“Are you sure you’re all right?” I looked both ways before beginning to lead us across the street, concentrating on Anna.
She smiled up at me, assured me that she was fine, but something told me she still wanted to cry a little.
I quickly tried to think of something that would cheer her up, and it seemed the answer was right in front of my eyes. “You know, I get discounts on all the pieces I’ve personally modeled in. Do you want one? To bring home with you.”
As I watched her descend into a heavy blush, I bit my lip. All right. So maybe that wasn’t the smartest move to offer my engaged ex-fellow-maid and ex-stalker. I considered retracting the offer, but she spoke up with a bit of a spark in her eyes. “Could I? Kasumi is actually a bit of a… lingerie fanatic. I swear she’s obsessed with dressing me up in the latest thing she buys. It’d be nice to choose something myself for a change. Have you been doing this long?”
I smiled as I opened the door for her, giving her a quick once-over. The last few years have been good to her… she’s definitely finished filling out… I wonder if we’re the same size? “I wouldn’t have offered if you couldn’t. I’ve been with them for about three years now, I guess, so they don’t mind. I actually have more of a discount now than when I first started. I’m not quite sure what to do with all of it, so I let friends in on my discount.” I paused, and then laughed. “Lingerie fanatic? You mean you’ve found a female version of Yoshitaka?”
“No!” Anna frowned, flustered but indignant as well. Oops, I guess I hit a sore spot. “I didn’t mean it like that! Kasumi is… Kasumi is… she’s a lot gentler about it… and since I do own things other than lingerie, she always leaves open the option of not wearing it to bed…”
I nodded understandingly as I watched Anna’s eyes wander around the shop. I then stopped and went over her words again, realizing that she could have also implied that there were nights when she didn’t wear anything to bed…
“Izumi-san?”
Startled, I looked at her, albeit a little nervously. “W-what?”
“You’re blushing… was it something I said? Or because of where we are?”
I looked around, and I realized we’d wandered to the BDSM section, the place I tried hard to avoid unless for a very good reason. The memories of everyone rushing away when I had last cracked a whip were still fresh wounds on my pride. “I-it’s nothing. I was just thinking…”
Of you poking your head out from underneath the blanket… knowing you were wearing nothing underneath…
“B-boss! You here?” Stop it, Izumi… just stop… don’t go there… “I have a friend with me!”
Moments later, I heard my boss call from the back room, “Izumi-chan? Oh, good timing, dear, your guest only just arrived.”
I noticed that Anna’s eyes had widened just slightly, giving way as she frowned. I took hold of her hand. Out of instinct if nothing else. “What’s wrong? Nervous?”
She shook her head, walking alongside me with a tense expression. She wasn’t a very good liar…
We stepped into the small parlor, a comfortable setting of two sofas facing each other with a coffee table in between and lounge chairs on either end. A lean older woman was seated in one of the chairs… the lingerie shop’s owner. That leaves the girl on the sofa to be…
“June-chan?!” In disbelief, I distantly felt myself let go of Anna and walked towards her as she stood up. We hugged, exchanging greetings.
It wasn’t until Anna spoke up that I remembered where we were. “Um… so you know each other then?”
Separating from June, albeit neither reluctantly nor in surprise, I said, “Sorry, let me introduce you. Anna, this is June Kobayashi, my first roommate in college. June, this is Anna Kurauchi, an old friend I lived and worked with in middle school. Ah… this is nostalgic… What are the chances of meeting two old friends after losing contact for a couple of years in the same day?”
And it had to be these two, of all people…
Anna and June bowed to each other before we all sat down. I hope Anna wasn’t troubled by the fact that I was sitting next to June instead of her… she seemed a little lonely on the other couch all by herself but… I glanced at June, and received a grin. I had to make sure she kept her mouth shut about our few months we had together.
Alicia, though I preferred to call her Boss, clapped her hands with a smile. “Such beautiful friends too… I wasn’t sure if I should believe June-san’s story about knowing you personally, but if she wasn’t a random stalker, I was going to ask her to join our list of models. How about it, June-san?”
June laughed, leaning back in a way that her meaningful glance in my direction would go undetected. “Sorry, but I’m afraid I’m exclusive. I only model for my one and only.”
Accepting tea as Boss dished it out, I remarked, “That reminds me! Anna-chan just told me that she was getting married so- Hm.” I paused, and then laughed at myself, turning to look at Anna. “I forgot to ask when the big day was.”
She mumbled a quick answer before dousing her tongue with the tea.
June smiled. “Sorry? Didn’t catch that.”
Anna swallowed and answered again. “Two weeks. On the 20th.”
I knew my eyes widened in surprise. “That soon?!” I sighed, leaning back. I was looking forward to seeing what I could do to help too… “Then most of the preparations are already done, aren’t they?”
She gave me a quizzical look, slowly nodding. At least she didn’t seem tense anymore. “These next two weeks of vacation in Japan on my own is supposed to be a sort of… prolonged bachelorette party. Or, as someone else put it, my last chance at freedom before tying the knot.”
June and Boss laughed, but that was because they didn’t know.
Anna was looking only at me, though it was a little different than when we were both maids.
Could it be that…
The reason she was so nervous that she kept hanging up without saying anything…
The reason she had enlisted Mitsuki’s help in meeting up with me…
The reason she came back to Japan so suddenly…
Was to resolve her old feelings for me?
I shook my head, breaking eye contact. It couldn’t be that. That was a long, long time ago. She met and fell in love with another girl, someone who she makes happy. There’s no reason why she would still…
But she’s here now… that much was undeniable.
I tried to laugh it off. “If you haven’t already picked one out, Yoshitaka could probably make a wedding dress for you… he can be decent when he tries.”
She smiled, remembering what I was remembering, way back when.
Yoshitaka’s so-called greatest treasure had been a wedding dress he’d made for me.
A flashback image of Anna in a wedding dress, prepared to run off to Holland with me, entered my mind.
Not just any memory either.
It had been right after I’d ‘shown Yoshitaka how it was done’… with Anna…
“No matter what anyone else says… I never want to leave your side.”
Blushing, I stood up. Mumbling that I had to use the restroom, I left abruptly.
I closed my eyes as I shut the one-stall bathroom door behind me. “You idiot… That’s in the past… it’s all in the past… And she knows I didn’t mean it… I have never… I don’t… I won’t think of her that way. Anna-chan has finally found someone worthy of her… I can’t… augh!”
I jumped as I heard a knock from the other side of the door. I hadn’t realized I was talking aloud to myself until the muffled voice said, “I-zu-mi-chan… This door isn’t actually that thick you know… let me in?”
June-chan…
Reluctantly, I unlocked the door and stepped off to the side. Moments later, the door opened, and she locked the door behind her. As I looked down at the tile floor, her arms slithered up my shoulders and past… pulling me closer. She purred my name again, softer but clearer than before.
I didn’t respond.
“That girl… Anna-chan, was it? What was your real relationship with her? I don’t mean your living situation either. There aren’t many things in this world that can make you flee.”
She already knew. Not ten minutes observing and she could already figure it out. June was a sharp one, after all. And always straight to the point. “Nothing happened…”
She kissed my cheek, and I didn’t shirk it. “Nothing? You said that to your friends in college, too, didn’t you? That day, after hours, when we were almost caught in the-“
I pointedly looked down. “Don’t say it. Please… don’t say it.”
She tilted my chin up, whispering, “Then tell me, from your own lips.” I closed my eyes as she kissed me. “How far did you go together?”
Thinking about how much I had led her on made my stomach churn…
I’d protected her from Yoshitaka… enough to get her to become interested in me instead.
She’d kissed me… but I was mostly asleep then.
I’d given her one of my bras… but it was just a bribe.
We’d slept together… but I had bound and gagged her first.
I’d courted her in public… but played it off as insincere.
She’d run away to find me… and the first thing I did was hit her and push her away.
The only thing we hadn’t done… no, the only thing I hadn’t done… was be sincere about the things that I did with her.
I felt a tear on my cheek, and I pressed my face against June’s collarbone, wishing time could be rewound. “June… I’m a horrible person… aren’t I?”
She wiped away my tears and kissed my head. “Everybody wouldn’t have fallen in love with you if you were such a horrible person, Izumi. They- no, I, for one, love you because you try so hard to stay honest… unlike other people.”
That only made me cry harder. “That’s why. I’m not that honest at all… no matter how hard I may have ‘tried’.”
She was quiet for a long time, simply stroking my hair. Then she whispered, “Izumi… forget about the past. Right now, how do you really feel? Who do you love?”
I thought about all of the people who had liked me and chased after me throughout the years. I searched in my heart for the one that resonated best with my own feelings.
The answer I found left me weak in the knees.
But she held me steady.
What I eventually told her was:
I don’t know. I don’t think I ever knew.
What she asked in response was:
Do you feel up to finding out?
A/N: I wonder if that was a bit too soon for a breakdown? Hmm… Oh well, so what if it’s a little unrealistic. He is My Master is, by nature, rather unrealistic. Doesn’t make it any less amusing.
And sorry if my throwing in more obstacles such as June represents… it’s just more fun I think. .n.n.
And I was going to list what BDSM meant here, but even though I understand the concept, I’m not one-hundred percent certain what is stands for. I mean, it could be Bondage-Domination-Slave-Master… Or it could be Bondage-Dominatrix-Sadist-Masochist… or it could be a weird acronym (?) for BonDage SiMulation… cuz it’s not “real” serious bondage… Or it could be that I’m overthinking this whole thing entirely and should just shut up about it…
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