Sorry! I'm in a rush, so no comment replies! But I did read everything and I truly appreciate how you guys are sticking with me!
Things have been quite hectic for me (midterms, research papers, other essays, etc.) which resulted in this severe inactivity, but I'm really am trying!
Hopefully, this chapter will make you guys feel better?
I didn't get to even revise this chapter so if there are mistakes, please let me know~ and bare with the poor wording if there are any
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Chapter 18 Eri kicked the pebble across the field, being careful not to hit anybody. She zipped up her red sweatshirt half way and pushed down her cap onto her head. Girls stared at her and giggled and whispered as they left the school, but Eri kept her gaze straight. She only cared about one girl and one girl only: the person who had texted her during lunch time to come pick her up after school.
The turtle smiled as she thought of her girlfriend— she could finally call her “girlfriend”— and her invitation to go to the aquarium today. The tickets they had won at Café Buono was about to expire, so they had to use it fast. But Eri’s smile faltered a little as her bean friend’s words echoed in her head. She had to confess her real gender today, and she had to do it soon.
How would Reina react? Would she understand? Would she care? Or would she dump her and never see her again? Eri shuddered at the thought. She didn’t she could live without seeing the kitten anymore; Reina was already such a big part of her life that she could never let go. But if Reina lets go first… what could Eri do?
“Don’t make such a sad face, pretty boy; a smile suits you more.”
Eri jumped with a start and looked to her side. Next to her was a petit girl who wore a grin that seemed like the brightest thing in the world to the turtle. She couldn’t help but smile back.
“I wasn’t making a sad face,” Eri denied.
“Oh please, you should’ve seen yourself,” Reina scoffed, rolling her eyes. “You looked like a turtle that lost its shell. What’s on your mind?”
“Um… you see… that’s, uh…”
“So this is the famous boyfriend!”
Reina gasped as she felt someone jump on her from behind and bring her into a tight hug. Eri’s eyes widened at the tall black-haired girl who was smirking at her. Two shorter girls came up to Reina’s side and linked their arms with hers.
“Oh wow, you’re prettier up close!” one of the short girls said with a heavy accent.
“You’re a little
too pretty though,” the other short girl grumbled. “Are you sure you’re a boy?”
“Don’t be silly, Aika,” the tall girl who was hugging Reina laughed. “We promised not to make that joke, remember?”
“I know, I know…”
“What do you guys think you’re doing?” Reina yelled, breaking free from the tall panda’s arm and standing next to her “boyfriend”. “And don’t creep up on me like that, Jun.”
“Hey, we just wanted to meet our friend’s boyfriend,” Junjun said, holding up her hands in defense. “You should introduce us Reina, because we’re not leaving until we meet him.”
“… Fine,” the kitten sighed, knowing the panda was right. “Guys, this is Kamei Eriku, Eri for short. Eri, these are my… uh…
friends… Junjun, Aika, and Linlin.”
“Nice to meet you, Eri,” Junjun said, offering her hand. “I don’t know how you managed to melt down this ice block here but congratulations anyway.”
“Uh, thanks,” Eri answered, shaking the yankii leader’s hand.
“You seem like a nice person, Eri!” Linlin greeted. “Please take good care of Reina-senpai.”
“If you ever hurt her, I won’t forgive you,” Aika grumbled.
“Now, Aika, that’s my job,” Junjun grinned. “Just stay cool and we can all be friends, Eri.”
“Uh, right…” the turtle said. The tallest girl seemed nice enough, but something about her smile made her shiver.
“Okay, wonderful, we’re all friends,” Reina said flatly. “Now can we leave and trust that you girls won’t follow us?”
“Yeah, go and enjoy your date or whatever,” Junjun laughed. “Nice meeting you, Eri.”
“Nice meeting you too—”
“Great, great, great, let’s leave!” the ex-yankii said quickly. She grabbed the turtle’s hand and started to run, dragging Eri behind her. Junjun smirked while Linlin just grinned at the happy couple. Aika crossed her arms and pouted.
“He doesn’t even look strong enough to protect Reina-senpai!” she complained. “He looks all girly and flimsy.”
“It’s not like Reina needs any protection,” Junjun chuckled. “Eri seems like an interesting character.”
“I like him!” Linlin exclaimed. “He seems pretty together.”
“Yeah…” Junjun agreed, raising an eyebrow. “But there’s something about him that’s a little… off.”
** ** **
“I can’t believe… we ran… all the way… here…” Eri huffed, trying to take in some oxygen.
“Sorry… I didn’t… want them… to bother… us…” Reina wheezed, also breathing heavily.
The two girls straightened their backs, still trying to calm their breath. They had run all the way to the aquarium without stop, due to Reina’s insecurity about her “friends”. They were still holding hands when Eri started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” the kitten raised an eyebrow.
“You’re friends seem pretty nice,” Eri chuckled. “They’re really clingy but you just couldn’t wait to get away from them. I don’t know; it was interesting to watch you lose your cool for a second there.”
“I didn’t lose my cool!” Reina said, her cheeks blushing. “It’s just… I wanted to be alone with you as soon as possible…”
The ex-yankii’s face turned even redder as she started to slightly regret saying that. Eri’s eyes widened as she blushed a little too. She then smiled and put her arm around her petit girlfriend.
“I want to be with you too,” the turtle whispered. Reina smiled and looked down shyly. Eri had never seen her act like this before. It was kind of cute.
So the turtle took her girlfriend’s hand and led her into the aquarium. Reina handed the ticket booth lady their free passes and they were immediately let in.
“So,” Eri started, “where do you want to go first?”
“Anywhere is fine,” Reina smiled.
“That’s actually the worst answer you could give me,” Eri groaned, “because now I really don’t know where to take you…”
“Well, if I have to choose…” Reina murmured, grinning mischievously. She tiptoed to whisper into the turtle’s ear, “How about a nice, quiet corner where we can do something fun together alone?”
Eri gasped as she felt the temperature of her cheeks skipping up a couple degrees. The kitten backed away to face her “boyfriend” with a smirk and quickly pecked “him” on his cheek.
“Just kidding,” she giggled. “Let’s go see the penguins first!”
With that, Reina skipped away merrily, her long straight brown hair swishing behind her. Eri just stared at her girlfriend, awe-stricken, and adjusted her cap.
I lost to her again, the turtle thought, sighing.
She’s totally playing with me right now. Not like I mind so much, but… “Eri, come on!” Reina called happily, holding out her hand. She was about ten feet away now, waiting for her lover to take her hand.
I guess I can play along in her game for a while, Eri thought, grinning.
She’s one in a million; I’ll do anything for her. The turtle quickly skittered through the lobby and took her girlfriend’s hand. Together, the couple found a map to direct them to the penguin exhibit, and continued on to their destination.
Throughout the whole day, the two girls visited almost every exhibit they could; most of them were requests from Reina but Eri was only happy to oblige so it didn’t matter so much. The best part of the day for Reina was probably the ice cream; she was actually quite scared of all the animals but not the penguin-shaped popsicle. The worst experience for the kitten was the dolphins; ironically enough, that was the best part of the day for Eri.
“Ah, this is scary!” Reina screamed. “Yada!”
“Relax, Reina!” the turtle laughed. “I thought you wanted to do this?”
“I did!” the ex-yankii screamed back in an overly loud voice. “But I thought you were going to do this with me!”
“Oh… Sorry about that. I, uh… have a slight cold so… I don’t want it to get worse.”
It was an excuse of course; Eri knew she couldn’t get in the water topless like actual guys with a life vest on. So Reina was in the outdoor water pool with a dolphin trainer, floating on the deep side, getting ready to surf with the dolphins.
“Kowai, kowai, KOWAI!” Reina continued to scream at the top of her lungs. “YADA!”
“Okay, are you set?” the dolphin trainer yelled. “Please firmly grab onto the dorsal fins! Okay, let’s go!”
The trainer gave the signal and the two dolphins started to swim full speed at the floating kitten. Reina stared with a worried expression at her lover, who was standing near the steps with only her feet in the water. She grinned and mouthed words of encouragement. But for a moment, Reina started concentrate too much on the way Eri was smiling, like the way her mouth curved up to reveal her crooked smile, and the way her eyes arched into those eye-smiles…
“Ichi… Ni… San!”
Reina suddenly perked back to life and realized the dolphin’s fins slipped right from her hands.
“It’s okay, Reina!” Eri yelled. “Just try again!”
“You want me to TRY AGAIN?” Reina shrilled. “Why don’t YOU show me how it’s done, Eri?”
“If you don’t do it now, you’re going to regret it later!” Eri teased.
“… Fine,” the kitten sniffed.
And so, the dolphins dashed towards the scared girl again. But this time, she made sure she didn’t look at her “boyfriend” for any encouragement and was able to completely focus on the dolphins; in the end, she managed to latch onto their dorsal fins and swim across the pool.
“That was great, Reina!” Eri laughed. “Otsukaresama~”
“I thought I was going to have a heart attack…” Reina huffed, shuffling out of the pool. She shivered a little and sneezed a couple times. Eri quickly put a large towel around her alone with her own arms. She embraced her girlfriend tightly and kissed her on the head.
“You did great,” Eri whispered. “I’m proud of you.”
“Mm… I think this made that worthwhile,” Reina mumbled back, smiling.
Other than that big laugh, Eri was content with just following around Reina wherever she wanted to go, and tried to think of ways she could confess her real gender to the girl of her dreams. But their aquarium date was going so well, Eri hardly wanted to ruin that. But Risa’s voice didn’t stop echoing in her head, and she knew her bean friend was right. Reina had to know the truth and know the truth now before something else happened.
At the end of their tour around the aquarium, the couple ended up in a long underwater tunnel where various fishes swam all around them. The water itself seemed to glow in the dark corridors aside from the faint stream of light on the floor. The tunnel was mostly empty because there were a lot of animal shows going on at the same time, but Reina and Eri had already caught the first shows in the afternoon. Reina walked up to one side of the glass and observed the colorful fishes.
“Kirei…” she whispered. “They’re beautiful…”
“I can think of something more beautiful than the fishes here,” Eri said, stepping next to her girlfriend, “or someone.”
“That’s the oldest line in the book, Eri,” Reina laughed. “You have to come up with new ones to impress me.”
“Is there a deadline?” Eri joked.
“You have all the time you need,” Reina smiled.
She wrapped her arms around her lover’s neck and brought herself closer to Eri’s warm arms. The turtle responded back by embracing her girlfriend back. She stroked the shorter girl’s hair for a while, which was still a little wet from the dolphin surfing. Eri bit down on her lips and pulled away a little to face her girlfriend.
“Look… Reina,” she started nervously. “I haven’t been completely honest with you this whole time. Everything you see— my looks, my character, my personality— it’s all real. But there’s one thing I’ve been hiding from you. And I know this may be selfish of me, but I really hope whatever I say next won’t change anything between us.”
“Hey, I told you I used to be a delinquent,” Reina grinned. “I almost ended up with a prison record. I want nothing more than for you to be completely honest to me too.”
“Really?” Eri said, feeling a little hopeful.
“Of course. And speaking of being honest…” Reina hesitated, “is it okay if I confess just one more thing?”
“More than okay,” Eri answered. “You go first.”
“The truth is, when I first met you… I thought you were a girl,” Reina laughed nervously, biting down on her lips. Eri’s expression tightened but she didn’t say anything. So the kitten continued on, “But from the way you were dressed, you looked like a boy. I just decided that you were a real baby-face and called you, ‘pretty boy’, remember that? You were so cute back then, so innocent and clueless with the money and stuff! You weren’t even my type at all but I guess I was attracted to you even back then. So somehow, I made myself believe that you were a boy. And you were… so I couldn’t be happier right now. Does this all sound weird to you?”
“… Um, just a little…” Eri mumbled. What could she say now? Reina just confessed that she was happy to discover that Eri was a boy! How could she reveal her true gender after that?
“I knew it sounded weird…” Reina said, scratching her head. Her cheeks turned soft pink as she started to think of what to say next. “But I still want to let you know that I’m not treating you like a kid or anything, I mean… you’re my boyfriend. And I couldn’t hope for a better lover. I guess I’m just trying to say… su… ki… yo… hontou ni… mm… d-dai… su—”
“Is it really that hard to say?” Eri laughed nervously.
“Hey, I’m trying my best here!” Reina whined, blushing furiously.
“It’s okay, Reina,” the turtle chuckled. “I can tell from your face anyway. I guess this is something I can teach you.”
With that, Eri pulled her girlfriend back into her arms and leaned close to her ears.
“Reina wa kawaii,” she whispered, grinning. “Dakara suki. Daisuki.”
“… Shut up…” the ex-yankii mumbled.
She could feel her heart about to explode from her chest. She had been held by other guys before but nobody had been this sweet to her. She lightly punched Eri’s shoulder and hung her head down, refusing to show her red face to the chuckling turtle. But Eri only tilted her head more to meet eyes with the shy kitten. Following her lover’s lead, Reina slowly raised her head and closed her eyes. A second later, she felt the softness of Eri’s lips meet with hers, followed by the sweetness of her tongue. They swirled around each other, each trying to get more of the other. Eri gently pushed Reina against the glass wall and trapped her in her arms, pushing her lips against hers more fiercely. Reina removed Eri’s cap and knotted her fingers into the short hair of her lover to get even more into the kiss. Together, they completed each other. All the emptiness that Reina had felt in the past no longer existed when she was with Eri like this. And the turtle didn’t want anything to break this moment. Not even the one most important truth about her.
I guess my confession will have to wait, Eri thought.
I can’t disappoint Reina like this. I can just tell her tomorrow or another day. Besides, what difference would a couple more days make?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTE: I based the dolphin part on the famous scene from
Morning Musume Alo-Hello 3:
Next is TakaGaki! (If you remember, Takahashi sensei and Gaki iinchou were going afterschool shopping)
Topic: Chigatte mo Iin da yo! ~Mainly TanaKame, TakaGaki~ [FINALE - Ch. 93 - (1/30)] (Read 408695 times)