"You could have just lied," I muttered, standing with Mio and Emi outside Mizuki's house in the chill of early morning. Mizuki raced past the fence chasing a wildly weaving Sora around the yard. While not the most athletic girl on the planet her short distance speed was, indeed, impressive. Unfortunately, Sora seemed to be having fun and showed zero interest in being captured. "You didn't have to show her."
"Perhaps," Emi shrugged. "But she said they were very impressive."
"You stood in front of her naked," I pointed out. "She just said that to make you go away and end the awkwardness."
"I think she's tiring! You've got this!" Emi yelled encouragement to Mizuki as she raced past the fence again.
"You could help!" Mizuki gasped as Sora abruptly changed direction and took off toward far end of the yard once more.
"How can you say that?" Emi turned back to me aghast. "She was genuinely impressed."
"I don't think she was," I shook my head. My mom seemed somewhat more shellshocked than impressed as Emi strolled into the kitchen naked and bade her look at the wispy patch of hair. The woman had recovered admirably and praised her before suggesting Emi return to my room and dress.
"You're so weird!" Mio chimed in, her face set in a sulk still from the night before.
"Aww," Emi stepped next to Mio quickly and placed her arm around her protectively. "You'll understand soon enough, young Mio-chan! Getting your pubic hair is the first step on the stairway to becoming a woman! You'll have yours soon."
"It is not!" Mio tried to escape Emi's grasp without much success. "It's just fur on your front butt!"
"Front butt?" Emi cocked her head in momentary confusion before realization dawned on her. "Oh! You mean my pus-"
"We know what she meant!" I interrupted. I fixed Emi with a meaningful gaze.
"Speaking of butts!" Emi grinned at me and I sighed. "You saw my butt didn't you, Mio-chan?"
"N-No!" Mio fidgeted in Emi's grasp.
"I have a nice butt, huh?" Emi prompted her.
"No! It's bony and gross!" Mio exclaimed, finally breaking free of Emi's grasp, and moving a strategic distance away.
"What?!" Emi stared at Mio in shock. "Kasumin! Tell your sister I have an amazing butt!"
"No," I replied bluntly. Mizuki had finally corralled Sora and was carrying the wildly surging and wiggling little dog back to her house.
"Tell her it's lush and pert!" Emi demanded.
"Fine," I sighed. I glanced over at Emi whose cheeks were puffed out angrily. "Your butt is pert and lush."
"See?!" Emi crowed at Mio. "My butt is pert and lush! If you admit it, you'll feel better and will be one of our inner circle with all the benefits!"
"I won't admit it and I don't want to be in your circle and have to look at your front butt fur all the time!" Mio set her feet implacably.
"We can look at yours when they come in and praise them for you!" Emi crooned, sidling closer.
"I already have them!" Mio snapped, moving away. "And I don't want you to praise them."
"But…but you're 12," Emi stammered.
"Almost 13 and I've had them for a year," Mio smirked at her. Emi's face was a mask of horror and disappointment.
"I-Is this true?" Emi asked me as Mizuki emerged, sweaty and disheveled from the house.
"How should I know?" I shrugged. "You're the only one with the weird pubic hair fixation. You should get some help for that, you know."
"Prove it!" Emi exclaimed. "I demand proof!"
"You guys could have helped me," Mizuki wheezed, hefting her backpack onto her shoulders. "What's she on about?" Mizuki gestured toward Emi with her chin. I glanced back to find Emi darting back and forth around Mio, trying to flip her skirt up.
"Stop trying to pervert my sister, and let's go," I sighed. Emi narrowed her eyes at Mio suspiciously before reluctantly joining us as we walked toward the high pass.
"So, do you think it's true about Aria and Daishi?" Mizuki asked after she was able to breathe normally again. Ah, yes, there it is, I thought as a pang of hurt surged through my chest. The numbness was wearing off and the emotions were kicking in. Emotions I didn't want to face. Questions I both wanted the answers to and were scared to know the answers. The vast dichotomy that was love had overrun my defenses and was tearing my heart and mind in two ways at once.
"I don't know, but it's gross," Emi shrugged, glancing surreptitiously at me to see if I was ok. I offered a wan smile in return.
"Well, he's an asshole so, yeah, it's gross," Mizuki sniffed. "Sorry for the bad word, Mio."
"Onee-chan says worse things," Mio shrugged as she took up her position a safe distance from Emi. "It's ok."
"You should call me Onee Sama," Emi suggested to Mio.
"Not going to happen," Mio scowled.
"Brat!" Emi pointed at her accusingly.
"Butt butt!" Mio shouted in return. Apparently, Mio's fixation on what was cute and appropriate did not apply to Emi.
"I knew you liked my butt!" Emi crowed victoriously, throwing her arms toward the threatening grey sky.
"I hated it!" Mio shouted. "Stop talking about it!"
"What the hell is going on?" Mizuki asked in confusion.
"It's a long story," I sighed. "And not a very good one."
"Ah," Mizuki shrugged, plainly as disinterested in hearing it as I was in telling it. "I see. Well, anyway, what are we going to do about Aria's part in the café?"
"Well, I say we go on without her," Emi stuck her tongue out one last time at Mio who reciprocated. "She's chosen a man over her friends and that's unforgiveable. Right, Mizuki?"
"Are you talking about Yuto?" Mizuki's eyes narrowed.
"Yuto isn't a man," I pointed out. "Hell, he's barely human."
"Daishi's less than human!" Mizuki snapped. I couldn't deny that and shrugged. "I didn't get back until too late to reply to your text."
"He's got that much back hair?" Emi gaped at her.
"What?" Mizuki cocked her head. I shook my head at Emi to warn her against continuing.
"Nothing! Let's talk about the café!" Emi put her arms around Mizuki and I as we climbed up the High Pass toward school.
By the time we'd reached the school my stomach was a knot of stress and my heart felt like it was being crushed in some invisible vice. I reached the class and hurriedly took my seat, my heart pounding. Aria wasn't in class, yet, but Daishi and his little toadies were.
"Sooo," one of his toadies slurred lewdly, "did you do her?"
I could barely hear them over the din of bags thudding against objects, the chatter of students and the scrape of chairs. My face blazed but I couldn't tell if it was anger or humiliation or embarrassment. I just knew I hated them all.
"I'm too much of a gentleman to kiss and tell," Daishi smirked at him, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Bullshit!" Laughed another toady.
"Let's just say she'll be walking bow-legged for a few days," Daishi leered and laughed. My face reddened even more, and I grabbed a book on medieval history from my bag and slammed it down on my desk. Opening it with shaking fingers I fiercely read the same sentence about Oda Nobunaga over and over again.
This is horrible. I roiled with emotions I couldn't even fathom. Jealousy, anger, betrayal, loathing and disgust toward Aria and myself. Every emotion I'd ever experienced and even some I couldn't identify all spun and twisted in my head like a typhoon over warm water, picking up more and more emotions as it spun wildly through the center of my heart. I barely noticed when Aria walked through the door before class began. I kept my head buried in the book, trying to sear every word of Oda Nobunaga's betrayal by Mitsuhide into my brain as if it could assuage the hurt.
"Hey, baby, morning," Daishi said brightly to her. I concentrated on trying to hear what she said when Mizuki tapped me on the shoulder and started talking, much to my horror.
"Which color do you think for the outfit?" She asked loudly. I turned slowly and gaped at her. "Black or blue?" She held up two pieces of fabric for me to see.
"What?" I boggled at her. What the hell was she talking about?
"Emi thinks black, but I'm not convinced. I think black is more classic, but blue is pretty classy. What do you think?" Mizuki waggled the fabric at me.
"I…I have no clue what you're talking about," I muttered. Aria had moved to her seat near the front of the class, and I had missed what she'd said to Daishi. She didn't glance once in my direction.
"For the maid outfits! Blue or black?" Mizuki reiterated. "What is with you today? Oh, right, PESD." Mizuki had switched gears suddenly and my wildly racing heart and mind couldn't keep up.
"What?" I asked again, my emotions and thoughts centered on the girl sitting facing stoically forward at the head of the class.
"Post Emi Stress Disorder," Mizuki chuckled at her joke. "So blue or black?"
"Black," I finally managed, not caring in the least.
"You may be right," Mizuki nodded to herself. "We need to have a meeting! Lunch! And after school! I'm so excited and there's so much to do!" Mizuki clapped her hands together, the fabric swatches flopping as she did. "This is great!"
"Yeah," I muttered miserably. "It's the best."