Short Story: Yuffie’s First Earring
ERINA’S ears…are kind of sparkly…
During class one day, Yuffie was staring at the accessories that glittered on the other girl’s ears as she sat next to her. Since she came from the countryside and had no friends, she didn’t know much about fashion, including accessories. Yuffie had never seen the type that Erina was wearing and didn’t even know what they were called.
So pretty…
She stared at Erina’s ears in a dreamy daze. Yuffie was a teenage girl too, so, of course, she wanted to try wearing things that glittered in the sunlight streaming through the classroom window.
Gah! What am I even thinking?! She shook her head vigorously. As if a loser like me could ever wear something like that! It looks good on Erina since she’s going to be the next Saint…
Those accessories shone because of Erina’s beauty. If Yuffie were to wear them, they would lose their luster immediately, and their value would plummet to the same as a pebble lying on the road. As the saying goes, the clothes make the man, and Yuffie wasn’t exactly the definition of stylish.
Crud, I have to listen to the lecture…
She sighed softly and moved her gaze from Erina’s ears to the board.
💠🌸💠
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AFTER class, Erina spoke to her.
“Yuffie, why were you staring at my ears so hard in class?”
“Y-Y-Y-Y-You knew?!” Yuffie croaked.
“I hit the nail on the head, hm?”
“Ahhhhhh! I’m so sorry!” She bowed her head as low as it could go. “A loser like me should never have looked at your ears! I’m sorry for making you feel uncomfortable!”
“Yuffie! Yuffie, calm down! I don’t think that at all!”
“It’s just that the sparkly things on your ears caught my attention, and I just…I just couldn’t stop myself from staring!”
“Sparkly things on my ears…? Oh, you mean earrings?”
“Ear-rings?”
Yuffie finally lifted her face and stared at her curiously because she had never heard of the word before.
“That’s what they’re called! I tried wearing a pair as a change of pace, so to speak.”
“I-I didn’t even know that was a thing… The city really is amazing…”
“Here, this is for you.”
“Huh?”
Before she knew it, Erina had taken off her earrings and handed them to Yuffie.
“Try them on. I’m sure they’ll look good on you. Go on.”
“N-No, I can’t do that! You can’t just give away expensive earrings to someone like me…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! They’re not that expensive. Only about 300,000 ennis.”
“300,000 ennis?!”
A commoner could live on that amount for roughly three months as long as they were frugal with their spending.
I…really shouldn’t be surprised that we think of money so differently…!
“Everything is an experience, Yuffie.”
While Yuffie stood there gobsmacked, Erina deftly attached the clip-ons to her ears. By the time she came to her senses, it was too late to stop her.
Erina stared at Yuffie intently. Unable to endure her gaze, Yuffie looked down and to the side and started mumbling. The words almost sounded like a hex.
“Hardy har har… I know… I know, they look stupid on me, right? There’s no way such pretty earrings would suit me, I’m sorry, I’ll take them off right away…”
“So…cute…”
“…Huh?”
“Yuffie! You look so cute!”
“D-Do I really?”
“Yes! They look lovely on you!”
“Heh heh heh… I don’t know about that… But if you say so… Heh heh heh…”
Erina’s insistence made all the anxiety from earlier vanish into the aether. Light flooded Yuffie’s vision, and a scene straight out of paradise unfolded in front of her. Her face was slack with pleasure at having been praised for the first time in her life.
Erina raised her finger and spoke to Yuffie. “By the way, there’s another type of earring called a piercing.”
“Piercing?” Yuffie cocked her head curiously. Another word she had never heard before.
“That’s right. It’s an accessory that you slide into a small hole in your ear.”
“A hole?! In my ear?!” Yuffie’s mind flashed with an image of herself bleeding profusely from her ear.
“I think piercings would look good on you too, Yuffie. Would you like to try?”
“N-N-N-No, thank you!”
There’s no way I could do something as painful as pierce my ears! Just thinking about it made her tremble, and she crouched down out of reflex.
A delicious shiver raced through Erina at the sight of Yuffie like that…
“Ahhh… Yuffie trembling in pain… How charming… Squirming in agony…”
“Erina?”
“Oh, don’t mind me.”
When she looked up, Erina was beaming down at her with her usual saintly smile.
Yuffie wanted to believe that the slight flush on the other girl’s cheeks was just a figment of her imagination.