Chapter 3

Your first day at the University of Tokyo was more freeing than any day at Haruki High. It helped that Minoru was in different classes than you. She was pre-med.

Oshiro wasn’t going to university. “High school was enough bullshit for me,” she said that morning as Minoru packed your lunch for the day, mindful of how you were taking your coffee with two shots of whiskey.

You were undecided, just getting your core classes out of the way.

It had been months since you’d been out by yourself. You were beginning to think Minoru and Oshiro had separation anxiety, given how quickly they glued themselves to your side the second you stepped out of the house. It felt good, being alone, not being watched.

You were walking to your first class of the day when a girl on roller skates scraped by you on the sidewalk. Rude, you thought with a frown and a huff. Then she looked over her shoulder and your breath stuttered.

She was beautiful, like a character straight out of a webtoon.

Her pink-to-purple ombre hair was arranged in perfect ringlets and tied up into twin ponytails. There was a white -not blonde, but pure white- streak in her blunt-cut bangs.

She had spotless peach skin and wore a bright coral blush. The rest of her makeup, from her thick black lashes to her bubblegum pink lip gloss, was on point. She even had XOXO written under her left eye in black eyeliner.

She reminded you of something… You pondered for a whole minute before it hit you. Her color palette reminded you of the lesbian pride flag.

The girl grinned as she watched you blush and flounder. She pulled a pink lollipop out of her mouth and spun around on her skates.

Baby pink appeared to be her favorite color. She wore little else but pink with accents of white. She was also wearing a wire-frame kitty headband and a heart-shaped ring choker, like some sort of e-girl.

“You’re Aina, ain’t cha?” She asked before sticking out her pretty pink tongue to lick her lollipop.

“Yes… Who are you?” You eyed her and her sweet in suspicion. You hadn’t had hard candy since the day Kimiko almost killed you.

She hummed and stuck out one of her hands for you to shake. It was so delicate and pretty it might as well have belonged to a doll. Her fingernails were cut short. Why were you looking for stuff like that? “I’m Satou Wannabe. You probably don’t recognize me. I had a huge glow up over the summer.”

You frowned and furrowed your brow in confusion. What a weird name! Surely you would have remembered a name like that on your school roster. Wait a minute… “Are you Miss Watanabe?”

Satou made a face at your correction. “Yeah, yeah, but now I’m whatever I wanna be.”

She let out a giggle even when you didn’t laugh at her little joke. Not wanting things to get anymore awkward, you took her hand and gave it a little shake, but she didn’t let go when your handshake ended. Instead, she pulled you in close.

“You know, Aina, you were always my favorite. Even more than Hinata, and she’s best girl. Well, second best girl,” she said in a voice so soft and low. Her eyes shined with manic glee.

You automatically thought of Hiro… How, when presented with his choice of the girls, he still chose you, and how he paid dearly for that choice.

Once your brain was done short-circuiting, you pushed her away. You needed some space to think. Unfortunately, she just used her grip on your hand to pull herself back in, her roller skates making the motion fluid as water.

You were bosom to bosom with her, so close you could smell her breath. It smelled like bubblegum.

“I’m straight,” you blurted out.

“Oh, please,” she snorted, button nose scrunched up as if she could smell a lie. “Everyone from Haruki knows you’ve been in a poly relationship with Minoru’s clique since the start of senior year. Is it an open relationship? I don’t mind being the other woman.”

At the mention of your “relationship” with Minoru and Oshiro, you violently yanked your hand away and shoved her so hard that she fell back onto her butt. Her lollipop fell out of her hand and shattered to sugary pieces on the sidewalk.

As soon as she hit the ground, you felt bad. But then you remembered what would happen to her if you got close and the guilt went away.

“I said, I’m not interested. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away from me,” you growled at her before walking away.

To outsiders, it must have looked like you unduly attacked the girl, because the students behind you immediately came to her aid. They cooed consolations and helped her back up and onto her skates.

Once you were outside the building your next class was in, you risked looking back over your shoulder at her, just to make sure she really was okay. She was skating along a few feet behind you, a look of sheer determination on her face.

When she caught your eye, she didn’t scowl or glare. No, she gave you a smile as sweet as her name, even winked at you.

You darted into the building as if the hounds of hell were nipping at your heels.