Falling
Author: Anita
Fandom: Takarazuka RPF
Characters: Tsukishiro Kanato / Akatsuki Chisei, Kazama Yuno, Umino Mitsuki
Genre: yuri, romance
Rating: PG 13
Summary: Chisei thinks she's finally found the one for her in
Kazama Yuno. Yuno, despite their year-long relationship, started
displaying worried over Chisei's tightness with Tsukishiro Kanato. But
it's normal to message one of your best friends nonstop, right? To make
it worse, the two are to spend month apart when Chisei and Yuno find a
confession Kanato wrote in the past, and Yuno is convinced Chisei was
the intended recipient. How can Chisei prove to Yuno she's imagining
things and maintain both her girlfriend and her friend who's also a girl
when it's no secret she considers Kanato the most beautiful woman ever?
Previous Chapter | Chapter 17 | Next Chapter
Falling
Chapter 17
Ari had just arrived inside the theater when Umino came running her way with open arms. “I kept thinking of what to message or if I should just go be with you… How are you?”
Ari blinked at the abundance of words and hug—she had been squeezed full force. To make it worse, it was early, and she hadn’t exactly been a good girl and gone straight to bed after the message to Yuno. Instead, she’d stalked everyone’s Instagram, including younger siennes, some she wasn’t sure from which troupe they were, but she did suspect of a couple and of one sienne who might be cheating on her boyfriend. But that could be her brother, considering Ari wasn’t even sure of the girl’s stage name. She’d stopped when she noticed she’d followed the trail to people who worked for OSK.
“Oh, my poor Ari…” Umino patted her head and caressed her cheeks. “I wanted to spank Odachin when Reiko-san told me. I actually called her.”
“Reiko-san?” Ari had slowly picked up what Umino was going on about, but she still wasn’t caught up.
“Odachin! That brat! How dare she leave in the middle of a date! And you planned it with so much love, we all saw it; how dare she! Couldn’t she have waited one more day?”
With a snicker, Ari shook her head. “Thank you for allowing Reiko-san to go.” After spending the whole day wondering how to face Umino and Reiko now they knew what she felt, it was weird that they actually didn’t.
Umino raised her eyebrows.
“Reiko-san…” Ari explained. “She called you about what happened, and you didn’t mind her accompanying me.” Had she stepped into some lie? Had she just sneaked Reiko? “Right?” she added with a shaky voice, recounting every word in her mind to make sure she hadn’t mentioned anything about dating.
“Oh! Yes!” Umino covered her mouth with open fingers. “Of course, she called me, yes.”
“Then you know about yesterday?”
“Didn’t I just tell you Reiko-san called me? That’s why I didn’t go to be with you. You stayed over her house, right?”
This meant Reiko had been messaging Umino while they were together. How did that work in their minds? ‘I’ll let you have fun with someone else, but tell me everything?’ That sounded too kinky. Even Yuno, who’d known about the kiss and Ari’s feelings, hadn’t wanted to be present during the call. Furthermore, the lie couldn’t have happened if she’d demanded a complete retell. Then again, Umino was the same person who’d suggested a polyamory relationship with her soon-to-be girlfriend.
“What did Ha… Odachin say when you called her?” Could she still call her Haru or was that too intimate? She wasn’t the only one in Takarazuka to call her that, and surely not the only one in her life. In fact, it would be hard not to.
“She never picked up or returned… Not that I could expect the latter after the messages I sent cursing her.”
“You did what?” Ari started laughing, unable to control herself. “Poor Odachin!”
“That’s not something you do, leaving someone behind.”
“She was still in the parking lot when Reiko-san arrived.”
“So I heard. But to you, the person who matters in this, it was the same as saying she walked out and almost ruined your special day. If it weren’t for Reiko-san stepping in…”
Ari could only nod, despite still not feeling the victim. She had a hunch Umino would say the same about Yuno had she really known the entire truth about her feelings for Reiko, as Ari had thought she did the day before. And yet, she was too guilty herself to merit pity.
It was when she spotted a new arrival in the rehearsal room. Ari had to take a deep breath and cross her fingers. “Odachin, good morning!” she said out loud, enough to startle others who had been waiting to start rehearsing.
Although Ari was in a corner to talk more privately with Umino, Yuno didn’t need to search, she walked in their direction as if she had some radar or superpowers.
Waiting in expectation, Ari could feel Umino also move impatiently beside her.
“Good morning…” Yuno offered a casual bow to each of them. “You seem well, I’m glad,” she said to Ari, looking straight at her.
“No thanks to you,” Umino grunted while glaring.
“Umi-san…” Ari turned a pleading look her way.
“You want to talk to her?” Umino gave Yuno another glare. “All alone? After yesterday?” But she complied when Ari nodded.
Observing Umino leave, Ari decided she should speak before the awkward silence took over them. “The whole day, I was sure you had told Reiko-san everything.”
To her surprise, that was received with a chuckle. “And you ended up confessing to her unknowingly?”
“Of course not! But that could have happened; how could you!”
“I didn’t think that far, sorry. But I wish you had done it.”
“I kept telling her not to talk about it for that day. She didn’t understand anything...”
Yuno hummed with sarcasm. “You’re two idiots. It’s all so obvious already… Just confess, Ari. What a needless and boring drama.”
“No one is confessing. But I am doing what you advised and giving the note back to her. I’ll just wait until the end of the day, but it’s here with me.” She motioned for her bag.
“She was staring at the knit cap, you know.”
“Talking about it…”
“I’ll return it after you confess. And this time, I want proof.” Yuno left, not giving Ari the chance to retort.
The sudden silence afterward made the conversation echo in her head. Reiko had noticed the hat? The way Yuno had put it, she hadn’t seemed satisfied to see it, though it had been around three years already. Wasn’t it okay to give your juniors some clothes? Ari had had it for three years, and Yuno had been her girlfriend. They surely had some pieces of clothes that were now in shared domain because they didn’t remember which of them owned it originally. There were a few reasons the hat could have ended up on Yuno’s head, so why feel bothered? Moreover, it didn’t have anything much on it, how did she even identify the thing?
Or was she being overprotective like Umino just now? Notwithstanding that also being a reasonable explanation, it also needed Reiko to identify the knit cap. Why did Yuno have to mention this? Ari just wanted to get rid of that story and move on. It was for the best if she never saw that cursed hat ever again.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Ari’s heart was beating tightly as she greeted each of her troupe mates on their way to the exit. The note remained in her bag, but she could almost see it radiating energy, screaming out to whoever passed. Her hand went automatically to feel the paper, it was still there.
What would Reiko say? Ari had been wondering about her reaction for a while. Images of the possibilities formed in her mind. One was narrated by Yuno, because Reiko would say that was past and that now that Ari was single again, they could finally be together, just like the day before. One was of Reiko not remembering what that note was. A similar one was of her thinking Ari had been the one to write it to her and then rejecting Ari before any explanation. Another not that different showed Reiko concluding Ari would only keep that note because she had feelings for her, and then she’d be rejected with lots of apologies.
“I could just go home…” she murmured facing the way to the exit. She hadn’t told Reiko she wanted to talk so not to scare her, which meant she was free to leave.
But if she didn’t take any steps, how could she leave this behind? She’d been stuck for long enough, it was suffocating her. As she reminded herself of that, Reiko turned in the hallway, her eyes on her bag, maybe checking if she hadn’t forgotten anything. When they looked up again, they found Ari within milliseconds. “Oh, hey. Going home?”
“Actually…” Ari pressed her lips. “Are you busy?”
“Not really.” Reiko seemed to think of something and stared back at Ari. “Do you want to go out like… on a d…”
“We don’t need to leave the building, it’s not going to take long. But can we talk?”
She did want to just give her the card and disappear, but that note was special to her, doing that would still make the story feel incomplete. Therefore, she would return it to Reiko and tell her the whole story—save for whatever could be understood a love confession. That wouldn’t only start more problems instead of ending it all.
“Oh…” Reiko studied her for a moment. “Yeah, let’s go.” She gestured back to the inner part of the theater, and Ari followed with uncertain steps and wobbly legs.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
They soon found a room still unlocked that they could use and turned on its lights.
“Should I turn on the heater too?” Reiko didn’t have to say it, her intention with that question was visibly to know how long they would talk, though she had done it nonchalantly.
“No need, it’ll be quick.” Or that was what Ari hoped. Just give back the note, maybe Reiko would thank her or just shrug, and then, they could part ways. She’d mentioned before about being free to even go somewhere, would that still be possible? Why was Ari’s head exaggerating this so much? She should be more than ready for whatever Reiko would say about the note. “Maybe… you should sit down.”
Reiko frowned but submitted, choosing the nearest chair. She looked ready for a sermon so tight she sat, looking up and following Ari with just her eyes.
Closing the door, Ari opened her bag. She didn’t even have to search for the note, for she’d been touching it the whole day. She walked to Reiko and stretched her hand before her mind could dissuade her.
Reiko was quick to recognize the note. It didn’t take her a second to focus on the words written and her body literally jump. Then, she was back to looking apprehensive, perhaps embarrassed about the three-year-old failed confession? Maybe she had noticed her blunder and had hoped Ari never worn the hat to find the note inside, and that was the reason she’d stared at Yuno?
“Are you…” Reiko started saying with a broken voice. “Are you returning it after all these years because of yesterday?”
That question didn’t make sense. It did relate to the day before, nevertheless, she couldn’t know about Yuno’s insistence for Ari to return the note to Reiko herself instead of Umino. She did believe Yuno when she said she hadn’t explained it all when they met in the parking lot. Still, Reiko didn’t show any intention to get it from her hand.
Instead, Reiko shrugged and turned her head to one side. “Just do what you want with it.”
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