If nothing else, at least she showed no sign of wanting to leave anymore. Having won time to postpone Satsuki’s departure, Kaho crossed her arms with a thoughtful “hmm.” Then it hit her.
“Wait, do you have a crush on Rena-chin?! So you’re heartbroken right now?”
“I’m going to hit you,” Satsuki said.
Kaho would rather not be hit, so she decided to switch the topic. I really hope I didn’t hit the nail on the head there… she thought. Aloud, she said, “So, like, do you have a crush on Mai instead?”
Kaho assumed she wouldn’t respond to that, which seemed to be the case at first. Kaho felt a tad awkward, as she’d once asked out Mai herself.
However, Satsuki said straight-out, “No.”
“Huh?”
Well, with that attitude, Satsuki really must not have had feelings for Mai. But that left Kaho even more stumped as to why Satsuki would ask her out. Unless…
“Wait, did you have a crush on Aa-chan?!” Kaho squealed.
That was the stickiest situation of them all!
“I…do like Sena, but not in that way,” Satsuki said.
That made sense to Kaho. Even she liked Ajisai—sweet, cute, blessed with big boobies. But that didn’t seem to be the answer to the puzzle either.
“Hey, Saa-chan.” Kaho pinched the hem of Satsuki’s uniform. “I’m sorry. I just, like, don’t have a clue what you’re feeling.”
Satsuki didn’t shake Kaho off. “Why are you apologizing?”
“’Cause I wanna help my bestie when she’s stuck in a jam, y’know?”
“That’s…a rather self-centered approach,” said Satsuki. “Does what I want not matter?”
“Nope. Not a bit.” Kaho had no qualms about agreeing even in moments like this one. “You know how I’m always messing around? That’s what makes me the class pet, but to be real with you, I legit don’t know any other way to act.”
Satsuki remained silent, listening to Kaho go on.
“So when it comes to deep convos about relationships and stuff, I dunno how to handle ’em. I’m always goofin’. It’s my job to turn things into a bit. But I feel like now’s not the time for that, so I think it’s time we spill our guts on each other.”
“You mean to each other.”
“Yeah!”
She pointed a finger right at Satsuki. But no, now wasn’t the time for that. She shook her head. “I’m trying to say, like… I wanna hear what’s going on inside your head. ’Specially if it’s the kinda thing you can’t tell anyone else.”
“You really are bad at this.”
Kaho scratched the back of her head. “I mean… If I can’t do it, even cosplaying as an extrovert’s not gonna save me, y’know? But now I’m supes good at faking it.”
Satsuki sighed in defeat. “Have you ever had feelings for anyone before?”
“Huh? I mean, yeah…like for Mai-Mai. ’N stuff.”
Where was Satsuki going with this? Kaho’s response also didn’t fully answer the question. She wasn’t sure exactly how to put her feelings for Mai. Did she want to date Mai? Did she like like Mai? If she had to say…
Yet before she could put her ambiguous feelings into words, Satsuki continued on. “I see. Well, I haven’t.”
“Uh-huh.” Yeah, that tracked.
“Romance is like something out of a fairy tale, something that only exists in books,” said Satsuki. “That’s how I see it, at any rate. I suppose my home environment is partially to blame for this attitude. I had no need for romance in my life.”
She recounted this like it was something incredibly sad. Kaho wondered what on earth that was about.
“But, like, we’re only in our first year of high school still,” Kaho said. “Tons of kids have never had crushes yet. Our friends are just kinda an exception.”
“That is irrelevant to how I feel. You see…” Satsuki gnashed her teeth, “now Mai has a crush.”
What on earth…?
“Kaho,” Satsuki said.
“Yeah?” Kaho replied before immediately letting out a squawk as Satsuki placed her hands over both of Kaho’s ears. Satsuki’s lips moved, but Kaho couldn’t hear a thing.
“This is Mai we’re talking about,” Satsuki told her. “The very same Mai who has always seemed so vacant and lonely no matter what she does. But now she looks as if she’s come home after a very long journey. Is romance really that captivating? And if it is, why don’t I understand it? It’s always Mai.”
She spoke each word with enough force to drive in a nail, and yet it all washed over Kaho. She picked up nothing apart from the look on Satsuki’s face.
“You’re smiling,” she said, “and crying at the same time.”
Mai had looked so happy on the stage at Makuhari Messe with Renako and Ajisai standing next to her, happier than Satsuki had ever seen her. And out of everything she couldn’t stand, that took the cake.
More to herself than to Kaho, Satsuki said, “I want to know whatever it is that makes romance so incredible. Or, conversely, I’d love to know just how stupid it really is.”
Mai’s happy ending was only the beginning for Satsuki.
So, once again, she said, “I want to find out if I’m right or she is.”
And then, having said her piece, she lifted her hands away from Kaho’s ears. “There,” she said. “I’m done.”
Kaho stared at Satsuki blankly. “Saa-chan?”
“Yes?”
“Sorry, I know you’re acting like you just wrapped up a big speech, but I didn’t hear a darn thing you said.”
“Oh? What a relief.” Satsuki flipped her hair over her hand, in need of no one else’s affirmation. “If you had, I would have no choice but to finish you off.”
“Don’t say something so cursed to someone whose ears were plugged with only your hands!” A perfectly justifiable objection in Kaho-chan’s book.
Just then, a dull vibrating noise sounded in the quiet hallway.
The blank expression snapped back onto Satsuki’s face, as if she’d torn the previous face right off by the skin. She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “This is rare,” she muttered.
Kaho gave her permission with a glance, and then Satsuki turned around. “Hello? Yes, Obasama, what can I do for you?”
Kaho noted that Satsuki used her most proper voice, like she was talking to a teacher. Talk about being a perfect beauty in and out.
“Yes, that would be no trouble at all,” Satsuki said. “Yes, I understand. Yes.”
She ended the phone call shortly, turned back around again, and announced, “I must take my leave.”
As she headed for the front door, Kaho called, “Hey, Saa-chan!”
“What?”
As Kaho followed Satsuki out and watched her put on her shoes, she pouted. “Look, I dunno what’s going on, but if you go and find someone really nice, I’m gonna be the only one in the friend group without a girlfriend. And that’s gonna be lonely!”
“If that were to happen, you could ask out Amaori.”
“Yeesh, when’re you gonna stop making this Rena-chin’s problem?!”
Kaho offered to walk Satsuki to the train station, but Satsuki left on her own and set off quickly. Kaho went back to her room, hugged a pillow to herself, and stared off into space. She really didn’t get this whole romance thing yet. But even she felt anxious about it.
The Quintet was a chill friend group, and she knew she’d be perfectly happy if all five of them could stay pals for all three years of high school. But that wasn’t how things had turned out. Three of her closest buddies had gotten together, and Kaho knew she wasn’t strong enough for things to stay the same.
“I guess this is how we’re all kinda growing up…” she mumbled to herself.
Kaho flopped onto the floor.
And, unbeknownst to Kaho, Satsuki’s story was on the verge of coming to life.