The Love Letter Lovelies
by Glee-chan
15.
The skies were a dark gray since that morning and threatening to rain, so Shiho found herself looking out the window off and on hoping it wouldn't. If things went according to plan, she would see Sora after school, and whether it was raining or not, Shiho hoped that would happen. The night before she had been staring at the picture she send to her phone, memorizing every feature. Now it seemed her hopes were going to be dashed by the weather.
When lunch came about, Shiho stealthy took out her phone and checked it for message from Sora. But the pretty girl hadn't sent anything. Groaning slightly she pocketed her phone, planning to check again before lunch was over. Apparently this little act wasn't lost on the other Love Letter Lovelies.
"You've been looking out that window all day." Maria pointed out what everyone was thinking.
"I'm supposed to meet someone today." Shiho mildly explained, chancing a quick look at Kaede after she said it. The kendo-girl seemed to be reading her mind again.
"Who?" Makoto asked with her cheeks puffed out, barely containing the omelet in her mouth.
"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full like that Mako-chan." Yui laughed at her.
"I'm hungry though." Makoto fake complained with a muffled voice.
"It might be a secret lover." Maria eyes glinted playfully.
Shiho looked away. "Shut up about that… shouldn't you be talking about how Kaede-chan beat up the Kendo Club captain?"
"Kaede-chan?" Maria's eyebrow raised. "Since when do you call her that?"
Makoto swallowed, inhaled in, then blurted out. "Since she saved her from getting beat up."
"Thanks Mako-chan, you made me sound completely weak just now." Shiho rolled her eyes. "But she's right, I guess. There are other reasons too…" She looked at Kaede, thinking of their shared secret of her dating Sora.
"Forget about that Kendo thing, you're evading the question." Maria couldn't be deterred. Are you meeting a girl?"
"Yeah, so what?" Shiho blushed.
"Is she cute?"
Shiho saw something. It was a brief moment, but she caught it. Yui noticeably gave an annoyed look at the thought of Maria thinking other girls were cute. She caught Shiho's stare within seconds and quickly looked away. Shiho covertly looked among them, but noticed they were all looking at her, not Yui. Was she the only one who noticed Yui's jealousy?
"Well?" Maria pressed on.
"Ermgh. Fine." Shiho groaned loudly, returning to the real conversation. "I guess you're bound to find out eventually. I've have been seeing someone, but we're not a couple yet."
"Oh?" Makoto squeaked. "Do we know them?"
"No." Shiho shot another look at Kaede. "Not all of you anyway."
"So you know her?" Maria asked Kaede.
"Yes." Kaede didn't even look shaken. "It's my ex-girlfriend."
Everyone's mouth dropped. Makoto's cheeks went red. Shiho wanted to run out of the room from embarrassment. Kaede could have been a little less blunt about that. On looking back at Makoto, she had an angry expression. Shiho wondered what all that was about.
"You're dating the ex?" Maria laughed. "How in the world did you even meet her?"
"It was by chance." Shiho told the truth, bothered by Makoto's anger. "I didn't plan it or anything, we just hit it off."
"You knew about this?" Makoto was asking Kaede in her trademark blurting out way. "For how long?"
"She told me yesterday." Kaede still looked calm, but her voice had a sense of caution to it.
"And you're okay with this?"
"I'm not dating her anymore." Kaede tried to toss away the question.
"Didn't you tell me that that girl is wacko obsessed with you?" Makoto went on. "What if she's using Shiho-chan as a way to-"
"Thanks Mako-chan…" This time it was Shiho who felt angry. "I see how highly you think of me."
"I didn't mean it like that." Makoto shot back. "But you should be careful."
"Don't worry, if she attacks me I'm sure Ozawa will protect me." Shiho glowered at her.
"She back to Ozawa again…" Maria spoke in a low voice.
"Whatever." Shiho stood up. "Who I date has nothing to do with you, Mako-chan. If you're so jealous remember you had your chance and turned me down."
"Shiho-chan!" Makoto looked hurt.
"I'm going to the roof to get some air." Shiho softened a bit, but still felt angry. "See ya later."
"H-Hold up, I'll come too." Yui stood up also, towering above them all.
"If you want." Shiho walked out of the room, feeling Makoto's eyes follow her.
As she left she heard a boy near the door murmur. "I told you. We're in a class full of lesbians."
With that comment heaped onto the pile of things frustrating her, Shiho stomped up the stairs that led to the roof, with Yui following after her. When she opened the door, Shiho wasn't surprised that it was vacant, the skies were still gray and every so often there was a sprinkle or two. Depression started to seep in as after all this she might not see Sora afterall. Yui came from behind her, while Shiho re-checked her phone again but still had no message.
"You didn't have to follow me, you know." Shiho put her phone away looking up at Yui.
"Part of a Lovely's job is to be there for another Lovely….right?" Yui gave a shy smile. "I might not be that bright, or as great as Maria to talk to, but I'll do my best."
"There isn't that much to talk about. Mako-chan thinks the whole world revolves her. What else is new?"
"I-I can understand her concern, but I think you're right too. It isn't her business who you date after she dumped you. If Kaede-chan is okay with it, then she should be." Yui said, placing a shaking hand on Shiho's shoulder.
"As tall as you are, you're pretty timid, aren't you." Shiho looked up at her with a smile. "It's cute."
"I hate being tall." Yui's eyebrows lowered a bit. "Everyone expects me to be a stronger person than I am… I'm really pathetic."
"You always talk yourself down, I don't like it." Shiho pointed out.
"Sorry. But if those bad things I say weren't true then people wouldn't keep saying it." Yui gave a shy shrug. "I'm just admitting the truth. Once you learn to accept things about yourself, it doesn't hurt as much. I know I'll always be a giant… and slow."
"Slow? Who calls you that?"
"My family does. I'm not that smart. It always takes me more time to get what people are talking about than it does for everyone else around me. And my grades are bad. So they're right. Everyone at my old school said so too. So I probably am slow, huh?" Yui shook her head. "Anyway, I'm here for you, remember."
Her heart was breaking hearing all this. Shiho thought she had insecurity problems, but Yui took the cake. "You're not slow."
"It's kind of you to say so, but it doesn't bother me anymore."
Shiho sighed, seeing there wasn't anything she could say to fix this particular problem without serious thought. "I think my problems aren't that big anymore… so you sorta cheered me up."
"What did I do?" Yui blinked.
"Uh… you took my mind off things."
"Oh. Good. I wanted to help." Yui smiled, then a shadow went over her face. There was a pause then she ventured. "You saw me earlier, didn't you?"
"Saw you?" Shiho took a moment to remember what she was talking about. Then she remember the jealous look Yui gave when Maria mentioned another girl being cute. "Oh… that."
"You won't tell Maria, will you?" Yui face looked like she was pleading.
So it was true, she was jealous. And with that statement, she flat out just admitted to liking Maria. On thinking about it, Yui often let Maria take the lead for everything, so Shiho didn't really know the tall-girl. Maybe Yui was slow and she just hadn't realized it. The moment she considered it, Shiho felt bad about herself. "How long have you liked her?"
"Forever." Yui looked at her feet.
"But you asked Mako-chan out."
"I thought if I went out with someone similar then I could forget about liking Maria… but Mako-chan doesn't like me either."
Shiho's heart panged again. "Seriously, you're going to make me cry."
"Huh? Why?"
Shaking her head, Shiho gave a brave smile. "Nothing. So Maria doesn't know how you feel then?"
"Oh no. I can never tell her that. We've been best friends for a long time." Yui said quickly. "She likes cute girls anyway. Small girls."
"I don't think you should write her off so easy. You can't until you've at least tried." Shiho tried to encourage her.
Yui thought about it, then gave a small smile. "If I looked like you I might have a chance."
Shiho blushed. "If I had your personality I'd do better on my own too."
"But you are already doing better… don't you have a girlfriend?"
"She's not a girlfriend, not yet anyway."
"It's more than what I got." Yui stated. "Maybe I should try and be more like you?"
Shiho swallowed. This girl. "I'm going to hug you now."
Blinking with a confused face, Yui allowed Shiho to do so. She suddenly felt a huge weight in her life now. As far as she could tell, no one else knew just how messed up Yui was. Maybe Maria had a sense of it, but Yui seemed to hold back with her because she liked her. Now somehow this information came to her, the very worst person among the Lovelies. Shiho dealing with Yui's self-esteem issues? Shiho herself was a big mess.
Pulling away Shiho couldn't look the girl in the eye. "Let's be friends from now on, Yui-chan."
"I thought we were."
"We… we were, but not close." Shiho corrected her. "I think you could use a closer friend."
"Oh. Is this your way of saying you want someone to talk to about your problems?"
"Yeah… you saw right though me." Shiho lied.
Yui had completely missing the point, but as long as she thought she was helping it might work out. Shiho could play the victim all the while trying to help Yui out on her own. Kaede and Sora seemed confident about themselves, maybe she could learn from them and pass it along to Yui.
"You can tell me anything, and I won't betray you." Yui took a serious face.
"Same with me." Shiho told her. "I won't tell Maria that you're in love with her."
"Thank you." Yui looked bashful. "Could you also help me find a girl for her?"
"She's pretty enough, she doesn't need our help." Shiho quickly said.
"You think so?" Yui blinked.
The bell rang. Shiho took out her phone again and checked one last time if Sora messaged her, but once again there wasn't anything. She'd just have to check again after school. Yui watched her quietly.
"Did she message you?"
"No."
"Then I guess she's going to meet you." Yui beamed. "The rain might come. And if it does it won't be so bad. You could get caught in it, then have to hide under something and hold her arm."
"I didn't think of that." Shiho tried to look like this was an appealing idea. Getting caught in the rain? Yui had some strange manga ideas of romance.
The two of them traveled back down the stairs and were back in Class 1-3 before the second bell rang. Makoto was looking at her with a pitiful face, which made Shiho feel bad. She didn't have to get so mad at her, did she? They had enough time before the next teacher came in, so Shiho thought she'd make peace with Makoto before that happened. Giving Yui a departing smile she walked up to Makoto's desk and gave a tiny bow of the head.
"Sorry for getting mad. I know you were just concerned."
"And… and I'm sorry for being too noisy." Makoto's lips scrunched to the side of her mouth.
Shiho's heart fluttered involuntary at the look. "It's fine."
"Do… Do you really like that Sora girl?"
'That Sora girl.' It was funny to Shiho. Sora referred to Makoto as 'that Makoto girl'. Now that she thought about it, they were similar in other ways. Maybe that was why Sora appealed to Shiho, and why Makoto appealed to Kaede? That was dangerous thinking ground, so Shiho decided they were also way different in other areas, and it was the differences that attracted them to the other girls.
"Hee-hee." Makoto giggled. "You've been hanging out with me for too long. You're spacing out."
"I am?" Shiho forgot Makoto asked if she liked Sora. "Mako-chan… I think I do like her. I swear it doesn't have anything to do with you and Kaede-chan. We just met one day, had a chat about our similar situations, and things just clicked. I'm telling you the truth about that."
"Okay. I just… I just don't want you to get hurt is all." Makoto squeezed her hand. "Please be careful."
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