@rndmnwierd: lol oh yes~
@HashirePomeranian: LOL yes, the sparkles will always be in effect
@Ada: aww~ that's so sweet, thanks!
@kurosawa87: lol yeah, i just threw in the 5th generation
@badsaints: LOL I know, right?? But Risa has a lot of pride as the class rep and stuff, so she won't give in too easily
@Michi.Pinku: OMG Eriku is coming~~~~ its like you read my mind!
@kano-chan: omg you read my mind too...
@fallenxangel: LOL future gf
@Tami_Ai: wait no longer! btw, i love the face
@kawaii beam: Oh yeah, Ai's not evil. It's just GAki being judgemental
@Haruka: the uniform thing will be cleared up a little here
@aussie: OMG does that mean you're korean too???
@oddball: LOL you'll probably succeed more with this fic then kokoro no uta, though, cuz i'll be more busy
And yeah, the ages are different. It's listed in the character profile post
and yeah, i came to love sayujun more
AHHH so many comments!!! thank you very much~
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Chapter 3 Eri carefully folded her uniform and placed it inside her messenger bag. She closed her gym locker with a loud smash of metal hitting metal, but it didn’t scare anybody since the changing room was already loud with the sound of girls chatting after the excitement of gym class. The turtle turned to her friend next to her, who was in the process of taking off her shirt.
“I’m leaving then,” she said. “Have fun helping Takahashi-sensei.”
“Where do you think you’re going?” Risa asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Um… home?” Eri answered, confused by the bean’s reaction. “Gym class was our last period of the day, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, but aren’t you going to change?” Risa asked again, referring to the turtle’s white t-shirt and black sweatpants. “You’re still wearing your gym uniform.”
“I’m too lazy,” Eri mumbled, ruffling her short hair. “Since we’re not going shopping, I think I’ll just go home, take a shower, and then change.”
“Actually, I have a favor to ask you, Eririn…” Risa said, smiling with big, expectant eyes.
“Oh, don’t give me that look,” the turtle whined. “You only call me Eririn when you want me to do something for you. I’m already kind of upset about you ditching me, you know.”
“Please, please, please?” the bean continued to beg, bending her knees a little to look up at her friend with puppy-dog eyes. “Just hear me out!”
“… Fine, what do you want?” Eri grumbled.
“The book that I’ve been telling you since last month!” Risa squealed, starting to jump up and down. “I have it reserved at the bookstore and I was supposed to go pick it up today! Could you do it for me, Eririn?”
“What do I get in return?” Eri asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
“I’ll help you with any homework for a week, a month, for as long as you want!” Risa offered, desperately staring at the turtle.
“That’s actually not a bad offer,” Eri said, nodding her head. It was true that she wasn’t doing so well in school since she always fell asleep… “Deal. I’ll go buy it for you.”
“Thank you so much, Eri!” Risa exclaimed, charging into the turtle to give her a hug. But Eri stepped aside before she could be embraced.
“You know you’re topless right now,” Eri said. She then grinned and spoke in a teasing tone. “Sorry, Risa-chan, but I don’t think of you that way. Oh, I hope we can still stay friends even though I’ve rejected your love—”
“You wish,” the bean grumbled, returning to her locker to snatch out the linen shirt of her uniform. The turtle laughed as she waved to her friend and walked out of the locker room.
As the final bell indicated the end of school, Eri skipped out the main entrance. Nobody had come out as early as her, so the front field was still pretty peaceful. The short-haired girl walked out through the gates and started to head towards the shopping district, where series of small stores were lined up in the streets.
Eri continued to walk a couple blocks down until she reached the bookstore. The welcoming voice of the store clerk rang out along with the chime of the bells hanging over the door. She started to walk down the rows of shelves, looking for the right column to go down in.
She finally found the right shelf and started to walk down the row while searching through the chain of books. When she didn’t see the right title the first time, Eri looked up to the upper shelves and walked down the row again. She stopped at one point and let out a sharp breath of air as her shoulders slumped.
It has to be all the way up there? She thought, biting her lips in frustration.
Risa-chan will be doing my homework for a year! With a sigh, Eri started to reach up towards the wanted book while standing on her tippy toes. Still unable to quite reach, she tried to stretch her muscles a little more. Her fingers managed to get a grip on the spine; but as she tried to pull it out, a couple other books on the side slid out with it. Eri reached her left hand up as well to push the unwanted books back into the shelf while grabbing the novel she needed with her right hand.
I got it! The turtle thought to herself, smiling.
Now to just pull it out… At that moment, the book that was right in front of Eri’s face got pulled out from the other side by someone. It was a girl with straight, light brown hair with a headband. She had a cute face and cat-like eyes that scrutinized the turtle’s surprised expression. Eri gasped. The girl on the other side of the shelf blinked a couple times before opening her mouth a little.
“Ara.”
“You!” Eri yelled, recognizing the petit girl that she had met before at the convenience store. “It’s really you— WOAH!”
Her feet started to falter from shock as Eri lost control over her motions. She tripped backwards as her right hand pulled out the book that she wanted along with a couple other heavy books in the same row. Eri let out a yell as she fell on her bottom while the chain of books fell on her head. She started to rub the back of her head that was in pain while looking down at the floor. A final book fell down from the top shelf and opened up on her head like a hat.
Before the turtle could reach up to remove the book, someone else took the weight away first. Eri looked up to see the petit girl wearing a brown school uniform, crouching in front of her while holding the book that had attacked her head.
“Still clumsy, huh, pretty boy?” she grinned.
“It’s you!” Eri yelled. She was unable to say anything else, much less think about anything else. She could only be grateful that she didn’t change back into her school uniform after gym class.
“You said that already,” the girl laughed.
“You— and I— trying to— money!” the turtle mumbled, eliciting another laugh from the cute girl.
Ugh, I sound so stupid right now! Get a grip, Eri! “Why don’t you clean up this mess first, before the store clerk comes?” the girl suggested, holding out the book in her hand. “There’s a stool over there, so you can use that.”
Why didn’t I think of the stool before? Eri thought, sighing.
I really look stupid now… Before she could do something else to come off as an idiot, the short-haired girl picked herself off the floor and retrieved the stool from the end of the shelf. She brought it back and picked up a couple books to put them back in their original spots. Reina started to stack the books in her arms so Eri could just take it from her hands without stepping down from the stool. After the tedious chore, Eri put the stool back where it was and returned to face the petit girl.
“Thanks for helping me,” she mumbled.
“That’s the most proper manner you’ve shown me since we met, pretty boy,” the girl smirked. “It’s a good thing the clerk didn’t show up. See you; be careful from now on!”
“W-wait!” Eri called, grabbing the short girl’s arm and spinning her around. She wasn’t about to send her off without even knowing her name like last time. “I… uh… still need to pay you back!”
“It was just 200 yen,” the girl chuckled. “You really don’t need to pay me back.”
“If you don’t want me to pay you back,” Eri insisted, “then at least let me show you my gratitude some other way.”
“… What do you have in mind?”
“We could, uh… get some ice cream… or something.”
The girl stared up at the fidgeting turtle and laughed softly. She was quite amused by this boy; he looked like a real wussy but in a way, he seemed sweet. She smiled as she nodded in approval to the invitation.
** ** **
Eri received the two vanilla cones from the ice cream stand man and walked back to the fountain where the petit girl was sitting at the edge. They were in the middle of the park where there were a lot of student couples and elementary school kids playing tag and hide-and-seek. There was a lady who was sitting on one of the benches, feeding pigeons. The turtle handed one of the cones to the cute girl she had fallen for and sat down next to her.
“Thanks,” the girl said, taking a lick of the soft ice cream.
“So, uh…” Eri hesitated, wondering how start up a conversation where she won’t make a fool out of herself. “What’s your name?”
“It’s proper manners to say your name first before asking the other’s,” the girl chuckled.
“Oh… Sorry,” the short-haired girl said, feeling her cheeks warming up. Great; she had already made a fool out of herself starting with the first sentence. “I’m Kamei Eri.”
“Eri?” the petit girl said, raising an eyebrow. “Isn’t that a girl’s name?”
“Oh! I, uh… you see here…” Eri stuttered, trying to find a good excuse. “See, my real name is, uh… Eriku! Yeah, it’s Eriku! My mom is from, uh… America! So she gave me a foreign name. But everyone calls me Eri.”
“I see,” the girl nodded
She started focusing her ice cream again while the turtle let out a sigh of relief. Eri felt like she just lost ten years off her life. Although she wanted to be honest with this girl, she was afraid that the revelation of her real gender may end everything right then and there. It wasn’t something she was about to risk.
“So, uh… what’s your name?” Eri asked carefully.
“Tanaka Reina,” she smiled. “You can just call me Reina.”
“Reina…” Eri breathed, feeling extreme happiness just from knowing this girl’s name. “So um, what school do you go to?”
“Morning Gakuen.”
“EHH? Really?”
“Is that something to be surprised about?” Reina asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well…” Eri hesitated, “I heard that school is filled with really smart and rich people…”
“Is that really the image the public has of us?” the short girl questioned, intrigued by the idea.
“Well… it’s quite a prestigious private school,” the turtle explained. “And it’s all-girls too…”
“Hm. I guess so.” Reina took a lick of her ice cream, indifferent to everything she just heard. “There’s really nothing too special about it though.”
“I see…” Eri nodded, taking a bite out of the soft ice cream before it could melt onto her hand. “So… how old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“Me too!” Eri exclaimed happily. “I’m seventeen too!”
“Seventeen isn’t that exciting a number, pretty boy,” Reina laughed.
“Oh, yeah, I know…” Eri mumbled, embarrassed by her overreaction. “Um, by the way… are you going to keep on calling me pretty boy?”
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it… I mean, you can call me by my name too… But if you like pretty boy then you can call me that—”
“I’ll switch around then, Eri,” Reina grinned, making the turtle blush at the sound of her name.
Before the turtle could ask more questions, the petit girl finished the last bite of her cone and stood up. Eri quickly got up as well, not wanting to let her go this way. She still wanted to know more about her; she still wanted to spend more time with her.
“Um, Reina—”
“Do you have a cell phone?” the short girl interrupted.
“Um, yes—”
“Let me see it.”
Eri quickly threw the ice cream away in the garbage can a couple feet behind her and started to rummage through her messenger bag. She unearthed her slide phone and handed it to the cat-like girl. Reina opened it and pressed a couple keys before returning it to its owner.
“Name and cell phone number,” she explained, as Eri opened her phone to examine the difference. “But you’ll have to work a little harder for the address.”
“Then it’s okay for me to call you?” Eri asked, her face brightening up.
“That’s usually the reason for giving phone numbers, pretty boy,” Reina giggled. “I have to go now. See you around, Eri.”
“Okay!” the turtle exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. “I’ll see you, Reina!”
The long-haired girl started to walk away towards the park exit. Eri stared at her back as she clutched her cell phone to her chest. She had done it! She knew her name, her school, her age… and even her phone number! Eri squealed to herself as she slid her phone open and searched for Reina’s name. She stared at the number with a goofy grin before gasping and breaking out of her happy bubble.
She seemed to know the basic things about Reina… but Reina didn’t even know her gender yet.
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i'm really starting to like reina's character... completely different from kokoro no uta, huh?