” type the movie rental girl who suggested this was.
Even so, the bean would normally try to appreciate this sort of film but today, with total lack of concentration, she did not feel even an inkling of obligation to give the movie her attention. She was too preoccupied with the arm that was around her, holding her shoulder gently but firmly. In fact, she was pretty hyperaware of the rest of where the arm came from, it being the woman that she was cuddled up next to.
Ai didn’t seem as distracted as her companion, her eyes glued to the television. Occasionally, she would notice the bean looking at her and smile and start playing with her hair before they settled down on her shoulder again. But there was no doubt that her first priority seemed to be paying attention to the film. Well, not if Risa could help it.
“Nee, Ai-chan.”
“Hm?”
“What are you gonna do after the movie?”
“I don’t know.” Ai thought for a while before answering, “I might go back to Tresor.”
“I thought Kamei-san gave you a day off?”
“She did, but I feel bad about it,” Ai said guiltily. “I’m supposed to be there, working with her right now. Rain makes business a little slower but… still.”
“I see…”
Risa mumbled to herself as she let her head fall on Ai’s shoulder. After about a minute of silence, the older woman grabbed the remote and paused the movie. Risa looked up at her with a questioning expression.
“Ai-chan?”
“I don’t think you’re really enjoying the movie,” Ai said. “Do you want to watch a different one?”
“No, no, it’s fine,” the bean replied. “You like it. We can finish it.”
Ai wrinkled her eyebrows. “What makes you think I like it?”
This time, it was Risa’s turn to scrunch up her eyebrows. “You… don’t?”
“Well, I don’t hate it but I don’t like it either,” Ai said. “I thought you liked it.”
“What made you think I liked it?”
“You picked it, Gaki-san…”
Risa blinked a couple times. “… Oh. I did, didn’t I?”
Ai laughed at the girl’s expression. “Gaki-san, if you didn’t want to watch it, why did you pick it?”
“I only picked it because I thought it would be boring enough that we’d be able to do other stuff during it,” Risa admitted, a hint of frustration in her voice.
“Other things?” Ai laughed again, raising an eyebrow. “Really, Gaki-san? Really?”
“Not that kind of stuff!” Risa retorted, hitting the older woman gently on her head. “I mean like… just talking. I just thought that we could talk.”
“Talking’s good, We can talk.” Ai turned her body towards the bean, indicating that she had her full attention. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I don’t know… Anything,” Risa sighed. “I feel like we haven’t had much chance to talk to each other this week. We’ve both been busy and I’ve been getting used to this and all…”
“True,” Ai agreed. “It would’ve been nice if you just stayed at my place. We could’ve seen each other more, then… I could never say that in front of Sayu, though. She is fully appreciating our home these days.”
Risa laughed a little. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stay. Were you upset?”
Ai’s face hardened a little at this, almost as if she was angry. But she shrugged nonchalantly instead. “Not really. I guess, a little. But you had no choice; it’s never a good idea to disagree with your employer’s idea.”
Risa smiled half-heartedly, fairly disappointed that her leaving hadn’t affected Ai as much as she had wanted it to. “I guess you’re right. It was all of the better, I think. I think it’s safe to say that I’m on Tanaka Shachou’s good side. I really hope this means I can get a permanent position here.”
“I hope you get it, too,” Ai nodded. “You definitely deserve it.”
Risa nodded as well in response, expressing her thanks. This conversation wasn’t exactly going towards where she wanted it to. But a part of her couldn’t deny the fact that she was relieved that it was like this. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to touch upon the subject of their relationship right now. Yes, Aika had insisted she must talk this out with Ai but it was easier said than done. What if things go wrong because of this? That was something Risa would not be able to bear. She treasured Ai more than anything else in the world now, and that was what made her so frightening. To her, Ai was the loveliest, yet the scariest person in her life.
“Ai-chan.”
“Yes?”
Her eyes rose up until it made contact with Ai’s gaze. “I really like you… you know.”
“I like you, too,” Ai replied casually.
Then, Risa reached forward and grabbed the collar of Ai’s shirt and pulled her in, kissing her lips softly but firmly. Ai seemed a little surprised by the sudden action but didn’t back away. Slowly, Risa leaned back until her back hit the sofa cushions, making it so that Ai was on top of her. She broke away to breathe in a little air without breaking her eye contact for even a second. They were the same dark brown eyes that she had met, seen, and known for months now, but the spark was always there when she gazed into them. It was what got her heart racing, every time, without fail. It was the reason why Risa could not escape.
“I love you,” she confessed.
“I love you, too,” Ai whispered without missing a beat.
And that’s enough for now. Keeping her thoughts silent, Risa kissed her love again, slowly and sincerely, being careful with every move. Ai graciously followed her pace, allowing her to lead. Neither of them knew how it happened but they eventually ended up off the couch and standing somehow. With their arms still wrapped around each other, their lips locked together, their feet automatically led them away into the bedroom where they would experience a replay of their passion from a past night.
** ** **
“Here’s the coffee you asked for, Tanaka Shachou.”
“Ah. Arigatou gozaimasu.”
Reina smiled politely at the stewardess who placed a steaming cup of coffee down on her little pull-out table. She shuffled the papers that she was going through into a folder and shoved it into the seat pocket in front of her for the time being, deciding that now was a good time to take a small break. Even while traveling in an airplane, President Tanaka’s work never stopped. Or rather, she didn’t let it stop. It wasn’t too bad though; at least she had plenty of space and all the comfort she needed in the first class. Plus, she was a VIP. She was treated like royalty on most planes.
After a small sip of the coffee, Reina looked up to find that her secretary had approached her. She wasn’t dressed as formally as she usually was today, what with it being a traveling day, but she was still presentable enough in a classy business-like dress with low heels and her hair pulled back in a neat ponytail. She bowed her head a little in greeting and handed her boss a yellow file.
“I got you what you asked for,” she said. “It took a while but I got it.”
“I knew you would be able to do it,” Reina smiled. She opened the flap and pulled out the contents, flipping through them swiftly but thoroughly. “Everything else I asked for is settled as well, I presume?”
“The investigation is going to take a little longer, but the bank is confident that it will draw to a close, eventually,” Junjun answered. “And of course, they were willing to cut a deal with us. So yes, everything is set.”
“Excellent. Thank you, Junjun.”
The panda stood for a little, hesitating without going back to her seat. “Ano… Shachou?”
“Hm?”
“Are you sure about this?” she asked carefully.
“Of course I’m sure,” the president replied immediately. “I’m always sure.”
“I know, but… may I ask why?”
“Do you have a particular reason as to why I can’t?”
“No, that’s not it.” Junjun sighed, taking a pause before she continued. “It’s a kind gesture, no doubt, but the gesture itself, Shachou, to me, seems a bit too… big.”
“It’s a very small gesture compared to what she’s done for me,” the kitten said, putting the papers back into the yellow folder.
“And exactly what is that?”
Reina smiled. “She’s given me a new taste in life. Quite literally.”
Junjun frowned. “I’m… not following.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Reina chuckled to herself as she picked up her coffee and took another sip. “Thank you for your concern, Junjun, but I’m absolutely sure of what I’m doing. It’s something I truly want to do for her right now.”
Anything for her.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Topic: Juliet and Cinderella ~ [UPDATE - Chapter 22 - (10/28)] (Read 104256 times)