Recalculating
Rei started up the stairs to the shrine, but Minako plopped herself down at the bottom and moaned, “I’m too tiiired.”
“To walk up some stairs?” Rei paused a few steps up.
“Don’t make it sound so trivial,” Minako whined. “These things are brutal. The elevation change makes me queasy at the top.”
Rei snorted and stepped down to where Minako could see her smirk. “Some athlete you are.”
“Oh, shut up. What you need is an escalator, an escalator and a muzzle, but above all an escalator. It would probably improve business at the shrine.”
“Like I want lazy people loitering around my shrine,” Rei scoffed, choosing to ignore the second recommendation. “Let’s go.”
“Carry me,” Minako demanded.
“No. Come on.”
“But what about the favour you owe me, hmmm?”
Rei stopped in her tracks and Minako mentally pumped her fist victoriously. “What? You want to redeem it this way?” she asked incredulously.
Minako nodded, liking her spontaneous plan more and more. “Carry me up the stairs and I’ll consider the debt repaid.”
Rei looked very much like she wanted to protest. Minako was glad the miko placed such value in her word and honour because next second, she was shouldering both their schoolbags and clambering onto Rei’s back. She couldn’t restrain a gleeful, “Yay!” to which Rei grunted gruffly and started up the lengthy stairway.
What Rei couldn’t figure out, was why they were friends in the first place. Their relationship seemed to basically consist of the blonde annoying, accosting and taking advantage of her whenever the mood struck her. Which it did – often. Minako had now started singing some infernal, irritating song with her mouth practically pressed to Rei’s ear. And to make matters worse, Rei was starting to slow down, her initial, determined pace bowing to tiring muscles.
It did not go unnoticed, and seemed to warrant a break in singing to coo, “Ah, is Rei getting tired, too?” Minako reached around to pinch her cheeks. “I bet her poor little leggies are starting to ache and her wee skinny arms are hurting all over.”
“Mina . . . ko . . .” Rei growled ominously, the effect slightly ruined by her breathlessness.
“I bet she wishes she were a star athlete like me.” Minako stroked her head and fluffed Rei’s bangs – something the standoffish girl would never have let her do had her hands been free to stop her.
Rei huffed some excessively expletive sentences, something to the effect of, “The hell I do. Leave my damn bangs alone.” They were only barely past halfway, but when they got to the top, Rei resolved to give Minako a good solid push and watch her roll back down the hard, stone steps.
Oblivious to this plan and making plans of her own, Minako leaned into the curve of Rei’s neck and laid a little kiss there, giggling at the flinch. “You’re not in such bad shape I suppose.”
“What are you –!”
With a full blown smile, Minako kissed just at the bend of her jaw as well, lingering on the warm skin. “You’re getting a little red though.” Her teeth lightly nipped the burning tips of Rei’s ears.
“Stop – you – Cut it out!” Ignoring the burning in her legs, Rei redoubled her efforts to get to the top quickly.
“Just helping you go faster, Rei. You know – a little encouragement here and there.” With a devilish laugh she wriggled out of the miko’s hold and dashed up the last dozen steps. “Wouldn’t want you to collapse, though. Then I’d feel bad,” she yelled down.
Rei looked up at her quizzically and stumbled up to the top. “Am I supposed to thank you?” she asked acerbically.
“No, no,” Minako danced off merrily. “No need. But since you didn’t carry me up all the stairs, I guess you still owe me a favour.”
“Minako!”
Grandpa hadn’t been too thrilled about the small statue the blonde had toppled over and beheaded in the shrine room during her first week of work. Minako was thereafter assigned the outdoor jobs – mostly sweeping.
Even more stunning, Minako didn’t complain. If anything, she seemed to enjoy the menial labour, which both puzzled and amused Rei. After sweeping her way down the shrine steps, the jovial blonde would trudge back up, panting of course, but grinning whenever Rei was standing at the top. She also took pleasure in sweeping around the grounds, humming and skipping, her broom strokes swishing in rhythm.
Rei found it . . . odd, and frequently noticed the corners of her lips creeping upwards while she watched the carefree girl at work. Cleaning the shrine had definitely taken a sharp one-eighty from the solitary, near-meditative routine Rei had always practiced. She usually felt compelled to kill Yuuichiro if the man ever intruded while she was lost in thought, performing her chores on autopilot. Being fairly sensitive to Rei’s moods, Yuuichiro only stopped to chat or ask questions if he was sure Rei wouldn’t immolate him with a deadly glare. Rei was nearly sure that Minako could also detect what sort of temper she was in, but Minako seemed fine with disregarding all grumpiness and intruding with her bouncy, cheerful presence.
When the chores were finished, they put everything away and entered the house where part two of their routine set in. Rei arranged snacks and brought them to her room where the two of them settled down at the table, spread out their homework, and studied until Minako had to go home.
Where chores failed to bother Minako, homework was her ultimate archenemy. She slumped against the table and whined at the questions she couldn’t answer, got bored and annoyed Rei to pass the time, and often she gave up and curled up for a nap on the floor.
“You have got the worst work ethic I’ve ever seen,” Rei muttered to the dozing blonde.
Minako hmmmmed and flipped onto her other side with a sleepy, “Thank you, Sensei . . .”
Rei absently patted her head and went back to studying derivatives – a subject that Minako would panic over in a couple days when she realised a test was coming and she knew nothing. Ah well . . . Rei, of course, would be there to cram it all into her head the night before and then remind her to breathe before class.
Rei had never heard of Minako before the blonde took the seat next to her, but the group of friends she was part of were known for being incessant jocks and sleazy partiers. Rei looked down again. For being a skanky drunk by association, Minako wasn’t living up to the image. At least not at the moment, making light little snoring noises into her curled hands as she was. Rei couldn’t really fathom how these two versions of Minako met and got along. She shook her head and started gathering Minako’s notebooks and papers together, idly wondering how long it would take for the party-Minako to get bored of working at a shrine.
Rei tugged at the sleeve of the t-shirt Minako was wearing. She had taken to leaving a change of clothes at the shrine so she could get out of her uniform. Minako had even claimed a corner of Rei’s room as hers, named it AinoLand, and demanded that Rei pass through customs if she wanted to enter. Rei’s flat stare had been met with a quirky grin.
The blonde stirred, rolled over and plopped her head in Rei’s lap where she yawned widely.
“Charming,” was Rei’s opinion on her view of Minako’s molars. “You’re supposed to be home by six?”
“Mmmm, yep. Why? What time is it?” Minako sat up.
“Twenty to.” If she likes being here, I’m fine with that. If she ever wants to leave, I’m . . . fine . . . with that too. Everything is just . . . fine. “Come on, I’ll walk you to your bus stop.”
“Come on –”
“No.” She returned to her math questions.
“Oh loosen up, Grandma,” the blonde jibed. When in doubt – peer-pressure, she figured.
“Go with one of your friends,” Rei deflected, flipping back in her binder to read her notes.
“You’re my friend,” Minako said simply.
Rei ignored the significance of this statement. “You know what I mean.”
“I know what you think you mean,” she muttered.
The indignant scowl being shot her way had to go unanswered when a scrunched note landed at Minako’s feet. With a sigh, she scooped up the note and gave a grin and a wink to its sender. It took her only seconds to smooth it out to read, scribble a reply, and fire it back.
talk later
busy now
“So,” Minako returned to the task at hand – convincing water to fall upwards. No, wait – coercing Rei into having fun. “Skipping math class tomorrow last period? Yes? Good.”
“No, Minako,” the other girl said sternly.
“Why not?” she whined.
“I’m not a reprobate, I’d like to get into a university, and I really don’t see the point.”
“Oh, pull the stick out,” Minako sighed.
Rei bristled. “There’s no stick! If there was, I’d knock some sense into you!”
“You are not going to math class tomorrow, Hino Rei,” the blonde said with conviction. “Either I come drag you out and we make a break for it, or you meet me outside and we sneak away real quiet-like.”
With a growl, Rei set her pencil down. It seemed she actually had to give this some attention. “Why so desperate to cut class?”
“You mean asides from the obvious reasons?”
“Obvious reasons?”
Minako grinned in a way that let Rei know something irksome was going to emerge from the blonde’s lips. “Well, you’re a very attractive girl. Anyone would love to spend the day with you,” her grin worsened, “and maybe a night or two.”
“That’s it. I’m not going.” Rei made to turn back to her school work.
“No! I’m – wait! I’m sorry,” Minako said quickly, sitting forward in her chair and trying not to laugh.
“Keh. Of course you are.”
“No, I am. Well, I’m not sorry sorry, but I do take it back if you want me to.” Minako smiled winningly.
“Whatever. Give me a real reason for skipping.” Rei faced the blonde once more. This was her last chance.
For a moment, Minako said nothing. Then her grin faded into an almost wistful expression. “Sometimes I . . . get restless. Being here, being motionless . . . makes me feel less and less alive. You know? Do you ever feel like that?” She wasn’t even looking at Rei now. “You ever feel like if you don’t start moving you might just die and no one would notice?”
“We’re skipping to play video games?” Rei asked sceptically.
Minako scoffed, “Of course not. We’re here to get out of these.” She gestured at their uniforms. “You brought a change of clothes like I told you?”
Rei nodded, finally comprehending the blonde’s infinite wisdom, and they made their way to the back of the arcade to the washrooms, each taking a stall to dress in. Minako was done first and leaned over a sink to fix her hair and straighten her clothes in the mirror. Movement in the corner of the mirror showed Rei standing back to do the same. Minako paused for a moment to ogle the miko in her street clothes – a combination of trendy and casual that was tasteful enough to fit her personality.
They also fit her body really nicely, Minako tried to note with critical detachment – and failed. She was fairly certain she had been appreciating the other girl’s legs for long enough to qualify as staring and shook herself out of it. Looking nervously back up at Rei’s face, the lack of scowl surprised her. The miko’s reflection stood with a half grin on her face and a superior tilt to her head.
Minako didn’t really want to know what Rei was going to say and turned around to face her with a quick, “Let’s go!” and bolted out the door.
“Go where?” she heard grumbled from behind her.
Minako waited until the dark haired girl had caught up before latching onto her excitedly and whispering, “Shibuya!”
To get to the busy shopping district Shibuya required that they take a train. The blonde bounced in her seat the whole way there. Rei dragged her off at the right stop and they spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through busy stores and crowded streets.
Unsurprisingly, Minako was a manic shopper, trying on anything that caught her eye and insisting that Rei give her opinion. For her part, Rei looked and did not touch, not terribly in need of clothes nor interested. It was only due to Minako’s wheedling that she tried on some shirts and ended up buying one.
At the end of the day they made their way out of the mad crush of shoppers and headed back the way they came. Minako was enjoying making seedy prepositions concerning the nearby love hotels and the clubs that were starting to open up. Rei switched topics as if she didn’t even hear the blonde.
“Are you taking the train home as well?”
Minako gave up trying to fluster the calm girl with insinuations and shook her head. “Just a bus. My house is pretty close. You could come over if you like,” she offered.
Rei checked the time and shrugged, “I could, but I don’t want Grandpa to start doing my chores. Another time, maybe.”
“Okay. And, Rei?”
Rei waited, watching a small smile light bright blue eyes. “I’m really glad you came. I had a lot of fun. I know this isn’t really your thing, but thank you. It means a lot to-”
“It’s not my thing,” Rei interrupted, “but I didn’t do it just to please you.” The miko nearly cringed at how harshly this came out and realised she couldn’t stand to watch Minako’s expression fall. With little thought preceding the action, Rei hugged her. Just a short, friendly embrace that ended before Minako could even reciprocate. “I had fun as well,” Rei murmured.
A soft goodbye, a small flash of a smile, a hasty retreat . . . and Rei was nearly half a block away before Minako could function properly again.
“What?”
“You know that favour you owe me?”
“I do not owe you anything.” Rei fumed, still irritable about the last “favour” she had been forced to perform.
Minako grinned, crawled over to the bed and knelt next to it, leaned her head against Rei’s. “I want you to come see one of my games.”
“Good for you,” she muttered.
“I promise not to trick you this time,” Minako offered.
Rei twitched a little at the closeness of Minako’s lips to her ear. “I don’t want to watch volleyball.”
“Why not?” Minako pouted and tugged at a strand of hair.
Rei batted her hand away. “It’s not that I dislike it, I just don’t find it very interesting.”
“Well then you’ve never watched me play.” She leaned even closer to murmur, “I’ll make it very interesting.”
“I’m sure . . .” Rei scoffed quietly. Minako’s nose was touching her cheek and she could feel it when the blonde blinked.
“So you’ll come watch?” Minako asked sweetly, leaning around to peer into Rei’s eyes from up close.
Rei turned her head and huffed, “Fine.”
Minako cheered and flung herself onto the bed to squeeze Rei in a hug. Rei grunted and tried to liberate her arms so she could keep working. Minako ignored the other girl’s struggles. “You can paint your face and bring a big poster –”
“Keh. Not!” Rei growled at not being able to free herself and reached back to tickle the blonde’s sides.
Minako wriggled, but maintained her death grip. “Eehaha! And . . . heeheehee . . . flash the crowd . . . hahahee . . . whenever I score a point! Ahahahahaha! Stop! Aaah, I let go already! Ahahaheehee!”
But Rei had flipped their situation around, incapacitating Minako with a crushing round of tickling that had the blonde at her mercy. By the time she let up, Minako was limp and dazed, tears running from her eyes from laughing so much.
“Mahhh,” she mewled weakly, wiping at her eyes.
Rei sat back with a satisfied smirk. “Let that be a lesson, chump.”
“Are we . . . together? What do you mean?”
“You know . . . I mean you spend a lot of time with each other . . . and I –”
“Wait, wait, you think we’re together?!? What?! No! We’re just – no, we’re hardly even – I don’t like her like that!”
“Oh, alright. I didn’t mean to offend you or upset –”
“Then why the hell would you ask such a stupid question?”
“I . . . well you see, it’s just . . .”
“Out with it, Kumada.”
“I don’t understand why you won’t go out with me.”
“. . . I told you. I don’t like you like that.”
“But I’m kind to you and polite even when you’re mean to me! I work extra hard just so you’ll notice me. It’s been a year and a half now . . .”
“. . .”
“So I thought maybe you weren’t into guys . . .”
“You’re an idiot.”
“I guess . . .”
“And really cocky!”
“Sorry . . .”
“How much more conceited can you get!? Just because I don’t like you I must not like men? That is so arrogant! As if you’re the greatest male specimen around.”
“I am in a band . . .”
“We’re friends, Yuuichiro. I like you but I . . .”
“I know.”
“. . . I’m sorry.”
“No, I apologise. I shouldn’t have assumed or tried to pressure you. I . . . is there a chance you might change your mind?”
“ . . . I don’t know.”
“Alright. See you later, Rei.”
“Bye . . . Yuuichiro.”
Rei had been debriefed at length on the team’s ongoing stretch of victories orchestrated and carried out by their fabulous team captain. Then Rei had only half listened as Minako started into a description of the team formation and her position. The numbers 5-1 kept coming up and the word setter, which Rei had only a vague notion of.
The team was warming up on the court in preparation, running through drills, looking very organised and energetic. Minako’s bounding stride and flashing blonde hair was unmistakeable even at a distance, not that Rei’s seat was too far back. The team captain found the dark haired girl easily in the crowd and paused to give a wide smile and wave.
Rei wasn’t about to make an ass of herself and wave back, but two girls seated in front of her, thinking the acknowledgement was being aimed at them, were more than willing to return the gesture. Minako just grinned, keeping eye contact with Rei, and returned her attention to the court. Rei pondered the possibility of sneaking out now that Minako had seen her, but was distracted by the start of a conversation in front of her.
“I thought she didn’t like you anymore,” the girl on the left said to her friend.
The other girl shrugged. “She’s probably just being nice. Besides, I heard she’s totally into someone else – some girl no one knows.”
Rei tensed and stared holes into the backs of their heads while the two girls continued chatting. “Wait, what about that guy she was seeing? What’s-his-name . . .”
“Oh, their break up was like, weeks ago. Where have you been?”
“Umm, not spreading gossip?”
“Whatever. So anyway, you’ll never guess who hooked up at Akio’s party last weekend . . .”
The miko sat back and tuned their chatter out, trying to ignore the suspicions niggling at her with aggravating persistence. Yeah right. It’s not what you’re thinking – you don’t even know if she’s like that. You don’t even know if these two bimbos are telling the truth.
But the niggling suspicions brought reinforcements. “I think I’ve found someone better . . .” Minako told Rei , her eyes on the leaves she was sweeping. “I mean you spend a lot of time with each other . . .” Yuuichiro pointed out. And he was right. It was rare for her to be around someone so much. Most people gave up when they realised she really was as distant as she acted.
Rei rubbed the back of her neck and tried to reason it all away with logic. You know how determined she can be. She didn’t give up because she’s stubborn. The miko froze when she realised she was massagingthe part of her neck that the blonde had molested with her lips just a couple weeks ago.
Explain that.
She dropped her hand back into her lap.
And explain the way she looks at you when she thinks you’re not paying attention – you know the look. Or how about the fact that she seems to have nothing but free time to spend with you. If she was after anyone else–
Rei sighed. Bah! Enough already! There’s no point in stressing over it – it’s not like it’s of any importance.
The visiting team was entering the gym now and the game looked to be underway at last. The miko sat up straight and blocked out the part of her mind that would not change its opinion.
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