School Girls' Stories

Chapter 22 – Another Day

“But what about the deejay/concert thing,” Yuki was whining the next morning. The trio were surrounding Fuji’s desk, all talking before the rest of the class came in. Yuki was holding up the magazine, lusting for the many members of Velvet Wrapping, and she turned back to her best friend. “You were going to go with Kaori and Danko, and I was going to convince them to bring Shai and me along as well.”

Fuji smirked. “We never even asked if Kaori and Danko would want to go,” she pointed out. “How do you know they would have taken me with, much less you two? Look, I think my mom was right. I got myself into a mess with Amatsu, I lied to him. Let’s be levelheaded about this, and Yuki I know you can do it if you try, and count our blessings while we have them. It was a learning experience.”

Even Shai gave her a doubtful look. She gripped the magazine and gently tugged it away from Yuki. She placed it face up in front of Fuji, Amatsu’s picture large and in color. Fuji’s heart could not help but skipping a beat, lusting for him, and loving him, but she tried to turn away.

“Love isn’t something you chalk up as a learning experience,” Shai said sweetly. “Especially when it is real love. I would love for a man to look at me the way Amatsu looked at you. You should fight for him.”

Fuji smiled at her friend and adjusted the glasses she was back to wearing as a permanent fixture. “Let me work on my mom,” she said. “If I can not win my mother’s trust, then how am I to win a heart of a man who I love?”

“Wow,” Yuki said, breaking the zenith of a point. “Shai, even you sound surprisingly more intelligent. I feel like I am being left very far behind.”

“Well,” Fuji began, “without your optimism our intelligence would sound inane. You are the one who is pushing us to grasp happiness… even if it is just because you do not want us to be depressed now that you are finally happy.”

Yuki could not hold back her grin. “Maybe,” she smiled happily. “I just can’t help it. Kago kissed me last night, right on the lips, ever so sweetly.”

Fuji and Shai resisted the urge to roll their eyes. Fuji remembered a time when her first kiss was giving her the same exciting thrills through her body, and Shai did not have her first kiss until she was half-undressed in front of Mr. Tennison. They were on different scales, but they still had the same feelings Yuki was just beginning to finally notice.

“All right then!” Yuki cried happily. “I will ask Kaori and Danko if they would like to go to the club, and, you know, take us, and then Fuji will win back her man!” All of the girls laughed with each other and raised their fists in the air in excitement.


~*~


“You want me to do what?” Kaori asked during lunch, actually acknowledging the younger sister she had tried so hard to ignore the last year.

Yuki sighed and wondered if offering her sister money would work. “I thought it would be good for Fuji, and for you,” she said quietly, her optimism quickly dying in the shade of her sister’s pessimism. “Fuji can go and win back the heart of the one she loves, and you can prove to yourself you are still hot stuff.”

“What makes you think I need to prove that to myself?” Kaori was slightly offended by this accusation.

Yuki grinned. “I know you, whether you want to believe it or not,” she told her sister. “It may have only been a few days, but I’ve seen your whole personality go downhill, not terribly, but you aren’t as out there. Miss Popular has gone to Miss Whatever. And you have avoided Danko all day yesterday and today.”

Kaori shook her head. “There you are wrong, little sister,” she told Yuki. “For Danko is the one avoiding me.” She hesitated a moment then stopped walking. “I’m sorry we said that to Shai the other night. I’ve heard the rumor, but it wasn’t right.”

Yuki, as was her usual self, collided with a wall of air, meaning there was nothing there for her to trip over, and still managed to trip herself and fall face forward onto the ground. Kaori let out a rip of laughter before going to make sure that her sister was okay. When Yuki was standing again she had nearly regained all of her composure. “I’m sorry, I’ve never heard you apologize before,” she told her sister. Before her sister could intervene Yuki continued. “Shai is fine. And don’t let Danko avoid you. She is your best friend.”

Kaori nodded, unable to believe that her sister was giving her advice of any kind. “All right,” she told her sister. “If Fuji decides to go, you guys are welcome to tag along and we will make sure we get you into the club. However, if Fuji doesn’t go, you two are shit out of luck.”

“That sounds more like my older sister,” Yuki laughed.

Kaori nodded and turned to walk away. Yuki watched her for a moment before running to catch up with her again. “Kaori, wait,” she called softly. Kaori stopped and turned to her little sister. Yuki stepped up beside her and looked at her sister, really seeing her, the darkness in her eyes, the corruption that had begun to take over. This was not the sister she had grown up with, this was remnants of Nakago. “Kaori, do you miss Nakago?”

“Don’t you?” Kaori asked her, raising an eyebrow. “Look who your boyfriend is, a replica of Nakago. His name is even Kago.” She cocked her head to the side, seeing something dark cross Yuki’s face.

“No,” Yuki said firmly. “Kago never would have done what Nakago had done. Kaori, how can you still care about him after he raped you?”

Kaori laughed. “Little sister, if you had not been there, I would not have been fighting so hard. You do not rape the willing. The only reason I wanted him to stop was so you could be checked out and moved from the room. I didn’t want harm to come to you, but I guess he’s too wild.” Kaori walked away, offering no more of an explanation, but giving Yuki a glimpse of the taint that ran through the Oshidori children.