The Love Letter Lovelies
by Glee-chan
Part Two
11.
Shiho Inoue stared at the two empty seats in near the front window in Class 1-3, resting her chin on her raised palm with a bored expression. Makoto and Kaede were both absent. The day before had been rough on Shiho. The girl she liked, Makoto, was in such a terrible state. Not only was she sick, but she was going through personal problems with her underserving girlfriend Kaede. When Shiho learned that the kendo-girl wanted to break up with her beloved Makoto, her heart dared to hope that maybe she had a chance with the girl. But it was not to be. On learning of Kaede's decision, Makoto took off and ran out of the Nurses Office despite being sick. Shiho had tried running after her, but was physically stopped by Maria.
Now she sat pathetically staring at the empty desks. The last information she learned on the situation was that Kaede called Maria using Makoto's mobile asking her to look after the belongings Makoto left at school. If Kaede was calling on Makoto's phone the night before, and if they weren't at school now, then that could only mean one thing: they were back together and Shiho's small sliver of hope was gone.
Maria sat in front of her, and Shiho could tell that while she put up a brave front, she herself was feeling just as miserable. Along with Yui, the three were plainly rejected by Makoto. It was just stupid for her to hope for an opening with Makoto. It was plain to see she was stuck on that contemptible kendo-girl.
"This sucks." Shiho groaned in the middle of a lecture. Luckily her voice was low enough that only Maria could hear her.
At lunch the three remaining Love Letter Lovelies sat together. It was a collection of losers, Shiho had thought. The one who seemed least affected was Yui. Shiho wondered how she got over Makoto so easily. She seemed more concerned with allowing Maria to lean her head on her tall shoulder. Shiho stared a hole in her lunch, realizing that even among the losers, she was the odd man out. Yui and Maria were best friends and they had each other. Shiho had nothing.
"At least I got to have phone-sex with her." Maria sighed after along period of silence. There was no lead into what she said, but they all knew what she meant.
"What was it like?" Yui asked shyly.
"It was…" Maria started, then gave a shrug with her mouth. "…one sided."
"The story's not as glamorous as before." Shiho pointed out.
"I was being delusional." Maria gave a false smile.
Shiho poked her bento box, her food untouched. "I don't get it. What's so great about Ozawa-san that we don't have? Yui, you're way more caring and sweeter… and you got this shy thing going for you. And Maria… you probably the prettiest girl in the class. And me…" But Shiho couldn't think about what she had special. Once again, the third wheel.
"She's just got it for Ozawa-san is all." Yui shrugged, and in the process Maria's head moved up and down with the movement. "I think it's nice that she's found love. It might not be me, but I'm just glad she's happy."
"Yeah, me too." Maria agreed in an unconvincing voice.
"Well I think it sucks." Shiho pushed her glasses up her nose and resumed her brooding.
"It does, but there's nothing we can do about it." Maria cut in. "So we might as well just be happy for her and try to move on."
Maria might have said that, but Shiho couldn't accept it. She wanted Makoto to be happy, but she didn't have to be happy with Kaede. Shiho didn't want to support them. It would just be easier on her if she just cut them from her life. She made a pact with the girls to be in Makoto's lesbian club, but Shiho didn't know if she could stick around and watch everyone have someone but her.
After leaving her shoe locker when classes ended, Shiho went to Makoto's locker. She looked at it for a moment, remembering how nervous she was when she placed her love letter into it the first day school. She wondered if Makoto even looked at her love letter seriously. She felt her heart ache, and turned her nose up at it and started for the exit.
When she was about to leave school grounds, she noticed a hold up. People were being stopped by someone at the gate and where being asked something, then after a small conversation most of them walked off. Shiho wasn't in the mood to deal with that. She just wanted to go home and sulk. As she skirted past a tall 3rd year boy, Shiho was about to head home until she heard the person ask her question to some guy she didn't know.
"Do you know Kaede Ozawa?"
Shiho stopped on hearing the name. So this stranger knew Kaede?
"No I don't." The 3rd year answered her then pushed his way pass so he could continue his own journey home.
"You." The stranger's voice came at a yell, addressing Shiho. Inwardly swearing at herself for stopping, Shiho groaned. "Sorry, but do you know Kaede Ozawa?"
Turning around, Shiho faced the girl. Even in her foul mood, her breath was taken away on looking at her. She was wearing another High School's uniform, and had an amazing body. She had shoulder length hair and beautiful soul-searching dark eyes. She could be a model. For a second she was stunned at her beauty. Then a bitter taste came into her mouth. Once again, another pretty girl was after that detestable kendo-girl. What was it with that girl?
"Umm… Do you know Kaede Ozawa?" The pretty girl asked again when Shiho said nothing.
Feeling slightly shaken, Shiho nodded her head. "Yeah. She's in my class."
"Oh good." The girl moved past a 2nd year boy who was sticking around to check her out. "I was hoping you could tell me if she's still here?"
Shiho snorted. "No, she didn't show up today."
The girl looked disappointed. "Really? She's not answering her phone either. I really messed things up."
"I know where she is." Shiho volunteered. "She's at home taking care of her…. a friend."
The pretty girl suddenly gave a very ugly face. "You know about that then?" She looked around, then mouthed the word "girlfriend". Shiho nodded again. "So that's why she won't answer her phone."
"Yeah. I expect she and Mako-chan are…. making up." Shiho grumbled, trying to stay subtle since they were still outside of the school.
The girl was quick to notice Shiho's bitterness. "Let's go somewhere. Do you like hamburgers? I'll treat you."
Shiho gave a shrug. "Alright."
She followed the pretty girl away from the school, both not talking until they were away from prying ears. Shiho felt slightly hot behind the ears walking beside such a girl. Just what did she have to do with Kaede anyway? As soon as they were away from students from her school, the girl continued the conversation they couldn't have openly.
"You called that girl Mako-chan and you know about Kae dating her. Are you their friend or something?"
"Not really." Shiho couldn't look the pretty girl in the eye. It struck her odd that she was referring to Kaede as 'Kae'. "We're in a sort of club, I guess. Truth is I only hang around because I'm interested in Mako-chan."
"Mako-chan." The pretty girl's voice went ugly. "What's so great about her?"
Shiho glowered at the girl. "What's so great about Ozawa-san?"
They stopped walking, looking at each other with both equal contempt. Then all at once a smile went on both of their faces. They were the same in this sense. The girl was jealous of Makoto and Shiho of Kaede. Without having to say a word they understood the motives of the other.
"My name is Sora Ito." The pretty girl introduced herself. "I'm Kae's ex-girlfriend."
"I'm Shiho Inoue."
Sora looked her over. "So you like that Makoto girl too, then?"
"Yes." Shiho admitted. "She doesn't even know I exist though. She's too into Ozawa-san."
Ticking through her teeth Sora nodded her head. "Yeah. Kae flat out pushed me away when I told her I wanted to get back together. Would you believe she asked me out before? And now she's dumping me."
"Sucks to be us." Shiho groaned. "You can join our loser club. Mako-chan likes to keep us around so she can parade her happiness in front of everyone."
"Even with all that, you still like her, don't you?"
Shiho gave a thumbs up. "Yep."
Sora give a sideway smirk. "Let's get that hamburger."
It was an odd lunch, if that's what you could call a full meal after school. Shiho didn't feel the least bit strange talking to this complete stranger about her feelings. Through out the lunch Shiho told Sora about how she and four other girls wrote a love letters to Makoto on the first day of school, only to be rejected in favor of Kaede. She told her about the formation of Love Letter Lovelies and how everyone in their school loved Makoto. She even told her about Izumi's expulsion due to her obsession with Makoto. Sora listened with interest, she was hungry about information on her rival. Shiho spilled the beans, hoping Sora would be kind and share her secrets on Kaede.
"…so Ozawa-san used Mako-chan's phone to call Maria after that to tell us everything was fine. And that's everything."
Sora sat back, throwing a stale french fry back on to her plate. "All this happened the first week of school?"
Shiho laughed a bit. "Yeah, sounds crazy. I thought High School was supposed to be fun, not one big drama."
"It's no picnic at my school either." Sora assured her. "All those dramas and animes on TV look at High School with rose tinted glasses. It's really one big hormonal mess, isn't it?"
Taking on last sip of her drink Shiho agreed. Placing down her glass she leaned forward looking directly into Sora's face. "Your turn."
"Heh, you want the dirt on Kae, huh?" Sora laughed slightly. "What are you gonna do? Break them up?"
"I don't know." Shiho leaned back in her seat again. "I haven't thought that far ahead yet."
Rubbing the back of her neck, Sora looked uncomfortable. "I guess it's only fair I talk about Kae, since you told me about that Makoto girl. But since we actually went out, it's a bit more personal. I don't really want to talk about it here."
Lowering her eyebrows Shiho scrunched her nose. Her glasses moved down her face slightly. "You got me to say all that and you're just going to leave me high and dry, huh?"
"I didn't say that." Sora raised her hands. "Let's go to my place. You can, right? I know it's getting late, but I'll feel better talking there."
Shiho looked at her watch, not realizing how late it was. But she really wanted to know Sora's side of things. "I'll call my Mom and say I'm going to a friends house."
Sora raised her eyebrows. "But it'll be late by the time we're done talking."
"Oh." Shiho felt frustrated, pushing back up her glasses. "I guess you get out of it afterall."
Sora looked slightly ruffled. "If you really want to know that bad… you can come over and spend the night…"
Surprised Shiho nearly dropped her phone. "Spend the night?"
"You want to know so bad." Sora looked pink in the face. "So spend the night."
"Fine." Shiho felt hot under the collar. Before she felt comfortable with the pretty girl, now she felt nervous. "I'll call Mom now…"
"Alright, I'll pay for the food." Sora stood up, looked for her wallet in her backpack, then left the table. Heart pounding, Shiho dialed her home number.
As the two walked to Sora's house, Shiho noticed she lived in the rich part of town. This really made Shiho feel out of place as her family lived in an old apartment in the tourist section. They ran a poor restaurant below her house, which barely made enough money to get by. When they arrived at Sora's house, it was bigger than the restaurant and the apartment put together. Her house looked like a mansion with a western design. On entering, the wooden floor before the polished grand staircase was gleaming. Even the floor at which Shiho took off her shoes at was polished.
"Come upstairs." Sora told her as she kicked off her own shoes. "My family is never around so it's probably just us. Even if it isn't, you'll never see my folks."
She followed Sora to the second floor, surprised at the size of the hallways at the top. But once she entered Sora's room, it took everything Shiho had not to drop her jaw. Her room was bigger than the whole floor space of her families restaurant. If she didn't feel intimidated before, she did now.
"It's a bit much, huh?" Sora smiled kindly at her. "I don't like bring people to my house because of it."
"It's-" But Shiho had no words. She felt stupidly out of her element now.
"Do you want to talk now or take a bath first?" Sora asked.
"Uh." Shiho wasn't sure she could do either at the moment. "If you're bath is as big as this room, I don't know if I could take it."
"We can take one together if you're not uncomfortable with that sort of thing."
Shiho wasn't ashamed of her body, she even took pride in it. But at the moment, Shiho felt that Sora was in a different league. Still Shiho didn't like losing either. "Sure, let's go together."
"If you wait here, I'll find something you can borrow and we'll go in together." Sora dropped her backpack near a desk and walked over to her walk-in closet.
Shiho deposited her bag next to Sora's and looked at some of the pictures on her desk. A number of them featured Kaede in her Middle School uniform. Shiho didn't know it, but she went to the same school as them. In all of the pictures Kaede had that calm face she always wore, but there were a few where she had that small Kaede-smile that rarely appeared when she was with Makoto. Shiho scrunched her nose at the pictures.
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