“Hey! Sorry I’m late!”
“Nah, it’s fine!”
“Yuna and I just arrived as well, actually.”
I’d split up with my sisters and had just jogged up to Yuna and Rinka. That’s “up” in the vertical sense, since they’d told me to meet them on the staircase landing by the door to the rooftop.
“So, we put a lot of thought into how we could make the most of the festival with you,” said Yuna. “Like, should we all walk around together? Or should we draw up a schedule and take turns going on dates with you?”
“But when we were walking around ourselves this morning, it struck us that both of those options would pose difficulties,” said Rinka.
“What do you mean...?” I asked.
“You know—since we’re the Sacrosanct?” Yuna said so plainly and confidently, I could almost hear the dramatic-emphasis sound effect in the background. The hand-on-hip pose she struck didn’t help with that. It occurred to me that, on the whole, the two of them didn’t call themselves by their own nickname all that often. “People were talking to us all over the place—expecially people who came to see the performance yesterday... And, I mean, I’m glad we made an impression and all, but it definitely feels like having you with us in public right now could attract some not-so-great attention.”
“Attract some not-so-great attention,” I presumed, was code for “make people think, ‘Who’s that loathsome little insect clinging to the Sacrosanct and how are we going to squish her?’”
“Okay, that’s a good point,” I admitted. “Wait, what about Makina? How does she play into all that?”
“You haven’t heard?” said Rinka. “She’s spending the afternoon looking around with a few of our classmates.”
“Oh! Okay.”
I hadn’t heard. In fact, I hadn’t spoken with her at all since this morning in the classroom...and even then, it had sort of felt like she was trying to avoid me. She wouldn’t look me in the eye in the weirdest, most deliberate-feeling sort of way...but then again, that might have just been my usual negativity coloring my impression.
“So, yeah—going around the festival together’s probably not such a great plan,” Yuna continued. “Which, for the record, I’m not cool with! We finally get together, but can’t make the most of it during our own school festival? Come on!”
“Right...? But, wait. Does that mean you went out of your way to meet up with me just to tell me that we can’t hang out after all?”
That’s so thoughtful of them! They could’ve just sent me a text. It’s a shame that we can’t look around together, sure, but I definitely don’t want to cause trouble for them, so—
“No, not at all,” Rinka said.
“Huh?”
Rinka shook her head, then brought a hand up to my cheek.
“If we can’t go around the festival with you, then we won’t do it at all.”
“What...?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, Yotsuba...we’re well past our limit.”
“Your limit for wha— Mmph?!”
Just like that—so naturally I hardly even realized what was happening—Rinka kissed me.
“Ah, hey!” Yuna yelped. “No getting a head start, Rinka!”
“Mmph... Ah... Yotsuba...”
“Get off her already! Come on!”
“Whoa!”
It almost felt like Rinka was trying to straight up inhale my lips until—with some difficulty—Yuna dragged us apart again. Wh-What on earth...? And wait, we’re at school right now, aren’t we?!
“Seriously, getting too worked up here is just asking to be caught,” Yuna grumbled. “What do you think we borrowed this for in the first place?”
“Ugh... Sorry. I couldn’t help myself,” said Rinka.
“You may come across all mature, but you’ve always been such a kid deep down, I swear. You’ve got no restraint at all!”
“I do too! Just...not when it comes to Yotsuba. She’s the one exception,” Rinka sulkily pouted. Pouted with the lips that had been pressed to mine just seconds before.
“Hold on,” I said, “what was that about borrowing something?”
“Heh heh! That would be this,” Yuna said as she proudly brandished what looked like a perfectly ordinary key. “It’s—drumroll, please—the key to the rooftop!”
“Huh?!”
“I have no clue why that one girl—Koganezaki, I mean—had it in the first place, but she loaned it to me. She said that nobody else would be up there during the festival, so we could get some peace and quiet. I’d never really talked to her before and I sorta had the idea we wouldn’t get along, but it turns out she might be pretty nice after all.”
That reminded me of how Koganezaki had used the rooftop—or, really, had shown up on the rooftop after Emma abducted me—the very first time we’d had a proper conversation. In retrospect, she must have already had the key back then...though that still left the mystery of why she had it unsolved.
“Okay, but even if we have the key, that doesn’t mean we’re allowed to go out on the rooftop whenever, right...?” I protested.
“Do you really have any right to say that?” said Yuna.
“You were the one who snuck Mio into school just yesterday,” Rinka pointed out.
“Well, yeah, but...”
“And now Rinka and I are your partners in crime!” Yuna cheerfully declared as she swung open the door and stepped outside without the slightest hint of hesitation. A chilly autumn breeze blew into the landing through the open doorway.
Oh. Do they think that I’m still worried about getting in trouble over the whole Mio thing...? This isn’t my first time on the rooftop, though, and I’ve used the student guidance room without permission a bunch of times lately. I’m already dancing on the brink of academic oblivion when it comes to this sort of thing, so honestly, I’d rather they stayed back where it was nice and safe instead of getting themselves involved...
“Ahh, the wind feels so nice!” said Yuna.
“Good thing it’s sunny out. Come on, Yotsuba, let’s go,” Rinka said as she took me by the hand.
“S-Sure,” I replied.
Rinka pulled me out onto the rooftop. The blue sky stretched out overhead in its full, vast glory. The whole space was incredibly open, and while I could still hear the hustle and bustle of the cultural festival down below, it felt like we were cut off from the rest of the world...
Kachk!
...Yup. Cut off from the rest of the world.
“You locked it?!”
“We wouldn’t want anyone else coming out here, now would we?” Rinka replied with a casual grin.
Oh. I guess, yeah. It wouldn’t be great if anyone caught us out on the roof without permi—
“Yotsubaaa!”
“Whoa! Yuna?!” I yelped as she flung herself into my arms with no warning whatsoever. I did manage to catch her, just barely, and the next thing I knew she was nuzzling her face into my chest.
“Aaaaaahhh,” Yuna practically groaned. “Finally! This is so relaxing, I swear...”
“U-Umm...?” I grunted.
“You’re not gonna complain about this, are you, Miss Tried-to-Get-a-Head-Start?” asked Yuna.
“Go ahead,” Rinka replied after a reluctant pause.
“With pleasure!”
That little exchange of theirs struck me as pretty suggestive, and the moment they were finished, Yuna tilted her head upward and pursed her lips.
“Mh!” Yuna grunted.
“Yuna...?”
“Mmmh!” she grunted again, more urgently this time.
I hesitated for just a moment...then gave in to her coaxing and kissed her.
“Mnhh... Ahhh!” Yuna gasped.
It must have been a little hard for her to breathe in that pose, and I tried to pull my face away, but her arms were wrapped very firmly around me and I couldn’t move an inch.
“Honestly, Yuna, you can be such a baby. Which...is a little conflicting to watch, from a childhood friend’s perspective,” Rinka said from right behind me.
Wait, when did she get there?!
“Personally, I’d rather be the doter than the dotee,” Rinka added as she wrapped her arms around my waist. I felt the heat of her breath on my ear a moment later, and no sooner had I realized what was happening than...
“Hyeek?!”
...her tongue touched my earlobe?! That certainly got a weird little shriek out of me. It didn’t feel bad, to be clear...it just really, really tickled, basically.
“Hee hee! I can feel you trembling... You’re adorable, Yotsuba,” said Rinka.
“Come on, Yotsuba! I’m still here, you know—don’t just focus behind you,” urged Yuna. I had been totally caught up in Rinka’s whispered voice, but now Yuna’s begging was vying for an equal share of my attention.
“Gah?!” I yelped—as if things weren’t already intense enough, Rinka’s hand crawled up my uniform and onto my chest! “R-Rinmmph...!”
“Mhh, mmph...”
I’d barely had a moment to be surprised before Yuna seized my attention again—this time with another kiss, complete with tongue! Meanwhile, the sounds in my ear were growing distinctly louder and wetter. Rinka must have picked up on Yuna’s renewed aggression and was going on the offense herself, licking and even straight up sucking my earlobe!